A sigh left Karina’s lips as she stared at the place that would be her home for the next month, the hospital. Karina was born with an atrial septal defect which meant that she had a hole in her heart ever since she was born. And although she was slowly recovering and treating it with multiple surgeries throughout the years, it couldn’t be helped that there were times that it just worsened. And today was one of those times. The hole in Karina’s heart was seemingly growing larger than before and it was taking a massive negative toll on her health and lifestyle. She always wondered what she did in her past life to deserve this, but she didn’t have a choice but to live with it anyway. 

“Back so soon, Karina?”, she turned her head towards the source of the voice. It was her favorite nurse, Giselle. “Oh hey, Nurse Gi. Well, this hole’s been kicking my so I had no choice but to return to my second home.”, she giggled lightly at her as Nurse Giselle escorted her to her room.. Nurse Giselle was one of the people she became close with after all the time she spent at this hospital, they talked about other stuff, interests, dreams, and such. They grew close quickly because they were only the same age. “You should know that Doctor Kim resigned already.”, my eyes widened at her statement. “Who will be my doctor then?”

“Your doctor will be another Doctor Kim, but younger.”, she stated. “And cuter, I must add.”

As the two continued laughing at their playful antics, a cough interrupted them. “Miss Karina Yu.”, Karina slowly travelled her eyes towards the owner of the voice and there she was greeted with a stunning petite and handsome woman possibly in her early 20s. “I am Doctor Kim Minjeong. I will be your doctor starting from today.”, Karina felt her ears heat up as she continued to admire her new doctor’s facial features. It went on for a while before Giselle interrupted her awkward gawking session with another cough. “Karina, I should you to your room, you must be tired, you should get some rest. Goodbye, Doctor Kim.”, Giselle hurriedly pushed Karina’s wheelchair away from the young doctor. 

“Developing a crush on your doctor huh, Karina? That’s new.”, Giselle smirked at her patient. “Oh shut up, I am not.”

“Well, your gawking moment and your bright red ears say otherwise.”

Karina felt more heat creep through her face as she heard Giselle’s additional remark. She isn’t developing a crush on her doctor, right?? She shouldn’t, right?

Karina let out a sigh as her nurse finally left her room, leaving her alone to succumb into her own world; her own peace and quiet. If that was the case. For Karina, there was never peace and quiet present in the ever so busy halls of the hospital. She was used to the white walls and strong smell of disinfectants, but she will never get used to the sounds of crying, flat lining, and yells echoing throughout the buildings. It made her think; will there come a time that the ones crying are her loved ones and the one flat lining was her? She hopes not, at least.

“Penny for your thoughts, Miss Yu?”, Karina felt a shiver go down her spine as a voice suddenly spoke from behind her. She looked at the source of the voice and there she was, her very handsomely cute doctor, Kim Minjeong. Karina shrugged, “Still not used to the variety of sounds present in this place.”

“Kinda bad, huh. But this is a place where we save lives, after all. It’s inevitable, I must say.”, Minjeong walked towards the patient slowly bringing her stethoscope and checking her patient’s heart beat. “Heart sounds good. Tell you what Miss Yu, later when I come back, I’ll bring my walkman for you.”, Karina looked at how Minjeong’s lips curved up into a smile. Pretty, she unconsciously thought. 

“I’d like that, Doctor Kim.”, she flashed her charming smile at the young doctor who was then confused as to why her chest suddenly leaped upon witnessing her patient’s gorgeous smile. Their eye contact continued for a while, both too busy exploring each other’s eyes to even notice Nurse Giselle and another patient, Yizhuo, smirking at the two ‘future lovebirds’ as to what they called it. 

--

“You two, undeniably have great chemistry, Karina.”, Giselle blurted as soon as she entered Karina’s room. “You and Doctor Kim, I mean.”, Giselle clarified. 

“Oh stop it, Nurse Gi. Me and Doctor Kim do not have chemistry.”, Karina playfully rolled her eyes at her nurse. “I believe we do though, Miss Yu.”, Minjeong entered her room handing her the walkman she promised earlier. “Here’s the walkman along with a few tapes that I promised.”

“A walkman? Never seen that thing in years.”, Giselle laughed. “There are these things called earphones and spotify now, Doctor Kim.”

Karina felt her ears heat up as she witnessed Doctor Kim’s beautiful smile and laughter echo through her room. It was as if her room’s white walls were painted with yellow everytime she laid her eyes on her doctor. No , Karina was in danger. “Well let’s say I’m an old soul, Nurse Giselle.”, Minjeong turned to look at Karina before checking her heart. “Sounds great! Miss Yu, please do take care of my walkman. I don’t let others borrow it, only people that I like.”, the doctor winked at her as she fixed her lab coat before leaving the room with Karina’s face looking like a huge plum of tomatoes. 

“Damn, that doctor’s a huge flirt.”, Giselle laughed at Karina’s statement. “With a face like that it would be a shame not to.”

--

“Good morning, Karina. Second day, huh? 29 more days to go before you leave this life-saving ironic hellhole.”, Nurse Giselle said as she went on to check Karina’s vitals and IV lines. Karina hummed in response as she watched the nurse do her job in maintaining Karina’s stability at all times. It was a cool job, difficult but cool. Saving lives. If she wasn’t ‘blessed’ with this illness of hers, she was certain she would’ve wanted to become a doctor. The profession had its own share of ups and downs; extreme joy when you’ve saved patients, extreme sorrow when you lose them. For her, it was a profession where you could let not only your skills foster, but also your emotions and how you handle them. It was something that Karina can’t master because of her state; it was a shame, indeed. 

“Say, Nurse Gi, could you possibly give me a tour of this hospital? It’s quite suffocating being stuck in this room.”, Karina watched as her nurse slowly looked at her. “Yeah, sure. You’re stable anyway. But why do you wanna tour the hospital?”, Giselle looked at Karina in confusion.

The woman shrugged. “I’ve been going here for as long as I can remember, yet I haven’t even seen different parts of it. Just the entrance, the first floor hallway, the operating room, and the room for CT, MRI, and X-ray scans.”

Giselle squinted her eyes, a teasing smirk appearing on her face. “Are you sure you want to see the hospital and not someone, specifically your doctor, perhaps?”

“Oh shut up.”

--

“Okay, so here’s the nurse’s station, in here we actually get our own desks unlike other hospitals.”

“And I’m guessing yours is the one on the farthest right.”, Karina pointed at the desk. “How do you know, you witch?”, Giselle gasped jokingly. “Because it's a ty, messy desk.”

“You .”

“Hey, you can’t swear at a patient like that!”, Karina sniffled a giggle.

The pair continued their tour with laughs and full on teasing from Giselle as she watched her patient’s eyes look for someone in an obviously not so subtle way. 

“So, this is the main lobby, you can see the doctors actually chilling in there. This is usually where the doctors, fellows, residents, interns, nurses and other hospital staff start their day.”, Karina looked at the main desk at the lobby intently trying to figure out what’s so special with it that that is where everyone starts their day. “What’s so special about that desk?”

“Well, it’s like a sacred saying in this hospital. If you do not pass by that desk before starting your day, it's either a swarm of patients will enter the ER or a single or multiple patients will die. It’s kind of like a jinx.”

“That’s some dark .”, Giselle laughed out loud at Karina’s remark.

Their laughing session was put on a halt when Karina heard the voice that she wanted to hear the most.

“Well now, my dear fellows, residents, and interns! Today is a beautiful day to save lives.”, Karina felt her world slow down as she laid her eyes on Doctor Kim Minjeong, who displayed the most beautiful smile and most dedicated eyes she has ever seen.

“Hey. Snap out of it you lovesick fool.”, Giselle snapped her fingers in front of the patient’s face. “Dr. Kim looks great while working, huh? The lab coat working its charm on you?”

“Oh please, enough with the teasing Nurse Gi.”, Karina rolled her eyes at the other. “I don’t like Dr. Kim that way. I just admire her dedication with the profession she chose. Wish I could be like her.”, she sighed. “Unfortunately, because of my fragility I can’t even choose what I want to be in life. Here I am just stuck working at this stupid nonflexible desk job for 48 hours a week. Interesting, huh.”, Karina’s shoulders slump as she continues to admire the doctor from afar. Conversing with her colleagues, with the patients. Everybody seemed to love Dr. Kim’s presence. A job that required physical stability, something she can’t have no matter what. “How about you, Nurse Gi? Do you like your job?”

Giselle pushed Karina’s wheelchair to the nearest bench as they both watched Dr. Kim work in her full glory. “I do, actually. With my continuous blabbermouth, I had to pick a career where I could talk and talk and talk. My mom actually wanted me to become a teacher. However, I don’t do well with kids and it didn’t fit in right with me, me being a teacher. As I continued my journey through high school, I’ve found out about a talent of mine in science. And there I figured I could just be a nurse, I could talk to my colleagues, with my patients and I could practice what I excelled in.”, Karina turned to look at her nurse as she continued to talk. “Plus, this place. It’s bad enough to look at this place as somewhere where people die. Death’s bridge as some would call it. But this place has its own shares of life and death. Here, I picked up lessons nobody could ever teach me at school. Here, I learned to be content with what I have and live for today, not for the future or the past. Because we never know when death will poke us with his scythe. If we’re too busy living for the future or living while held back from the past, then we can never attain contentment or peace of mind. This place along with this profession taught me a lot of things; so this job, I would not trade this for anything. Not even a job with a salary of a million dollars. Not even a billion dollar- wait, maybe I would trade it for a billion dollar salary. But- but you get what I mean.”

“You’re right.”, Karina said with amazement in her eyes.

“Of course I am. Wait, about what?”

“You are a blabbermouth.”

“You .”, Karina laughed as Giselle continued to lightly smack her shoulders while scolding the patient. They were so busy fighting that they didn’t notice a certain someone walking towards them.

“Looks like you two are having fun.”, they both froze as they heard Minjeong’s voice in front of them. “Oh h-hey, Dr. Kim.”, Karina greeted her doctor with nervousness in her voice. “What are you doing outside, Miss Yu?”, the doctor eyed her patient.

“U-Uh! You know, w-we’re on a tour while l-listening to music, you know for her to do a little thinking. Uh, reflect..?”, Giselle scrambled on her words as she tried to think of a reason why her patient was outside of her room not resting. 

“Oh okay, that’s good actually. Continue on with your tour, ladies. I will be seeing you later, Miss Yu.”, Minjeong winked at her patient who was beet red before heading towards the ER.

"A flirt, indeed."

--

Karina heaved a sigh as she stared out of her window. The vast blue skies, the wind carrying the autumn leaves to wherever it wants to go. How she wishes to be carried by the wind; one place to another with no worry of anything in this world. For her, that was the definition of peace, the definition of freedom; away from her current standing.

Karina slowly stood up from her bed before carefully walking towards the window, opening it in the process. The sun grazed upon her skin as the wind blew lightly. She closed her eyes as she continued to feel every bit of heat and wind; trying to find her autumn peace not noticing the doctor staring at her leaning on the doorframe.

"Beautiful.", Minjeong quietly muttered to herself as she admired Karina's serene face. She looked peaceful, she looked ethereal in Minjeong's eyes. It seemed as if she was the muse of the whole world, but nobody can never be perfect. In Karina’s case it seemed like she had it all. The pretty face everyone gets jealous of, the kind attitude that everyone loves, the soft persona. But she has a hole in her heart, literally. A hole that keeps her inside the danger zone, a hole that keeps her from doing what normally people like her should be doing, a hole that can kill her. Nobody’s perfect, Minjeong sighed as she looked down. How could she ever tell that gorgeous and peaceful looking patient of hers that she only had 3 months left?

“Oh? Doctor Kim? It’s nice to see you.”, Karina flashed her brightest smile to her doctor. Minjeong stared at her for a while with an unreadable expression on her face. “Is something wrong?”, Karina slowly asked; afraid if she might be crossing her boundaries. But she guessed not as Minjeong suddenly smiled at her widely. “How was the tour, Miss Yu?”

“It was great actually! Although, Nurse Gi literally talked and talked all throughout. I think you should assign a different nurse for me for a while, Dr. Kim. I’m kind of sick of Nurse Gi’s voice.”, Karina laughed as she remembered how they both just bickered while on tour. “I doubt Nurse Giselle would agree with that. You’re like her best friend, her hospital patient best friend.”, Dr. Kim stuck her tongue out teasingly at Karina who rolled her eyes in response as they both cracked out in a fit of laughter.

“So, what brings you here anyway, Doctor?”

“Eh. Nothing much, just wanted to check on my favorite patient. Don’t tell my other patients I told you that.”, Minjeong made a hush sign to Karina. Seeing her patient laugh like that, Minjeong can’t bear to tell the news. Maybe not now, not tomorrow, but soon. Kinda selfish, yeah Minjeong knows. But she didn’t want to spoil whatever ounce of happiness the ill woman still had in herself. 

“Dr. Kim.”, Minjeong turned to look at Karina.

“Yes, Miss Yu?”

“Oh please, Karina’s just fine.”, the patient jokingly rolled her eyes.

“Okay then, if that makes you more comfortable. But in return, call me Minjeong.”, Minjeong smiled. “Now let me say it again. Yes, Karina?”, the patient felt her heart flutter. Her name just flowed down the doctor’s mouth smoothly. Hearing the doctor say her name, it felt right; it felt like a puzzle piece finally found its right place. 

 “Minjeong. Take me out of here.”

--