Me After Meeting You

When Amber woke up, her body felt indescribably limp and numb while her heart was somewhat drained. Amber clutched her face, both impressed and horrified by the capabilities of her own imagination.

In her dreams, besides the location, what that man had done to that woman was essentially what had happened to her yesterday, in that washroom!

***ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

The good student Amber had finally experienced the feelings of youthful love, leaving her speechless.

She lay in bed for quite a while, recovering from her shock. Only when that strange feeling in her heart went away did she lazily get up and dress herself.

She was even late to work. Because it was the first day of work after the New Year, the head had arrived early. Following their workplace custom, he had prepared red packets in advance and had stood by the door, giving one to each colleague who walked in. There wasn’t much money inside them, but it made everyone feel happy and appreciated.

When the elevator door opened, the first thing Amber saw was the head standing there with a smile. She immediately wanted to turn around and leave, but the head had already spotted her. “You’re trying to run away after being so late?”

Caught red-handed, Amber could only go over obediently. “Happy New Year, department head.” And then she pitifully pleaded, “It’s the first day of work after the New Year. Could you not scold me, please?”

The head glared at her, but he didn’t say anything else. He merely stuffed the red packet into her hand before saying, “Come to my office.”

Amber could only head over. She had some idea of what was going on; indeed, the head immediately asked about what had happened yesterday when they were alone. “What happened?”

Amber explained the matter concisely, even saying, “The patient’s family wanted to transfer the patient to me, but I disagreed. Dr. Beryl did not handle this matter inappropriately at all.”

The head chuckled. “Worry about yourself first. Did you know that that patient’s family filed a complaint about you?”

“A complaint?” Amber was dazed.

“Yes, directly to the chairman. It was something about how you, as a doctor, refused to provide treatment.”

“….”

Although she had been slightly dazed at first, her head immediately cleared up afterwards. It seemed that her colleagues had already known that someone had filed a complaint against her, because when she left the head’s office, those heartless fellows laughed with schadenfreude at her misfortune. “Congratulations, Dr. Camille. It seems that you’re going to get a promotion this year, since you were called to the head’s office on the first day of the new year.”

Amber didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. When she turned around, she saw Beryl and wondered why he was at work-he had requested to go on vacation, starting today. While she was still confused, he walked straight up to her, ignoring the bystanders’ glances, and dragged her into his office.

“Dr. Beryl, you’re being too impudent!” Amber was angered by his actions, shaking off her hand.

“Me, impudent? What about you?” Beryl looked at her, and accused through gritted his teeth, “That man yesterday was Ian Axton, right? Isn’t he your patient? Dr. Camille, you’re actually dating your patient. Are you crazy?”

Amber was struck speechless by his sudden accusation. She didn’t expect that Beryl would say this, and she choked on the words stuck in her mouth.

Beryl continued rebuking her. “If people heard about a doctor from the psychiatry department being in a relationship with her patient, do you know what they would think? This is made even worse by the fact that the Axton family has both prestige and power ….

He’s ill, and as a doctor, instead of treating him properly, you even fell in love with him! If word spreads, then you could drown in just the saliva that people would spit at you! You, you, you … why don’t you know to cherish your reputation?!”

Amber couldn’t refute his words.

She really didn’t expect that Beryl would say something like this. Hadn’t he always thought unfavorably of her? Hadn’t he always erected roadblocks in front of her, trying to chase her out of the department? His sudden outpour of sincere advice for her really left her feeling out of sorts.

Amber blinked, her anger dissipating, and actually made a joking jab at him. “Are you concerned for me? … Is this really the Senior Beryl that I know?”

Yes, although she didn’t act unfamiliarly with him anymore, why would Beryl feel his heart become even more stifled?

Amber accepted his good intentions, but she didn’t intend on explaining her relationship with Ian in detail. Instead, she perfunctorily replied, “Thank you for your consideration, but I know what I’m doing.”

And then she nosily asked, “You know Ian Axton?”

As for how Beryl knew about Ian’s illness, she didn’t need to ask. As long as he had the name, he could find out everything about Ian from their hospital database.

Although Ian had never officially been registered as a patient of the psychiatry department, he had come for medical consultations a few times, and his records were naturally in the database.

Beryl stiffly replied, “No. Why would I care as to who he is?”

He really didn’t know who Ian was. But yesterday, he had ended up tailing them and, in the end, had taken a picture of Ian from a far.

Despite Ian’s low profile, there were still quite a few people who knew him, as he was a businessman. So when Beryl shared the photograph of Ian and asked his friends about this man’s identity, he quickly found the information he was searching for.

And after that, he even looked up Ian’s medical records; after all, everyone went to the hospital at some point for an illness or something, right? So coming at it from a medical perspective would be a good starting place to understand Ian better.

But Beryl could have never guessed that he would find out that Amber had been Ian’s primary doctor in the past, and his medical records clearly stated, ‘physiological emotional detachment, severe mysophobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.’

Even if he ignored the other two, emotional detachment was exactly what it sounded like a combination of symptoms that included lacking emotions and having an abnormal thought process. In severe cases, people suffering from this disorder might even have no qualms about killing people or doing vile things. Even in light cases, they often didn’t feel regular emotions at all.

So he had no idea what Amber was trying to do!

When he saw her brush off his advice, Beryl immediately became weary. He felt like his sleepless night of worry and anxiety was almost like a joke to her, and the unhappiness on his face became palpable. “Fine, just treat it as me being nosy then!”

He was wholly irritated now. Amber scratched her head, at a loss for what to do. “No, it’s not like that. It’s just that I’m not really used to your concern, senior. You don’t really think that I like you, do you?”

But her words seemed to have touched a sensitive spot, and he exploded in fury. Beryl thought back to his impetuous behavior yesterday, and he felt an intense instinct to bury himself. He hurriedly countered with a “I’d rather you did!” and then rushed out.

But then he came rushing back in just as quickly. “This is my office! You get out!”