Park Ji Woo, a charming crime investigator at the peak of his career, his life taking an unexpected turn when the intelligent doctor trainee, Min Seohyun, winds up at his house with no explanation. With their paths continuously crossing, both are pu...
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Seohyun fidgeted with her phone, almost dropping it from her grasp. She anxiously dialed a number, idly standing in the busy hallway of the hospital. With each passing ring, she grew increasingly uneasy.
"Hello?"
"Jiwoo," she breathed like her lungs were whipping at the air for the last tendrils of oxygen. "You need to come," she said through the phone, trying her best to be discrete.
"What's the matter? Where are you now? Are you alright?" he questioned one after another, his tone rough and on edge.
Seohyun didn't expect for the tense flurry of words to blast from the phone and pelt her ears like endless rain. She was guilty of infecting him with her angst. "I'm fine, but Kitel is awake. She's been awake since earlier in the morning."
"What?" The revelation hit him like a hard blow to the face. "How come no one called us? Not even Eunho?"
"I don't know. Dr. Kim told me they alerted the police department and the law firm? She requested to talk to me, and I came out of her room just now to let you know."
"Shit," Jiwoo swore under his breath, then came a pause. "Is this what that text meant?"
"What text?"
"I received a text earlier in the morning urging me to come to the hospital tonight."
Thrills of goosebumps crawled up her arms and tense shoulders. Could it be a warning? A trap, perhaps? Seohyun pressed her lips together nervously, fiddling with the bell of the stethoscope hanging around her neck like a dead snake. It was a nervous habit she repeated back in her early days of residency, now flooding back as a coping mechanism for the stress burrowed in her senses. Could it be the same anon sending me these dreaded texts as well?
"We're processing some documents at the office, but we'll try our best to get there asap. God, why didn't we receive a call? Did the police come today to question her?"
Seohyun sauntered to a more isolated area of the corridor, where the floating hallway overlooked the floors below the clear glass deck. "I've asked around. Nurse Kang says they haven't, but Kitel tells me they did come to question her."
"I passed her a note. A warning to not trust anyone in this hospital. I don't know what else to do; I feel so helpless, Jiwoo."
The silence of the empty hall made her blood as cold as the dry air that crept through the building. Bereft of any commotion she had grown accustomed to tuning out, no shouting nurses, no riot of footsteps walking up and down the floors. Just her and the phone wedged between her cold fingers and prickled ear.
"Please come, Jiwoo," she blurted out, desperation leaking in her tone like a ruptured water pipe, every muddled thought just pouring endlessly.
"Wait for me. I'll be there in fifteen." And with that, the line cut dead. Seohyun slowly lowered her phone and slipped it in the pocket of her lab coat. A sick feeling was curdling in her mouth like rotting butter melting into acidic bile. Coupled with her hollow stomach, she wasn't sure how much more she could take on for the night.
