The morning was still early but the modest white painted classroom was already filled with a couple of students. The plain room was minimally decorated; the small space was only filled with about fifteen chairs and a projector was hung in the middle of the room. A medium-sized transparent glass vase containing a single pristine white water lily was placed on top of the only desk in the room, which was located in the left front corner. How the poor flower could stand the lack of sunlight in the room—there were no windows and the only light source was the many hospital lamps—was out of the question.

A long haired woman in the beginning of her twenties sat on the front row with eyes focused on the fourteen-inch monitor of her black laptop. Her pale skin contrasted well with her dark and straight tresses that were held up in a high ponytail. Her white and neatly arranged teeth sometimes bit her plump pink lips as she glanced nervously at her worn-out brown leather watch. She was running out of time.

Her doe-like eyes were a bit droopy after the busy night shift she had but she mercilessly forced them open as her slender fingers furiously sled and click the mouse. Sometimes she would stop assaulting the mouse and typed quickly on the keyboard before grabbing the mouse back. The woman was wearing a peach colored blouse and a knee length black skirt under her white coat. On her chest pocket, a name tag was hung. It was read: Choi Jinri, 2^nd year clerkship.

Jinri glanced at her watch and her heart sunk quickly: she had less than twenty-minutes to finish the slides for her case presentation. She shook her head while clicking her tongue; her procrastinating habit would be the death of her, really. Jinri had left her presentation half-done until last night because she had previously thought that she would have all night to finish it but Soojung just had to call in sick so Jinri had to cover for her. Although Jinri used to complain about Soojung a lot—about how bratty and spoilt the shorter girl is—lately Jinri had been quite close with the rich girl. Jinri didn’t know if it was some sort of karma—after all, she had always badmouthed Soojung or something along the line—but Jinri always ended up in the same classes with Soojung. They were even stuck in the same group for the clinical rotation. Therefore, Jinri grew to be accustomed with Soojung’s antics. Besides, Soojung didn’t have many friends—oh, Jinri absolutely knew why—so Soojung treated Jinri really well.

Jinri grabbed the already-opened coffee can standing next to her laptop and gulped all the content in one sip. She had previously thought of stealing some time during the shift to finish her half-done presentation but patients were swarming the emergency room that night. Jinri her lips before she brought her focus back to the monitor in front of her. However, she was disturbed by a light tap on her shoulder. She glanced over her shoulder and saw a guy with small slanty eyes and puffy cheeks was talking animatedly on his sleek black smart phone; he was also donned in a white coat. The disturber’s name tag was read: Byun Baekhyun,2^nd year clerkship.

Baekhyun, who looked very refreshed albeit joining her for the shift last night (because he didn’t have any case presentation to worry of), took the phone from his ear and handed it to Jinri while smiling widely yet creepily. When Jinri sent him a questioning look, he only grinned while mouthing, “Your mother.”

Jinri didn’t remember giving her mother Baekhyun’s number—heck, she didn’t give her mother any of her friends’ contact—but she was too occupied with her case presentation and too sleepy to be bothered by that fact so she simply accepted the phone, which was a big mistake. As soon as the cell phone touched her ear, she felt like her eardrum was blown up by the screeching from the other side of the line.

“CHOI JINRI! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?! AND WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOUR PHONE?! KYUNGSOO WILL KILL ME IF HE KNEW YOU WEREN’T HOME AND UNREACHABLE LAST NIGHT!”

Jinri dropped the phone to her lap out of surprise and rubbed her pitiable ear. She sent a dirty look to Baekhyun—who was guffawing like there was no tomorrow on the chair next to hers—because the deafening voice she heard didn’t belong to her mother; it was Jongin’s. She stared down to the phone on her lap in disbelief: he was worse than Kyungsoo. She cautiously picked up the phone and put it on her ear. She immediately winced as she heard Jongin yelling at her about proper meal and whatnot.

It had been three years since Jinri first met Jongin. They started in the wrong foot: Jongin was deeply heartbroken and being a practical person she was, Jinri ended up being really fed up with his drama-queen-like stunts. They got into a fight—where Jinri slapped him and Jongin slammed the door to her face—and a couple more verbal quarrels and slapping after that, but they eventually grew to be able to stand each other as they were both connected by the same person: the-angel-like Kyungsoo. In fact, Jongin—who finally broke out of his I-don’t-want-to-live-anymore shell and gradually went back to his outgoing and cheerful personality—ended up being more than just an acquaintance to Jinri. She even called him ‘Oppa’, just like how she addressed Kyungsoo.

If there is anything that Jinri didn’t like from Kyungsoo it was his habit to always be too worried about her like her mother did—no, worse than her mother could ever be. Ever since she entered her internship, her schedule had become disarrayed. She often got home late without prior notice and skipped a couple meals because apparently when you are an intern, none of your schedule was really fixed. Kyungsoo, being a motherly cousin he was, constantly nagged her about it. He would call her—or her friends when she turned off her phone—to remind her to rest and eat. However, since Kyungsoo was enlisted in the army as soon as he graduated—which was about half a year ago—it seemed that Jongin had inherited Kyungsoo’s nagging habit. Kyungsoo had specifically asked Jongin to take care of Jinri like how Kyungsoo did so Jongin did exactly the same.

Just like how Kyungsoo was before he entered the military, Jongin would call her whenever she came home late and lecture her about a proper meal, especially because she had been losing more weight since Kyungsoo left for the army. To be honest, she really appreciated Kyunsoo’s and Jongin’s attention for her, but since they both often called her in the wrong time so she ended up getting irritated by them. Being a medical intern was already really stressful but their unnecessary—and embarrassing—nagging sometimes worsened the situation she was into. Like at the moment, when Jinri was supposed to finish her slide in less than ten-minutes but ended up getting a non-stop lecture from Jongin.

“CHOI JINRI! ARE YOU LISTENING?!”

She cringed at the loud voice hitting her eardrum and took the phone away from her ear before she held the phone vertically in front of and spoke to the microphone part of the phone.

“I am, Oppa. Soojung is sick so I got to cover for her night shift last night. My phone was out of battery and I haven’t gotten a chance to recharge it. Can’t you call some other time? I need to finish my case presentation slide right now.”

She faintly heard Jongin yelled something on the other line—probably about the importance of a good planning and recharging cell phone every day; the same old thing—but she didn’t really care and wasn’t really interested in listening as she put the phone next to her laptop and turned her attention back to her slides. Baekhyun took his phone back in amusement when the call from Jongin finally ended.

“Really motherly, isn’t he? I thought the calls would stop when your cousin entered the military but someone actually continues his habit. I guess I’ll be in his speed dial too after Sunyoung, Sehun, and Soojung,” he snickered while waving his phone in front of her face, clearly wanting to distract her. She pushed him away harshly on the chest and Baekhyun broke into another fit of annoying laughter.

“Oh shut up, I need to finish this.”

It was late autumn; the sun had long disappeared from the sky when Jinri walked home in the cold weather. She was dead tired; she couldn’t wait to lay her exhausted body on her comfortable bed and sleep until only God-knows-when. However, she remembered that she had a discussion to attend at seven o’clock on the next day and groaned; the life of an intern could be really inhuman sometimes.

When she walked on the corridor to her flat, she saw a woman was standing near her door. She slanted her eyes in an attempt to see the woman clearer—she didn’t remember inviting anyone to her place. When she was a couple feet from the woman, she could see that the stranger was standing in front of Jongin’s door and not hers. She subconsciously sighed in relieve: she wasn’t in a condition to host a guest.

Jinri nodded and smiled courteously at the woman before Jinri opened the lock to her house. Jinri noticed that the stranger standing in front of Jongin’s house was really beautiful: she had flawless porcelain-like fair skin, gorgeous round eyes rimmed with long eye-lashes, pointy nose, smooth jaw lines, and a pair of thin pink lips. The woman who was probably only a few years older than Jinri seemed to be quite well-off since she was wearing elegant white chiffon ruffled dress that reached her knees, a pair of pearl earrings, and a diamond studded necklace. On her hand was a designer bag that was made out of leather. Oddly enough, the beautiful stranger was just standing in front of Jongin’s door, not knocking on it or anything. What the stranger doing in front of Jongin’s flat or how Jongin could know such a wealthy woman was none of her business so Jinri casually opened her door and quickly hung her thick brown coat on the hanger. However, Jinri realized that the evening was getting chillier and the woman was only using a really thin particle of clothing so Jinri popped her head through her door and called the stranger, “Excuse me, Miss.”

The beautiful stranger turned at her.

“Yes?” the stranger asked Jinri back. Jinri was stunned for a while: she had never seen someone as beautiful as that woman in front of her. That pretty lady looked like an actress or something—no, she was much better; she was almost ethereal. Nevertheless, now that Jinri could saw her up close, the stranger seemed to be really tired and pale, as if she was carrying a really huge burden. Jinri wondered what kind of problem would trouble such a beautiful and rich woman.

“Are you looking for Jongin-oppa? Have you knocked his door?” Jinri asked the stranger carefully.

The gorgeous stranger smiled warmly—a really breathtaking one, Jinri noticed—before she answered meekly, “Ah, yes, I have knocked but no one answered.”

The stranger’s soft voice matched well with her frail appearance. Jinri nodded before she asked again, “Have you tried calling him?”

A bit of redness tinged her perfect cheeks; the stranger’s seemed to be embarrassed but Jinri didn’t understand why. Her question wasn’t offending, right?

“I don’t know his number,” the beautiful muttered sheepishly.

Jinri’s eyes widened. Maybe the lady was offended by Jinri’s question. Jinri tried to make it up by offering to call Jongin for her. The stranger’s eyes sparkled in gratefulness as she nodded eagerly.

“If it isn’t too much of a hassle for you,” the stranger responded softly.

Jinri shook her head hurriedly.

“No. Not at all. My phone is out of battery, though, I need to charge it first. You can wait in my place if you want to; the winter is getting nearer so the weather has become colder these days.”

Jinri knew that her mother, or Kyungsoo, or even Jongin would be mad at her for letting a stranger into her flat. However, Jinri really couldn’t stand to see such a poor woman standing in such a freezing weather with clothing as thin as that. The beautiful lady seemed surprised by the offer but she accepted it. Jinri led the stranger to her small living room and let her wait there after she the heater. When Jinri was plugging her phone on the charger, she heard the stranger apologizing to her.

“I’m sorry for imposing on you,” she quietly said.

Jinri looked back at the stranger and smiled while waving her hand, “No problem, really.”

The stranger didn’t seem assured but she still nodded nonetheless. Jinri glanced at the stranger and saw her eyeing the room with a nostalgic look. Jinri raised her brow in confusion. Had the stranger been here before? However, Jinri shrugged the thought off as she her phone. She scrolled down to find Jongin’s number and quickly pressed the green phone button when she found it. Jongin might have been busy since he wasn’t answering but Jinri didn’t give up. Jinri was calling him for the fourth time when Jongin finally picked it up.

“What is it, Jinri? I’m in the middle of a really important rehearsal,” he barked at her from the other side of the line. There was a really loud thumping music on the background.

“You have a guest waiting for you here, Oppa.”

“Who?”

Jinri realized that she hadn’t asked for the stranger’s name and slapped her forehead. How could she be so reckless? She blamed her lack of sleep for that.

“Ah, I forgot to ask her. Wait, let me ask first.”

Before Jinri had the opportunity to ask for the stranger’s name, Jongin already cut her off.

“No need, just tell her to wait, I’ll be home at nine. Bye.”

“Yah!” Jinri yelled angrily but it was useless; Jongin had hung up on her.

Jinri looked at her phone in disbelief. She tried to call him again but it seemed that he had turned his phone off. She huffed in frustration before she put her phone on the table. She muttered some profanities before remembering that she wasn’t alone in her flat. Jinri sheepishly sent an apologetic look to the stranger. “I’m sorry, Jongin-oppa said that you have to wait until he is back at nine. You can wait here if you want to.”

The stranger smiled at Jinri but Jinri felt something was off in that smile. She seemed to be glad but also disappointed in the same time. “It’s alright. Thank you very much.” The stranger meekly showed her gratitude while bowing deeply to Jinri, again.

“Don’t mention it, really. I don’t mind.” The stranger wishy-washy attitude had started to irk Jinri—firstly, she was a straight forward person in the first place; secondly, she was really exhausted, and thirdly, Jongin was being an for hanging up on her so it was much easier for her to get irritated. The stranger flushed in embarrassment since the older of the two women could sense Jinri’s growing annoyance. Guilt seeped into Jinri when she saw the stranger’s reddened cheeks. Therefore, Jinri decided to enlighten the mood by introducing herself.  “Oh, by the way, I haven’t told my name. I’m Choi Jinri. May I know yours, Miss?”

The stranger accepted Jinri’s hand and shook it.  “I’m Wu,” she paused while shaking her head, “I mean, I’m Seo Joohyun. Nice to meet you, Jinri-ssi.”

Jinri blinked. The name sounded familiar somehow but she couldn’t quite put a finger on it. Jongin and Kyungsoo had the same circle of friends and Kyungsoo had introduced—showed off, actually, because Jinri was a medical student—Jinri to all of their friends. She remembered the beauties in their group: Kim Taeyeon, Jung Sooyeon, Kim Hyoyeon, but she didn’t recall any Seo Joohyun. Jinri brushed the thought off—maybe Jinri was too tired to remember or Joohyun was someone Jongin knew from outside of his usual friends, she couldn’t care less.

“Nice to meet you too, Joohyun-ssi. Would you like a cup of tea?”