"Doctor Jounouchi is looking quite radiant today! Have you found yourself a boyfriend recently?" Inside the hospital elevator, a young nurse looked at a glowing Jounouchi Hiromi with inquisitive, gossipy eyes and asked her.
Having spent a romantic evening with Chen Yu just the night before, Jounouchi Hiromi of course wasn't going to easily reveal her private life. She simply smiled at the young nurse and said, "Not at all, I just had a good night's sleep. If you pay attention to getting to bed early and taking care of yourself, you can be radiant too."
Even though she said this, Jounouchi Hiromi's heart was brimming with sweetness and happiness.
The elevator soon reached its floor, and the young nurse bowed to Jounouchi Hiromi before leaving. But after the young nurse left the elevator, another older nurse who had been standing behind Jounouchi Hiromi, and who was oozing femininity, asked her, "Doctor Jounouchi, you went on a date last night, didn't you? I saw you, you know!"
It was phrased as a question, but what she said was very certain.
"Nurse Chief Chiba! What are you talking about?" Hearing the nurse behind her speak so confidently, Jounouchi Hiromi hurriedly turned around, trying to cover her mouth.
But Jounouchi Hiromi didn't manage to cover the chief nurse's mouth. Instead, she was teased mischievously, "I definitely saw last night! Doctor Jounouchi on a date with a man at a very famous restaurant... Who was that man? I heard some nurses saying they saw you on the rooftop hugging Doctor Chen. You're not dating him, are you? If that's the case... are you really playing the field, Doctor Jounouchi? That's very dangerous!"
"I'm not playing the field! Last night I was with Mr. Chen Yu..." As she spoke, Jounouchi Hiromi saw the teasing expression on the chief nurse's face and immediately realized what was happening. She punched her lightly and then tickled her under the arms, "Chiba Sonoko! You were fishing for information! I'll show you what's coming to you!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please let me go, Doctor Jounouchi!" The chief nurse, being tickled by Jounouchi Hiromi, immediately started begging for mercy, and after quite a struggle, Jounouchi Hiromi finally stopped.
However, after a bout of playful scuffling, the chief nurse still said to Jounouchi Hiromi, "But you're really amazing, Doctor Jounouchi! There are so many single women in the hospital who have their eyes on Doctor Chen. You managed to get ahead of them and become his girlfriend, I'm so envious! Such a handsome and gentle man! Oh, my little nurses are going to be heartbroken again! There's one less eligible single male doctor left in the hospital to marry."
"That's an exaggeration, Nurse Chief Chiba!" Jounouchi Hiromi turned away slightly bashfully, seeming to hide the delighted expression on her face, but she was still somewhat concerned by the chief nurse's words. Pretending to be casual, she leaned against the elevator wall and asked the chief nurse, "Do a lot of the young nurses really like Mr. Chen Yu?"
The chief nurse took a glance at Jounouchi Hiromi who clearly cared a lot while trying to seem nonchalant, smiled, but didn't leave her hanging. Instead, she explained, "Isn't that obvious? A man who can captivate you, Doctor Jounouchi, obviously has a lot of appeal for those young nurses. Despite his young age, he's a graduate of East University Medical College; he became a chief surgeon in just a year, his future potential is immeasurable!
And I've also heard that he has a good relationship with the head of surgery at the East University Medical College General Hospital, Professor Kube; he was Kube's prized student, and it was Kube who recommended him to our hospital. He's likely to be promoted easily in the future, right? Doctor Chen has published papers in international medical journals during his college years, becoming a professor at the University Hospital or something like that would be a piece of cake for him. Such a man can make even me drool, Doctor Jounouchi, you've really found yourself a great guy!"
Hearing the chief nurse list Chen Yu's attributes, even Jounouchi Hiromi, who wanted to appear indifferent, couldn't help but show a happy and blissful smile on her face.
After parting with the chief nurse and returning to her office, Jounouchi Hiromi had just sat down and was looking at the surgical schedule for the day when an email notification suddenly popped up on her computer.
"Huh, what's this..." Jounouchi Hiromi opened the email, and though she struggled a bit with the all-English content, she quickly understood the message, "Are the doctors in the United States also unable to do anything?"
The email was from a friend of Jounouchi Hiromi's in the United States, who had reviewed the medical records of Inomata Naoki she had sent over. They also had no assurance of a successful surgery for Inomata Naoki.
"If it's just the surgery, there's a 30% chance of success, but considering the patient's condition, the success rate drops to 1%..." Jounouchi Hiromi quietly read the explanations in the email and immediately felt a pang of distress.
Originally, Jounouchi Hiromi truly wanted to help Inomata Naoki, and now that she was Chen Yu's girlfriend, she wanted even more to cure his friend. But reading the reply in the email, even her friend in the United States was at a loss. Jounouchi Hiromi felt deflated and wondered what method could possibly cure Inomata Naoki.
"Ah! If only Daimon-san were still in Japan!" Jounouchi Hiromi slumped back in her chair and let out a powerless moan, yet she was muttering someone's name.
As she murmured, Jounouchi Hiromi suddenly remembered that she had also sent Inomata Naoki's medical records to the very person she was muttering about. She hurriedly checked her own email again, hoping for a reply from the person she referred to. After all, in her memory, that person had never failed, and there was never an operation they couldn't perform.
"If it were Daimon-san, they would probably have a way to cure Inomata-san, right?" Jounouchi Hiromi murmured to herself while scrolling through her emails.
However, the person that Jounouchi Hiromi was thinking of had been barred from practicing medicine in Japan due to offending some powerful figures and thus had gone abroad. Even though Jounouchi Hiromi had a good relationship with her back then, she had not heard from her in a long time; they only exchanged emails during the holidays.
Just as Jounouchi Hiromi, not expecting much, checked her email again and failed to find the message she hoped for, her phone, left aside, started ringing. The number on it was from "Daimon," with whom she had not been in contact for a long time.
"Daimon-san? Are you back in Japan now?" She answered the phone and immediately recognized the familiar voice from the other end.