Jun let out a guttural growl as he tossed his lifeless body on his black matte couch. He quickly rushed out of his casual attire, ripping open the buttons off his white polo as they restricted his air flow. He couldn't remember the last time he had been exhausted in his life, probably because he hadn't experienced this much fatigue in his life. What he begged to the heavens to be a peaceful morning was instead replaced by an early morning breakfast courtesy of a headache from Chewy.

She had been unusually difficult to wake that morning, not that it was out of the norms in their oversized house, but there was something about her demeanor that morning that ticked more than a few strings off Jun’s psyche.

Firstly, it had taken her approximately an hour to get off bed, though Jun would deny counting every excruciatingly long minute he endured waiting for her. It took him all his measly morning energy to resist the urge to just gobble down all the meals that he had laid out carefully across the dining table. He was woken that morning by a beastly growl that nearly echoed across his room. Jun was worried that a giant monster had somehow made its way under his bed and was now waiting to pounce on him the moment he set a single toe on the ground. But then the growls were oddly accompanied by an aching turbulence in his core, it took him nearly a full two minutes to realize that the monster was just his ailing stomach.

When Chewy did come down however, her orb shaped sockets were outlined by a shade of dark brown, making it look like she had either been punched in the face or was impersonating a panda bear.

But Jun knew that it was neither of the two. He knew very well that the puerile girl was suffering from a severe lack of sleep when she refused to take even a single bite of her usual favorite: scrambled eggs.

“Is there something wrong?” he asked her absentmindedly, reaching out his hand to pat her shoulder which, to his surprise, she responded by leaning the opposite direction.

Well of course Jun, can’t you see that her eyes are as red as the sun at dusk? Or maybe you didn’t catch the chocolate rings that outlined her normally consistent sockets? And if that wasn’t enough maybe you should ask her why she avoided you hand like it was a nasty little cockroach? A nagging voice began to knock on the confined walls of Jun’s head.

The worn-out state of Chewy’s eyes were more than enough to answer Jun’s question, she stared absentmindedly into thin space, her eyes displaying the liveliness of a withered flower. But the curiosity crept up on Jun’s psyche as he had never seen her so lifeless and scared, especially at his company. He felt like he was staring at a completely different person.

He decided it was best not to ask the gaunt girl for the meantime, figuring that she might have had a rough enough morning. He opted to finish changing into his pre-work clothes: a plain white shirt, which would later be draped by his uniform, a pair of blue jeans and plain white sneakers. He then grabbed his usual travel sweater and walked back to the dining area where Chewy was.

To his surprise, Chewy flinched at the sight of him, stopping Jun in his tracks as he wondered why her reaction was such.

She then looked away as if her reaction was a mistake, like a sudden burst of impulse shot through her like a bullet through the brain. He began to grow agitated at her incongruous behavior, pondering if the severe lack of sleep was causing her to flinch at every commotion that occurred around them. But his instincts were telling him that something greater than the lack of rest was bothering the young lady.

“Did I do something?” he asked as he took a seat in front of her. He examined her facial reactions that followed but was disappointed at the dumbfounded look that was spread across her face. Her hands were still buried underneath the table, refusing to pick up any identifiable object that her eyes could see. Jun had imagined that he would have grown to be nonchalant at the obvious communication barrier that existed between him and Chewy by this time, but he couldn’t deny that her mysterious nature still bothered him to this day. It kept him up at night, thinking of endless ways he could initiate talks between them and secretly fantasizing scenarios of them engaged in deep conversation to which he would feel an overwhelming sense of fulfillment and company.

But sadly, no amount of midnight dreaming could fix the reality that was sprawled across his face: they might have lived in the same house, but they were as distant as two strangers. That despite everything that had happened at this point, they still knew nothing about each other and found connecting to be a monumental task.

Jun sighed as his patience gave out quickly standing up in his place and before making for the front door.

“If you don’t want to eat that’s fine. But I must go to work now, I’ll just buy you food on the wa-” he was cut off when he felt a hand grab his wrist. He immediately snapped his head towards his right and found himself trapped in Chewy’s eyes, only this time it wasn’t one of those heartwarming, innocent stares that he had grown fond of, but an icy cold gaze full of despair and fear. He was shocked at how hard she was gripping onto him, her long hands shaking as they squeezed his wrist, numbing them in the process.

“Please…” she spoke out, her voice hoarse and shaky. Jun felt his eyes widen at the desperate tone of her voice. He had heard her voice hoarse in the morning on many occasions, but this was a different kind of strain. It sounded as if she was sore from screaming.

“…I don’t want to go” she continued. It had occurred to Jun at that point that the reason for her predicament had something to do with his place of work.

“Okay, but can you please tell me what’s wrong?” he placed his free hand on top of her gripping one, nearly begging her to tell him what was making her so restless but seeing as she could barely speak, he decided to leave her be. Jun let out a defeated sigh and released himself from her.

“Do you want to go back to sleep?” he asked her. She shook her head tiredly in her spot, knowing very well what would happen if she went back to bed.

“Promise me you’ll stay safe here” he asked her as he looked straight into her bloodshot eyes, sincere tone present in his voice.

Chewy simply nodded her head as Jun took off to work, vowing to find out what sent her into a nervous wreck.

Digging carelessly for answers wasn't such an easy task, most especially if you're actions were being monitored every second.

Jun had shown up tardy that day and as his punishment, he was given a supervisor to track his every movement. Jun knew something wasn't right as he had shown up tardy in the past. immediately suspecting that foul play was involved. He had sacrificed the wellbeing of his already unhealthy body in order to put an end to the mystery that plagued his home.

When his break had finally come, and his domineering supervisor had finally been called off, Jun wasted no time in retreating from the operating room. He tiredly removed his medical gloves, uniform cap and the face mask that had been nothing but suffocating throughout the shift, disposing them in a nearby bin.

Itching to get to the cafeteria and tame his growling stomach, Jun immediately began thinking of the possible things he could do.

He could either: march up to Wendy’s office and demand for the names of patients from the MV Sowon and have himself fired in the process. Sneak into the hospital’s medical records and find it himself and risk being caught or possibly inquire information from a trusted contact.

Jun pondered to himself if there was anyone that he could trust in the building, for all he could remember about the hospital was the worst moments of his life thus far.

Jun was snapped out of his train of thought by a force (albeit a smaller one) colliding with his right shoulder, making impact with his shoulder scar and sending waves of excruciating pain shooting up his right arm. Jun winced as he grasped the area around his shoulder, trying desperately to tame the pain that was spreading like wildfire.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry! Are you oka-” Jun didn’t expect to be seeing Chaeyoung so soon after burdening her with taking care of him.

“Oh my god Jun! Why are you here? Are you well enough from last night?” her resounding voice resonated through the hallway, making Jun feel a bit insecure at the possible attention they could attract.

“Your arm! We need to get you to a room” Chaeyoung exclaimed as she began to pull the bigger man towards one of their nursing wards.

“No, no it’s fine. Please” as much as Jun’s shoulder was nearly paralyzed from the searing pain, he no longer wanted to burden the young woman, seeing as she had already done too much for him at that point.

And Jun was never one to easily accept assistance from other people. Growing up, his father had always been particularly hard on him, pushing him to always be the best and leaving no room for errors. When he was nine, he had failed to get a perfect on a math quiz and his father chose to leave him behind on a family trip to Japan. It still pained Jun whenever he the memory of nearly starving to death came back to haunt him. He had to walk all the way to Felix’s house and convince his uncle to feed him dinner. A fate he never wished upon himself or onto others since that day, hence why he nearly lost his mind when it happened to Chewy.

And what’s worst of all is that his father had decided the path of his future, which was to continue the family’s legacy in the medical business. Jun didn’t seem to care during his years as a reckless teenager, who spent most of his time at clubs filling his veins with all types of alcohol and other substances mostly to forget the unbearable pressure that his father had imposed on him. It only came to his realization as a young adult that being a doctor might not be the best thing for him.

“Well. You can at least allow me to make it up to you” Chaeyoung’s pitchy voice snapped Jun back to reality, much to his relief.

“It’s fine Chaeyoung really. I just, I’m really hungry right now. I just really want to get to the cafeteria” Jun politely smiled and began to distance himself from the lass.

“Well I hope you don’t mind; I’m heading there too. Maybe I could get you some lunch to compensate for your arm?” the girl offered.

Seeing as he had little money left and his stomach was about to devour the last of his innards, Jun decided to lower his guard and let the woman do as she pleased.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt”.

Jun blankly stared at his food; chicken curry with a side of vegetables, devouring them with his eyes rather than through his mouth. Despite the fact that his stomach was indistinguishable from a growling tiger, his appetite seemed to have died down to the size of an ant.

"Well you could have told me that you weren't hungry so I wouldn't have waisted my allowance on your food" Chaeyoung sneered as she devoured a fork wrapped in pasta. Jun somehow knew that it wasn't normal for Chaeyoung to show genuine signs of irritation and so he mustered the little of his energy to speak up.

"I'm sorry. I just... have a lot of things on my mind at the moment" he groggily said, still refusing to eat his meal, feeling like he might throw up the moment he did.

"Like what?" Chaeyoung asked casually, her voice muffled as she chewed on her food. Jun didn't know which out of the countless conflicts that haunted him to tell her, to the point that his excessive overthinking had killed his confidence to speak. He began to predict their entire lunch together would just consist of complete silence. His mind began to recall all his previous encounters with Chaeyoung, and how no matter how much he promised himself that he wouldn't tell her things, he always ended up doing so.

"Come on, try me" true enough to Jun's predictions, Chaeyoung once again knocked on the door of his personal life and he was strangely willing to let her inside. There was just something about her presence and natural affectionate demeanor that shook his defensive wall, a feat that he desperately tried to fight off, repeatedly telling himself that it was all part of her job as a nurse.

"Does it have something to do with Sa- I mean, Chewy?" Chaeyoung continued to push Jun's comfort zone, making him wonder if she did this to keep him awake and functional. Regardless, his mind was getting back on track, even if it was in the negative zone.

"Perhaps" Jun finally responded to the endless questions that Chaeyoung gave him.

"She seems to have such an impact on you." Chaeyoung disregarded her lunch and leaned in closer, clearly invested in the topic.

"I'll admit I didn't expect that from her. After all, I've only seen her unconscious on a bed" Chaeyoung continued, making Jun the recall the moments where he had to watch Chewy fight for her life in that very same building. His face hardened up as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, trying his best to fight off the haunting memory.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable" the woman's normally composed tone dwindled down in anxiety.

"It's fine. I mean, you're not wrong anyway" Jun decided to save Chaeyoung from any malicious responses, remembering how he nearly broke her arm and how she tried her best to hide her true emotions.

"What's is wrong with her anyway?" the lass asked, prompting Jun to begin telling her everything that happened that morning.

"So just because she refused to eat breakfast? You decided not to eat as well?" Chaeyoung carelessly butted in.

"But you didn't know how she looked Chaeng! She looked horrified!" Jun's retorted, unconsciously calling the girl by her nickname after hearing it from another worker.

"Horrified? That's odd, what could she possibly fear considering you two have known each other for quite a while" Chaeyoung replied, jumping quick to assumptions she was uncertain about. Jun sighed and sunk down into his chair after realizing he had almost let himself get carried away in the moment.

"She hasn't been acting the same since she came back from the hospital." Jun’s hopelessly said with exhaustion stemmed from his countless attempts to console his unlikely housemate, only to be given the cold shoulder in return.

“Well, it’s normal for a patient to behave a bit… off after confinement. Especially after days of unconsciousness” Chaeyoung effortlessly explained, twirling her fork around her food but never actually picking it up.

“… but it’s odd that she would act so fearful” she continued. Chaeyoung didn’t know much about Chewy, apart from the fact that Jun would do almost anything for her, but she knew that based on Jun’s current demeanor, her behavior was definitely incongruous.

“I don’t really understand myself” she admitted defeat, slumping back into her seat mimicking Jun’s posture.

“It’s fine Chaeyoung, you really don’t have to. I just wish I could be there for her; I just don’t get her sometimes.” Jun shook his head, trying to get rid of all the negativity in the cold air that engulfed him.

“You said you were family didn’t you. How come you still don’t get her? Didn’t you always live together in the past or is she a distant relative?” Chaeyoung innocently asked, but to Jun’s ears, it sounded like she had finally caught him in the act. Jun started to question himself why he ever told the hospital staff that Chewy was his cousin, when he barely knew the girl at all. He could have simply said that he found the poor girl on the streets at the brink of death, but a part of him knew that the doctors would try to contact her relatives which he knew she did not have. He didn’t expect that a trip to the hospital would come with countless lies, a young nurse that he couldn’t seem to get rid of, a mysterious boss and a nosy doctor who seemed to have something against him.

He decided to rely on the least problematic of those eccentricities seeing as he had no other option but to do so. And here we go again Jun’s mind began to speak again as the song ‘Let Your Wall Fall Down’, a childhood favorite of his, began playing in his head.

“To be honest with you, she isn’t related to me in anyway” Jun shamefully admitted.

“I knew it!” Chaeyoung exclaimed as she clapped her hands together in an exhilarating manner. Jun found her enthusiastic behavior, in the midst of such an emotionally exhausting moment, to be refreshing to his psyche.

“So, what is it between you two? Is she your girlfriend?” Chaeyoung excitedly asked as she leaned closer. Jun couldn’t deny that the words that came out of Chaeyoung’s mouth sounded like music to his ears.

“Ehh, no” he replied, unable to hide the tone of disappointment from his voice.

“A friend? A tenant?” Chaeyoung continued with everlasting energy. Jun wished he could answer the girl’s never-ending questions, that he could define the relationship he had with the mysterious lass that lived in his house.

“To be honest, I kind of just… picked her up from the streets?” Jun admitted, his head lying low.

“Oh, so she’s like… a hooker?” Jun’s head snapped open after hearing those words, he felt his face heating up and his heart pounding against his chest cavity.

“No! She was just…” Jun cut himself off as he recollected his memories. The memories from the very night that would change his life.

“… I found her dying and I don’t know why but… I felt this strange attachment towards her it was my first time seeing her but I felt like I had known her for ages. Somehow the sight of her broken and fighting for her life brought an unbearable pain to my chest and I somehow couldn’t fight the feeling that I was responsible for her predicament.” Jun poured his heart out in front of Chaeyoung, realizing at that moment that he had grown comfortable in her presence. He had never told anyone about what happened that night for he was too ashamed to admit it, but there was something about Chaeyoung’s demeanor that made him feel a little bit of safety and assurance.

“That’s… I don’t know what to say. It’s quite difficult to take in.” Chaeyoung replied, her voice dwindling down once more showing that she had been affected by Jun’s story.

“I just, I can’t bear to see the sight of her getting hurt. It kills me inside. I have this strange feeling that I’m somehow supposed to be responsible for whatever happens to her. She’s innocent and fragile for her age and it only makes me feel like I need to protect her for no good reason.” The walls that Jun had built was now slowly being demolished as he began to show his vulnerability.

“I must be losing my mind. I’m going marbles” he continued, his groggy tone now completely replaced by one full of despair.

“Maybe you two have history together” Chaeyoung said, perking up Jun’s attention with the odd statement.

“History? What? How is that possible? I only met her that night” Jun replied, sounding as lost as a deer in the forest. He could have sworn that if he had met her beforehand, he would have remembered her face for it was not common among the residents of his hometown.

“You know Jun, sometimes, there are things in this world that we just don’t understand, things that are way out of our control. You just feel that they’re there and that even if you fight them, you realize that they’ll still be there at the end of the day” the words that came out of Chaeyoung’s mouth completely baffled Jun, only adding up to the confusion in his head.

“What are you talking about? You’re not making any sense right now Chaeng” he whined, his eyebrows furrowed so deep that they could leave permanent marks.

“As much as I’d love to sit here and continue this game of 21 Questions, I really need to get going. Wendy’s going to kill me if I don’t get her double shot, low sugar, triple iced americano on time.” Chaeyoung arranged her things and began to take off in a rush.

It was at that moment, after hearing Chaeyoung mentioned her boss’ name, that he finally grasped where he was and the kind of person he was speaking to. Said person was now halfway across the cafeteria hurrying like her life depended on it.

“Chaeng!” Jun blurted out, attracting the attention of half of the people in the cafeteria, including Chaeyoung who turned around with a shocked expression on her face. Realizing that there were too many eyes watching them, Jun decided to grab his stuff and walk towards the direction of the young woman, taking her by the arm and bringing her outside the eatery.

Jun silently took in a deep breath and hesitated, wondering if what he was about to do was the right thing. Regardless, he didn’t want to let the chance slip away.

“Do you… manage to know anything about the MV Sowon?” he took a chance, speaking in a volume so low that only ghosts would hear. He didn’t expect Chaeyoung’s face to somehow tense up, looking startled for a split second before trying her best to compose herself.

“I-I’m afraid I do not. Why though?” Chaeyoung oddly stuttered, catching Jun off guard with her response. He could swear that her eyes subtly scanned the area before returning to make contact with his own. Seeing as it might not be an appropriate time, he decided to let it slide.

“You know what, nevermind. Sorry for bothering you” Jun simply said as he began to back away. Chaeyoung awkwardly nodded before rushing towards the exit, walking faster than she did the first instance.

Jun stood there watching as she drifted away from his sight. A strange feeling screamed at the back of his head that Chaeyoung knew something about the incident. He wanted to interrogate her, to force the answers he so desperately seeks. But he knew that it wasn’t the time to do so. After all, he did not want to put Chaeyoung in any messed-up predicament.

As he turned around to return to his assignment, he felt a strong force colliding with his chest, fortunately it was not enough to knock him over.

He began to thank his sturdy build for not giving out as he did not want to humiliate himself in front of the person he despised the most, who now stood across him.

“Well, well, well Mr. Lee, I didn’t expect to our paths to cross so soon” the man spoke as he fixed his visually expensive polo that was draped over by a doctor’s coat. The smug tone in his voice invaded Jun’s ears, filling his heart with agitation.

“Aren’t you supposed to work night shifts” Jun replied, straightening out his not-so-honorable intern uniform.

“The early bird catches the early worm, especially if said worm is as puerile and innocent as your ‘cousin’” Minjun emphasized the word ‘cousin’ as he subtly closed the distance between him and Jun.

Images of Chewy’s terrified face followed after hearing those words, it was then that things started to make sense to him.

And they very well left a bitter taste in his mouth as he clenched his hand into a fist and brought it colliding with Minjun’s left cheek.