𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝'𝐯𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐎𝐧 | ᵗʰᵉ ⁱᵐᵖᵒˢˢⁱᵇˡᵉ ʰᵉⁱʳ

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑

Seri receives her third rejection letter from one of the many hospitals she's applied for an internship at. She doesn't give up hope. She knows that despite the nationality that doesn't quite match the descent of the name on her resume, there's some medical centre out there that's bound to accept her based purely on her grades.

She puts the envelope aside and calls out loud, head tilting towards the ceiling, "Alright, Han Taeri, ten more minutes and we'll be running behind!"

From the staircase, she hears a soft, "Mum, I can't tie my shoelaces."

"I'm not your mum," the twenty-three-year-old grumbles to herself before hastening to the girl. She's told Taeri to call her 'auntie' several times now but ever since she started pre-school, Taeri had been going around calling her 'mom'.

The five-year-old sits patiently on the stairs, her pink school bag resting beside her. Her two fishtail braids make her resemble Suah today. "I told you we should get the belcor shoes," she sighs like a grandmother.

"You mean velcro." Seri kisses the top of her head. "Okay. Breakfast and then school. Let's go."

The preschool is closer to Seri's university than it is to their house. After double-checking Taeri's shoelaces outside the gates and sending her off, Seri drives to Hankuk University's School of Medicine campus. She doesn't have classes today but she does need to study for her final exams for the semester. She spends fifteen minutes in the parking lot, answering calls from her family before making her way to the university's admin office.

The medical program Seri's a part of is international. It is also ridiculously small, considering how difficult it is to pass the language requirements on top of the regular requirements. Her batch has exactly four more students, one of whom dropped out after their third semester. They're all partly of Korean descent with an overambitious parent who wants them to become a doctor. Seri's just here because the universe decided to close every other door for her, sealing them shut.

Her friend finds her dragging her feet out of the admin office wearing a long face. "Did you get a study room?" Luis, who goes by Woosung, is half-Colombian and is aiming for Pediatrics. He's burly and brown-skinned, with a short, dark ponytail that matches Seri's and is two inches taller than her, which isn't much, to begin with.

"No." She misses the first semester when her dad would take care of Taeri so she could spend time dressing up for class and finding cute cafes to study at with her friends. They just don't have the time now. Her life revolves around her ward. Seri's been wearing the same three graphic t-shirts tucked into the same black culottes in rotation because they're the easiest and most comfortable outfit she can come up with. "They said they have a free room on the Business School's campus. I checked the maps. It's a fifteen-minute drive."

He sags dramatically in his red hoodie. "Beggars can't be choosers, I suppose," he grumbles and switches to English. "Alright. I'll let the girls know."

•✧•

When she had first joined Hankuk, (the only university that would accept her from the hundred emails she wrote), Seri had been relieved at how far the Business School and the School of Medicine were from each other. After all the theatrics she had done about wanting to leave, she couldn't run into Inha who'd definitely gloat and say something stupid along the lines of 'I knew it. Your love made you follow me here'.

Seri most certainly did not want to run into Han Taeoh even by accident.

So she kept her ear close to the ground, kept in touch with her uncle who kindly offered to look after Seri on days when she had too much to do, and followed the track of Taeoh's life while being completely absent from his. She knows his schedule, where he buys dinner from when he doesn't have the energy to cook, which hagwon he teaches at, what his hours are, and the construction site he works at when his classes end before noon. Sometime around the end of her second year, Seri had the sudden epiphany that maybe she was behaving like a stalker.