Chapter 16: Late shift
In case her mother would worry about her coming home late, Lily texted, "I'm coming home kind of late today. You two will either be asleep by then or using up my tissues for Korean dramas."
Toby read the message, and replied, "Alright, but if it gets too late, make sure he sees you walk into the building. If anything, he should be walking you home to the door. No matter how late you'll be, let me know and I'll come walk you. Have fun."
Smiling warmly at the message on her screen, she typed, "I will~ Mommy is the best. Mwahhhh."
Toby: [bunny sticker kissing another bunny on the cheeks shyly]
Since she had time to spare, she decides to stop by the print store to see if her new business card is done. It's been over a week since she had placed the order and sent her design over.
Inside the store, the staff searched through the alphabetical sections of completed orders to find her name. "Aha! Found it. Miss. Jiang. Please, take a look and see if this is the correct design. If you aren't satisfied with it, we can reprint it at no extra charge the first time."
Taking her new business cards in hand, she reviewed the detailed prints and confirmed that they had done their job exactly the way she had requested it. Satisfied with her cards, she pressed the confirmation button in the store's app and had processed the payment for it.
"Thank you! Come again!" The staff yelled as she left while waving backwards.
"At least something good came out of having a messy date." Checking her watch once again, she noticed that she had spent over an hour in that store because the guy couldn't find her cards. Fortunately, he found the final product, so her trip wasn't exactly a bad one.
Meanwhile, at one of the largest hospitals in this city, Lin Que tossed his surgeon mask away and stacked the last pile of medical charts onto the counter. "All these patients have been checked already. I wrote down their updated conditions and determined how long they will have to stay at the hospital. Please follow up on them and input it into the system. Thanks."
Hearing his tired, yet charming voice, the nurses blushed and nodded in response. Quickly, the charts were split amongst the other nurses who were present at the counter.
"So cool! I wonder if he has a girlfriend? He's the only doctor who writes with such neat handwriting. My eyes have had enough to those chicken scratch scripts from other doctors!" The nurses whispered to each other with great interest about him.
He was supposed to have left hours ago, but one of the doctors called out last second due to family emergency so he stayed for an extra few hours to help the others out. One of the main reasons for why he chose to stay and assist other staffs is that this hospital is considered to be the main headquarters of his family business. Naturally, it is his job to maintain the regular operations in this hospital.
It was around ten already and he still haven't eaten yet. His stomach was growling for attention since he only had a sandwich for lunch. Thinking about the hard work he has accomplished, he decided to give himself a treat and make a fancy meal for himself once he gets home.
He hopped into his car after exiting the hospital and drove straight home. Less than half an hour later, he arrived at his driveway. "Home sweet home." After taking off his shoes and putting it away neatly, he went to the kitchen to wash his hands with soap. Then, he checked the fridge to see what ingredients he had and what his dinner would be for the night.
His wide smile froze when he faced an empty fridge with nothing but half a cabbage left from last night's salad crisis. Blinking awkwardly to himself, he felt relieved that there were no guests in his place tonight or else it would've been truly an embarrassing scene. Raising his left wrist up, he read the time again. It was almost 10:45 P.M. and his motivation to cook has been washed down the drain.
Grabbing his jacket from the couch, he turned off the lights to the kitchen and said, "Let's go out and find some food to eat! Hmmm, maybe that Szechuan Spicy Bowl restaurant would be a good choice. Get myself a vegetable soup and then mixed bowl. Let's see... Maybe I'll get there by midnight if I'm lucky with the traffic at this time."
Since he was off schedule the next day, he decided to give himself a break and head out for dinner.
He had changed into a pair of comfortable sneakers, a casual T-shirt and pair of jeans before he headed out again. Unfortunately, for him, the traffic delayed his estimated arrival time. He arrived at 12:20 A.M. and was faced with a packed restaurant with many people waiting in line in different groups. It seems like they either came from the Karaoke place next door or had just finished singing the hell out of themselves and settled for spicy bowl.
Sighing, he approached the counter and checked in with his name. After waiting for another ten minutes, he didn't hold much hope into getting a seat with the number of people that are on the line. Turning around and preparing to leave to grab some cup noodles from Seven-Eleven, the waiter shouted out his name, "Lin Que? Mister Lin Que?"
"Yes!" He raised his arm and walked through the crowd.
The waiter smiled pleasantly at him, "Would you mind sharing a table with another guest? It is kind of a full house right now."
"Sure." He responded calmly, but in reality, his stomach was dancing the tangle dance and twisting knots inside of him. Once he settled down on the seat across from a girl whose head was lowered to eat her spicy bowl, the waiter served him the menu.
First, he ordered a regular vegetable soup. Then, he chose the medium spice level for the five topping spicy bowl mix that he could customize with his own choices of ingredients. For each extra topping he wanted to add, the final charge would be calculated by its weight.
The waiter excused himself after jotting down his order and table number. With the table number light switched on, the server would bring the food to the table once it had been made. Considering several factors that he had in mind, he thought that it would only be polite if he greeted the lady in front of him with a thank you greeting since he noticed that it was a two-seating table.
Afraid that he would be interrupting the girl's meal, he subconsciously cleared his throat, hoping to gain her attention. As if he had jinxed his own words, she took a few clean napkins from the side and blew her snot the next minute.
"Hi, I just wanted to thank you for being willing to share this table with me. If not, I would be waiting for my cup noodles to be done right now." He nervously laughed as he waited for the girl's response. When she uncovered her slightly reddened nose and flushed cheeks from challenging the Beyond Human level spicy bowl, his eyes were glued on her.
"It's alright, I don't mind it. I'm almost done eating anyways." She had reached for the lemon water in front of her and sipped through the thin straw before she continued to eat her food.
'It's unbelievable...' he thought to himself that he barely heard a word that she had just said.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Sweetflowlips
Sweetflowlips AND they met again!
XDDDD
Thanks for reading~
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