BETTERSWEET

Ch.4

"Good morning, doctor Kim," nurse Lee greets you on your way in, her long brunette hair which is just a bit wavy, handing you a chart for a patient. "Hyunjung's got a kid with a broken clavicle in room 1 for you."

"Good morning, nurse Lee, and thank you." you reply with your very own greeting before scanning the charts.

Nurse Lee watches you study the chart attentively. "I've heard from Hyunjung, by the way. What you did before? Giving away your blood? It saved that kid's father."

"I was just doing what I thought was right." you smile, getting to the end of your patient's records. The kid's vitals seem to be fine, but you won't know if they need any further treatment or surgery without an x-ray of the broken clavicle.

"Not everyone would do that, so thank you for backing up my partner."

You look up at nurse Lee with a raised eyebrow. "Your partner?"

"I mean Hyunjung. She's my girlfriend."

"Oh," you say, thinking back on all the times you could see the two nurses together. They seem close but they were not exactly intimate. But then again you've never seen them outside of work. "I never noticed that you were dating..."

"Well, we don't like to make a show of it. It's not like we kiss in the hallways for everyone to see," nurse Lee giggles happily. "But yes, we've been together for... half a year now, if I remember correctly."

"That's amazing. I hope everything goes well for the both of you."

"Thank you," nurse Lee gives you a wide smile. "Say, did something good happened to you?"

"Whatever do you mean?"

"What you're doing right now. You never really stop to say hi back when I greet you or make small talk with me before. When we do exchange a few words, it's always just about work, you know."

"Something good..." you drawl, looking all the way back to when you are at your lowest point and you thought of ending it all but someone forcibly tugs you back up to the land of the living and made sure you would survive against your own desire...

But perhaps that was a good thing.

"...maybe." you finishes after a short while of silence.

"Doctor Jiyeon!" you hear a different voice pipes up, and hurrying towards you is none other than nurse Lee's other half, nurse Hyunjung. "Hi, good morning. Here is your patient's x-ray. Radiology just sent it over."

"Thank you, Hyunjung." you say with a small smile, looking the x-ray over.

"What's this? You're calling her by her first name? And she's calling you by your first name?" you hear nurse Lee whines loudly. Oh, right, you're still referring to her by her family name. Hopefully Hyunjung can fix this.

To your surprise, Hyunjung chortles loudly instead. "Hah! She's still calling you by your family name? I already made friends with her, we're on first name basis and yet here you still are, you're such a loser."

Nope, you think, Hyunjung is definitely not fixing it, she is just casually making it worse, maybe she even enjoyed doing it all. You step up, mediating things before it could get any worse. "Please, nurse Lee. You may call me Jiyeon as well."

"Then stop calling me nurse Lee. It's just Luda." Luda sticks out her tongue towards Hyunjung, presumably taunting her. In response, the taller nurse huffs, but otherwise remained fairly calm.

"That I can do," you smile a little, watching fondly as they trade glares. They seem like two women who love each other a lot, despite their obvious differences. "It looks like my patient's fracture is aligned, so I don't think they would need surgery."