Love is in the air Within the locker room, there was pandemonium of a decidedly different sort.
"Give it back, Yufei! I'm not playing!" Meilin growled, charging at her friend who held her diary aloft like a trophy.
Fang Yufei smirked nastily, easily sidestepping her. "Aww… who's 'Doctor Ice' in this here entry? 'The way his eyes glimmered while sewing the wound…'? How romantic, Meilin."
Meilin's face turned bright scarlet. "I will literally kill you with a scalpel."
The door burst open just then and Yichen walked in. He stopped at the sight of Yufei perched on the bench holding a pink diary aloft, Meilin in mid-jump, and both of them turning to stop as he arrived.
"You guys always this busy before rounds?" he asked sardonically.
Meilin grabbed her diary from distracted Yufei and turned her back on him, acting like she was tidying up her bag. Yufei smirked and whispered, "Doctor Ice has entered," then departed with Meilin seething and Yichen tilting his head slightly.
"Get to the ER in 10 minutes. And perhaps less teenage drama next time," he said, already walking away.
The moment the door closed, Meilin groaned into her hands. "I want to dig myself a hole in the ICU."
In the cafeteria, meanwhile, Gao Rui sat drinking his black coffee, oblivious to the commotion around him. Yufei slipped into the chair across from him, carrying a plate of dumplings.
"You should smile every now and then," she said, putting one in her mouth.
"I smile when there's something to smile about," he answered without lifting his eyes.
"So, never then?"
He shot her a glance, but she simply laughed and reclined. "You and Dr. Yichen are competing against each other for 'Most Broody Doctor of the Year' or something?"
Rui didn't say anything, but the slightest wobble at the corner of his mouth betrayed him.
Meilin had gotten through the half hour in the ER, until Yichen presented her with a suture kit.
"You're closing this one," he said. The victim had a deep wound on his arm from a bike crash.
Meilin swallowed hard. She'd stitched before, but never with him standing over her, watching her every movement like a hawk.
"Any shaking and I take over," he cautioned, arms crossed.
"Why don't you just say 'don't mess it up' like a normal person?" she muttered.
He shot her a look. "That was the polite version."
She fumbled as she worked, her fingers shaking a little. Yichen leaned in closer, his voice soft but strong. "Relax. You're good at this when you stop trying to impress everyone."
"I'm not trying to impress you," she whispered back, tightening her jaw.
"Good. Because I'm not that easily impressed."
Meilin glared, but her hand stabilized. As she knotted the last stitch, Yichen nodded minutely.
"Not bad."
"Wow. The great Doctor Zhao speaking? Should I put it on a certificate?"
"You should. It could be the only one you receive today."
She rolled her eyes but couldn't help the small smile she had and which slipped away as he walked away.
Later in the afternoon, staff convened at the staff room to have lunch. Yufei was already half-way through her dumplings when she realized Meilin gazing blankly into space.
"Uh-oh. Somebody's reliving the suture moment in her mind again."
"I am not!"
"She is," Yufei announced loudly to all.
Rui, sitting in the corner, grumbled without lifting her head, "I'd worry less if she actually managed to concentrate once."
"Excuse me? I'm very concentrated," Meilin replied indignantly.
"Where Zhao Yichen's face, perhaps," Yufei added.
Zhao Yichen walked into the room just in time to hear the end of that statement. All eyes fell silent.
"What about my face?" he asked nonchalantly.
Meilin's face went white as if she'd received a defibrillator shock. "Nothing! Medical anatomy only. Eyes, nose, usual things. Nothing… improper."
He blinked and moved past her. "That's the most confusing diagnosis I've ever heard today."
Yufei exclaimed with laughter. "You two are the epitome of slow-burn disaster."
In the afternoon, the interns were tasked to do vitals on the general ward. As Meilin was working, a small girl named Linlin pulled her coat.
"Jiejie, are you a princess doctor?"
Meilin knelt down beside her. "Princess doctor?"
"You have nice hair and you look like the ones in my book of fairy tales," Linlin stated gravely.
Meilin giggled. "Well, I don't wear a crown, but I do mend boo-boos. That counts, doesn't it?"
Linlin smiled and nodded.
Just then Yichen came over, scanning the girl's chart. "Meilin, did you double-check the meds?"
"Yes," Meilin replied confidently, handing over the notes.
As he scanned them, Linlin gazed up at him.
"Are you the prince doctor?"
Meilin coughed to conceal her laughter.
Yichen looked at the kid. "I don't know if prince, but not from a fairy tale for sure."
"Then you're the grouchy one," Linlin asserted.
Even Rui, who was hovering near the door, shared a rare laugh.
Night fell, and the hospital was quieter than normal. Meilin sat on the roof, gazing at the city lights twinkling. Yichen discovered her there, clutching two cups of tea.
"I thought you'd be cowering here," he said, offering her one.
She smiled slightly and took it. "I'm not cowering. I'm thinking."
"About what? Your sewing? Or your fairy tale diagnosis?"
"About how strange this building makes me feel sometimes," she replied, surprising even herself with candor.
Yichen braced himself against the railing, cradling his tea. "This building makes all of us feel strange. It's normal."
"I thought I'd show up here and be this ultra-tough doctor who never makes a mistake and never gets sidetracked. Turns out I'm just an embarrassment on two legs."
"You're not an embarrassment," he said softly.
She stared at him, taken aback.
He shrugged. "You're noisy. You argue too much. But you care. That's not something people do every day."
Meilin blinked. "Wow. You are full of surprises today."
"Don't get used to it," he grumbled.
She smiled and gazed back at the skyline. "Still not impressed, though?"
He leaned in her direction slightly. "You're getting there."