Prelude to Romance

Chapter 7: Blood Drive

"If there are no questions, it's your turn to practice." their professor announced during their afternoon lesson, "Pick a partner, then demonstrate how to find a vein and draw blood using a medical syringe."

Eun Jae looked around to find a partner. Seulgi and Hyorin had paired themselves up, and so did Kibum and Jinho. She frowned, trying to see who else was available, but the rest of her class seemed to be purposely avoiding eye contact with her. She ignored the uncomfortable feeling and scanned the room for someone sitting alone. Her eyes landed on Woo Jin's the same time he found hers, and she hesitated. They still haven't spoken since the incident, and a lesson where they poke each other with needles doesn't seem to be the best time to do it.

He cleared his throat, "Want to pair up?"

"Um..." she replied, hiding her surprise, "If you don't mind?"

Woo Jin shook his head, "I don't." he said as he moved to the chair across from her. He flipped open his book to the correct page, reading the instructions to himself. Eun Jae pretended to examine the tools they were going to use, while sneaking a glance at his face, trying to judge what he was thinking about. He hadn't exactly been avoiding her, he just doesn't seem to pay her any attention. It's almost as if they were back to being strangers, and she found that it troubled her a lot.

Why am I bothered when I didn't do anything wrong? she wondered.

"Looks pretty straightforward," Woo Jin said, finally looking up at her, "do you want to go first or should I?"

Eun Jae skimmed over the instructions, "You have a go." she decided. He puts on his surgical gloves silently as Eun Jae placed her arm on the table. She looked at the book to double check what they were looking for, "So you need to locate my antecubital vein first, just above the elbow crease." she told him, and Woo Jin nodded. Gently, he cradled her arm with one hand, sending goosebumps all over her body, as his other hand traces faint lines over her elbow crease, tapping the skin lightly to check for tautness.

"Should be quite easy since my veins are prominent, you know." Eun Jae continued, too aware of his warm hands for her liking, "A lot of nurses told me I'm an easy patient to draw blood from. Of course that was a long time ago, back when I was seven when I was hospitalized for pneumonia. It wasn't too severe, thank goodness, but they had to inject an IV, and they said it was lucky that my veins were easy to spot."

She knew she was rambling, but she couldn't stop. If she did, the silence would become too heavy with the questions hanging over their heads. Woo Jin didn't say anything, he just tapped her forearm one more time before letting it go to choose a needle.

"Did you find it?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess your nurses were right."

Eun Jae flushed, and she sat straighter on her stool. Woo Jin turned back to her with a tourniquet, which he tied around her upper arm. He cradled her arm again with one hand while the other flicks the vein until it's bulging. Next, he took a needle syringe from their pile, pausing to gauge her reaction, "Ready?"

Eun Jae took a deep breath and nodded. She never had a problem with needles, anyway, preferring to watch as Woo Jin drew her blood. He worked with surprising ease, as she watched him pull the syringe out and press a cotton ball over the injection site.

"Whoah, it's like you've been doing this for years."

"It's not difficult."

"Show off." she teased him lightly.

Woo Jin smiled a little, and her heart did a cartwheel in her chest. "I thought it's better to just do it as quickly as possible so you don't have time to think about it."