"Doctor Lin!" Her eyes twinkled brightly as she dragged him over to the vending machine by his wrist.
"Hmm?" His words sounded as smooth as a summer's cool breeze. She pointed towards the machine and said, "I can't choose!"
"Didn't you just have lunch?" Her finger pointed towards the rows and columns of snacks in sight.
"Uh huh. But staying in the room all day is very boring. My mom and Ginny already left, so I have nobody to pass my time with." Tugging his sleeve slowly, she said in a pleading tone.
"Okay. Why don't you choose the ones you ate last time? You should have a few favorites from here." He nodded understandingly as his eyes focused on her lively smile when he allowed her to have snacks.
"I want to too! But you see, I only have bills with me and not enough coins. This machine only accepts coins. See?" She pointed once again while pushing her bottom lips out.
"Hold on," he dug into his pockets and pushed the coins he had into the machine.
"Which ones do you want?" He asked softly.
"Uhm. Uhm. I want the veggie sticks, corn chips, potato chips and... and this chocolate one!" Her smile flashed dazzlingly as she watched the snacks drop one by one. It felt like heaven for her to see the snacks coming to her arms.
"Here, all yours." Taking the bags of snacks from the machine, he placed them in her arms.
"Yay! Thank you! I'll pay you back!" She cheerfully hummed her way back to her room.
"So these snacks could make you this happy." A small smile appeared on his face as he walked forward, forgetting he had two buddies behind him. All along, they kept their promise and didn't interrupt their time together.
Studying Lin Que's drowned in sugar expression and popping heart eyes when he saw her, Alan and Johnson shook their heads. 'Sigh, another wife slave has formed.'
Still, since this was the first time, Lin Que had openly spoiled a girl like this; they decided to follow him and eavesdrop from the door. Lily took a peek behind her before entering her room to see if Lin Que was walking with her. This time, she clearly saw two figures following him.
"Are they your friends?" She asked as he grew closer to where she was standing.
"Huh?" He had totally forgotten about his friends. When he turned around, he saw them waving at him like an idiot.
Before he could say anything, Alan intervened and said, "Hi! I'm Alan, Lin Que's best friend."
Johnson also stepped up to introduce himself, "My name's Johnson. I'm currently his patient, but I'm also his friend."
"I'm Lily." She nodded politely as they exchanged greetings. Since her hands were full, they didn't shake her hands. Obviously, under Lin Que's intense glare, they wouldn't dare touch a strand of her hair.
"Are you guys planning to stand there? I have enough chairs if you guys want to sit down and talk." She stared at her snacks, looking as if she was being starved.
Ignoring Lin Que's shooting arrows from his eyes, they accepted her invitation and walked into her room. While she put her snacks on the table, she also unfolded a few chairs for them to sit on.
"Ohh!! No, no. We could do it ourselves. We're guys after all." Alan quickly assisted her when he saw her struggling with two chairs on separate hands.
"Oh..Then thank you." She let him handle the chairs and sat by the edge of the bed. The seating arrangement was as follows: Alan sat on Lin Que's left side, and Johnson on Lin Que's right side. Lin Que was facing directly at her.
"How are you feeling today?" He asked.
"Haha, I've been better since like two days after my admission. You were the one who wanted me to have a full body exam and kept me trapped for a week. I'm perfectly healthy." She couldn't help but laugh a little when he asked the same question every day.
"Just making sure. You've finished the examinations for today. Hmm, with the current results of the examinations you've done, you should be discharged by Sunday." Flipping through the pages, he saw a long row of check marks of the body exams she has completed.
"Finally! Do you know how long my neck has become from waiting for your discharge notice? Ah, right! Here, money for the snacks." She handed him a ten-dollar bill as she started opening a bag of chips.
"No need. That's way over the amount that was spent on these snacks." He rejected her bill and placed it on the table. She cleansed her hands with wet wipes and did not feel like touching the bill again.
She argued, "Then add the coins you used today with the other time when I had low glucose. The total amount should be enough to get close to or even over the amount of ten dollars." She munched on her chips and sat on one leg.
"Those snacks were free from my office. I wasn't planning to eat them anyways. How could I charge you for that?" He lied, so that she would take back the cash.
Alan almost yawned out loud as he heard them push the bill verbally back and forth like a tug of war game. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, "How about this? You exchange numbers with Lin Que!"
"Huh? What does that have to do with anything?" Johnson asked and quickly covered his lips when he saw Alan's squint.
"Instead of him accepting more than what he spent on your snacks, you could just quick pay him. What bank are you using?" He asked Lily.
"Chase bank." She took the wet wipes and cleaned her fingers before reaching for her phone.
"Good! Lin Que is also using Chase. You two can add each other's contacts, and it'll be much simpler." Alan smiled as he praised himself how smart he could be to think of this method for Lin Que to get her number.
Lily went to her contacts and clicked the "plus" sign on the top right. "Here, enter your contact information. I'll do mine on your phone."
Lin Que quickly unlocked his phone and swapped the devices with her. Within minutes, they inputted their number and email address in each other's phone. After switching their phones back, she texted him a bear gif sticker waving its hand.
Seconds later, his notification rang and he received her first message. He said, "cute sticker."
"Pffft! Doctor Lin, do you not use stickers?" He sounded a bit unfamiliar to the stickers setting.
"Mm." He admitted he had never sent a sticker before.
"Come here." She patted on the space beside her. Sitting by her side, she took his phone and said, "Your phone is the newest model. The same as mine, but in different colors. The sticker store is right here, and you could choose a variety of them. Most of them are cute and free to use. For instance, this sticker pack is the one I just sent to you."
He pressed the download icon once she said that she used that sticker pack.
"Now, you try sending me a sticker. Just so my message won't look so lonely by itself."
Concentrating on his screen, he chose a kitten munching on snacks gif sticker and sent it to her.
"Pffft! Out of all these, you chose this one?"
"It looks like you. Don't you think?" Comparing the sticker to her face, she took away his phone and laughed.
Meanwhile, across from them were two cold mountains; both ready for the winter snow.
Who would have thought chips could exchange numbers? ;)
Thanks for reading ~~