2
"Dude, why does it seem like you're famous now?" Nino mutters, piercing a marble potato on his tray with a fork. Carefully, he scans throughout the room and would catch different nurses stealing glances at Adrien. "We're all newbie nurses here, what's with all the staring?"
Adrien lets out another groan and continues to slam his head on the table in front of him.
After being turned down like dirt, Adrien trudged and found his way to the cafeteria. There he saw Nino and Nath with their trays of food and joined them. He hasn't eaten anything, though. Adrien has just been wallowing in his self-pity.
A group of nurses walk slow by their table and one of them shyly points at Adrien while the others proceed to whisper among each other and giggle. Nath looks and studies them in confusion and they notice it, leading them to scurry to another table.
"Adrien," Nath starts warily as the stares have not ceased, "do you know why the other new nurses are only looking at...you?"
"It's because I got rejected."
"What?"
Adrien raises his head that has an evident red mark displayed on his forehead due to his constant slamming on the table. With a frown he looks at his two friends and grumble, "The woman of my dreams turned me down."
Nath looks at him in utter confusion. "And how is that related to the looks the nurses are giving you?" He asks, throwing his hands in the air.
"Don't tell me a nurse rejected you," Nino utters, placing the potato in his mouth.
"What?" Nath scoffs, "Adrien, that would be ridiculous!"
"It wasn't a nurse," Adrien mumbles as he stares at nothing, losing his focus when his mind goes to different things running in his head.
Nino snaps his fingers in front Adrien's face. Immediately Adrien blinks like he has awoken from a distant daydream. "You were zoning out for a moment there," Nino comments.
Adrien mutters incoherent words about wanting to kick Nino in the balls under his breath. He lets out a deep sigh in annoyance. "Guys, it's like this. I..."
And the whole room suddenly turns quiet.
No one utters a word. Even the sound of utensils hitting the trays stopped as two specific people entered.
It was like the whole room were once filled with loud mice scurrying about until two fine felines decided to end their time of fun.
Some nurses were squirming about in their seats, wanting the shrink in their place as they themselves felt that they were deemed unworthy to be at the same place with the esteemed people that entered the cafeteria. The rest of the nurses, on the other hand, were looking between Adrien and one of the people who just entered, Doctor DC.
Apparently, everyone seems to know what happened between Adrien and Doctor DC except for Adrien's closest friends.
Adrien gapes at the doctor that just broke his heart moments ago. But he couldn't help his thoughts running in his head now. The memory of his rejection is thrown out of the window in an instant.
She looks more like an angel with her white coat on.
"It's her," he gasps and the other two nurses whip their heads to the direction where Adrien is staring.
"Which one?"
"Is it one of those two doctors?"
"Are they why everyone's suddenly quiet?"
The two nurses wouldn't stop asking Adrien. Can they even read the mood of the room?
The doctor with her blonde hair fixed into a ponytail notices the sudden silence in the room and stops herself before rolling her eyes - a normal habit of hers, though only her closest of friends know that.
Of course, the new nurses would stop, She thought, this happens every year with the new batches.
The doctor beside her is not even reacting to the sudden silence as well. They're both used to it, and the main goal for the both of them now is to buy their favorite pastries at the stall that sells baked goods. But, if no one is going to step up (especially Marinette), then she has no choice but to be the first.
"Good afternoon, nurses," She addresses the group of new nurses seated in their designated tables. "Some of you may know me but for the sake of those who don't, I am Doctor Chloe Bourgeois and with me is Doctor Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you may refer to her as Doctor DC. We both are part of the cardiology department."
Doctor DC waves once at the nurses and places her hand in her coat pocket.
"Please," she continues, gesturing to the unfinished trays of food of some of the nurses, "go back to enjoying your free time and food, and I wish you luck on your trial rounds in the different departments for the next days."
And just like that, the whole cafeteria goes back to normal as the nurses converse with one another again, leaving the two doctors enough freedom to get their wanted pastries. That is the power of command the doctor holds and cherishes.
"Why did you not say anything, Marinette?" Doctor Chloe mumbles under her breath as they continue their walk to the stall.
"Because I know that you'll say something first," The other doctor answers with a teasing smirk.
Doctor Chloe rolls her eyes and lets out a laugh in disbelief. "Sometimes I find myself hating you."
"I hate you too," Doctor DC replies nonchalantly.
Once they reach the stall, the owner greets the two doctors with a smile. The doctors greet her back lively and the woman goes straight to preparing their favorite pastries.
An eclair for Doctor Chloe and two mini chocolate croissants for Doctor DC. The owner knows their staple order by heart after years of serving them.
"Oh, by the way," Doctor Chloe starts once she remembers something, "you told me that a nurse suddenly confessed his feelings for you?"
Doctor DC lets out a laugh as she brings out one croissant. "Chloe, I bet you would have been as shocked as I was when he stopped me after the operation."
"And what did you do?"
Doctor DC gives her colleague a pointed look. Doctor Chloe then pretends to gasp in shock.
"You turned him down?" She exclaims in "shock". Immediately, she goes back to her normal demeanor. "Why am I not even surprised?"
Doctor DC shrugs and takes a small bite from her mini chocolate croissant. "Do I look like I have time to go around and date? I'm even running on mini chocolate croissants for this 24-hour shift."
"At least tell me who he is. I think he's a newbie since he's clearly not aware of your cold reputation among us."
"I don't know his name but it's that guy over there by the middle that hasn't stopped staring at me ever since we got here," Doctor DC utters in a very nonchalant manner. She knew that the idiot has been looking at her since they entered the cafeteria, and some of the new nurses were looking between the two of them - it was one of the reasons why she decided to not talk in front.
"No way." Doctor Chloe immediately searches for the said guy from where they were standing.
"Mhm," Doctor DC hums, finishing her first mini chocolate croissant. Now on to the next one.
"Oh my God. Is it the guy with the blond hair? Because he really is just staring at you. Look, he has a lovesick expression!"
"No, thank you. I'll break my own leg if he even decides to join the cardiology department."
"Her?" Nino asks incredulously as the three nurses peer at the two doctors from when they were at the stall and until they left the cafeteria. Nino and Nath stuck to just sparing a few glances now and then, but Adrien continued to stare at his angel until she left.
"Which one do you mean?"
"Doctor...Chloe?"
"What? No!" Adrien exclaims.
"What's wrong with Doctor Chloe?" Nath asks. "She's pretty..." he shyly looks down at his tray of food.
"But she's not the doctor I've liked for the past five years."
"F-Five?" Nino stammers with his words. "Why am I just hearing this now? Dude, is Doctor DC the reason why you decided to go to nursing school?"
Nino and Nath look at Adrien in growing anticipation for his answer. The thing is, Adrien never does answer. He decides to stay quiet and look down at the table.
But no response is still a response.
"Adrien, I cannot believe this," Nath utters, his mouth agape.
"Dude, what the heck?" Nino shouts under his breath, hiding his clear sense of bewilderment. "You are the epitome of a modern martyr in love."
"What's wrong with being a martyr?" Adrien challenges Nino.
"You gave up five years of your life for constant study and stress to see that woman again?"
"Hey, I wanted to become a nurse as well," Adrien retorts.
"Well, you became one mainly because of her," Nino retaliates, throwing his hands in the air to prove his point.
"Okay, you two should stop it," Nath intervenes and exhales deeply. "Let's give Adrien a chance, okay? At least he reached his goal in becoming a nurse to see the doctor again. Who knows how he'll turn out within these next few days training?"
------------
"Welcome to the cardiology department!" A nurse happily greets Nath and Adrien once they arrive at the nurses' station. "I am Rose, the head nurse, and the person beside me is the assistant head nurse, Mylene."
Mylene smiles at the two nurses and gives them a little bow.
"Thank you for welcoming us," Adrien tells the both of them. "I am Adrien."
"And I am Nathanaël, but you can call me Nath," Nath introduces himself.
"Thank you for choosing to train in this department for the mean time," Nurse Rose says. "We are understaffed in this department, and if we end up with the two of you after the end of your training we would be happy to officially accept the both of you."
"Wait," Nurse Mylene suddenly speaks, realization lining her features, "aren't you the Warrior?" She points at Adrien.
"Warrior?" Adrien asks in confusion.
"Yeah! The newbie nurse who confessed his feelings to our Doctor DC, the 'Devil'."
"Oh my, this is he?" Nurse Rose gushes while Adrien could feel his cheeks blushing. Even the tips of his ears were turning red in embarrassment already. Nath had to stifle his incoming laugh by biting the inside of his cheeks.
"I can't believe what happened reached this far," Adrien utters shyly, rubbing the nape of his neck.
"People are starting to give you the nickname, 'Warrior'. We're hoping that you can defeat the Devil."
"What do you mean by that?" Adrien asks.
"What we're hoping is that you'll melt her cold heart," Nurse Rose answers.
"That's a tough responsibility," Nath coughs under his breath until he coughs for real once Adrien secretly jabs his elbow at him.
"Is she really what I've been hearing the other nurses say?" Adrien wonders aloud, "Mean?"
"Who's mean?" A voice suddenly calls out to them from the corridor.
Adrien's eyes widen in surprise as it's Doctor DC and Doctor Chloe again. Oh, how he wish he could a hole for himself right now.
No, it's too soon to see her again!
Why must I be cursed with this kind of destiny?
"Ah, Nurses Rose and Mylene," Doctor Chloe calls out, "are these the newbies that you'll assign to us for today?"
"Why, yes, Doctor Chloe," Nurse Rose answers in a pleasant manner and grabs two charts by the counter then hands them to the respective doctors. "You both arrived just in time."
The doctors open the charts and study them for a while. Doctor Chloe is the first to close her chart. She juts her chin towards Nath and with a smile announces, "I'll take tomato with me today."
"M-Me?" Nath points at himself while Adrien is giving his best to contain what he's feeling right now.
"Yes, you. Now grab a nursing cart and follow me." Nath immediately runs to grab a vacant cart and pulls it near his body.
Doctor DC immediately snaps her head at Doctor Chloe and gives her the death eye. Doctor Chloe teasingly smirks at her and proceeds to leave the station. "Faster, tomato. We're losing time!" She drawls out.
Nath leaves the station in a jiffy, following Doctor Chloe as she turns left to another corridor.
Now Nurse Rose and Nurse Mylene cannot hide their grins of excitement. Something as exciting as this has never happened in the hospital, and they felt so lucky to be ones to witness it with their own eyes.
"I forgot, I have work to do!" Nurse Rose grabs the arm of Nurse Mylene, "Mylene, please help me out!"
"O-Of course!" Nurse Mylene immediately agrees and both nurses leave the Warrior and the Devil alone at the station.
Adrien fiddles with his fingers as he nervously waits for Doctor DC to instruct him to do something...anything.
What have I done in the past to deserve this kind of torment? Doctor DC wouldn't stop repeating that question as she closes her eyes and lets out a deep breath. She opens them again and sees the idiot standing there looking all nervous and everything.
"What are you doing just standing there?" She asks in a stern manner, her facial expressions as cold as ever.
"H-Huh?"
She points at the last vacant cart, "Get that cart and follow me," she commands and starts to walk in the direction leading to the patients' rooms.
She could hear him run and catch up with her while pushing the nursing cart that holds equipment for them to use for daily check-ups.
Adrien did not have time to even catch his breath. That woman could walk really fast. She doesn't even stop to brief Adrien on the patients as she immediately enters the room.
Adrien follows the doctor into the room and notice that there are four hospital beds stationed at each corner, all having a middle-aged patient either resting or eating their lunch on it.
"Doctor!" The patient by the door lively greets the doctor, and the other patients turn their attention to the doctor by the door. They greet her loudly as well.
"Ladies, you all seem to be in a good mood this afternoon," Doctor DC happily greets them back. Adrien could not believe the total 180-degree turn the doctor could pull off. From a scowl to a smile real quick.
"Oh?" The same patient by the door cranes her neck and notices a male nurse she's never seen before. "Doctor, do we have a new nurse?"
Doctor DC turns and remembers that she's not alone in this time of rounds. "Ah, I'm tasked to train this nurse for today." She looks at the guy by the door and uses her hand to call him in.
Adrien shyly enters the room while pushing the cart and the patients could not help but to gush amongst themselves.
"Newbie," Doctor DC starts, "introduce yourself to the ladies."
"G-Good afternoon," Adrien stutters and does a small bow to the patients, "I am Nurse Adrien Agreste and I will help in taking care of you. Hopefully you would not mind a male nurse tending to you today."
Ah, so his name is Adrien. Doctor DC thought.
"Oh, we don't mind at all!"
"My goodness, you're such a good-looking man. Your presence instantly lit up this dark room."
"Doctor, you should bring with you more handsome nurses when you do your rounds!"
The women wouldn't stop with their loud comments and Adrien could feel his self turning more red after every incoming comment.
"Are you planning to have him be a nurse in this department?" A patient asks the doctor.
"We'll see," she happily answers the patient and turn to Adrien, losing her smile as she gazes haughtily at him, "if he's up for the challenge."
Adrien takes a big gulp.
Doctor DC looks back at her patients with a smile. "Anyway, I'm here to check on Juleka."
"I'm here," a small voice calls out from the opposite end of the room. A woman with purple streaks on her hair waves her hand as a way of introducing herself to the new nurse.
Doctor DC walks to her bed and Adrien follows.
"How are you feeling today?" The doctor asks her patient. Adrien grabs the chart placed at the end of Juleka's bed and takes note of the patient's information on his small notebook.
"I'm feeling fine today, Doctor," Juleka answers while Doctor DC presses the button on the side of the patient's bed for it to recline forward.
"We'll check your vitals now, okay?" She informs her then looks at Adrien. "Go ahead, nurse," she tells him.
Adrien goes straight to grabbing a pulse oximeter from the cart and asks permission to place it on the finger of the patient. After that, he wraps a strap around the patient's other arm to check her blood pressure.
Doctor DC watches the nurse with caution. If he messes up with even just the simple checking of vitals, she is going to lose her head.
The doctor checks the digits on the pulse oximeter as Adrien finishes taking note of the patient's blood pressure.
"Juleka, are you having any trouble breathing?" The doctor asks immediately as she gets her stethoscope and fixes it in her ears. "Excuse me," she says and places the head of the stethoscope on the patient's chest to check for any abnormalities.
Doctor DC takes off the earpieces after a while and asks Juleka another question, "Do you feel any tightness in your chest?"
Juleka shakes her head. "I feel fine...normal, if you put it that way."
Doctor DC nods skeptically and writes it down on her chart. "I'm going to have an oxygen mask placed on you for the next hours. Your oxygen saturation level is low and thus will need supplementary oxygen for it to hopefully go back to normal."
"Okay, doctor."
"Nurse," Doctor DC turns her attention to Adrien and instructs, "prepare the oxygen flowmeter. Adjust it to four liters." Then she goes back to studying the chart of her patient.
"Right away, doctor," Adrien says and places the oxygen mask over the patient's head and tightens the band around her for a snug fit. He then faces the flowmeter placed on the wall above the bed of the patient. Adrien turns the green knob counterclockwise and adjusts the silver ball in the flowmeter for it to be under the fourth line.
Adrien really wanted to impress the doctor he's with as of the moment. In hopes of making her happy, he looks around to find other stuff to do that could liven up Doctor DC's day. He first notices that the pillow of the patient is not placed in a comfortable area for the patient so he leans forward to fix it.
But in doing so, his elbow accidentally hits the oxygen flowmeter hard causing it to dislodge and fall from where it was hanging. The oxygen coming from it was continuously being sprayed right at Adrien as he tries to find the piece of the flowmeter that fell to the ground.
"What the heck?" Doctor DC exclaims then runs to the other side of the bed and finds the missing piece before Adrien. She grabs it and shoves Adrien away to place it back on where it's supposed to hang. From there, she fixes it in place and the oxygen slowly stops spraying so carefree until it is contained in the flowmeter once again. Doctor DC breathes deeply before turning her head to face Adrien with a scowl.
The other patients watch the whole commotion with shock written all over their faces, especially Juleka.
One even comments quietly, "He's cute but very clumsy."
"Wait for me outside," Doctor DC tells Adrien. She bites back her want to shout directly at him this instant.
Adrien meekly nods and grabs the cart to take with him as he rushes out of the room.
He waits outside the room and keeps his head down, like a puppy that has just been scolded. But in his case, he feels that the Devil is going to take him to her eternal inferno.
"All because you wanted to impress her," he grumbles under his breath and slaps his forehead.
The sliding door opens and Adrien moves back to his upright position. Doctor DC glares at him as she closes the door behind her.
In silence, she walks and stands in front of Adrien. She clicks her tongue in disappointment and wraps her arms in front of her.
Adrien faces another direction as he patiently waits for her scolding.
"I never take my work lightly," she starts, "and I have never seen anyone commit such an idiotic mistake like that," She emphasizes. Adrien flinches with the sudden change of her tone.
Doctor DC places her hands on her hips and leans a bit closer to the nurse. "So I'm going to be clear from now on. If you think that you have a chance to be with me, then your chances are around 0.00001%. If I were you, I would focus on more important things like my job," she finishes and walks away, leaving the nurse behind all alone in the corridor.
"0.00001%?" He mutters under his breath, watching the doctor leave him. He then finds himself smiling a bit. "That's better than having a zero percent chance!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi! I hope you liked this chapter because I found myself liking it hahaha
I had a problem with the translation of one word in the chapter and I was stuck for half an hour on trying to find the right translation of it. I decided to change the whole sentence in the end haha some of you may not know that English is not my mother tongue haha
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