"Of course, you didn't", Seunghyun answered understandably, "We, the guys, had always kept in touch with him that's why we know. He isn't really a man who likes speaking of these things to others but his efforts always stand out so he couldn't very well hide it from us. He did request though that no one else learn of it."
                          
"He's changed a lot, then, in the twelve years he'd gone", she commented.
                          
"I didn't even know it was twelve years", Seunghyun replied, "Were you counting?"
                          
"Ahhh... no", Dara told him, "It's just... the day he left was the day of his parents' funeral right? I believe that was twelve years ago."
                          
Seunghyun nodded, remembering it too. "Oh yeah... that would be twelve years ago now."
                          
"It's a good thing he made a wonderful path for himself", Dara handed back the folder and headed for the door, "They would have been very proud of him."
                          
"Dara", Seunghyun stopped her and stood up from his desk so their eyes were level, "I know you don't like him because of his reputation in the past. However, other than being my cousin, we need him right now. Please accept him so everybody will begin to accept him too."
                          
  
                          
Looking confused, she answered, "I understand", and gave him a smile before finally exiting the door.
                          
  
                          

                          
  
                          


                          
***
                          
Draw your sword
                          


                          
Ji had his feet up the desk, working on a crossword puzzle when Dara came in his office.
                          
Looking at her intently, he smiled as he spied the hesitation in her footsteps. 
                          
"So the lamb enters the wolf's den..." he announced.
                          
"I am neither a lamb nor are you a wolf", Dara answered in a leveled voice as she walked nearer to his desk, "I'm here to check up on you."
                          
"Well, I'm doing great except for a little problem", he had not bothered to take his feet off the desk and went back to his crossword as though she wasn't a person of authority, "What do you think is a six-letter word that gardeners use in –"
                          
"You are not seeing patients", she cut him.
                          
Ji raised an eyebrow and folded the newspaper. "No patients are coming in", he told her. 
                          
"I can very well see that", Dara replied, "but you must go out there and look for them if you have to or call my attention immediately."
                          
"I've already told the receptionist", Ji answered, his long lean legs still up the table.
                          
Dara's face was void of any reaction but she reached for the telephone in his desk and dialed the reception.
                          
"Doctor?", Minji answered.
                          
"Minji, this is Nurse Dara. There's a bee line of patients there waiting to be seen right? Send one right now to Dr. Kwon."
                          
"But –"
                          
"No buts please... it's either that or they wait for a week before anyone sees them", she commanded and hang-up.
                          
"Wow", Ji exclaimed, his eyes glinting with something that Dara didn't quite understand, "You were pretty scary... I didn't know you've become quite an authoritative woman Nurse Park."
                          
"There is much you don't know about me Dr. Kwon but that's not important now", she stepped back a few paces away from his desk again, as though it was wired to blow, before continuing, "Please compose yourself. The patients will be more hesitant to see you with your legs sprawled on your desk and your biker jacket still on you."
                          
"What does what I'm wearing have anything to do with my job?", Ji asked her, "Just because I'm not in slacks, long sleeves, and with a stethoscope on my neck doesn't mean I don't know what I'm doing."
                          
"I didn't say any of that", Dara retaliated, "You're twisting my statement."
                          
Instead of reacting with an angry retort, Ji seemed to be more entertained and smiled up at her. The woman is absolutely surprising him. He didn't expect a display of this kind of spirit from her at all. She used to be very mousy. "I know you didn't say that... I posed it as a question."
                          
"It's not such a trifling matter", Dara brushed off, "I ask that of you because I don't want you intimidating your patients."
                          
Ji put his legs down and stood up to take a really good look at her, "Do I look intimidating now?"
                          
Dara caught her breath at his gaze and decided to look down her clipboard. "Why yes, of course", she answered, her jaw looking taut, "You look intimidating... and dangerous and..."
                          
"And?"
                          
"...and not like a doctor at all", she ended, finally getting the courage to look back at him. Her eyes ablaze with a fire akin to irritation.
                          
"Woah!", Ji's mind erupted as he noted that flame in her eyes and saw how a tendril of hair fell off her cap and rested on the side of her face. Without meaning to, his eyes trailed the tendril of hair that had fallen and observed how that skin looked like porcelain to him.
                          
"Doctor!", Dara called him, shaking him from his thoughts, "Are you listening to what I am saying?!?"
                          
"Yes", he lied, still not able to take his eyes away from her face, "Do go on..."
                          
Her brow lifting at his stare, "As I said...", she began, "please wear more proper clothes next time. I understand you must be fresh from travel but there's no need inside here to still wear that jacket."
                          
Focusing back on her words, Ji just shrugged his shoulders. "Is this all you have to say?"
                          
"No", Dara replied and tugged the piece of her hair that fell off behind her ear. "I came here to apologize" she told him sincerely.
                          
Distracted again by the hair she had put away from her face, Ji exclaimed, "What?!"
                          
Totally irritated now by his seeming lack of interest in what she was saying, Dara inhaled and turned her back on him. "I was trying to apologize to you but since you seem to be in another planet as of the moment, I'll go back next time."
                          
"Why are you apologizing?", Ji asked her as she was just about to open the door. "You don't need to apologize to me just because Seunghyun told you to do so."
                          
"Seunghyun didn't tell me to apologize to you", Dara answered as she slowly faced him again, "I'm apologizing for what I said at his office when you first came in."
                          
"Why should you?", Ji countered, "What you said at his office was true."
                          
"Nevertheless... I shouldn't have said them", she told him, "I'm really sorry."
                          
"Did he show you my CV?"
                          
"Huh?"
                          
"Seunghyun", Ji answered, "Did he show you my CV?"
                          
Dara nodded.
                          
Ji let out a sigh. "Don't apologize because of what you saw in there. I'm not going to leave and just abandon Seunghyun. He needs me here and I gave him my word that I'll stay here. You can hurl any word at me despite what my CV says and I'm still going to stay."
                          
  
                          
Exasperated, Dara walked back to his desk and stomped her hand down. "For someone so intelligent, why don't you understand that my apology serves no other motive? I apologize because it was wrong and rude of me to have spoken to you in that manner. I grew up able to accept my faults and apologize for them if need be. Don't read anything else into it other than that."