Sehun’s eyes are dark—almost void with any emotions. He flicks his eyes coldly in Jongdae’s direction. “Tell her you couldn’t find me,” he answers.

Jongdae unhinges his jaw, blinking half in confusion and shock. Maybe he was doubting who this person was. He’s probably never seen Sehun not smile before.

Kyungha has, but she’s also taken aback by his reaction to his ex-girlfriend.

Jongdae opens his mouth to speak, but Sehun turns to Kyungha to give her quick instructions before walking out the door.

“Am I missing something?” He asks, glancing between her and back to the space where Sehun previously stood.

She shrugs, trying hard to not show her distaste. Kyungha didn’t care. She didn’t want to know. She tries hard to push the fiery ball of jealousy back to where it belonged. Far away from her.

She becomes aware of footsteps echoing behind her, painfully aware that the people following her would be terrible spies. Kyungha stops, not missing the steps skidding behind her.

Unamused, she whirls around to see Seulgi and Joohyun with eyes that contain a million questions that Kyungha knew she didn’t want to answer.

Kyungha sprints, but she’s caught by her two friends—tackled to be accurate.

“You can’t run from us!” Seulgi shouts in her ear.

She winces at the sheer volume. Joohyun has a tight hold on her arm. Kyungha had managed to avoid them in the last 48 hours, but that was it. She’s been caught, and she didn’t doubt that Seulgi would be able to pry information from her.

“You can’t not explain what the hell happened the other day!” Joohyun shouts shortly after. Christ, who was indoor volume? These two didn’t know her.

Other people in the hospitals shoot them dirty looks. Kyungha sighs. “Technically, what you said doesn’t make any sense. Double negatives are grammatically incorrect and they inhibit my ability to understand you.”

Seulgi scoffs. “No deflections, no more bull, Do Kyungha. We’re friends. Friends tell each other things.”

Kyungha thinks. She could either a, choose to say we’re not friends and have Seulgi ignore her, or b, attempt to run away and have Joohyun tackle her again.

Joohyun crosses her arms. “We should talk somewhere more private.”

She allows them to drag her into an empty on-call room. Seulgi turns the lock before she settles onto one of the bunks.

Kyungha is forced to sit down with Joohyun by her side.

“I’m being held hostage against my will, so technically, this is kidnapping.”

Joohyun smiles, but it’s kind of threatening. “Correction, you’re not a kid.”

“Now, spill,” Seulgi insists, waving her hand.

Kyungha sighs, rubbing her cheeks exasperatedly. “What do you want to know?” She finally asks.

“Everything!” They shout in perfect harmony.

“That’s a little vague.”

“Are you dating Dr. Oh?” Joohyun jabbers.

“No, we’re not dating,” Kyungha responds sharply.

Seulgi narrows her eyes suspiciously as Joohyun blinks between the two girls. “Is this going to be a problem?”

Seulgi blows a raspberry. “Not really, no.”

Kyungha glances at Seulgi, not doubting her words, but Joohyun doesn’t look convinced. “Okay, so we have Kyungha and Sehun, whose relationship is undefined—low key seems like they secretly love each other. Then, we have Seulgi and Sehun, who had —was it serious? As of right now, can’t really tell.” Joohyun says this all like she's a talk show host, and Kyungha can’t tell if she’s actually serious or not. “Listen, I’m all for catfights, but you two have become my best friends. Fighting is no go.” Finally, Joohyun claps her hand together, eyes darting between the two. “So, should we talk about this? Maybe get everything out.”

“No,” Kyungha answers as Seulgi snorts.

“Joo-Joo, do you want to know how we became friends? Like actually became friends?” Seulgi implores. Joohyun nods excitedly. “To be honest, when I first met Kyungha, I thought she was a stuck-up, snobby brat. And then to my luck, we met again as roommates. In our first year as roommates, I absolutely hated her guts.”

Joohyun looks to Kyungha for assurance. To which, the younger nods calmly. “Seulgi purely referred to me as her .”

Seulgi laughs as she reminisces. “Fun times.” Then, she sighs, her eyes growing misty and sentimental. “I was dating this upperclassman our sophomore year, and you know, I thought he was the one. We weren’t just any college couple. We were the it couple, completely in love—you know all the works.

And then one day, Kyungha, who I could not stand and honestly, I think she hated me more, talked to me. I couldn’t believe it because when we were in the same room, it was either cold shoulders or exchanging crabby insults.

But she didn’t address me like she normally did. She made me sit down. And then she told me five words that changed my life.

I slept with your boyfriend.

You could imagine how I reacted—I was pissed. I was minutes away from ripping her entire head off, but Kyungha explained to me that he’d been sleeping with every one of my friends as a bet. I was utterly devastated to learn that not my friends—the girls that I genuinely cared about—but this girl who was the coldest on campus and not to mention, I wanted to constantly gut her—she was the one who ended up telling me the truth.

I blew up on all my friends and made a fool of myself in front of everyone. The professors, my ex, everyone. It was horrible. But Kyungha—“ Seulgi pauses to flash a giddy smile at the younger girl. “—offered to skip with me.

She and I walked out of our lab that day, and the rest is history. Our friendship is deeper than what you see on the surface. Sure, Kyungha may look like she refuses to acknowledge me as best friends, but I’m confident that we are and our friendship won’t be broken up as easily. Definitely not over a guy.

Maybe it sounds ed up to you. The circumstance of how we met and how many guys we’ve shared in the past, but Kyungha’s always been straight-up with me, and in return, I’ve never lied to her. That’s just how our dynamic works.”

Seulgi throws herself at Kyungha. The younger girl grunts but doesn’t push her off.

Joohyun laughs incredulously. “I will never understand your dynamic.”

Seulgi settles back down, eyes turning serious. “I have to tell you both something.”

“What is it?” Kyungha prompts.

“I haven’t gotten my period lately—“

Joohyun chokes on her spit. “Are you pregnant?”

Kyungha opens to speak, but Seulgi butts in, “no, I am not pregnant. Trust me, I got my test results back this morning.”

Kyungha lifts her brow. “What are you trying to say, Seul?”

Seulgi sighs, burying her face in her hands. “I was freaked out the past couple of weeks because my period wasn’t coming, and yes, I did consider the pregnancy factor. When I woke up after the party, I didn’t see any signs of condoms or wrappers. Then, I’d also remembered that I stopped taking my pills because I didn’t have time to refill them.”

Joohyun puts an arm around Kyungha, leaning closer to interlace fingers with Seulgi. “Why didn’t you tell us? We’d listen, you know? We’re your friends. Even if you found out the worst-case scenario, wouldn’t it have been better if you depended on us?”

Kyungha nods, dry. “I wouldn’t have gotten angry, Seul. I care about you.”

Seulgi’s eyes become shiny. “I’m fine! Honestly, sheesh. Let me finish. Yesterday, I went to get tested in our OBGYN department. And then I spoke to Dr. Oh about the night because frankly, I still can’t remember anything. He told me that we didn’t do anything.

I spent the night talking to him about…you, Kyungha.” Seulgi laughs, shaking her head in disbelief. “The reason why I woke up was because I threw up everywhere. We only got as far as kissing, but he stopped me, luckily. I was in no shape for . I was a ing mess that night, and he was really nice, Kyungha, but I’m not interested, and he isn’t interested either. It was clear when he talked to me yesterday.

He cares a lot about you, Kyungie. The first thing he addressed was your wellbeing, which was surprising because it’d confirmed that you were both above just being family friends.”

Joohyun releases a sound of disbelief. “Are you ing kidding me? Did you not think to tell us this? Before we came to the conclusion that you were a ty friend.”

Kyungha laughs. “I don’t care if they had .”

“And we didn’t have , Kyungie. If I knew, I wouldn’t have kissed him in the first place either. It was me. He was too kind to push me off,” Seulgi explains. “But we’re okay now. I only see him as my superior. That’s it. End of story.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about the pregnancy scare?” Joohyun asks with genuine concern.

“I couldn’t find the right time. Kyungha looked like utter crap because of Jason and I got the sense from Dr. Oh that you two weren’t on speaking terms. But then when I saw you holding his hand—I wanted to tell you everything. I was going to until your girl avoided her best friends for three ing days.”

“So…you’re not pregnant?” She queries, looking away sheepishly.

“I’m not, which only proves my point that nothing happened. And your behavior and Dr. Oh’s? It also proves that you’ve been hiding things from us. Things that you need to spill. Right now.”

But even if she wanted to, Kyungha didn’t know where to begin. They were never serious. He’d ended up dating Minjung, which she heard about weeks after she’d left for Columbia. Then, she was mugged in the subway shortly after she’d moved to the city. As a result, Kyungha had lost her phone, and she’d never bothered to replace his number.

Then, for four years, she’d stopped coming home because she didn’t want to cross paths with him again.

And how would she voice that she’d missed him so much? Every day. To the point that she felt suffocated when she saw campus couples. So, her only solution was trying to get him out of her system.

By sleeping with other guys. But of course, it never worked. She’d still get bits of the phantom sensation of his lips, and then she’d feel absolutely horrified from being so much more than when she was actually having .

And she’s still here, four years later, pretending that she’d truly hated him for what he’d done but failing miserably.

Kyungha let the words flow out of her. Her uncertainty. His indecisiveness. Their kisses. She’d talked about everything she held in. The first time she met him again at her older brother’s wedding. The times he’d allowed her to stay over his apartment. Their late-night conversations. Their sleepovers. Her denial. His boundaries. The best things about him. And the most convoluted things about their relationship. The worst of it. She shared it all. It wasn’t easy, but as she spoke, she could feel the weights on her shoulder beginning to lighten.

Joohyun flops onto her back, gripping her temple. “What the , Kyungie? What the absolute is going on between you two?”

Seulgi laughs sympathetically. “You both are either destined for each other or completely screwed over by the universe.”

“What are you going to do now?” Joohyun asks, propping herself up to directly gaze into Kyungha’s eyes.

Kyungha groans, “I don’t know. I spent more time running away than thinking.”

“And you said his ex-girlfriend is here?” Seulgi implores.

“They were engaged,” she corrects.

Joohyun lets out a horrified gasp. “What the ?”

“According to my brother, at least. I don’t know what happened. Kyungsoo told me that Sehun just stopped talking about her one day.”

Seulgi throws her arms around Kyungha. “Honey, we’re here for you. We’ll help you hide his body.”

Apparently, Minjung’s been transferred back to Mount Sinai. They were short on neurosurgeons for a while now, and the board offered her higher pay, so she took the opportunity to come back.

Or so that’s what she claims.

Kyungha knows it’s all bull. She’s here to reclaim Sehun. It’s obvious by the way her eyes flicker to him every few minutes. She’s amazed that no one’s noticed so far by how stupidly obvious Minjung was being.

“I know where we can hide her body,” Joohyun whispers loudly.

Seulgi adds, “she’s a damn vixen.”

Kyungha holds up a hand. “Calm down, you two. She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Joohyun rolls her eyes. “Oh please, anyone who is against operation seha is officially dead to me.”

Kyungha chokes out a cough, which catches the attention of Sehun who mouths are you okay?

She scoffs, nudging her head to a laser-eyed Minjung. Sehun turns his head to look at his ex, only to shoot her a cold look.

“What the hell is operation seha?” Kyungha questions after a beat.

Seulgi hums, “exactly what it sounds. Getting you two to realize your feelings for each other—basically, being the world’s best matchmaker—and the cherry on top? I get to be the godmother of your cute babies.”

Joohyun slaps Seulgi’s back. “Hey! What about me? I want to be a godmother too.”

Kyungha pinches her temple. “I’m getting a migraine.”

“You love us,” Joohyun snickers, pulling Kyungha into a hug.

And for the first time, Kyungha agrees. That she did.

“Kyungha, sweetie. I didn’t know you were interested in the medical field,” Minjung raves, much like her normal chatterbox self.

Now that she thought about it, this was probably why Sehun and Minjung got together. They were similar. A lot more compatible than Kyungha and him anyway.

“Surprise,” Kyungha deadpans.

Minjung bats her eyelashes. “Did you know that Sehun worked here?”

Kyungha narrows her eyes. “No,” she answers anyway.

The woman nods with guarded reluctance. “Right…“ Jason clears his throat, getting the attention of Minjung. “Oh sorry, you’re done?”

Today, they were on rounds with Minjung. The chief resident thought it would be great for the surgical interns to get to know Minjung well since she was going to be an important member to the team.

A lot of the interns were already getting along with her. She was pleasant to be around—not to mention, she was bubbly and overshared everything.

Jason particularly seemed interested. As of late, he’s been ignoring Kyungha to her relief.

After Sehun and Jason went at each other, the two each had to attend a disciplinary meeting. Sehun got off with a warning, but Jason was on probation. Ultimately, Seulgi and Joohyun talked to the higher-ups about what had gone on between them. And several other interns came out to add evidence of his misogynistic behavior.

“Okay, guys! Let’s move onto the next room.”

As they moved, Minjung had sidled up to Kyungha, linking their arms. Seulgi and Joohyun awkwardly skirt around the two, not knowing what to do.

What the hell? Why was Minjung suddenly so interested in her? If she wanted Sehun back, then there was really nothing stopping her.

Kyungha didn’t like the way Minjung was focused on her. “Sweetie, I haven’t seen you in so long. You didn’t go to any of our family gatherings.”

It’d turned out. Her mom and Minjung’s dad wanted to live out their lives together. After two years of seeing each other, they’d decided on marriage.

Kyungha didn’t attend much to her mom’s horror. She had an important exam that day, but she’d remembered to call her mom before the ceremony.

So, yes, Kyungha and Minjung were technically related. “I was busy with school and whatnot,” she murmurs.

The latter does a little disappointed sigh. “I missed you.” Yeah, right.

“Same,” Kyungha lies, not really hiding her dislike.

Joohyun and Seulgi share a bemused smile behind Minjung’s back.

“Anyway,” Minjung continues, completely clueless to Kyungha’s irritation. “Has Sehun said anything about me? I tried talking to Haeeun and Kyungsoo, but they never really got back to me. I didn’t think teachers were that busy, but apparently, they are.” She pauses to grimace. “I think it’s amazing that they can be around kids. I cannot stand them. If I had to spend an hour in a room with children, I would die.”

Kyungha is speechless. Does she not see how completely blindsided she was? Sehun wanted kids. He’d loved kids. More than anything. And he was selfless.

Minjung had the complete opposite view of life. Maybe this was why they didn’t work out. If Kyungha had to spend another minute hearing Minjung throw shade at Haeeun and Kyungsoo’s occupation, Kyungha would die.

“We’re not close,” Kyungha relays as politely as she could.

She doesn’t miss the flare of distaste in Minjung’s brown eyes even if it was just for a split second. “Aw, Kyungie.” Minjung’s use of her nickname indicated that she was trying to come out on top of whatever deluded inner battle Minjung was engaging Kyungha in.

Frankly, Kyungha didn’t have a care in the world. She had no intention of being anything with Oh Sehun. Park Minjung could have him. Whatever.

Her grip tightens on Kyungha. “You’re so adorable when you’re lying.” Kyungha is definitely not imagining the poison in her voice. The whisper of a challenge. You can’t have him. He’s mine. That sort of thing. “But that day, he was with you, wasn’t he?”

She stiffens, pretending not to notice the cheerful malice in Minjung’s tone. “What do you mean? I haven’t seen him since—“ She pauses, deciding that it was better to answer vaguely despite the fact that Kyungha did know the exact date she last talked to him. “I don’t even remember, Minjung. It’s been four years.”

“But you must know—if he wasn’t with you then who was he with?”

“I don’t know what you want me to say. I don’t know what day you’re talking about.”

Confusion flashes across Minjung’s features. “So, he really wasn’t with you?”

Kyungha sighs. “No, Minjung. He wasn’t. I was already at Columbia by then. There was no way I could’ve seen him.”

“B-but…he didn’t come to see you while you were attending?”

She’s exasperated. What was Minjung even talking about? She had no clue. In fact, she didn’t even want to know. “We’re at work. Let’s not bring our personal lives into this. Other people will think you’re biased of me if you continue to snuggle up to my side.”

Minjung releases her. It’s not exactly gentle or rough. It was somewhere in between the territory of passive aggression.

She didn’t know why Minjung had a problem with her because Kyungha hadn’t done anything wrong. Not according to Kyungha’s memory.

“I’ll see you inside, sweetie. Make sure you remember the patient’s condition. I’ll be calling on you this time, okay? Of course, I have no doubt that you’ll do fantastic. After all, you were a child genius, weren’t you?” And for some reason, it didn’t feel like a compliment. She felt threatened as if Minjung was aiming to take her down a notch if she screwed up somehow.

Kyungha watches Minjung march ahead, her red-soled heels clacking against the shiny linoleum. She joins the other interns with a bright smile as if nothing had happened—as if she hadn’t slightly threatened Kyungha.

Seulgi whistles. “What the hell is her problem?”

Joohyun shudders. “We didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but , that conversation was eerily uncomfortable. Is she related to you or something?”

“Step-sister,” Kyungha answers nonchalantly.

Her friends wince beside her. “Kyungie, does the universe hate you or something?”

She’d wanted to ask the same question, but of course, like all of her other questions, it went unanswered.

“Dani?” Kyungha pokes her head into the small gap to see Dani snuggled up on someone’s lap. She already knew who it was. There was only one other person who took time out of his shift to visit Dani.

Sehun smiles up at her. “Fancy seeing you here.”

She pushes through the door, shutting it gently behind her. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be reconnecting with Minjung?” Her tone is mocking, but he doesn’t seem to be too upset.

Kyungha sits on top of the space-themed table, glancing over at the two. Dani jumps up to cuddle next to her. She pulls the younger into her arms out of habit. “How have you been doing?”

Dani nods happily, giving her a double thumbs-up.

She smiles down at the little girl, heart swelling in her chest. If there was one thing in the hospital that calmed her down when her friends weren’t there, it was Dani.

“I’m here because it’s the only place where Minjung wouldn’t find me.”

“You told her about 1308?” She forgets to hold back her bitterness.

“One of the only places where Minjung wouldn’t find me,” Sehun clarifies with a knowing glimmer in his eyes.

Her shoulders relax, but she doesn’t drop her guard. “Does anyone know about that place?”

Sehun tilts his head, eyes twinkling. “Just you and me, baby.” He leans forward a bit. “Why?”

Kyungha turns her head away indignantly, flushing at the way the word baby sounded in her ears. “It was just a question.”

Dani pokes her. Then, she proceeds to point between the two of them and shrugging as if to ask are you both okay?

Kyungha feels a pang of guilt. The last time they were here together, they’d fought in front of Dani, which was unfair to her.

“I’m sorry, Dani. We must’ve scared you,” she whispers, pulling the younger closer to her.

“You’d be a good mom, sweetheart.” His statement is unexpected, and Kyungha couldn’t tell what he was insinuating. Maybe it was just a random observation. Or maybe not.

Dani giggles, reaching up to kiss her on the cheek.

“I don’t like kids.”

Sehun stands, walking past her. “I’m not stupid.” But unlike the last time, he isn’t angry—there’s a touch of tenderness like those words were somewhat significant.

Kyungha had understood right away.

She reaches out to grab his white coat. He turns halfway, meeting her eyes. With her lips quirked at the corner, she surmises with genuine earnestness, “I know my lies don’t work on you. That’s why I trust that you’re the only person who can distinguish the truth.”

There’s an animated joy—relief—that flashes through his expression when he finishes regarding her words. She could see the question in his eyes. So we're okay now?

Maybe she wasn’t completely okay yet. That was fine. She was definitely still bitter, but Kyungha was also tired. Tired of fighting with Sehun. Tired of running away from the truth. What if she stopped fighting with herself? What if she just let herself go with the flow?

“Hoon,” she calls out softly.

“Sweetheart,” he replies, the corner of his lips quirking up.

Kyungha stares into his eyes. “My wish. I’m going to redeem the last one.”

“What do you want?”

“Stop lying to me, and I’ll stop lying to you.”

“Is that all?”

“Promise me.”

He bends down to her eye-level. “I promise,” he echoes, cupping a hand gently on her cheek to reassure her.

Kyungha leans in, eyes fluttering close, and then she’s pressing a kiss against his lips. She pulls away, satisfied with his dazed expression. Staring back into his eyes, she informs, “it’s sealed. If you break it, I’m going to break every bone in your body.” With both hands on his chest, she pushes his gently away, so he’s back to standing upright.

Sehun’s eyes crinkle as he bites his lips to suppress a smile. “I’ll see you around, sweetheart.”

Dani looks absolutely thrilled as she clasps her palms around her lips, jumping. Kyungha stifles her laugh as Dani continues to freak out, wildly shaking Kyungha’s hand.

She stares out the window, amused that the sun seems like it’s shining just a little brighter than normal.

And for the first time in forever, she isn’t opposed to the idea of running into him anymore.