Boy Next Door ✔

Chapter 7

Soo Yun's feet pounded the stairs with all the grace of a sack of wet concrete. The springing graceful steps of a few floors earlier had long since disappeared. His rasping throat was as perched as a dead lizard in the desert sun. His head bobbed loosely from side to side with each footfall and his eyes felt heavy in their sockets.

An OR nurse had beeped him as he was parking his car. A fourteen year old girl had been hit by a car and came in with severe injuries. She had broken all the ribs on her left side, fractured her neck and her lower spine and her spleen. Her left lung had also been punctured. She required emergency surgery.

He stumbled into the changing rooms stripping all his clothes as he went in. He wasn't going to use the scrubs he had on. He ran to the communal showers and sprayed cold water on his body before wiping down and putting on clean scrubs. He got into the OR room just as the patient was being wheeled in, her mother clinging on to the bed, crying desperately. 

"Please save my daughter doctor." He heard her begging as he began to scrub in. He walked into the OR, looked around at his team and nodded at the anesthesiologist indicating that they should start. 

"All bleeding must stop guys."

"All bleeding must stop." Everyone in the OR echoed.

It took eight hours of surgery. A nurse kept walking out every two hours to notify the girls mother of the progress of the surgery. By the time they walked out of the surgery with the girl being wheeled out in a trolley they were all exhausted. 

The girls mother clung to Soo Yun, her eyes pleading.

"The surgery went well. Your daughter is being taken to the recovery ward. You can go with her, she will wake up in a few hours once the anesthesia wears out."

The mother hugged him tightly, singing her praise and rambling her thanks as she followed her daughter's trolley. Soo Yun walked into the night room, slumped on the bed and threw his shoes off his feet. There was something so great about the heavy exhaustion after saving a life. 

The surgical mask was suffocating him after a long day and he pulled it from his face and tossed it in the bin. He turned and saw the orchid his mother had brought into the night room once after he joined the hospital. His eyes settled on it for a moment. Beautiful. Fragile. Perhaps he should take it to home, it would be nice to have it there. He made a resolve to take it to his new home once the renovations were done. 

His body washed cold as he felt the pager buzz in his scrubs pocket. That meant another surgery to deal with instead of a warm bed and soft duvet. Couldn't the fine folks of the city quit getting into accidents for a while? After a quick call in he was in the still warm OR, scrubbing in for another surgery.

He left the hospital the next morning after working all day and night. His feet felt like they would explode, his body was sticky and his eyes stung. He wanted to get his car but a nurse told him his cab was waiting outside.

"The director called it for you, he said don't come to work tomorrow. He'll see you the day after."

He smiled bitterly, thinking of the director getting him the cab probably because his mother had nagged him. Bless her heart, he thought as he got in and slumped in the back sit.

Soo Yun could feel the tiredness inside him like a worm, slowly but deliberately draining his life. He was alive, but he wasn't really living. He heard, but he was not really listening. Everything seemed to move in a dragged pace, all submerged into a hazy fuzz that was his vision.

Insomnia had this effect on him; it turned him into a living zombie. He had been awake and working for the last twenty four hours. He hadn't slept the night before he came to work. His body begged and begged for him to rest. But he couldn't. He had to work; he had to finish what he started, for Soo Beom, or he would spend the rest of the night tossing and turning and stressing over it.

And then he would get the comments, the questions.

"Why do you look so tired?"

"Get some sleep."

"You look like you hate life."

"If you don't want to do it then don't.

"Soo Beom wouldn't look like this even after weeks in the ER."

Of course Soo Beom wouldn't look tired no matter what. He was perfect in every way. He thought as he closed his eyes. The swaying of the car and the humming of the engine soothed him and he drifted off to sleep.

The cab driver shook him awake when they got to his apartment complex and he looked at the building. His eyes still heavy from sleep.

"We're here young man." The cab driver repeated.

He lifted himself from the sit and pulled out his wallet. He handed the driver a note and told him to keep the change. He picked up his bag and walked out of the cab. He walked into the building and said hi to the doorman then walked to check his mail.

The mailbox was a large silver colored box on legs set in concrete. It was divided into thee main sections and each of those sections had three lockable compartments across it and eight down, so that the mailbox was big enough for seventy two homes. On the side of it were always plastered notices about lost dogs and home tutors. He opened his mailbox, pulled the mail out and locked it. He turned to walk to the elevator while checking his mail and he bumped into a solid chest.

His mail fell with a plop to the floor and he hurriedly apologized as he bent over to pick them up.  A figured loomed over him and he squinted his eyes to take a better look. Kris Lu crouched beside him, collecting what was left of the mail, the corners of his lips fighting a smile, his eyebrows slightly raised. 

Soo Yun looked away before that mischievous look of his spread. He felt that kid's exuberance for joy was contagion. But before he could strengthen his resolve to be aloof he'd already glanced back. In a few seconds that pirate grin of Kris was on his face too.

"Hi Doctor."