In A Lifetime ( KBTBB : Eisuke Ichinomiya )

Chapter 8

It had been a few days since that woman was sold at the It had been a few days since that woman was sold at the auction and despite it being my first day of work; I wasn't the happiest critter getting ready for it. I couldn't stop thinking about her no matter what I did. She didn't get bought by any of the guys who were in charge of the auctions like me so I wonder what kind of person bought her ...

"Make her your slave, make her your toy ... it's all up to you!"

The auctioneers cheerful tone as he phrased those disgusting words resounded through my head, making me feel even more miserable. There wasn't much I could've done but if I did something instead of just sitting there like a dummy, then maybe things would've turned out different.

"Anything can be sold as long as there is someone to buy it. That's an auction. We're only the sponsors. We don't have to think about the participants circumstances."

Those were Mr Ichinomiya's cold words as the explanation as to why it was okay to put that poor woman up for sale in the auctions. I know how terrible it felt to be put up for auctions like that. But it's so much more damn frustrating that I can only watch it happen in front of me helplessly. I mean, I can't do anything to go against them ... Why am I so pathetic?

Sighing for the hundredth time, I leave the bathroom and pick up the dress I'd prepared last night and pull it on before shoving my feet into the first pair of heels that seemed to work with it. As always I'd set more than one alarm, four to be exact, all at times between 4.49 and 5.03. Yes, they were all very specific but I had a bit of a 'mental allergy' with waking up at times like half past, quarter past, twenty past, etc so all my alarms were at extremely specific times which seemed to baffle everyone though I paid it no mind.

I was a quick dresser so I finished fairly quickly before moving on to do my makeup and hair. I'd settled with just putting it up into a ponytail so that it wouldn't get in my way before taking a glance at the clock which displayed the number 5.53 in big, bold writing. Good thing I only have to be there by 6.30. I grab the badge/identity card I'd been given and dash out the door and hurrying towards the hospital which was thankfully only a few blocks away.

Soon after arriving at the hospital, I realize that the whirlwind tour all the interns had been given was of little use; this place was a maze. Mentally congratulating myself for arriving a half hour early, I make an attempt to navigate the jungle of corridors and connecting bridges which obviously meant the hospital had been built in multiple instalments. I earned several knowing smiles and sympathetic nods on the way. They all knew it was the interns' first days. Eventually, I stumbled into an on-call room.

"Wrong room, sorry." ringed out a voice before I even stepped inside. "Intern on-call is downstairs, turn left at the canteen, go past the A&E then head towards Path and you'll find it."

I've been in the medicine field long enough to know that 'Path' was 'Pathology' and 'A&E' was 'Accident and Emergency' so I nod slightly before closing the door and following the man's instructions.

And eventually, after 10 minutes of getting lost, I do find it.

I frantically swipe the ID that's hanging around my neck on the polished door and it finally opens.  My first thought is that the place actually looks a lot better than I was expecting it to. Then I saw them.

Ahhh, second years! They're the buddy system right?

 

Yet, for some reason, they looked haggard and worn. Was internship really as bad as the 'old wives tales'? Was this what I was going to look like in 12 short months? The truth soon came out. This group were just finishing up their last 24 hours on-call as interns. Their elation was hardly subtle as they handed us their old, and our new, pagers. Their internship was over ... mine had officially begun.