Trouble with the Curve

Chapter One | First Impressions

"Nurse Lee—"

"You are not allowed to leave me behind, remember?" The woman says firmly.

The little girl's fierce gaze grows even thicker as a sarcastic smirk touches her lips, a seemingly unfamiliar gesture for a girl who looked as sweet an innocent as a rose.

"I feel like that should be my line, Nurse Lee."

Nurse Lee walks over to the girl and climbs into the hospital bed with her. Feeling like an intruder, I nod at the door, connecting eyes with Eomeoni who nods and lets me quietly escort her out of the girl's room to give the other two some privacy.

As I try to quietly shut the door, Nurse Lee and I lock eyes. Most of her face is covered by the black mask covering the bottom half, but her eyes... her eyes are something entirely new to me. They're not special, not particularly unique, but the emotion hidden in their dark depths tells me that now that I've met her, something was about to change in my life forever. She subtly nods at me, then turns away and focuses as the frail girl cuddles into her. I fully close the door, not wanting to intrude any further and watch for a second longer as she takes off the black mask and her face is revealed, making me momentarily lose every thought in my brain as I stare at the woman.

Nurse Lee's dark eyes were offset by pale skin, pouty pink lips, and a petite nose. She was what most would consider a traditional Korean beauty, myself included, but the thing I noticed was that despite the icy exterior that she displayed the last time we had interacted and even today, there was a hidden warmth in her eyes and her actions.

Stepping back from the door, I push Eomeoni away from San Mirae's room and we walk in silence as we exit the children's ward and head back to her suite near the oncology department. Eomeoni's private room didn't lack much, the vibrant color she had added to the space with items of décor seemed washed out today though. Still in silence, I help her into her bed and hand her the most recent embroidery project she had been working on when she wasn't visiting friends in their rooms or asleep.

Eomeoni has always loved a good project for distraction.

"That boy..."

"He has been sick for a long time. It was a tragic inevitably that he passed away today."

I knew she was trying to rationalize away the hurt in her heart, but her words seemed uncharacteristically cold.

"San Mirae was his friend?"

"Kids going through similar experiences tend to bond."

"Did you know him well?"

She shakes her head, "Not really. Most of what I know is from San Mirae. We're on the same chemo schedule pretty much so most of my interactions are with her. Nurse Lee had mentioned him a couple of times when your teammates came to visit. You've met her before, remember?"

"Not particularly, but I'm not good with—wait, what do you mean my teammates were here?" I scrunch my eyebrows and try to think back to any emails the PR department had sent out talking about coming to the hospital for a child visit.

"Nurse Lee arranged it privately," she says as though that information is enough to answer all of my questions.

"What do you mean? How did she arrange it? I don't understand why?"

Eomeoni stops fiddling with her embroidery threads and looks over at me, "Nurse Lee is the most thoughtful person I have met since she transferred to the Oncology department. She knew Bu Taeyang didn't have much time left and he's a huge fan of the Seoul Eagles. She coordinated the team coming so he could have another happy memory in his last days."