A silver sedan pulls over beside a well lit establishment, coming out of the passenger side is a rather sleepy Giselle. She thanks the uber driver before completely closing the door and struts her way inside a busy pub.

As she makes a bee line towards the bar of the familiar establishment, she wonders why she’s here at the crack of midnight, during her downtime of all days.

“Oh thankgod, you’re finally here” she hears the bartender say when the doctor finally reached the bar area.

Giselle sees a blonde figure that’s barely sitting at one of the stools, as the upper half of her body leans over the counter top, a hand stretching out reaching for the beer hose behind the bar counter. As the blonde haphazardly sprays beer directly in to . Giselle couldn’t help but palm her face at the embarrassing display.

“Winter!” She calls the drunken doctor out in a reprimanding tone.

Like a deer caught caught in headlights, the blonde doctor stops whatever it is that she’s doing, but instead of facing the source of the familiar voice, she glares at the bartender behind the counter.

“You called Gigi? No fair!” She slurs her words but manages to say at the stressed bartender.

Rolling her eyes before grabbing Winter and makes her sits her upright, “You’re already wasted and clearly out of your mind to play with pub property, you’re lucky Johnny didn’t call the bouncers instead and hauled your out in the curb” Giselle nags her.

“Hmp!” Winter just huffs like a child, she can’t win against Giselle after all.

The brunette doctor places her card at the counter for Johnny to take, “Her tab’s on me and feel free to charge a replacement for the beer hose as well” she says at him before turning her attention back to Winter as she helps her drunken off the stool, “Geez, and you call yourself a doctor, that you did there was unsanitary”

“But Johnny won’t serve me another anymore…” Winter mumbles as she leans over Giselle.

Instead of responding to the blonde doctor’s whines, Giselle turned to the bartender as they finally close the tab.

“Thanks for calling me Johnny, and i’m sorry about her”

The bartender just smiles and shrug, “It’s fine, you guys keep my business going anyways. And that’s the first time i’ve seen her that drunk, I didn’t even know that’s possible”

Giselle chuckles, “Yeah, been a while since i’ve seen her this wasted honestly” she bid her goodbyes to Johnny and surprisingly, Giselle carries Winter’s limp body with ease as they make their way outside the establishment.

The sober doctor sees Winter’s toyota land cruiser parked in the curb, she takes out a her own spare car key of Winter’s vehicle and hauls her drunk to the backseat and buckles her in safely. She then goes over the driver’s side and drives the car out of the busy street.

Once she’s a much quieter road, she glances over Winter’s figure through the rear view mirror. She clicks her tongue at the sight, she’s already familiar with her wasted habits from their university days that she already has her own copies of Winter’s set of keys.

It has really been a while since she’s seen Winter this drunk, the last time was during her finals in med school, as she was drowning in stress that time.

The younger had managed to calm her nerves during her intern years, she had gotten a lot of praises from her colleagues and medical seniors that she had gained confidence in herself. So she wonders what could’ve made Winter drink this much again.

They arrive at a gated community not far from the hospital, Giselle is taking Winter in her own home, she’s not insane to deliberately drive a drunk passenger at 1AM in the middle of the woods.

Giselle is already getting the creeps from that place during the day, she couldn’t imagine what the place looks like during the night. Up until now she questions the younger’s desire to live like a hermit.

The sober doctor finally parks the car in her property and throws the drunk doctor like a sack of potato in her shoulders as she enters her home.

Despite her petite figure Giselle manages to reach Winter’s bedroom and flops the blonde’s unconscious into the bed —yes, Winter has her own bedroom in Giselle’s house.

—

Groaning from a massive hangover, Winter tries not to stumble as she treads down the stairs. She can hear some humming coming from the kitchen and knows it’s the older doctor preparing their breakfast.

She sees Gisselle in the kitchen frying some kimchi fried rice —her go-to hangover food, the latter notices her figure walk in “Well, you look like ” she grins teasingly at her.

“Thanks” the blonde doctor deadpans at her. She goes over the fridge and pours herself a glass of water before sitting by the breakfast nook. “Sorry for disturbing your vacation by the way”

While plating their breakfast, Giselle looks over the blonde doctor, “We exchange hours of shift, and I’d forgive you”

Winter knows Giselle is only kidding but she plays along, “You know I follow my attending’s schedule, maybe you should talk to Doctor Son instead. One word from ‘The Giselle Uchinaga’ and she’ll gladly make way”

The brunette doctor rolls her eyes at her, she grabs the two plates and set it at the table, “Yeah, well I know ‘The Great Chief of Surgery Kwon Yuri’ would veto that” she jests before sitting across Winter.

The blonde giggles, “She still punishing you with graveyard shift from the debacle at the family gathering?”

“That was three months ago, and you were also my accomplice for that” she exclaims, taking a sip of her coffee before continuing to rant, “I swear to god her not punishing you as well is favoritism”

“Hey! Correction, I was an unwilling accessory to the crime, and that’s how she sees it” Winter teases.

“Whatever, just eat your breakfast”

As their playful banter halts, and they proceed to eat. Giselle glances over at Winter, she wonders if it’s alright to ask what’s going on with her lately. As previously mentioned, Giselle works the graveyard shift. So when she clocks in, Winter clocks out. They rarely see each other these past months. It overlaps sometimes when one of them does pre-shift or over-time but they’re both really busy to have a conversation longer than 15 minutes. So the older is out in the loops with what’s going on with Winter.

The younger looks like in a lot of stress lately, and she wonders if it’s the appropriate time to ask.

Winter can feel Giselle’s not so subtle glancing, she knows the older is dead curious. The last time she was passed out wasted was years ago, and she just knows her so well that she knows not everything is sunny in Winter’s life right now.

And it really isn’t, Winter had always looked forward to coming home to her secluded house every time she’s off work. But there’s this particularly annoying demon in her home that’s been the source of her headache these past few days.

It has been 2 weeks since they met —since Karina fell into her car. And Winter has been in a whirlwind of confusion, frustration and exhaustion with not just from work but home life as well.

—

With a fresh new pair of clothes, and feeling all much better from the shower she just had, Winter joins Giselle once again —they are now at the second floor balcony, sitting comfortably as they bask under the sun.

With a towel draped around her neck, Winter