a heartbeat away (just pull me in)

Three

Time in: 10:00 am November 3rd, 2021

Reason: Check up

Symptoms: None

The album felt silly in her hands, it looked silly. Ridiculous. Maybe Jiyeon should have wrapped it, but then it would have come off like a gift. Something she put thought into. What would Dr. Hyunjung think if she believed Jiyeon truly cared about her opinion?

On the cover of the album, Jiyeon was wearing a white dress with a scrap of black on the right upper part of the chest, and she was also wearing a silver choker necklace. She looked more like a rich antagonist actress than an idol, but that was the album's concept. Unnutural. Her jet-black long hair was in a wavy style. Most of her fans liked it better when she wore her hair down. That's also how she styled her hair for the appointment, not that she cared what Hyunjung thought of how she looked.

But, okay, she did kind of care. She wouldn't be such a success if she didn't care about what others thought from time to time. So even though Hyunjung was rude and arrogant, it still mattered to Jiyeon.

She played with her hair while waiting for Hyunjung, making sure it wasn't too frizzy or anything. The album was unwrapped, she had to ask Sojung for it a few weeks ago since she usually only kept one copy of everything for herself. Well, one of each variant (okay, two). Sojung always sent extra stuff, anyway.

Jiyeon had only mentioned it was for a new friend, to which Sojung annoyingly prodded her. But Jiyeon couldn't mention Hyunjung, her doctor. That would sound weird, even though it wasn't really weird at all. So, Jiyeon had to convince Sojung that it was only for a friend. In the end Jiyeon didn't think Sojung fully bought it, not that there was anything to buy. Hyunjung wasn't her friend in the first place.

Jiyeon stiffened when the door opened, then took in a deep breath and stood. She wasn't going to panic about this because there was nothing to panic about. She walked over to Hyunjung, who watched her with widened eyes.

"Here," Jiyeon said, shoving the album towards the doctor. "Now you don't have an excuse, you have to listen to my songs."

Hyunjung looked down at the album, opened her mouth but only let out a small hum of confusion. "I— uh, thank you..." She said, looking back up. Her cheeks looked kind of flushed, but other than that she seemed fine.

"It's no big deal," Jiyeon said, waving her hand off. "I mean, I have lots of them at home anyways, I just grabbed it on my way out. It's not like I—"

"Thank you, Jiyeon. Really," Hyunjung said again. She smiled, and Jiyeon stopped breathing for just a moment. It felt like she was hit in the chest or something. She could feel the moisture on her palms.

"Well, it's the greatest hits. I made sure to get it because it has, uh," Jiyeon couldn't really say best work, but maybe most popular work?

Hyunjung smirked, then said, "Your greatest hits."

Jiyeon rolled her eyes, turning around to sit on the exam table. Smart ass.

"But I guess this means I have to listen to it now." Hyunjung sighed.

"Hey! This was a favor! No one can resist the charms of the Kim Jiyeo—"

"Now I suddenly think of throwing this away; Or I'll just give it to Luda—” Hyunjung pretended to think about it, or at least, it looked like pretending.