When the Clock Strikes|Pi Han Ul x Reader|

(S02) Chapter 2

All I could hear was his voice.

"I don’t know you."

A slow, painful sting crept up my chest, tightening like an iron grip around my ribs.

He had looked straight at me—into my eyes—and said those words like I was nothing. Like I was a stranger.

Tears welled up, blurring my vision.

How?

How could he forget me?

I had spent years living in hell, drowning in the memories of him, of us. Holding onto the thought that, one day, he would come back. That he would look at me with the same warmth, the same mischief, the same love I had once known.

But now—

It was as if none of it had ever happened.

Maybe it was just teenage love.

The thought slammed into me, cruel and unrelenting.

Maybe we were just two stupid kids who thought we could conquer the world together. Maybe it didn’t mean as much to him as it did to me.

Maybe he regretted it.

Maybe, after all these years, he had moved on, built a new life, found someone else—someone who belonged in his world of luxury, someone who wasn’t tied to a painful past like me.

Maybe, to him, I was nothing more than a distant memory. A mistake.

A ghost of the past.

A broken sob slipped from my lips. I covered my mouth with my trembling hands, but it was no use. The pain was unbearable, sharp, cutting me from the inside out.

I had imagined our reunion a thousand times.

I had imagined him smiling at me, relief washing over his face, his voice breaking as he said my name.

But not this.

Not this cold indifference.

Not this silence.

Not forgetting me.

I pressed a hand against my chest, as if that would stop the ache from spreading. But it was useless.

He was gone.

Gone before I could say anything. Before I could ask why.

And maybe it was better that way.

Because what if the truth was worse than this?

What if he did remember me—but just didn’t care?

Bzzzzt—

The sudden vibration of my phone jolted me out of my spiral.

I blinked rapidly, wiping my wet cheeks as I fumbled to pick it up.

Doctor Kang’s voice roared through the speaker before I could even say hello.

"Dr. Ye Na, do you have a death wish?! What the hell are you doing?! I told you there’s an emergency in the ER! If you’re not here in five minutes, don’t bother coming at all!"

I sucked in a shaky breath.

Right.

I was a doctor.

I had a responsibility.

No time to cry. No time to think.

I clenched my jaw, forcing my emotions into a box, shoving them deep down where they wouldn’t be seen.