When Yun Hee woke up the next morning, she made sure to move slowly, not wanting to wake Sehun up with her movements. She knew that she had brushed him off coldly the previous night, but she could not bring herself to face Sehun at that moment. She just wasn't ready. The chaos inside her head and around her was driving her insane.

Sitting up from the bed, she pulled her hair into a bun. She looked over her shoulder, sensing some kind of movement behind her. He was supposed to be asleep. But when she got a proper look of him, she saw how he squeezed his eyes shut. Such a lousy actor.

Yun Hee inwardly chuckled at Sehun's childish efforts to give her the space that she wanted from him by pretending to be asleep. He was being considerate about her situation and Yun Hee was thankful. Her work was taking a toll on her physically while her feelings were draining her out mentally. She was just so tired, so tired of being the cheerful one, the responsible one, the considerate one. It was not easy to be at the highest peak of happiness in one moment and then be dropped cruelly to the lowest one the next moment.

Yun Hee slowly made her way towards the room and looked at Sehun one last time before closing the door. A smile made it's way to her face because she had clearly caught Sehun peeking at her with one of his eyes closed. She wanted to be normal again, so badly. But whenever she would make her mind to talk to him, the image of him crying for Jieun would push her back. She was constantly fighting with herself, struggling to not be affected this much, but ended up being more hurt every time.

When Yun Hee got out of the bathroom, she saw Sehun stiffening up and closing his eyes abruptly to continue his obvious charade. She paid no attention to him and prepared herself for the day, allowing him to observe her from distance. She knew that he was watching her the whole time, but she ignored it altogether. It was as if they were in a silent agreement.

Once she was done, she went out of the room and closed the door behind her without sparing a second glance at Sehun. Once she was out of the room, she stood there with her back pressed against the wall of the room for a while. When she heard some rustling noise from the room, she assumed that Sehun had stopped his pretence. 

Yun Hee knew that Sehun was doing this just to make her feel comfortable and she felt bad for treating him so coldly the night before. She knew that he was worried when he saw her so weak yet still she behaved with him that way. But she was mentally so strained, the extra workload was also not helping her on top of that. Skipping meals was just a result of that.

She peeked inside the room and saw Sehun talking to someone on the phone, his back facing the door. Knowing that, she would not be able to say this to him face to face, she just stood there and said in a hush tone.

"Have a good day, Sehun", she said, even though she knew that Sehun would not be able to hear it.

The moment Sehun heard the sound of the door closing, he sprang out of the bed and reached out for his phone before dialling the number of Butler Jun's personal phone. When he heard a beep from the other side, indicating that Mr. Jun had picked up his phone, he spoke in a rush without letting Mr. Jun finish his sentences.

"Hello--"

"Mr. Jun."

"Young–"

"Please make sure that Yun Hee leaves home only after having her breakfast."

"I get it, young master. I will make sure--"

"And don't tell her anything about me asking you to do so, alright?"

Sehun heard a light chuckle coming from the other side of the phone before Mr. Jun spoke up.

"I will take care of everything, young master. Please rest assured."

"I am relieved. Now go and bug her to have her breakfast before she leaves. She should be downstairs already. I am hanging up now. She must not know that I called you. Take care of her breakfast." And with that, their conversation was over.

Sehun kept the phone in his hand as he made his way towards the door of their room. When he reached the door, he softly held the doorknob and twisted it bit by bit, so that it would not make any noise. He peeked his head out through a small gap he made with the doorframe and looked at both sides to see if Yun Hee was in that floor or not. He only came out when he made sure that Yun Hee could not be seen anywhere near him and went towards the staircase. Once he was there, he climbed down a few steps and stopped at one from where he could get a view of the dining table through the railings.

When he saw that Yun Hee was sitting at her regular chair and having her breakfast, he sighed out in relief. He knew that Yun Hee would have skipped her meal again if he had made his presence in front of her. So he sat there, on the stairs the whole time Yun Hee was eating just to make sure that she had enough to survive for a few hours. When he saw her getting up from the table after having a decent portion of food and making her way towards the front door, he hastily ran up the stairs, afraid of being seen by her.

He sent a small text to Mr. Jun which read "Good job. Thank you" to let him know that he was grateful. He went downstairs and walked towars the front door. Opening it, he stood out of the house in his pajamas and bedroom slippers, to watch Yun Hee's car driving away.

"Take care", he muttered, even though he knew that Yun Hee would be not able to hear it.

Yun Hee was removing her surgical aproan while making her way towards the locker room. Being drenched with sweat, the only thing that was going on inside her mind was to sit in the open air for fifteen minutes before going for her next duty, children's ward. She was not to start for another half an hour, but she wanted to meet the case as soon as possible. They had a newly admitted 7 year old patient who had some cardiac complication. She made a plan of reading the files regarding the patient while resting.

When Yun Hee reached the locker room, she placed the apron on its designated place and sat down on a chair placed beside the washroom. She had taken out her phone to let Min Ah know that she would not be able to join her and Baekhyun for lunch, but couldn't do so because of getting spammed by a certain stubborn person named Jongin. She noticed that she had gotten exactly 23 missed calls and uncountable number of text messages that had been still entering her phone for half an hour already. She was getting spammed at such a rapid speed, she could not even close them fast enough to make a call. The not-so-surprising thing was that all the texts contained the same message.

"I'll buy lunch." He was just doing the copy-paste thing continuously.

After trying a few times, she finally succeeded in dialling for his phone. It couldn't even ring two times completely before it was picked up by the person on the other side.

"Hola!", came Jongin's booming voice.

"Kim Jongin, stop if you don't want yourself brutally murdered by Oh Yun hee", threatened Yun Hee. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"I'll buy lunch." And Yun Hee finally heard those three dreaded words.

"I swear, if I see or hear these three words for one more time, I am going to burn down all the dictionaries in the world, just to free the world from them."

"Sure, we've got google," Jongin chuckled, "Come downstairs or I don't stop. I'll keep annoying you."

"So you admit that you are annoying, huh?", Yun Hee , hoping to divert his mind from the main topic. She could not afford to have lunch at that moment.

"Hee, I am serious. I am waiting for so long. Just come soon."

Yun Hee sighed before continuing, "Jong, I can't. I have some work to do and they might take a while. I can't avoid it."

"Then can't you like delay for 15 minutes or something? I have waiting for so long and I am damn hungry. I wouldn't have had to do it if you weren't so keen on skipping your meals to the point of falling ill." So a little prince had sent his spy.

"Jong, listen. I can't...."

"I don't want to hear any excuses, Hee. I have already consulted Min Ah about your schedule and she confirmed it that you are not supposed to have anything in the next half an hour. Hee, It's already way past lunch time and I am hungry. Please?" Yun Hee could literally imagine him pouting after saying that. Such a baby!

"Fine, you big baby. I am coming downstairs. But don't you dare complain if you see me coming with a file to study. Do we have a deal? Take it or leave it, your wish."

Yun Hee heard Jongin grumbling and cursing underneath his breath before reluctantly saying, "Alright. Deal." Then he hung up the phone. Yun Hee smile at her small victory before taking out a file from her locker and making her downstairs to the cafeteria.

When Yun Hee reached the cafeteria, she waved after discovering Jongin, who certainly did not wave back because well, he was busy sulking.

"Someone surely knows how to stretch a silly matter like a spring", Yun Hee said before placing down her file on the table Jongin was using. He looked at the file as if it were his mortal enemy and crossed his arm over his chest before sayung, "I just wanted to have quality time with you. How can I like the fact that you brought a third party between us?", he said while eyeing the book warily.

"Well, as much as I want to laugh at the sight of you throwing a fit over a mere file, I certainly cannot help feeling weirded out by your sissy little show. Dude, you are never like that, so what is wrong with you today? You can't possibly be having your period, since you are not a girl, biologically", Yun Hee said, emphasing on the word 'biologically' before wriggling her eyebrows.

Even though Yun Hee was just joking, she noticed how Jongin coughed out a little after hearing her words. Yun Hee smirked inwardly, because just like Sehun, Jongin was also a lousy actor, blowing his cover in just a minute.

Yun Hee leaned forward and kept her hands on the table before clasping her fingers together. She pretended to be serious as she said, "Or perhaps, you are trying to distract me from something that, you think, has been bothering me? Am I correct?"

Jongin looked apologetic as he fumbled with his words, trying to come p with a proper explanation. "Hee, I am so sorry. I know that you hate receiving pity, but it is not pity when a person cares for you. I..."

Yun Hee burst out into laughing, making Jongin look at her with a confused face. When she calmed down a little, she exclaimed, "Dude, does it seem like a face of someone who is grieving over something", Yun Hee said while pointing to her face, "You are sometimes too sceptical, do you know that?" 

Then Yun Hee laughed more, thinking that she could brush away the tension by laughing. But when she saw the look one Jongin's face that had not changed even the slightest from it's worried form, her life died down and she sat straight as she knew that it was time to talk. She could not avoid it any longer,  two weeks of time is enough to remain ignorant.

Yun Hee cleared and said, "Okay, you can go on with whatever that you want to say."

Jongin was about to open his mouth, but was interrupted when they were being to take their food from the counter. Jongin had probably placed their order before she had come, but at that time Yun Hee couldn't care less because she knew that a huge trial was waiting for her. She watched intently as Jongin got up to bring their food, giving her time to mentally prepare herself from something she had been running from for two weeks already.

Yun Hee was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Jongin placing down their trays of food before saying, "Let's just finish eating, then we could continue our conversation."

That day, Yun Hee realized how true people are when they say good times pass fast. Because at that time, all Yun Hee was to prolong that time and she did her best to do so, by eating as discreetly as possible. But when they were done and she checked her watch to see that they still had a good 15 minutes left, she knew that there was no escape. And Jongin being someone who never liked suspense, started right after he was done eating.

"You know about Jieun's engagement, don't you? I mean I know that you do, since the whole country knows apparently.

Yun Hee just nodded as she felt her chest getting heavy.

"You also must have observed Sehun's weird behaviour in the past weeks, right?"

Yun Hee nodded again, the feeling in her chest getting heavier.

"And you also must have known that the cause of that behaviour was the engagement, right?"

Yun Hee stayed quiet as she felt her eyes burning. Jongin sighed as he saw the state Yun Hee was in. His mind was screaming words like "You deserve someone like me who would never hurt you," but obviously he knew better than to say them.

"Hee, why didn't you talk to him about it? Why are you keeping everything inside?"

"I can't bring myself to do so, Jong. I am scared." Finally Yun Hee spoke up, though it was a very meek reply. 

"Of what?"

"Having to face the truth despite knowing it." A tear fell down her right cheek.

Jongin huffed out in frustration as he asked, "You knew that this was bound to happen someday, then why did you get yourself attached so fast?"

"I didn't have any control over it. It just happened, for the very first time in my life." More tears followed after that.

Jongin looked at the person in front of him. He never wanted to see the person in the state he was seeing her in now. He wanted to destroy the world for hurting her, but he chose to do what he was supposed to do as a friend, console her when he saw her shoulders shaking.

He got up from his seat and made his way to hers before kneeling in front of her and hugging her. He knew that they were in a hospital cafeteria, but he couldn't bring himself to care when he saw how Yun Hee clutched his shirt tightly and muffled her sobs in his shoulder. He continuously patted her back until her sobs died down. They lasted for two minutes only because Yun Hee didn't want to create a scene in public. 

She grabbed tissues from the table and wiped her tears before fixing her hair and looking at him. "Do I look okay?"

"You look gorgeous." And he meant it, because she always did.

"If I had not cried, then you would not have said so, am I right?"

"Yup", he nodded vigorously. Yun Hee smiled at his response and he felt that his efforts paid off. 

"I need to leave now since I am getting late. Thanks for everything, Jong." He was about to say something, but Yun Hee stopped him from doing so. "Don't say anything, Jong because I want to thank you. I need to."

Then she hugged him briefly for one last time before turning to leave. Seeing her leave, Jongin also turned towards the exit when he heard Yun Hee calling out for him.

"You can inform Sehun that I have had my lunch, so he can rest assured. Just don't tell him about the conversation we had, okay?"

And with that, she was off to her duty again.

Jongin felt a punch in his guts when he realized that she was really deep into whatever she had for Sehun.

Yun Hee was about to get off her car when she got a call from Min Ah. It was her third call in her 40 minute long journey to her home.

She picked up the call and spoke up without letting Min Ah say anything, because she knew what she was about to say. 

"Honey, I am not home yet. But I promise to eat my dinner once I reach and make sure to call you afterwards so that you can sleep peacefully."

"You better do so. Hmph!" And Min Ah hung up the call.

Yun Hee felt herself getting more and more frustrated at Sehun, because apparently he had appointed a few babysitters for her just because he himself was not able to do anything. She had clearly asked him to give her space and hell yes, he did. He did not bother her with his presence for sure, but he made sure to bombard her with the interference of her close ones. Now if her family were to call her to ask if she was okay, she would not feel surprised.

The more irritating thing was that none of her babysitters admitted to being appointed by Sehun, despite of making the fact obvious as ever. They all were behaving as if they were concerned on their own when they were not even supposed to know anything in the first place. If this is what giving space meant, then she had had better not told him to do so because she was better off that way.

Yun Hee reached the front door and rang the doorbell, only to get greeted by the usual nonchalant greeting of butler Jun. She acknoledged it with a curt reply before asking him, "Where is Sehun, ahjussi?"

"He is in the study, young mistress. He has been doing some office work and demanded to not be disturbed at all."

"Thank you, ahjussi. I am going to freshen up."

"Should I serve your dinner, young mistress. Young master has eaten his already." Yun Hee assumed he told her this because Sehun asked him to mention this so she could have her dinner freely, but instead, she felt more burdened. 

She turned to Mr. Jun and said, "Yeah, sure. Will be back in a minute."

"As you wish, young mistress." He bowed in front of her and made his way towards the kitchen.

Once butler Jun was gone, Yun Hee glanced towards the hallway where the study was situtad before muttering under her breath, "After making me go crazy for the whole day, his majesty demands to be not distirbed, huh?" Then she was off to their bedroom.

When Yun Hee was in the middle of clearing out her plates, she heard someone running up the stairs and after a hile, closing the door of their bedrrom. She knew that Sehun had run up there just to avoid meeting her, but Yun Hee was too frustrated to consider his effort. So once she was done, she sent a brief text to Min Ah before she directly went to their bedroom and closed the door upon reaching. Her eyes fell on the bed where Sehun was lying down with his back facing her.

When Yun Hee went near him, she saw that his eyes were closed and he was trying his best to level out his breathing. He was back to putting up an act, but Yun Hee had enough of it. So she did what she had thought she would do upon reaching home, confront him.

"Sehun, can we talk?"

No reply.

"Sehun, I know that you are awake."

No movement.

"Enough of this, Sehun. Stop your charade."

And this time he did.

"I am sorry if I bothered you, Yun Hee. I was just trying to make you feel comfortable, just like you wanted", Sehun said apologetically.

"And how were you exactly going to make me feel comfortable? By pretending to be asleep when you are clealy observing my every move? By asking Mr. Jun, Jongin and Min Ah to make sure I eat my meals? You are keeping tabs on my every move, Sehun and that's straight out creepy. I know you need something to distract yourself from your pain, but obsessing over my health is not something I appreciate. So stop itt." Yun Hee said in a breath.

"So, you knew about Jieun?" Sehun didn't know what to feel.

"Who doesn't, Sehun?", Yun Hee scoffed.

"Then why didn't you confront me about this? Why didn't you say anything? Don't you care at all?" He felt conflicted.

"Well, I guess it skipped your notice, but I care enough to actually try to approach you in the start, despite of feeling my world breaking down around me. You weren't exactly fair to me by turning the most special night of my life into the most horrifying one," Yun Hee said, with bitterness dripping from her every word.

"I couldn't help my emotions. If I could, then I would not have allowed this to happned. That's why I cocooned myself so that I could get over the fact that my first love, my love of eleven years was really leaving me. But why did you avoid me, Yun Hee? Why are you still avoiding me? Are you punishing me for loving someone I thought I could have, but I didn't?", Sehun said, his voice breaking at the end of his speech.

Yun Hee looked at Sehun with a sudden firmness and Sehun saw tears welling up in her eyes.

"No, Sehun. I am not punishing anyone. I am just trying to make sure that your presence does not weaken my resolve."

"Resolve for what?"

"For coming to terms with the fact that my first love will probably be forever in love with someone else."

And finally the tears fell from her eyes, not being able to hold themselves up any longer.