Lost Jigsaw

Drunken Courage

"Whiskey. Neat." Lingling sat on one of the bar stools, and when the bartender put down her drink in the bar, she gulped it down straight.
"Rough night?" Lingling's bestfriend, Dr. Faye Peraya, had been in the bar waiting for Ling since earlier. Faye took Ling's glass and asked the bartender to refill it.
"Surgery?" Faye asked. Ling rarely calls Faye  out for a night of drinking, considering they're both always tired after their shifts in the respective hospitals. So when Ling texted her earlier, Faye came running into the bar.
"Nope." Ling gulped from her refilled glass. "Woman?"
"Yep." Faye friend turned to Ling. This is a new one, Faye hought. Lingling   has stopped   dating many ears ago. So when Ling's now drinking because of a woman,  Faye immediately becomes proud of Ling.
"Your date stood you up?" "Nope."
"Then what is it?" Ling asked the bartender to refill her drink again. The bartender looked at Ling in surprise, as if thinking, 'damn, who hurt this woman?'
"She's back." Ling  said as she rested he head on the bar, still holding the glass of whiskey in her and, "Orm's back, Faye."
"Who's back?"
"Orm." Faye stopped in her  tracks, and Ling  gulped everything in her glass once again. "Excuse me," her  best friend called to the bartender, "Just give us that bottle of whiskey," -
"What do you mean she's back?"
"She's back. She came to the hospital today."
"As a patient?" Faye asked.
"No, Faye. She's the new Pediatrics Head in St. King's," To say Faye is shocked with what her best friend said is the understatement of the year. Faye also gulped a full glass of whiskey, trying to process what Ling just said.
Ling, Orm, Faye, and Faye's wife, Yoko  were not only classmates at the university. They were the best of friends.
"So what happened earlier?" Faye asked. They were only in the bar for 15 minutes, and Lingling is already in her  5th glass.
Drowning herself in whiskey must've been proven ineffective. Ling's drowning herself in alcohol to numb herself, but how come she feels the pain more and more as he does? How did it happen that the more she drinks, the more she feels the pain in her chest like it was yesterday?
"Orm acted as if nothing happened," Ling said, gripping the glass tightly that for a minute there the bartender was afraid Ling would break it, "Hell, she even told the chief that we were classmates in the university."
Ling and Faye  sat in silence, drinking their whiskeys in their attempt to drown their thoughts.
"So what's your plan, Ling?"
"I don't know. I don't think Orm wants anything to do with me," Ling rested her head on her  palms, unable to answer and unable to think what she would do next, "I didn't even hear a single apology from her..."
"Aren't you going to ask her? Don't you want an explanation for everything?"
"What for? What's done is done." Ling grabbed the bottle of whiskey from her friend, pouring the alcohol in her glass until it was filled and it overflowed. Ling drank all of it without stopping. Dr. Peraya   knew that her friend's alcohol tolerance is high, but she'll sure be drunk once everything she drank starts kicking in.
"I'm not even gonna stop you from drinking all that, Ling" Faye said, drinking some of her own, "If I'm in your position, I'll be on the next flight out of here."
With what he experienced, Ling deserved some peace— even temporarily, and even if it came from a fucking whiskey.
"Did you know....." Ling trailed off, "..when she looked at me with that cold eyes, I knew immediately...." she drank again, "that she was not the Orm I once knew."
Like a whiplash, she felt the effect of all the drinks he chugged down tonight, all at once.
Ling tried to get up, but as soon as she did, the glass she was holding slipped, producing a shattering sound.
The glass broke, and Ling's heart did too. Again.
Faye called his wife, informing her that she'll be late because she had to accompany Ling and to drive Ling home if needed. The woman was completely inebriated, now sleeping in the bar.
That's what chugging 7 full glasses of whiskey in less than an hour will do to you. "Teerak, Orm is back." Faye told her wife.
(WHAT?)
"And she now works in St. King's with Lingling!"
(WHAT!!)
"I know! I had the same reaction. Anyway, I'll call you when I'm on my way home, okay?" -
Ling fumbles through the set of keys in her hand, unable to identify which key can open her apartment. Whiskey must have gotten her real bad, because she has a keyless doorknob that can be opened by a passcode.
Ling sat down and leaned on the wall, looking defeated. She would've called Faye who have gotten her in a cab on the way here, but she couldn't even find her phone.
The door across her apartment opened a little, revealing the face of the woman who peeked through the small opening: Orm...  Kornnaphat Sethratanapong .
"Dr. Kwong!" Ling saw her, and Ling released a smug smirk, "why are you here.... in my apartment?" "This is my apartment, I just moved in yesterday."
"Are you stalking me, Dr. Sethratanapong?" Ling was still drunk. It was a miracle she can even form set of words, let alone a question. Orm helped her up, carrying all Ling's weight on her petite body. She can smell the reek of whiskey emanating from Ling.
"What's your passcode, Dr. Kwong?" Orm said with her cold and stiff demeanor. "Passcode? No," Ling lifted the set of keys in her hand, "I can't find my key,"
"Dr. Kwong, listen to me," Orm  slightly tapped Ling's cheeks, attempting to shake some sense into Ling. "I dont need your keys. I need your passcode. What is it?"
"Why would I tell you?"
Drunk Ling was definitely getting on Orm's nerves.
"Just kidding, Dr. Sethratanapong." Ling said, leaning against the wall with eyes closed, "My passcode... I haven't changed it since."
Orm knew what it was, but refused to believe the woman in front of her . She tried a combination to unlock the door:
051195
Wrong.
052795
She heard the door unlock. Well, fuck. Ling wasn't lying.
"I told you."
Ling entered her apartment. Throwing her set of keys in the couch and her bag on the floor, this drunk woman might hurt herself if she wasn't settled in her bed right now.
Orm  was fighting the urge to enter, knowing that once she did, everything she built might fall apart. But the loud thud inside Ling's apartment decided for her, because 2 minutes later, she's running around Ling's apartment, looking for Ling.
She found Ling lying on the floor of her  bedroom. The loud thud was from Ling, who chose to lie down on the carpeted floor rather than her bed.
"What are you doing? Get up,"Orm said, grabbing Ling's arm and pulling Ling  up. Instead, the opposite happened. Ling pulled her down with her , so Orm  was now lying on the floor a few inches away from Ling.
"I didn't change my passcode in case Orm wanted to come back to me,"
She knew the effect of alcohol on Ling .
That was why she fought hard not to help Ling when she saw Ling having a hard time opening her door.
That was why she resisted the urge of coming inside.
That was why she was in a hurry to help Ling get to bed and go out of this apartment immediately.
She knew that when alcohol gets the best of Ling, she will transform to the most honest woman on the face of the earth, and that she'll be candid, saying things that only lingered in her drunk thoughts.
And this is a perfect example of what Orm's avoiding.
Hearing Ling utter her name made her feel things. She knew it would be a bad idea to come here, so she propped herself up and prepared to leave. However, Ling's hand grabbed hers and she pulled her towards her some more.
"Dr. Kwong! What—"
"Why did you do that, Orm?" Tears glistened in Ling's eyes, and not a moment later, her tears start running down her face, "Why are you acting as if nothing happened, bao bao?"
She couldn't look at Ling's face. She knew she would break down if she ever saw Ling cry. Orm tried so hard to ignore Ling's drunk musings.
"Dr. Kwong, go to the bed now.." Orm tried pulling the almost unconscious woman up but to no avail, "Ling, please get up... you have a surgery tomorrow,"
She immediately regret calling her that, because as soon as she did, Lingling opened her eyes and look at her.
Ling got  up from the floor to her  bed with Orm's help. When Ling's settled down in her bed, Orm covered Ling  with her blanket.
Ling looked at her, silent tears still running down Ling's  face. Arm looked at Ling in return— albeit there were no words spoken, it seemed like they both understood.
Ling caresses her face, "I missed seeing that eyes, Orm." Ling said and smirked, "I was so afraid when I saw you earlier and I couldn't find my Orm in those eyes."
That was it.
Orm  hurriedly ran out of Ling's apartment,
leaving Ling in her  bed. Orm  knew her little heart cannot take another drunk confession from that woman.
Tears have clouded her eyes, so she kept inputting her passcode wrong. She harshly wiped the tears from her face but it kept running down. Arm finally entered her apartment and she ran to her bed.
She cried herself to sleep that night.