We are getting married!

Once upon a time, back ground character #1 and background character #2 spotted each other next to a trash bin outside the medical library in Charleston. What a romantic story trope...but no! Zero spark was flying! Simply, they were just 2 background characters roaming on campus having friends in common. If anything, they got on each other's blacklist and had a cold war over a yogurt, a spilled Diet Coke, and their sharp tongues every time they had a gathering with common friends. Life happened, they lost touch, Van moved on to med school, and Justin moved on to residency in different states and they were both dating other people during those years. Yet, sometimes, the universe worked in funny ways. Somehow, despite the two of them not connecting for 4+ years, Van decided to go into Justin's specialty. They both went through breakups with their exes and probably both became more cynical with love in the process :P. Their divergence from years back somehow went through a convergent evolution like Darwin's theory. Van's car broke down near the end of med school and she bought a new car before residency. A good test drive was much needed before committing to an 11-hour trip with lots of mountain drive to Chicago. Here came the universe with its random entropy...Two weeks before relocating, Van cleaned up her den and found a tree nut souvenir that Justin had given the friends' group many years prior. She thought to herself that she was never gonna come back to this region of the country, maybe it was time to repay the kindness with a small gift and he probably finished with training by then. Maybe he could share with her some of his residency wisdom before she embarked on this new phase of life. The fact that he lived in North Carolina during training made it convenient for a test drive from its border with Tennessee, in Van's mind. So she decided to get Justin a small gift and reached out for a test drive. Somehow, during that trip, Justin fed her some AYCE sushi, a tiramisu he made, some cider and Chinese steamed egg, etc...(that was a lot of food on a resident salary even before inflation) and somehow...time passed and he asked her out. After 4 years of long distance through the ups and downs of residency and fellowship, from the day Justin accepted his side job as Van's pocket attending and Van's biggest emotional support cushion :P...Here they are, signing up for a bigger life commitment. Sometimes, background characters get married too under the right life conditions. Sometimes, you find your significant other from decluttering your space. And that's their story.