Second Arrangement

CHAPTER 1 - THE SECOND MEETING

JACKSON

I woke up feeling restless and the rush of memories from the last 24 hours came back to my mind. The moment I opened my eyes, I stared at the blank white ceiling above me. Oh yeah, right, I was in the hospital. I remembered the unbearable pain in my lower right stomach that forced me to call Jinyoung. Luckily, he managed to decipher my call even though I could only manage to say several words. He sent his manager to check me and his manager found me almost fainted in the house and rushed me to the hospital. The doctor in the ER had me undergo several tests and took my blood before telling me that I had appendicitis and needed to be operated ASAP.

I had no recollection about what happened after that. All I knew was when the doctors checked up on me, I almost fell out of bed due to the shock. Ellie, who walked out of my life a year ago, was one of the doctors that handled my case. In fact, she was the one that operated on me. Talking about serving myself on a silver plate. Or operating table. Oh well, now she didn't have any excuse to avoid me, did she?

I lifted my head a bit and tried to search the room. I found her sleeping at my bedside, her head rested near my hand while her body was still seated on the chair. I winced, thinking how uncomfortable for her to sleep that way, but she rejected my idea for her to sleep on my bed last night. Okay, that was a bad idea, considering we just met again, but it wasn't like we had never shared a bed before. I watched her carefully. She was still sleeping. No wonder.. since she must've been exhausted. She hadn't gone home after finished my surgery and then she agreed to accompany me here. I turned my head and located my phone. I stretched out my arm slowly to retrieve it and was relieved to see that I didn't wake her up. Even when I moved my hand slowly and held her hand, she didn't even stir. Suddenly I got an idea, something to blackmail her later. I smiled when I saw the result and couldn't wait to use it.

ELLIE

I felt like being watched. It was a strange feeling, especially since I lived alone. But why my body felt like it was crushed by tons of weights? I opened my eyes and realized that I wasn't in my house. I was in the hospital. Then the event from last night came flooding my mind. Oh crap. I slept on his bedside! I sat up straight and found him awake already, grinning widely when he saw me awake. I groaned internally and hoped that I still looked decent.

"Morning," he greeted cheerfully. Too cheerful for a patient who had just gone under surgery.
"Morning," I replied reluctantly. "Did I wake you up?"
"No," he shook his head. "In fact, I had a very good night sleep last night."

"Probably it's because of the drugs," I muttered and then stood up and stretched myself before getting his chart. I noticed that the nurse didn't check up on him after I went into his room and I groaned internally again. How could I be so reckless just after seeing him again for the last 24 hours? I should've known better that even the wall in the hospital would talk. I massaged my temple and made a mental note to lessen my interaction with him after this day. I was still new to this hospital and I would like to be employed here at least until my contract ended, so I had to be careful now.

"Anything wrong?" he interrupted my train of thoughts and I noticed that he had straightened himself, looking concerned, probably because he saw the change in my expression.

I quickly schooled my expression since I didn't want to alarm him. "No, it's not about your condition. It's just the nurse didn't check your vitals at all last night. I'll ask the nurse to check your vitals and see you later. I need to change and do my rounds," I excused myself out of the room so quick that he could barely stop me. I dropped by at the nurse station and told them to take his vital signs and informed them to report it to the head of the surgery team.

"Really? I thought he asked for you," one of the nurses questioned my order. I cursed internally when I remembered that his members specifically told the nurses that he requested me since I was Chinese so they reasoned that I could explain to him better. Gee, they really fooled the nurses. That man could speak Korean even in his dream, so he didn't need a Chinese doctor to explain his condition.

I cleared my throat, "I've explained to the patients that I'm just a consultant here. The team can take care the rest of his stay here. And I've made sure that he would understand it."

They looked at each other, looking unsure for a few seconds before nodding back at me. I left them in a hurry to go back to my office, grabbed a new set of clothes and took a quick shower. Luckily thanks to the pandemic, it was normal to take shower in the hospital. They wouldn't suspect you of walking the walk of shame if you wore the same clothes as yesterday. I couldn't believe that I let him convince me to give us another try. But it was my own words. I've promised him that I would give us another try if we met again under natural circumstances. And we did. Did I make the right decision? Or should I bail again?