She remembered the first time she saw him on a massive billboard, years after they had vanished from each other's lives. Well, vanished will probably be a too dramatic a word for it because they hadn't been close enough to disappear. They had simply drifted in their own lives and in relentless realities of grueling survival of their respective medical schools, two stars moving into different galaxies until they didn't even remember the other existed.
That day, Se-na was at her absolute worst. She had just finished a brutal thirty-six-hour shift. Her eyes were bloodshot, her head was throbbing, and her scrubs were stiff with the dried blood of a stranger she'd spent all night trying to piece back together. And right now was on verge of break anything that would come across her. As she stumbled through the hospital's grand entrance, desperate for nothing but a dark room and a bed, his face hit her out of nowhere looking directly at her offering his warm smile.
No it was not him in person. It was a towering, high-definition screen announcing an upcoming global seminar. And there he was in that screen.
And her heart didn't just beat; it did a strange, clumsy flip-flop, a full somersault that left a warm, fuzzy heat radiating in her belly. For a second, she actually frowned and rubbed her stomach, genuinely convinced she was just veryyyyy hungry. I would like to call her really innocent that she never realized that she was hosting a swarm of butterflies fluttering in her belly she hadn't known she could hatch.
She stood there in the middle of the lobby, her surgical mask dangling from one hand, her hair shoved into a messy, lopsided bun, and her other hand resting on the back of her aching neck. Her face flushed with a heat that had nothing to do with the hospital's stuffy ventilation.
And then a smile came on her face.
"Knew it." she said out loud like a proud mother and then surprised by her loud thoughts she slapped her hand on her mouth and looked here and there and seeing the coast clear put it away looking back at the screen and then the smile came again even wider this time, she sighed with relief, "well deserved," her hands now in her scrub pocket looking at him with a titled head and eyes full of pure admiration.
It was a bizarre, almost alien reaction. Under any other circumstances, Se-na should have been livid. She had the ego, the family connections, and the perfect "I-haven't-slept-in-two-days" mood to have that screen ripped down or, at the very least, replaced with a towering portrait of her own face. Why should he get the prime real estate?
But looking at him then, she didn't feel the urge to claw her way. She didn't want to compete. For the first time in her life, she just felt... right. As if the world was finally in its proper order because Do Ra-ik was exactly on her expectations on that high stage where she always thought he should be. He had proven her right, not even knowing he was supposed to making her feel even more proud.
And since that day over the years, she had become his most loyal, invisible cheerleader. Every time he won an international award or pioneered a procedure that sounded more like science fiction than medicine, she felt a surge of fierce, personal pride.
Of course he did it, she'd tell herself with a small, private smirk. He's my only real competitor. How could he be anything less than perfect? In her mind, his success was a reflection of her own. If the man she considered her only equal was conquering the world, then she was exactly where she needed to be. It was a sweet, silent bond she held onto without realizing.
And then her mind drifted back to a much older version of them when they were in High school.
Se-na had been mere fifteen, leaning against the damp brick wall behind the gym, a cigarette she got from her poor nanny, pinched between her fingers. Honestly she didn't even like the taste; she just liked the way the action made her look untouchable, cold, intimidating and someone people should avoid.
Then came Ra-ik. He had turned around the corner, breathless and glowing with that annoying energy. He didn't even look at her face nor did he look at the cigarette. He didn't look shocked or judgmental.
He just stopped right in front of her, dropped to one knee, and shoved three strawberry lollipops into her smoke-scented hand.
"Can you hold these for a second?" he muttered, his focus entirely on his untied shoelaces. "This damn double knot is a nightmare. I'll break my nose these days I am sure."
Se-na had frozen, the cigarette was trembling and glowing in her fingers. At that time, she already hated him to the very marrow of her bones. And right now she loathed the fact that he was seeing her like this, catching her in a desperate, weak act of rebellion. To her, the cigarette was a shield from the world, but in his presence, it just felt like a cheap prop.
And then her eyes caught the back of his head as he leaned down. His collar had shifted, exposing the curve of his neck right beneath her fingers. And for a heartbeat, she didn't feel like a human. Her eyes flashed with a dark, jagged impulse, with a sudden horrible thought; that had no origin and no reason at all.
.
Enjoy next chapters ahead for FREE at patreon.com/accuscripter and support me starting from JUST $2