Chapter Fifteen.

A Sincere Apology.

..

A few days had passed, and Hana had taken refuge in the hospital. She had snuck into her apartment when Baekhyun wasn't around, and grabbed a few necessary things she needed. She should probably look for a new place, she thought. She had avoided Yixing at any cost, although her heart broke every time she saw him, because it reminded her of her pathetic confession, and how he had rejected her. 

He seemed to have started flirting shamelessly with the nurses, especially when she was looking. She was about to get some patient file-work done when she noticed Yixng leaning against the reception counter, philandering with one of the nurses, showing off his dimple, who giggled in response and coyly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

Hana scowled at the sight, abruptly turning around to walk away. She felt as if he had toyed with her feelings. Or had she misinterpreted them in the first place? But it really seemed as if he felt the same way about her. Was he pushing her away? She didn't know. It was partly her fault, in fact, it was entirely her fault. He'd made it quite clear, from the very beginning, that he wanted them to remain professional. But, she had fallen in love with him, like a hopeless fool. She had expected his views to have changed after the charity dance ball, when he'd dragged her forcefully to one of the on-call rooms. Perhaps, it was something he did on a routine basis- find an intern to sleep with. And when he got bored, he probably moved on to someone else. 

This was one of her dozen flaws- if anyone remotely cared, to pretended to care in Yixing's case, she simply latched herself on to them. She'd fallen in love with Baekhyun because he took good care of her, and pampered her. In his absence, Yixing had done the same, and she'd immediately fallen in love. Why couldn't she be like the rest of them? Why couldn't she be like Soojung? Soojung would have never found herself in such a situation, she would have never fallen in love with a person who wasn't going to return her feelings. Soojung would have probably dealt with him adeptly, she'd have solved her problems on her own. Perhaps, it was one of those traits of Soojung that might have attracted Baekhyun to her. While she, just came across as clingy and insecure. 

***

Hana was standing in the gallery of an operating room, watching Yixing perform a surgery on Jisung, the young boy with cancer. Although she believed he shouldn't have operated, Yixing was adamant on it. She had apologized to Jisung's family for having misled them, and that surgery was a better option, even though she didn't mean a single word. She did it only because her superior believed in it.

"He's bleeding out." She could see one of the nurses panicking as the cardiac monitor beeped, indicating a steady drop in the kid's heart rate. Yixing, however, remained calm while trying to make the bleeding stop. Hana panicked, the way everything seemed to be proceeding, Jisung's chances of survival seemed rather bleak. Resecting the tumor had caused a major artery to rupture, and it had been bleeding uncontrollably. 

She could see his heart rate dropping further as the cardiac monitor flat-lined. The nurses were bringing in the paddles to shock the patient back to life. However, Jisung's body didn't seem to respond. They tried a couple more times until the head-nurse looked down dejectedly.

No! 

Hana could see Yixing angrily taking off his gloves, and throwing it nowhere while his assistant called the time of death.

She didn't miss the slight glance he gave out towards her as he walked out of the OR. She stormed out of the gallery, the patient could probably have survived if he didn't opt for the surgery. This was all his fault; hadn't he been the conceited, arrogant surgeon that he was they could have probably avoided the surgery. Anyone could tell how much risk was involved in it. Yixing's overconfidence had now cost an innocent young boy's life.

When she stepped out, she noticed Yixing talking to the patient's mother, who had started sobbing uncontrollably while her husband held her. It must have been difficult for them, Hana thought. Jisung had been their only child; she had spent the past two days warming up to the kid and his parents, they seemed like a bunch of nice, warm people who definitely didn't deserve the misfortune that had been bestowed upon them- a misfortune which could have been avoided if Yixing hadn't been so egoistic, ignoring his intern's pleas.

She was about to walk away from there when Yixing suddenly grabbed her, out of nowhere.

"Don't you dare touch me," she snapped. She pried his hands off of her harshly and turned around to walk away. He had killed the patient, he killed him. He had killed the young boy who didn't deserve to die.

She should hate him, she should hate Yixing, but she couldn't. Why was she so miserable?

                                                                                                        ****

Hana would have given anything to be rescued from her current situation; she had somehow been stuck in the elevator with Yixing, all alone. She wanted to curse her fate, the elevator was generally crowded, and people could barely find a spot for their heels. But now, she was trapped here, in the confined metallic space with the person she had been avoiding, all alone.

To make it worse, Yixing had been blatantly staring at her from the minute she had got in, making her uncomfortable. She was angry with him for killing the young patient, she was broken-hearted from her rejected confession and his shameless flirting with the nurses; the man seemed to invoke so many emotions in her at the same time, that she ended up feeling rather helpless. She could never tell what he had in his mind, she could never tell if he hated her or liked her. 

Perhaps, this is how her life would always be. Maybe she was never meant to have another's company, maybe she was never going to be in a relationship. Perhaps she had an inherent quality that drove people away from her; perhaps she was never meant to be loved by anyone. Such thoughts kept haunting her, but now that she thought about it... what could be so bad? She could always adopt a few pets to keep her company for her love-life didn't seem to making any progress at all. Baekhyun was going to be hitched and here she was, falling in love with an arrogant, conceited jerk who may never love her back.

If he was never going to love her then why did he have to pretend to b