Remember That Day

Chapter 21

“Who will be the operating surgeon?” asked by the Vice-President of the hospital.

“Doctor Gon Velarde will be doing the open-heart surgery—” Nurse Gwen was cut off by the old white-haired man, Director Smith after he noticed that the surgery was not yet starting inside the operating room.

“Then where is he?” he hissed. Everyone who overheard him startled.

“I’m already here.”

Everyone turned their heads to Gon who was already in his surgical gown, a tie-back cap to cover his hair, a face mask, and latex gloves. He was five minutes earlier although there was a sudden traffic on his way to the hospital.

“Doctor Velarde is the youngest Surgeon here in San Valley Hospital,” a surgical intern whispered to the ear of her co-intern.

“I know. He graduated from US, right? He’s quite famous, smart, and handsome in his early thirties.”

“And he looks so handsome with his surgical gown. How much more if he is just on his lab gown doing rounds.” Hands were on her mouth covered with mask when she almost jumped because she felt it thrilling.

“Nurse Gwen, is everything ready?” Gon asked without minding the hotheaded Director.

“Yes, Doctor Gon.” And the Operating Surgeon just nodded his head.

Gon and the nurse were about to enter the operating room when Gon stopped to turn to the interns gossiping in the side.

“Interns, what do you think you’re doing?” he asked with authority in his voice.

It was the usual Gon everytime he was in the hospital. He used to being serious and a little bossy, especially to the interns who kept gossiping everywhere.

The two interns had almost jumped to their feet before they could run inside the operating room.

“We all knew that interns on a surgical service take care of the patients on the floor. They rarely see the inside of the OR, and when they do,” Gon said and turned to the interns waiting inside the OR, “it’s usually to assist with an emergency or a run-of-the-mill case.”

The operation had finally begun at exactly seven-thirty. It was late, but the surgery couldn’t wait anymore.

The two female surgical interns where attentive in the whole process of surgery, but their young hearts couldn’t resist the charismatic appearance of the Operating Surgeon, so as making some noise.

“The more severe, the higher the risk of complications. However, the mortality rate is low, and according to one report, only 2–3 percent of people who undergo heart surgery die as a result of the operation,” the intern said.

“How poor. But I would perhaps die due to Doctor Velarde’s impact on me. He’s so gorgeous,” the other intern replied.

“I wonder if he already got a girlfriend...”

“Yeah right? Why don’t we ask him?”

Luckily, they just both watch the whole surgery without being a runner.

After three and a half hour inside the operating room, the heart transplant was successfully finished and everyone was happy and overwhelmed to save a life of a young girl.

“Congratulations, Doctor Gon!” everyone in the surgical team greeted him. Only a deep breath of relief was the only answer he gave to them.

“Doctor Oliver, please take over,” Gon said as he instructed his surgical first assistant to do the closing of incision.

“Yes, Doctor Velarde.”

“Good job everyone!” Gon further said and everyone inside and outside the operating room clapped their hands.

Walking on the hallway as he removed his mask and cap, Gon stopped when females with familiar voices called him.

“Intern Juri and Intern Fara?”

It were the two interns he was with during the surgery. With his creased forehead, he further instructed, “Stop running around!”

The two halted just three steps away from him when Gon resumed to walk to his office. As Gon was on his way, the two remained following behind him.

“What do you guys want?” he asked without giving them a look.

“Oh. We just want to congratulate you, Doctor Velarde!” Intern Fara answered with a little stutter, but with so much excitement in her voice.

“You’re very cool!” Intern Juri also praised him.

Gon grinned. Those two girls were eight years younger than him and he obviously knew what they were up to.

“You’ve both congratulated me earlier, why need to repeat?” he asked, still focused on his way.

“May we know...”

“By any chance...”

Gon stopped and her two admirers almost bumped into him. By that, he almost chuckled about how nervous the girls could be in front of him.

“We’re sorry...”

“If you guys want to ask me about something, go on. It’s getting late and I have to,” he paused and looked at his wristwatch, “meet my finacee.”

Little did they know, Gon was aware that they wanted to know if he was in a relationship or not. It was never new to him as past interns in their hospital used to ask the same question to him. And those new female interns were just too obvious.

Both of them just shook their heads before they gave their respect and left immediately. It was just a great answer from Gon without even letting them ask it verbally.

“Fiancee my foot, Gon. Your girlfriend is overseas days ago already. How could you meet her in just minutes?” he whispered under his breath as he watched the interns hitting each other as they ran to the opposite direction.

He smiled. “I’m actually going to Damek’s place to check what is he doing. I’m sure he got colds or worst a fever for bathing himself with clothes on earlier in my office,” he added.

Before he drove straight to the hotel, he bought some jelly sticks of red ginseng from a Korean store on his way. He was just lucky that the store was still open even though it was past eleven.

Gon arrived in the hotel safely without asking for assistance in the front desk. He still had a key card for Damek’s room as he wasn’t able to return it when he was in a hurry to go back in the hospital for the emergency surgery.

He was about to shout when he finally opened Damek’s room, but he saw not just Damek sleeping inside. He was sure that it was Jayda at the edge of the bed sitting on the floor, head rested on her arm, and asleep even though it was dim inside.

“How did these two become close? Wow. Even if I haven’t ask for her help, she’s here,” he whispered upong closing the door. “But I thought Jayda dumped him? Why is she here and even asleep beside him?”

Gon had silently dropped the small paper bag of red ginseng on the table before he went to the other side of the bed to check Damek’s temperature with his palm.

“Only a little fever,” he said and looked at Jayda. “Thanks to her who obviously took care of him.”

When he was fixing his blanket, he accidentally noticed that Damek was wearing different clothes. It was no longer the same outfit when he was at his office.

“Could Jayda possibly change his clothes?” he mumbled and he eventually smirked with the thought of it. “Ah, I wonder what is really happening between them.”

Gon didn’t want to disturb the two, so he had just cover Jayda with a blanket before he positioned himself on the couch with a book he grabbed from Damek’s working table.

“It’s nice to see his table clean,” he uttered as he remembered the old times how Damek wasn’t really fond of cleaning his working space. “He usually let it messy. Was it because of Jayda again?”

Gon ended up wondering things before he begun reading a book. Although he was tired, sleeping was not what he wanted to do yet.

“I just wanted to say that the weather is good, but the UV index reading is high, so it’s not good for us to stay under the sun,” I said as I gently pulled her under the shade of an old Narra tree.

“Why didn’t you just tell me that the weather is fine instead of telling me those science-based facts?”

“Proofs.”

“Proofs? Proofs that the weather is fine?”

“Yes.”

“I have eyes, you smart kiddo!”

“Well...” I smiled. “To see is to believe, but it’s more believable when you have proofs.”

“Oh?”

“Even when it comes to liking someone,” I paused as I watched a butterfly flapped its wings over the flowers.

“You can say that you like a person, but it’s not that easy to make him believe you without giving or showing him proofs. Giving him the material things... luxuries, money, and everything is for the eyes to see and to believe, but it’s more believable when you show that person how you really feel.”

"Fine. If you say so,” she said, then smiled. “Let’s drop it already.”

It was not long before Gon noticed that Jayda was finally awake. She was glancing on both of her side before she ended up looking at Damek.

“I couldn’t believe myself that I dozed off just right beside you. I should’ve been sitting in front of my laptop right now and writing my novel if I haven’t saw you outside your unit asking for help to pee,” she complained without pause, not aware that Gon was just at the corner and listening to her.

Gon slowly sat on the couch without making any noise, put the book beside him, and just stare at the woman.

“If I couldn’t make it until fifty-thousand because I helped you, you’re dead meat,” she further threatened although Damek was still on a deep sleep.

“You write novels?” Gon asked, making Jayda to jumped on her feet. “How nice. You guys both make stories.”

As Jayda quickly turned the lights on, she finally saw a man sitting on the couch with his lab coat on.

“Who are you?”