firefly | zhong chenle

CH9

"love"

-

a week later...

It was 1:00am

She was on the floor, a bottle of milk in hand and a tired frown plastered across her face. For the past days, she's gotten a total of 4 hours of sleep and hasn't had a full meal yet. But it never seemed to stop. Patients kept coming in and even with all the firefighters knowing the basics of how to treat the patients, it wasn't enough. People kept falling ill and coming in, and not enough are healing and coming out.

At night was the rare time she got to relax as everyone has fallen asleep. Although there is always the occasional old man who wants a cup of water and asks her to get it.

Her vision was blurred due to exhaustion that she didn't even realise a silhouette walking towards her, blocking out the dim yellow lights of the echoey hallway.

"Arin" It was a man's voice. Her brain wasn't functioning well enough to match voice to name.

"Mhm" She responded, now slowly processing that this man was most likely Chenle.

"We're trying our best to recruit another doctor"

Arin chuckled wryly "You said that yesterday too"

"I know. But we're trying" Chenle mumbled "We need to stock up"

Arin yawned once more, before standing up wearily and following him to the elevator that took them down to the car park. Arin placed a mask over her face, then asking "Dont you need one? I'll go back and grab one for you if you need"

"2 minutes of exposure is fine"

Standing in the elevator, the silence was almost weighing. Chenle had his hands in his pocket, eyes stuck to the door of the elevator whilst Arin leant her body against the railing to prevent herself from toppling.

Chenle snuck a glance at her, in which he quickly veered his eyes back to its original position when their gazes met. He exhaled, slowly. He knew a part of him was worried for the girl, but he refused to let it show. So his body remained frozen on the spot.

Suddenly, the elevator rattled, the lights flickering. Arin clutched the railing hard to avoid collapsing as Chenle's hand grabbed her wrist out of instinct. He was extremely quick to let go when the elevator had stopped dead in its position.

"You're kidding me" Chenle groaned, slamming his finger on the emergency button but to no avail did anyone pick up. He then turned to Arin.

"Has there been patients transported here recently?" Chenle asked, eyes furrowed as he distanced himself away from the girl, who is now completely awake.

"2 hours ago..." Arin's eyes flickered with worry briefly "Take my mask. I'll be okay"

"Take your mask off and you're going to run 10km after this epidemic thing ends" Chenle ordered, folding his arms over.

"You need a mask. We can't have a sick captain. You run this place for gods sake" Arin frantically tried to persuade him.

"Shut it" Chenle snapped "Stop whining and let's work out how to get out of here before another patient calls you"

Chenle fished out his phone, attempting to get in contact with anyone but as expected, everyone was asleep. It was 1 in the morning so he didn't expect anyone to be awake at such a time. Arin had already slid down and sat on the floor, her head in her arms and her eyes fluttering shut. Even though they were trapped within this elevator, it was solace, at last. Away from the screaming and the crying and the begging. Away from the chaos.

Chenle managed to contact Taeyong, who was on his way from the other units station to help them. As he waited, Chenle leant his body against the railing and his eyes fell upon her body, curled up into a ball against the wall.

She reminded him a lot of himself when he first started. He wanted to do everything. Save people and run headfirst into the first thing he saw. He remembered one of his first missions, he almost lost an arm trying to save someone.

But this girl was different. There was an innocence in her eyes, like she's never been touched by the dangers of the world before. She smiled like pure clouds and the subtle dimples would show whenever she laughed. It wasn't because he's been surrounded by only men for years that caused the tiny spark within his heart, it was because it was her. He wanted to call it love at first sight, despite the slight hiccups during their first meeting, but he didn't want to fall for it. Love. It's more dangerous than fire in a profession like his.

She was indeed his ideal type. Pretty, smart, brave, witty, strong. He didn't even realise himself how much he was actually attracted to this new doctor who has just come to the station.

Chenle approached her, crouching in hopes to brush aside the stray strand covering her face, but was abruptly interrupted when the elevator door screeched open and Chenle frantically jumped away from her. Taeyong flashed a torch at Chenle, pursing his lips to suppress his dying laughter.

"Come out-"

"Sh" Chenle pressed a finger to his lips as he nodded at the girl who finally got some sleep after a hectic couple of days. Taeyong nodded in understanding, signing an OK hand signal and throwing down a ladder for when they were ready to come up.

Taeyong, being the proud father he is, chuckled, internally cheering at the thought that Chenle finally, after years and years, found someone he had interest in, even if it was just slightly. Chenle was the type of person to not give two shits whether someone else was cold when they slept or dying of heat as long as he was comfortable, so this was definitely a first.

"Chenles all grown up now" Taeyong clicked his tongue "How time flies"