AMBER’S pov

Flashback

The atmosphere was thick enough to cut with a pair of safety scissors. This wasn’t what primary schools environments were meant to be like, were they all like this?

“Amber…” the teacher’s voice was low despite her being a female.

“Yes?” I said in a lively tone in hopes to lighten up the mood, my voice made the teacher’s gaze soften. She cleared before talking.

“Why are you wearing pajamas?” her eyes now displayed some amusement at my batman and robin theme pjs. The class was silent they were all trying to hold in their laughter.

“Because people at the hospital wear pajamas” I stated as if it were a matter of fact. The teacher was not impressed because the next thing I knew was that she was no longer amused.

“That’s because they’re patients!” she snapped. The moment that she said that was the moment where the children could no longer hold their laughter. It started off as a student’s scoff, then a chuckle and lastly the whole class burst into a laughing fit.

I stood there as my gaze trailed along each of my classmate’s faces that were displaying entertainment. Even though they were laughing at me, I felt happy, happy that I wasn’t some background noise. My eyes stopped at a girl that wasn’t laughing, nor was she smiling. She was sitting at the back of the class while looking out the window at the environment that was laid out before her eyes.

‘Why isn’t she laughing?’ I thought to myself as I was gawking at her.

“I bet you did that to just get attention” a boy whispered to me when I was told to return to my seat.

I didn’t know how to respond, I looked at him to see that his eyes were narrowed on me. I laughed lightly because I couldn’t think of any comebacks. He didn’t like that, it was seen when he gritted his teeth. The bell rung and I was shoved to the side as the students made their way to their lunch boxes in the far corners of the room. I dusted myself off and decided to approach the girl that didn’t laugh at all. I looked around the room to see that she was already gone, I frowned.

The day was now night as I curled myself into a ball under my blankets. I shut my eyes tightly to stop the tears from falling, I remembered being happy that they were laughing at me, but it did still hurt my pride.

‘I’m such a push-over’ I told myself for the hundredth time.

When I heard my bedroom door open I became aware of my state, I didn’t want anyone to see my tears. I roughly wiped my eyes to dry them, I then quickly laid down and pretended to be fast asleep. I heard small footsteps shuffling along the carpet. As they were getting closer I took a peek at who it was and saw that it was my younger twin: Jackson. He was sleepwalking and always managed to find his way into my room. My eyes softened on him, I lifted the blanket up and he slumped himself onto my bed. Jackson was smiling in his sleep and I used to find it annoying that he would smile at everything, but seeing his smile calmed me down. I just realised that it was what I needed right now, someone to be by my side. I subconsciously smiled at him. He snuggled into me for warmth and I welcomed it.

‘Thank you’ I mentally thanked him.

He snored lightly in response.

“Okay class!” our teacher received our attention once she clasped her hands together “We are going to be sharing with one another what you all want to be when you grow up. You will be asked this question a lot while you slowly transform into adults, that’s why I wanted to be the first teacher to help guide you on to the career path that you desire.” her eyes shone with anticipation “Now, starting from the front we will work our way back and please show your manners by listening to each and every one of your classmates.”

As she asked each student what they wanted to be she would wish them luck in their career.

“Astronaut!” a child with spectacles beamed loudly.

‘Damn, I wanted to say that…’ I sulked at the back of the class.

“Racecardriver!” a student said quickly, but I still understood.

‘That’s another one gone’ I pouted to myself, but I tried to hope that there would be a good one left for me.

I was wrong.

By the time the teacher got to me all of the cool occupations had already been said.

“What do you want to be Amber?” the teacher asked while waiting with a smile.

I just got the best idea ever, I stood up and announced what I wanted to be with pride.

“A statue!”

As if on cue the students laughed at me. The reason why I said statue was because that way people will notice me and as I tower over them they would have to look up to me. That way I won’t go unnoticed, but to everyone else it seems like a stupid idea.

The teacher shushed everyone and told me to meet her outside of the classroom. The children made an ‘Oooo’ sound indicating that I was in trouble. I laughed along with them until the teacher dragged me by the arm outside. Once the door was closed there was silence, I looked up to her stern stare. I laughed nervously and fiddled with the ends of my sleeves.

“Why are you behaving this way?” she asked in firm voice.

“I don’t kno-” she cut me off.

“What would your parents think?”

My laughter died down and my smile faded. I stared at the ground and smiled before looking back into the teacher’s concerned eyes. She noticed something different inside my eyes that I haven’t shown anyone else, or at least something that I have been trying to hide.

“I-I’m sorry” the teacher apologized and allowed me to go back into class. She spoke up and captured everyone’s attention “Amber, why not become a doctor?” she suggested.

I was about to agree to becoming on since I liked the idea of helping others, but a boy said:

“But she’s too stupid to save a life”.

The students laughed for the second time today at me, I smiled at the fact that I can make others laugh, but I felt my eyes sting. Out of all the students I laughed the loudest to hide the fact that I was about to crumble.

I looked around the class and noticed that the same girl from yesterday who wasn’t laughing. This time she was looking at me, but she wasn’t even smiling.

‘Why aren’t you laughing like everyone else?’ I thought to myself as I calmed down and stopped laughing.

The bell rung signalling everybody to go to lunch. This time I kept my eyes on the girl, her jet black hair is hard not to notice with the way that it flows in the breeze. I followed her to a tree out in the middle of a field on the school grounds. She leaned against the tree and glanced at me before returning her gaze to the clouds above. I got an idea of how to talk to her, I tip-toed up to her and quickly poked her in the shoulder and shouted:

“Tag! You’re it!” I laughed to myself, I was about to run away until I saw her wince in pain.

‘I didn’t poke you that hard, did I?’ I asked myself.

The girl was rubbing her shoulder and I was about to apologize until she glared at me. Normally other kids would jump at the opportunity to play tag.

I poked her in the same spot and she surprised me when she yelped.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I reached out and pulled her neck collar of her shirt down without her consent. My eyes widened at what I saw. She quickly pulled her collar back into the right position and avoided my stare. There was a long period of silence before I decided to break the silence. “How did you get those bruises?” my voice was gentle, but still strong enough to demand answers.

She did not answer, the soft breeze was all that could be heard except for the distant laughter and cheering coming from the basket ball courts.

“I’ll take you to the infirmar-” she shook her head rapidly “Then I guess I’ll steal some Arnica cream for your bruises, wait right here” without waiting for her response I ran to the office. I ran as fast as my seven year old legs would take me and made a quick dash for the infirmary when I saw the office lady leave after running to the toilet.

“You were quick” she commented that I was nearly faster than the wind.

I panted heavily as I kneeled down next to her, I then took the lid off the cream then I instructed her apply a reasonable amount of Arnica onto the places where it was badly bruised.

“You should become a doctor” she said as she applied some of the cream on to her bruised skin.

“Nah, I’m too stupid to save a life” I quoted the boy that said I couldn’t save a life.

“You may be silly, but you’re not stupid” she spoke as if she knew me.

My eyes widened at how she just complimented me, I felt happy that I wasn’t being laughed at to be recognized. My lips formed a smile in appreciation.

“I’m Amber” I introduced myself to her with my hand outstretched waiting for her to accept.

“Hyuna” she said as she gently shook my hand “You really should become a doctor” she encouraged and with those words she left with the Arnica cream in her hand.

Flashback Ended

I scanned my eyes over the many files that require my attention while I sat in my office chair. I am a doctor now and I have been employed to work at the best hospital in South Korea. It is a newly established hospital, but it has a great reputation already thanks to the efforts of the staff and the medical director. The director made an exception for me since my efforts had the best results, I was allowed to choose my patients and that is exactly what I am doing right now. I am an ‘Attending Physician’ or ‘Medical Staff’. They are the senior doctors that are directly responsible for the decision making and medical treatment while you are in the hospital. I like the position that I have been given since I get to see who is of high priority.

I looked into a file to see that a woman had called for the wrong services, she asked about an amputation for her pet that had a diabetic paw. She should see a vet about this, although it is a bad thing to reject there are other vets that will provide more efficient services for the animal. I stamped onto the folder:

REJECTED

I stamped here and there with:

ACCEPTED

REJECTED

I made it to the last folder and opened it to see the name of the potential patient.

Jung Soo Jung.

As I looked through the folder I went straight to the page where the symptoms can be seen. I found three hundred dollar notes inside the folder, I made a tsk sound trying to maintain my composure.

These are the type of files that I like to reject based on the fact that this girl is rich and is only suffering from minor throbbing in her head - an obvious migraine. Instead of going to a hospital that has time for her small problems she decides to ask to go to the best hospital even though lesser hospitals could take care of her problem with saving money. I gladly pulled out the red stamp and slammed it on to the folder and read it with satisfaction.

REJECTED