The Odd Doctor Out | A Drama | S. 1

19 🩺 Mystery Man

He was nowhere, and then suddenly, he was everywhere.

Now that Seonghwa knew who he was, he was seeing him in every room he walked into.

From where he was standing, at the foot of a patient bed, he could hear Kim Saem in the next bed bay over, completing his rounds. His light voice floated through the closed curtain, cheerful and bright as he asked the child about how he was feeling, and when he spoke to the mother, his voice was soft and supportive and kind.

He refrained from using any medical lingo where possible, and explained words and concepts when it was unavoidable, all the while, doing a fantastic job at looking after his patient.

It was hard to miss the fact that when Hongjoong was in the room, it felt as though the person in the bed was his only patient, and he had all the time in the world to spend with them.

But all the time in the world they had not, and Seonghwa wondered how on earth he could seem too relaxed, calm and collected, when work was piling up around them.

Seonghwa was pulled from his thoughts however when Han Saem started wrapping up and began pushing him out of the bed bay. Hwa could barely manage a bow to the patient and her mother before he was shoved out -

And straight into Hongjoong.

The redhead immediately started apologising. 'Oh sorry! My bad! Sorr- Oh? Park Sonsaeng! Good morning!'

Seonghwa's eyes widened a little as he murmured out a little 'Yes, good morning...' Hongjoong seemed to be radiating energy, despite running off almost zero sleep and seeming so saddened just a few hours ago... He wondered whether whatever was wrong last night had been resolved...

'Morning Kim Saeng,' Seonghwa's mentor said, emerging from the bed bay. 'Finished with your rounds?'

Hongjoong nodded. 'Sure am. That was the last one. Off to my outpatients now. How about you?' As he spoke, he started walking out of the room, popping the patient chart in the slot on the wall as he walked past.

'Three more to go,' Dr. Han replied.

'Ahhh, I see. Oh! While I remember and I've got you in front of me. I'm taking tomorrow as a personal day, but I had a phone call scheduled with the OT team tomorrow. I told them to call me anyway, but I've got one hundred bucks that says they don't.'

Hand Saem laughed his throaty laugh that Seonghwa was still not used to. 'A day off?! That's unlike you... I assume I am the second point of call?'

Hongjoong shot him an apologetic look. 'When they ring, can you forward it on to my number?'

'Are you sure?' Han Saem gave him a questioning look to which the redhead shook off.

'Yes it's fine. They're just diagnostic test results.'

As the two continued talking over the patient, Seonghwa couldn't help but find his mind wandering. He couldn't stop thinking about how rundown Kim Sonsaengnim had looked last night, and how distressed he'd seemed before passing out within minutes. And now he was finding out that he was taking a personal day...

The more Seonghwa looked at his body language, the more he started to see through the happy vibes, and started to see a layer of tensity and worry. So there was something going on.

And yet, here he was, at work, chirpy and smiling for his patients, conversing as though everything was fine...

Perhaps Seonghwa was just imagining it.

Or perhaps, there was more to Kim Hongjoong than met the eye.

~~~

A/N: I wrote so many alternative scenes for this. Heckkkk