Sehun grew more annoyed as his curiosity blossomed with each passing day. He stared at the girl seated across him in the seminar room and had his jaws clenched unknowingly. Living for a reason… Many people had used this phrase, but to say it with the same passion as Irene had, there were only a handful and out of the handful, only this mortal has caught his interest.  

Sehun had known Irene nearly five years ago when they started out as first years in Korea’s most prestigious medical school. The medicine cohort was small, only a mere hundred and fifty students and hence it was not difficult to take note of Irene amongst the students.

Irene had a petite body frame, sharp but beautiful facial features which included artfully-arched brows with gleaming eyes. Whenever her sweet, cupid lips curved into a smile, it exuded so much warmth to her surroundings that Sehun finds it obscene.

However, what made Sehun take slightly more notice of her was not only because of her looks but rather, because of the fact that the girl always seemed genuinely curious. The questions that she raised in class and with others always reflected how she was obsessed about learning the tiny details, understanding other’s opinions, especially with references to life or existential topics. Others found it odd that such a beautiful girl would ask such questions especially when one is practising medicine instead of theology or philosophy but Sehun thought that it might simply be this particular quality of hers that Irene was constantly the top scorer in their cohort. Therefore, this was the reason why Sehun was adamant on choosing to observe the girl a few more years by interning at the same hospital as her.

As usual, Irene was taking down notes diligently and nodding her head at intervals during the discussion amongst senior doctors on a rare illness and again, Sehun found her unshifting attention mildly intriguing. Sehun was certain that unlike the other doctors who were just pretending to be enthusiastic about the discussion, Irene was not putting on any show, she was extremely earnest about learning. The stark contrast in their tenacity to learn between Irene and the rest was actually amusing to the observer. Some mortals are such poor pretenders and some others… Sehun thought hard about how to describe Irene as a mortal. Diligent… curious… odd… were some words that came across his mind but he found them inappropriate because he believed there must be something more and so he decided to ask the girl himself.  

The girl’s focus was broken when she caught the male giving her an excessive amount of attention. She started shuffling in her seat, trying to avoid his gaze, but failing to, and becoming more uneasy with each passing second. After failing, she then made a few furtive glances at him from time to time and found that he still had his gaze locked on her. It became nearly impossible for her to pay attention to the discussion with the fierce-looking intern looking at her so intensely.

Irene thought that she had offended him that night and had since avoided him. To her, Sehun had been an extremely scary character since the start of their university days. Sehun perpetually wore a stern-look with his thick brows always furrowed together which Irene knew that many other female medicine students found charming at times. Perhaps it did, but Irene was always someone who preferred more cheerful characters and hence, Irene found it difficult to approach a fellow student who seemed to be in a constant bad or nonchalant mood.

When Irene knew that only two of the medical students from their school managed to secure their places at the most prestigious hospital, Gangnam Hospital, she was hoping for a more cooperative fellow student to be with her. The disappointment was palpable when she learnt about Sehun being placed in the same hospital as her. Foolish, she should not have been surprised because after all, he was still a top student, like she was. Yet, after interning together for such a long time, Irene still did not dare approach Sehun and actually made conscious effort to avoid him whenever possible.

Now that Sehun’s brows were so knitted together, it seemed almost as if they were touching each other, he looked even more intimidati