***

"UNNIE! WHY DON’T YOU TELL ME THAT YOUR PATIENT IS WENDY SON, MY FAVORITE WRITER!"

Ahh, Wendy and Seulgi are here.

"Calm down, Bae Yerim. We’re at an airport right now," The young professor reminds her sister.

Yerim pouts and stomps her feet on the ground. A moment later, the young novelist and her best friend appear at the door next to the pouting Yerim.

Seulgi offers her usual warm smile and greets the young professor, "Hi doc!"

"Hi Seulgi, thank you for inviting us for the vacation," Irene responds

Seulgi shakes her head, "Nah! My pleasure, just enjoy the vacation while we’re there, okay?"

"Of course".

Seulgi goes on to greet the rest of the team. Irene is amazed to see how close the young manager is with her team in this relatively short time, especially with Joy.

Meanwhile, Yerim's pout continues, and surprisingly, the young novelist doesn’t engage with Irene at all, leaving her puzzled.

The young professor looks at Wendy, who seems to be staring at the floor as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world.

Why is She looking at the floor? She does not even greet me. Is she mad at me? But why? We haven’t met each other for almost a week now Irene can't help but wonder.

"Wendy? Are you okay?" Irene asks the young novelist

Wendy lifts her head, "I... uhm... Hi Irene unnie".

"Hi, what happened to you?"

Yerim clears . "Hmph, maybe because you kept a secret from her like you’re keeping Seungwan Unnie a secret from me, HMPH!" Yerim continues to sulk further.

"Yerim-ah…"

Yerim then goes to grab the young novelist's hand and proceeds to drag her to one of the bar's lounge sofas, leaving the young professor behind.

Irene can hear her sister talking to Wendy, "Come on Seungwan unnie, Irene unnie doesn’t deserve my loyalty."

Bae Yerim! This Kid, I swear!

Irene followed the two of them to the sofa and then sat beside her sister.

"Why are you here Unnie?" Yerim asks her sharply.

Irene let out a sigh. "Yerim-ah, you know I cannot give you any of my patient's personal information, let alone her name," the young professor tried to explain.

"But I’m your sister, unnie! And Especially since you know that she’s my favorite novelist! Didn’t you trust me?" Yerim responds, then she turns her attention to the young novelist.

"Wait.." Yerim squints her eyes at Wendy, "Seungwan unnie, don’t tell me you already knew me even before the fan meet."

Wendy panics, "No, no, I swear!" Wendy tries to convince her sister.

"I know your name from Irene Unnie, but I don’t know your face, so when we met at the event, I didn’t recognize you! I swear!"

Yerim studied Wendy’s expression for a while. "Hmph! I like you, Seungwan Unnie, but now? I like you less." Yerim sulked further.

The young Bae abruptly stands up, "I’m going to order and eat the most expensive ice cream that they have here, and I won’t give you unnies any of it! And Joohyun unnie, you're paying for the ice cream!"

And then she leaves the two alone and quickly heads to the bartender, ordering the most expensive ice cream available in the first-class lounge, which is quite expensive, mind you, almost 100$ per scoop for premium Italian Vanilla Gelato.

And who knows how many scoops Yerim ordered.

Irene turns her attention back to Wendy, who still seems to be in shock from her sister's antics.

"I.. umm.. unnie, is she mad at me? Does she really like me less now?" Wendy asked the young professor.

She’s soo cute right now. Wait! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING BAE JOOHYUN!

Clearing , Irene smiles at the young novelist, "Don’t worry about her Wendy-ah, she's just throwing a tantrum right now."

"But don’t worry, she doesn’t mean what she said, just wait half an hour, and she’ll be back to annoying you," Irene explains.

Wendy just nodded.

"So, Wendy-ah, are you okay?" Irene asks the young novelist

"Yeah, I’m fine, dr. Bae."

"Are you mad at me?"

The young novelist shook her head franticly, "No, No, why would I be mad at you?"

Irene chuckled. "Then why are you not greeting me earlier? You also can’t even look me in the eyes properly."

But Wendy just stayed mum and didn’t answer Irene's question.

What is happening to her? Doesn’t she happy to see me? Because I’m happy to see her.

"Hey, Look at me, please?"

Wendy slowly raised her head to meet Irene's gaze.

"Do you remember your promise to me?"

Wendy nodded, her eyes focused on the young professor.

"You do right? So you must tell me what you feel, how your body feels, and what you are thinking."

With a sigh, the young novelist responded, "I... I really don’t know, unnie. I feel like I’m malfunctioning right now, and there's this strange sensation in my stomach."

Irene stood up and moved closer. She placed her hand gently on Wendy's forehead, causing a slight flinch from the young novelist.

"No fever. Can you give me your right hand, please?"

Once again, Wendy nodded, extending her hand. Irene took Wendy's hand and quickly pressed the smartwatch that Wendy wears to sync it to her phone.

"I’m going to sync your watch to my phone so I can monitor your vital condition in real-time, is that okay?"

And Wendy nods again.

"You just keep nodding, Wendy-ah, talk to me okay?" Irene told the young novelist. Irene is amused by Wendy who is now blushing and seemingly keeps nodding to all of her requests.

"It’s okay Unnie," Wendy responds very softly.

Irene smiled at the young novelist, "Thank you, now I will sync my phone to your watch."

The young professor then starts to fiddle with the smartwatch setting and then pulls out her phone, syncing the two devices together. After a couple of seconds, a chime comes out from both Irene's phone and Wendy’s smartwatch.

"And... done. Now I can track your vitals in real-time rather than waiting for them to be below the normal level before your watch notifies me. Don’t worry, I still can’t track your location unless your vitals are below the normal level," Irene reassured.

"Now let me read your vitals report first." Irene reads the young novelist's vitals for the last couple of days, but she finds nothing out of the ordinary.

Her vitals seem normal, and there is no indication of side effects from the drugs aside from the Cyclophosphamide, so why does she feel something in her stomach? I think I’ll need to do a CT scan and a CBC test to be sure.

"Based on this reading, you are fine Wendy-ah, So I'm not sure why you're experiencing that sensation in your stomach. But to be safe, I'd like to run some tests," Irene told the young novelist.

Wendy withdrew her hand from Irene's touch, "I told you I’m fine unnie, it’s not from my illness, I just, I don’t even know why I’m feeling like this."

Irene settled back into her seat, "Okay, but please tell me if you feel anything okay? Because vitals reading doesn’t show anything other than vitals themselves, I will not know how your body feels unless you tell me." She explained.

Wendy smiled and nodded her head. "Okay unnie, I promise."

"Good, So, you're really not upset with me, right?"

"No unnie, I’m not mad at you," Wendy reassured.

And just then, Seulgi and Yerim came to their table with Ice cream in their hands. "Hi, Wan! Doc! Your sister, Yerimie here is so cute and she gets us some ice cream, she’s my best friend now, right, Yerimie?".

Yerim nods her head. "Yeah, Seungwan unnie's best friend is so kind, I like Seulgi unnie. Seungwan unnie, you don’t mind sharing your best friend with me, right?"

Wendy looked at Seulgi for a while, like she was asking her best friend a question, and Irene could see that Seulgi nodded, so Wendy smiled. "Of course, Yerimie. I don't mind at all; I'm happy to share my bear with you."

Yerim's smile grew brighter. "Thank you Seungwan unnie, now I like you more! Here’s an Ice cream for you," she said as she gave the young novelist the Ice Cream in her hand.

Turning to her sister, Yerim adopted a mischievous tone. "Still no Ice cream for you, Joohyun unnie; you need to prove your loyalty to me first before I give you Ice cream."

"Bae Yerim"

With a huff, Yerim relented, "Hmph, Fine! Seulgi unnie, give Joohyun unnie her ice cream. But remember, I expect your loyalty, unnie! No betrayals in the future." Her sister said, and Seulgi handed Irene her Ice Cream.

"Thank you, squirt, Seulgi." Irene smiled as she received her Ice Cream.

Yerim then clung to Wendy's arm, her excitement palpable. "Now Wendy Unnie, let’s go meet the rest of the gang. You haven’t greeted Eunbi Unnie, Sana Unnie, and Joy Unnie yet."

Wendy chuckled, rising from her seat. "You're right. Let's go, Yerimie." She turned to Seulgi and Irene, adding, "Unnie, I'll go with Yerim. Bear, you stay with Unnie, okay?"

Seulgi nodded in agreement, and with that, Yerim and Wendy left the table, leaving Irene and Seulgi behind.

"God, just how much does she spend on these Ice creams?" Irene mumbled, but Seulgi seemed to hear her.

"Don’t worry, unnie, I already paid for it, just enjoy it! It’s 150 dollars for a scoop, by the way," Seulgi chuckled.

Irene was shocked. "What? 150 bucks for a scoop of Ice cream? God,  I’m so sorry, Seulgi-yah, Please send me your bank details, and I’ll send you however much money that little brat spends," She told the young manager.

Seulgi just chuckled, "Don’t worry, unnie, you don’t have to. Every single expense on this trip will be on me, just think of it as a way for me to pay you for keeping my secret from Seungwan."

Seulgi then continues, "And also, I already contacted Kang Group Hospital in Jeju, they’re going to station one of their ambulances at our villa, and they’re also going to provide a personal space for you and your team in the hospital in case something happened to Seungwan on this trip. You can run tests and use the hospital facility as you need, you’ll have access."

Seulgi then hands out a couple of ID cards from her purse to the young professor.

"This is yours and your team's ID card, use this when you’re in the hospital, and they’ll know who you are and who sent you."

Irene took the ID card and placed it inside her purse.

"Thanks, Seulgi-yah, I’m sorry for asking this, but just how rich are you?"

Seulgi eats her ice cream before answering, "Well, I am the Kang Corporation Heir, but I don’t want to take over the company, so my brother will take it, but I am still given access to virtually unlimited funding for me to use. I usually don’t use it because I don’t want to, I prefer to earn and spend my own money."

"But for Seungwan? As I said to you, I’ll trade my life for hers, so I’m going to spend as much as I need if it means making her happy and healthy. This trip is not even a fraction of what I can give her. But as you know, I can’t show it to her, or she’ll be mad at me. I even need to come up with a reason to convince her how I fund this trip," Seulgi Explains.