I’m sorry, miss. You have cancer

I’m afraid it’s slowly spreading, Sir

You have as estimation, one more year to live

It was the words no one would want to hear. It was never easy for them to hear. They’d cry, argue or fall silent with shock.

As many doctors found out in their early practice years, it was even harder to deliver these words to someone looking up at them as their last chance. It was a heartbreaking state.

Having to give the worst news anyone could ever have the misfortune of hearing, watching as they say goodbye to their loved ones, witnessing the breaking of families, children looking up with tears in their eyes as they can hardly understand why their parents are crying. No doctor ever wanted to see those moments. They felt as if it defied their reason of joining the medical school, as if it was all in vain.

And yet for one doctor, those words were easy to say. So easy that everyone thought he was heartless.

For lee Seung gi, a young oncologist at the most prestigious hospital in Seoul, those words weren’t always simple. Back when he was a resident, he used to hide in the janitor’s closet, blaming everything he knows for losing the fight.

And then he’d walk out, and say sorry. Sorry they had to die. Sorry they’d never get to grow old with their lovers. Sorry they won’t be there to see their children growing.

And then suddenly, he wasn’t sorry anymore. He envied his patients for dying.

He envied them because they got to leave in peace. Without having to be heartbroken and without experiencing the painful life they were going to have.

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Lee Seung gi never had the time or desire to stop and view his surroundings. If he did, he would have noticed how that day, flowers were blooming, birds were singing, wind was blowing in a way that was refreshing, but not chilly.

That day, he met her for the very first time.

He could still remember the date, the third of march, 2014

It was a beautiful spring morning. But he didn’t stop to view. He didn’t know he’d soon wish he did. He would soon wish to go back to that day and relive it once more, from the very beginning. And see her again, right from the start