Chorong is halfway through her night shift when a pretty woman comes in with a particularly nasty scratch on her arm, her friend wailing beside her. She is clearly in pain, but she’s still the one trying to comfort her friend rather than the other way around. It’s a slow night in the ER, so Chorong offers to take them off the nurse’s hands. 

 

“How did this happen, miss?” Chorong asks conversationally as she starts to clean the wound. 

 

The woman grimaces a little at Chorong’s prodding before flashing a bright grin and saying, “Call me Eunji. Which one sounds cooler, fighting a bear or fighting a shark?”

 

“A shark, but neither sound very believable,” Chorong answers with a quirked eyebrow. Then she glances at the Eunji’s friend who’s now sitting silently except for her pitiful sniffles. “I take it she has something to do with this?”

 

Eunji’s friend looks up in horror, and Chorong’s eyes widen as it looks like she’s about to burst into tears again. However, before it can happen, Eunji lays a hand on her friend’s arm and says calmly, “No, I was just being stupid.”

 

It’s a clear lie, but Chorong isn’t going to call her out on it when her friend calms down once again at these words. Biting her lip, Chorong goes back to cleaning the cut and asks again, “How did this happen?”

 

“I told you already,” Eunji smirks. “Shark fight, remember?” 

 

On the other side of the bed, her friend giggles while Chorong rolls her eyes. “So you said.” She gets a better look at the cut and tells her, “You’re lucky. You won’t need any stitches. Let me wrap this up for you then you can go to the desk to fill out the rest of the paperwork.”

 

“Thank you, Dr. Park,” Eunji nods. When Chorong looks at her sharply, having not said her name, Eunji just smiles and nods at her white coat. “Good thing you have your name there, or else I wouldn’t know who to request when I’m back here.”

 

“Already planning another hospital visit?” Chorong says in disbelief. 

 

Her friend laughs and says, “Oh, Eunji gets herself hurt all the time.”

 

Chorong turns back to her patient, who continues to smile happily at her. “You’re insane,” Chorong can’t help but say, and this time her patient laughs loudly along with her friend. “I am not going to help you the next time you’re here.”

 

“You say that now,” Eunji grins, winking at her. 

 

Chorong scoffs as she tapes down the gauze. “You’re done,” Chorong tells her. “Now go away.”

 

Eunji just keeps grinning, even as she hops off the bed and heads off towards the nurse’s deck with far too much swagger for someone who just came in with an awful cut on her arm. Chorong shakes her head and heads over to the next patient. She’ll probably never see her again.

 

-

 

It’s just Chorong’s luck that exactly a week from then she’s just started her afternoon shift when Eunji walks into the emergency room with a bruised eye, cut over her brow, and a fresh scar on her arm. She doesn’t even notice Chorong at first, merely going to the front desk to sign in, hand over her insurance, and wait patiently in a hard uncomfortable chair. Chorong can’t help but stare at the other woman, now soft-spoken and charming, as she talks to the nurse at the desk. It’s not until she sits down that she catches Chorong’s gaze, and her face splits into a wide grin.

 

Flushing at getting caught staring, Chorong shoves her hands into the pockets of her white coat and walks over.

 

“Dr. Park,” Eunji greets with an easy smile. “Fancy meeting you here.”

 

“You weren’t kidding when you said you get hurt often,” Chorong replies.

 

Eunji’s smile turns sheepish as she ducks her head. Her hand reaches up and brushes against the cut on her face. She lets out a quiet hiss and pulls her hand away, glancing up at Chorong shyly. 

 

Pressing her lips together, Chorong stares at her for a long moment before asking, “So, was it a shark again?”

 

Eunji’s head snaps up in surprise before she smiles in a sort of awed delight. She shrugs and playfully says, “Not this time. This one was all human…. Probably?”

 

“Probably?” Chorong repeats.

 

“He swung that beer bottle really hard,” Eunji explains with a half-hearted wave at her cut. “I think he might’ve had superhuman strength.”

 

Chorong pauses for a second before she says slowly, “A beer bottle?”

 

“Some drunk guy felt up a girl at the bus stop,” Eunji says matter-of-factly, like this happens every day for her. God, it probably does. “I told him to back off, and when he threatened to hit me, I told him to do it.” She grimaces. “Then he really did.”

 

“You really are an idiot,” Chorong murmurs in disbelief. 

 

Eunji offers her a crooked grin and says, “Thanks, I try.”

 

Chorong wavers for a moment, between offering to patch her up real quick so she can be on her way, but before she can decide, a nurse calls for her help with an incoming ambulance. She calls back an affirmation before turning back to Eunji, unsure of what to say. 

 

“Go on,” Eunji says, filling the silence for them. She smiles wide, a now familiar look. “Save some lives, Dr. Park.”

 

Blushing slightly, Chorong gives her a short nod before running off to meet the ambulance.

 

-

 

“Again?” Chorong can’t help but ask as she’s walking in for her night shift two weeks later.

 

“I have a gift,” Eunji tells her solemnly from her spot in the waiting room as she cradles an ice pack to a rather nasty looking bump in her head. 

 

Chorong sighs and bends down to get a better look. She gently moves the ice pack out of her way and examines the bump. “You aren’t bleeding,” Chorong murmurs. She glances down and realizes she’s much closer to Eunji’s face than she thought. Clearing , Chorong tries to take a subtle step backwards and says, “You’re probably fine as long as you don’t have a concussion.”

 

“That’s what I figured,” Eunji nods, gingerly lifting the ice pack back to her head. “I’m just waiting for someone to tell me I won’t die in my sleep or something.” 

 

Chorong purses her lips then asks hesitantly, “This isn’t some ploy to keep seeing me, right?”

 

The corner of Eunji’s lip tugs itself into a reluctant half-smile. “And if it is?” Eunji replies.

 

“Then you really are an idiot,” Chorong scoffs, walking away.

 

“See you later, Dr. Park!” Eunji calls after her, laughter clear in her voice.

 

-

 

“You’re ridiculous,” Chorong tells Eunji the next time she sees her, a whole three weeks later. She’s tending to a nasty scratch on Eunji’s leg, courtesy of a biking accident she’s told. “Why can’t you just ask for my number like a normal person?”

 

“Are you saying you’d give it to me if I did?” Eunji counters.

 

Chorong huffs and admits, “No.”

 

“There you go,” Eunji shrugs, as if that completely justifies her coming in hurt all the time. “Besides,” Eunji grins, “I never did actually say this was all a ploy. I just asked what if it was.”

 

“Oh please,” Chorong rolls her eyes. “No one is this accident prone.”

 

“How do you know?” Eunji says. Then she perks up like some excited puppy and asks, “Am I your first regular?”

 

“This isn’t some restaurant or bar,” Chorong says, and she’s half-tempted to poke Eunji’s scratch extra hard as she cleans it. “I’m an ER doctor in a hospital. I’m not supposed to have regulars.”

 

“What I’m hearing is that I am your first regular,” Eunji says, smug as if that’s something to be proud of.

 

Chorong sighs and tells her, “The next time I see you in here, I am sending you to another doctor.”

 

“No, you won’t,” Eunji replies easily. She gives her a breezy smile. “You enjoy talking to me way too much to let me go to someone else, Dr. Park.”

 

Chorong pinks up at this and glares down at the scratch she’s working on, not talking to Eunji the rest of the time.

 

-

 

Three months later, Chorong pulls back the curtain and gives the person on the other side an unimpressed glare.

 

“Dr. Park?” Eunji gasps with obviously faked surprise. “What are you doing here?”

 

“I work here!” Chorong snaps, just barely stopping herself from strangling the other woman with her stethoscope. “As you very well know,” she adds as she picks up the chart from the end of the bed. “What are you doing here?”

 

“I’m sick,” Eunji says. She forces a feeble cough, but when Chorong stares at her, she hurriedly says, “My arm is broken, I think. Maybe.”

 

Chorong stops immediately. She squints at her for a moment, trying to see if Eunji is lying. When Eunji just stare back guilelessly, Chorong sighs and rubs her temple with her free hand. “Exactly how did you break your arm?”

 

“Don’t give me that look,” Eunji protests as Chorong sets down the chart and pulls on a pair of gloves. She winces a little when Chorong gently picks up her arm and starts prodding it. “I didn’t do this on purpose or anything.” The ‘this time’ is heavily implied.

 

“Then how did it happen?” Chorong asks. She runs her fingers over a swollen bump and frowns slightly. Eunji doesn’t reply, and when Chorong looks up, Eunji’s face has gone completely red. Raising an eyebrow, Chorong asks again, “How did you break your arm?”

 

Eventually, Eunji sighs quietly and says, “Well, my neighbor’s kid has a cat, and the dumb thing climbed their tree and couldn’t get back down.”

 

Already seeing where this is going, Chorong holds back a giggle and says, “Eunji, please tell me you didn’t.”

 

“There I was!” Eunji continues dramatically, ignoring Chorong’s interruption. “I was just minding my own business, leaving to go grocery shopping, when I’m accosted by a sobbing seven year-old. Through her millions of tears and snotty nose, she begs me to save her old, ugly cat.” Eunji gives Chorong a dry look, laden with regret. “I wish I had said no.”

 

Fighting off a grin, Chorong asks, “Is the cat okay?”

 

“The ungrateful little is probably enjoying some tuna and a nice belly rub right now,” Eunji scoffs, and this time, Chorong can’t hold back her laughter. “Sure, laugh it up,” Euji says sourly, even as she smiles herself. “It was worth it though. I saved the cat, and I got myself a best friend for life.” She lifts her other arm to show off a bracelet that hangs from her wrist. It’s clearly made by a child, clear elastic with brightly colored beads, and to Chorong’s endless amusement, a silver plastic charm in the shape of a cat head. 

 

“Does Bomi know she’s been replaced?” Chorong jokes. In the many visits Eunji has made to the ER, at least half of them have been with Bomi, her best friend and the woman from the night Chorong first met her. “How could you do this to her?”

 

However, Eunji just flashes a crooked smile and replies easily, “Don’t be ridiculous. Bomi will always be number one.”

 

There’s something about the effortless confidence that Eunji says this that makes Chorong pause and look up at her face. Eunji stares back with an eerie calmness that makes Chorong look away.

 

“I’m very loyal to the people I care about,” Eunji says, and when Chorong looks up again, she finds Eunji staring at her. Then she smiles at Chorong and adds, “Once you have me, I’m here to stay.”

 

-

 

Seven months since the very first night Eunji came into her ER, Chorong watches Eunji come into her ER once more, but this time she isn’t alone, and the woman she’s with isn’t Bomi. Instead, a tall beautiful woman who looks like she belongs on the cover of a magazine helps Eunji as she limps into the waiting room. Chorong watches as the woman carefully gets Eunji into one of the waiting room seats before walking over to the front desk.

 

Like she has some weird sixth sense, Eunji finds her staring and gives a tired wave.

 

Seeing no point in trying to act like she hadn’t been staring, Chorong walks over to her. She glances at the woman talking to the nurse before taking the seat to Eunji’s left.

 

“You look like ,” Chorong comments lightly as she takes in Eunji’s swollen ankle and probably broken nose. 

 

Eunji lets out a low chuckle and says, “Yeah, well, I’ve been better.”

 

“What happened?” Chorong asks. “I know this time it isn’t just some excuse to see me.”

 

Eunji smiles at that and replies, “You never know I might just be that dedicated to seeing you.”

 

Chorong blushes but shakes her head. She waves vaguely to Eunji’s injuries and says, “You’re stupid, but you’re not that stupid. If you really wanted to see me, you’d come in with a bump or cut like you usually do.”

 

“Dr. Park, are you saying all of those injuries were done intentionally to myself?” Eunji grins. She stares down at her feet and says, “Maybe I’m just that clumsy.”

 

“I doubt that,” Chorong says, allowing herself a small smile. She notices the tall woman glancing back at them and can’t help but ask, “Who helped you in?”

 

“Hm? Oh, that’s Naeun,” Eunji tells her. She says this like it’s obvious, like Naeun is just there, a part of her life, and it bothers Chorong more than she’d like that she’s realizing she doesn’t know Eunji much at all. Not noticing Chorong’s inner turmoil, Eunji continues, “We were grabbing dinner when some guy pretty much attacked Naeun. He was wasted but definitely still knew how to pack a punch.” Eunji winces, as if to emphasize just how painful the punch was.

 

“Is this a thing for you?” Chorong asks curiously, and a bit jealous. “You saving women from creepy men?”

 

Eunji laughs a little and replies, “Bomi does say I have a bit of a White Knight Syndrome.” 

 

“Well, I’m sure your girlfriend appreciates that,” Chorong says, as lightly as she can, even as jealousy twists her insides uncomfortably. 

 

However, Eunji glances at her in surprise and says, “I don’t have a girlfriend.” She shifts, almost uneasily, in her seat as she eyes Chorong like she’s never seen her before. 

 

Chorong feels her face burn a dark red. She opens and closes several times, trying to think of a way to backtrack. Eventually, she settles on muttering, “Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed.” She gives a shy wave to Naeun and repeats, “Sorry.”

 

“It’s fine,” Eunji says with a forced lightness that makes Chorong look at her. She gives a pained smile and says, “Naeun is just a friend. We… didn’t work out a few years back.” Oh, now Chorong feels awful for bringing this up at all. Eunji sees Chorong’s distress though and quickly reassures her, “No, it’s fine. Don’t feel bad. We’re so beyond over each other. She’s even dating Bomi now. It’s just…” Eunji tilts her head and looks at Chorong with a suddenly too serious gaze. “Did you really think I’d be trying to date you if I already had a girlfriend?” Then Eunji frowns and adds, “You really think I’d do that?”

 

“I don’t know,” Chorong says softly. “I.. I don’t know you, Eunji.”

 

Eunji doesn’t say anything, eyes dropping to the floor, and somehow that makes Chorong feel even worse than if she had said anything. “You should go back to work,” Eunji murmurs. She shifts again, this time noticeably away from Chorong. With a sad smile, Eunji says, “Go save some lives, Dr. Park.”

 

“Eunji,” Chorong says desperately, but she isn’t sure what to say. 

 

Then Eunji looks up and gives her a more genuine smile, even though there’s a lingering sadness, and says, “We’re alright, Dr. Park.”

 

Before she can stop herself, Chorong blurts out, “Chorong.” Then she blushes and hastily says, “Call me Chorong.”

 

“Chorong,” Eunji repeats slowly. She blinks, and then a warm smile lights up her face. “Go save some lives, Chorong.”

 

-

 

After that night, Chorong doesn’t see Eunji for almost three months. This should be a good thing. It means Eunji isn’t getting herself unnecessarily hurt, but it also means Chorong doesn’t get to see her at all. She misses her more than she ever thought she would. It’s strange not to see her and patch her up, all while trading banter about how Eunji needs to take care of herself better.

 

Maybe Chorong likes her. Just a little bit.

 

It’s at two in the morning that Chorong sees Eunji again, walking in with a swollen eye and a cut on her forehead. Most likely another bar fight. For someone who claims she’s just an affectionate drunk, Eunji gets into a lot of bar fights.

 

Chorong walks over to her as soon as she finishes signing in, and she isn’t sure what to make of the surprise on Eunji’s face. Taking her arm, she guides her over to one of the empty beds and ignores the curious look the nurse gives her.

 

“It’s been a while,” Chorong says casually as Eunji hops up onto the bed. 

 

Eunji bobs her head a little and says, “Yeah, it has been.” Then she bites her lip and adds, “I thought you would’ve been relieved to not see me.”

 

“Oh,” Chorong says, hands pausing over where she is preparing some gauze and stitches for her. Keeping her eyes focused on the tray of tools in front of her, Chorong carefully says, “It’s been quiet without you. Maybe too quiet.” She looks back up to start cleaning the cut on Eunji’s forehead and finds the other woman watching her with impossibly soft eyes.

 

“I missed you too,” Eunji says. 

 

Chorong blinks a few times, letting the words wash over her. Then she clears and leans forward to clean the cut with more focus than is required. Eunji doesn’t say anything as she works, but Chorong feels a warm puff of air that can only be a silent laugh from the other woman. Ignoring her, she cleans up the cut and gives her two stitches. For once, Eunji doesn't say anything, simply sits there quietly.

 

When Chorong finishes, she pulls back to find Eunji watching her with dark eyes. 

 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Chorong snaps. 

 

This make Eunji grin, slow and wide, before she asks, “Will you go on a date with me?”

 

“What?” Chorong says without thinking. Then she blinks and says, “Are you being serious?”

 

“As a heart attack,” Eunji replies, her grin cheeky but less lively than usual. She really is being serious. 

 

“You don’t even know me,” Chorong tries, even though she doesn’t know why she’s trying to fight this. “Where is this coming from?”

 

Eunji laughs, wincing a little when it pulls on her stitches. She reaches out and grabs Chorong’s hand. She pulls her closer but keeps holding her hand, and all Chorong has trouble focusing between Eunji’s warm hand and their sudden closeness. 

 

“I know you’re a dedicated doctor, even when you have really annoying patients,” Eunji says teasingly. “I’ve wanted to ask you out since the very first night we met, but I guess I’ve just now gotten the courage. You’re sharp-tongued and smart and kind of really y honestly.”

 

“Is this the part where you ask me to play doctor?” Chorong asks dryly.

 

Eunji laughs again, this time brighter and louder, and she doesn’t flinch from the pain in her stitches. Her other hand reaches out and rests comfortably on her waist, and Eunji smiles up at her beautifully, even with her eye swollen and her forehead taped up.

 

“Is this you saying yes to playing doctor?” Eunji asks.

 

Chorong smiles and ducks her head. “I’m not going to answer that,” she tells her.

 

“Then it’s a yes,” Eunji replies smugly. She smiles even wider than before and catches Chorong’s gaze. “You never answered, you know.” She leans in close, just a few inches away. “Will you go out with me, Dr. Park Chorong?”

 

“If I say yes, do you promise to never show up in my ER again?” Chorong tries to sound stern when she asks this, even as her fingers gently brush against Eunji’s cheek. 

 

“I promise to show up less,” Eunji says with a bashful smile. At least she’s being honest. “I really am accident prone though. Not clumsy, but trouble just seems to find me.”

 

“More like you find trouble,” Chorong scoffs, but she cups Eunji’s cheek to tilt her face up towards hers. Hesitating for just a moment, Chorong leans in and kisses Eunji. It’s just a brush of the lips, but when she pulls back, Eunji looks at her like Chorong’s given her the stars. “But yes, Eunji,” Chorong says. “I will go out with you.”