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Saving Lives, Saving Heart
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[A/N : so, it's going to be a long chapter, like 9000ish words long. I was thinking to divide this into two chapters, but then I think about it again and decide to just save you the suffer ;p 

So, enjoy. Do not forget to upvote if you love how this chapter goes <3]

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Are you guys coming for the board annual function this weekend?"

Yeonhee and Yixing look at each other to the question Sejeong throws as they join her and Baekhyun for lunch at the cafeteria. She's heard about this formal charity function, which is usually held after the first M&M of the year, but Yeonhee doesn't know that interns can attend it.

"I don't know, are we even invited?" Yeonhee poses the question.

"Well, Yixing hyung is." Yeonhee raises her eyebrows listening to Baekhyun's reply, she turns to Yixing with a questioning look knowing that she never heard about this at all (Yixing responds this by saying 'I was just about to tell you' which receives a rolling-eyes from Yeonhee). "But since we're friends, we can go with you, can't we? Please, pretty please, for once I really need to get out of this hospital to have some proper party. I'm on the verge of getting insane with all these paper charts."

Yeonhee lets out a small smile looking at Baekhyun with his whimper. He does tend to overdo it sometimes, but he knows how to make his way into the things he wants. And people said the annual board function is one of the most awaited functions by the residents because this is where their opportunity to build connections as much as possible. The better you get along, the brighter your future in this medical world.

"You can go, of course. I already asked the chief, if you don't have a night shift, we can all go."

Yeonhee watches her friend's cheer happily while she keeps her smile silently. She's not very interested in this kind of function, other than because of the fact that without having any connection to get along with, she's quite well known by almost all staff at this hospital. On the other hand, she's also not a sociable person, being around people she doesn't know never makes her feel comfortable.

But she's invited to the function, not as an intern, but as her mother's daughter. When she thought of not attending the function, it turns out Yixing is invited there by the board member, and Yeonhee can't possibly not attend, because she wants to be there to support him. And that's all, it's the sole reason for her attendance.

While finishing lunch, they tell each other about the case of the patient they're having these days. Sejeong complains how hard it is to be in Trauma, that she seems to be not fit with it. Baekhyun is in Sehun's service right now, and he discusses the delayed diagnosis of lung cancer to the patients they got after five years of having surgery for a repair of an inguinal hernia.

Dr. Hwang, one of the senior general attendings, supposedly didn't review the chest x-ray or the report prior to surgery. It becomes a problem since he was the one who requested the X-ray in the first place on admission as it's part of the routine preoperative investigation. While he wasn't the operating surgeon, the patient was handed over to another surgeon, who discharged the patient the same day, again without having reviewed the chest x-ray.

And a few days ago, the patient was admitted to the hospital for sudden onset of shortness of breath and chest pain. Bronchoscopy and a CT scan were carried out, confirming the patient had a small cell carcinoma of the lung. Now he takes legal action against Dr. Hwang and the other doctor who was responsible for the surgery, and the hospital, alleging missed diagnosis of early lung cancer at the time of his hernia repair, resulting in a poorer prognosis from the disease. It's kind of the trending talk of these days.

And in the middle of their conversation, both Baekhyun's and Yixing's pager go off, it's a call for the cardiovascular patient.

"I think it's Sehun's ACS patient from the other day," Yixing guesses as he checks his pager, while Baekhyun is making a call to the ward.

"Why do you still bother to take care of his patient? You're not even on his service anymore," Yeonhee comments when she sees Yixing speeding up his meal.

"He needs more hands. Vascular patient incomings are so many recently,"

"But he has Baekhyun," she retorts,

"Still, he needs more hands."

Yeonhee squints her eyes as Yixing finishes his lunch, gulping down the juice bottle and rise to say goodbye with Baekhyun while carrying their tray. She keeps her eyes on him, and she can't help but feel upset.

She doesn't want to behave like this, but Yixing's behavior is so strange that she can't help but feel suspicious. Everybody knows how hard Oh Sehun has trained Yixing for the past month, he didn't give him a day off even for a day, even though it was in his schedule. They'd been spending their time in the lab, the lounge, the OR, they're stuck together everywhere all the time to the point that it's kind of weird not to see them as a pair in the hospital anymore.

Yeonhee has no idea what deal they have together because on one side Yixing doesn't seem to like Sehun that much. This is clearly seen from the way they talked, she means it like, she used to see Yixing and Baekhyun joking around as if they were each other half or something. But then seeing the stiffness between Sehun and Yixing, and despite everything, they still work and always seen together. It's just so odd, especially now that Yixing is no longer in Cardio rotation.

And there's still this thing about Yeonhee that she still can't change. She's used to not ask questions about personal things like this, she once confronted him about his being busy with Sehun's job, but all he said was he loves it, and since Sehun needs a hand he would gladly help because it's just how he learned. To hear that very convincing answer, Yeonhee couldn't say anything more. And although sometimes she feels something was off to a number of things, she feels that she has no right to question both Sehun and Yixing's motives.

By the weekend Yixing seems to be so busy with his work on transplant rotation, as well as doing Sehun's work at the same time. He has already prepared his suit jacket in the morning to bring it to the hospital, since, again, he doesn't have a day off even though it's Saturday. And Yixing said that they couldn't go together to the function venue, and told Baekhyun to pick her up instead.

She began taking out her old collection once Sejeong texts her to get ready. Her mother gave her a set of dresses from Dior for Christmas gift last year, which was deposited through her lawyer. And she's glad that she finally gets the chance to wear the dress, seeing that she's almost never attended a formal event like this before. She's glad that it seems like her mother knew that she's going to need a dress in the near future, it's just very coincidence.

In two hours, she's gowned with the checked green tube dress and black wide belt on her waist. She stares at herself on the huge mirror while brushing her hair and gives her makeup the last touch. The high slit on the side of her left leg is too much to her liking, she recalled this one time when Sehun scolded her and told her to change clothes when they were going to hang out a few years ago. He said it's too short, that he actually called it a sore to his eyes. She remembered they had quite a big fight over this silly remark that day.

She let her hair down, and she's preparing for her purse when she hears the doorbell rings. Yeonhee thinks that it's Baekhyun, because it's just about the time that he picks her up, only to find her neighbor in front of her door.

"Oh, you're so pretty. Are you going to a party?" the old lady next door asks with her typical sing-a-song tone.

"We're having a function at the hospital. Do you need anything?" Yeonhee speaks formally, in which the lady chuckles as she remembers her purpose being there.

"I was taking my mail from the security office, and I see that your husband seems to get a lot today. So I offered to the security to bring it all, here you go." the lady hands her a handful of letters and wishes her a good night before taking her to leave.

Yeonhee stands in front of the door with a smile lingers to the mention of Yixing as her husband. It's actually not the first time she hears people call him by that name, but she used to let it go because she didn't want to deal with neighbor's talk. But now, everything feels different from the situation that surrounds them. And she actually never thought about this, but now that she hears this again, the image that they're getting married and he's being her real husband, it makes her blush.

She turns around to close the door and check the letters, most of them are sent by Yixing's viewers. And she's just about to put it on Yixing's desk in his room when she finds something in between the letters. She freezes right at the second as she finds an alumni decennial reunion invitation for Yixing, sent by Donggak Junior High School.

The name of the school sounds very familiar, and she remembers her last encounter with a so-called friend who called herself a friend from junior high. She's not mistaken, it's still clear on her head that it's the junior high that the girl mentioned. And there's no other Donggak Junior high school in Seoul, so it means that it's the same school which she supposedly was studying in. She checks on the letter again, leafing through it to see that if the letter is in the wrong address only to find that the address is written with Yixing's name on it.

Yixing is a Donggak junior high alumnus?

She remembers he once said that they were supposed to study in the same year before the accident, but if they were both studied at the same school... why did he never mention it to her? She fails to understand. Her head feels like turning around instantly, she puts her hand and rests her body on the couch as her heart starts beating fast.

What does it mean? Does Yixing not recognize her? Or did the girl lie about her being a Donggak ex-student?

She fishes her phone from her purse, thinking of calling Yixing when the bell rings at the very moment. And Yeonhee is kind of lost when Baekhyun greets her, her head feels so full that she doesn't hear Baekhyun's comments about her dress. 

She even forgets to put on her coat and only realizes when Baekhyun drapes it on her shoulder as he nags at her carelessness. She doesn't listen to anything else afterward.

During the trip, she's completely silent. She suddenly remembers something at the second day of her internship, Yixing asked if she recognized him, and that if they had met before. Yixing mentioned something about a person who claimed him as one of her junior high's friends, the thing that Yeonhee was rawly accepted as a flirt attempt. She recalls some of these times that he mentioned things as if they're familiar, or as if he knows something that she doesn't. Something she used to not think too much about, but now it sounds blatantly suspicious.

"Baek, did Yixing ever tell you about his personal life?"

Baekhyun gives her a glance to the query, "Like what?" he asks back.

"Like, you know, where he came from, or where he went to school in the past?"

"Uh, not really," Baekhyun hums for a moment, "But I met his junior high school friend a few days ago. She came to the hospital to see him and said that the school would hold a decennial reunion. Seems like they're quite close, because this girl asked about you, "

The information surprises her. Someone asked about her to Yixing?

"What did she say?"

"Well, she asked if you're okay and how you've been putting up with everything."

She has this heavy feeling in her stomach right now. Like, seriously, what is this? What is this feeling that makes it feel so uneasy?

"Do you know," she clears , feeling nervous all of sudden. "Do you know what's this girl's name?"

"Uh, wait. Yixing introduced us, but I can't remember her name." Baekhyun chuckles, his brows furrow while he tries to remember the name of the girl. Meanwhile, Yeonhee looks away outside the window. Her hands clasp on each other nervously.

No, she's not ready to hear this. She's never prepared to hear the truth, because a part of her can see what to expect from this; that's it's going to be another lie. But of all people, she never expects that Yixing would be one of them...

"Ah, it's Lim Minhee, now I remember her,"

Yeonhee closes her eyes.

Lim Minhee. It's the same person whom she encountered a few months back in her field treatment with Kyungsoo, the girl who claimed to be one of her friends back at school.

She keeps her eyes close, just to hold her tears from flowing, but fails.

"You okay?" Baekhyun asks as he sees her tapping her eyes with the tissue that she prepares in her purse.

"Yeah, I got... dust in my eyes." she controls her trembling voice and looks away again. Her head shakes in disbelief, she feels betrayed all of sudden.

When they arrive at the hotel venue, Yixing is waiting for them in the lobby. Baekhyun tells her to get off first while he parks the car. Yeonhee takes off her coat, deliberately leaves it in the car and takes Yixing's hand once he opens the door for her.

"You're so beautiful with the dress," Yixing smiles genuinely as they walk inside.

"Thank you,"

Yeonhee tries not to look at him in the eye, for she knows how toxic it is now. In a normal situation, she believes that she won't stop blushing while looking at this charming smile in front of her. He looks divinely gorgeous with the gray suit jacket, with the hair that he pushes back aside and let the strands of them hang on his forehead, just her favorite style. She doesn't want to look at him, for how much the bitterness she feels right now. She doesn't want to cry in front of him.

It's just too much. She finds this really hard to believe that Yixing would lie to her. And now knowing that he indeed has things he hides from her, she can't stop wondering if all the things that involve him were even true. All those sweet words he told her, the promises, the comfort, the hugs, the kisses....

She is biting her inner cheek for the dizziness that currently dominates her. She hates the smile, she wants to slap that face so he will stop charming her with that smile. She hates to have his hand on her waist, she hates to hear his soothing concern voice asking if she's okay. Because no, she's badly wounded, her heart feels like it's broken to pieces to be standing here with him.

"Hey, I have something for you," he stops her from walking and stands close to her. She watches him fishing out something from the inner pocket of his suit jacket, and he opens this navy-colored suede box to bring out a necklace from inside.

Yixing circles her to stand behind her and puts the necklace around her neck, and it leaves Yeonhee almost breathless to find that the simple rose gold necklace has a heartbeat shape just right at the center of her clavicle. The stupid her would probably say how coincident it was, to have Yixing give her one thing that she has been dreaming about for the past few months, but she knows better. It does make her wonder if Yixing were the other kid in her dream when she drew that heartbeat...there must be some connection to it, mustn't there?

"Do you like it?" 

She looks down to stare at the necklace, which she believes that she would really like it in normal situations. She nods to the question, and she murmurs a small thanks to that. She gives him a thin smile right then, just to humor him.

Baekhyun and Sejeong join them shortly afterward, and they don't waste any more time to get inside the ballroom. The room is filled with hospital staff, with all the board members, the high-rank officials, the attendings and residents as they walked in.

Yixing takes a glass of champagne from the waiter and hands it to her before he has another one for himself. Baekhyun also takes two for him and Sejeong, and they walk around the hall to greet some of the residents they know. They go to another small room which is filled by the exhibition plan to expand the hospital, their interest is piqued by the information that the seniors share.

"I'm aware that they would build an expansion for the hospital, but I didn't know that it would be this big," Sejeong comments seeing the digital image of the design plan on the big screen at the center of the exhibition room.

"Isn't it supposed to be the project that your mother had planned to build, right?" Yixing also gives out his comment, giving her a short glance, "It's slightly different from the design plan that I saw the last time. Something is missing," he puts his hand on his jaw as if trying to remember what's different from the picture.

"Kang Heejin's research center. It's what's missing in the picture."

Yeonhee freezes for the second time this evening. But this time, for the reason that the one who says the previous remark is no other than her father. While three of her friends abruptly bow to greet the old man, Yeonhee stands still staring at the design plan in silence.

She remembers the plan completely. She remembers talking about it with her father years ago, he showed her the big project that failed to be realized because of her mother's stunt, he said, a project that should have taken him to the parliamentary seat, but for some reason, it just... never happened. And her father is right, the research center which was supposed to be the prominent development design is now not there, for an unknown reason. And again, this made her mentally ask to herself, where did Yixing see the design before?

"Are you not going to greet your father?"

Yeonhee turns her head to the question, and she bows lightly to the indirect order.

"So, you kids are my daughter's friends?"

"Yes, sir," Baekhyun answers for him, and immediately introduces himself. Sejeong follows after until then Yixing shakes his hand. And with a strange reason, suddenly the atmosphere becomes awkward when Yixing gives out his name to her father, Yeonhee catches the stiffness that had not previously existed in her father's tone.

"I've heard about you. Chairman Noh praises so much about what you did with his disease. What a great job you've done."

"Thank you, Sir," Yixing responds formally, but with another stiffness in the way. Yeonhee can't help finding this very odd.

"Excuse me, but can you give us privacy? I'd like to speak with this friend of yours."

Feeling the uncomfortable awkwardness, both Baekhyun and Sejeong leave immediately. Sejeong waves at her lightly and pulls Baekhyun away quickly, while Yeonhee stands still.

"That means you too, Yeonhee."

She turns back to her father and shakes her head, "No, I stay. Whatever you want to say to him, you say it in front of me."

Her father doesn't seem to like the idea, it's clear to see that he would like to have his time alone with Yixing to talk about something that he doesn't want her to hear. But Yeonhee can read this, and she refuses to go by his wish and be with Yixing instead. She wants to hear what his father is going to say, even though she is not sure her father will say what he originally wanted to say now that she's here.

"Very well, if you say so,"

Yeonhee takes two steps forward to stand next to Yixing, she encircles her arm at the crook of his arm to let him see that there is more than what he might think about them. Yixing gives her another glance with the gesture, but he doesn't push her away as if he also wants to let him see that he's not easily intimidated by his presence.

She raises her chin high, waiting for her father to speak,

"Have you no shame at all? I've raised you better than this, Yeonhee," her father snaps at her looking at the gesture, probably feeling embarrassed seeing her clung over a boy like this.

"No, Dad. I raised myself, not you."

"Stop with the crap. I want you to go home. Right after this, I want to see you home." he clicks his tongue, "For God's sake, what would people say if they found out about this, Ye

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miladee__
wow, thank you for the 100 upvotes! It really made my day! Please comment, upvote and recommend this story to your friends if you enjoy this story, I'll appreciate it sooo much! Love <3

Comments

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tonnettie
#1
Chapter 20: Re-reading is so fun! The magic for this story is so strong! You can never just get bored with it.
Athena66
#2
Chapter 20: Dearest each od your stories touches me and warmth me.Amazing since I am re reading all of it...Thank you very much for all the wonderful tales you shares here.❤
amelloo13
#3
Chapter 20: I LOVE IT!! thank you so much for the great stories, i love you
amelloo13
#4
Chapter 20: I LOVE IT!! thank you so much for the great stories, i love you
amelloo13
#5
Chapter 16: OH MY GOD (2)
amelloo13
#6
Chapter 14: OH MY GOD
aleezay #7
Hoping for the best gonna start it today
tonnettie
#8
Chapter 20: Lol I just finished re-reading this a few months back, and now I’m here again very desperate for Yixing fics.
tonnettie
#9
Chapter 20: I really love them! I just had to re-read this ❤️❤️
tonnettie
#10
Chapter 20: I really love them! I just had to re-read this ❤️❤️