Hospitalization Diary [1] The Female Doctor and the Nurse

"How are you feeling? Is there anything that hurts?"
The doctor said this while leaning slightly over the hospital room curtain. Her signature bob cut, angled toward the front, was as glossy and straight as ever today. As for her face, she had a somewhat long, well-defined contour, and her clear, expressive eyes with a hint of intensity really stood out.
"I'm fine. Nothing hurts for now."
When I answered that, I felt like the doctor's face softened with relief for just a moment.
"Yeah, that's good to hear."
The doctor's voice was a bit unique; despite speaking clearly and briskly, the sound had a sort of 'myon'—or maybe 'myan'? 'Nyan'?—quality to it, giving her a slightly cat-like atmosphere. Thinking of it that way, she might have a cat-like face that balances cuteness and beauty perfectly. It has been about a year since Dr. Nishi took over my care. My impression of her hasn't changed since the beginning, but I felt her charm grew every time I saw her during my check-ups every few months. Now that I'm hospitalized, I get to see her once every morning like this.
The next morning, the doctor was different. That day, she was wearing round, thin-rimmed glasses, and her eyes looked a bit softer than usual, perhaps because she was bare-faced. Seeing her like that, likely just after finishing her night shift, made my heart skip a beat.
Perhaps because she looked more vulnerable than usual, the V-neck of her scrub top looked strangely alluring.
After we finished talking about my physical condition, I asked her.
"Doctor, is it okay for me to go out?"
"Hmm, let's see. It should be fine to stop the IV for a little while."
The doctor smiled as she said that, and she was so charming that I almost found myself staring.
I glanced back at the doctor's eyes as she looked straight at me.
"Okay, I'll let you know once the day is decided."
"Yes. Please let me know once it's decided."
The doctor said that and left the room.
The time spent in the ward is tediously long. To fill that boredom, I use the books, smartphone, and iPad I brought to make the time as meaningful as possible. Thinking that I can only do this while the side effects of the medication that started today haven't kicked in yet, I felt like I didn't have much time left to enjoy it.
The IV is quite troublesome, and for a body that wants to move around energetically, it's nothing but a shackle. If I'm not careful, the tube gets bent before I know it, and the occlusion alarm starts blaring.
"Hmm, maybe it got clogged?"
The nurse crouched down by the bedside and placed her hand on my arm. Her loose bun, tied with a single band, swayed slightly. She was a round-faced, cute-looking girl, and her name tag on her chest had her full name written on it, with a 'beginner' sticker next to it indicating she was a new nurse. For some reason, she already knew that I was a fellow worker in the same field, and she said, 'It makes me a little nervous.'
Being told that while she was touching my arm made me nervous in a different way. Maybe it wasn't nervousness, but excitement. Thanks to that, I didn't even have the capacity to remember her name, and I said to her, trying to play it off.
"It feels like it's bent around the needle, so I think it'll be fine if you just re-tape it."
"Ah, here it is. I see. I'll go get some tape."
A little while later, she came back with the fixing tape.
"I'm going to peel this off now."
She supported my left arm with her left hand and gently peeled off the tape with her other hand. Whether she was being extra cautious due to nervousness, the tape's adhesive was too strong, or God was giving me a reward by making this time last longer, I'm not sure, but the tape wouldn't come off easily. While that was happening, the warmth of her hand was faintly transmitted to me through my skin.
"It's stuck on there pretty firmly."
She smiled, looking a little shy. Her cuteness was so overwhelming that I nearly ascended to heaven.
"You can just go for it with full force."
At those words, she looked up at me sitting on the bed and asked, 'Are you sure?'
I thought, 'Whatever happens, happens,' but if the IV came out, it would be her, the nurse, who would have trouble reinserting it. I gently placed my hand on the tube from the side so it wouldn't come out while she peeled the tape.
"I'll hold this part down."
"Thank you. That helps."
A joint effort between the two of us. Ah, even though there's no doubt my previous workplace was also a medical setting, why does the way I see fellow workers change so much just because I'm the patient?
After she finished applying the tape, she said,
"Um, by any chance, were you the person who came in with me when I opened the door to this ward today?"
"Ah! That time!"
That was how I learned that the woman from that time was her.
In this hospital, the doors leading out of the ward are locked except during visiting hours in the daytime. Therefore, when returning from outside the ward, you have to press the intercom to have the door opened. Since I was fasting, I didn't have meal times, so as long as I took my medicine properly, I was free. That day, too, I had just finished my morning medicine and was about to return to the ward after finishing reading 'What Kind of Story Is This? Issue Na' at the plaza outside the ward. If I pressed the intercom, I would have to make a staff member come all the way to open the door. However, being in the same profession, I felt a little hesitant about that. So, I was planning to wait for a staff member to enter and get them to let me into the ward with them. And it seems the staff member who opened the door for me at that time was her.
To think that such a wonderful reunion was waiting for me, and I didn't even remember it. I wanted to punch my short-term memory-deficient self for a moment. However, looking at it from the other side, it meant she remembered me. I felt like I was about to get giddy.
Looking at me like that, she said with a smile,
"I thought so."
I followed her with my eyes as she tried to stand up and said,
"Thank you for that time."
"No, it was nothing. The IV seems to be fine now. Please let me know if anything else happens."
Saying that, she went back to work. In the end, I still didn't know her name. But I felt that just the fact that she remembered me was enough.

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