Valse Sentimentale

 

“You’re late”

Mi Rae glared at the receptionist. The girl didn’t seem fazed by her boss. She got accustomed to her moods. She experienced Mi Rae’s good and bad sides. On that day, Mi Rae was definitely in a bad mood.

She walked past the front hall and took the elevator to her sector. She was ready to meet the interns. At the same time, she was anxious. She had to prepare sixteen interns. She knew her medics well enough to imagine the next year in advance. They were going to show the interns what Hell felt like. In some twisted way, she was proud to have gotten such evil and selfish employees.

She felt her phone vibrate as she walked out of the elevator. It was a message containing a few swears and a smiling emoticon. She rolled her eyes and started to type her response. She was ready to push the sending button when she collided with something. At first she thought she entered into a door or a wall, but that wasn’t the case. It was a person; a guy to be more exact.

In the moment of collision, her phone dropped. She stared at her phone blankly while the guy started to groan. He got hit in the chin by her forehead, if that was even possible.

“Hey, are you alright?” He was hurt and he voiced his pain. On the other side, Mi Rae was silent. Her long bangs were covering her face and he was scared she might have gotten hurt too.

“My phone dropped” He was confused. His eyes traveled from her form to the phone on the ground. He gulped and grabbed it. He inspected it for a few moments. Nothing seemed wrong.

Truthfully, Mi Rae’s eye was twitching. She was already annoyed because she got stuck in the morning traffic. She didn’t need more reasons. She had a tank of documents ready to be signed and inspected. She tucked the hair behind her ear and straightened her back. She grabbed the phone from his hand and hurried out of there.

 

“Hey, I’m here. Did I miss something?”

Baekhyun’s eyebrow started to twitch. His friend arrived half an hour later than he was supposed to. The teams were already formed and the members were concentrated on their tasks. The leaders already met their interns and already made an idea of their personalities. The three leaders chose their interns carefully but not willingly.

“Yes. You missed a lot of things. How did you even manage to be so late?!” Baekhyun was ready to blow. He met his team already. Kyungsoo was a nice guy but the girls didn’t know what they got into. Thankfully, he was getting along with Chen’s team.  

“Who’s in my team?”Chen was excited. He didn’t know anything about his job; not even the contest between the interns. He was happy he got the chance to enter TolBom. It was one of the most famous hospitals in Asia and the doctors were all famous for being close to perfection.

“There are two guys in the corner. They are part of your team. There’s one girl staring at us, right?” Chen nodded. “She’s in your team as well” He pouted.

“That means we’re not in the same team” Baekhyun nodded. He was grateful, actually. Being a friend of Chen’s was hard enough. For such a handsome face and great skills, he was loud and easily excitable. He could hardly focus on one thing. He was lucky to have that genius mind or else he wouldn’t have made it so far.

“Attention please! Director Kang is here” The interns crowded into one place while the hospital staff crowded to another. They were all ordered in a line, from the most important doctor to the least important nurse.

Most interns didn’t know who the director was. It might have been a man or a woman, they didn’t know. When Mi Rae walked in the room, the adrenaline and curiosity were rushing through their bodies.

Against what Baekhyun expected, Kang Mi Rae was a classy woman with a killer gaze. She was dressed comfortably yet feminine. She wasn’t wearing a gown but she wore heels.

The head nurse welcomed her with a bow. Mi Rae’s eyes traveled towards the interns. She inspected them closely before the nurse grabbed her attention. The older woman gave her boss the list of interns and their specialties. There were names she had heard about before, but there were names she had never heard about in her life.

After she read the list, her eyes wandered back to the 16 interns. Her gaze was so intense that some of them took a few steps back. She saw how fast they reacted. With every step she took towards them, most interns started to sweat. Baekhyun was intrigued by his boss and surprisingly enough, so was Kyungsoo.

Mi Rae stopped in front of Henry. She studied his facial expression closely. He looked bored and ready to walk out of there.

“How did you manage to make it so far, brat?” Her voice was cold. There was nothing sweet or kind at her. Her personality was the opposite of her good looks.

“I learned from the Devil” Mi Rae raised an eyebrow while Henry sighed.

“Very well”

Her eyes traveled from the young man in front of her, to the rest of her team. She didn’t choose her team; Joon Myeon did. She knew Henry because he was the cousin of Kris. She didn’t know the rest of them and sincerely, she didn’t care enough to read their files.

“My team, there’s a patient, 55 years old, who had an acute shortness of breath shortly after a 12-hour automobile ride. An electrocardiogram reveals sinus tachycardia. Go make her well” She nodded at one of the nurses and walked towards her office.

“I guess this is it. Let’s help the granny” Henry’s personality was the mirror of his cousin’s. They glanced at each other and went on their separate ways. Since Mi Rae was the director, she had more paperwork to do than actual cases. Practically, her team had to work on every department if they were able to.

 

“It feels like we are the only team with maximum three cases”

Chen’s observation was correct. Mi Rae’s team had visibly less work than the others. That wasn’t necessarily because the director was lazy and didn’t want to get involved; but maybe it was.

“There are rumors about the Devil, you know” Henry’s nickname for the older woman was interesting. No one witnessed her being mad so her level of evilness was still debatable. “She doesn’t like to get out of her little, evil world. She’s always in her office, doing something or another”

“And you found that out from your cousin?” Henry’s eyes narrowed slightly at Chen’s statement.

“No. I’ve been around, working as a volunteer”

“Shouldn’t we go and ask for another case?” Henry glanced at his colleague and smirked. Chen didn’t know if Henry’s attitude was a problem or not, yet. He seemed to have unlimited sources of patience. Chen had a lot of qualities but patience was not among that list. 

“You try and tell me how it worked out” Henry winked at the younger intern and walked away.

As Chen was seriously thinking of interrupting his boss on whatever she was doing, Baekhyun was running around the room, from patient to patient. There weren’t new cases yet so that let time for the interns to work on the patients they had. It was quite a dare for Baekhyun. He was a young man who didn’t know how to be subtle at all. His forward responses were causing discomfort to patients.

“Why should I have had told that man he was going to walk again when it was obvious he was never going to recuperate” He murmured angrily for himself. Luckily, no one heard him; no one important. 

“Is there a problem?”

Unfortunately, that unimportant eavesdropper was his boss. Park Chanyeol didn’t look intimidating at all but his gaze alone was very heavy. His eyes reminded Baekhyun of a monkey; a very complicated monkey. His emotions were wirling in his orbs. His boss was recognized as the most perfect person in that hospital but that wasn’t the case; he could sense it.

“No. I mean, it seems people aren’t happy to get bad news” Chanyeol raised an eyebrow, his curiosity perking up quickly.

“No one is happy to get bad news” Baekhyun’s eyes widened suddenly and he gulped the excess of saliva. He found himself in a complicated position because of his mouth. That wasn’t going to end well.

Chanyeol observed his intern. He looked young and innocent. He was nothing like the real doctors of TolBom. He was exactly what he looked; he didn’t know how to lie nor change a situation to his favor.

“What is your name, intern?” Baekhyun dropped his head out of embarrassment. He found his shoes more interesting than the handsome doctor. Chanyeol wasn’t going to accept that kind of shy attitude. That kid had to learn what life in TolBom was like; he had to go through Hell.

“Byun Baekhyun, sir” Chanyeol bent to his level, so that he could talk to him as he pleased.

“Took you long enough” Baekhyun’s head dropped even lower. He didn’t have the courage to look his boss in the eye. “I have something for you to do, Byun Baekhyun” The boy gulped. That sounded bad.

 

In the end, Chanyeol dragged his intern into his office. It was nothing fancy; very blunt actually. It looked like any other hospital room, except there were a lot of papers spread on a small desk. There was a small library in the corner and an armchair on one side of the door.

“See this?” He pointed to his desk. The intern nodded unconsciously. “I want it cleared up. Also, this room stinks. I still haven’t found the cause. You do that too” The Doctor left right after he explained his new duties. Baekhyun remained dumbstruck.

 

“What are you doing?”

Passionate 25 years old intern Kim Jong Dae was awkwardly standing in front of Director’s office. He tried to open the door or maybe knock, or generally do something but he couldn’t. After Henry’s infinite stories about her evilness, he found his courage slipping out of his body.

Fortunately, Mi Rae was so busy that she didn’t hear the commotion outside. She looked succumbed into her work and thoughts.

“I’m in the middle of a debate” Sehun stared intensely at his colleague. He knew how Henry’s story could evolve. There was nothing true in those stories; they were only rumors.

“Don’t listen to Henry. I don’t think Director is such a cold woman. She may have a lot of issues but she’s not a bad person. I heard she rehabilitated this old hospital and made it brand new. That has to mean something, right?” Chen nodded. That was quite an encouragement. “Besides, even if she is evil, I don’t think she would fire any of us. She needs new doctors” Sehun smiled happily and patted Chen on the shoulder.

Chen’s eyes traveled to the doorknob. He decided he needed a place to work, with actual cases. She wasn’t providing her team with any cases.

“Are you going to do it or not? I really want to use my knowledge instead of watching the others” Chen sighed. He wasn’t there for long, but his whole team appeared out of nowhere. There was one girl in the team and she was very bossy. What looked like an innocent, naïve brunette, was actually a firm doctor.

“She’s not going to cut our heads if we enter” Sehun was very positive about everything. He was a rare specimen who could always see the brighter side of everyone and everything. However, his face was always blank.

“I beg to differ”

Henry was the opposite. His attention was always taken by sadistic and sorrowful subjects. He had a keen interest in weird things and hated social . He became a doctor because he watched too many TV shows. His role model was Gregory House; he had acquired some of his characteristics.  Of course, he didn’t have the same power in TolBom, since Mi Rae was definitely not Cuddy.

While Chen and his team were debating what was true and what was rumor about her, Mi Rae was trying to concentrate on her work. She really missed being home and working in the hospital. She wasn’t doing much at the moment but she felt stressed; the stress of signing and doing paperwork.

At some point, in her serene world, her beeper started to vibrate. She glanced at it curiously. That mean something was going on in one of the departments; something bad. She sighed and got on her feet. She let her phone on the desk and walked towards the door.

When she opened the door, she met four pairs of eyes. There was one girl on one side and two boys on the other. In the middle, right in front of her and uncomfortably close was what looked to be a troublemaker. His eyes were wide, like a deer caught in the light.

“I-uh” He tried to find an explanation but he couldn’t come up with a good one. She blinked. She was taken aback. She didn’t expect anyone to lurk around her office.

“Director, there is a dangerous man in the ER!” The nurse grabbed Mi Rae’s attention quickly.

The young woman hurried towards the elevator. Her team followed closely. They arrived quickly on the first level and entered the central hall. There were a lot of patients, looking nervous.

“Take the patients out of here and calm them down. Nothing is going to happen” She instructed her team. They nodded and ran to the viewers. Three of them did, at least. Chen was curious. Her statement didn’t sound very convincing.

She walked towards the stage. The crowd dispersed in order to let her move through them. There were two police officers who didn’t seem to understand what was happening. One of them was quite young and didn’t seem impressed by the events.

“If I don’t see my wife, I will cut ! I waited for five hours and no one told me anything! Are you hiding her? Did that tell you something?!” He didn’t look like a killer. He looked desperate and hurt. She sighed and walked to the head nurse.

“I want a pair of surgical gloves” The nurse nodded and grabbed one pair for her boss. The public was mostly formed of nurses and interns. Chanyeol was there as well, as he was the head of the ER. He was calm. He knew Mi Rae was going to end the situation faster than the police.

Mi Rae put the gloves on slowly. She walked towards the crazed man and stared at him. Her eyes were indifferent, which confused him.

“If you come closer, I will cut her! I am not joking. Bring my wife!” She blinked. Chen was intrigued, as so were most of the interns. Suddenly, Mi Rae walked towards the young police officer and grabbed his gun. The officer wasn’t surprised; he actually rolled his eyes. How Mi Rae knew Tao, was a different story.

“If you don’t let her go, I will do something bad” She sounded innocent yet the look in her eyes was mad. She was mad. The man’s eyes widened and he started to sweat. However, he didn’t back down. He pulled the woman closer to him and the knife closer to her neck. He applied enough pressure in order to slightly cut the skin.

Mi Rae’s eyes hardened considerably. She shot him twice; one bullet went into his knee and one into his arm. He dropped the knife and fell on his back. The victim ran to the officer. After she finished, Mi Rae got rid of the gloves and gun.

“Done. Take him to his wife” The nurses nodded and got back to their original jobs. Chen was shocked. Chanyeol rolled his eyes and walked to his team.

Mi Rae was ready to go back and do more paperwork. Chen followed her bewildered. Her eye started to twitch and she stopped in the middle of the hall.

“Is there something you need?” He stared at her. No, he inspected her. He was taller than her so he could look down into her eyes. It gave him some kind of a dominant feeling. It felt good.

“You just shot a man” She titled her head to the side and raised an eyebrow curiously.

“And?” He scowled.

“You just shot a man in a hospital. And there were police officers too!” She blinked twice.

“And?” He narrowed his eyes and sighed dramatically. Much like his friend, he was making a scene. “Who is your team leader?”

“You” Mi Rae’s eyes widened for a second. She didn’t expect such a perseverant guy to be in the same team as Henry. She didn’t even have to make his life Hell; Henry was going to do the job for her.

“There is a boy with abdominal and chest pains. He is in Room 303. If he has Hernia, like I think, go talk to Kris. You’re free to go” She left without a second word. Chen stayed in the hall, looking after her. She didn’t even ask his name.