Have you met someone that surprised you? Like, you met this person, and at first you hardly pay any attention to them. You may not be at all attracted to this person, but as you get to know them, you noticed yourself falling. This person who was once nothing to you has become everything. All of sudden, they're the most beautiful person you've ever met. It's just funny looking back. You never saw it coming, it's just kind of...

happened.

And Yeonhee isn't prepared for this. She really had no idea, but she just can't take her words back. All that she knows once she realizes this just right before she closes her eyes that night, she can never see Yixing ever the same again. And it scares her.

Yeonhee didn't expect that all of this thought would come in a moment. She's scared because she knows that he's perfect for her, but she's also scared if things won't work out the way she wants this. She had clearly said that she's not going to date him while all she can think about now, is, she wants him. But on the other hand, she doesn't want to hurt him, she doesn't want to get hurt either. She just can't lose him. Because if she ever does, she's going to lose her best friend, her smile, her laugh, basically her everything. And it's just going to be the second Sehun all over again.

It's frustrating, really, because everything which was used to be nothing for her now seems to be everything. She wasn't prepared for the feelings that are getting stronger day by day, and the problem is, now she becomes self-conscious over this that she can't ignore every little thing Yixing does because it affects her like a big storm.

In the past, she never questioned the limitations of their privacy at home. Since Yixing doesn't mind to share the bathroom, for instance, she also didn't feel awkward to let the door unlocked when she's occupying it. She didn't care when she had to brush her teeth while Yixing was taking a shower since they only have one and the time is ticking. But now, just smelling the fragrance of his body-wash from outside the door alone is enough to make her hyperventilating.

Yeonhee didn't mind to cram inside the subway, when leaving or coming home from work, because they ride the train with the busiest line in Seoul. They used to even laugh at it when they needed to be so much close to each other that their bodies literally latched on each other for the crowded train, Yixing would pull her to his chest and put his protective hand at the small of her back to give her distance from the other people around her. But when it happens now, God only knows how nervous it makes her feel. It's too awkward that she can't smile anymore, she can't even look up because she's just as tall as his eyes, and when she does, she's too close to his lips, and, this wild imagination just runs in her head, and, with that hair... 

Oh, the hair. No, it's just too much for her to take.

And she knows that it's easy for Yixing to make people laugh, which she always does naturally even just by seeing the change in his expression. But now she can't do it without feeling herself blushing like there's a fire at both sides of her face. She feels the dillema because she increasingly wants to spend more time with him, 24-hour next to his side, but at the same time, she can't sit beside him without feeling nervous and awkward. Especially under his intense stare when he's listening to her talking, she has to look away since she can't stand that stare anymore.

The situation with Sehun isn't getting better either. She thought that since she has this tendency over Yixing now, then Sehun is no longer a complicated problem. But apparently that's not what happens, especially when Sehun decides to creep his way in to get her attention back. Since she left the swearer in his door, Sehun has tried to reach her several times. But, maybe because she never takes any of them, this makes Sehun, sort of, curious about her taking a distance. He keeps appearing in her surroundings, like, the nurse station, the cafeteria, even deliberately rerouting his way to pass the intern locker room randomly.

Yeonhee tries her best not to care about it every time they pass each other, pretends like she doesn't see him, or just greets him with a polite nod and leaves quickly. She asks Yixing to take her case whenever she needs Cardio consult or anything that involves Sehun in it, she deliberately lingers doing the procedure with her patient every time Sehun is around so that she doesn't need to exchange greetings with him. Yeonhee tries not to steal a glance when he's visiting the ER several times with the sweater that she bought for him.

And the days go by so fast while they're busying themselves with all the patients' business. They spend more time in the hospital because they have no holidays, and the number of incoming patients rises dramatically with the snow that continues to rain for several days, defining the end of the year. Slippery roads cause many accidents, not to mention other cases that occur because of the cold and extreme weather; Baekhyun and Sejeong even have to go down to help them.

Entering January, Yeonhee got Pediatric Surgery for the next rotation, and she gets to have Sejeong as her partner this time. And pediatrics is so-so. It's not anything bad, her attending is the sweetest woman ever. She's so fluffy and bubbly, that kind of woman who adores kids so much like they're a bunch of running kittens. She loves to hug and joke around, and more to that, she loves to teach. But Yeonhee is just not that interested, because, well, it's not like she dislikes children, but she has to say that they're not her favorites, it's kind of more of Yixing's expertise. And working with them is quite difficult because she's not good at acting cute or doing some baby's talking like Sejeong, or making a nice conversation talking about some random dinosaurs or Power Rangers like Yixing. She's more to a technical person, who smiles awkwardly in front of them. Seems like the effort is just not up to their standard, still. In conclusion, kids detest her.

Meanwhile, Yixing and Baekhyun have Orthopedy's rotation and they seem to be really having fun together cracking people's bone. They get along a lot more with each other, the bromance is strongly received that Yeonhee and Sejeong feel so left out sometimes. They hang around with the senior residents, Yeonhee often finds them at the resident lounge having some arm-wrestling competition; sometimes even left arm-wrestling since Yixing has yet had his right one in recovery. But since he won it even with using his left arm, that makes him even more popular than ever before, that girls start to ask him out openly.

"You're staring," 

Yeonhee almost jumps as Sejeong suddenly whispers on her ear and folds her legs to sit next to her. She puts down several folders containing a series of medical journals to find some reference to complete the task of their attending to solve the problem of one of their patients who came this morning. The ER paged them to see a 14-year-old girl with a two-day history of abdominal pain. She also reported a fever of 38 ° C, nausea beginning eight hours after pain onset, and had not had a bowel movement in four days. Her medical history is unremarkable, so both Yeonhee and Sejeong are looking for some differential diagnoses other than bowel obstruction and appendicitis.

"I am not," Yeonhee denies it by looking away from her previous subject to continue reading.

Sejeong giggles right beside her.

"Yes, you are."

"I am not," she whispers back, more strictly this time.

She curses herself for slacking off that even caught staring at Yixing who's sitting on the long table at the other side of the library. Actually Yeonhee didn't know that Yixing was also in the library, she only came to look for a case study reference and intended to have a short read  And when spotting Yixing sitting at one of the tables in the hall, initially she intended to join him, but thinking again, she could guess that she would not be able to concentrate on reading when he was around, so she decided to sit on the carpet at the end of one of the bookshelves' rows. And even though a little bit secluded, she can still see Yixing from here, she just doesn't think that she's going to stare at him like a creepy stalker. She doesn't realize she's done it that bad.

"You have a crush on Yixing, don't you?" Sejeong teasingly quizzes her a moment later.

Shocked at the sudden question, Yeonhee pulls her head backward to avoid the pointing finger on her nose. And seeing at her evil grin, Yeonhee can't help but roll her eyes.

She replies to her with another question. "Again? Is this some kind of a hunch too?"

"No, it's not. It's more of an, observation." Sejeong swings her forefinger to her face again.

"You need to try harder then, Sister, because your observation is not legit."

"Then tell me, if my observation is not legit, why are you here instead of sitting there with him? You guys usually stick with each other like those pairs of chopsticks. Why not now? Hm? Tell me."

"Well that's not fair. We don't stick with each other that much, it's because we're on the same rotation and practically housemates. Do you see me sticking with him after Trauma?" she reasons out.

"Yeah, yeah. Okay." Sejeong giggles again, "You defend yourself too much eagerly for someone who doesn't have a crush."

Yeonhee rolls her eyes again from the teasing, she can relate now when Yixing says Sejeong is frustrating sometimes. She's just the female version of Byun Baekhyun, and it really says something.

"Why are you being so strict to yourself? It's okay to have a crush on somebody, you know." Not satisfied with the teasing, Sejeong starts again with her another talk. And now it gets really frustrating because they're doing it with the series of whispering, while all she wants to do now is yelling at her.

"Sejeong, I told you I don't have a crush..."

"Oh yes, you do, Yeonhee. You can act nonchalant and keep that poker face all day, tell everyone that you don't and get Baekhyun believing you, but you can't fool me. I can see it all over your face, and it says," she points at her forehead, then her both cheeks, then chin," Yixing, Yixing, Yixing, Yixing. "

She's stunned.

, she finds out.

"And I can't blame you if you really have a crush on him, I'd be surprised if you don't, instead." she remarks. 

Yeonhee tightens her lips, listening.

"I mean, he's a very nice man, literally the sweetest guy I've ever met in my life. If I were the one who lives with him, I don't think I can survive the temptation too."

"Okay, that's a good wrap. But I don't have time for this, we need to get this case done, Sejeong. Let's be serious." she waves her hand in front of the girl's face, hoping that Sejeong will just stop talking about this. They really need to get something out of the journals while the time is ticking. But of course, again, she's wrong if she thinks that Sejeong will just let her go that easy.

"You know what? I'm not surprised if you don't have a boyfriend." Sejeong leans sideways to speak again, and as offending as it may sounds, Yeonhee can't help but give her the attention.

Why does she say it? 

"I don't want you to take this the wrong way, I just don't think that very many people, especially our age, would be able to keep up with you. You know who you are and you know what you want to do. Your eyes light up when you talk about your passion, and you're not afraid of defining social norms and who you are. And all this, this scares people." 

For a few moments she can only be silent, Sejeong makes her lost for words for the second time today, and she has literally nothing to say to retort.

People, like, what? scared of her determination? It's not actually the first time she heard such statements, hear people telling her that she's too smart or too strong for a rival. She heard that a hell lot, but she never thought that it actually drives people away from her. Did she hear it right? Is it really scary to be skillful?

"Well, I suppose you don't count yourself as people then, seeing that I clearly don't scare you." she's so speechless that it's the only she can say to react to her. Yeonhee is not even sure if she has to be happy or sad to hear this.

"No, you actually scare me, but I happen to be the type who sees the best on people. Though I won't deny that you're a quite difficult person to approach, but that's what I like. Someone like you just makes a good person to befriend when we get close. And maybe Baekhyun is just being thick-skinned. While Yixing, well, he lives with you, I guess he knows you better than anyone else in the whole surgical floor, so I got nothing to say."

Sehun knows her better than anyone else in the whole surgical floor, though, but Yeonhee just can't say that without making this conversation going more complicated than it has been. 

"Again, I don't mean anything bad. It's just that, you're putting a wall, Yeonhee. I don't know why you do that, but how will boys get close to you if you won't let them in? They're not us, you know. They don't speak sign language, they're just clueless. So, I say, don't hide it. The more you hide your feelings for someone, the more you fall for them."

"We're just friends, Sejeong," Yeonhee still insists, and that gets her a roll of the eyes from the other girl.

"But friends don't look at each other the way you both do to each other, Stupid."

Yeonhee follows Sejeong's chin's movement to stare Yixing back again, and that exact moment Yixing happens to turn his head towards her. And they meet their eyes, they look at each other at the same time, and then he smiles. Yeonhee finally gives up with a sigh to hear Sejeong scoffs and chuckles inaudibly next to her. She can't hide it anymore, it's useless now.

"Just admit it," she hears Sejeong whisper again, now close to her ears. She turns her head away from Yixing to the girl beside her, but she knows Yixing just raises from his seat by the screeching sound of his chair, and she starts hyperventilating inside knowing that he's probably walking up to them. "You've fallen for the guy you declared you would never fall for."

And that feels like a slap right on her face. Yeonhee swallows hard knowing that Sejeong says something right. She doesn't deny this time.

Yeonhee keeps repeating the thing that Sejeong said in her head until the next day. She's wondering how everything she said actually happened, like, Yeonhee can't even deny now that this feeling she has is getting stronger every day. It's so strong that she never thinks about Sehun anymore. And it remind