There's screaming and shouting. Joohyun's head is being slammed to the table, a firm hand is holding it there, pointing a gun at it.

"Where is the report?" Sangmin yells.

"What do you mean? I already gave it to you!"

"The real one!"

"That was the real one. What the are you talking about?" Joohyun tries to lift her head up only to be slammed back down. She grunts in pain. "Okay, technically that was a copy, but that's all you need."

"It turned into a blank paper. The writings disappeared. What trick were you playing with me, Dr. Bae?"

"W- what!? I don't kn-"

"I'm done with your bull." He interjects, not waiting for her excuse. "I hope you rot in hell." He the gun and puts a bullet through her head.

Seulgi watches Joohyun's beautiful brown eyes turn lifeless in front of her. She screams but nothing comes out of . The next thing she knows, her whole body jerks up, roughly waking her up from her sleep. She opens her eyes wide, feeling her heart pounding madly. Turning to her right, she sees the other side of the bed empty. She gulps and closes her eyes, letting her tears drop.

Finally calming down, she takes a tissue from the bedside table to wipe her face and takes a few gulps of water before getting up and walking outside the bedroom. She is greeted to the sight of Joohyun sitting facing the window in some sort of a meditating pose, with her legs crossed and her hands on top of her knees. She smiles seeing how small her girlfriend looks in that position. Sometimes she wonders how her peers and the patients at her workplace take her seriously. She walks slowly to the woman and hugs her from behind.

Joohyun turns to her calmly, already hearing her footsteps beforehand. "Can't sleep?"

"Nightmare." She answers truthfully. They don't really talk about it but she knows Joohyun gets her own nightmares as well. Just two nights ago Seulgi was awaken from her slumber when she felt Joohyun hugging her a little too tightly and she could feel her body shaking.

"Oh, you poor thing." She reaches behind and cradles Seulgi's head. "Come, let's get you back to bed."

"It's okay." Seulgi says, putting more of her weight on Joohyun to prevent her from moving. "What are you doing? Are you meditating?"

Joohyun shakes her head lightly. "Nah, I don't even know how. I couldn't sleep and didn't want to keep moving around and wake you up."

Three days after that incident, Sangmin made quite a detailed online post about the hospital's negligence and its attempts to cover up medical errors and malpractices. He must had really done his homework because the post truly uncovered the big problems of how healthcare workers don't always inform patients the facts, how medical records are often falsified and the conspiracy of silence shared between the hospital workers. It garnered the attention of the medical community and even though Sangmin only pointed to Joohyun's hospital without naming names, the hospital connected the dots to his wife and Dr. Kim was formally fired from the hospital.

The majority of the hospital's board of directors are on Joohyun's side; she is one of their biggest money maker after all, only ranking behind Dr. Schweinsteiger, one of the best neurosurgeons in the world who came to work to this country under a lucrative contract with the hospital. However, while the issue is still hot and the case being put under the microscope was Dr. Kim's, they decided to put Joohyun on indefinite unpaid leave until further notice, a move that is meant to protect rather than to punish her.

For someone who hasn't stopped working since the first day she started, Joohyun is taking it incredibly well. She keeps herself busy around the house. She went through some old medical journals in the storage room that Seulgi had been bugging her about for the longest time and threw away a good amount of them. She tried to cook sujebi for Seulgi even though it tasted horrible. They tried watching a medical drama together but Seulgi had to put it to stop because Joohyun kept complaining about the mistakes and how this and that was stupid and unrealistic. Seulgi hopes Joohyun gets to go back to work soon; for Joohyun's sake and for her own sake. But right now, she's really enjoying having the brunette all to herself.

Seulgi rests her head against Joohyun's back, looking around the living room. When her sight lands on the dining table, the image of a dead Joohyun flashes and it sends an unpleasant feeling to her stomach. She looks away.

"Hyun, let's move."

"Huh?" Joohyun is caught off guard by the sudden suggestion.

"I told you I've always wanted to live in a house instead of an apartment building. What do you say we go house hunting?" She asks, trying her luck. She knows Joohyun loves being practical and living in an apartment is way more practical than a landed house. Also, when two women live in the same apartment, it could be seen as a common roommate situation. Meanwhile, people would certainly ask questions if two grown women live in a house together.

"Okay." Joohyun says simply, surprising her girlfriend. "We can definitely afford a house now. Do you know places?"

Seulgi is stunned by how easily Joohyun agreed to it, thinking that she might need much more persuasion. "Uhm.. not really, but I'll look into it tomorrow." She furrows her eyebrows. "Are you sure about this?"

"Of course. Whatever makes you happy." Joohyun flashes her a smile, earning herself a kiss on the lips.

It doesn't stop there as Seulgi is now peppering kisses from her neck to her shoulder. "Hyun.." She calls, giving Joohyun a gentle bite on her clothed arm. "Do you wanna.. you know? We haven't in a while." She asks shyly.

"Yeah." Joohyun says, a little breathless herself, probably wanting it as much as Seulgi does after those kisses. What happened that night truly gave them both a post-traumatic stress disorder and it had put them out of the mood for such thing the past couple weeks. "Here?" She turns her body and starts kissing Seulgi back.

"Not here." Seulgi chuckles. "Let's do it comfortably in bed, yeah?"

Joohyun hums, stands up and pulls Seulgi up with her.

-

The medical malpractice issue becomes a big deal that the nation's hospital association is now involving itself in the matter in order to answer to public concern. Joohyun is informed that the hospital's risk manager has been fired from his job as well.

Seulgi is now becoming worried, not only for Joohyun's career but also her mental health. She has caught her multiple times staring into nothingness, once while playing with her hands as if she was doing surgery. The surgeon misses being in the operating room, that's for sure. She has talked to Joohyun about it, trying to get her to open up but Joohyun shrugged it off, telling her that there was nothing to be worried about. The brunette would then act very present and very attentive to distract her that she would eventually forget about it.

Joohyun now comes to the art gallery often, even bringing food for Seulgi, Wendy and the staff working there. Seulgi watches proudly as her incredibly gorgeous girlfriend saunters into the gallery, attracting the attention of everyone there, including Wendy who absent-mindedly mutters 'hot damn'. Seulgi smacks her best friend's arms and receives a sheepish smile in return.

Seulgi brings her to a storage room where they put a newly-arrived batch of sculptures made from brass and copper. Joohyun can't take her eyes off one in particular that looks like a set of lungs and a heart. She then asks Seulgi for the price.

"You want to buy this?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.

Joohyun doesn't care much about artworks. Every single painting, photograph, stylish furniture and whatever knick-knacks they have in the apartment are all courtesy to Seulgi.

"Why? Is this not good?"

Seulgi laughs at her amateur way of asking. "No, it's a great piece of art. We pride ourselves in bringing in only the best here." She says proudly. "It's also a little bit pricey, so if you're only doing this to please me, don't!"

"Not everything is about you, Ms. Kang." Joohyun tsks and rolls her eyes playfully. "I genuinely like it. I know very little about art but I find it hauntingly beautiful. It definitely is better looking that the organ dummy we used in med school."

When Seulgi only looks at her suspiciously, Joohyun lets out a hearty laugh and gives a peck on the cheek. "I'm serious, babe. Give me a good price and I'll make a full payment today. I think this will look good in our new house." She says, emphasizing.

Seulgi bites her lips, determining whether to humour Joohyun on the matter. "Let's.. go have lunch and think about it more seriously. If by the end of the day you still want it, I'll sell it to you."

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