Lisa pulled over her car at the side of the road then turned it off.
"Wait here," Lisa pocketed her phone inside her jacket as she ducked out from her car, covering her head with her hand and opened the car trunk to get the umbrella.
Lisa knocked on Jennie's window and told her to get out.
"What are you doing?" Jennie shouted against the sound of the rain.
Lisa didn't answer. She carefully led Jennie to shelter under the roof.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes. You're wet. You shouldn't do that. The entrance merely a few walk, Lisa-ah"
"Well you'll get soak if you don't use umbrella and you wearing heels. Besides, my immune system is awesome. I don't get cold easily." She shrugged.
"You're so stubborn, you know that?"
"You remind me that over and over again, how can I forget?"
Jennie can only shake her head.
"Came to my office for a while. I'll make you tea or something."
Lisa was too freezing to argue. She jiggled her umbrella and shut it. She then followed Jennie entered the building as she took off her damped jacket. Jennie's office was on third floor. Her assistant greeted them as they passed by.
Lisa observed the place around her. There was brownish leather much complete with matching table's color, plants were here and there, the desk was awfully neat and the smell- the smell of this room was so Jennie.
"Hang your jacket over there. Just sit or whatever, I'll be back," Jennie left the room.
Lisa laid comfortably on her back as she closed her eyes. Physically she was dead tired but her mind was surprisingly peaceful. This place made her safe somehow, the same feeling when she was at her house recently. Felt like home.
"Lisa," Someone called for her.
"Lisa-ah, wake up." She heavily opened her one eye. "Wake up. You're going to be late and your tea is getting cold," Lisa blinked at the voice.
"Jennie-ah? Ugh," she groaned as she sat down. "What time is it? Did I fell asleep?"
"Yes, for half hour. It's nine twenty. Drink this," Jennie handed her the cup.
"Thanks. Why didn't you wake me?" Lisa sipped her drink.
"The rain has stopped. Traffic shouldn't be that bad anymore." Jennie said. Also how could I wake you up when you looked so deep in your sleep?
"I needed that," she sighed. "Well... I better get going. What time will you be done?" She pushed herself off the couch.
"One or two p.m.? I planned to off early if today is slow."
"Call me when you're done, okay? I probably finish by 12 or so, I take a rest of the day off or I'd end up killing my patient"
"You don't have to pick me up. I can take a cab or ask Irene or Chaeyoung to get me home"
"Nah, I drove you here, I'm taking you home myself," Lisa replied like it wasn't a big deal, not aware that her statement made Jennie's heart skip a beat for some vogue reason.
Lisa was about to grab her jacket when Jennie stopped her.
"Use mine, yours is wet," she gave Lisa her pink coat.
"Jennie, it's pink." Lisa looked a her with are-you-kidding-me look.
"It's dry and keeps you warm. Don't be stubborn, just wear it." She shoved the thick yet soft fabric to the taller woman.
"Fine, geez." Lisa half-heartedly put it on. "Happy?"
"Yes. Now drive carefully. You have plenty of time before your duty time"
Lisa walked out of her office.
"Yes, mother." Lisa said jokingly.
*****
"Mr. Y, 23, car accident, conscious; GCS: 13, be thrown out of the glass, shortness of breath, central cyanosis, jugular venous distention, weakness breath sound and hyper resonant on right chest, trachea deviated to the left side, chest pain, possible broken ribs at 9, 10, 11, broken femur 1/3 distal, hematoma. What happen to our patient, Ms. Park?"
"Tension pneumothorax, Doctor."
"How?"
"There's one way valve from the lung or the chest. It happen because the air can get in but trapped in pleura cavity it makes the alveolus collapsed and then it'll push the mediastinum to the opposite side and there is hyper resonant and JV distention it means it wasn't cardiac tamponade."
"Good, what will you do about it?"
"I'll do decompression first, to make sure his tension pneumothorax reduce to simple one and then I'll check his airway, ventilation and circulation then I'll do other exam such X-ray and complete blood count" she explain confidently.
"Mr. Choi, where do we insert the needle?"
"Second intercostal space at mid-clavicular line in injured hemithorax by 2 inch 14 gauge needle, doctor."
"That's all?"
"I'll put chest tub connected to WSD."
"The hematoma, anyone?" Lisa walked to the back of the class as she tapped Miyeon's shoulder. She chose him to answer.
"Femur has myriad woven blood vessels. When trauma happen it has its own special way by forming auto tampon it'll buy us time on the scene. Exploring to find the bleeding source result in severing the bleeding so we must get him to the OR to fix it."
"Very well, so basically you all know what to do. Now we will see if you really can do it. I hope you won't repeat the last training we've done and you actually save lives today. Each one of you will get one patient, different case different treatment. You have ten minutes tops to do whatever you need to do then we'll evaluate one by one. There'll be a reward to whoever succeeds. You're not allowed to ask, you're on your own. Do your best job and get your prize" Lisa said.
Lisa sat on her chair calmly watching her interns creating tumultuous situation. They didn't ask each other but they were yelling to their mannequin. They all wanted to win. She hadn't said what the prize they'd get, she didn't want them to get distracted. Lisa was planning to gave the winner a chance to directly involved in actual surgery, not only observing them. But she wasn't sure whether it was a good idea. On several occasions, the intern who was given that gold chance merely lasted three minutes at the longest before they passed
"Mr. Choi, did your patient has tension pneumothorax? I don't see any sign of it," Lisa quirked an eyebrow to him whilst he was just staring at her speechless with trembled hand holding the needle that already inserted to the mannequin's chest. "Well you better not kill him," she stepped away from the man and checked another intern.
"What are you doing?" Lisa sked the girl with a long hair- Ms. Park who was occupied with various clamps.
"He bleed a Iot, I stitch the blood vessel,"
"Have you done the initial," She saw no movement of her patient's chest, the monitor showed increasing respiration rate, "you might want to take a look before he failed to breath." She informed her, "Don't use too much clamps it'll cause tissues necrosis, just press the bleeding source and make sure hes alive before you start suturing. No use to stop the bleeding if he isn't breathing."
"Okay doctor."
As the time passed by, Lisa was quite satisfied with their work. It wasn't perfect but not bad either. Some of them saved their patients, some other failed miserably. But they got time to learn more.
A lot of time.
******
It was a long day.
She had done her work and nothing to do anymore. She peeked her watch, Lisa should be done by now, it was 12.54 p.m. after all. She didn't want to bother Lisa more so she just waited for her to call first. She'll just wait till she's done. Jennie heard knock on her door. "Come in," she said.
"Yes, Oppa. See you, bye," Irene put her phone back in her purse.
"You knock? Hmm... unlikely." Jennie was surprised at her-friend's act. Irene never knocked, she barged in whenever she pleased.
"I have a lot on my mind. I'm sorry I didn't pick up your call this morning, I went to court early and you know how much I hate my case," She huffed and threw herself on the couch. "Oppa asked us to get lunch with him. Go get ready."
"Get ready for what? I can't possibly put more make up or change my clothes, can I?" Jennie chuckled. "Let me call Lisa first"
"For what? Since when you need her permission?"
"Not for her permission, it's just..." she stopped talking a bit then frowned. "What sound is that?" She heard the familiar ringtone and look around for it. The ring was getting clearer towards Lisa's jacket. She reached its pocket then sighed. "Now how am I supposed to know where you are, huh?" she mumbled.
"She left her phone," Jennie informed her friend, waving the moistened black device.
"Well, then let's go. I'm starving, Jen. Oppa waits for us at the usual." Irene stretched her arms.
"Chaeyoung is not coming with us?" She asked as she got her spare coat.
"She has a date, remember"
"Right," the longhaired woman giggled. "Ah finally something interesting to talk about,"
"I know, right? I already have tons of idea in my mind." She laughed.
Both of the lawyers made her way to favorite Japanese restaurant next to their building.
*****
"Really, that was what he said to me. He was married to her wife and have kids with her for over twenty years based on money and now he wants to divorce her and ask for money. What kind of guy is that?" He shook his head.
"My case is not better than you, Oppa," Jessica chimed in.
"I know," he chuckled. "Jennie, you're okay? You seem a little distracted." He asked.
"Nothing, it's just.. never mind. What are you guys talking about?" She tried to look excited though she kept on glancing outside the window to made sure she didn't miss Lisa's arrival.
"Our case. Are you sure you're okay? You want to get back?"
Speak of the devil.
"Can we? I mean, we're done, right?" She quickly took out her wallet to pay her lunch because Lisa was already in the building. Irene quirked her brow, questioning her friend.
As they reached their building, the handsome- well build guy excused himself. He smiled understandingly as his wish to had a nice dinner turned clown by Jennie. She didn't give him a valid reason. She just said that she needed rest. Irene kept quiet though she was dying to nag her best friend.
"Stop leading him on," Irene hissed as soon as he disappeared inside his office.
"I am not"
"Yes, you are, Jen! He has a crush on you for a long time. Don't say you don't know because I'm not stupid,"
Jennie sighed. "I know, okay? He's been asking me out for more than a year now. I can't easily say in all of sudden that I'm dating someone now. I'm still trying to find the right way to tell him that I'm not available"
"You should be available. Well, you are" Irene argued.
"Technically I'm with Lisa. I just don't have feeling for her,"
"And you have for him?"
"Irene, it is not like that. You know I can't," Jennie stared at the elevator button as if it the most interesting thing in the world.
"Do you want to? He's a good catch, Jen. In my opinion, a lot better than that tall ignorant creature,"
"Irene, you don't know her to talk about her like that. She's not that bad, you know," She purposely didn't touch the main subject.
"I'll believe it when I see it," Irene ended the conversation and they waited in silence as the elevator took them to their destination.
Lisa furrowed her forehead as she tried to beat her own high score. She never forgot to bring her PS Vita with her it always placed inside her backpack. She had her feet on the table, didn't seem to mind at all that it was Jennie's office.
She didn't even look up when Jennie came in-with someone.
"You already had lunch," She said without looking up. It wasn't a question, it was a statement.
"Umm yes," Jennie replied unsurely.
"Well, I was thinking to get lunch with you. But whatever, good thing I bought snacks." She turned off her game then noticed Irene Ieaned at the door staring at her unpleasantly. "What?" She said way too harsh than she intended.
"This is my building, I can do whatever I want," Irene answered latly.
"Lisa, be nice."
"She started it," The tall girl pouted.
Irene rolled her eyes at the antics. She didn't like Lisa at all. She even lectured Jennie for a month good to not agreed with her parents plan. She completely understood Jennie's condition but she knew better. Jennie was a good girl. She deserved better than stupid childish random stranger like Lisa.
"Jen, you're leaving?"
"Yeah, nothing to do. So, see you on monday?"
"Sure." Irene left.
"I still don't get it how you are befriend with her." She spoke with mouth full of chips. "She's like a Satan or something."
"Don't talk bad about her, she's practically my sister." Jennie grabbed her purse. "Your phone" she handed the phone to Lisa.
"Thanks. Ready to go?" Lisa smiled.
"Yep"
By the time they reached the lobby, the rain fell hard again. Lisa judged the weather so hard right now. She parked her car quite far from Jennie's building to do some walk and now she regretted it.
"Wait here. I'll take the car. I won't take long." Lisa didn't wait for her respond, she just ran into the rain.
Jennie watched as Lisa's back faded away.
In all her carelessness, Jennie can see her kindness crystal clear.