"The terrace," he spoke quietly, searching her face in the silver light. "When I closed my eyes in the ICU... I saw you. And when you stood in my doorway, you spoke like you lived every second of my life. How is it possible?"
Se-na deflected smoothly, her face composed despite her pounding heart. "Do Ra-ik-shi... asking about the terrace is pretty nonsensical, don't you think? The whole world knows the height of your building. You are a public figure in the media...you are no less famous than a government minister. So I am quite confused as to why that specific detail is triggering you so much..."
Ra-ik looked at her, his voice dropping into a low, quiet murmur. "The way you said it was what triggered me..."
Se-na's fingers tightened against her coat sleeves, her subtle flush masked under her remaining clinical shield, she ignored what he said and continued. "and for others… well…I don't have a medical explanation for it. For one night... while your body was dying and mine was unconscious... I was trapped in your memories. I felt the rain. I felt the cold glass. I felt your father's beatings."
Ra-ik stared at her, the gravity of her words settling over him like a physical weight.
Then Se-na kept talking. She started from the exact moment she fainted in the ER...completely masking her internal panic and the horror of watching him die right in front of her under a veneer of professional detachment. She laid out his life piece by piece, listing his most critical, agonizing moments so he could remember: the night he was a frightened little boy who wet his pants, scarred his bare foot on broken glass, and walked through that dark pool of blood; the day his father disowned him and his grandmother took him into her modest house; the second time, when his grandmother was rushed to the ER in his teens; and finally, the ledge on the hundredth floor.
As she reached the end, her voice lost its clinical edge, escalating into an emotional, raw complaint. "I was screaming out loud for you to stop yourself! But you just walked over, stepped right onto the rail... my breath was hitching and my tears were overflowing! I have never cried in my entire life! Can you understand? Of course you can! You lived it!"
Ra-ik was listening. He didn't interrupt her once. He sat in absolute silence, but with every word that spilled from her lips, it felt as though she was peeling away his flesh, stripping him of his last shred of integrity and privacy. His jaw clenched tightly, a deep, burning red flush spreading across his neck and face as his trauma was laid bare.
Suddenly, the telemetry monitor behind his bed began to emit a sharp, rapid chime.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! HR: 138 BPM -- TACHYCARDIA ALERT
Se-na abruptly cut herself off. Clinical reflex instantly took over...she jumped up from the stool, rushed to the side of the bed, and unclipped her stethoscope from around her neck.
"Hold still," Se-na commanded, placing the cold diaphragm against his chest above the white dressing. His heart was hammering frantically against his ribs, his breath coming in short, uneven gasps. "Take deep breaths. Your myocardial workload is spiking."
She immediately adjusted the flow rate on his oxygen line, opened the IV port to push a low-dose, fast-acting beta-blocker to suppress the acute adrenergic storm, and held his wrist firmly.
"Breathe in through your nose. Slow and steady," Se-na instructed in a steady, unyielding doctor's voice, her eyes locked onto the flashing red numbers. "Control your diaphragm, Ra-ik shi. In for four... hold... out."
She hit the alarm silence button as his pulse began to respond to the intervention. Gradually, the chaotic chiming ceased. The telemetry display numbers steadily ticked down from 138 to 112, then settled into a smooth, safe rhythm of 82 BPM, the warning light shifting back to a calm green pulse.
Only when his cardiac workload stabilized completely did Se-na lower her stethoscope, and a sigh of relief escaped her, though her eyes remained laced with genuine worry.
"Are you okay, Do Ra-ik-shi?" Se-na asked softly, stepping back slightly.
Ra-ik didn't look at her. He slowly pulled his wrist away from her grip, his chest rising and falling heavily, his face tight with raw, humiliated distress.
"I want time with myself," Ra-ik rasped, his voice rough and distant.
"Do Ra..." Se-na started, taking a step forward.
Before she could finish, Ra-ik turned his body over, shifting onto his side away from her and staring silently at the dark wall. "I want to be alone."
A sharp prickle of irritation burned in Se-na's chest. He begged and pleaded for the truth, and now that I tell him, he turns his back on me? He gets angry and acts like I'm a fool for answering him?
She gripped her stethoscope tightly, and turned toward the door. She was about to leave when the sharp, frantic chime of her pocket pager shattered the tense silence.
Se-na pulled the device from her coat pocket. The red digital screen flashed an urgent, high-priority internal message:
SYSTEM ALERT: EMERGENCY BOARD JURISDICTION UPDATED - DIRECTOR KANG HAS ADVANCED THE TERMINATION HEARING TO 06:00 AM. MEDIA EMBARGO LIFTED.
Se-na stared at the screen, a smile touching her lips. She looked toward the bed, where Ra-ik remained motionless with his back to her.
"It seems your Do group has officially started to revoke my license..." Se-na said softly, her voice calm and empty. "Well... I guess this might be our last meeting."
She turned on her heel and walked toward the threshold. Her hand reached out and pressed the door control. As the heavy glass door glided open, Se-na stopped right at the doorway. She stood frozen for a beat, looking back over her shoulder at his shadowed, silent figure. There was something more she wanted to say...a warning, an insult, or perhaps a consolation...hovering on the tip of her tongue.
Instead, she swallowed her words, stepped out into the quiet corridor, and let the door seal shut behind her.
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