“Mina, go to Room 801, Dr. Kim is doing an operation and she needs an intern,” a resident was talking to Mina in a hurried manner.

Every day was a hectic day for a fourth year medical student. They were starting to do the clinical rotations and it seemed like there were no idle days for them.

Though Mina wasn’t pursuing to be a doctor because it was purely her dream, she was starting to enjoy it. As years went by, she gradually found joy in studying the thick books knowing that it meant she could have real impact on real people. She found herself excited for her clinical turns, until turned out it was truly as hellish as her sunbaes had told her.

The constant environment change was fun, the new friends and the materials learned were so far fun, it was the stress and lack of sleep she couldn’t handle. She usually winded down her days by texting a certain someone, but her lack of time made her too tired to text most times. They had been texting less and less the past year, which Mina put blame on the tight schedule that she had.

“Hey, intern, please focus on watching!”

“Ah, yes! Sorry!” Mina bowed to the residents doing the operation. She kinda lost focus for a while.

It had been a few days since she last replied to her cub friend. Mina wasn’t even sure if the cub had been eating well the past few days. I definitely should text her today.

*

It was 9 pm and Mina was on her intern bed in the hospital. She had a night shift today so in a few hours, she would need to do her rounds. She was deciding which part of her recent life updates should she relive for texting Chaeyoung, but then she figured that it was too long to text. Texting was quite draining! As much as she was a text person, she decided to call Chaeyoung.

She heard the first beep, second beep, third beep… Chaeyoung wasn’t answering. “That’s weird,” Mina said to herself, “she never sleeps at this hour.” Mina tried to call again but the other side still wasn’t answering, so she decided to text Chaeyoung telling her to call her back.

It’s 9.40 pm. She was busy playing her Mobile Legend on her phone when suddenly a call from an unknown caller ID interrupted her game. Mina tried to ignore it but the caller seemed adamant, so Mina finally picked.

“Hello,” she said warily. You could never be too careful against scammers.

“Is this Mina unnie?” the person on the other side asked, it was a girl. The sound was familiar.

“Who is this?” Tips on talking to an unknown caller: never voluntarily say your name or identity or even confirm things until you are sure who you are talking to.

“This is Tzuyu, Chaeyoung’s friend, unnie.”

“Ah, Tzuyu-ah. Why is it you’re calling me suddenly? It’s not about your patients, isn’t it, haha,” Mina tried to joke, albeit probably not so funny. She was referring to how Chaeyoung at times tried to find similarities between Mina and Tzuyu’s field of study.

“Haha,” Tzuyu tried to laugh politely, it hurts a bit but I appreciate that, Tzuyu, “it’s about Chaeyoung, unnie.”

“What’s with her?” Now, this is worrying. She didn’t answer her call either!

“I saw your text and miscalls on Chaeng’s notification so I figured you haven’t known yet. We needed to bring Chaeyoung to the hospital, unnie,” Tzuyu explained calmly. But of course Mina couldn’t be calm in this situation, “WHAT! What happened to her??? Did she have an accident??? Which hospital is she at right now?”

“She’s fine, unnie, it’s just stomach ulcer and a bit of vertigo, I guess? She was suddenly in so much pain and had cold sweats so me and Dahyun ran her to the hospital, thankfully it’s only stomach ulcer.”

“Only!? But it must be in an advanced stage to be that painful! Where are you now, Tzuyu-ah?”

“We’re at the SNU Hospital.”

*

Mina didn’t know if this was a good kind of fate that Chaeyoung got into the hospital she happened to be at. If anything, she didn’t want anything fated between them to be correlated with someone getting hurt.

SNU Hospital is indeed located in closer proximity to Yonsei than to SNU, but it was weird too for Tzuyu not to bring her to the closer Sinchon Yonsei Hospital.

Mina was starting her rounds in a few minutes and she couldn’t possibly have left that round. She was in pediatrics now, so unless Chaeyoung was a LITERAL baby, she couldn’t stay near Chaeyoung’s ward. She made sure to pay a visit for a few minutes.

“Tzuyu!”

“Ah, hi, unnie. She’s fine, she’s only sleeping now,” she looked at the peaceful sleeping Chaeyoung. Mina was relieved, at least she wasn’t in pain anymore.

“Thank God.. Why did you bring her here, though?”

“We were doing our school tasks in a cafe nearby, so it’s closer.”

“Thank you for being so quick.. Where’s Dahyun now?” Mina asked Tzuyu, since she didn’t see any trace of Dahyun.

“She was trying to sort some administrative paperwork, there she is. Dahyun unnie!”

Dahyun approached them, “Oh? Mina unnie’s here? Long time no see since that party last year, unnie!”

Mina only knew then that Chaeyoung had been pursuing so many new activities now and she had become so busy. The three of them were having dinner dates and even then Chaeyoung was still on her laptop.

They chit chatted for a while before finally going to Chaeyoung’s bed to look at her condition. Mina couldn’t help but to check her temperature. She put her palm on Chaeyoung’s forehead, it was fine, then she brushed Chaeyoung’s hair backwards. She must be missing lots of meals without people nagging her..

She wanted to stay longer with Chaeyoung but she needed to do her rounds for a while. “Dahyun, Tzuyu, sorry but I need to do something. I will probably be back here in 3 hours, I think it’s fine if you want to go home. It’s late and you have class tomorrow, right?”

“Right, right. But Chaeyoung will be okay, won’t she?”

“She will, don’t worry. The nurses are my friends so I will make sure they can update me if Chaeyoung suddenly need anything.”

*

Mina finally finished doing her rounds. She could spend the rest of the night sleeping on her not-so-comfy bed, but she figured Chaeyoung might wake up in the middle of the night and be confused about her whereabouts. Since it was important for a patient’s morale to have someone looking out for them, Mina decided to wait for Chaeyoung for the night.

She sat beside Chaeyoung’s bed. It hasn’t been really long since the last time they met. Mina had Chaeyoung over for last Christmas dinner with her family, but still it meant 6-7 months have passed since they last met.

She was sad that they had to meet like this. Mina looked at Chaeyoung’s face. The kid had told her that she dyed her hair pink. She finally saw it in real person and it really suited her. Mina patted Chaeyoung’s head and felt her soft hair in her palm. The girl had been her baby friend and she looked so mature now.

She only remembered bits of baby Chaeyoung, but in her memory, baby Chaeyoung was cute and caring and thoughtful. Since their first ‘reunion’ in high school, they had been friends for 5 years and she always thought of Chaeyoung as someone interesting.

Physical wise, Mina thought Chaeyoung was always uniquely pretty and cool. She liked her big cat-like eyes, those were among the prettiest eyes she had ever seen. Her strong nose bridge made it feel like she oozed some strong aura. The girl also had plump lips that somehow was, Mina was shy to admit, alluring… Right. Those lips tempted Mina so much. She was not gonna lie that the thought of kissing Chaeyoung had consciously come up in her mind before, before Mina finally