Inside the dim room of the trauma ward, everything was still—except for the slow rise and fall of Jang Tae-hyun's chest and the storm behind Ra-hee's eyes.
She sat alone in the nurses' break room, a cup of untouched tea cradled between her hands. It had been two days since the surgery. Two days since she'd found out the truth.
Jang Tae-hyun. Baekho Syndicate. Presumed dead.
Now here he was—very much alive, lying in her hospital under a false name, guarded by silence and secrets. But what haunted Ra-hee wasn't just the danger of it all.
It was the look in his eyes.
He had the eyes of a man who had seen too much. Done too much. But beneath that darkness, there was something else. Something she wasn't sure she had imagined:
Pain.
Regret.
Loneliness.
Back in Room 5
Ra-hee entered with measured steps. The room was quiet, except for the faint hum of machines. Tae-hyun sat up now, back braced against pillows, one hand lazily flipping through a blank medical file as if pretending to be amused.
"You came back," he said, not looking at her.
"I'm your doctor," she replied evenly.
He glanced up at her. "You keep saying that. But the way you look at me…" He let the words trail off, his eyes locking on hers. "You're not afraid. You're… curious."
Ra-hee didn't deny it.
"What do you want to know?" he asked, voice low and lazy. "How many people I've killed? What I've done to deserve a bullet to the ribs?"
"No," she said. "I want to know why you said I shouldn't have saved you."
Tae-hyun leaned his head back against the pillow. He stared at the ceiling, jaw tight. For a moment, he was quiet.
Then he said, "Because I stopped believing in redemption a long time ago."
Ra-hee stepped closer. "You think dying would've redeemed you?"
"I think dying would've ended it," he muttered. "And that's all I wanted."
"You say that like it's peace," she said softly. "But to me, it sounds like escape."
His eyes flashed, caught off guard by her insight. "And what do you know about escape, Doctor?"
She paused, then answered quietly. "Enough to recognize it in someone else."
Memories in the Night
That night, Ra-hee stayed late in the ward. Paperwork sat untouched on her desk. Her mind kept drifting—images of Tae-hyun's haunted expression, the gunshot wound, the tattoos. And the newspaper clipping: presumed dead.
Why fake his death?
Why now?
And why did he look at her like… like he was tired of being alive?
The Danger Finds Her
At 3:12 a.m., the emergency alarms went off.
Ra-hee jolted from her chair. Shouts echoed from the hallway. Footsteps thundered across the tile.
"Security breach!" someone yelled.
She rushed toward the ward—her ward—only to be pulled aside by two guards.
"Stay back, Doctor Seo!"
"What happened?" she cried.
"Someone tried to get into Room 5. Broke the lock. Armed. They ran off when security arrived."
Her heart dropped.
Tae-hyun.
She tore through the hallway despite the shouting behind her, pushing past staff and guards until she reached his room.
He was still there—alert, eyes burning like wildfire, one hand clenched around the IV pole like a weapon.
Their eyes met.
Ra-hee rushed to him, breathless. "Are you okay?"
He nodded slowly, his voice rough. "They weren't here for you. They were here for me."
She grabbed his wrist, pulse racing beneath her fingers. "You need to leave. This hospital can't protect you."
"I can't leave yet," he said quietly.
"Why?"
His answer came like a blade wrapped in silk: "Because you're the only person who's ever touched me… without wanting something in return."
Ra-hee's breath caught.
And in that moment, in that silence between two broken people, something shifted.
She realized that this wasn't just about a patient and a doctor anymore.
This was the beginning of something deeper.
Something dangerous.
Something impossible.
Something real.
To be Continued...