Second Arrangement

CHAPTER 9 - OLD FRIEND

ELLIE

I didn't realize Jackson took my tutoring session seriously. He couldn't teach me about medical jargons on my previous session, so he promised me that he would look it up and got back to me. And today, he taught me all the ones that he couldn't answer before. I even had to take notes so I could review them later. After forcing me to go to his place several days ago, I was a bit relieved when he switched back to texting and video calling me these past few nights. He was busy so he couldn't find time aside from my scheduled tutor time. He whined as he wanted to take me on a date but yet to find the time to do so. Even though he called me almost every day, he still forced me to update my Instagram daily. I didn't know why but somehow I got used to it, so it wasn't a big deal anymore. I was more wary of him taking secret photos of me and then posted it on his Instagram.

"Ellie?" I was walking toward my office when I heard someone called my name. I turned around and saw another doctor in scrub standing at the hallway. I frowned as he still had his mask on but he took it off when he saw my confusion. When I could see finally his whole face, I squealed in delight.

"Jasper!" A big smile broke on my face when I saw the familiar face. "What are you doing here?"

"Haven't you heard? I'm joining the conjoint twins case," he announced.

I frowned as not all surgery team joined the case. Usually only the pediatric surgery team and sometimes general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery team. Last time I heard, Jasper went to plastic surgery, so why would he join the conjoint twins case?

"Why would a plastic surgeon join the case?" I asked and he stared at me.

"Who's the plastic surgeon?" he pointed his finger to himself. "Me?"

I nodded, "Aren't you?"

"Noooo.. I changed my mind. I went to pediatric surgery. That's why I was called to join the team. This hospital reached out to mine since we've handled more cases so they wanted an expertise opinion."

"Whoaaa.. that's great," I beamed. "So, how long will you be here?"

"Maybe two to three weeks? Depend on how the twins' condition after the surgery."

I just nodded, "Then, I'll be seeing your face on morning reports then?"

He nodded back, "See you then? And what about grabbing lunch sometimes? It'd be nice to see a familiar face. I know no one else here."

"Sure," I agreed. "Text me whenever you're free." We went our separate ways after changing our phone number so we could arrange for the lunch as I've promised.

I was excited to see Jasper at this hospital. I knew him way back when we were still in medical school, but we went our separate ways during our residency. I thought he was going to pursue plastic surgery, but I guessed he had a change of mind since he was a pediatric surgeon now. It's been ages since I last saw him, so it was nice to see a familiar face in this hospital. Plus, hearing Mandarin again after talking in Korean every day was a bliss. I didn't realize I missed home until it hit me.

"I thought you won't miss the chance to work on those sexy girls," I teased him. I remembered one of the reason he was interested in plastic surgery was girls. Yeah, those girls who wanted to do aesthetic surgeries. Augmenting their breasts or lifting their nose bridge. Tummy tuck, double eyelid surgeries. Stuff like that to make themselves prettier.

"That was what I thought at first," he answered as he munched on his sandwich. "But apparently I was wrong. That was why I changed my mind. Suddenly those breasts .. Well, let's just say now that I know how fake they were, I suddenly lost interest. Before they were perky.. sadly they were... sagging," he moved his hands so he could gesture what he was saying about and I couldn't help but laughing at his interpretation. "That's enough about me. What brings you here?"