Sudden Surge of Love

Episode Five - The Powerful And the Weak Are Already Decided

"So...come to me then."
Dr  Cha's tears dry up and she gulps as Kang Hoon's words register. Or maybe they didn't, because her first question was, "Do you mean move into your building?"
Kang Hoon lets out an incredulous cough and explains that he wants to work with her. Her phone rings and she gives him a hurt look before answering it.
It's Jin Kyung, and Dr Cha advises her that she is in Seoul dealing with stuff and will meet up with her later. After she disconnects the call, he wonders out loud if he's what she has to handle.  Her answer is to grab his tie and yank him closer. If he ever messes with her again, he's gonna get it from her. He crowds in further and asks how she plans to handle him.
She threatens to go to the media (which didn't work the first time). He agrees with me, and calls it a weak try.
He takes a deep breath and yanks his foot out. This throws off her balance, and with a shriek, she begins to topple over.

Kang Hoon reaches out and catches her, first with his hand around her waist and the rest of their lower bodies in reallllly close proximity.
She panics and begins to flail her arms, which he effortlessly  captures. Now she is leaning backwards, and the only thing holding her up is his hands around her wrists. Now she is really squirming; and he won't let her go until she promises to calm down. She finally nods; he sets her back on her feet and releases her.
She pushes him back, and he smirks. They now have a deal, don't they.  Nope, she turns around, writes her account number on a posty note, and slaps it on the shoulder of his suit. She snarls to wire her security deposit and promises to move out by the end of the week and never see him again.
She shoves his shoulder as she stomps out, to his amusement. Outside, she still has goosebumps from his statement "Come to me."  Inside, he's laughing out loud, much to the wonderment of his assistants.
He stops when he sees their stares, only to snicker again when he looks at his smudged shoe.
Dr Cha meets up with her friend at a dance cafe. A group is practicing the Lindy Hop while she dozes off on a nearby settee. A voice wakes her up. It's an old college buddy who has started this dance club, Woo Sang Hyun. He has arrived back in South Korea recently, and comments with a wide smile that Dr Cha hasn't changed in the intervening time.
He leaves to take a phone call, and Jin Kyung asks her about their previous phone conversation. Dr Cha sighs and says she will have to move her hospital. Her bestie gives her a packet of money to help tide her over. Poor girl, where will she go now
A sneering halloo breaks her out of her reverie. It's Dr Biatch #1, who plops herself  with the other girls, irregardless of their complete lack of welcome. How nice that a rural vet can meet her friends in a lovely cosmopolitan setting! Especially since her hospital is a few shakes of a lamb's tail from where they sit. After all, her dear friend has her own business out in BFE, so they can't meet more often.

"BFE" is a colloquial term for "so far out into the sticks that you can't even get Starbucks and the only color is green from plants, and there's no 4G network and your business is mostly livestock." All the horrors that a gently-bred hi-so evil doctor woman can think of.
Dr Cha is getting more annoyed but tries to tamp down her irritation as Dr B1 just keeps rubbing it in: cows, dirt, local ajummas setting up their ancient spinster vet on dates, etc. etc. etc.
Right about this time, CEO Hotness calls her phone; she swipes it no. How many call refusals does that make? I think about 30. You would think he'd be used to it from her by now. He tries texting, and threatens to begin demolition of her beloved hospital the next day.

She curses him under her breath, and Dr B1 uses it as proof that she is becoming a wild woman in the hinterlands of their country. After all, her parents are hicks too, so why leave that sphere? Jin Kyung finally tells the woman to shut up.
But that little push is all Dr Cha needs. She takes a deep breath and airily says to her rapt audience that she plans to be happy veterinary neighbors with Dr B1 in just a few weeks, and won't that be fun! She was in Seoul scouting locations, and luckily, found a wonderful place to set up shop. Now who's smirking, woman!!
Of course, the smirk only lasts until she's alone. Dr Cha breaks into self-recrimination and loathing. A smooth deep voice speaks behind her. She's at the new hospital, and Kang Hoon is nonchalantly checking the smoothness of his palms while flashing his shiny new footwear.
She ruffles his calm for a moment, but then bulls on. She will take the hospital as the price for saving his life, but only as a loaner. That irritates him further. Doesn't she know that the building is hers?
She understands that she 'owns' the building like she 'owned' the previous one. She will treat him like he is a bank and she is a tenant with a long-term loan. Or more like financial partners. Kang Hoon counters: will she be paying him interest?
He walks towards her, agreeing to her terms.  She nervously swallows; did she just make a deal with the devil? He grabs her hands and firmly shakes it. His eyes narrow as he stares at her wide-eyed face.
That night Dr Cha sits in her beloved tiny hospital and drinks a toast to her first efforts at independent living. She flashes back to riding her bicycle along the rural lanes, and her first bovine clients. Her memories morph into her human patient as the final operation in that space. And with that she closes her heart to the past and switches to the future.

Her new location is well-nigh spotless, but there is still cleaning, stocking, and a million other details to complete.  And she does it without any help. Where are her friends?
Oh wait, there he is, showing up a short time before the grand opening.  He walks into a silent space, ultimately finding her asleep on her desk. Marveling at her chutzpah at being a woman alone and passed out in an unlocked building, he sits down and glances at her computer monitor.
He turns back and rests his head on his hands on the desktop, the better to closely observe her face. Her eyes open, then widen even more. So do his, and they share a wordless moment nearly nose to nose.