Contagious Love

9 - Skittles

"Maybe something like... I like you too?"

His head had shot up, his eyes wide open as though something was missing from my face. He looked extremely caught off guard. I didn't expect him to give me much of a reaction since his recluse aura usually took over.

"Get me a pen." He gave in nonchalantly, exhaling a deep sigh.

He extended his hand to me, waiting for me to hand him a pen. I fumbled in the pockets of my lab coat, looking for the pen that I had there not too long before. Once I had handed it to Dr Kim, I extended my bandaged arm to him, giggling to myself as I turned away.

"Why are you looking away?" He asked as he took hold of my mummified hand.

"I want to be surprised," I giggled further to which he scoffed.

After a few seconds of waiting in anticipation, I heard the pen click, pulling the ink cartridge into the barrel of the pen, indicating that he was done. Before I could even process his completion, he stood up and walked away, not even bothering to give back my pen.

Finally, I glanced at my bandage, wanting to read what he wrote with desperation. What he wrote was something that I never expected. Reading that, I then realised why he didn't give my pen back. He took it as a deposit.

"Come back. The children miss you." Is what it read.

When I looked back up, he was completely gone from my line of sight. He really could be coy when he wanted to. As cold as his demeanour comes across, he cares without trying to make it obvious.

Thinking back at it, I kind of missed being around kids even though it was just two days. The time spent away from them seems so much longer. I missed seeing the joy on their face when Dr Kim was around.

Aside from them, there's Myung. There isn't much left that we can do for him. If I'm being honest, I'm scared to go back for that exact reason, but as a doctor, it's my duty not to run away from an illness and tackle it head-on. I want to give him as much care as I can.

During my lunch break, I decided to visit the kids. My thoughts were clouded by that sense of disappointment and anger that I felt towards Dr Kim that I never looked into the bigger picture. I never considered these tiny humans.

On my way to room 428, I passed by the vending machine and got them some snacks. Growing up, I loved skittles and figured they would too. I hoped that the colourful snack would serve as an apology of sorts.

"Dr Choi!" Yoona yelped as she saw me peeping through the door, "you're back! We missed you!"

"Missed me?" I asked, walking in with the candy hidden behind my back, "you have Dr Kim, though."

"But he isn't you, Dr Choi!" She exclaimed whilst the read of the kids nodded along to her words.

Her words moved me. These kids were being genuine and I thought that it was very sweet of them. I hadn't spent that much time with them, but they were already attached. Honestly, I was too.

I brought out the candy from behind my back, surprising all of them, especially the smaller kids who were fascinated by the colourful packets.

"You know, since you left, Dr Kim has been acting strange", said Yoona whilst she was searching the packet for a specific coloured skittle.

"Strange?" I asked, "How so?"

"Well, different," she chimed again as she pulled out a red skittle, "these past few days, he never told one joke."