Ji Hoo parked his bike in its normal spot and walked into the building. He had left that morning in a decent mood. He'd gotten enough sleep and JaeJae had been somewhat calm through the night. He'd eaten breakfast and had his normal cup of coffee. He'd even said goodbye to Eri as she had gotten up to take out the trash even though it was an ungodly hour.

Work had been the problem. When he had been on rounds, a few of his nurses had started talking once again. Rumors had died down about him and Eri when Woo Bin had brought her to work one morning and kissed her right on her floor. It didn't stop them from talking. They claimed she was seeing both of them. Now Ji Hoo could handle rumors about himself, but when they claimed that he was the father of the baby, that's when he lost his temper.

He hadn't been too thrilled when he had gone to lunch and everyone had been talking about the famed Dr. Yoon Ji Hoo losing his temper over a mere rumor. There had just been no way to explain. But when the name Woo Bin had come up, immediately they realized he was part of F4, and F4 didn't share girlfriends.

And his day had just gone downhill. A patient had come in complaining of stomach cramps that turned out to be appendicitis. Another had gall stones. And a third had kidney stones. One of the other doctors had a hard time with a patient that they eventually had to restrain. Since then he'd been in a foul mood.

He didn't bother changing clothes as he punched in Eri's code and strode in her apartment. She was standing at the fridge, her rounded stomach evident in the side profile. She welcomed him quietly then pulled the water bottle out of the fridge again. Woo Bin handed her a glass and she poured some water into it. Without a word, she brought it over to him.

He watched the couple as they made dinner. Woo Bin wouldn't let her do anything, swatting her hands every time she reached for something. She looked her him every time he did it, and Ji Hoo could see her mind working the reasoning behind it. He wondered what she had come up with when she turned back to the fridge, completely forgetting about the man at her stove.

She pulled out a cake and icing and went to the table in front of the couch. It was far enough from Woo Bin that he couldn't take the spatula away from him but close enough to Ji Hoo that she could talk to him. He figured she didn't have her hearing aids in but that hadn't been a hindrance before.

He sat in the floor and took the icing bag from her as well as the second spatula. She looked up at him as he tossed a dollop on the cake. She didn't wait for his question as she started spreading it evenly while spinning the plate. It was obvious she had grown up in an artistic family by the way she moved her wrist. He was going to help but she had the entire thing frosted before he got a chance. Woo Bin brought a bowl of fruit over, oranges excluded, and he started decorating the side as she did piping on top. Ji Hoo never realized how well they worked together.

Woo Bin joined them after setting the soup to simmer, sitting beside Eri and propping up one hand behind her. Ji Hoo watched the simple things they did together and wondered how his friend was handling monogamy. It was a little too late to ask him if he was ready to be a father, but he wondered how he felt being one woman's man. Casanova was finally tamed.

The doorbell rang, bringing an end to his thoughts. Woo Bin got up and answered the door just as Eri put a plastic lid over the finally decorated cake. Ji Hoo heard the woman at the door call Woo Bin way too familiarly to suit him and he looked at Eri. She sat on the floor looking at Woo Bin with an unreadable expression. He wondered how long it would take the other man to realize it.

"How are you this evening, Dr. Kang?" he asked as he escorted her in.

"I'm doing well, Woo Bin. How are you?" the doctor replied as she pulled her shoes off.

"I'm doing well. This is my friend Yoon Ji Hoo."

"I've heard of Dr. Yoon, and his current bout of temper."

Ji Hoo bowed and said a pleasantry. He wasn't the only one who had a temper. The woman standing beside him wasn't in a good mood at the moment and one wrong word would resort in a severe setback.

Dr. Kang smiled at Eri. "How are you this evening, Eri?"

Ji Hoo looked down as Eri talked with her hand. "She said she's fine." Fine didn't mean fine in their world and the woman wasn't fine. She had already picked up on the fact that Woo Bin had been way to friendly with the other doctor.

"Why don't we skip the formality and call each other by our names. It's so much easier," Woo Bin advised.

"That's fine with me."

Ji Hoo didn't miss the way Eri retreated into stoicism at the familiarity Woo Bin showed Dr. Kang. She looked ready to walk away from the dinner but he put a hand to her shoulder. She didn't even look up at him as she walked to the table and sat on the opposite side, making sure he went with her. Woo Bin was shocked but didn't say anything as he and Ji Hoo grabbed the food from the stove.

"What is that?" he whispered.

"She knows you dated her," his friend muttered back and watched out of the corner of his eye as he cursed.

They carried the food and dishes to the table as the women sat quietly and patiently. Eri reached for the ladle and poured some soup in each bowl before passing it around. Woo Bin distributed the rice as Ji Hoo got drinks. It was like a family meal they were so coordinated.

"If we're going to be using informal speech, what is your first name?" Ji Hoo asked as they were just starting to eat.

"Kang Kyu Lee, but Eri has been calling me Kyu since she met me so you may as well," she replied with a kind smile.

"What is with Eri's nicknames for everyone? Not that I'm complaining or anything," Woo Bin totally complained.

"She can't pronounce some of our names since Korean is her second language so she calls us by nicknames. And it's easy for her to sign nicknames that have a one word in sign. Kyu means standard so she's able to sign it easier. She uses the sign for the name Benjamin when she calls for you, and the word who when she talks to me," Ji Hoo explained, using his hands to express everything he was saying. He looked to her for confirmation. She nodded and added something. "When she's talking about our friend Yi Jeong, she calls him EJ since the first part of his name has the long E sound."

"You must have spent a lot of time with her to understand all of this," Kyu mused. "No wonder there are dating rumors."

"Ji Hoo isn't dating Eri." Woo Bin finally decided it would be a good idea to speak up. "I am."

There was a look of disappointment on Kyu's face that made Eri hit the table a little too hard when she put her chopsticks down. Ji Hoo didn't look at her, but Woo Bin was shocked because under all the stoicism was a little fire raging. They probably shouldn't have unleashed her emotions because she probably wasn't able to control them once she let them out.

Ji Hoo took some pork and placed it in Eri's rice bowl, making sure to tap her on the shoulder to get her attention. "You should eat more of this since you said you were slightly anemic."

"She's better off eating beef," Kyu said. "Beef has more iron than pork. I've told her this on multiple occasions."

"She doesn't eat beef because she can't digest it. I put her on iron supplements to help with that when she first found out she was pregnant. She also takes the prenatal vitamins you advised."

Ji Hoo felt as if his own expertise wasn't being regarded. He trained just as long as Kyu to be a doctor. So he wasn't a gynecologist or obstetrician. He knew enough about the human body and how it functioned and how children grew in the womb to know what Eri would need.

"Do you even know what she's allergic to?" he asked.

"She never supplied the information."

"What kind of OB doesn't know what her patient is allergic to? Anemia is common in women her age, especially pregnant women. She can eat meat to supply her with that iron, but supplement pills are welcomed as well to support her blood flow. Eri can't eat beef, fish, shellfish, citrus fruits or onions. She can barely tolerate dairy and refuses to touch peppers unless it's kimchi. That limits what meat she can eat considerably. That means some supplements are out of the question for her. If you prescribe them, you could kill her. You would know that if you asked her any of this on a questionnaire."

Woo Bin tapped Eri's hand with his chopsticks and forced her to look at his face. "Do I need to call in a specialist for you?" She shook her head and he looked back at the OB. "If you don't ask the right questions, you could seriously hurt your patient and her baby. That's malpractice. You could be sued."

Kyu held her hands up. "I'm not the one who made the form. I just do the checkups. Talk to someone in admin about that. I don't appreciate you attacking me."

"She's had enough hardships. She doesn't need a doctor who can't take care of her."

Caught between the two men, the other woman pleaded with her patient. But Eri's face was closed off from her. The only ones who knew how to read her were the men and they had already found their target.

Woo Bin put his spoon down and turned fully to Kyu. "If anything happens to her or that child, I will sue you for everything you are worth and make sure you never work again."

"You really don't want to make an enemy of us. F4 doesn't back down when one of our own is hurt," Ji Hoo added.

"Enough," Eri said even though she had been the subject of conversation. "I don't need anyone defending me. Bin worked hard on dinner tonight, and I made a cake since he wouldn't let me lift anything. I hope you'll stay and enjoy it instead of letting these guys run you off."

Ji Hoo thought it was funny because if Kyu kept sending yearning glances towards Woo Bin, it wouldn't be the men who ran her off. The pregnant woman would. Emotions were tough to handle, and jealousy was the worst.

"I thought you wanted to meet me," he said as he thought back.

"I did. I wanted to see how Eri was taken care of when I didn't see her," Kyu replied nonchalantly.

There was nothing nonchalant about that sentence. She was insulting Ji Hoo's intelligence again, and it was starting to piss him off. Under the table, Eri grabbed his wrist and squeezed gently. It was a silent request to rein his temper in. She knew it wasn't going to ease the tension if he didn't. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly while she counted on his wrist. When she felt his heartbeat slow, she removed her hand.

Signing I'm finished, Eri stood and took her bowls to the sink. Woo Bin followed shortly after, reaching over her head to grab four cake plates. She pointed at the teacups and he pulled them down as well as the pot while she put water on to boil.

Kyu watched the love and affection of the couple in the kitchen. Eri had tamed Casanova in a matter of weeks and he even understood what she was feeling. She had never seen the woman crack a smile or get angry so she was curious as to how he knew. She had known him a long time and a woman that didn't laugh or smile was usually off his radar. What good did he find in her?

There were plenty of rumors going around the hospital about Ji Hoo and Eri. They said that they were always together that they must live together. There was another about him being the father of her baby. And yet another said that Eri was so stuck up that only Ji Hoo could understand since he was also rich. Many thought the only reason the higher ups had hired her was because they didn't want to seem racist or demeaning. No one cared about her ability to do surgery.

Ji Hoo had been the real reason she wanted to come. If he knew Eri as well as everyone said he did, he'd be the best one to tell her what to eat and how to take care of herself. She had no idea the woman had allergies because it was so hard to get her patient to talk on a good day.

"Are you finished?"

She looked up at Ji Hoo as he stood beside her. He had his bowls on his way to the kitchen and was waiting for her reply. She nodded and he took them for her. She put the lid on the pot and carried the soup to the kitchen, handing it to Woo Bin.

"Why don't you sit on the couch and wait. The tea should be ready in a moment," Eri said.

Kyu couldn't argue because it wouldn't have done any good. She went to the couch and sat down. She took time to look around the room. It was normal with pictures along the wall and on the mantle. She spotted one by the couch and picked it up. Woo Bin looked very happy in the picture as he held up a sonogram photo. The one beside it had the expectant parents standing by the ocean, probably at Jeju Island. Woo Bin was doing the best thing any boyfriend could do; he was kissing Eri's cheek.

"Jan Di insisted on that picture," Woo Bin said as he sat in the floor. He took Eri's hand and helped her sit down. "It was right after she came back from France. We went for a benefit. It was cold that day and she said we should get the photo. Ji Hoo declined but got one back at the hotel. There's a group photo in the bedroom."

"Are your parents mad you got your girlfriend pregnant out of wedlock?" Kyu asked.

"They're more concerned about her than that. I had to tell them everything, especially that she was hearing impaired due to an accident. They're soaking it in as quickly as they can." He handled the question smoothly, but there was an underlying tension that spoke mountains about how he felt about the subject.

Ji Hoo wished the night was over already. His first impression wasn't a good one and he was ready to call it a night. He could easily go home, but feared if he left Kyu would put some moves on Woo Bin. Eri had never dated before and emotions were new so she might not be able to handle it.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Kang Kyu Lee finally said her good nights and left. Ji Hoo helped clean up before he too said good night and went next door. JaeJae wasn't happy with him because he hadn't fed her since that morning and she made her annoyance known by scratching at his legs. As soon as he put the bowl down, she stuck her head in. At least he could please one obnoxious woman.