Months later…

Tiffany was watching Taeyeon asleep. Her shoulder rose up and down in slow motion as her brows knitted slightly. She was far below the dreamland. Her nightmares rarely occurred since she went to see the shrink. The doctor prescribed her two type of medicine. Tiffany had done her research although she didn’t understand much. So Taeyeon’s doctor gave her two antidepressant agents but somehow they worked in different system… or something. Either way, the drugs did its job well.

In the beginning, Taeyeon had to visit the psychiatrist two times a week. Now that she was getting better, he only asked Taeyeon to come for one session every month. Sometimes Taeyeon would mention her conversation with the shrink, although there were times she also avoided talking about it. Tiffany played along with Taeyeon’s push and pull game. Taeyeon was still in the process of healing, the last thing Tiffany wanted was pressing the wrong button and drove her away.

That was why she also didn’t say anything when Taeyeon blatantly lied to her regarding her work. Her shrink had cleared her to do surgery almost a month ago. Apparently, she never set a foot in the OR let alone performed a surgery. Tiffany had asked, casually, about the cases she got in a day. And Taeyeon had answered, as casually, that there were so many interesting cases she found.

At first, Tiffany believed her. But then, whenever the talk about work surfacing, Taeyeon would distract her and start blabbering about zodiac, WR-17 was the farthest planet in the galaxy according to some untrustworthy online astronomy pages, the latest massive corruption in the government… those were not her interest.

So Tiffany got curious.

One afternoon, when she just finished a meeting with a potential client, she dialed Yuri’s number.

“I have not seen her in the OR, Tiff. Her name is never on board.”

“Are you sure?”

“She’s not even in the ER. I think she also doesn’t go to the policlinic.”

“But she said…”

Yuri sighed at the end of the phone. “She teaches more skills lab for interns and residents. She even takes my duty… and Sunny’s, too, I guess. She places her name in every cardio residents’ cases, referats, leaving one or two for Seohyun and Do. She has not put her hand on a real patient, Tiffany.”

Then Tiffany stopped the work talk altogether. Obviously, Taeyeon was not ready. As much as she tried to disguise it, she couldn’t. Tiffany didn’t blame her, and she would never force Taeyeon to it up and deal with her responsibility as a doctor.

At the brighter side, Taeyeon spent more time with her and the triplets. They went to the park more, once a week dinner out became thrice a week new restaurant hunting. No random call in the middle of the night from the hospital. Taeyeon’s phone and pager had become surprisingly quiet.

“Left anterior descending artery,” Taeyeon muttered. “Anastomosis…”

She put her palm on Taeyeon’s cheek, the soft skin in circular motion. Taeyeon stirred under her touch. She stopped mumbling incoherent words, swimming back to her peaceful dream.

Tiffany scooted closer to Taeyeon. She took her wife’s arm and placed it around her waist. And at last, she also went to sleep.

-----

“Taeyeon-unnie!”

The cardio surgeon stopped at her track. “Yes?”

“Where are you going?” SeoHyun walked by her side.

“Skills lab.”

“Again?”

“I have responsibilities, SeoHyun-ah.” Taeyeon smiled a little. “Why? Do you need something from me?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. I need your help.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Okay. Mr. Ok Jiwoon, 23 with mitral–”

“Wait, you want to discuss a case with me?” Taeyeon raised her brow. “You are a cardio surgeon.”

“His mitral valve is doomed.” SeoHyun nodded solemnly. “It looks more like… jiggling board.” The taller doctor gestured in exaggerated way.

“Did you just say jiggling board?” Taeyeon chuckled as she shook her head. “You got some humor in your bones, SeoHyun-ah.”

“I’ve become funnier since I finished residency,” she shrugged. “So, he has a history of rheumatic heart disease when he was fifteen years old. It was untreated for fairly good long time because apparently it was not a big deal for his parents. He was out of breath all the time and when they decided to seek for help, too late, congestive heart failure already happened. He was good till two days ago. He was admitted to the ER due to shortness of breath and I found this.” SeoHyun showed Taeyeon the echocardiography result from her tablet.

“You weren’t joking when you said jiggling board.” Taeyeon gave the device back as she stuffed her hands in her lab coat pockets. “It has become diffusely thickened with fusion of the commissures and chordae tendineae.”

“Right?”

“Yeah well, my advice for this case is valve replacement to avoid recurrent symptoms.”

“I also plan the same procedure.”

“Then why are you asking me?”

“Look, Doctor Kim,” SeoHyun purposely used the formal title. “He is young and very sick and… he’s in love, okay? He’s getting married in six months.”

“He’s only 23 and he wants to get married already? That’s stupid.”

“He needs the best surgeon to help him.” The taller woman ignored the remark.

“He has you.” Taeyeon said as a matter of fact. “He got himself the best cardio surgeon in the whole country!” She patted SeoHyun’s arm as she took steps away from the younger surgeon. She perfectly knew what SeoHyun was trying to do. She was not up for it.

“You’ve dealt with this kind of case since forever. Your passion is always about valve. You’re the greatest of the greatest.”

“I am a cardio surgeon, not just a valve surgeon and so are you.” Taeyeon kept on walking.

“Well that’s true but your work in valves is always beautiful like it’s made straight from god. Like there’s no damage in the first place. You’re gifted!”

Taeyeon sighed as she stood in front of the skills lab door. “You can do this by yourself. You don’t need my help.”

“I’ve never looked at a valve as messed up as this this one. I need you.”

“Ask Do.”

“Don’t you hear what I said?”

“What?”

“You’re the greatest of the greatest.”

“But–”

“He’s young,” SeoHyun spoke firmly. “And very sick and in love and he’s getting married in six months.”

“SeoHyuon-ah…”

She shoved the thick file to Taeyeon’s chest. “Just read the file.”

“Seo–”

“Just read the damn file, Doctor Kim.” The younger woman glared at her senior sternly then walked away.

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