When the Clock Strikes|Pi Han Ul x Reader|

(S02) Chapter 45

“Long day?” he murmured, holding me close.

I nodded into his chest.

He opened the passenger door for me like he always did, then slid into the driver’s seat.

“How was the surgery?” he asked as we pulled onto the road.

“Textbook. The baby was healthy. The mother too.” I rested my head against the window. “I’m tired but in a good way.”

He reached over to squeeze my hand.

“I got you something.”

I turned my head. “If it’s another keychain that looks like a dinosaur in a lab coat, I’m hanging it on your office door.”

“It’s a hoodie,” he said proudly. “With a stitched-on raccoon face. Because you’re always cold. And also, justice for the raccoon insult Minhwan threw at you.”

I laughed out loud. “You’re so stupid.”

“But I’m your stupid.”

And it hit me again—how peaceful life had become. Harin had her little café now. She smiled more. Her past no longer haunted me. She lived with aunty, far away from the house that broke her.

Ha-Ya and Woo Joon had somehow gone from bickering to full-on soulmates.

Even Dr. Yeri had started dating the radiologist we all thought was secretly a monk.

And me?

I was here.

With a man who never forgot to warm my socks in the winter.

A man who made motorcycle noises in traffic but remembered the exact day I passed my boards.

“I love you,” I said suddenly.

He looked over, slightly surprised. “Yeah?”

He reached over and turned up the volume just a bit—IU's song we used to hum when things were uncertain.

Then he said, “I love you too, Doctor Beak.”

And I smiled, because for once, I didn’t need anything more.
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The car rolled to a smooth stop in front of a tall glass building, the kind of place that shimmered with quiet elegance—too quiet, too elegant for a couple who usually argued over bubble tea toppings.

I blinked at the sight of the golden-lit restaurant entrance. “This… is not Harin’s café.”

Han Wool was already out of the car, grinning like a kid with a secret. He jogged over, opened my door, and offered a dramatic hand. “M’lady.”

I raised an eyebrow but took his hand anyway. “Okay, what’s going on?”

“Nothing,” he said far too quickly.

“Han Wool.”

“Okay, fine,” he grinned. “There were too many people I know at Harin’s today. Here, we can have some peace and quiet.”

“Peaceful for what?”

He blinked. “Huh?”

“You said peaceful. What exactly needs peace today?”

He panicked. I saw it. The way he did that tiny double-blink, like his brain rebooted. “Just… dinner. With my favorite human. Why? Is that illegal now?”

I narrowed my eyes. “You're being weird.”

“I’m always weird,” he shot back.

Touché.