The man raps the door defiantly, knowing that Yongguk can’t refuse his uninvinted presence. He hears papers rustling from inside, and knows that the doctor is inside. Yongguk can’t pretend he’s not there; it’s obvious that the doctor is going through some papers in his office. The doctor can’t run away; the door is surely the only exit available.

“Just go away, Jinhwan. Leave me alone, I’m busy,” Yongguk says, barely audible.

‘He thought I was someone else. The Jinhwan he was talking about must be the doctor at the counter just now,’ the man says to himself.

He doesn’t wait a second longer; he twists the doorknob and steps inside. He locks the door behind him.

“Jinhwan, I told you-“ Yongguk stops talking as he identifies the man in front of him. Surely, it’s not Jinhwan. “What- what are you doing here?” he stutters as he stands up hastily, distancing himself away from the man.

The man simpers while pulling out the knife from his belt. He plays around with it, while Yongguk gulps at the sight. “It’s nice to see you again, my friend.”

“I’m not your friend,” Yongguk growls.

“Still stubborn when I clearly have the upper hand here? You thought that you could walk away easily after knowing so much?”

Yongguk coolly slides his hand into his coat’s pocket, hoping that his phone is there. He curses silently as he realizes his phone is not there, but on his table, near the man. “What do you want?”

“We must finish what we started, Yongguk. Just because you got what you wanted, doesn’t mean you can be free from this. We had a deal, Yongguk. You broke the deal for the first time, but then it’s fine. You’re my friend, right? I understand. But this time-“ he points the sharp end of the knife towards Yongguk, “-you’re not walking away.”

He walks towards the doctor, until they’re one metre apart. Yongguk shifts his view towards his phone, when he realizes he’s cornered. He needs to decide whether it’s worth to lunge for his phone, while the man in front of him is holding a knife.

“What do you want me to do?” Yongguk pretends to give in as he calculates his next move. When he notices that the man’s attention towards him is wavering, he kicks his stomach. The man falls backwards, bringing the metal paper organizer on the table down with him. Papers fly everywhere and Yongguk takes this as an opportunity to run away, and grabs his phone expeditiously. Before he’s able to twist the doorknob, the man grabs his shoulder, spins him around and slams him against the door. The man digs the knife into Yongguk’s flesh, and the unbearable pain makes him unable to produce any sound. The man pulls out the knife, and Yongguk hisses at the agony.

“Don’t… you… dare… to… run… away, Yongguk…”

Yongguk doesn’t answer as he presses his hand against the stab wound. Blood starts to seep in, staining his shirt. He’s not afraid of blood; being a doctor means facing that everyday. But seeing blood gushing out from his own body makes him nauseous.

“Listen to me carefully, Yongguk. If you refuse to help me, you can say goodbye to your lovely ‘sister’, Jiyoon.”

“Don’t hurt her…” Yongguk says with difficulty. Even breathing seems like hard work now, let alone talking.

“You don’t want that to happen, do you?”

Yongguk shakes his head weakly, hoping that someone would just come in and put an end to this. He looks at the phone lying near his leg, where he dropped it in the chaos.

“Then… Kill Daehyun. Finish it off. You know why, don’t you? You need to clean up the mess I made. If you don’t, Jiyoon’s life will be on the line. We’re friends… aren’t we?”

“Why do you hate him so much? Why… do you have to do this to him? Isn’t it enough putting him into a coma?”

“I have my own reasons, Yongguk. He took what was supposed to be mine…” He wipes the blood off the knife, and keeps the dirtied cloth. He fixes his clothes, and stands up. Yongguk still has his back against the door, limp. “I guess I would take my leave now, doctor. Thank you for having me.” He pushes the helpless Yongguk to the side, and steps over his legs. He stops and looks down to the doctor. “And, this never happened. You would know how to treat a wound, right, doctor? I need you to be alive.” As quickly as all of it happened, the man is gone.

Yongguk props himself up, and looks at the blood on his hands. He searches around his office for any kind of bandage. He needs to hide the wound, but he couldn’t find any bandage. With his hand still over the wound, he covers the stained area with his coat, and hopes that it won’t stain his white coat. He drags himself towards the counter, where Nayoung is still doing her work. She smiles when the doctor approaches her, but her smile disappears slowly when he notices something wrong with him.

“Doctor… You don’t look healthy…”

“First-aid kit, I need a first-aid kit.”

“Why…”

“Just give me a damn first-aid kit!”

Although she feels the doctor is acting weirdly, she still searches around for what the doctor asked for. The doctor snatches the first-aid kit roughly from her hand, and doesn’t show any sign of gratitude. He’s starting to sweat like crazy now, and he knows he needs to go back to his office. “Don’t let anyone into my office, and tell Jinhwan to take over all of my surgeries. I’m- I’m busy.”

Yongguk sighs in relief as he locks the door to his office. He frantically opens the first-aid kit. He throws away his coat, and s his shirt. He applies pressure to the wound. While waiting for the pain to subside, he shuts his eyes tightly and faintly remembers every single thing the man had said to him. How is he supposed to take Daehyun’s life away? He’s not a murderer and he never wants to be one. But if it means keeping Jiyoon safe and alive, then he would do just about anything. Even though it means taking someone’s life away.

…

Daehyun is mulling over on what to cook in the kitchen when he hears his handphone ringing. He instantly ignores the open recipe book in front of him, and snags his handphone. The ID shows a call made from a house phone, which number he did not save. He takes a few seconds to decide whether he’s going to answer it, and does it anyway. He puts the phone near his ear and waits for the person on the other line to say something.

“Jung… Jung Daehyun?”

The familiar voice makes his heart pump faster and causes him to slap his face lightly, as to make sure he’s not dreaming. “Park Jiyoon… Is that you?”

“Uh, yes… I, um… I called because I wanted to find out about something. Am I bothering you? Are you busy?”

“No, no. I’m not. I was actually thinking on what to cook, but yeah I have time.”

“You like to eat… A lot… You’re the type of person to try every single thing they sell at the stalls, aren’t you?” Jiyoon says suddenly, getting the sudden urge to inform him that. She doesn’t know why she said it though.

“How… How do you know?”

Jiyoon shrugs on the other line. “I just have this feeling, I guess.” She’s starting to feel peculiar about herself, it’s as if she knows some things about him. “Anyway… I was just curious… How long have you known Yongguk oppa?”

“The first time I met him was when Sooyoung passed away, why?”

“It’s just that, he’s acting weirdly lately. He’s acting as if he’s hiding something, but I don’t know what. I’m just worried, that is. He spends most of his time at the hospital, so I rarely see him. When he gets home, he likes to lock himself in his room. He’s isolating himself.”

“How long has he been acting that way?”

“Ever since you stopped by the house that day, but don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not blaming you for doing anything, but I’m just concerned about his well-being. He doesn’t seem to take care of himself well lately.”

Daehyun listens attentively and tucks away the jealousy he’s feeling because Jiyoon cares about Yongguk so much. He ignores the feeling, as he’s more interested in what Jiyoon just told him. Ever since the day he wakes up from coma, everything seems ludicrous. He feels as if some things don’t fit into the picture. How is he supposed to believe everything when a doctor he barely knows, tells him that he was in coma for one month because of a car accident? He senses something is not right, and is determined to find out.

No matter how hard he tried to remember, he couldn’t recall the memory of him being in a car accident. Is this what they call partial memory loss? Daehyun gets frustrated at himself as the last thing he remembers is reading the letter from Sooyoung. He’s convinced that Yongguk is somehow involved in this mess, although he doesn’t know in what way.

“Daehyun, are you still there?” Jiyoon says when Daehyun doesn’t answer for a long time.

“I don’t know why Yongguk is acting that way… but maybe we can find out. Just… do you… do you trust me?”

Silence.

Daehyun almost thought that Jiyoon has hung up, but he hears her small voice at the end of the line. “Yes, I trust you.”