Genre: angst, fluff Requester: damien_alley

 

The click of heels on linoleum floor, the tapping of biro pens on clipboards, that clean, breezy, somehow overpowering stench of disinfectant. It was all quite new to me, really, but I’d visited hospitals once or twice before to know what to expect here. I wasn’t a nurse, not entirely. You see, I always assumed that I’d be working in some suburban pharmacy, watching people scurry on outside while my work partners put their feet up, texting their friends (probably saying how boring their job is); but then I had a change of heart. I didn’t want to just give someone cold and flu tablets, or medicine for indigestion or whatever. I wanted to really change someone’s life. Or maybe even save it. It was my job as a hospital pharmacist to make sure all patients got the right dose of the right medication, at the rise time. All of it may sound quite daunting, but believe me, it’ll be worth it.   I’m not quite sure what it was that first drew me to Lee Hongbin. Maybe it was his smile, his sad, distant smile, though a smile nonetheless. Or perhaps it could have been his rather quiet, but kind nature. He wasn’t the jolliest, nor the most talkative of patients I had ever encountered, but he was always polite to me and that was why I loved spending time with him, talking about useless things. I was scribbling down notes, listening to my co-worker listing off things we need to order in, when a doctor walked in. “Miss Kim! Annyeong.” She tucked her brown hair behind her ear. “Because it’s your first day, I want you to meet some of the patients you’ll be helping. Just follow me please.” I smoothed out my skirt and put down my notes, nodding to my co-worker in a friendly manner. Now that I think of it, perhaps it was fate. Like he always said, I was his bridge; when all there was was water, I came in and built myself over it, helping him across. That’s what he said, anyway.   “This is Lee Hongbin. He pops in regularly just to get checkups, but he’s always welcome here.” The doctor peeled back the curtain and left me to talk with him. He was younger than half of the patients I’d seen so far, but he looked the most dreary. His eyes were blurry and his eyes were set deep in their sockets. He was handsome, though, despite his sickly appearance. His brown hair was strewn across his face as his breaths came out as short puffs of air. When he saw me, he tried to smile politely, but his face showed that he was clearly in pain. I sat on the end of his bed. “Good morning Hongbin-ssi. I’m Claudia Kim and I’ve started working here as a pharmacist.” He cleared his throat and reached for his glass of water. He gulped down the liquid and clonked the glass down on the side table again. “They bring in a few new faces around here, but I’ve never seen a nurse as pretty as you in here before.” The edges of his lips curled into a smile. My cheeks heated up. I pursed my lips together, trying to keep my cool. “Pharmacist,” I corrected him quietly. He grinned back at me cheekily, in a boyish way that reminded me I needed to stay professional.   A week had passed and I tried to keep my head down as much as I could and get on with my work. “Claudia unnie!” the doctor from my first day called my name. I looked up, smiling at her. “Look, I wouldn’t usually ask you to do something like this but you know Lee Hongbin, right?” I nodded, finishing boxing up another patient’s medication. “He’s… a little under the weather.” I looked up at her, and then back down at my work, fighting a blush that was fighting to appear on my cheeks. “And since he keeps mumbling your name I think you might be the only one who can cheer him up.” I almost choked at her words. He keeps mumbling my name?! My mouth formed an ‘o’ shape, and Dr Kang just patted