"I'm so tired of seeing everyday." Minyoung slumped herself against the cushions, seeming like she was in total distress of her current situation.  We were at their department eating ramen, which already served as my late lunch.

We both just came out from surgeries and Professor Kwon gave me a one-hour break to eat. Minyoung was the only person available because the guys were busy so we decided to just eat together.

I just chuckled at her usage of a non-medical term because I already gave up on reminding her to use "" to make it sound proper. We were just approaching our second month of residency and this was all she had been complaining about. She had also been ranting about patients who treated them as if they were their slaves because some mothers were just too overly sensitive but of course, they had no choice but to abide.

I understood her sentiments, though, because I also had been through OB before but it felt rewarding as well to witness babies taking their first breath into the world.

"If you're going to change your mind like Seojun, do it now." I finished gulping down the soup up until the last drop and Minyoung still looked troubled.

Seojun, on the other hand, was already processing his application papers after finishing just one month in CS. Yangju would most likely accept him in pedia anyway so he might join us again soon.

"I like babies," she answered.

"Why didn't you enter pedia, then?" I took her hydroflask from her side and opened to see if it had water inside. When I saw it empty, I stood up to refill it.

"I only like newborns because when they cry, mothers just have to pop their s out and they'll be silent in no time." I rolled my eyes at her logic and just drank water while she cleaned up the table.

"Oh, by the way." She looked at me first before continuing. "We're working with the pedia department for a fetus with gastroschisis1 and your hot doctor's on the team. How's it going on with him, anyway?"

I mentally cursed at Minyoung for doing it again – calling Dr. Kim 'your hot doctor.' She had been doing that ever since and I was getting sick of it already.

"He's not my doctor."

She put down her hydroflask after drinking water from it and looked at me with nonchalant eyes. "Just your baby, then."

I was about to snap back at her but I was stopped when the door opened and there came in Dr. Kim, looking mighty in his white coat.

He just looked at me with blank eyes and I just gave back the look for a second before shifting my gaze to my phone, not daring to greet him because he didn't seem like he would, either. He then turned to Minyoung. "Dr. Park, the conference is starting soon."

He looked too serious and I can't help but feel kind of creeped out about it. Minyoung looked shocked when she checked the time so she hurriedly got up to prepare. I then silently excused myself because I felt like the dark forces were encircling him, making me feel suffocated.

While walking back to my department, I can't help but be bothered by my chain of thoughts. I didn't know why, but it suddenly felt distant between Dr. Kim and I. After that night, we didn't get to see each other outside of work anymore. It wasn't like he asked me out for coffee and I rejected or vice versa, though. We just became busy with our hospital duties. Or perhaps, he was ignoring me.

I'd greet him with a smile whenever I saw him at the hallways or the cafeteria, but all he gave was a mere nod with a smile that didn't even look like a greeting at all. It started days after we went out and I really can't understand why. I recalled our past encounters to check if I did something wrong but I couldn't remember any.

It went on like that for weeks up until today and I just didn't mind it thoroughly before because I thought he was just too busy to even greet me properly but seeing how he completely acted like I was a mere stranger when it was just Minyoung and I at the room, I knew something was up but I wasn't so sure if I really wanted to know why. I didn't like bothering people.

I thought we were friends, though, seeing how we had already shared more of our thoughts that we didn't normally tell others about. I thought that was how people became friends, but perhaps I was wrong.

Our schedule also changed. We weren't given 24-hour duties anymore because they deemed it was too much for starters like us. Junghae and I were the only first year residents and we just had to observe surgeries and not actually perform them so the schedule was conducive for us.

Since I got the weekends off, I spent them mostly at the company, learning my brother asked me to do so, although I already had the role of choosing students and organizations we should support. He told me that I should still learn the basics of business and that I should take up a master's degree if I had time. Sadly, I didn't.

It was my paternal grandparents' initiative to support individuals who wanted to study business but couldn't sustain themselves in university. To quote my grandparents, 'We should help more people with their education because knowledge is something that you can't take away from anyone.'

We didn't ask too much from them in return, though; they just had to graduate with no failing grades and do a year of paid return service with benefits. Should they decided to continue their work, they can. Most of the time, they stayed.

"Hanna-yah, do you want to study together this weekend?" Junghae asked me when I arrived at the department. We were both waiting for Professor Kwon because we were going with him in his rounds.

The department started giving exams every 2nd and 4th weeks of the month after giving us enough time to adjust to the environment so we really had to do well. They weren't graded but of course our pride was on the line since we had to show the department we were worthy of being in NS.

Junghae and I had gotten closer over time since we were always together that we decided to drop the honorifics. We also graduated in the same year–2012– but he came from Yangju University.

The exam was scheduled next week Friday so that meant I will have an excuse to my brother for not being at the company this Saturday because I had to study. But then I remembered that I had to accompany my mom in the morning so sleep be damned.

"Yeah, sure. Should we go to a coffee shop?" I said. I opted out of my usual café and chose the one that Soohyun usually went to since according to him, it was more peaceful to study there. Junghae agreed and I texted him the address. We decided to do an all-nighter starting at 8PM, just in time after dinner.

I knew that I wasn't staying true to my notion of not having unprofessional encounters with people from my field but I didn't care anymore. I realized that my relationship with my colleagues shouldn't end in the hospital. We should also bond together to strengthen our chemistry in