The Odd Doctor Out | A Drama | S. 1

174 🩺 Date

Sitting in the on-call room, Mingi flicked through his phone idly, passing the time. Sitting at the desk with a paper in front of him, he'd been the only one in the room, until the door suddenly opened.

Glancing up, Mingi nodded respectfully, not recognising the person.

'Ah, sorry! You must have been enjoying having the room to yourself!'

Smiling politely, Mingi shook his head. 'I don't mind. Come in~. Are you on lunch?'

The stronger nodded as he came to sit opposite him. 'Sure am. Although I assume I won't be awarded much time,' he joked, rolling his eyes as if to say you know how it is. Leaning forward to look at the papers in front of Mingi, he tilted his head, interested. 'Are you a new reg?'

'I'm actually a med student...'

'Oh! What year?' he asked, cracking the lid on his water bottle.

'Second.'

The stranger nodded. 'I see. Sorry, I just didn't pick up that anxiety students usually emit.' His eyes smiled as Mingi felt himself blush a little. 'It's nice to meet you~. I'm Woo Dohwan.' He extended out his hand across the desk friendlily, smiling.

Mingi learnt forward and took his hand lightly, shaking. 'Nice to meet you too~. I'm Song Mingi.'

As they parted, Mingi felt his eyes catch with Dohwan's for a moment. Neither moved for a moment as they seemed to catch and time slowed for a moment.

And then understanding hit. Mingi didn't know how he could tell, but like other times he'd been at clubs or bars, he could just feel that this person was about to ask him out. Whether it was something he wanted or not though, was another story altogether. Sure, he'd had his fair share of casual dates, but within the walls of the hospital, it almost felt like there was a dark misty cloud that was looming over them.

But that wasn't to say that Dohwan wasn't nice or attractive or any of the things that Mingi superficially looked for in a guy for casual dates...

'Mingi Sshi... This might be very forward of me, but would you happen to be interested in maybe getting a drink sometime?'

There it was.

Mingi bit into his lip with a certain air of unsureness. At least when he was at a club, he was there to have fun and meet new people. But here, at work... 'Do you happen to know me?' he stalled, glancing over his expression.

Dohwan shook his head, smiling. 'Nope. But there's no harm in asking, is there?'

'No, I guess not.' What was the worst that could happen? They meet up once and then go their own ways, and see each other briefly around the hospital walls if the stars aligned in that favour...

But my heart makes it more complicated...

Mingi sat back, tapping his fingers against his phone in his hands. 'I'm not looking for a relationship. Will that be okay?'

Dohwan's eyes seemed to glaze over with a mild shock at the directness of his words, before quickly showing mere curiosity. He laughed a little, before smiling kindly. 'Seems fair. You're a busy med student after all.'

And so Mingi nodded, poking his tongue into his cheek for a moment before flipping his phone around and passing it to him. Even if I get his number now, I don't have to call him...

Punching his number in, Dohwan dialed his phone for a second, before holding it up and shaking a little before Mingi's eyes, passing back his phone. 'I'll call you.'

But just then, the door opened, and Mingi's throbbed when he saw who it was. Thanking god that their eyes didn't meet, Mingi stood up, pocketing his phone and ID that had been sitting on the table.

'How about I call you instead?' Smiling kindly, he stood up and pushed in his chair, taking his coat from the back of it and shrugging it on. 'I have to go back to shift now, but it was really nice meeting you.'

And with that, he turned to leave, running straight into Yunho, who seemed immensely confused.

'Hi~' Mingi said softly, before stepping around him and walking out the door, letting it swing shut behind him. He took an enormous breath of relief as he found himself safely and securely outside of that room.

Taking his phone from his pocket, he glanced at the black screen for a moment. It had been a while since he'd had a stranger's number in his phone. He wasn't sure how he felt about it, especially since it was a number of a person he could potentially end up working with at some point.

But as his mentor came striding down the corridor towards him, he pocketed his phone and shoved the past events to the back of his mind.

'Ready to get back to it?' the doctor asked.

And Mingi nodded. 'Sure am.'

~~~