Maybe This Time | Saida

Chapter 3: Free Appointments

The next day, Dahyun went to the clinic that Sana had referred to yesterday to get her teeth scanned. It was a little further than the Japanese dentist's clinic so the Korean woman decided to hail a taxi instead of riding her bicycle in the burning summer heat.

She was thankful that her classes were still later in the evening because Sana had basically ordered her to go first thing in the morning. The brown-haired dentist had also told her that Doctor Cho was a close friend of hers from dental school when she was studying here in Korea, so Dahyun can trust her too. According to her, all Dahyun had to do was say her name to her secretary when she arrived.

And that's exactly what she did as soon as she stepped foot in Doctor Cho's clinic.

The secretary immediately guided her into a separate room as another assistant gave instructions for the X-ray. After the scan, she then took pictures of Dahyun's face and teeth. The gigantic camera made her uneasy and doubt because as far as she remembered she's in a dental clinic, not a photo studio. But she shrugged the thought off her mind when a slender woman in a white coat over a pink pair of scrubs and a face mask appeared in front of them.

"Hello, you must be Dahyun. I'm Cho Miyeon, nice to meet you." The dentist took off her mask and smiled sweetly before bowing.

Dahyun immediately stood up from her seat to return the gesture. "Nice to meet you Doctor Cho, I'm Kim Dahyun."

"Just call me unnie. Any friend of Sana's is also mine, and we also went to the same university." Doctor Cho, or Miyeon, giggled.

But it felt weird for Dahyun to call Miyeon informally because she just met her, so she tried negotiating. "How about I call you Doc? It just doesn't feel right for me to call you so casually."

"Sure, that works too."

Miyeon then proceeded to explain to her that she was going to make a dental impression to get a better glimpse of her current mouth and teeth structure, to which Dahyun kind of understood as Sana had briefly explained it to her yesterday.

After the procedure, the dentist instructed her to wait for thirty minutes tops to get everything sorted out. So she sat in the waiting area and decided to do some case readings to keep her entertained (if you could even say that). Twenty-five minutes later, she was told to go back into the dentist's office.

"Here's everything Sana needs," Miyeon said as Dahyun settled down in front of her desk. The former slid down a brown envelope and a small box towards the latter. "Your X-ray scan, photo prints, and dental impression are all there. Just hand them to Sana and she'll let you know the next steps of your procedure."

"Thank you so much, Doc. How much is my total?"

"Oh don't worry, Sana already paid for it."

Dahyun's jaw dropped to the ground. "What?"

Miyeon nodded her head, smiling. "She sent an advance payment for these yesterday."

Dahyun was beyond puzzled because Sana hadn't mentioned anything about this in her clinic and when they were hanging out at the ice cream parlor yesterday. "I— She didn't inform me about this. She didn't even let me pay for the checkup yesterday."

"Really?" Miyeon raised an eyebrow at this as Dahyun nodded her head, sighing.

"I'll pay for these. Please return Sana's payment back to her, Doc."

"How about this," Miyeon sat up and continued, "Talk to Sana about this when you visit her later. Then, if she agrees, we can settle a mutual payment agreement afterwards."

Dahyun frowned upon hearing her suggestion. "But isn't my suggestion easier?"

"Well yeah, however Sana had strictly instructed me and I quote, "Don't let her pay a penny for her appointment with you."