"This is a very generous donation, Ms. Uchinaga."
Jimin chews on her thumb as she watches one of her best friend's give her boss a check. A really big check. It was insane the amount of money that that piece of paper was worth, but when Jimin approached Aeri with a favor, explaining the situation, she was more than happy to give.
"It's for a good cause." Aeri dips her chin, a very sophisticated smile on her lips. "Not only am I donating to a program and a team that saves lives, I am also doing this for one of the most important people in my life." She turns to look at Jimin, "well, two."
Jimin softens, a sense of warmth spreading through her body.
"Fifteen million is a lot."
"Not to me." Aeri blinks, clearly unphased.
Dr. Kwon smiles, putting the check down onto her desk. "I'll pass your offer to the board."
"Dr. Kim stays and she's taken care of. That's all I ask." Aeri rises from her seat and faces Jimin. "You owe me lunch, Dr. Yu."
Jimin grins, "I cleared my schedule for the next three hours for you."
"It was a pleasure, Dr. Kwon." Aeri waves her hand towards the chief surgeon, "kick ass in that meeting. Don't let the big bad boys hurt my Dr. Kim."
The chief of surgery chuckles, nodding with promise. "Of course, Ms. Uchinaga. It was an honor to meet you."
Jimin leaves with Aeri, shoulders not feeling as heavy. Her arm is hooked through Aeri's with gratitude as they walk through the halls of the hospital.
"Thanks, Aeri. Really."
Her friend chuckles, snapping her wrist in a careless wave. "Please, don't inflate my ego. Besides, I meant it. I'm also doing this for Minjeong. I'll do anything for that girl."
"Me too." Jimin smiles.
Aeri grins proudly. "We'll show that poor excuse of a father that Minjeong absolutely does not need him. She's got us for the rest of her life."
Jimin's heart swells with warmth. She snuggled up to her friend, and they almost reached the elevator until Aeri's steps completely stopped, pulling Jimin back abruptly.
"Uh oh, uh oh." Aeri smacks her arm, "alert alert!"
Jimin looks up and meets Minjeong's gaze at the end of the hall. Her eyes widened, holding her breath as Minjeong furrows her brows in question upon seeing Aeri next to her. She makes her way towards the both of them, Mark at her side.
"Jimin!" Aeri says between clenched teeth, masking her panic with a forced smile. "What am I supposed to tell her when she asks—," her words stop when Minjeong is close enough to hear them, "—hi, Minjeong!"
"Aeri?" Minjeong glances between the two of them. "What are you doing here? Are you okay?"
"U-Um.." Aeri gulps, eyes wide against Minjeong's curious gaze.
"S-She's here to take us out to lunch." Jimin thinks quickly, smiling nervously, "are you free, Minjeong?"
Minjeong frowns, narrowing her eyes on them.
"Oh my god!" The three immediately turn towards Mark, "are you the Uchinaga Aeri? Of Naevis Fashion Line?"
"U-Uh, yes, that's me." Aeri says sheepishly.
"An honor, Ms. Uchinaga." Mark reaches for her hand, shaking it aggressively in excitement. "Your new winter line? Obsessed! And your spring line that's coming up? Oh my god, I'm on the edge of my feet."
Aeri chuckles, "thank you."
Jimin steps away from Aeri, standing beside Minjeong instead. They share a glance, smiling to themselves as they watch their friend get the full experience of Mark Lee.
"Your designs," Mark is expressive with his hands, "it's so new. So innovative. Almost futuristic, but even highlighting trends from the past. I'm mind blown every drop you release."
Aeri only nods, trying hard to keep up with Mark's quick pace. "And it's so environmentally friendly! Your brand has it all, really. Your jewelry is my favorite, for sure."
"Oh, you're too kind, Dr. Lee." She turns to her best friends to seek help, but Minjeong and Jimin only hold in their laughs, avoiding her eyes.
"S-So, Jimin. Minjeong. Lunch?"
"Sure." Minjeong shrugs, "the clinic is closed today for renovations. Chan hasn't cleared me for surgery yet either." A heavy sigh leaves her lips as she says so.
"Chan?" Jimin asks with a raised brow.
"She means Dr. Bang." Mark says with a finger pointed up, and a grin of mischief on his face. "Silly, Minjeong. Not everyone is on a first name basis with Dr. Bang." He laughs, a little forced, hand on his stomach as he does so. Jimin narrows his eyes at him.
"Oh, right. Sorry. I meant Dr. Bang."
Minjeong doesn't see the way Jimin's jaw clenches at the mention of the psychiatrist's name. This was supposed to be a good thing for Minjeong, and Jimin still believes that it is. But, she can't help but be jealous. Why were they so close? She's seen them hugging more times than she wanted to see. Sure, they were friendly... and innocent... hugs... but that is still a man's arms around Minjeong.
"Shall we?" Aeri clears her throat, giving Jimin a firm look.
"Right." Jimin nods, "Dr. Lee, I expect rounds to be done after I am back. You'll report to me then."
"Ay, ay, captain." Mark salutes.
Aeri brings them to a very fancy restaurant with a private room just for them. Yizhuo meets up with them ten minutes into their meal, apologizing for being late due to a lengthy morning trial.
It wasn't often that the four of them got to get together like this. Two surgeons, a lawyer, and a CEO, well there wasn't much free time between the four of them.
"This is the perfect time." Aeri claps her hands looking down at their food that had just arrived. Jimin looks at her with raised brows, a look of anticipation on her face. She glances around the table, noticing the excitement on Yizhuo's face, while Minjeong sported a similar look of confusion she had worn.
"Show them, baby."
Yizhuo brings out her hand from under the table, a shiny rock on her ring finger. In unison, two gasps filled the silence that follows after the shocking reveal.
"Oh my god!" Minjeong immediately takes Yizhuo's hand, admiring the ring for a bit. She looks between her two grinning best friends.
"You finally did it." Jimin is filled with pride as she nudges Aeri with her hand. "Holy shit."
Aeri chuckles, nodding her head. "Holy shit."
Jimin turned towards Minjeong when there was sudden silence on that side. She sees a teary eyed Minjeong, and the happiness radiating in this room made her heart warm.
"Congratulations, Ning-Uchinaga's... Uchinaga-Ning?"
"Ning-Uchinaga." Yizhuo answers before Aeri could. Her fiance does give her an amused look at such an eager response. "Baby, there's no way I'll pass up having the last name of the CEO of Naevis Fashion Line."
Aeri rolls her eyes. "We're still deciding." She gives her own answer to Jimin.
"I'm so happy for the both of you." Minjeong reaches across the table for both of their hands.
"Let's celebrate!"
_
"Has your father hit you before this incident?"
Minjeong blinks at Chan. She wasn't expecting the question. So far, the questions have been light, assuming that Chan was easing her into feeling comfortable in sharing things that were hard to talk about in general.
Well, everything was hard to talk about. Minjeong was getting tired of talking. She was tired of explaining her emotions to people.
"Sometimes." Minjeong shrugs, "when I said things that made him angry. When I stood up for myself."
Chan's eyebrows furrow. "And how did that make you feel?"
Her shoulders rise into another shrug. "I don't know. It just felt like a normal occurrence."
"What about the first time he did it?"
Minjeong blinks, eyes lowering as it blanks out onto the floor. "It stung." She shrugs yet again. "But I couldn't really differentiate between the pain on my cheek or the pain I felt from the words he would say." She glances back up to meet Chan's eyes, "so, the pain still felt familiar nonetheless."
"I'm so sorry." Chan tells her.
"Yeah." Minjeong's voice is quiet.
"Did your mother also hit you?"
She shakes her head, no. "My mother was... she was harsh, but never that cruel." Minjeong heaves a sigh, "sometimes I felt like she felt bad for me, but she couldn't do anything because she, too, was afraid of my father."
Chan scribbles onto his little notepad.
"I remember one time, my mother had apologized for my father. Told me to understand him and to just do what he wants so he won't be so cruel." Minjeong is spacing out again as she tells Chan, "that wasn't the case at all. Even if I did what was expected of me, it still wasn't enough."
She tries hard for her mind to not remember the past, not wanting those memories to play constantly in her head and relive it.
"Did you ever tell anyone?"
Minjeong blinks. "No."
"Why not?"
Shrugging, Minjeong is nonchalant about it. "What good would that have done for me?"
"It could have given you comfort. If you had told someone you trusted, they could have been there for you when times were hard." Chan states, voice soft and encouraging. "Did you have someone like that in your life, Minjeong?"
Her nod was subtle, and her voice got caught in her throat before her response came out in a whisper.
"Jimin."
"Jimin?" Chan echoes.
"Yu Jimin."
"Dr. Yu?" Chan's eyebrows bounce in amusement. "Well, that makes sense."
"What makes sense?"
Shaking his head, Chan chuckles to himself. "Nothing, Minjeong. I just didn't know you two grew up together." He ignores the look of suspicion from the latter. "So, tell me about Jimin. Who is she to you?"
"She's my um..." She pauses, blinking in realization. They hadn't really talked about labels yet. Minjeong thinks that they were way past that stage, clearly, but the technicalities still mattered... right? Would Jimin be okay with it if Minjeong stamped that label on her? Girlfriend? They surely weren't just friends.
Minjeong looks at the anticipation on Chan's face.
"I love her." Minjeong settles for what she knows, "she is the woman that I am in love with."
"Why hadn't you told her?"
"She would have worried." Minjeong answers simply.
"Of course. Wouldn't that be expected from someone who cared about you?"
Minjeong frowns. "Jimin already worried too much about me then." Her eyes downcast and her hands fiddled on her lap. "I didn't need to be burdening her even more."
Chan scribbles again.
"Did she ever make you feel like a burden?"
"No." Minjeong answers truthfully, "she was very kind to me. Jimin has always prioritized me over anything."
"So, you saw yourself as a burden to her?"
Her response was a mere nod.
"Would you tell her now?"
Her eyebrow twitches at the question. She hadn't really had any thoughts to, nor did she think that it was relevant at this point. It was a thing of the past. Well, besides the incident on the roof, Minjeong feels much safer now that she is no longer under their control.
"I don't know." Minjeong shrugs, "it seems irrelevant now."
"If it's something that still hurts you deeply, Minjeong, it will never be irrelevant to the people that care for you."
Minjeong only hums, and Chan moves on to the next thing on his list. The session goes on for another half hour, and Minjeong's half there and half somewhere else as her thoughts wander.
When Chan sees this, he decides it's enough for the day. Good progress, nonetheless.
Minjeong asks for the signature again, but like all the other times, Chan declines. Only tells her it's not the time yet. It was worth a try every time.
Before Minjeong leaves, Chan asks if he could listen to her heart again, and every time, Minjeong is more than happy to let him. Gradually, Minjeong notices that as the days goes by, each time he takes a listen, his smile gets bigger and bigger.
And for Chan, Minjeong feels happy that the sound of his past love could make him feel joy in nostalgia, rather than pain in grief.
To that, Minjeong is thankful.
"I'm glad that her heart was given to you, Minjeong." Chan whispers as that smile appears on his lips. His eyes close in reminiscence as her heartbeat echoes in his eardrums.
Minjeong's eyes turn glassy.
When Chan looks up to meet her eyes, his smile calms to a sweet one. "She's safe with you, I know it."
"I'm sorry, Chan."
"Why?"
Minjeong shakes her head, a tear rolling down her eye. "I'm sorry that you had to lose someone so important. And in turn, your grief gave me life."
Chan's smile never leaves. "But I think that's so beautiful, don't you think?"
Minjeong is a crying mess at this point, and she doesn't really know where the sudden burst of tears came from.
"How something so tragic can turn into something as beautiful and astounding as life?" Chan has always been someone who thought on the brighter side. "I know she would be relieved to know that she was able to help someone even though she's gone now."
"I would have loved to meet her." Minjeong smiles, "I feel like we would have been really good friends."
"Yeah," Chan's eyes are nostalgic as he nods. "You two would have."
Suddenly, the door opens abruptly. Their heads turn in surprise to see a panicked Jimin walking towards them.
"What's going on?"
Minjeong senses the anxiety in Jimin's voice, and her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She looks down at where Chan's hand still holds the bell of the stethoscope where her heart beats and jumps in realization.
"Oh, Jimin, no—,"
"Are you okay? Do you feel pain in your chest?" Jimin is immediately at her side, taking Chan's hand off, and motioning for the psychiatrist to give her the stethoscope. "Give me the stethoscope. I'll take a listen."
"Jimin, nothing's wrong." Minjeong lowers Jimin's hand, holding it comfortingly.
"Then why is he listening to your heart?"
Jimin's expression strays from concern, eyes steel against Chan. She steps between the both of them, pushing her hands against Chan's chest to make him take a step back.
"You know you've been overly touchy with her, and she's one of your clients."
Minjeong's eyes widened. "Jimin."
Chan only smiles, willingly creating the space that Jimin wanted to push him to. "I can assure you, Dr. Yu, this altercation isn't necessary."
"That's not how I see it." Jimin sizes up to him, "I've gotten someone fired for the same thing, and I can do it again, no problem." Her voice was threatening and scary.
"Yu Jimin." Minjeong grasps her arm, pulling her back and away from Chan.
"I'm so sorry, Chan."
Chan only clasps his hands behind his back, shrugging his shoulders. "You have nothing to be sorry about, Minjeong. I understand." He glances at Jimin's tense expression, offering her a smile.
"I'll leave you two alone to talk." Chan dips his head, before gathering his things and closing the door behind him.
The silence was deafening, and the anger on Minjeong's face worried Jimin. She stands there quietly, figuring out whether she should ask a question or let Minjeong say something first. Either way, it looks like Jimin was in hot water.
"Minjeong—,"
"You shouldn't have acted that way, Jimin."
Jimin immediately presses her lips together once Minjeong finds her voice. She heaves a sigh. The tension in Jimin's body soon dissipates after seeing the troubled look Minjeong gives her.
"Chan's been my friend for a while. He doesn't mean any harm."
"I didn't know that."
"Even if he wasn't, Jimin, you shouldn't go around accusing people like that." Minjeong frowns, but her frustrations don't stop her from walking a little closer, reaching out for Jimin's hand and holding it softly.
"Minjeong, did you forget about what happened last time? With Dr. Jeon." Jimin asks with raised brows, "if I have a hunch that something will jeopardize your safety, I will act upon it with no hesitation."
"You could just ask me if you have a hunch."
"That didn't go so well last time, did it?" Knuckles come up to softly knock on Minjeong's head, causing her to pout. "You're far too stubborn, my love."
Minjeong swats Jimin's hand away, "am not."
The older woman softens, deciding to not start a useless argument because she knows for a fact that Minjeong can argue endlessly that she is not stubborn. Which is ironic, because that alone just proves Jimin's point.
"So you're really okay?" Jimin says, the concern returning. "Why was he listening to your heart? He's a psychiatrist." She deadpans, face dropping and Minjeong can see the clear jealousy that the older woman did not bother to hide.
A small smile stretches Minjeong's lips. She takes one of Jimin's hands, raising it and holding it close to her chest, where her heart beats.
"This," Minjeong points at her heart, "used to belong to him."
Jimin raises a brow, clearly confused.
"My heart transplant. It was his girlfriend's..." Minjeong clarifies, eyes turning sullen. "He wanted to listen a-and..." Her words get caught in her throat as a sudden burst of emotion rises within her. Minjeong's eyes filled with tears, bottom lip trembling as she couldn't even finish her sentence.
Jimin's heart aches at the sight. "Oh baby."
Arms immediately wrap around Minjeong in comfort. With the warmth of Jimin's affection, Minjeong doesn't hold back as she sobs into her chest.
"I feel guilty." Minjeong says between shaky breaths.
"For what?"
"Living."
Jimin closes her eyes, shaking her head. "I understand how you would feel that way, my love. But, just know that this was a blessing gifted to you. The world needed you here a little longer."
"What about her?"
Jimin pulls back to look down at Minjeong, hand cupping her cheek and wiping away the tears. "I can't begin to imagine what Dr. Bang had gone through when he lost the person he loved most. You are that person for me, and I can only be thankful you are still here with me."
She hadn't realized that Minjeong had felt this way about her heart transplant. They hadn't really talked much about it, and it wasn't something that Minjeong wanted to talk about anyway. Jimin knows it must've been eating at Minjeong for a while now. The guilt.
"Don't feel guilty for being here, my love." Jimin whispers, connecting their foreheads together in a soft touch. "I need you to love life, Minjeong. With my whole being, in every way that I can, I will make sure that you do."
_
A/N: This semester is really busy T.T
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