“Kang seonsaengnim,” The nervous Nurse Choi said as she paced towards the nurse station in the emergency room, where Doctor Kang and the former Urk medical team usually gathered. “K-Kang seonsaengnim,”

Mo Yeon didn’t quite notice the young nurse call her attention because of her faint voice, “Ah, Nurse Choi,” she turned around to meet her. The nurse placed her medical clipboard nervously, with eyes not meeting Mo Yeon’s. “You seem surprised, what’s the matter? Is there an emergency?”

“Her voice really did seem more faint than the usual,” Doctor Song said as he gobbled down an almond from his pack. The others who were lounging together with them as well were all ears.

“I-I’m really not in the position to say this,” Nurse Choi hesitated, fidgeting her fingers out of nervousness. Her gestures obviously made everybody even more curious.

“Mwo? What’s it all about?” Doctor Kang already had that hint of curiosity in her eyes. “If there’s something really urgent, just tell me,”

The nurse gulped, “I... I just saw Yoo-soryeong awhile ago.”

“Mwo?” Nurse Ha, who happened to be listening while she was jotting down patient records spoke, “But didn’t Doctor Kang mention he was going to be on duty for a week?”

Kang Mo Yeon blinked. Did she hear it correctly? She clearly remembered the day when she last saw Si Jin. During that night, right before he dropped her home, he told her about his recent assignment.

“Mianhe,” Si Jin explained with the same face of both guilt and self-reproach, “I’ll be back in a week,”

For Mo Yeon, moments like this were already considered as something that she had to get used to. Loving and being in a relationship with a soldier like Yoo Si Jin meant loving every aspect of him after all--even the parts she would’ve preferred otherwise, she should forbear out of love for this man.”Gwenchanhayo. Is it far away?”

He shook his head, “Ani. I’ll be staying at the base for the week,”

“Mwo? The base here?” 

He nodded.

“You’re not leaving Korea?”

He nodded, slightly bothered by his girlfriend’s peculiar questions. “Wae, do you even want me to leave and get assigned far away?”

She instantly shook her head in disagreement, “It’s not that…. Are you allowed to tell me that? Your location?”

“It isn’t restricted information as far as my superiors told me.” He smiled, fumbling on the leather covering of the car’s steering wheel, “Besides, I thought that news would ease up things a little bit,” 

She grinned, leaning forward to give him a kiss on the lips. He looked startled, and she found it cute. She found relief knowing he was going to be nearby.

“It truly eased things up. A lot,”

It sure did, until today when she heard the news from Nurse Choi that Si Jin had been spotted lurking just a few blocks away from the hospital--and he wasn’t even wearing his military uniform.

“I saw him with a girl,” Nurse Choi swore she didn’t want to speak out anything that could raise questions from Doctor Kang, but she figured she had to know.

But her recent statement had only made things worse, “Gone for a week,” Mo Yeon mumbled as she reached for the phone in her pocket and went to check on the first contact that appeared in her contacts list. “With a girl. Unbelievable.”

Calling: Big Boss

..

..

..

Call Declined

“Heol, and he’s not even picking up my calls.” Mo Yeon didn’t even have to reconsider things because she figured there was no need to. Every information the honest Nurse Choi had given didn’t need any filtering, and if she’d consider the facts, it’s only been three days since Si Jin left for his mission, and now he was spending the remaining days for the week with another girl?

“It would’ve been much better if he was away; what’s the use of calling him when even now that I could reach him he wouldn’t even answer,” She stood up and paced outside the emergency room, leaving the rest of her bewildered colleagues at the station. Once she had entered the hospital’s main hall, she tried calling Si Jin again, and this time around he picked up the call.

“Yeo--”

“YA!” She was mad, “Where are you right now, Yoo Si Jin? Are you really working hard at the military base right now? This very moment? Heol, you thought I didn’t know, right?

She could only hear a slight ‘ummm’ on the other line. He was cornered indeed, she thought. “It’s been three days since you told me you were leaving for a military training at the base, and just recently Nurse Choi told me she saw you having a good stroll with someone? Who is she, huh? You didn’’t even get the chance to let me meet her, lest even tell me about her! Are you really on a mission? Are you cheating on me?”

He was still on the line, but he never replied.

“Yoo Si Jin, do you really trust me? Or is that another one of your many missions you can’t tell me?” She asked sarcastically.

“Kang seonsaengnim,”

“What? Explain it to me----jamkkanman,” She paused when she had noticed something peculiar.

Mo Yeon knew it was Si Jin’s who called her name right there, but it didn’t appear to be a sound that came from the phone call. It sounded loud and realistic...

...and it sounded like it came from behind her.

Mo Yeon was surprised to see Yoo Si Jin standing right behind when she turned head and gazed behind her shoulders. It was just as how Nurse Choi described: he was wearing his casual clothing, a plain white shirt tucked in black jeans. His military dog tag hung around his neck, and also just as what Nurse Choi had said, he was with a girl, though Mo Yeon knew Yoon Myung Joo wasn’t one of the girls she should be wary of. 

Surprisingly, it was very hard to tell whether it was Lieutenant Myung Joo or not, since she was wearing a royal blue dress in contrast with her boyish military getup. Her hair was also tied up with a pony tail, which added up to the confusion. Nurse Choi must’ve experienced the same thing on not recognizing the military surgeon.

“You were together all this time?”

“Yeah, not that you should think we’re cheating,” Myung Joo explained casually, crossing her arms. “Dae Young was busy. I was on leave, and am also the only person available to help. My father wanted me to be here too,”

“Wha..? Wait, I don’t really get it, what’s going on here?”

Myung Joo raised an eyebrow, “Mwo? You don’t know?” The female lieutenant asked, looking at the doctor, and then at Yoo Si Jin. Mo Yeon likewise shifted her eyes on Si Jin, standing motionlessly with a bag of convenience store items carried on his right hand. He surprisingly didn’t seem like he was hiding anything from her, because he was looking at her straight in the eye.

“I was in a hurry, I didn’t get the chance to tell you,” Si Jin said apologetically, “Besides, I left my phone at the room,” It was only then that Mo Yeon had noticed he wasn’t even carrying his phone.

 “If you’re here,” Mo Yeon furrowed her brows, “Then who am I talking to now?”

It took a while before Si Jin could finally get what she meant. Upon hearing her question, his eyes widened at the realization, “Put it down, now.”

“Wae?” Mo Yeon did as he said but she was already confused, not knowing what exactly was going on: why was he even here and not at his current ‘department store’ errand, why was Myung Joo with him, and most of all she didn’t quite get how she got to contact Si Jin when he didn’t bring his phone along. “Wae? What’s going on?”

The next few words Si Jin spoke left her embarassed of what she had just done a few moments ago.

“You just talked to my father,”

Gladly, Si Jin had the time to narrate to her everything on their way to his father’s hospital room. 

It turned out that Si Jin did stay at the military base for the first two days. However, during the night of his second day at the base, he received a call from General Yoon, excluding him in his mission for the meantime when news broke his father, Yoo Young Geun, had a minor . Seo Dae Young offered to take the lead in the military activities in his place. Alpha Team and the squadron Yoo Si Jin led understood as well, and sent their greetings to his father. 

“I looked for you or anybody else I knew at the ER,” Si Jin explained, “None of you were there. I just found out from a nurse you were busy with a surgery,”

“And I came along with my father,” Yoon Myung Joo interrupted, “Your boyfriend hasn’t eaten anything since last night, so we both went to the nearest convenience store. Unfortunately, he left his phone,”

Si Jin smirked, “You didn’t have to explain that. She won’t be threatened by you coming with me,”

“I almost was,” Mo Yeon admitted. Had she not known the girl he was with was actually Myung Joo, she could’ve blown up in frustration. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He pursed his lips before he spoke, “It was too sudden, maybe.”

She frowned. What was she even asking him? It’s not like she had the obligation to know what had happened to his father, but she was already bothered by everything that had happened. First, she had judged Yoo Si Jin without even thinking twice. And now, she just realized she yelled at his father on the phone.

This is bad, she thought. Si Jin’s father will surely hate me.

Mo Yeon covered her face, “Aigoo... I just screamed at your father thinking it was you,”

“Jeongmal?” Si Jin was amazed.

“I didn’t know he had a mild , I must’ve added up to his stress,”

“He’s fine already. It’s no big deal,”

“He’ll hate me,” she wailed.

“He’ll like you,” Si Jin smiled, “You’re just as loud and worrisome as eomma,”

“Babo! This isn’t even the time to joke around,” She slapped his shoulder, “You have no idea how worried I was of you! And now of your father! And even the fact that I just ruined my image before I could even meet him,”

“We’re here,” Myung Joo, who was walking ahead the couple, halted in front of one of the VIP rooms. “I’ll go in first, appa must’ve been finished catching up with your father--”

“What? Your father’s inside? T-The General?”

“Ye,” Myung Joo said nonchalantly, like it wasn’t anything to be nervous about. She knocked on the door, ‘I’ll go in then,” Twisting the doorknob, the lady lieutenant flung the door open and went in the room, leaving Si Jin and Mo Yeon outside.

“Ya, eoddeukhae?” Mo Yeon croaked; she can’t believe this happened.

“If it’s my father you’re worried about, he’s fine,” Si Jin said, thinking that that piece of information would somehow take a bit of her worries away. He leaned on the wall, resting his hands on the metal railings attached to it, “A doctor just came in a few hours ago. It wasn’t anything life-threatening,”

He looked at her, but she didn’t seem like she was listening to him. “He’s going to hate me,” She said in a muffled tone, with her hands covering ,”

He chuckled, “What exactly did you tell him on the phone?”

YA! Where are you right now, Yoo Si Jin? Are you really working hard at the military base right now? This very moment? Heol, you thought I didn’t know, right? 

It’s been three days since you told me you were leaving for a military training at the base, and just recently Nurse Choi told me she saw you having a good stroll with someone? Who is she, huh? You didn’’t even get the chance to let me meet her, lest even tell me about her! Are you really on a mission? Are you cheating on me? 

Yoo Si Jin, do you really trust me? Or is that another one of your many missions you can’t tell me? 

Thinking about everything she had just yelled at his father made her cringe. “None of your business,”

Just then, Myung Joo came out from the door, with a middle-aged man following behind. The presence of the older man around made Si Jin straighten up and stand firm, just like a soldier. “Yoo soryeong,” The man called.

“Ne, Yoon jungjang,”

“At ease... Have you eaten?”

“I will be in a moment, Yoon jungjang,” He replied, lifting the convenience store bag filled with ramyun noodles.

The general nodded, and looked towards the side when he saw the familiar doctor just across the major. “You were one of those doctors sent in Urk, am I right?”

“Y-Yes,” she bowed down.

“Are you the old man’s doctor?”

She blushed, “N-No, I’m not, General,”

“I see,” He quickly nodded in the same manner that he did when he asked Si Jin about getting something to eat. Facing back at Si Jin, he patted the younger man’s shoulder, “I’m honestly relieved there was no evidence of paralysis. Just report to me once your father’s fully healed, I’ll be on my way then. Thank you for the time,”

“Yes,” He said calmly now but still in a respectful tone. “Thank you for the visit, sir,”

He gave Si Jin a fathe