these drugs have made me loopy

i. fin.

“Hey Sica, do you mind…” Sunny stops as she turns to glance at the patient, attention diverted by the tug on her sleeve courtesy of the patient that now sat propped up on the bed beside her. She whispers something to the patient before calling to Jessica again. “…Switching in for me and sitting with her for a while? Dr Park needs me to fill him in on the post-op patient in bed 3.”

Jessica looks up from where she had been standing, rather awkwardly bent forward in order to bring her eye-level down to view the patient records open on the computer screen. A pen lay on the notes of the open clipboard beside her.

“Sure, just let me finish with writing up the discharge summary.”

Noise of the hospital rushes around her, an ever-present ambience that she had long grown accustomed to. There were the hushed discussions between medical professionals over patient management, the buzz of visitors’ conversations with patients behind drawn curtains and of course, there was the ever-present beeping of monitors, which could be considered almost to be like the heartbeat of the hospital.

Five minutes later, with a flourish of her pen and the definitive snapping shut of the clipboard, Jessica returns the clipboard to its rightful place and pads over to her colleague.

And the patient.

“…in-a-pod.”

Jessica’s ears catch the tail end of a sentence.

Weird.

Sunny grins at her in a manner that almost blinds her.

Oh no.

Jessica had only seen that look a handful of times, but with each, it had resulted in a ton of trouble.

A smile of danger that always delivered its promise.

Jessica purses her lips, her face rearranging itself into a reproving expression and stares back at her friend.

“Oh whoa.”

The voice comes out of nowhere, and despite the grogginess of owner, the syllables still managed to retain a melodic quality that pulls Jessica’s attention to its owner—the patient. The brunette sighs and decides to abandon her attempts to foresee the trouble her friend would conjure up, because she would ultimately find out in due time anyway.

Even if it meant several calls to a locksmith so that she could regain access to her apartment again.

(Sunny really was a handful at times.)

The patient was a woman of small stature, probably around Sunny’s height—not that Jessica was much taller herself, as Sunny liked to point out—with hair dyed a platinum blonde, a stark contrast to the muted natural colour palette of the hospital around them.

“Sica, this is my patient Kim Taeyeon. She's in here for a broken arm and will be needing surgery.”

Jessica notes the sling and the way the girl cradled her arm to her chest, protective, but without indications of any pain or discomfort.  

“Hey Taeyeon, so this is my colleague, Jessica. She’ll sit with you from now on.”

“What? Don’t go…She looks scary.”

Jessica raises an eyebrow at the comment, but when Sunny bursts out laughing as she gets up from the chair by Taeyeon’s bedside, she raises the other one too.

Wtf?

Sunny pats Jessica's arm with a sickening sweet smile and points to the vacated seat.

“I’ll leave you in good hands, Taeyeon. Bye!”

 Sunny skips away—she literally skips away—and all Jessica can do is stare after her, eyes narrowed.

“Come, sit with meee?”

At the request, Jessica awkwardly shuffles towards the seat.

“Hi, I’m Taeyeon.” The girl says grinning widely, her nose wrinkling cutely and a chin dimple appears, as if it was the final touch to the—admittedly attractive—look.

(Jessica had eyes—she was only stating an objective observation.)  

“Nice to meet you Taeyeon, I’m Jessica.”

She finds a small smile involuntarily settling on her face, pulling the corners of her lips upwards and softening her features.

“You look pretty when you smile. Not that you weren’t pretty before. No wait, you were scarily pretty.” Taeyeon says giggling with a slight slur in her words, and Jessica realises why Sunny intentionally asked for her to sit with Taeyeon.

That sneaky sly devil…

“Thank you.”

“No, really. You could be a princess or something. Hmm, that doesn’t do you justice…”

Jessica doesn’t know what say with the way this conversation was going, but at least it was much needed amusement (and flattery) that she could do with, a break from the usual rush of her shifts.

“I appreciate your compliments, Taeng.”

“Did you just call me Taeng?”

The blonde girl blinks at her, watching her carefully (well, as carefully as someone under the influence of sedative drugs could).

“Did I overstep?”

Taeyeon furrows her eyebrows, tilting her head to one side and reminding Jessica of a puppy.

“No, just only Tiff gets to call me that.”

“Oh.”

Who was Tiff?

A friend? A lover?

Jessica shakes her head. She really didn’t have the right to pry, not that it should matter to her anyway…

“But for you, I’ll have to make an exception. A very special one, since you’re practically an angel…”

Taeyeon’s eyes comically widen, as if she’d just solved an unknown mystery or won a Noble Prize for her revelation--whatever that was.

“You’re an angel!”

Jessica ducks her head in embarrassment as Taeyeon’s voice rises in volume. A group of her colleagues standing at the nurses’ station turn their heads towards her, curiosity painted evidently on their faces.

Jessica gives a weak shrug, as if to say—just another loopy patient—and waves to them before turning back to Taeyeon.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that about myself.”

Taeyeon doesn’t seem to even hear her words but instead, her hand blindly reaches out—yearning and searching.

“Don’t leave me?”

Jessica lets their hands clas