Chapter 7

When Melody saw Krystal again, it was at the hospital. The Chief walked her in and introduced her as their newest doctor, Dr. Finnigan. Melody had been working on her notes then. When she looked up, she saw Krystal standing next to Jeremy. The two were engaged in a conversation. Both were wearing white coats, and both had similar expressions of indifference, making them look especially compatible. As if feeling Melody's gaze, Krystal turned to look straight at her. There was no curiosity or emotion in her eyes. Rather, she scrutinized Melody from head to toe, seemingly wanting to dissect her from the inside out. She then averted her eyes and said something to Jeremy, which caused him to look over at Melody, too. He furrowed his eyebrows discreetly. Jembina Hospital was one the top hospitals in the city of Jembina, so they were always busy. The welcome for Krystal was brief and consisted only of a few words before everyone returned to their jobs. The doctors dispersed as well, and after Melody tidied up her things, she prepared to draw blood from some of her patients. That was when she heard fingers tapping on the desk. "Hand me all of Bed 4's records for the past week," Jeremy said. Melody handed them to him and asked, "Are you taking over Bed 4?" Jeremy didn't stop flipping through the records while he answered, "You should be drawing blood from other patients right now instead of asking me these questions." "I was just concerned." Jeremy looked at her expressionlessly. "There are a lot of people in the hospital who need our concern, so don't waste time on empty words. The minute you wasted just now was enough for you to take the temperatures of three patients." He was never one to mince his words. There were plenty of people around the nurse's station, and because of Jeremy's words, they were now looking at Melody sympathetically. Melody's hands froze mid-action as Jeremy continued in that cool voice of his. "Doctors and nurses all have their respective duties, so you shouldn't overstep. This is a basic rule." With how harsh his words were, Melody couldn't explain further. She silently stood up and got ready to draw blood. When she left the nurse's station and walked past Jeremy and Krystal, she heard the latter saying, "It seems like this hospital didn't do a good job in training their nurses." Jeremy hummed in response, then said, "It's just an isolated case, but I'll let the Chief know about the situation." During the lunch break, Melody could feel her ears starting to ache, so she hid herself in the restroom to remove her hearing aids. Her hearing issues were getting more severe. She was starting to develop problems with her ears because she wore hearing aids for long periods of time. This was why Simon suggested a cochlear implant during her last check-up. As Melody stood in the stalls with her hearing aids removed, her world turned quiet. Her first pair of hearing aids had been gifted to her by Jeremy. It had been half a year since the incident, and the Wardolf family had finally lost patience. They decided to toss in the towel after the string of doctors they found for her achieved no success. Cheryl was the one who informed Jeremy about this. The very next day, Jeremy came to her with a pair of hearing aids. It was on that day, and for the first time in half a year, Melody could finally hear Jeremy clearly again. "Wear these well. Don't take them off," he said. Melody stayed in the restroom for about ten minutes and only exited when her ears started to feel better. When she returned, there was a commotion at the nurse's station. Everyone was deep in some kind of discussion. After they noticed Melody, all their gazes landed on her simultaneously. Melody froze. "What's wrong?" Someone answered, "We heard that the Wardolf family donated another five machines to our department, and they're all state-of-the-art machines from abroad." Melody looked up, and her hands fisted unconsciously. When she first started working at the hospital, Andrew donated two machines. However, those two machines soon became burdens that weighed Melody down. Andrew had told her that if it weren't for her ears, the Wardolf family would never have spent that money. Now, these five machines were likely because of Krystal. A colleague, who hadn't noticed her odd expression, said enviously, "They said that their daughter was working at this hospital, so they wanted to help her out. Melody, your parents are so nice!"