In the bustling corridors of the hospital, the scent of antiseptic lingered in the air as Ryan strode purposefully down the polished linoleum floor with a clipboard in his hand. The rhythmic cadence of his leather shoes harmonised with the distant hum of medical equipment.

As he rounded a corner, his keen eyes caught sight of a familiar face. Minju stood by the elevator, flipping through the pages of a medical journal. A small smile crept across Ryan's face, his pace quickening as he approached the girl.

Tapping on her shoulder, he goes to the other side when Minju turns. "Boo." An elbow went into his stomach, causing him to wince softly.

Minju realised but thought he deserved it for trying to creep up on her like every other day. "I thought you had a meeting with the seniors."

"Ended early," he said. "SDU( Step Down Unit)?" Minju nods, closing the medical journal. "I heard they handed you two more."

"Apparently, I've become a caretaker." The brunette sighs. The elevator dinged, its doors sliding open to reveal an empty interior.

"It's good practice. You'd appreciate the responsibility when you go for sub-internship." He entered the lift after her, pressing the second floor where the SDU wards were. They are spaces for stabilised coma patients. "When's yours anyway?"

Minju leans against the railing, watching the numbers on the panel decrease. She sighs, not even wanting to think about the sub-internship because that only means she'll be posted somewhere away from the city, away from wherever they are now. "I'm not sure if I'm considered lucky but they're taking me in December, for two months."

As to what Ryan has gone through, sub-internships happen any time between the first half of the year for fourth-year students for a month. But two means she'll get to learn more. "Do you know where?"

Minju shook her head. "Not yet. They said they'll get back to me."

He puffs a breath. "Does that mean you're spending New Years away from home?"

"As if I haven't spent it away from home for the past three years." Minju scoffs, getting out of the lift. He tagged along, only because he was done with his schedules for the day. The brunette tapped her lanyard on the reader, letting them enter the premises of the SDU.

Ryan followed her to the reception, grabbing two pieces of white masks, and handing one to her to put it on. Minju smothers her hands with sanitiser before going to the patient ward she was allocated to, cross-checking the patient's details with the information she has on the clipboard she got from the nurse.

While she records the data shown on the screen, Ryan asks, "How are things?"

"What things?" Minju flips the page upwards, taking down the blood pressure of the patient. When greeted by silence, she looked at the guy who had an obvious grin under that mask.

"You know..."

"Good," Minju answers when she catches on.

Ryan's eyes followed her to the other side of the bed, checking the IV drip. "Define good." His smile reaches his eyes as he rests his palm on the foot of the bed where the handles are. He felt that bit of delight blooming in his chest when positive things entered his head. "Is it an honest good or is it an I don't want it to sound bad so I'll just say good for the sake of it kinda good?"

The brunette glances at him as she settles the IV tube back to where it is, next to the patient. Ryan waited for a response and was greeted by a slight eye smile. "What's that supposed to mean?" He tailed behind his junior who gave him no exact answer as they entered the second ward.

Ryan leans against the window while she does her stuff. "You're not going to tell me when I've been giving you the most advice for the past, what, three months?" He crosses his arms above his chest. "That's cheating."

"That's privacy," Minju corrected, swiping the pen that was sticking out of his chest pocket. "Thank you." Hers ran out of ink.

"My, my. You've changed, Minju." Ryan shook his head lightly. "I get it, she's all yours. You don't have to tell me and I'll not ask you about it. Just don't come crawling back to me when something happens."

"Nothing's going to happen."

"Right, nothing's going to happen. Positive thinking. I like that." He points at her briefly, approving that mindset of hers. "But seriously though, will dinner grant me a free pass to know what happened for you to give me a good?"

"No."

"I can never talk past you." He sulks, unable to keep his curious mind to himself. But the light feeling and smile he gets from the brunette recently were enough to tell him that it was an honest good.

—

Ryan chucks a spoonful of Japchae into his mouth, playfully glaring at Minju who stuck to her words of not telling him anything unrelated to the hospital. "I can't believe I'm paying for nothing."

"It's called credit. I'm paying you back after." Minju focused on eating her food, splitting the omelette roll in half with her chopsticks.

The moment Ryan reached his limit for his curiosity, the brunette's phone started buzzing above the table. They both looked to see Yujin calling. "Oh." His voice slightly deepens with tease, watching her pick up the call. He tries leaning closer to eavesdrop but Minju tilts away.

"Where are you?" The younger girl's voice came across, evidently lighting up Minju's face.

"Hospital."

"I know that, but where in the hospital?"

"Why?" She looked around which made the guy do the same.

His lips wind into a tiny smirk when a familiar girl appears from behind one of those huge pillars surrounding the cafeteria.

Minju saw Yujin a few metres away, making eye contact with her. Ryan's keen eyes caught the unspoken connection between the two, a mixture of fondness and something more complex.

Yujin reached the table and gave Minju a warm smile instead of a heads-up that she'd be coming here. "Surprise."

Minju allowed a soft chuckle to travel out the back of . "What are you doing here?" She saw the younger girl lifting the plastic bag she was holding onto and placing it on the table.

"I thought you might need this." She takes out a cup of freshly brewed Iced Americano, settling it next to Minju's plate. "Instead of vending machine coffee." 

"And you came all the way here to give me this?"

Yujin nodded and took the straw, unwrapping the end before sticking it into the cup. "It's an excuse."

"For what?"

"To see you." She saw Minju shaking her head with an apparent smile tugging the corner of her lips. 

Yujin gave the extra cup to the guy, earning a soft gasp. He was speechless but accepted it as if his life depended on this cup of caffeine. "I love her already." He discreetly tells Minju who kicked his leg, but he shows no reaction. "I'm Ryan." He introduced himself with the most genuine smile he had today.

"Yujin." The younger girl returned a greeting as she sat on the chair next to Minju.

"I thought I was never going to hear a name because someone doesn't want to tell me." He speaks with an ample amount of sass, sipping on the coffee. "Oh, this is good."

Yujin watched as the older girl took a sip and waited for a reaction. "Is it okay?"

Minju could feel the relief flush down her system as she nodded. She really needed that coffee. "Have you eaten?"

"With my groupmates earlier."

Ryan watched the two converse as if he weren't around. He didn't feel like disrupting the lovely atmosphere between those two. The brunette before him didn't feel like the one he first met when the girl started her rotations in this hospital. The weight on her shoulders was barely there as all her energy went into that smile on her face. What a pleasant sight to witness.

Not until that smile disappeared when both their phones started buzzing. It was a call from the emergency room. That only meant dinner was cut short for them.

Minju turned to Yujin as her heart was conflicted between her professional duty and the warmth of Yujin's presence. This was the exact feeling she was trying to avoid—regret and guilt from having to attend to other matters. "I'm sorry." was all she could say.

Yujin smiled softly, her eyes reflecting understanding. She expected something like this to happen the moment she decided to come to the hospital while the girl was on shift. "Go, they need you." She reached out, stopping the brunette from hesitating. "Someone might die if you wait another second."

"Minju," Ryan called out to the girl who had her feet stuck to the ground. "We have to go."

Yujin chuckled when the brunette took one huge sip from the coffee. "You're going to choke."

"I'll get going first. Go home." Minju told the girl who chased her away. With one last lingering look, she turned away, her steps purposeful as she hurried toward the emergency room. "Go home!" The brunette reminded a second time, not wanting Yujin to stay any longer since it was getting late.

Ryan followed clo