A/N: I present - a filler chapter. Don't worry! The next one will be full of goodness. Please comment!

Warnings: Mentions of hospitals and illnesses

Sehun’s Saturday morning had actually started off good, after having his car in the shop during the week he’d finally got it back, and had a pleasant drive to work. For once it seemed like all the traffic lights were working with him instead of against him, and by some amazing streak of luck, he’d managed to get a parking spot close to the ER entrance. 

Despite the weather being warm and sticky, typical of the middle of summer, Sehun was wearing a hoodie. His mom had had the air conditioning on so low for the whole night that when he stepped out of the shower he felt like his whole body was going to turn into a block of ice, and he hadn’t managed to warm up yet. It hadn’t reached the point in the morning where the sun was up high enough to warm them all up.

He greeted the elderly maintenance lady as he walked through the ER entrance, and waved to Baekhyun and Jongdae who were looking a little bored. The physiotherapy guy Chanyeol was there at the doctor’s station looking drained, he must have been there overnight. Dipping into the cloakroom, Sehun stripped of his hoodie, swapping his sneakers for the ugly but comfy shoes his mom makes him wear. He’d not brought any lunch today, seeing as though the meat Sehun had bought to make kimbap had been fed to his mom’s stupid cat because she ran out of treats for him. Sehun was really beginning to resent that cat. He was slowly but surely replacing Sehun as the favourite of the house.

The coffee machine in the break room had been fixed, but unfortunately, it now made stupid beeping noises. Sehun didn’t know why, and there was no way anyone in the department could make it stop. Despite being able to fix humans, they couldn’t fix machines. He wasn’t in desperate need of coffee right now, but he knew he would be later, so he thought it best to start early. 

Cup in hand, he wandered over to the doctor’s station, spotting Minseok. But for once, the resident didn’t look that happy, in fact, he looked a little bit on edge. Nevertheless, Sehun gave him a cheery greeting.

“Morning, Minseok. How was your vacation?” Sehun smiled.

Minseok took a deep breath. “It was great, apart from the fact my darling boyfriend wanted to take all the stray dogs back with us.” 

Sehun laughed awkwardly. “You don’t really look as happy as you should for someone who just had a two-week vacation in Europe..” 

Minseok looked mad, like actually mad. Sehun towered over him but he still felt vulnerable. Minseok was the type of doctor that needed routine, and he liked order. Maybe the vacation threw him off?

“That’s because I’m not, Sehun. Kyungsoo called in sick.”

And Sehun’s happy start to the day came to a crashing, burning end.

“What do you mean he’s sick? Has he not come in? What’s wrong with him?” Sehun could feel himself panic.

It was a Saturday, one of the busiest days ever. Even though it was day shift, it got busy. Kids injuring themselves, traffic accidents, and so much more. Sehun felt himself shudder at the thought of doing the whole shift without Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo was the unsung hero of the emergency department; he kept the whole place running even when the pressure was at its highest. Kyungsoo hadn’t taken a day off in so long, Sehun couldn’t even remember the last time the senior nurse was sick. He must have been really sick to actually call in…

“I don’t know, he didn’t say. But that’s not even the worst part.”

Sehun cringed.

“Nurse Kang is his temporary replacement.”

Sehun wished he’d not come in.

Nurse Kang was… a problem. She was teetering on the edge of retirement, and bitter. If you called her by her first name, she shouted at you. Sehun couldn’t even remember her name, he’d blocked it out. She was short and stocky, like a typical mean grandma. But the worst part was that her memory was… not what it used to be. Shifts with nurse Kang felt like they went on for hours and hours.

“Why did I agree to take this shift?” Sehun looked up, speaking to himself.

From looking around the department, he could see that she wasn't in majors. He wasn’t sure if that was better or worse. Doctor’s didn’t realise how heavily they relied on the nurses until they suddenly weren’t available. Sehun really missed Kyungsoo right now. 

--

Jongdae was a second away from quitting his job.

He’d been here a whole ten minutes and he’d already been shouted at by the stupid night shift doctor for apparently not triaging patients properly yesterday and leaving a backlog. How was that his fault? He was the damn receptionist, not the triage nurse. Plus when has there ever been a Friday where they’re not busy?

The truth was he didn’t really want to be an ER receptionist for the rest of his life. He’d really just taken this job to save up enough money to go to nursing school. But turns out living in the city was a lot more expensive than he’d initially thought, and he’d still not managed to save up enough funds to cover school fees, let alone enough to live while he was studying. He was getting restless, demotivated, and feeling like maybe nursing wasn’t really for him.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” Baekhyun said gently, taking the seat next to him and letting out a big sigh.

Then, suddenly, Jongdae felt a little bit better.

“What’s up with you?” He asked, turning away from Baekhyun to hide the smile.

And that was it, Baekhyun rested his chin in his palms, and he was in full gossip mode. Work? Work who?

“Well as you know I had a date last night.”
 

Ah yes, Jongdae knew, and he totally didn’t want to think about it, so he just hummed in acknowledgement. 

Baekhyun sighed again, and Jongdae knew it was just for dramatic effect. “Well they turned out to be boring and harboured more daddy issues than I could handle, so I won’t be going for a second date.” 

Jongdae just nodded. It wasn’t some kind of secret that Baekhyun liked to date, liked to experiment, it was common knowledge. Admittedly he’d been hearing more bad reviews than good reviews recently, but Jongdae just put that down to the fact that Baekhyun was running out of Grindr matches to go out with, he must really be scraping the barrel right now. Jongdae had had a grand total of 2 dates.

In the last 3 years.

“Oh, that’s a shame I guess.” He shrugged, focussing on logging onto the computer in front of him. 

Baekhyun must have picked up on the fact that Jongdae wasn’t really in the mood to play along with him today because instead of pestering Jongdae like he normally would, he also logged into his computer. In fact, he didn’t even say anything to Jongdae for a whole hour, the only exception being to ask for a pen and to deal with patients.