Heartline

Chapter 8: Cigarette Break

By the end of the month, Shen Yue has settled into a routine with Dylan, who picks her up after her shift so they can have a quick dinner together before Dylan returns to the hospital do one of his annual night rotations. On times where Dylan’s too busy to accompany her to dinner, he would facetime her before she would go to bed and tries to make her laugh by telling some doctor jokes and how he misses her.

One thing she notices about Dylan is the fact he eats a lot of takeout even though Dylan is a pretty decent home cook. He explained to her that his family owns a restaurant back in his hometown, and his mother taught him how to cook at a very young age. But like he said before, being a doctor comes with a price. He doesn’t have enough time to take care of himself and how he manages to squeeze Yue onto his crazy schedule forever amazes her at how Dylan is good at time management.

She tried cooking for him once, but it turned out to be a complete disaster because she overcooked the chicken and burnt the fried rice. So she opted to just do take out and dropped off the food to the hospital on times that Dylan couldn’t afford taking a lunch nor cigarette break.

They haven’t had sex yet, unless you count Shen Yue being pressed against the kitchen counter and felt up under her shirt, kissed within an inch of her life.

Dylan would kissed her whenever he could.

Dylan kissed her while standing by the sink as they did the dishes and put away the cutlery. He kissed her while she was munching on some buttered popcorn, making his lips all sticky from the butter. Dylan kissed Shen Yue with his tongue, making her leaned against the fridge trapping her.

Being kissed by Dylan Wang is making her feel intoxicated. He really knows how to use his lips.

A few times, Shen Yue would jump into his arms, because she keeps seeing that in romcoms and Dylan would gladly catch her, pressing her back to the wall and indulge into a make out session.

Dylan wouldn’t try anything else, though. He makes sure that Yue’s comfortable enough before he tries to get handsy on her. So like the gentleman he is, the furthest he had gone with Shen Yue is a steamy make out session on his bed, with him on top of her. That’s it. He doesn’t mind, though.

He’d wait for Shen Yue until she’s ready.

On one particular Saturday night, Dylan was already lying on his bed, thankful that he has the weekend off so he could have a lazy day with Shen Yue by his side. Yue suddenly emerge from the bathroom, wearing his white shirt with her hair up in a bun. She joined him on his bed and kissed him, hastily and Dylan pouted.

“I want more” Shen Yue shook her head, laughing at how much of a child he is.

“Did you stop smoking?” Shen Yue asked and Dylan sheepishly replied no.
Its one of his worst habits ever. Smoking helps him feel at ease and not stressed too much about his work. All of his co-workers do it so he doesn’t really mind. But after spending too much time with Shen Yue, he realized at how much he would be smoking less. Usually, he would smoke up to 8 to 10 cigarette sticks per day and now, he only smokes 2, sometimes one if he could spend half of his day with Shen Yue.

“I hate the smell of cigarettes.” Yue mentioned to him, while trying hard not to fall asleep. Dylan got closer to Yue, finally cuddling her while kissing the top of her head.

“Go to sleep. It’s fine.”

And just like that, she dozed off making Dylan quietly watch her, admiring how ethereal she looks.

---

“Oh, I didn’t know you were that serious with her.” Caesar replied to Dylan when they went out eat hotpot late at night. They had just finished an 8 hour surgery and decided to blow off some steam by pigging out and eating at their favourite hot pot restaurant.
Dylan lazily grabbed his chopsticks and picked up a piece of meat before biting into it.

“I am.”

“How long have you done it with her, then?”

Dylan managed to raise an eyebrow at his good friend.

“Pervert” he joked and Caesar rolled his eyes. He leaned back onto his chair, the glass of iced tea in his hand as he looked straight towards his friend.

He knows Dylan too well. They met at medical school, became interns, and now are best of friends. He knows why Dylan is avoiding the topic and as much as he wants to push his friends’ buttons further, he won’t. He respects Dylan’s privacy.

Still, he wants to know whether his friend is serious and wants to be in a private relationship with someone. Hell, if Dylan really is serious, Caesar would gladly treat every intern and doctor to a local bar and have a party. But right now, he needs to know for the sake of Dylan and well for the girl that somehow managed to catch his friends’ attention.

“Sure she’s not a cigarette break?” He asked one final question that made Dylan stopped eating.

Dylan placed his chopsticks on the table and remained silent. He’s just staring at Caesar who now has his arms crossed, waiting for his reply

“I.. don’t think so. What does that mean anyway?” His reply made Caesar scoff.

“What do you mean, you don’t think so?” Caesar was slightly irritated and guilty for pushing this question. Of course, Dylan is confuse “It means that maybe, just maybe she’s your excuse or a past time. She is someone who makes you release the tension you feel from work but you don’t want to commit to her. She’s just… a cigarette break.

Nothing more and nothing less.”
“Look, I’m having fun with her and she makes me feel comfortable, okay. Next subject.” Dylan looked at Caesar annoyed while he picks up his chopsticks again and began to eat.

The rest of their dinner was awkward until they managed to just laugh it off and went back to the hospital to attend other patients.

As Dylan was quickly making his way towards a new patients’ room, his mind keeps thinking about, Yue and how Caesar accuse him of using Yue.

She’s not a cigarette break.

---

Over the next few days, Dylan finds himself smoking more cigarettes than he intends to. Ever since Caesar’s words, he suddenly began to question himself and the relationship he has with Yue.

Wait scratch that, Dylan thinks. He doesn’t really know if they are in a relationship or if he wants to be one, all he knows is that he really likes to spend time with Shen Yue, and that damn lips of hers.

With all of his thoughts eating up to him, it’s not an excuse to completely ignore Shen Yue, and the 10 text messages and 5 missed calls she sent to him over the past two days. He doesn’t know why he’s ignoring her and he feels guilty, too.

He misses her.

He then suddenly remembers Darren Chen’s fascination over Yue and that seems to stimulate his brain to type a long apology message saying that he’s too busy with work and that he practically slept in his hospital office for the past 2 days.

Yue immediately replied saying that its okay and she’ll see him tonight.

Tonight was their day, their time together. He always gets work off early and make sure he doesn’t have to perform any nightly surgery on Saturdays because it’s their day together.

He groaned in annoyance, he desperately needs to figure out his feelings towards Yue. His pager beeped off signalling that it was time for him to check the newer patients and escort some interns.

At night time, they both sat in his Queen Size bed, watching some romcom Shen Yue insist on his laptop. Dylan tries to pay attention to the movie, but having to yell at the interns and avoid run ins with Doctor Sun Qian sure gets tiring. Yue’s head is resting on his shoulder, both of them relaxed and at ease.

Suddenly, Dylan’s phone rang he removed his arm around Shen Yue, who seemed to be focus on the movie. He grabbed it on his bedside table.
A text from Caesar inviting him out on boys’ night.

Dylan: I’m with her.

Caesar quickly wrote back.

Caesar: Oh okay. Next time then.

Dylan put his phone down and looked at Yue.

Cigarette break

Dylan seemed to get angry at the thought.

Truth be told, even if Dylan would never admit it to himself, Shen Yue’s not a cigarette break.

She never was and will never be one.
And he’s looking at her, eyes filled with adoration and curiosity and he realizes it. Like a gush of waves hitting his face. It’s an epiphany.


He knows the feeling but would never admit it. He’s scared because he has never felt it with all of the other women he went out with.

He… loves her.

Dylan suddenly inched away from Yue, making her look at him and hitting pause at the movie. She removed the laptop from her lap and placed it onto the bed, closing it.

“Are you okay?” She’s looking at him with her big doe eyes that Dylan really loves to stare at. Besides her lips, he has a fascination with her eyes and how big it gets whenever she’s excited about something.

“Uh, I need a cigarette.” He quickly grabbed his cigarette and lighter and headed towards the balcony.

“Want me to come?”

“No!” he quickly replied, his voice laced with panic. His stare soften at Yue’s bewildered expression.

It was the first time he rejected her and he felt bad for it, he really do.

He took a breath and pause.

“Okay… I never liked the smell of cigarettes anyway.” Even though she hated him smoking, she genuinely likes him so despite the foul smell of nicotine, she ignored it all for him.

Yue’s voice was quiet and she has a look of disappointment in her face that made Dylan feel mortified for even slightly raising his voice at her.

“No, I’m sorry… I’ll quit.” This made Yue even Dylan be surprised at what he just said. One thing’s for sure though, Dylan’s going to quit smoking. If Shen Yue doesn’t want him to smoke, then so be it.

He then sat back onto his bed and wrapped his arms around Yue, the cigarette and lighter was forgotten and they stayed like this, arms wrapped around each other, until they fell asleep.

She’s not a cigarette break and she’ll never be one.

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Hi I would like to apologize for not updating last week but exams are coming up and our profs keeps on giving us too much schoolworks and I had a huge writers block last weekend so sorry.
Anyway, my exams are next week so idk if I would be able to update but yeah sorry my brain is a mess right now due to the term paper I am about to write but hopefully everyone is happy and is safe!

Let me know your thoughts on this chapter in the comments! See you on the next one ❤