♚ ♔ ♚

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

Her smile ran through his mind over and over again like a song stuck on loop. Yoon Do buried his face into his hands and groaned helplessly. Something was definitely wrong. How could a mere smile have such an effect on him? Did this mean he liked her? That couldn’t possibly be it. Perhaps, he was interested in her as a person and not as a woman. Yes, that made much more sense. But that smile… It was enough to make his heart stop for an entire second! Just thinking about it now had the organ stuttering nonstop. What if he hadn’t gone out for a jog that night? Would she have been involved in a serious accident? It was too early for him to be exploring such tragic scenarios and Yoon Do jumped out of bed.

The nurses in the department all greeted him with sweet smiles, yet his heart remained calm. Honestly, he didn’t feel anything. Their smiles were nowhere up to par with hers, not by a landslide. And when he caught himself thinking about Ha Yun again, Yoon Do inhaled deeply and clenched his jaw. This was not healthy. Why was he even making comparisons in the first place? He needed to get his head on straight or else he wouldn’t survive the rest of the day.

Hye Jung waltzed in with Kang Soo on her heels and stopped once she noticed how zoned out Yoon Do was. She glanced at Kang Soo who shrugged. Next, she slapped Yoon Do’s shoulder and startled him. “What are you thinking so hard about?” she questioned.

“What?” He swallowed, eyebrows raised. “Me? I wasn’t thinking about anyone,” he fibbed, not realizing he had unintentionally given himself away. “Don’t you have outpatients to see today?” His poor attempt to change the topic failed and the woman grinned mischievously at him. Even Dr Yoo’s blinding smile didn’t make his heart tremble the way it used to.

“Is it that woman who was waiting for you at your office?” Hye Jung guessed. She saw his eyes widen and figured she must have hit the nail right on the head. “She’s really pretty, you know. You two would make a nice couple.”

♪♪♪ “I’m not blind. Of course I know she’s really pretty,” Yoon Do instinctively blurted out. Everyone else who was lingering nearby squealed in excitement, a few even chuckled. “You don’t have to tell me.” As soon as the last word escaped his lips, Yoon Do realized what he just did and slammed his eyes shut. He was seriously losing it. Why did he confess that out loud in front of all these witnesses?

“So you were thinking about her,” Hye Jung said smugly.

Yoon Do regained his composure and held his head up high. “I don’t think that’s any of your business, Dr Yoo. If that’s all, I have patients to meet.” He proceeded to stalk off, mumbling incoherent things under his breath as he shook his head and made a sharp left. Now everyone knew he had been thinking about her! God, if his uncle got wind of this information, there’s no telling what he’d do! Why did he have to agree with Hye Jung’s comment? Wait, so what if he said she was pretty? There was no significance behind it. Any normal guy would find her attractive. Even Kang Soo did! It was simply human nature. They couldn’t use it against him. He was fretting over nothing.

Out of the corner of his eye, Yoon Do saw a glimpse of a rather familiar figure resting in the waiting area. It couldn’t be. He ceased all movement and slowly turned his head. Then, he staggered a step back and grabbed onto his chest when he discovered Ha Yun sleeping soundly. She was sitting upright, the wall supporting her head, and a pair of headphones stuffed into her ears. This couldn’t be real. He had to be hallucinating. She had no reason to be here! Next, Yoon Do vehemently shook his head and fled the vicinity. Now he was imagining things! Maybe he should consider conducting some tests on himself. How was it that she kept on wandering into his thoughts without any restriction?

The song arrived at its conclusion, the music fading out, and Ha Yun opened her eyes. For some peculiar reason, she felt like she was being watched. However, when she scanned her surroundings, she didn’t notice anyone suspicious and shrugged it off. More people were piling in though, making the area too crowded for her taste, and she left to find another place she could rest at. After she had memorized the layout of the hospital last month, Ha Yun discovered that the department with the most hidden nooks and crannies she could use was the Neurosurgery Department.

Although it was where Yoon Do worked, Ha Yun wasn’t all that bothered by it. It wasn’t like they were going to run into each other. So far, she hadn’t seen him, the only exceptions being the two days she had actually waited for him at his office. And even if she did encounter Yoon Do again, she would just casually greet him, as she did to every doctor she crossed paths with in the facility. Then, Ha Yun remembered the night where he had saved her from a trip to the emergency room. She was undoubtedly flabbergasted by his random appearance but, at the same time, she was also very thankful he had been there or who knows what horrid state she’d be in. Just thinking about the possibilities had her skin crawling with chills.

Ha Yun didn’t believe in coincidences. But she didn’t really believe in fate either. She was somewhere in between. Yet, no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn’t explain why it was Jung Yoon Do out of all people that had swooped in and rescued her. She might not be friends with him—hell, they’re not even acquaintances, but as strange as this sounded, Ha Yun’s instinct, along with how he protected his uncle, told her that he was not a bad person.

During their first encounter, he was a bit rough around the edges and had a razor-sharp tongue, but it wasn’t like she had been any better. In other words, they had gotten off on the wrong foot. Maybe if the two of them had met under different circumstances, they could have become friends but that ship has already sailed off into the immense ocean, never to be seen again. There was no way Ha Yun was ever going to befriend the nephew of the man who had ripped Iseul’s heart right out of her chest and trampled all over it. She’d be absolutely crazy if she did! No matter how handsome he was or how nice he seemed, Ha Yun shouldn’t get mixed up with him. She couldn’t afford to.

At the bottom of the stairwell, which was scarcely used, Ha Yun plopped down onto a step and leaned her head against the railing. In a matter of seconds, she drifted off to sleep again. As mentioned before, her ability to fall asleep anywhere and everywhere was both a gift and a curse. And if there was anyone who would judge her for it, then they were most certainly not human. It wasn’t her fault her body required rest in order to function properly. It was the way humans worked. They couldn’t hold it against her.

* * *

Yoon Do’s phone rang incessantly. No matter how many times he rejected the call, his father was relentless. After he excused himself from the patient’s room, he went to the isolated stairwell in the east wing. He needed to breathe in some fresh air before he picked up. When he reached the bottom, however, he almost experienced a premature heart-attack. Why was she here again? Yoon Do rubbed his eyes in disbelief as he gawked at her. This was really getting out of hand. Was he finally suffering from sleep deprivation? Spooked out by the situation, Yoon Do rushed out through the exit door. This was worse than he expected.

Fortunately for him, his insistent father served as a great distraction. As soon as Yoon Do answered the phone, the old man started nagging him about picking up immediately whenever he called. Being the blunt and candid person he was Yoon Do did not shy away from telling his father that answering his calls was not one of his priorities. It might be rude of him to admit the fact out loud, but it was the truth. Of course, Mr Ju