A devil with a plan is always obvious

“Did Dara leave already” Daesung asked Minji as Ji, who was on his way out, paused a bit to pretend to look at his phone.

Just like his cousin, he wanted to know the answer.

“The Head Nurse left a while ago Doctor. Do you need anything to be signed?” Minji answered “I’m on my way out too but I can assist you.”

Unable to help himself, Ji smiled at that piece of information and headed for the exit.

“You got a message from a girl?” Young Bae asked him, walking towards him from the corridor on his left, pointing at his phone.

“You’re leaving?” he diverted and pocketed the phone.

“Yep!” his best friend answered and put on a knowing smile “And you didn’t answer my question.”

“No. The message did not come from a girl” Ji told him and couldn’t resist giving a jibe as they continued to walk towards the parking lot “Unlike you, of course, whom I have heard has been receiving too many messages from girls.”

Young Bae looked around him, playfully asking “Who you talking about?”

Ji smiled back, his eyes twinkling like a kid plotting something devious but feigning complete innocence like his best friend “I don’t know too. I just heard about it but whoever that man is, he sure ain’t going to hitch a ride with me. He could prove a competition and I don’t wanna be doing him favors.”

“Oh come on!” the other man groaned.

He laughed aloud. “Maybe not tonight man.”

“You got plans?” Young Bae asked curiously, his eyes visibly brightening and his ears perking up like a dog’s – completely forgetting Ji’s crack at him.

“Yep” Ji answered.

“Woah! Woah! Woah!”

Shaking his head, Ji unlocked his car door. Young Bae’s face gave it all away for him… he couldn’t tell anyone yet who he was having a date with because everyone would most probably hit the roof with the answer. Add to that the gossip that would most surely follow right after. “I’m just joking.”

“Ow” his best friend muttered disappointedly “I thought you were going to –“

“Going to?”

Young Bae bit on his lip in deep thought and followed him into the car, seating on the passenger seat “Well… I thought you were going to go out on a date. I mean… you’ve been here for some time now. No one caught your eye yet?”

From his tone, Ji knew his best friend was not only concerned about it, he was also FISHING. And he couldn’t really blame the guy for he had kept mum about women since his arrival – deviating from them unless they were members of the hospital staff. He sometimes even asks Minji (in all seriousness) that she choose carefully the women she would schedule for his clinic.

He didn’t want to be involved with any of them. He had no intentions whatsoever of being attached to any Islander but here he was – on his way to a date with Dara – the granddaughter of one of the most influential islanders in Jeju.

“Eagle 1… Eagle 1…” Young Bae screamed into his ear.

“What the?!?” he pulled away in annoyance.“I was talking to you and then you drifted off.”

He remembered to start the car and shrugged his shoulders again “There’s no one to talk about” he lied.

Young Bae grinned “So, who is it?”

“Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

“I did and I also heard THAT thing you didn’t want to say.”

He smiled “You’re reading too much into it.”

“Well… whoever it is seems to be really special if you’re shielding her like this.”

Trained in combat control, Ji worked his facial muscles into remaining relaxed so as not to give away anything further. “You’re going mental” he muttered – bent on not letting up his façade.

“I don’t think I am” Young Bae said knowingly and Ji, wanted more than anything, to kick him out of his car.

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But women tend to be oblivious

“I miss you too” Dara told her cousin over the phone “but not your husband. When you guys come back, I’ll have more than just one prick on my neck to worry about.”

Chaerin laughed on the other “He’s going to start behaving himself now. I told him I’ll burn him alive if he gives you anymore problems.” She heard Seungri snicker on the other line and heard Chaerin thump him promptly on the back. Dara smiled at the exchange. They were still like cat and dog. “Anyway, how are things going on there?”

The couple had called her and her aunt to say hi – something they do every week since they went out on honeymoon. “We’re both doing great. I got flu awhile back but I’m recovering now and Auntie has been looking after me” Dara answered.

“Mama did say that. I was surprised because you’ve always been the one with the strongest stamina between the two of us.”

“A pretty nasty virus was going around a few days ago. It didn’t take me down as hard as it did some of our patients but I guess it got to me because I’ve been missing some sleep.”

“How’s the hospital then? How has Ji-oppa been?”

“Ji-oppa?!?”

“Well… he’s my cousin-in-law now too right? And he’s also really sweet. He was the one who actually sent us the tickets to go see the touring carnival show in Barbados.”

“Ow.”

“He’s a great oppa” Chaerin continued “Young Bae-oppa told us you two have been getting on each other’s nerves since he’s arrived but he’s a good guy unnie. Give him a chance. He’s a totally different guy from the one we both knew back in high school.”

“So I keep being told” she mumbled.

Her cousin laughed but asked in concern “Are you doing ok in the hospital?”

“Same old stuff” she replied “This is a very busy season, though, with all the tourists coming in and more careless youngsters thinking the caves out here aren’t dangerous.”

“Oh I just remembered!” Chaerin popped out “I haven’t told Bom-unnie yet but you would be very surprised at who we saw when we docked in Sta. Lucia.”

“Who is it?”

“We saw Nickhun-oppa with a girlfriend!”

“A girlfriend?!?”

“Yes!” the other woman confirmed excitedly “We even hugged and he looked so happy – so unlike the last time we saw him where he was absolutely heart-broken.”

After Bom cancelled the wedding almost more than a year ago, she (along with Chaerin and Dara) had decided to see Nickhun off to the airport. The man had not expected it but like the kind and sweet man he was, he had appreciated Bom’s gesture and had even said that should Seunghyun make Bom cry, all she needed was to call and he was going to claim her right back.

She and Chaerin had cried at his chivalry and had told him that they would pray for him to meet a woman who deserved all the love he had. Nickhun had hugged both of them in gratitude for they had all become friends. They go back since the days they had all stayed in Seoul.

“That’s wonderful!” she uttered “Were you able to get his number? We’ve been trying to call him awhile back remember?”

“I did! And his girlfriend’s absolutely stunning. She’s Chinese too and oppa even joked that he used the lines you taught him. Remember the days you were teaching him Chinese? His girlfriend even shared with me that he was so awkward the first time they met, not knowing that she could speak Korean.”

Dara laughed “Send it to me and I’ll send him a message. That’s so nice. I’m sure Bom would be happy to hear the news.”

“I’m sure she would be.”

“Well… you guys are going out for dinner right? Let’s catch up next time then. I’ll see you in two weeks time anyway.”

“I miss you and Mama. I love you both.”

“We love you too” she replied and ended the call.Looking up the clock, she saw its 15 past 7:00 pm.

She left the clinic more than an hour ago and knew that if she and Ji Yong were indeed going out on a date, they should have at least talked more concretely of a time. Or didn’t they? It was so stupid of her not to have remembered.

Frustrated with herself, she decided that if she had said yes, she would have really remembered.“Maybe I said no and I erased that memory” she told herself and finally decided that instead of mulling around here, she was going out to jog. If it had been anyone else who would have asked her out, she would have just simply asked him but this was Kwon Ji Yong and she felt scared that if she had for a second time given him the wrong answer, he might not be talking to her. The last time it happened, she had to go down with flu for them to talk again.

“I feel so stupid” she groaned in frustration and stood up from bed. “What to do? What to do?”