There’s this thing that Nam Ji Hyun is familiar with when it comes to Fate: it plays the weirdest jokes on you when you least expect it, and it ruins all of your plans no matter how hard you try to prepare yourself. 

If the doctor that should’ve been here today to orient the new volunteers actually showed up, if she was a minute late to her clinic, if she was sick and filed for a leave, she wouldn’t be standing in this conference room, speaking to thirty volunteers, including him, and doing her very best not to give up her strict and professional facade. She wonders why out of all days, hours, and even hospitals, she would end up seeing him again.

Has it really been a week after everything? She didn’t even feel like it was. It felt like the memory was yesterday, and it was like she was reliving a maze that she couldn't get out of.

She did her best to be civil and formal towards the rest of the volunteers, giving them the needed details about the hospital and the guidelines of the program, since she did this last year as well. That was another thing about her, she was quick to improvise.

"One thing that you should also know in the next two months, is that volunteers will be doing rotations in each department, but, no one will be exempted to help in the emergency room. Your job mostly would be to assist and accompany most of the patients, but you will also be needed of assistance whenever there is a new patient rushed in." She spoke, racking up some of the key points they discussed during the reformatting of the program. "You will be given your schedules and teams, and these will change every two weeks."

She smiles brightly at the volunteers asking questions, whether it be about the schedules and the rounds people do in hospitals, and she answers them concisely. Not surprisingly, most of the people that volunteered are still in high school, or some are teenagers that are yet to be admitted to medical school. If she didn’t knew him personally, or if he wasn’t in the entertainment industry, she would’ve assumed him as a medical school aspirant, or just a regular volunteer that wanted to find purpose in his life. But in the twisted reality of things, she had to face this version of him, and she had to be this version of herself. 

“Anything else?” 

A large hand raised up, and she raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes?”

“Are we allowed to observe surgeries during our shifts?”

Her eyes widened, not expecting that question from him. “That will be based on the prerogative of the surgeon, so I suggest you should ask for permission from them in advance before you go ahead and observe their procedures. But as far as I’m concerned, it is not prohibited. If you are interested, there is also an observation program for people interested in surgery.”

"Are we also allowed to follow doctors during their rounds?"

She pressed her lips together, trying her best not to think of the reasons why he would ask that question. "There will be times where you will also be required to follow them during their rounds, so yes, you technically are allowed. But, if you want to follow them based on your free time, it is still based on the prerogative of the doctor."

And that was the last thing she ever heard from him as she encouraged everyone to follow the selected interns around for a short tour around each department, and asking everyone to follow them in a neat group. As she watched everyone leave one by one from the conference room, she knew someone had their eyes on her, but she dared not to look back at them. She kept her gaze by the door until he was out of sight, and for the first time, after an hour, she finally took the deep breath that she was gasping for, her head feeling light and fuzzy as she sat down in one of the seats. She tried to catch her breath, hoping somehow that it will calm her heart down, but it seems as if the pace picked up faster when the thought of him being around the hospital for two whole months finally sunk in with her. The thought sticks to her until she had to come back to her clinic and deal with her list of patients for the day, but this time, she let it sit behind her, since there are more important things to deal with aside from him.

Unfortunately, her efforts of putting him in the back burner of her thoughts become futile when she saw him the moment she left the cardiology department, handling a stack of papers as he made his way through the people and inside the Care Coordination office. Somehow, she needed to get a hand on his schedule so she would know the exact times she'll avoid him. But, she's had enough of it as she made her way to the elevators, her stomach growling from the hunger. But just her luck, because mere seconds before the elevator could close, a hand made it's way through, and then, he enters, clearly panting from the papers he carried to the office. They had seven floors left before landing on the ground floor, so might as well pretend to be invisible to each other for a while—

"Have you eaten anything, euisa-nim?"

She raised her eyebrows at the formality, and the sudden question, but then she remembered how she's a distinct figure in the hospital.

"I was just about to go on my lunch break, Ji Chang Wook-ssi." She replied, her gaze still looking forward. "Have you had any work done so far?"

"I have," he nodded in her peripheral vision. "But, I do have to say, the clerical offices never run out of work."

"It's the clerical office. We have patients and new cases everyday. It's not really something to be shocked of."

"Of course." 

The elevator opened by the time it reached the third floor, and in comes a woman in her mid-20s, but, her eyes widened the moment she laid her gaze on the actor on board. 

"Omo." She gasped. "Oppa! Would you mind if I took a picture with you?!"

Chang Wook could only smile weakly, before telling her quietly to not make a fuss or noise about him working in the hospital. She could only roll her eyes the moment they took a picture, and just when they finally got on the ground floor, she wasted no time to leave the small space, but his steps were longer, and faster, and in no time, he was walking alongside her. 

"Don't you think you'll be causing a scene by walking with me?" She raised an eyebrow. "You know that people will make the biggest assumptions just by seeing two people walk together, especially if one of them is famous."

"I'm a hospital volunteer and you're a doctor. There's nothing harmful with walking alongside a senior like this."

"So, you're following a senior to grab her lunch, is that it?"

"I was actually about to grab a document and my lunch from my manager. The North Wing parking space is in this direction, am I right?"

That shut her up for a moment. It was too bold for her to assume that he was doing this to get to her better, or for their children. Sometimes, she really wished that she would just stop jumping into conclusions too fast. The walk to the driveway and parking lot was silent, and they kept a formidable distance once they entered the space. It was funny how her delivery came just in time, and she was able to pay for her meal and grab it the moment he was out of sight. She took a quick peek at where his manager was parked, and when he was pre-occupied, she quickly slipped away from the driveway and brisked her way to the North Wing. But of course, things had to take a quick turn for the worst. 

A small group of women were standing by the corridor, and judging by the phones in their hands (and the stickers of someone's face on some of their cases), it's clear that they're waiting for one specific person. She groaned internally from the sight, thinking about how she was going to get out of this. She sighed to herself, before walking back to the parking lot, but just when she was about to turn a corner, she stopped the moment she came across the familiar figure. 

"Your legion of fans seem to want to wish you luck on your first day on the job." She deadpanned.

She saw the color drain from his face, his face cringing from the news. "I'm so sorry. I really did my best to keep the attention away from me."

"Well, attention loves chasing you knowing how famous you are." She murmured. She then took a good look of her surroundings, feeling dreadful and anxuious of every second she stood with him, knowing how much attention will be given to the two of them if they walked back there. A sigh left her lips, thinking about the only way they could avoid trouble from the crowd. 

“We’ll eat in my office. Don’t misunderstand me. I'm doing this for your security.”

“I wouldn’t dare to.” 

__

“What are you doing here?”

This was the first thing she asked the moment after they finished their lunch in silence. It was painfully awkward to sit and eat in the very room where she told him that they should keep their distance for the sake of their children. It's funnier thinking how this all happened last week, and it was coming back to bite her once more. 

“I’m here to be a volunteer, like what the program said.” He spoke as he wiped his mouth with some pieces of tissue paper. “Also, I’ve been doing research.”

“Research?”

“You didn’t know?”

“Why should I know?”

“Of course you wouldn’t know.” He muttered, throwing the crumpled tissue papers in the trash can. “My next role is a cardiothoracic surgeon."

Of course, the very genre he had to pick for his next drama had to be related to the medical field, and it had to be related to her own field. 

Fate really does love joking with her. 

"You really didn’t know?”

"Why do you think I'm asking?"

He was silent, and then she fired one question after another.

“Then why are you here? Why this hospital? Shouldn’t you be consulting the surgeons? I could direct them to you right now—“

”I applied for the program because I want to be familiar of how things run around the hospital.” He replied. “I can’t just pick up every bit of information in one day. I have to understand how things run around here and how to do it. You know how badly I’ll get roasted if I don’t portray the job efficiently, am I right?” 

“You are.” She muttered. She had a fair share of eye rolls on different dramas that involved doctors because most of the time, they weren’t following proper procedures and gave a lot of misconceptions. 

"Also, this was the only hospital that actually had a program that fitted my schedule perfectly. It was also convenient that it was pretty close to my agency, so I have no issues with the time it takes to travel back there if I have to."

Of course, it had to be about work. Somehow, she had to smack herself for thinking way too ahead of herself over the smallest things, but it was her only way to prepare herself for anything that was bound to happen. 

“So, you’ll be here for two months for training?”

”I will.” He raised an eyebrow at him as he leaned back on his seat. “Unless you have a problem with that?”

"The only time I'll have a problem with you is when you don't take this program seriously and you don't help your superiors." She snapped. "We run a tight circuit in here, and we expect everyone to cooperate at the very least. I hope you take a lot of lessons from your stay here in this hospital."

"Actually, I do have a few more questions about some procedures."

"If this requires a procedure that may take more than ten hours to do, then I would rather spare the talk for some other time. Also, volunteers are welcome to consult doctors during their consultation hours, if you're not aware."

He nodded. "Are you the head of the volunteer program?"

"I'm just part of the committee. I was one of the people that reformatted the guidelines of the program. Actually, in the past program, you're supposed to work closely with a clerk and an intern during your shift, and you weren't allowed to leave the emergency room."

He widened his eyes. "Glad I got in this year."

"That doesn't mean we're letting you all off too easily." She crossed her arms.  

"I'm aware, euisa-nim." He sighed. "Although, we still have more business to settle. You know... like... our own children?" 

"I prefer that we should talk about this some other time. It's not really the appropriate time to talk about it." She replied, but she stopped herself. A speck of doubt landed on her thought, but she still went with it anyway. "By the way, I need to ask you something."

"Please do." 

Her voice shook when she thought about her question. "When you first saw the twins with me, what was the first thing that came into your mind?"

He was silent, and the longer the silence stretched, the more she regretted asking him. 

"You know what, forget—"

"I thought of the first time that we met." 

Silence.

"I just... if I were being honest, I thought that when I saw you, I thought of that moment when you fell on the floor with kimchi and rice staining your pants, because you had that same, shocked expression when you first saw me." 

"I glared at you back then, remember?" She raised an eyebrow.

"You were shocked for a moment before you glared at me." He shrugged. "I didn't want to admit it and I don't want to sound like a creep, but I took a really good look at your face. You're not really someone to forget."

She was stunned as he continued. "And then, when I saw you holding the twins, I thought you were married, but you didn't have a ring on your finger. I thought that maybe you took it off during your procedures or something, but then..."

He stared right into her eyes as he spoke. "Then I thought about that night... And I thought about the possibility of it... because the more I stared at the two of them, the more I see the traces of us in them. It bugged me even more when Chung Ae kept slipping up whenever he addressed me on the way to the hospital, and I actually thought that maybe I just looked like their father...” 

She let out a breath. “And look where we ended up.” 

“I’m still upset at you for keeping this entire thing a secret from me for eight years.” 

“You had every right to be.” She cleared . “But, I’m still firm about what I did. I did what I had to do to protect all of us.” 

“I could’ve protected the four of us if you tried.” 

“And I did, but I guess time wasn’t kind to us, so I stopped.” 

They looked back at each other for a long period of time, the tension getting too thick in the room. Sometimes, she wished to read minds of the people she talked with, especially when it came to him. There was still that anxious side of her that thought about what he thought about their children. She thought about how he dealt with the fact that he’s actually a father, and how she can keep her heart out of everything when it came to him. The world could turn on its head and the fact still remains that they’re parents, but if they were talking about her feelings for him... she wasn’t sure. Somehow, she saw bits and traces of the man she loved and knew eight years ago, but she wonders now if this kind of silence and tension would last forever, and if that man she knew before would ever come back to her again. It wasn’t long before a knock at the door broke the silence. 

“Euisa-nim,” a calm, high-pitched voice reverberated through the door. “You’re scheduled to do your rounds in the next ten minutes.”

She sighed. “Okay, thank you.”

Chang Wook could only fiddle with the latch of his watch as he watched Ji Hyun rearrange her things and put on her white coat, tucking her hair behind her ears as she placed her hair again in a cleaner ponytail.

“Let’s settle this some other time, Ji Chang Wook-ssi. I’m sure we have a lot of duties to do.”

He could only nod in response as she opened the door, and after a few seconds of checking the surroundings, she beckoned him to move out of the room. 

"Can I at least have your number?" He asked. "Just so we can talk about when we can negotiate about how we're handling our children."

She raised an eyebrow at him, and he sighed and shook his head. “They’re my priority too, and I won’t contact you for anything else. I won’t even bother you unless it had to do with my children.”

If she thought her speech of staying away from each other was funny then, then doing this would make an entire auditorium clutch their stomachs from laughter. How ironic for the two of them. But somehow, she couldn’t really stop that little punch to the gut when he said that he’ll only talk to her about their children and nothing less, but this was what she wanted either way. She reluctantly agreed when they handed each other's phones to input their numbers, and then, they bowed to each other, before they went their separate ways.

For Ji Hyun, Fate was the one that pulled the strings and made the entire play out of her own pen, but one thing that she didn’t know was that Lady Fate was only a catalyst, and it was up to him and a certain group of individuals to take the wave and move along with it.