"We can't be together but I can't lose you too," his once soothing voice sounded pained.
"You're right, we can't be together." she agreed as her heart broke along with her soul.
"Not right now," he added.
She was in his arms, warm against the win...
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⋆·˚ ༘ * 5 Y E A R S L A T E R ⋆·˚ ༘ *
It was half past two in the morning, midnight has passed and only a few hours of darkness before sunrise was left, people haven't started waking up from their slumber.
Areum shut her eyes as she took off the headcap she wore and exited the Operating Room after assisting and stitching up a patient from a Craniotomy procedure.
Her neck and shoulders were sore and numb by the end of her 3 consecutive night-shifts at the hospital and two-day shifts finalizing their Dissertation project for the University-Hospital Research Program. 5 years.
It took them five years to pass two Feasible Research Studies out of the country. The Chief of the University-Hospital which happened to be her mentor, didn't lie when he said the project was worth years of med-school.
Her school and internship was cut short, putting her immediately at the observatory phase of Residency and one-on-one teaching with the best doctors and professors in Seoul.
Yesterday marked her first year anniversary of Senior Residency at the main Hospital.
It wasn't easy. . . to move at a fast phase in the medical field. She's had more sleepless weeks devoting herself to the project and treating patients at the Emergency and Operating Rooms while studying and saving lives in the process.
Yes, it was unfair, she should've spent long years in school like everyone in her year did. But she worked hard to earn her place. She stopped breathing and living for herself for five long years just to prove she deserved to be on the spot she stood on—but she could not always be the victim of every situation that came her way.
Areum was blessed to have been given the chance to participate in an International Medical Research Program which gave her all the privilege to accelerate her degree and in-progress specialization. That was more than enough to claim that her life was not all too hellish.
Her rubber crocs made a quiet squeaking sound against the newly mapped floor outside the Operating Room and into the elevator. She pressed the button to the lift and immediately got in, surprised but not complaining that she didn't have to wait for it to open.
It was a little warmer inside the lift, and it smelled like a flat out disinfectant solution all over which she didn't mind. Somehow, she liked the odd scent of it.
The scrubs she wore had been drenched with little specks of sweat formed on her back but light scrubs was also by far the most comfortable pair of clothes she ever wore. So even if she spent hours on end inside the Operating Room, she didn't mind. Even if it was the last thing she wore before she died, she wouldn't mind. Areum liked being a doctor, she loved being a surgeon.
