Chapter one

-The Room-

Siyeon let out a sigh as she carried her belongings from the locker room of her old unit and looked at the others who were seeing her off. You would think that she was walking to her death with the way everyone was looking at her.

“seriously! You all act like I'm going to die!” Siyeon said as the other employees flinched. Siyeon was assigned to the new wing of the hospital that was just remodeled. It should have been a good thing, but everyone kept freaking her out with stories of why the unit was closed for years.

It went from everything to a pipe bursting and flooding the wing with sewage to ghosts of dead patients lingering and even led to demons haunting the halls. They would say how the hospital went through three different construction companies before the remodeling was finished. Siyeon didn’t think she believed in any of this, so she would just shrug it off.

But the more they would tell her, the more nervous she would get. At least the only thing that made her feel a little better is that her friends that worked with her decided to transfer to the new unit with her when they noticed how her fears were starting to get the better of her.

“don’t listen to them. Its just old ghost stories. Every hospital has them.” Her friend Dami who was a transporter, said as she patted Siyeon’s back in an attempt to calm her down. It wasn’t really working. All the ghost stories lately were messing with her head.

“Yeah, well, we will see if you still think that when that thing starts throwing things at you too!” one of their coworkers said confidently.

Dami just shrugged the comment off as she took the box of Siyeon’s belongings out of her hands and walked out of the room.

“hey, you know I can carry that myself!” Siyeon said as Dami nodded.

“Sure, I do. But if I waited for you, we would miss your favorite serving girl in the cafeteria…” Dami said as Siyeon perked up at the comment and looked at her watch.

“damn! You are right! I almost missed seeing Minji today!” Siyeon said as she sped up to where Dami had to almost jog to keep up.

“why don’t you just ask her out? It's clear that you both like each other!” Dami said as Siyeon shook her head.

“I don’t know that for sure… she’s nice to everyone. But every time she smiles at me, I just… well anyway, she smiles at everyone and is always so sweet. How do I know if she really does like me or she's just being polite?” Siyeon asked as Dami groaned and shook her head.

“you are the only one she blushes at when she sees. She likes you. Make your move before its too late. What if she thinks you don’t like her back and finally moves on to someone else? What would you do then if you let her slip through your fingers?” Dami asked as Siyeon sighed.

“I know what you mean… but my mind goes blank any time I want to say how I feel to her. I don’t want her to think I'm a creep…” Siyeon said as Dami rolled her eyes for what felt like the tenth time in this conversation.

“you know that new doctor that is assigned to our wing? I've heard rumors that she may have a crush on Minji.” Dami said as Siyeon paused for a second. Her face darkened slightly as sadness crossed her face.

“well, I have already lost then. How can I compete with a doctor? I'm only a nurse…” Siyeon said as she looked at the ground. Suddenly someone grabbed her arm as they leaned against her affectionately.

“I take it, you must be talking about Minji,” Gahyeon said as Dami sighed and nodded frustratedly.

“Who else could make her so mopey…” Dami said as Gahyeon giggled as she leaned her head against Siyeon’s shoulder.

“I'm telling you that she likes you. I can tell.” Gahyeon said as Siyeon sighed. Everyone had been telling her this, but she still wasn’t sure. And she was pretty sure that she could actually die of embarrassment if she was wrong and ended up being turned down by Minji. She knew it would devastate her so she would rather wait until she was 100% sure. But when that was, even Siyeon didn’t know. But she couldn’t think of that right now.

Right now, all she could think about is starting in the new unit and having to work with strangers. At least some of the new staff were people that she knew. She hated the awkward stages when you first meet someone, and it's even worse when they are a coworker.

“well, at least we are coming with you! You don’t have to worry about being by yourself. That’s something, right?” Gahyeon asked as Siyeon nodded. They had just turned down the hallway into their new unit.

“they must have put new ac units in. it's nice and cool here.” Gahyeon said as she subconsciously leaned closer to Siyeon for warmth.

“cool isn’t the right word. It's COLD!” Dami said as she shivered. It was known that she hated the cold. On her breaks, she would always be found bundled in her blue blanket she kept in her locker like a burrito.

“don’t even think of taking your blanket out!” Gahyeon said as Dami looked at her and pouted. Siyeon just shook her head at the two.

‘they say IM oblivious but look at them… they still don’t know that they like each other…’ Siyeon thought to herself as she opened the door to their new locker room for Dami, who nodded in gratitude.

They had all been assigned lockers and learned the combinations earlier that week, but when they walked in, every locker door was open. Even the one Dami knew that she locked. The girls exchanged worried looks before Gahyeon thought of a reason for all the lockers to be open.

“Maybe they wanted to make sure that the lockers would be opened and ready for when we put our stuff in it today?” Gahyeon asked as the other two nodded. It made some sense, but they just felt something was off. Carefully they looked around the room as they slowly walked down the aisles they saw every locker was wide open.

“see? Why else would it be every single one? That’s a lot of effort just to freak someone out.” Gahyeon said as the girls nodded and slowly walked back to the front of the locker room to put Siyeon’s things in her new locker when they froze.

All of the lockers were closed. They never heard a sound, and the lockers never closed without some kind of noise. They looked around for anyone who could have done it, but there was no one there.

“you two block the doors. I will check down the aisles…” Dami said in a low growl. She didn’t like people messing with her or her friends, and she was prepared to give whoever was ing with them an earful.

But she checked every aisle, every single locker was now closed, and there was no one to be seen. The hair on the back of her neck rose as a cold chill ran along her spine, and she sighed and headed back towards the girls.

“There isn’t anyone there, but there is a breeze. I could feel it on my neck. Maybe the ac kicked on, and it was like a suction effect?” Dami said as the other two looked a bit spooked.

“well, lets quickly put your stuff down, or you really WILL miss Minji!” Dami said.

Siyeon snapped out of her thoughts of ghosts as soon as Minji’s name was mentioned. Quickly she walked over and unlocked her now locked locker, and Dami put her box in the bottom as they scurried out of the locker room quickly and headed to the cafeteria.

“I hope we are not too late…” Siyeon said as Gahyeon giggled. Siyeon was so obvious as she made sure that her hair was perfect in the reflection of the metal door of the elevator.

“Whatever you do, don’t choose something just because she made it again. You were sick for hours…” Dami said as Gahyeon shook her head. She remembered having to hold Siyeon’s hair back as Siyeon emptied her stomach very ungracefully.

“but no one eats her food… I know it makes her feel bad…” Siyeon said as her two friends snorted at her.

“you are so soft when it comes to Minji. What happened to the girl that took down that big psych patient all by herself?” Gahyeon asked as Siyeon groaned at the memory. Everyone called her various superhero names for months after the incident, and it was just now going back to normal. She didn’t want them to remind her about that any time soon.

“you know, you don’t have to eat it. Just bring a lunch but get her food so that she feels happy.” Dami said, but Siyeon shook her head.

“she looks for me to see if I enjoy it. I can't just get it and let it sit there. Then she would know…” Siyeon said as her two friends shook their heads at their friend.

“you are so whipped already. I don’t even want to imagine once you get together…” Dami said as Gahyeon giggled.

“you mean IF they get together! She can barely ask Minji which food she made!” Gahyeon said as she and Dami laughed at Siyeon’s pain.

“Yeah, laugh it up…” Siyeon said gloomily as they walked into the cafeteria. But Siyeon’s mood instantly brightened as she saw the girl behind the counter. Her hat covering her hair and her smile as blindingly beautiful as always.

Siyeon could feel her heart doing backflips in her chest every time Minji smiled, which was frequently. But Siyeon would watch her genuine smile that she would give when she would greet someone quickly be replaced with a polite smile to hide her sadness every time someone avoided the food she prepared. This was the reason that Siyeon couldn’t leave her food uneaten.

‘maybe I'm the only one that cares enough to notice how her smile doesn’t meet her eyes when they turn down her food…’ Siyeon thought to herself as she and her friends grabbed their trays and walked to the back of the line.

Siyeon would steal shy glances every now and then as they waited for their turn. Her heart nearly stopped when Minji looked up at her and recognized the nurse. She smiled such a genuine smile that Siyeon’s chest ached from the cuteness.

“do something this time. At least compliment her food or something.” Dami said as Siyeon sighed.

She wanted to. She really did… but as soon as she went to say something, her nerves got the better of her, and she would just talk about the food and walk off nervously. It always made her flee of embarrassment, and she hated how shy she would suddenly become as soon as Minji looked at her with those kind eyes.

It was finally Siyeon’s turn, and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she slid to the side with her tray.

“its good to see you, Siyeon!” Minji said as Siyeon nodded shyly. Dami looked at the server in shock. Siyeon wasn’t wearing her nametag at the moment. She was waiting for the new one that showed her new position so Minji couldn’t have cheated and looked at her nametag.

‘that’s the first time Minji said Siyeon’s name… Siyeon must be freaking out…’ Dami thought as she looked at her friend that was turning a soft shade of pink.

‘oh my god! I'm freaking out!’ Siyeon thought to herself as she took a deep breath before speaking.

“I, its good to see you too, Minji,” Siyeon said shyly. Minji beamed when she heard Siyeon say her name. It took Minji a lot of digging and bribing her best friends to find Siyeon’s name, and her heart swelled with happiness finding out that Siyeon knew her name too.

“what would you like to eat?” Minji asked as she grinned brightly at Siyeon.

“umm, what did you make today?” Siyeon managed to mumble as Minji’s smile widened and pointed at a pan of food.

“I made this today!” Minji said happily as Siyeon smiled shyly and nodded.

“I will take some of that then…” Siyeon said as people gasped behind her. Usually, people asked what Minji made to avoid it. Not to ask so that they could eat Minji’s cooking.

Dami just shook her head at her friend as Gahyeon giggled beside her.

“I wish there was a way to give them a little push…” Dami said as Gahyeon nodded while they watched the two girls embarrassing attempts at flirting.

Minji was beaming as she gave Siyeon an extra scoop of food. Siyeon tried to fight her shock, but it was soon easy as she looked up into Minji’s eyes.

Minji smiled as she winked at Siyeon, completely flustering the nurse as she flushed red and scurried down the line to pay for her food. Dami and Gahyeon quickly went and got food that wasn’t made by Minji and rushed after their friend.

Once Dami and Gahyeon reached Siyeon’s table, they couldn’t help but laugh at her worried stare as she looked at the extra scoop of food on her plate. You could tell that she was regretting it but started eating diligently as she tried to control her facial expressions just in case Minji was looking.

“Please… just ask her out! No need to make yourself suffer like this!” Dami said as she chuckled and shook her head as she watched Siyeon shiver and grimace when she took another bite of food.

“how about I spill something on your plate?” Gahyeon suggested when a voice came from over her shoulder.

“that wouldn’t work. Minji would just feel bad she wouldn’t get to eat and give Siyeon more food.” Someone with silver hair said as she smiled and sat down next to the girls.

“I'm Yoohyeon, by the way. I was also reassigned to the new unit. Oh, and I'm also a friend of Minji.” Yoohyeon said as Siyeon’s eyes widened, and she paled.

“don’t worry. I won't tell her you only take her food because you like her.” Yoohyeon said as she winked at Siyeon, causing her to blush furiously. Siyeon looked down at her plate to avoid eye contact with the new girl.

“I'm Gahyeon. And this is Dami. You already seem to know Siyeon.” Gahyeon said as she introduced everyone. Yoohyeon nodded as she smiled brightly.

“How could I not know Siyeon? Minji talks about her constantly…” Yoohyeon said as she whispered softly so that only Gahyeon and Dami could hear.

“Somebody needs to push those two together. That’s why I'm here!” Yoohyeon said with a wink as Dami and Gahyeon smiled mischievously.

‘I think I will like this girl…’ Dami thought as they high fived as Siyeon looked at them with a confused expression.

Siyeon would get cold chills as she took each bite, but she ended up finishing the plate, and just like she said, Minji looked for Siyeon and smiled as she noticed the empty tray in front of the girl and smiled.

It was soon after when the new doctor of Siyeon’s unit walked up and smiled at Minji. The server smiled back brightly at her and quickly dished out her food as she winked and moved on to pay for her food.

“ug oh… that doctor is with Minji right now…” Dami said as she watched the doctor wink at Minji before walking away.

Siyeon looked up and felt her heart ache at the interaction. The smile that Minji gave to her was kind and genuine. Even when the doctor flirted and Siyeon couldn’t help but feel defeated.

“who? Oh, Handong? They are best friends and roommates! Nothing romantic going on there.” Yoohyeon said confidently as Dami looked at her in surprise.

“but the way they look at each other…” Dami said as Yoohyeon waved it off and leaned in to whisper into Dami and Gahyeon’s ears.

“Handong is trying to make Siyeon jealous so that she will gain the confidence to ask Minji out,” Yoohyeon said as she winked.

The two couldn’t help but grin. Obviously, both of the girls' friends were trying to give them a gentle push, but both were completely oblivious.

“I say we meet up out of work and create a plan…” Gahyeon said as Yoohyeon’s face lit up in excitement. She loved these kinds of things.

“I'm so there! Numbers?” Yoohyeon asked as she pulled out her cellphone, and quickly, all of the girls exchanged their numbers. Even Siyeon who was looking rather queasy and pale.

Once lunch was over, the girls had to report to their new unit, and suddenly, the nervousness hit them as the four walked together to their new workplace.

Once they arrived on the floor, they spotted their new manager and smiled. There were rumors of who would get the position, and they couldn’t help but chuckle when they spotted who won.

She didn’t look too happy to be there as she sighed and continually looked around with a worried expression.

“Bora? You got the job? Congratulations!” Gahyeon shouted as Bora tried to smile, but it just looked like a grimace.

“oh, please tell me you are not freaking out about the ghost stories too…” Dami said as Bora twitched at the comment and paled.

“Please don’t mention them... You know I hate ghosts… why did they promote me NOW!” Bora whined as everyone giggled.

‘well, at least our new manager is someone we know too.’ Siyeon thought as she smiled at Bora, who only shook her head when she noticed Siyeon.

“you look like … you ate Minji’s food again, didn’t you?” Bora asked as everyone laughed, including Yoohyeon.

“oh, I know everyone else but you. I'm Bora. Kim Bora.” Bora said once she noticed the tall silver-haired girl in front of her and extended her hand. Yoohyeon took Bora’s tiny hand as she smiled and introduced herself.

“Nice to meet you. I am Kim Yoohyeon. I'm a friend of Minji and Handong!” Yoohyeon said as Bora smiled and looked at her mischievously.

“Does that mean we may have Minji popping by to visit her two friends?” Bora asked as Yoohyeon smiled at her.

Yoohyeon liked the new tiny manager. She figured out Yoohyeon’s plan so quickly.

Yoohyeon nodded as Bora laughed loudly and clapped. This would be the perfect thing to take her mind off of all of the ghost stories her friends and coworkers had been telling her to freak her out.

“yes, Minji said she promised to stop by and congratulate Handong and I on our new positions,” Yoohyeon said as Siyeon’s head snapped up in surprise.

“w, wait… Minji is going to come here?” Siyeon said accidentally squeaking on the ‘here,’ and her friends couldn’t help but giggle at how cute she sounded.

“it's not funny!” Siyeon said as she pouted. Yoohyeon looked over and laughed before whispering something to Dami.

“oh god, if Minji ever sees Siyeon pout like that, it may kill her!” Yoohyeon said as Dami laughed and shook her head.

“I hope not because she does that a lot,” Dami said as Yoohyeon smiled.

“good. Hopefully, I can get a picture of it one day to show Minji!” Yoohyeon whispered as Gahyeon snorted and handed her phone over to Yoohyeon.

“Take your pick, we have taken many!” Gahyeon whispered as Yoohyeon’s lit up and started choosing photos to send to Minji.

-Minji-

Minji was happily singing to herself as she and the other employees cleaned up after lunch when her phone went off. The only two that would message her during work were Yoohyeon or Handong, so she quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at her lock screen. It was a picture of Siyeon that she took sneakily one day, and she couldn’t help but smile.

With a sigh, she quickly unlocked the phone to see Yoohyeon had sent her several pictures in their messaging app. Minji didn’t think much of it because Yoohyeon would always send her pictures of things she would find cute, but when Minji clicked on the app, her eyes went wide.

“AHHHHH!” Minji screamed in excitement as she saw all the photos of Siyeon’s cute pouts. Her scream had startled every employee as they jumped and looked at her before shaking their heads and looking away. Only one person could get that reaction from Minji.

Soon Minji was sending a barrage of messages to Yoohyeon.

MINJI

You just made me scream at work!

What?

How?

How did you get these?!?

But she's so cute… <3

Omg and the way her lip sticks out…

My heart…

YOOHYEON

Perks of working with her friends 😉

So when are you going to come to visit us?

MINJI

After I'm done cleaning. ^_^

YOOHYEON

Ok!

See you then!

Yoohyeon showed Dami and Gahyeon the messages while Bora and Siyeon talked about random things as they waited for Handong to arrive.

“if only we could just show her this. it would push things along so quickly…” Dami said as she smiled at Minji’s cute replies.

“yes, but I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a death wish…” Yoohyeon said as the other two nodded in understanding.

When Siyeon was mad, she was unstoppable. It was how she took down that psych patient, and now that incident was a legend in their hospital. Occasionally they would hear their coworkers telling new employees about a nurse that managed to get a guy that was twice her size and crazy into a headlock so that she could administer the injection needed to knock him out safely.

Siyeon hated people talking about the incident because she feared it would get back to Minji, and the smiling girl would look at her differently. But what Siyeon didn’t know was that Minji already found out when Yoohyeon charmed a security guard for the footage.

Minji swooned at how brave and strong Siyeon looked. She was dying to tell Siyeon how impressed she was, but they quickly found out Siyeon was embarrassed about the incident, so she never got to tell the nurse how proud of her she was.

Yoohyeon was almost tempted to tell Dami and Gahyeon that Minji had a clip of the video but decided not to just in case word of it got back to Siyeon. She still remembered the girl dangling from the large man’s back as she took him down and shook her head.

‘nope. I will keep that to myself. I don’t want to experience that. Plus, Minji is scary when she's mad too…’ Yoohyeon thought as she looked up to see Handong slowly walking up and smiled at her friend.

Handong had been stuck at a meeting that went over, and she looked exhausted as she finally made her way over.

“so much for a meeting that would only last fifteen minutes… all they do is argue…” Handong said as everyone giggled. They had heard that their doctors liked to debate every topic before agreeing on something and couldn’t help but feel sorry for the orange-haired doctor.

“Sorry, I'm late, everyone. I am Handong. I know that most units don’t have a doctor assigned on nightshifts but because we are going to be a unit for the overflow patients of the ER, they thought it would be best to have a doctor assigned.” Handong said as she smiled, and everyone smiled back at how kind and soft-spoken the sounded.

“We also will hold the post-surgery patients when the ER isn’t full, so we need to make sure that the rooms are stocked accordingly,” Handong said as everyone gathered closer as they discussed what should go where and soon everyone split up to stock the rooms. Including Bora and Handong.

Once Siyeon was by herself, she walked into the supply room and looked through everything as she learned where everything was when she swore she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around with a smile to see who was there, but there was no one.

‘hm… maybe I'm hearing things…’ Siyeon thought as she felt a cold breeze. She thought it was just the ac, but she had goosebumps as she rubbed her arms to warm them and quickly grabbed what she needed and went to walk out when she heard something fall behind her, causing her to jump and squeak in surprise.

Siyeon turned around and noticed that one of the boxes of gloves had fallen off of the shelf and looked down at the items she was carrying. She had forgotten to grab some gloves, but she just couldn’t bring herself to walk over and pick them up, so she quickly fled to stock her room with what she had.

“hey, do you need anything else for this room?”  Dami asked as she walked by with a supply cart as Siyeon smiled at her happily and retrieved a box of gloves from it and placed it in the glove dispenser.

“thank you. I dropped one on the floor earlier, but I couldn’t pick it up with my arms full.” Siyeon said as Dami looked at her with a confused expression.

“I walked into the supply room right after you, and nothing was on the floor…” Dami said as Siyeon looked at her with a shocked expression.

“Did someone come in after me?” Siyeon asked, but Dami shook her head. She went to get the supply cart and walked into the supply room right after Siyeon had left. There had been no one in there, or Dami would have seen them.

“well, maybe I just imagined it then…” Siyeon said as she pushed the incident to the back of her head and went to stock another room with Dami.

Everything was going good when they heard someone shout and quickly went running to find Yoohyeon rubbing her head and looking around with an annoyed expression.

“what's wrong? Did you trip or something?” Siyeon asked as she helped the tall girl up, but Yoohyeon shook her head.

“no. someone threw something at me!” Yoohyeon said with a pout as she rubbed her head and pointed at a glove box lying on the floor. At least it wasn’t something extremely hard, but Dami and Siyeon couldn’t help but look at each other with an uneasy look.

“did you two see who threw it? My money is on Handong!” Yoohyeon said as Handong arrived with Bora and Gahyeon. They, too, had heard the taller girls shout.

“what did I do?” Handong asked as she looked at her friend, who was pouting and picked up the box of gloves and held it up.

“you threw this at me, didn’t you?” Yoohyeon asked as Handong shook her head and looked around.

“not me. I was talking with Bora when we heard you shout and came running.” Handong said as Yoohyeon looked over to Bora to see if it was true. The manager nodded, and soon, Yoohyeon’s look shifted from annoyance to confusion.

“that’s weird… it was in the rack, so there was no way it could fall out to hit me across the room…” Yoohyeon thought as she looked at the box in her hand when it was suddenly smacked out of her hand to smash into the floor loudly.

“That wasn’t me!” Yoohyeon said as she rubbed her hand. Whatever did it also smacked her hand as it was knocked out of her grip.

The others quickly ran over to Yoohyeon and checked her hand. It was already red and may even bruise.

“out! OUT!” Bora shouted as everyone fled the room as the glove box was launched out of the room, barely missing the girls.

“what the hell WAS that!?!” Dami asked as they looked at the box of gloves that had ruptured as it was launched out of the room.

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to find out…” Handong said as she gently held Yoohyeon’s hand as she looked at the redness. Handong took a closer look at the red mark and realized it had a pattern.

“This looks like a handprint…” Handong said to herself, but everyone looked over to her and went closer for a look.

“but there are only three fingers…” Handong said as Yoohyeon’s eyes widened as they all looked over to the door. It quickly slammed shut, making the girls jump as they stared at it in shock.

“um… let's not use that room…” Bora said as they nodded in agreement.

“what room is it?” Gahyeon asked as they glanced at the door, and their eyes went wide.

“No ing way…” Dami said as Bora smacked her arm automatically for swearing as she stared at the room number in disbelief.

“413…” Yoohyeon said as she looked at the others.