Work Text:
it was when the four of them were having an impromptu lunch together in the 2nd-year lounge that yiyoung and namkyung first became aware of jaeil and sabi's rather suspicious interactions.
namkyung’s mother, being the sweetest person that she was, had sent boxes of dumplings to the hospital. this time to wish them good luck for their 2nd year of residency and for always looking after her daughter. as was their custom, they did not eat anything until the four of them were in one place. as they waited for jaeil to return from his surgery—which should have been finished twenty minutes ago, by the way—all they could do was gaze longingly at the tupperware boxes sitting untouched in the middle of the table
at last, they heard loud and swift footsteps approaching. yiyoung and namkyung immediately unwrapped their chopsticks while sabi had her back turned to them, staring at the door instead, waiting for jaeil.
a loud bang echoed through the lounge and then there was jaeil, panting whilst dragging his feet to the empty seat next to sabi. "sorry guys. professor jo wanted to speak with me after the surgery."
yiyoung and namkyung didn't even pay any heed to what jaeil said, chopsticks already moved at light speed as soon as the door swung open.
sabi, who hadn't even yet unwrapped her chopstick, grabbed a new one and pushed it into jaeil's hand, who had been eyeing the tupperware boxes since he arrived.
the four lap up the dumplings in silence, only groans of pleasure could be heard from how heavenly the dumplings tasted.
"what did you discuss with professor jo?" sabi was the first to break the silence.
"hm? hmmm," jaeil swallowed before answering sabi's question properly, "it’s about the surgery: what do i think about it and if i could find good data, he suggested putting it in the paper."
as jaeil continued with recounting professor jo’s surgery he had assisted, sabi snatched some tissue and used it to gently wipe off the sweat behind jaeil's neck, even going the extra mile to dab the ones on his temples and forehead. jaeil who was at the receiving end of such acts, was nonchalant, instinctively leaning his head a little to let sabi reach the other side of his temple.
there was a lack of awkwardness in the way they maneuvered around each other, instead it seemed far too natural for them to do so, which got yiyoung and namkyung stop chewing their dumplings altogether and exchange glances, trying to make out of what just transpired in front of them, whereas the other two appeared to be absorbed in their own heated discussion of a gyn case, eyes and shoulders glued to each other and all.
adding one plus one, yiyoung and namkyung gasped at the same time as the sole conclusion emerged in their heads.
"hey, are you two..." yiyoung started, tentatively, one cheek filled with a whole unchewed dumpling.
namkyung hurriedly swallowed and added, "could it be that you two..."
"a couple or something?"
"are dating?"
jaeil and sabi finally tore their gazes from each other and turned their heads to look at the other two puzzled individuals in the room. uniformly, they blinked and shook their heads.
"no. where did you get the idea from?" sabi threw back a question with her typical phlegmatic tone in her voice. yiyoung and namkyung could almost hear the robotic sound effect that followed suit after sabi finished talking.
"no, i mean you two were just—" yiyoung interrupted herself, reconsidering her reasoning.
actually, it wasn't all that odd, was it? the four of them had been looking after one another for a while now, and it wasn't as though they hadn't had any fervent and profound discussions or debates, particularly with sabi over the numerous obgyn cases they had encountered over the past year.
yiyoung glanced at namkyung, who appeared to come to the same conclusion as her, though there was still a hint of uncertainty left in her eyes, which yiyoung resonated with.
"no, never mind." yiyoung forced out a laugh, still pretty much bemused but couldn't really pinpoint the source of it. "forget it. please continue your consultation."
and so they carried on with their lunch as sabi and jaeil delving deeper into a particular niche gyn case that yiyoung didn't even think she had heard of in all obgyn books she had studied over the years.
-
due to some kind of divine intervention, their schedules coincided, allowing them to meet by chance during lunchtime in the hospital cafeteria. sabi, who was the last to arrive, half tossed her tray onto the table, which got the other three to flinch in their seats.
"sabi-ya, why?" namkyung asked worriedly, "is it that intern again?"
sabi listlessly nods, slouching in the seat next to jaeil. her countenace was as sour as when one time professor seo called off the study session for a week.
"hey now, it's not the time for that, okay?" coaxed jaeil. carefully, he helped sabi to sit up straight and handed her her chopsticks with an amount of care as if sabi wasn't fit enough to perform a task as simple as eating her meal. "eat your lunch first. it will be easier to deal with him with a filled stomach."
only then did sabi start to lift her chopsticks, albeit reluctantly, and the others continued to finish their already half-finished tray.
to think that there finally came a day they could see sabi being distraught because of a helpless intern, yiyoung mused. well, she had already had her share of dealing with such an intern, as had namkyung and jaeil. it was about time for sabi to finally get a taste of it.
strange movements at the corner of her eyes distracted yiyoung from her thoughts. when she found it was jaeil collecting thin, long strips of carrot from the japchae in sabi’s tray and transferring them to his, as if it had a mind of its own, yiyoung’s elbow went to gently nudge namkyung to get her attention to what she was currently bearing witness to. namkyung joined her to watch, eyes zeroed in at jaeil's deft hand picking out the thinly cut vegetable among the slippery glass noodles with his chopsticks.
"by the way, the black pepper beef has garlic in it. want me to remove them too?"
"ah, yes. please. and thank you." sabi gave him a small smile. jaeil smiled back, wider and brighter.
yiyoung and namkyung felt like they had seen something similar unfold before.
but sabi didn't even get to finish half of her tray when her phone rang, and her face which had more or less returned to her usual calm and stoic, became sour once more when she learned who was contacting her.
"hello. yes? what's wrong with it this time? again? ah, seriously! i will be there. no, wait for me." sabi hurried to her feet, free hand moving hastily to tidy her tray and eating utensils. "don't do anything before i arrive. dont! i will be there in less than five. just wait for me first!"
just when sabi was about to take off, jaeil tugged the sleeve of her gown.
"leave the tray. i will take care of it." the soothing tone of jaeil's voice grounded sabi a little. she exhaled a heavy breath before putting down her tray back on the table.
"here, drink this on your way." jaeil looked up, eyes brimming with care and inexplicable tenderness, as he pressed a bottle of orange juice he just popped open to sabi’s curled fist.
for a very brief moment, sabi was just silent, examining jaeil’s face and the orange juice he gently nudged into her hand. "thanks." sabi accepted it with both hands and took a tiny sip before jogging out of the cafeteria.
when jaeil turned to continue finishing his tray, he was met with two pairs of perplexed, wide eyes.
"what?"
"this is too much," namkyung huffed in dibelief. "first it was you, oh yiyoung, now it's you two um jaeil! kim sabi! aren’t we friends? why are you hiding your relationships from us?! from me?!"
"what the hell, why am i being dragged—"
"what? what relationship?"
"you, um jaeil! just be honest, you are dating kim sabi, right?"
jaeil nearly spat out his japchae . "what are you saying? i’m not dating anyone."
"but you and sabi... you removed the vegetables for her... and… did she ever tell us she disliked carrots and garlic?" namkyung wondered to herself.
"what about it? i was just being a good friend. i can help you eat the ingredients that you dislike too. you know that i’m not picky." and neither were yiyoung and namkyung, not as much as sabi at least.
it was only then that yiyoung and namkyung were once more reflecting on their reasoning. sabi had always been a picky eater and she always made a point to make them aware every time they came across the ingredients she disliked, and given the amount of meals they had together, it most likely flew over their heads. except jaeil, apparently. it wasn't like he had the same level of memorizing ability as sabi, but for someone who never missed carrying around a pocket block note to write down any thing noteworthy, it was fair to think he could retain information more than them.
and jaeil had always been that kind of person, overly friendly and caring for his own good, they both thought, as they watched jaeil move sabi’s leftovers to his tray.
-
yiyoung was rushing to retrieve some files from her desk when she stumbled across the sight of jaeil lying down on the sofa with sabi lending her lap as his pillow. she took a step back, nonplussed, while the two of them were engrossed in reviewing the paper in their hands. when her eyes strayed down to where sabi's free hand was playing with a lock of jaeil's hair, yiyoung wished namkyung was here to share this suffering with her.
"you two—" yiyoung halted, half thinking if she should just drop this and go back to minding her business. but something about these two people she assumed she could call friends these days had been slightly vexing her and namkyung.
"i see you two seem to get so much closer these days."
"is that so," jaeil replied perfunctorily, hands busy flipping the next page of the paper.
"yeah."
"can’t i get closer to sabi? aren’t we friends? isn’t it a good thing?" jaeil bombarded her back with the obvious. but yiyoung knew that jaeil knew it wasn’t what she meant at all.
sabi lowered her paper to the free side of her lap to highlight something before raising it again, concealing half of her face. "then aren’t you and namkyung also becoming closer these days while working your shift in the ob." that came out more as a statement than a question.
yiyoung sighed deeply. sure, if fighting for ultrasound and or schedules every day for their respective professors they were currently assisting for counted as bonding, then so be it.
"we are not sticking to each other's hip like you two right now, though."
"we’ve come across similar cases these past month, and isn’t it great thing that we can lessen each other's burden by looking for the solutions together?"
"sure, sure," yiyoung finally had enough of her two friends. "as long as it’s not distracting you from your work, you can date every chance you get, i guess." yiyoung muttered as she organized the files she needed into a folder.
"no. we aren't dating." sabi answered, her free hand now raking through jaeil's disheveled hair. unperturbed.
yiyoung was unable to stop herself from making a face at the contrasting behavior sabi was showcasing. she decided she didn't have any more time to spare to do this and took a big stride to get off the lounge as fast as possible.
when she bumped into namkyung in the resident hallway, yiyoung wasted no time pushing namkyung out of here.
"hey! what are you doing? move, i have to go get my purse."
yiyoung shook her head, pushing namkyung’s back further to the door leading to the main hallway. "pay with your e-money or borrow cash from someone. believe me you don't want to see it."
-
namkyung almost jumped when she arrived at their unusual hidden corner in the obgy department where they stashed unusable hospital beds, sofas, and the like, to discover jaeil resting his chin on sabi's shoulder as they were immersed in watching a surgery recording from the small screen of jaeil's phone. yiyoung who was following a bit behind her was numb by the sight at this point, shaking her head at the other two was the most she could do.
"are you two not busy?" namkyung asked, tearing open a banana bread wrapper as she sat down at the vacant bed next to them.
"we are." sabi turned the phone to show them a surgery recording of a cervical cancer removal, extending her arm so namkyung and yiyoung could get a clear view (it barely did anything). she retrieved it after she thought they had a good look and went back to her position to watch it. but, due to the unusual nature of the mattress that had been unused for so long, her small movements caused sabi to slightly lose balance, but jaeil forearm was ready to support it, allowing sabi to fully lean into jaeil's chest and continue to watch the video as if nothing happened.
"to think that not long ago i was under the impression that you two were like oil and water. but look at you now... geez," grumbled namkyung, starting to get used to them. "you two are a couple, right." it was more of a statement than a question and without looking up, both sabi and jaeil shook their heads in tandem.
namkyung squeezed the plastic wrap in her hand in a tight fist, while yiyoung had been mentally excluding herself since the beginning, playing with her phone as soon as she tossed her body onto the creaking sofa.
-
one afternoon, half of the lounge table was piled high with full moon breads sent by a discharged gyn patient who was under jaeil's care. she was a grandmother, a very sweet elderly woman who reminded jaeil a lot of his grandmother, whom he hadn't seen in more than a year due to living in a different country. apparently she owned a small snack shop and sent him a full cardboard box of full moon bread as a show of gratitude. many had already been shared with the other doctors and nurses but still, there were a lot of them left on their table.
sabi was especially enjoying this the most. she was really fond of this type of bread, the ones where they stuffed cream in two buns. she was already on her third bread now, munching happily without a care that she made a mess with crumbs from the castella buns smeared around her lips.
jaeil was staring with eyes dripping with honey next to her, hands reaching out to wipe off a dollop of cream left at the corner of sabi’s lips with his thumb. when jaeil brought his thumb to his lips and licked the cream off, yiyoung and namkyung abruptly rose from their seats.
"so sick of it," yiyoung groused under her breath, snatching four breads into her arms in succession. namkyung followed suit, clutching four in her arms and putting another two into each of her scrub pockets.
as the door slammed shut, sabi tore open her fourth full moon bread wrap.
"is it that good?" jaeil asked, voice overflowing with fondness.
sabi nodded and with her mouth still fully chewing the third bread, she said, "this was my favorite bread when i was a kid."
"i see…" jaeil extended his hand to put a strand of sabi's hair that stuck to her mouth back behind her ear. "eat slowly, though, lest you clog your throat."
there was a comfortable silence that filled the lounge for a moment before jaeil broke it with a question. "but, sabi-ya, don't you get tired of them, yiyoung and namkyung?" tilting his head, jaeil tried to get sabi’s attention. "let's just date, come on."
"not really," sabi claimed, shrugging off her shoulder. "and there are still two weeks left, so no."
"what?" jaeil exclaimed, immediately looking for the table calendar nearby. the month of may is exactly a week away from today. "it's a week left, look!" jaeil plucked the desk calendar from another side of the wide table to shove it in front of sabi’s face.
"i know, but we met on may 8th at 8:48 am last year, so there’s a little over two weeks left."
jaeil at a loss for words. "you and your blasted memory."
"that's my strict rule."
jaeil trained his eyes at sabi chubby cheeks, filled with the last bite of her fourth bread. "i know. i understand. i like it too. those strict rules of yours. so cute."
under the bright light of the lamp above, jaeil reveled in the way sabi's pale cheeks gradually turned redder and redder that it reached her ears. jaeil felt his chest tighten at the sight and it took every fiber of his being to keep his hands to himself. jaeil longed to at least pinch sabi’s cheek, but he had to get sabi's consent first.
"Sabi-ya, if you don’t min—"
"i'm done here. thank you for the bread." sabi stood up, hands moving to pocket two breads into each of her gown pockets. "there's an operation i need to prepare. see you."
before sabi was out of reach, jaeil swiftly tugged the sleeve of her gown.
"i was just thinking, can’t we clock out together?"
"s-sure. see you then." sabi greeted hastily.
jaeil watched until sabi completely disappeared behind the closed door, waving his hand even though the girl barely looked back.
jaeil tried his best to contain himself from smiling too big by taking a big bite of his unfinished bread, but the sweetness of the cream and the buns only made his smile grow even wider. ah, this was going to be the longest two weeks of his life.