Love me Sensei

Chapter 18

Oh shit. Oh fuck. Oh shit-shit-shit—

Myōi, Maria

Chaeyoung broke out into a cold sweat. No way. There must be another Maria Myōi in Japan, right?…Strong, traditional Japanese name like that…

She frantically flipped the pages to where a copy of the patient's driver's license was kept.

Oh God, it was her. Chaeyoung suddenly felt like she might pass out. This was it, this was her reckoning. Revenge was truly a dish served best cold. Visitors to the ER had to go through security checks to prove they weren't carrying any weapons, but patients bypassed that whole process. Who knew what kind of heat Maria was packing. The only thing that could possibly further upset the careful balance in her life that Chaeyoung  worked so hard to maintain was—

"Chaeyoung?"

A chill ran down Chaeyoung's spine at hearing that familiar voice. Heart in her mouth, she turned around almost excruciatingly slowly, trying to give herself enough time to prepare herself.

It didn't work. Chaeyoung's breath whooshed out of her in the most embarrassing way at seeing her ex for the first time in years.

"Mina" Scratch that, she was definitely going to pass out.

There Mina  stood, looking far better than anyone had a right to be under the harsh lights of the hospital. Little had changed physically, but there was something undeniably different about her. Something other than the angle of her jaw, sharper now than it was back then, or how her outfit screamed 'young professional.' It was in the way she carried herself, more self-assured and confident since Chaeyoung had last seen her, like she had found her place in the world.

Ah, fuck. Chaeyoung could feel the fissures in her heart crack open and slowly begin to bleed. She curb-stomped her emotions into submission and tried to smile, though it probably came out more like a grimace. "You look good."

Her ears heated up as Mina  gave her a slow once-over, expression giving away nothing as she did so. Chaeyoung became acutely aware of the dark circles under her eyes and the questionable stains on her white coat. She'd always known karma was a bitch, but this was just ridiculous.

"So do you," Mina replied. "You finally became a doctor, I assume?"

"Finally," Chaeyoung agreed, awkwardness making her tongue heavy. "I'm actually about to see your grandmother."

Mina made a vague sound of amusement in her throat. "Good luck."

Well, that was in no way reassuring. Chaeyoung ran a nervous hand through her hair. "What happened to her ankle? Did she fall or something?"

"Or something. She twisted it while paragliding."

Chaeyoung squinted at her to see if she was joking, but Mina's  face remained impassive. She cleared her throat. "And you?…How are you doing?"

"Oh, fine. Graduated university in the States, moved back to Japan, got accepted into a doctoral program," Mina  said offhandedly. "Something about being abandoned by someone you loved without so much as a goodbye really motivates you to succeed, you know?"

Chaeyoung physically had to take a step back at the hard truth. Talk about sucker punch. "I…Mina , I'm sorry. You deserved better."

Mina crossed her arms, looking unimpressed. "Do you know how angry I was, waking up one morning and seeing you had completely disappeared?"

"I can't even imagine," Chaeyoung said, her voice raw. "I thought I was doing what was best for you."

"I know why you did it, but there were better ways to go about it. Not running away from the issue, for one."