~ Winter, Seven Years Ago ~

After my first visit to Wheein at the hospital, we were finally able to exchange our numbers. We texted and called each other everyday. Although we communicate a lot, we weren’t able to see much of each other because of our work. It helped us get to know each other more. Despite our constant communication, I still missed her and wanted to see her. If only I could leave my work, I would love to go to her just to see her. But then again, she's just as dedicated as I am towards her work. I couldn't let her compromise her work just so we could spend time together.

I was in the middle of working, my attention on my laptop while my eyebrows furrowed from concentration when my phone suddenly rang and pulled my attention away from work. I glanced at my phone screen and smiled when I saw Wheein calling me. I immediately reached for my phone to answer her call. “Wheein” I said before I the loudspeaker.

“Are you busy today?” she asked.

“Yeah. Why?” I repeatedly blinked my eyes as I looked away from my laptop and stared at my phone screen.

“Oh…”

I leaned back on the couch behind me and waited, expecting to hear something more but the line went quiet for a while. I leaned forward and glanced at my phone screen to see if she has already hung up but the call was still connected, making me furrow my eyebrows from confusion. “Whee?” I asked, checking on her.

“I was thinking…” she started while I waited again for her to continue. “Can I come over? I’m not going to stop you from working. I just really want to see you”

I was actually one second away from asking that to her but I turned that thought right away because it would be weird to have her over and all I’m going to do is work. I smiled so wide at my phone screen, glad that she initiated coming over here. “Yeah. I’ll text you my address after we hung up”

“Really? Oh, okay. Yeah, sure sure” Wheein said as I heard shuffling on her end.

“I’ll see you later” I said, giggling at her.

“I’ll see you” she said back, hearing the excitement from her voice before we both hung up.

When it was already almost lunch time, a smiling Wheein wearing a black parka over her green hoodie with her hood up on her head, and black baggy pants knocked on my door. She was also carrying two boxes of pizza, a bag of drinks, and a messenger bag.

I smiled at her before I leaned forward and kissed her cheek. "It's so nice to see you again"

"You too" she whispered softly while I silently laughed at the light blush creeping up to her face.

I carried the boxes and drinks once for her she got in while she removed her parka and hung it on my coat hanger by the entrance. I waited for her to finish removing her shoes before I motioned for her to follow me in the living room.

My laptop and several papers occupied the entirety of my coffee table. I decided to place the drinks and pizza on the couch and stacked up the papers on the side before placing the boxes of pizza and the drinks on the coffee table.

"That's a lot of papers" Wheein said once she reached the living room.

"Yeah…” I helplessly whispered. "You can sit on the couch" I said as I pointed at it before I sat on the floor again. 

She placed her bag on the couch before sitting down next to me on the floor. "I'll just sit beside you" she said, opening the first box of pizza.

True to her word, Wheein was just silently eating pizza while her attention was on her tablet. I went on with work while eating pizza as well. Every now and then, I would glance at her to see if she’s getting bored or if she's sleeping beside me, but I would always find her doing something on her tablet; reading, playing games, and looking at various brain scans. There were also several times where she’d have to stand up and move to the kitchen to answer calls. I lost count of them all. It was distracting me, making me so curious as to who would call her. When another call came, I couldn’t take it anymore and asked her the moment she came back.

“You’ve been receiving a lot of calls” I said, leaning on the couch behind me as I slowly blinked my eyes to relax them.

“Yeah. They’re from the hospital” Wheein said as she sat back down beside me on the floor.

“Do they want you there?”

“Oh, no. They were just consulting and inquiring something from me. Some of them are students and professors from the med school I went to” she said while I nodded at her, relieved that at least I get to spend more time with her.

I removed my glasses and placed it on the table before I stretched my arms upwards and my legs under the table. “Hyejin told me how an outstanding neurosurgeon you are”

She shook her head, denying it right away as she chuckled at me. “Why is she boosting me up when she’s a really good neurosurgeon herself? Probably better than me.” She pushed herself up and sat on the couch. She moved to the very end of it before she patted her lap. “Come here. You’ve been reading for hours already”

I stood up right away and laid down on the couch, my head on her lap as I looked up at her. She gently massaged my temples and ran her fingers through my hair, slightly tickling me and making me close my eyes as I started to relax my tensed muscles from working for hours now. Then rolled to my side and snuggled close to her as I curled up in a fetal position. I felt her hand softly rubbing my back while she continued to run her fingers on my scalp, effectively putting me to sleep.

I woke up to an already dark sky outside my windows while my head remained on Wheein’s lap, who also fell asleep with me. I slowly sat up, careful not to wake her up. I stared and smiled at her sleeping face. Her head was resting on the couch while she hugged one of my throw pillows. was slightly opened as soft snores came out of it.

I walked to the kitchen while rubbing sleep off my eyes and stretching my limbs to awaken them. I prepared a quick dinner for us before waking Wheein up. After a few minutes of work in the kitchen with everything all set already, I walked back to the living room to a still sleeping Wheein to wake her up for dinner.

I leaned a hand on the side of the couch and reached my other hand to Wheein to cup her cheek. “Wheein…” I whispered before softly shaking her shoulders. “Wheein, wake up. Let’s eat now. It’s already dinner time” I said to her while she slowly stirred on the couch.

I continued to wake her until she slowly opened her eyes and met mine. Her eyebrows were scrunched to the middle as her eyes scanned my apartment. She slowly sat up but leaned back right away as she groaned loudly. Her hand went to her neck and massaged it, easing it from her uncomfortable position on the couch earlier. I held a hand on her shoulder and massaged her neck for her. She closed her eyes and released a sigh while I could her muscles on her neck slowly loosening.

When the pain on Wheein's neck was gone, we headed to the kitchen to eat dinner, bringing some of our leftover pizza. We sat across from each other while we ate dinner. I constantly glanced at her, nervous about what she though about my cooking but instantly relaxed when she smiled and gave me compliments. The rest of the dinner was spent with Wheein constantly giving me compliments while I playfully that she's being sarcastic already. She'd pout at me while I just giggled at her and went back to eating.

“You should probably head out now. It’s getting late already” I said after we finished eating dinner. I was by the sink washing the dishes while Wheein was cleaning the dining table and the living room. When I was done, I dried my hands turned around, smiling when I the pout was present on her lips once again while she was throwing the empty cans of drinks and boxes of pizza.

“Are you kicking me out now?” she softly whined.

“Yup. It’s getting late already.” I walked to the coat hanger to grab her parka.

Wheein was grabbing her things on the coffee table and putting them back in her messenger bag while muttering under her breath, “I still don’t want to go but you’re already kicking me out. Why? It’s not like there’s curfew or something. I could still stay a little longer. Are you already sick of me that you’re making me go home so early?”

I chuckled at her as I held her parka open in front of me. She pouted harder when she walked towards me. She placed her bag down before inserting her arms in her jacket's sleeves. She bent down again to grab her bag before she faced me. I fixed her jacket before looking up to her, amused at her pouting face. Her shoulders sunk low as she moved around me to put her shoes on before she turned to face me again. I moved forward to wrap my arms around her shoulders as she wrapped hers around my waist.

“Thank you for coming” I whispered to her ear.

“Thank you for having me here”

I pulled back and smiled at her before I cupped her cheeks. “I’m not sick of you, okay? It's already late and I'm worried about you driving late at night. You can come here again next weekend or maybe I’ll come to your place if you’re busy. How’s that?”

She smiled so wide and nodded right away. “I’d like that”

I kissed her dimpled cheek before we broke our embrace. “Drive safely. I’ll see you again”

“Yes, mam." She saluted then waved at me before she opened the door. "I’ll see you again, Yong” she said before she moved out and exited my apartment.

Visiting each other’s place has become a routine to both of us. If we could visit each other on the weekdays, we'd do that. But the weekends have become a routine to us. If Wheein is busy, I go to her penthouse. If I’m the one who’s busy, she comes to my apartment.

Other than visiting each other’s place on the weekends, picking each other up has also become another routine of ours. Wheein has mentioned one time about performing surgeries for hours that it would always leave her exhausted to drive back to her home. There was even a time that she pulled over to take a nap on the side of the road because she couldn’t take the exhaustion anymore. This also made me bring up my late night meetings that would always drain me. So we made an agreement that we’ll pick each other up in those times.

We’ve been always together most of the time that others might think we are already officially in a relationship. But we’re not. Our past is the biggest reason that hindered us to step forward. Even though we both are attracted to each other, we seem to hesitate to engage in a commitment, most especially me. It’s not that I’m afraid to commit, I just wanted to be sure of myself.

I’ve taken risks a lot of times before but I always ended up being disappointed. Wheein had always proven herself different from those people I met, and there’s really nothing wrong with her. I just wanted to sort out myself. I wanted to be clear if I’m just reciprocating her feelings because I felt obligated to do it when I found out that she’s attracted to me. If I’m just doing this because of the prospect and the potential of being in a relationship. Or if I genuinely and absolutely like Wheein.

I felt so sure about liking Wheein in the past few days but when things were turning out to be more serious, I questioned myself a lot of times because I really don’t want to hurt Wheein and I also have no idea if I’m doing the right thing. This is something I’ve never been to before. All I know is that I am strongly attracted to her and I have been relying on that for the last couple of months.

The professors that were sitting on the conference table were all yawning and tired from the meeting that I called for since we’re at it for hours now. My