1 CHAPTER ONE

Seoul, South Korea

It's been raining for the past four days straight, and it hasn't stopped. Not even for a moment.

Seoul looks beautiful at night. The lights brighten the city even on a bad day like this. The high buildings look like giants compared to the busy people with umbrellas in various colors hurrying down the streets

But nothing is as busy as the hospital during this week. People are running all around the place, often bumping into each other.

I'm sitting in a chair next to Ryu Bora as we watch ten computer screens at the same time. We're monitoring the cameras. Or better said, I am. Bora is already half-asleep.

Luckily, I have my hot cup of coffee with me. I take a sip.

I'm on the pause from hospital duties. Tonight, Bora and I don't comment the passengers like we usually do when we have extra task like today's camera monitoring. We're both exhausted.

In our few weeks that we've been apprentices, it has never been like this. We usually stay for eight hours and then we're free.

However, In the last three days I stayed in the hospital for fourteen hours every day. Almost double the amount than I should. And I also might've drank around five cups of coffee more than a normal person should consume per day. I'm starting to think I've developed an addiction. It's always dark, and without sugar. Sugar is bad for my health. But that's not the only reason.

I try to avoid sugar or anything that's fatty because onlya few years ago I…

Let's just say I didn't look like this. But I'm over that period in my life. Now I'm new Clary. Better version of myself I would dare to say.

I only have few more minutes before I have to check on Mrs Go Areum, and other one hundred and twenty six patients I'm responsible for.

Bora is on information-desk duty so she has to sit for eight hours a day while I have to walk around the hospital asking everyone if they're okay.

In other words I'm playing a psychiatrist not a doctor, an occupation I'm actually preparing for. I only have two more years in university and then I'm free to have actual fun. To have a purpose, to save people's lives.

But like I said, there's two more years utill that. I'm okay with that though. I want to be the best doctor I could possibly be so I can save as many lives as I can.

I take a last sip of my dark coffee and throw a paper cup in the trashcan.

"I'm off to work. Can you drive me home tonight?" I ask Bora whose eyelids are already closing from lack of sleep.

"Sorry, Clary, I can't," she says, and I notice she still has small problems with pronouncing my name correctly. I'm American, but I'm also Korean. She clarifies, "I'm going to visit my parents in Busan tonight. I already got approved for a day off tomorrow."

Oh, she's lucky. I see my parents only a few times a year. I used to live in America with my American dad and Korean mom until it was time for me to decide what I wanted to do next in my life. For some people it's becoming a teacher, for some a singer or musician, maybe journalist, but for me this is it. I want to be a doctor.

So I moved to Seoul. With my straight A's it was easy to get into the best medical school in the country, maybe among ten best medical schools in the world. So here I am. I'm supposed to finish my third year in a few months but before that I have to finish 45 days of apprenticeship. And if we leave out the fact I'm chronically tired, it's fun. Bora is a big help because she's funny. She always makes the silliest comments that make me laugh, although a lot of them aren't actually that funny. I just want some reason to smile.

I put on my white hospital coat that doctors wear and I feel proud every time I have a chance to wear it.

I give Bora wide smile and just shrug it off. "Oh, don't worry. I'll just take a cab. Good night and have a safe trip."

I take my notebook with notes about patients and leave the room.

I start from room one.

I knock on the doors, when I hear yes I go in and I stay in there for few minutes. I talk with every patient, getting to know him and then I leave. Some that are here for a week or longer know my name. And some that are really sick often replace me for their daughters.

Some just need someone to talk to, others want someone who will listen to them talking about their children or youth for hours. But luckily I don't have enough time to talk that long with every single one of them so I'm out of the rooms in under five minutes at most.

Not all of them are bad, even though they're mostly old. Mrs Song is actually pretty sweet grandmother that has five cats. Ra, Eu, Bo, Aru and Soo.

When I first got in the hospital and met Bora she told me the only good part about our job is the opportunity to meet new people, especially if we're lucky enough to meet some celebrities. For now, neither of us had that luck.

I stopped hoping after the third day, Bora hasn't. She swears she will marry an idol one day. You know those people who are usually really good at singing and dancing? They often appear on TV and they're easily recognized by their looks? Doesn't matter if you don't, when you see them, you'll know it.

And oh, I almost forgot. They're followed by the mass of screaming fans trying to tear their clothes off 24/7. There are days when I envy them.

I mean who doesn't? They have it all, the whole world on the palm of their hand. Sometimes it seems that we ordinary people are merely mortals standing next to gods.

But most of the time I pity them.

Having a camera following my every move? No thank you. I respect my privacy way too much to ever do that to my life.

And when I watch TV and I see hundreds of cases where they starve themselves because their companies want them to be perfect barbies and kens? I feel sick every single time.

Not just because I'm learning to become a doctor who knows that's not good for your body but also because my mother always told me that beauty is inside out. Not the other way around.

Believe me when I tell you, I know more about being teased, made fun of than most people.

And I was once a little girl who got hurt by mean peoples' mean comments.

Once upon a time I was "the fat girl". And then it all changed. And that's one change that happened to me I regret.

I starved myself because of other people's opinions.

Since then I promised myself I will never let anyone else control me the way those people control me back then. When I did that, I've realized how better life is when you stop trying to please everyone. And that's the best change I made about myself. I changed my mindset.

I'm finally done with all the rooms. It usually takes me about five hours but today it took six. Few patients were feeling especially in a mood to talk.

I smile at the doctors passing me but they don't pay attention. I do it anyway because it's polite thing to do.

I don't know how I even have strength to smile when I know I have to work for two more hours monitoring the cameras.

I also don't have a clue why I had to be assigned to a hospital that's lacking staff members. I'm going to be a doctor not a tech guy.

When I enter the monitoring room I left Bora in six hours ago, she's no longer there. Her shift ends at eight and I check the clock on the wall.

7PM.

I stretch and sit on a leather armchair in front of the computer screens. At least the hospital made sure they're comfortable. I see a bag of chips on the table and I decide to take a few bites.

As I eat I check the cameras. Everything looks fine. All hallways are clear, no one is fainting or calling for help.

Lobby is full like always though.

The rooftop is full of water because of the rain and a guy is standing on the railing, on the side that's facing the street.

Waiting room is full of impatient families.

The only sound is made by a clock on the wall above the doors.

Tik-tok. Tik-tok.

I'm about to put another piece of chips in my mouth when my eyes dart back to the screen.

The rooftop, the rain, the guy.

I immediately drop the bag of chips on the floor and my legs move on their own.

I run out of the room as fast as I can. Thank God I'm wearing sneakers instead of white hospital slippers. I even push few people aside and I momentarily yell them apologies on the way.

I'm currently on the fifth floor. When I see the elevator doors close before my eyes I look around. "I don't have time to wait for another one!" I shriek.

I decide then and there to use emergency stairs to climb ten floors up. I don't feel tired anymore. I don't even feel the pain in my legs. I just run up the staircase until I see the rooftop doors.

I open them with force and the veil of rain stands between me and the guy on the railing.

I barely see him through the rain, but he's definitely there. And when I locate him I don't care about the rain any longer.

In under a second I'm wet to the bones. My black T-shirt sticks to my body and my black hair sticks to my face.

"HEY!" I yell trying to make him hear my voice over the rain. "Stop!"

I'm almost by his side and he turns his head in my direction.

His dark hair sticks to his forehead and I stop in my tracks when I see his face. I'm two or three meters away. My shoes are completely drowned, water reaching my ankles.

We both stare at each other and I can't believe what I'm seeing.

I never thought this would be the way I meet my first celebrity.

If I take back what I said to Bora the first day I came to this hospital, maybe this event will be erased from existence.

I take it all back.

I don't want to meet anyone famous at the hospital, ever again.

But the moment doesn't magically go away.

The sky is still gray, and Park Jimin and I are both still standing in the rain.

To be continued...