Hospitals are supposed to be sterile places — lifeless, clinical. Yet, every time she came, she brought with her a kind of quiet sorrow that clung to the air like smoke. I'd gotten used to it. The way she would sit there, eyes dim, voice soft, pretending she wasn’t breaking apart inside.

She never knew I saw it all.

The way her hands trembled. The way she sometimes seemed one word away from crumbling. And still... she smiled. Still, she fought.

I admired her for that. Secretly. Quietly. From the safe distance a doctor is supposed to keep.

But then one day, everything shifted. She came in — lighter somehow, hope flickering behind her eyes like the first stars at dusk. She looked at me and... smiled. Really smiled.

I was stunned. I had no idea why. Until I found out she had donated 10 million in my name to the hospital.

Ten. Million.

It shook me more than I care to admit. Why? Why would someone so burdened, so used to receiving nothing but scorn and dismissal from the world, turn around and give like that?

My heart — always kept so cold, so guarded — warmed against my will. I felt something move in me. A favorability meter I didn't even know existed quietly ticked upward. 60%, huh? How ridiculous. I wasn’t some character in a game.

And yet... when I heard her voice after months apart, that warm, trembling little voice saying, "Can I get to know you again?" I swear, my heart stopped.

I didn’t recognize her at first — she had transformed, truly. The weight she carried was gone, not just from her body, but from her spirit. Before me stood a slim, elegant woman, wearing wealth and power like a second skin. If not for that voice — that voice that still shook slightly when she spoke to me — I would have thought her a stranger.

The hospital director practically shoved me out the door, giving me time off I hadn’t asked for, smiling far too widely. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why. The girl — no, the woman — was a benefactor now. An investor. And they wanted her happy.

Fine by me.

She asked me for a meal — bold, unashamed. I was so stunned I forgot how to breathe for a second. When she reached up and pulled off my mask, and I saw the way her eyes widened — full of unfiltered admiration — I felt something inside me loosen.

Her gaze wasn’t filled with pity. It wasn’t filled with judgment. It was just... her.

And my heart betrayed me again — favorability meter rising to 65%. I was doomed. Willingly doomed.

As we left the hospital, arm brushing arm, I caught her staring across the street. A familiar figure — her ex, snapping pictures of her luxury car like a desperate fool. I saw her smirk, saw the fire light in her eyes.

And for the first time, I realized — she wasn’t just back.

She was here to conquer.

And heaven help anyone who stood in her way... because I sure wouldn’t.