If there was anything about Hyo Rin that she could be proud of, it was the fact that she had never—ever—passed out. Not when she was burning with a fever that hit 41°C, and not even when she was sitting on a sidewalk somewhere in Itaewon wasted after downing half-a-bottle of tequila by herself. So for someone who always considered herself ordinary, that seemed like something to brag about.
That record was broken, however, on that summer evening—thanks to another bout of stomach flu.
It was the worst she had by far. She recalled blacking out intermittently, drifting in and out of consciousness from the minute she rode the cab that took her to the hospital. The drive was short—thank goodness! And soon afterwards, she recalled being wheeled into the emergency room.
Then, she was answering some questions about herself, her condition, and her health insurance—although to be honest, she could not say for sure if she was able to answer them coherently—while someone was taking her vital signs.
“Your temperature is normal, ma’am. But your blood pressure is very low,” someone—probably one of the nurses—concluded. “Can you hear me, Kwon Hyo Rin hwanjabun?”
At that point, the voice was merely drifting in her head—as if it was coming from a television that was in a room somewhere down the hall.
What followed were sporadic memories of her sitting in one corner, waiting to be assisted…
And vomiting.
She had lost track of how many times she felt sick and reached for a bucket. Then again, with her throat feeling raw, it was easy to assume that she did it more than twice—or thrice? Truly, it was difficult to keep counting when she was already getting exhausted from puking her guts out.
Once the worst was over, the first thing that vividly registered in her mind was the image of Kang Ho Jun—the companion she never bargained for. He was standing at the foot of the bed, keenly watching the nurse who was also busy attaching a tube to a vein in her left hand.
“The doctor will be here soon,” she heard the nurse informing Ho Jun. “Please excuse me.”
As soon as she took her leave, Hyo Rin called the attention of her coincidental guardian.
“Kang Ho Jun-ssi…” his name sounded raspy as she tried to utter it.
Ho Jun heard her regardless, and he immediately approached her side.
“Hey. How are you feeling?” he kept his tone hushed.
Like shit.
“Okay,” she lied. “H-how long have I been here?”
He looked at his watch before he replied, “Two hours?”
“Two hours?”
“It’s kind of a hectic day in the ER.”
“Oh. Good thing I was able to sleep for a while then.”
“You were fading in and out. What is that bad?”
“What do you think?” she blurted out sarcastically.
He simply shrugged off her snide remark and told her instead, “According to the nurse, the cramps should subside anytime soon since they already infused the medicines.”
Right on cue, she felt a fresh, stabbing ache in her abdomen.
It was a joke so morbid that she cursed at the universe for even daring to pull it off.
Helpless, her instinct was to curl up on her side, arms wound tightly around her belly as though the pressure could put an end to the pain. And through that mercifully-short period, she could sense him leaning closer to her—anxious.
On the contrary, his nearness—best intentions notwithstanding—only aggravated her.
“Can’t they inject it directly into my stomach?” she hissed. “It’s like my insides are being wrung out dry!”
Fortunately, it faded right after she started complaining to him.
“Ugh! I hate this!” she grunted, wincing as she stretched her legs out again. “It was my first time eating at a fancy restaurant tonight—only to throw up everything.”
Her bitter humor was not lost on him. And she could tell that he was stifling a chuckle even with her eyes closed.
When Hyo Rin opened them seconds later, her gaze automatically landed on the soiled shirt Ho Jun was wearing—straight to the huge stain at the center which was a glaring reminder of the scene she stirred hours ago. By the looks of it, no amount of soap and bleach could restore the fabric to its former glory. He might throw it altogether after, and the thought of it left her feeling miserably guilt-tripped.
His smile eventually faded upon noticing what she was staring at. So he attempted to change the topic.
He then told her, “Hyo Rin-ah, you scared us back there.”
Us.
That pronoun was a good wake-up call—a reality check she very much needed. And suddenly, her mind was no longer hazy from the fainting spells.
“Where’s Ha Nee?” she asked.
“She’s waiting at home,” he assured her.
She weakly nodded, then said, “You can leave now. Thank you for taking me here.”
“I don’t mind waiting,” he shrugged. “The doctor will probably be here—”
“Kang Ho Jun-ssi,” she was firm when she spoke to him. “I think I can manage on my own.”
“Hyo Rin-ah…” he attempted to plead with her.
“Ha Nee-ssi must be wondering what the fuss was about. So one of us has to talk to her before she draws a conclusion on her own,” she justified her demand to him. “And given the situation I am in, the choice is pretty obvious, don’t you think?”
A moment passed before he caved in with a hushed ‘of course’.
“Go home,” she repeated, shooing him away with a flick of her hand. “I can take it from here.”
“What about us?”
“What do you mean?”
He hesitated for a bit before he proceeded to talk, “There are certain issues we have not resolved yet.”
To that, she remorselessly let out a mirthless laugh in response.
“What for?” she scoffed.
“For Ha Nee,” he answered.
The mention of her name was more than enough to placate Hyo Rin.
“You hating me with a burning passion is something I think I can live with. But in a strange twist of fate, it turns out that the person I love considers you as her dearest friend in the world,” Ho Jun dared to confess to her. “That makes our closure more than just about you and I now.”
It was a well-aimed hit she was not ready for, so much so that she needed some time to think before she was able to give him a reply.
“Fine,” she appeased him without bothering to hide her annoyance. “Not right now, though. I can’t deal with you and this stomachache simultaneously.”
He opened his mouth to insist, then closed it again. Funny, but it seemed that after all this time, he still knew better than to push his luck by arguing with her while she was in agony.
Even so, to say that he was upset with her would be an understatement. He was brimming with frustration; it was obvious in the way his shoulders fell in defeat.
And she could not deny that the bitter feeling that was possibly consuming him from within was sadly mutual.
When Hyo Rin could trust herself enough to speak in a civil manner to him, she said, “Please… go home, Kang Ho Jun-ssi. You should be worrying about Ha Nee. Imagine how confused she must be right now.”
This time, Ho Jun agreed. And with a wordless nod, he turned on his heel and left her by herself.
Alas, for them two, it seemed that the world was indeed small after all.
Upon knowing for certain that he was already out of earshot, she briskly ran her fingers through her hair, tousling it in anger. And it was then that she noticed that the doctor had already come in, standing by the gap in the hospital curtain through which her ex-boyfriend passed on his way out.
Of course, their unlikely spectator looked bewildered by the awkward situation that transpired before him. But he recovered fast and greeted her with a tiny wave of his hand—a true professional—then approached her side as if nothing happened.
“Er—hello! My name is Min Chang Hoon, your resident physician for today. How are we feeling so far”—the doctor hastily took a peek at the notes on his clipboard—“Kwon Hyo Rin hwanjabun?”
For some reason, she was not sure how to answer that.
“Physically?” Dr. Min clarified.
“What?”
“Is your tummy still aching?”
She noticed how behind his rectangular glasses, his eyes crinkled as he talked to her—hinting at the smile that must be behind the surgical mask he was wearing.
Somehow, his reaction did not sit well with her. And it might be the persistent pain in her belly or the unprecedented reappearance of Kang Ho Jun—or both—that was to blame for her abrupt mood swing.
Scowling, she curtly replied, “Yes.”
“Hmmm… I see,” he said, then motioned towards her abdomen. “May I?”
She nodded.
“Tell me where it hurts,” he instructed her before gently pressing two digits on random areas of her tummy, beginning at the middle.
She shivered at the contact. It turned out that the thin fabric of her dress provided little insulation from his fingertips.
“What’s wrong?” the doctor probed at once.
She shook her head and mumbled, “Your hand is cold, seonsaengnim.”
“Oops—sorry,” he offered, then quickly rubbed his palms together, warming them up prior to giving it another go.
“Better?” he asked her.
“A bit? But—ah!” she gasped when he found a sore point.
“How painful is it on a scale of one to ten?”
“What!? One to—uhhh—six?”
“Alright,” he said to himself as he withdrew his hand. “I’m presuming that this is a case of gastroenteritis. Although to be sure, I already ordered some tests, bloodwork… May I ask what did you have for today?”
“For dinner? I had seafood pasta, white wine. A slice of chocolate cake for dessert.”
“What about before that?”
“Bibimbap? Well… just fried rice and anything I found in the kitchen, actually,” she tried remembering everything she threw in her bowl. “Kimchi, sausage, nori, mung bean sprouts, egg…”
“At what time did you eat it?”
“Around 5:00 pm? I think that was my first meal of the day.”
“Isn’t that a little too late for breakfast?”
At that moment, a nurse—the same one who was attending to her earlier—came in. And her presence therefore interrupted their conversation.
“We’ll start taking samples now,” she informed them.
“Yes, please,” Dr. Min said as he stepped back to give way to her. “Take care of Kwon Hyo Rin hwanjabun while I check on the other patients, okay, Nurse Jung?”
“Yes, seonsaengnim,” she assured him with a tiny bow of her head.
“Thank you,” he warmly regarded the nurse and then—quite strangely—her before he walked away to get back into the ward.
Hyo Rin would have returned the doctor’s smile with a polite one. However, she already squeezed her eyes shut, trying with all her might to pacify herself just as the nurse took out that dreadful needle from the blood extraction kit she brought along with her.
•••
“Uhhh… excuse me,” Hyo Rin muttered while checking the bill at the cashier after she was discharged. “There must be a mistake. I was only charged for the medicines.”
“Yes, ma’am. That’s right,” the middle-aged woman behind the counter confirmed for her. “The total is indeed that amount because the professional fee has been waived.”
“Waived? Why?” Hyo Rin asked. “Does the hospital have an ongoing promo or something?”
The cashier merely laughed at her odd question.
“No, really,” she insisted, pouting. “Why is—”
“Kwontokki!”
Instantly recognizing the moniker, Hyo Rin spun around to search for the person who said it.
“Seonsaengnim!” she heard the woman greet the man in question. “You’re still here. I thought you clocked out on time?”
It took Hyo Rin a while to recognize that it was Dr. Min—the physician who tended to her an hour ago—who called her by that nickname.
He had already traded his scrubs for plain clothes—white shirt, faded jeans, a pair of Chucks, and a backpack. And without the face mask, she could now see what the boyish smirk it was hiding earlier must have looked like.
“I was supposed to,” he was rocking on the balls of his feet, hands buried deep in either of his pockets as he explained to the cashier. “It’s just that… there’s something I had to check for myself.”
“Don’t tell me you’re studying again? Aigoo… our ace doctor is truly the most diligent one in his batch,” she teased him before shifting her attention back to Hyo Rin. “You see, Ms. Kwon, it’s him who gave you a consultation for free.”
Surprised, Hyo Rin whispered back to her, “Seriously?”
The woman nodded a little too enthusiastically.
“If there is anyone you wish to thank, it’s him,” she told her with a wink.
It was not everyday that medical professionals worked pro bono—especially in private hospitals like this. Hyo Rin was not that naïve to be unaware of that. She was grateful, and yet she was bizarrely a bit skeptical too.
In spite of her reservations, she said, “Thank you, Dr. Min. But…”
The doctor’s lips then curved upwards, flashing a shy smile that etched a dimple in each of his cheeks. And for the second time that night, something was telling her to reciprocate his friendly gesture.
So she dropped the formalities and asked him point-blank, “...do I know you?”
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