The honk sound came from outside of their apartment building startling the two of them from staring into one another. Both scrambled away from their positions, Winter got up and walked in a circle with her hand scratching her neck, while Karina walked towards the front door, avoiding eye contact.

"I-I... I need to go", Karina nervously tried to put on her shoes, failing two times in a row from slipping her feet smoothly into them.

"Y-Yeah, you should go. Yes", Winter answered from her living room, "B-Bye! See you later!", she lifted her hand awkwardly as Karina unlocked the front door.

"Bye!", Karina answered mindlessly as she slipped her way out from Winter's front door. After the clicking sound from the door was heard, Winter just stood up, frozen at the center of her living room.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Four.

"WARGHH!", the girl bawled her body to the floor, hands holding her head into her knees, ashamed of her own self. "Winter Kim, you buffoon!! Why did you tell her that?!"

Karina, at the same time, ran her way towards the elevator with her cheeks still blushing red. What did Winter just say? The song is written while Winter is thinking about her?

Karina needs to slap her own cheeks a few times just to let her mind come back to earth. She needs to assist a surgery less than forty minutes from now and she needs to be sane to do that.

"Karina. You can do this. Push that thoughts away. Mind control", the young nurse said, making the gesture of breathing in and out, trying to find her own zen state.

She was glad that there's only her in this elevator, or other people might be eyeing her for being ridiculous.

*****

Karina walks into the operating room with a low sigh, ready to assist in the surgery of a heart attack patient. Thankfully, the thoughts from one hour ago didn't affect her much, for now.

She puts on her gloves and mask while looking over to her colleague with a focused expression. All of them are waiting for the surgeon to come in.

"We can do this", she says reassuringly to herself, before turning her attention back to the patient. A few moments later, the surgeon in charge came into the room and Karina immediately helped him to put on his gloves.

As the surgery started, Karina carefully monitored the patient's vital signs as their heart beat faster and faster under her watchful eye. She assists the lead surgeon with precision and ease, remaining calm even as the situation becomes more chaotic. But when the chaos is somehow more than Karina could ever imagine, the nurse feels like fainting.

Blood splattered everywhere, to the floor and to their scrubs. Bloods might be normal in every surgery that Karina ever assisted before, but she never saw as fatal as this.

"Get me the defibrillator!", the surgeon shouted while Karina scrambled to give him one.

Charge by charge, they slowly lose hope not until the heart monitoring machine makes that flat, loud, beep. Despite their best efforts, however, the patient passed away. Karina's heart sinks. She can't help but feel a sense of disappointment and sadness. Karina takes a deep breath and fights back tears, knowing that it's important to stay strong for the rest of the surgical team.

"Time of death, 4:34 PM", the lead surgeon announces solemnly. "Let's close up and prepare for the family's arrival".

Karina helps clean up the operating room, feeling a sense of emptiness throughout her body. While she's relieved that the surgery is over, she can't shake off the negative feelings associated with losing a patient.

******

Karina walked, almost like dragging her feet back to her station with a pale face. 

This wasn't the first death Karina ever encountered through her career. But with every death that she encountered, she can't stop herself from being devastated, even tho she is just a mere nurse, not the surgeon in charge.

"Rina? What's with the long face?", Irene came into their counter after checking on one of her patients. With a heavy sigh, Karina slowly put her head down on the counter, covering her whole face, "I assisted an intraoperative death".

Irene quickly put down the form she was holding onto the counter before she gently squeezed Karina by the shoulder, "Are you okay? Want me to cover your patients?".

Karina lifted her head, trying to flash the older girl a small smile, "I'm fine, Irene. I will be better soon".

"You ain't hiding anything from me, Karina. Everyone in our department knows how depressed you are every time you assisted an intraoperative death", Irene's brows frown worriedly. "I can help cover your patients today, Karina. I will be fine. Why don't you go home and take some rest? Don't worry about your shift. You got me and Aeri to back you up".

With Irene's earnest words, Karina couldn't control her emotions anymore when a drop of tears escaped from her eyes down to her cheek. She could only smile apologetically to the older girl as she nodded her head lightly.

"Thank you. I owe you again this time".

*****

When Winter heard the clicking sound from the next door that night, she immediately jolted up realizing that Karina finally got home from her shift.

She doesn't want to make the same mistake as she did three weeks ago. She hates not talking to Karina even for just three days. This time, Winter thought it would be better if she apologize sooner rather than holding it inside.

She put on her flannel before slipping on her sandals. One push to Karina's doorbell sends Winter's heart beating rapidly, thoughts and words flashed inside her mind. What should she say the moment Karina opened up the door for her?

When Winter saw how the space between the door slowly getting bigger and bigger, she started to speak, "Karina, I'm—" but quickly stopped the moment she saw Karina with a pale face. "Are you okay? Are you sick?".

"I'm fine, Winter. Just feeling a bit nauseous", the taller girl said with a weak deep voice, but WInter ain't buying it. "No, you don't look fine at all!", Winter protested, and when Karina was about to say another thing to the shorter girl, her body swayed to the left like she has lost some balance that Winter immediately pushed her figure into Karina's apartment to hold the taller girl by her arms.

"You are sick, Karina", Winter said strongly as Karina keep shaking her head weakly. "I am not".

"Yes, you are. Whatever you are saying, I'm gonna stay here for a while, and that is final", Winter said as she led Karina's weak body to the couch in the living room.

"Winter... You don't need to—"

"Not gonna hear you. Sorry, Rina. I'm gonna stay", Winter cuts her words. With that, Karina couldn't fight the shorter girl much longer as she felt the drastic energy draining from her body. She couldn't fight at all, and Winter here, with her, might be better.