Under the scope
After a semester full of biochemistry, we finally got pathology, both clinical and anatomical this semester. Which meant one thing, we'd be looking at microscope the whole semester. Yeah sure, we already used microscope during histology and parasitology, but it wasn't that intense. This time, the school lent us a box of tissue slides so everyone could learn by themselves at home. Trying to find the key signature ourselves. The problem was, not everyone has a microscope at home. Though that wasn't the case for me. I had one at home, courtesy of my parents. That was why, random girl, Jackson and Mark planned to study together in my house. I sighed as even before she asked, I would offer her to study at my place, but not the other two. They were the annoying extras that I didn't wish for. But random girl kept mentioning how lonely those two were, for being foreigners. She told me that Jackson came from a doctor family like me, but from Hong Kong, while Mark came from Taiwan. She kept saying it was hard for them to be alone here so it was harder for me to decline their request. That was why they were going to study here at my house this weekend.
"Wait, how come I never know why do you want to become a doctor?" I asked while we waited for the class to start. She knew that my whole family were doctors so I was expected to be one as well, but I knew that her parents weren't. I was curious where she got the intention to be a doctor from.
"Um," she hesitated. "My mother told me that back when I was a child, I was sick once. It was pretty bad and I got to be hospitalized. My mom told me that there was this one doctor that stayed by my bed and made sure that my condition was getting better. He often checked on me even though it wasn't his duty. My mom told me that the doctor was still a resident back then, but I never knew his name. I only have his picture together with my parents when I got discharged. I guess then I wanted to do the same like him. Helping devastated family like my family back then," she admitted and I couldn't say anything. It was a wonderful reason and I was in awe. I wished I had the same passion as hers. Now I felt bad for getting the privilege while I didn't want to be one in the first place. This girl really didn't know how big her influence to my life was.
I hoped that she would arrive first, but once again, she let me down. She came last while Jackson and Mark had already cozying themselves in my room. Since I only had one microscope, we had to take turn to use it. I acted as the lecturer since I've studied all the slides yesterday. I helped them to find the key signatures and described how it looked like. She tried to copy the slides to her note, but her drawings were terrible. Jackson mocked her endlessly and I wanted to smack his head, but I didn't want to be a rude host. Luckily, Mark shared the same opinion and smacked his head for me. Or probably because he saw random girl was on the verge of tears. I added a stern warning that I would kick Jackson out if he kept mocking her for a good measure. Thankfully, he heeded to the warning and everything went back to its original state. We continued studying in peace. Well, not completely, since I had to pull Jackson off her several times because he was too close to her. Hasn't he heard of personal space? Or was he trying to piss me off?
"I think everything I see after this will be all pink," Jackson whined and Mark laughed at him. I laughed along with him but I saw that everyone was exhausted already so I decided to call it a day. Both Mark and Jackson were happy to hear it, but she asked to stay for another hour. Talking about dream come true. Obviously I granted her request. Finally we got some alone time that I was hoping for.
"Jinyoung, can you show me the CMV owl eyes?" she turned her head just in time when I was leaning down. Her eyes widened when she saw that our heads were only inches apart. She backed away quickly, obviously flustered but I patted myself for managing to keep a straight face, even though my heart was beating wildly inside my chest. I took over her place and found the one she was looking for and signaled her to come closer. But I just shifted my head just enough for her to look at the microscope without me leaving my seat. She hesitated for a moment, but immediately gathered herself and peeked through the microscope.
