❖ maximón treatment center⠀

@❛⠀◌ : nam eunhye。 To Derek, it looked like he had just slipped in between patients and that was his intent. He not only eyed the patient leaving, he turned as they crossed path and kept facing him as he watched them leave. The face did not ring a bell, but he hoped his would leave a mark, or that the shine of the badge strapped to his waist would. He also knew it was the type of behavior that was bad for Eunhye's business, police in this clinic was downplayed a lot back when they were on intimate terms. Ever since the break up, not so much.

He exhales through his nose but really cannot hide the smile. He makes a point to leave the door open as he joins her, like any good officer would do to save himself a quick and easy exit, or to ensure he would keep it civil.
"What brings me in is my addiction to this chair.” He sits at her desk and figures that lie is close to the truth, which has to be the view from the seat opposing hers. Their conversations, their arguments, their long and stubborn silences. What’s the use inventing a disease she will recognize as made up right from the beginning anyway. Derek just might be on the mature side this day.

“You know what is important?" He unlocks his phone and scrolls for a piece of information he received earlier, the longer dark bangs troubling his view, nothing unusual here. He rests the device on the desk and studies her face, pretty, pretty Eunhye. "Our tactical teams are missing a field medical officer and I would bet my left arm you have just what we may need in your staff. In you even.” He certainly did not come on recruiting duty and that was how long he could be on the mature side. “Who would be more inclined to join you think?” His said left arm reached on her desk for a shiny pen which he feels he’d love to leave with, adding to the collection of things he has taken from her office ever since they broke up. Operation exasperated ex was a go, but for his defense he was not sure what other emotions he could ask from her. He was not even supposed to ask anything of her, his exact words when he had underlined their too different lines of duty.

@❛⠀○ : derek wu。 Okay, so maybe Eunhye had been exaggerating about the amount of patients she had today when she'd told Derek about her availability—or her lack, thereof.

But she has a good excuse, she reasons. Eunhye still doesn't understand why the man insists on seeing her, and she doesn't think she ever will. Derek's always been the type of person to shamelessly state what it is he wants, before doing his damnedest to get it. And maybe once upon a time, it would have given Eunhye butterflies to think that it was /her/ that he wanted—but that time has long since passed, and it's all she can do to reply to his messages without openly shunning him away. And she tries—really, she does—but her attempts are for naught when she finds him in her clinic time and time again. For what, she doesn't know. But she does know that her attempts at discouraging him from visiting remain folly—better to just see what it is that Derek wants and send him on his way for whatever the hell it is.

So she's a little distracted as she prescribes one of her personal concoctions to one of her patients (that she's pretty sure is a few months fresh from incarceration, but it's not her place to pry), quickly handing him the drug and providing him with the basic jargon, the consent form—all that comes with the delights of running a clinic with questionable credentials. She's quick to send the man off, aware of the consequences of having some of these shady figures stay in her office for too long. The knock at the door serves as her excuse, and she calls out a "Come in" just as her previous patient leaves.

And of course, it's none other than Derek.

Instantly, Eunhye sighs, returning to her desk and sorting her previous patient's file without so much as a glance at her ex-boyfriend. "You," she greets, only offering a small nod. She'd expected his presence, but perhaps not this soon. "What are you in for? I assume you wouldn't be coming all this way if you didn't have anything important to be treated for."

@❛⠀◌ : nam eunhye。 Strolling past the pharmacy while fiercely looking for an ache feels all too familiar, and for reasons: Derek has been going down that path at least once a week, trying to come up with a good reason for the appointment he asked for minutes ago. To think he used to not need a reason to go see Eunhye throws him into confusion as to what decisions led him to cut ties with the one person he enjoyed sharing his free time with.

Nearing the clinic however, he crosses paths with someone he is pretty sure he saw in handcuffs no more than a week ago at the precinct, now free and strolling downtown. Now it hits him, the mild discomfort of knowing his ex usually treats the worst profiles this town has to offer. Sure, the hippocratic oath binds doctors to help and treat, but this clinic’s selective customer pool simply would give any officer a chill. And Derek considers his own mother might have depended on such places to get healthcare. Even he would not oppose that, but would gladly be stationed by the exit doors, to drive her and any other criminal, straight to a court of justice, free of charge.

He walks in and avoids the reception. Sometimes he was stopped there, by security unaware of his relationship to Eunhye back in the day. Now they would have a good reason to stop him, so he leaves nothing to doubt: he pulls his badge out and strides with determination in civil clothes, in the direction of the office belonging to his favorite doctor, despite their break up. He checks his phone in case she indicates another place to meet and really, catches sight of only people in casts. He cannot just claim he broke something, other than the number one rule of breaking up: not keeping on meeting your ex under fake reasons.

He knocks and listens in.