The Sleep Habit She Never Knew She Had

San didn't say a word, but Yun-seo's guilt made her legs prickle anyway, and she stole a glance away from him. The memory of clutching that broom a little while ago—not stopping him, but actively egging him on—came flooding back, and her face burned.

"Our Dr. Ko Yun-seo has quite the noble principles, I must say."

"That's not—I still told you to at least make sure they could walk out……"

She mumbled the flimsy excuse in a voice that shrank into the floor, and San snorted, bracing both arms behind him. Leaning his solid upper body back at a careless angle, his eyes curved up at her from below with lazy amusement.

"Who's criticizing you?"

"Still, you're my patient. I have a duty to protect my patients' wounds from getting infected……!"

"And if I hadn't gone out there, things would've gotten ugly, wouldn't they? Those bastards didn't have a shred of sense in their eyes."

"That's……"

He wasn't wrong, so Yun-seo fell silent. Judging by the atmosphere earlier, it clearly hadn't been the usual empty threat. Without him there, she might have suffered something far uglier than a scolding.

Even just remembering it made her dizzy, yet strangely, she didn't feel afraid. It wasn't simply because the danger had passed—it was because San had been there beside her.

For some reason, a corner of her chest felt warm and fluttery. Yun-seo wiped down the tray with disinfectant cotton and casually turned her head away.

"Thanks to you, though, I don't think those men will come around for a while. And if you do leave…… I have the video from earlier, so we can handle it legally."

"My memory's still a long way off from coming back. And even when it does—if my Dr. Ko Yun-seo calls, I'll come running before she can finish the sentence."

"……Don't be ridiculous."

"You saved my life, Dr. Yun-seo. Of course I should." He flexed one arm with a playful grin. "By the way, did I live up to my size? Apparently I'm not all show, hmm?"

He thrust the taut, swollen forearm right up to Yun-seo's nose, grinning. "Want to feel it?"

"I'm sorry—what?"

"You need to check for yourself how solid I am. Otherwise how will our doctor trust me with the heavy lifting?"

The forearm, bigger than her face, twitched right in front of her eyes. Yun-seo recoiled in alarm, shuffling backward step by step.

"No, thank you……! Looking at it is more than enough."

"You've never seen it before, have you? And yet you still seem doubtful."

"I'm not doubting, so just relax your arm already. You're going to tear your wound open again."

"Then I guess you'd better feel it before it splits. Come on, hurry."

He was so relentless about shoving the arm in her face that she finally gave in, pressing down on it firmly with her fingertips. Beneath the hard skin, she could feel muscle packed in without a single gap.

"Well? Do I seem dependable now?"

"Yes, yes. Now would you please put that away……"

"From now on, just make me do anything that needs doing."

Only then did San withdraw his arm with a satisfied, easy grin.

Come to think of it, he was surprisingly perceptive about other people's feelings. Even just now—wasn't he breaking the heavy atmosphere with silly jokes, worried she'd wallow in guilt?

Thanks to him, the weight pressing down on Yun-seo's heart loosened a little. As her tension released and a small laugh burst out of her, San pounced on the opening with characteristic mischief.

"Ah, there it is. Your face finally relaxed. You looked like you were headed to your own funeral just a second ago."

"When did I ever?"

"Oh, about five seconds ago? Anyway, your face is so fair and gentle, Dr. Yun-seo, that when you get angry, it's honestly funny."

The warm glow that had been blooming in her chest moments ago went cold, as if doused with a bucket of water. Yun-seo's eyes went wide.

"……I look funny when I'm angry?"

"You scrunch up your brow like a puppy that's been wrongly accused…… See, there you go again."

A large hand gently cupped both of Yun-seo's soft cheeks. With his thumbs, San pushed up the corners of her mouth, forcing her into a smile.

"Smiling like this suits you much better."

At the sudden contact, Yun-seo held her breath. Over those heightened senses again, her heart pounded hard, thrashing wildly.

"So make me do lots of things from now on, all right? And you're not allowed to kick me out for not listening."

San shot her a furtive glance. Only then did she remember—he'd violated her warning by coming outside in the first place.

"W-well, as long as you didn't get caught, it's fine. And thanks to you, the elderly folks and I got help, so……"

Yun-seo, cheeks still trapped in his big hands, let her words trail off. Come to think of it—why had San stayed in her house until dawn?

She pushed his hand away and took a step back.

"Okay, hold on. Why didn't you go home yesterday?"

"Ah, and that's exactly where our conversation got cut off. You really don't remember yesterday?"

He let out a deep sigh, wearing the most aggrieved, put-upon expression in the world.

"……Yesterday? Why, what happened?"

Given how brazenly he was acting, it seemed the accident had been on her side. Yun-seo studied his face, anxiously wringing her fingertips.

"D-did I do something?"

"Well, yesterday I learned about a certain sleep habit of Dr. Ko Yun-seo's that even the village elders don't know about."

"A sleep habit? What sleep habit……?"

Instead of answering, San slowly leaned his upper body down. Sitting on the edge of the bed, his eyes came to a precarious level with hers as she stood before him.

There's a sleep habit I don't know about? Her thoughts tangled in a panic—had she done something outrageous to him in the middle of the night?

"Curious? Ha, you have no idea how much trouble I was in."

Whether or not he knew she was burning up inside, the corners of his mouth tilted into an easy smile.

"Wh-what was it?"

As she moistened her parched lips, his twinkling gaze dropped down along with them. That was exactly when an unfamiliar expression flickered across his face, scattering the playful mood.

San wrinkled his nose and pulled back.

"What? Did I do something……!"

It was maddening, watching a man who was always so decisive turn suddenly evasive. Before she knew it, Yun-seo had grabbed the hand of the retreating San. She thrust her face right up to his, determined to wring an answer out of him—and his expression froze solid.

After a moment, he turned his head aside and swallowed a dry cough behind his hand.

"……It was nothing. I called you a bunch of times, but you were dead asleep. There was no waking you."

"Really? You're sure nothing else happened?"

Yun-seo still eyed him with unconcealed suspicion, but San kept dodging her gaze, maintaining an air of elaborate indifference.

"N-nothing else. What else would you want there to be?"

"Then you could've just left. Why would you……"

He'd been staring at empty air this whole time, but now he finally turned his head to face her properly. The stiffness that had hardened his face melted away as if it had never been there, replaced by easy calm.

"Well, who was going to lock your front door? I couldn't just walk out with a woman sleeping alone inside. And going through someone's bag to find the key was even more out of the question, wasn't it?"

Ah, so that's why. Listening to it laid out, every word made perfect sense. But did that really warrant all that stalling?

"Then why did you phrase it so misleadingly…… You did that on purpose, didn't you……!"

Yun-seo pushed her lips into an indignant pout. Her red lips, brimming with wounded pride, swelled up soft and full.

In an instant, San, who had been glancing at her sideways, whipped his head away again. The sharp line of his throat bobbed once, hard.

"W-would you stop doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Those lips. The way you keep—doing that with your lips."

"You mean this?"

Yun-seo pushed her lips out even further, her voice muffled around the pout.

"Ah, damn it."

San squeezed his eyes shut and bolted up from the bed. He brushed past Yun-seo and turned his back to her, drawing in a deep breath. His broad, solid shoulders swelled and subsided, swelled and subsided again.

"San? What's wrong now? Are you hurt somewhere?"

"No, it's nothing. I'm perfectly fine."

When a startled Yun-seo pressed him urgently, he waved a hand at the air, not even looking at her.

But from that low, strained voice and the ragged, animal-deep breathing, something was clearly wrong somewhere. The way he stubbornly kept his body turned away was suspicious in itself.

Could his stitches have gotten infected?

"You don't seem fine? Let me see."

Worried, she stepped close and had just laid a hand on his shoulder when—

"Ahh, right, the village house calls are today!"

San shot up like a coiled spring, pointing frantically at the calendar hanging on the wall.

"What?"

"That's right, today's the twenty-second."

"Was it today?"

Yun-seo rose on tiptoe to check the calendar. Pressing her upper body against his firm shoulder for balance, she peered over it. Above the scrawled note reading village house calls, today's date was circled in red.

"Oh, so it is. But the house calls can wait until tomorrow. Your wound comes first, so for now……"

"What kind of doctor only has one goes back on her rounds? The elders will be craning their necks waiting for our Dr. Ko Yun-seo."

"But you still need your antibiotics, and……"

"I'm fine now. I can manage on my own. In fact, I need to sleep alone for a while. Ahh, I'm exhausted."

"Still……"

San whirled around and gripped both of Yun-seo's shoulders. Keeping her wide, bewildered eyes fixed on him, he began steadily steering her backward, herding her out of the clinic.

The moment Yun-seo stumbled dazedly through the doorway, San slipped inside without a backward glance and shut himself in the on-call room.

"H-hey…… San! Wait a minute, I have to pack my bag for the house calls……!"

"I'll guard the clinic very, very well, so hurry back."

BANG. The door slammed shut without mercy.