When the Clock Strikes|Pi Han Ul x Reader|

(S02) Chapter 45

3 Months Later.

The fluorescent lights of the operating room buzzed faintly overhead. It was a routine C-section, and the moment the baby’s cry pierced the air, the tension in the room lifted. I kept my focus steady, checking vitals, ensuring the mother was stable. One final look at the monitors, then I gave a small nod to the nurse beside me.

“Vitals holding. Good job, everyone.”

The surgeon gave me a tired thumbs-up behind his mask. I peeled off my gloves, sanitized, and stepped out of the sterile environment into the slightly too-cold hallway. The smell of antiseptic was already sinking into my hair.

Three months.

Three months since everything shattered and rebuilt in strange, beautiful ways.

I was officially an anesthesiologist now. Still felt weird saying that. The badge on my coat felt heavy some days. Not from pressure, but from meaning. After everything, I made it. I was standing.

I passed by the break room and spotted Woo Joon with two cups of coffee and an unmistakably guilty look on his face.

“Are you bribing Ha-Ya again?” I called as I walked past.

He grinned. “She says I don’t know how to say sorry, so I offer caffeine instead.”

“Smart man,” I muttered, pushing open the heavy hospital doors and stepping into the cool evening air.

Just as I turned the corner—

“YAH! DOCTOR BEAK!”

I flinched. “Do we really have to shout outside the hospital, Ha-Ya?"

Ha-Ya and Seok Kyung were walking over, both in their scrubs, laughing like idiots.

“Oh please, you love it,” Ha-Ya said, linking her arm with mine. “Guess who just confessed to loving me so much he wants to move in?”

“Woo Joon?” I asked.

“No, the vending machine guy,” she deadpanned. “Of course it’s Woo Joon, you rock.”

“Finally,” Seok Kyung chimed in. “Took them only, what, 2 months of flirting and one breakups?”

“I am a complicated woman,” Ha-Ya sniffed dramatically.

“You’re a menace,” I corrected her.

They both cackled.

“And you?” Seok Kyung asked. “Still waking up next to CEO, the king of cartoons and coffee-stained contracts?”

I laughed, because yes. Han Wool was officially the CEO now, after taking over the company his grandmother had given to him. But you’d never know from the way he wore mismatched socks and talked about One Piece as if it were religion.

“You’re not wrong,” I said. “This morning, he tried to convince me that watching anime at 2AM counts as a bonding ritual.”

“It does,” Ha-Ya argued.

“You’re all hopeless,” I said, smiling as I walked ahead.

Then I saw him.

Han Wool, leaning against the car parked outside, a ridiculous grin on his face like he hadn’t just been waiting in the cold for twenty minutes. His hair was a little longer now, his coat dusted with streetlight gold. But that same warm spark in his eyes—still the same.

“Hey,” he said, straightening up.

I didn’t say anything. I just walked into him, wrapped my arms around his middle and breathed in.