AMBER’S pov

“Good Morning Amb-Whoa!” my fellow colleague stumbled back a few steps after looking at my face. “What happened to your face?” he asked full of concern.

I shrugged my shoulders.

‘I don’t want that psycho to get any more attention from anyone’ I thought of the girl that was responsible for the red mark on my fair skin.

Another colleague greeted me, but stopped in her tracks.

“What’s with the red hand print?” she looked amused and I frowned in response.

Soon enough a crowd gathered around me, some were concerned and some laughed. I didn’t understand the movie reference they gave me. Apparently in the second Lord Of The Rings movie there was an orc that gets a white handprint placed on him as a symbol of the chosen one.

“I don’t get it” I was confused with the movie reference as it was shown with my tilted head and furrowed brow.

“Haven’t you seen The Lord Of The Rings?” one of the other male nurses asked while looking offended.

I don’t really like socialising with people that much with is why I have only said four words so far:

“I don’t get it.”

“You know, since you have a hand print on your fac-.” he was interrupted when a girl squeezed her way through the large crowd.

“Excuse me.” Everyone’s heads turned to see a girl that wasn’t in a uniform unlike the rest of the staff. I breathed a short sigh of relief when I saw my best- only friend.

“Min!” I quickly stood behind her to allow her to do what she does best in situations like this.

Once everyone from the crowd recognized her they started to slowly leave, but for those who didn’t know her were about to get to know her.

Min scanned her eyes over the three male nurse left, there was a long period of silence which confused them. Min just continued to stare blankly at them without uttering a single word. One of the nurse already left out of boredom while the other two were whispering to one another. I heard her make a tsk sound and that is when she was going to say something.

Min approached the two men and whispered some muffled threat, I could tell it was a threat because One: she lost her patience and Two: the men ran away after calling her a witch.

I raised my hand in the air waiting for Min to high five me, she’s not the type to leave someone hanging especially since our friendship started with the exchange of a high five.

Flashback

“Amber!” I heard a familiar voice.

I turned my head to see Hyuna waving at me. She jogged over to where I was sitting and sat closely to me, I moved over a bit to create some space, but she erased the space to her original close position by my side. She ignored the confused look that I gave her and pulled out two lunch boxes, my attention was then fixed on them.

“I made us lunch.” she said with a hint of shyness.

She handed me a container and I looked at her waiting for permission to open it, she nodded allowing me to see what she made.

“SUSHI!” I immediately began stuffing my face full of food and I didn’t notice that Hyuna was smiling at me until I finished all of it. I turned my head to see a genuine smile on her face as she studied my face. I was about to ask why she was smiling, but she turned her attention to her lunch and began eating. Hyuna and I were enjoying our lunch together under the tree where we first talked until we both heard the bullies voice.

“Hey freak!”

‘Again?’ I don’t understand why the bully only picks on this one girl, but it is probably because she has no friends, which makes her an easy target.

Hyuna watched the scene with a blank expression while I returned my gaze to my lunch.

‘It’s none of my business’ I tried to convince myself since I was too scared to confront the bully.

I was busy munching on my fruit when I stopped chewing when I heard that boy shout at the small girl:

“Orphan!”

That one word echoed inside my head, that means that she has no parents and therefore….

‘She is just like me’

I placed my fruit down into it’s container, I then stood up and brushed off the crumbs. Hyuna arched her brow up and asked:

“Where are you going?” she watched my every move as I packed my lunch away.

“Over there.” I pointed at the bully and the little girl.

My friend’s eyes widened and she shook her head slightly.

“Don’t go.” she whispered.

But I just ignored her plea and limbered up getting ready to make a run for it if the bully decides to take out his anger on me.

“Hey!” the boy shouted out of frustration. “Are you even listening?!”

The girl just blinked in response.

“Oh there you are!” I approached her and wrapped my arm around her as if we were friends.

Even the people that were watching were confused by my actions. The little girl was about to say something, but I quickly spoke up against the silence.

“I’ve been looking for y-” I was interrupted by the bully.

“Who are you?” he narrowed his eyes on me.

“I’m her brother” I lied, I began to avoid eye contact and smile.

“Liar!” the boy shouted in my face.

I forgot to mention that I’m a terrible liar.

The bully then proceeded to mock the girl and I remembered what Hyuna said to me about the boy’s parents. I know this is going to hurt him, but he needs to stop hurting others just because he is suffering. My patience was tested when I would try to talk to him - I snapped.

“For heaven’s sake,” I spoke in a low voice “Shut the hell up!”

Everyone around us was shocked to see that the happy me was now fuming mad.

“I hate hypocrites” I glared at the bully who was glaring at me as well after regaining his composure “Stop calling her an orphan when you are one yourself!”

For a brief moment I saw something died inside of the boy when I screamed that in front of the entire school. The moment I said it was the moment I regretted it. The boy just stood there staring blankly at the ground, I was about to apologise to him until someone held me back, I looked behind me to see that it was Hyuna.

“Leave him to think for a bit” she suggested and I nodded my head in response.

We were half-way from our tree when I turned back to see the girl reach out to him, only to be coldly ignored.

“Come on!” I waved her over and she looked surprised, but none the less she followed us.

When we were all sitting down under the tree’s shelter Hyuna wouldn’t stop staring intensely at the little girl. I poked her on the shoulder and she changed her facial expression knowing that she had my attention.

“Behave.” I spoke in a whisper, Hyuna sighed in response.

“What’s your name?” I said after introducing Hyuna and I.

“Min.” she spoke quietly.

“Don’t worry Min,” I reassured her with a grin “We will take care of you from now on!”

Flashback Ended

Funny how she seems to be protecting more, our roles have switched.

I looked at Min who was keeping people at bay while I put concealer onto my skin, I don’t want to cause another scene. I’m glad that she didn’t ask what happened, but it’s has been a while since I have seen someone bullying someone smaller than them.

I shook off the guilt for the bully from my past once I heard my name being called to the reception.

“Bye!” I shouted to Min “I’ll see you later!”

She waved goodbye as we went our separate ways.

I arrived in the lobby where the reception is located and reported to the receptionist.

“Ah, Ms Liu,” the receptionist waved at me signalling me to go to where she was “A man named Minho said that you will be taking care of his patient, is that true?” she was seeing if it were true.

I nodded my head, she sighed and pointed to a fair few people, seven to be exact. I silently approached the group and I was standing there for a while until I got impatient and cleared my throat loudly. All eyes snapped towards my direction. A tall man approached me and hesitated to ask:

“Are you Ms Liu?” I recognized his voice from this morning.

“I am,” I stated with a blank expression “May I know who all of you are?” I acted polite with my gentle smile.

“Of course.” he straightened his back and decided to introduce himself since I didn’t remember his name “I’m Minho, I’m hoping to be in a similar workplace as you when I get the opportunity.” he bowed once more and fiddled with his sleeves out of nervousness. “This tall girl,” he pointed towards a pretty girl that was fairly tall “is Sulli, my little sis-” he was cut off when Sulli elbowed him in the ribs “Not so little sister.” he corrected himself Sulli smiled out of satisfaction, I couldn’t help but smile. “This man,” he stood next to a man with a cold pair of eyes “is the patient’s father, Yunho.”

“That’s Mr Jung” Mr Jung reminded everyone.

I avoided looking into the father’s eyes for too long. To move on with the introduction Minho quickly carried on.

“The woman standing next to me is the patient’s mother, Mrs Jung.” she looked the complete opposite of Mr Jung, she looked very welcoming.

“Please call me Yoona.” she smiled at me, I returned the smile.

“The woman standing next to me is Jessica.” I saw something familiar about her eyes, but I ignored it because they were glaring at me for some reason.

“The guy next to the patient is Jongsuk.” Jongsuk wrapped his arms around someone that Minho was blocking my eyes from.

And last but not least, the patient,” he moved out of the way for me to see the psycho that was responsible for the red mark on my face.

“Krystal, meet Amber” Minho finished the introduction to see Krystal and I wearing dumbfounded expressions.

“You’re my doctor?!” she raised her voice in disbelief.

She looked shocked, my eyes narrowed on her, but I regained my composure.

“And you’re my patient.” I said with disappointment.

‘Out of all the people, why did it have to be a cold hearted girl?’

“You two know each other?” Mr Jung asked.

“Your daughter told a little boy that santa didn’t exist.”