“Doctor, I was wondering if I could go for my break with other interns now?” he asked all smiles. Though he was exhausted after getting the gist of the excess work that was handled by the inpatient pharmacy, the enthusiasm was still very evident in his eyes. His eyes…

But… how can I let him out of my sight? By giving him the permission, of course. But will I?

“No can do.” I plainly replied.

“S..sorry?” and finally I get to hear something different in his voice.

…Hesitation.

“You’ll be free of work when I go for my break. Which means; you’ll be getting extra 30 minutes to slack off. Now that isn’t very professional-like, is it? A total of one hour free instead of the legible 30 minutes. Don’t you think that would be unfair to others?” I smirked. Can’t help it.

“B…but—”

“Why? You think I’m being unreasonable?” I interjected.

“I didn’t mean that but—”

“You know what? Go and have your break then.” He perked up. “In the meantime, I’ll go and inform the chief to assign another preceptor to you. You clearly don’t want to learn from me.” Mind games; I’m good at those.

“No please. You are getting it all wrong.” he pleaded innocently.

“And I’m clearly not capable of teaching you, right?” I further added. His lips were parted further in disbelief, those almond-like eyes on stalks, “After all, I am getting it all wrong and you are right hence you are perfectly capable of getting yourself trained without any guidance.” The sarcasm was dripping heavily in each and every word I spoke.

He was struck dumb.

All he could do was look nervously at the audience we had attracted in the inpatient pharmacy. He looked immensely worried.

And I was enjoying that.

He finally looked back at me; the apprehension apparent in those soft, almond-like eyes. “Okay.” he politely uttered.

What okay? Okay to get away from me and join the interns for the break?

Okay as in, agreeing to transfer under another preceptor?

Is he actually not taking the bait?

And I thought I was good with mind games!

“I’ll take my break with you, doctor.” he finally completed his sentence.

“No more complaints then?” He slowly shook his head left and right.

“We’ll have our break together. It’s final now, right?” He opened his mouth to retort.

“It’s just that I wanted to look arou—”

“Any objections, intern Sungmin?” I halted his words abruptly; raising my left brow at him. He hesitated some more, but shook his head again, acknowledging my decision.

Good.

And now I get to spend more than the mere 8 hours with him.

“Now come and look at what I’m doing with these medication errors.” I looked at the computer screen in front of me as my fingers abused the keyboard and clicked the mouse with the lightning speed I possessed.

I felt him stand next to me. But somehow, the little distance was killing me.

“Stand closer.” I uttered without looking at him.

“W…what, doctor?”

“Stop stuttering and stand closer to me.” I glanced at him and noticed him nod his head ever so slightly as he closed that painful gap finally. Though a little gap still remained b