Chapter 2

“Your face is so wrinkled. Done with troublesome patients?” A person wearing more or less the Nathane clothes Erick was wearing entered the doctor's room and immediately took a seat in the chair where the patient consulted him.

Erick looked at the arrival of his colleague and friend with one eyebrow raised, welcoming the man's arrival not with a happy expression. Compared to responding to his friend's question, Erick was more disturbed by what his colleague was doing.

“Why are you here? You don't have enough patients for you to escape? Until you can relax here?"

The person concerned rolled his eyes lazily. Responding to his friend's words with a little emotion. “I just got my break after more than 24 hours on alert. And you're the first person I've visited, but what kind of response is this? You don't want to give me moral support at all? Isn't that what a friend whose job it is to keep souls healthy should do?”

Erick's forehead furrowed, frowning for a long time in disgust at his colleague and friend. "If you just have free time, use it to rest, don't overdo it and make your brain even more chaotic like that. There you go." Get rid of Erick.

The man who was also wearing a doctor's uniform was frowning. On the white coat he was wearing there was an identification badge explaining that he was a general surgeon named Nathan.

“Can't you cheer me up a little? My boyfriend is already mad at me because I don't have time for him, so now you're acting the same way?"

"If your boyfriend is really angry, you should persuade him in your free time, not to bother me."

Nathan's shoulders lifted indifferently. “I'll just leave it at that until he contacts me again.”

Seeing Nathan acting so caring and not caring about his boyfriend, whom he had been dating for more than a year, Erick was a little surprised—even though all this time Nathan would always act like a love slave when it came to his girlfriend who was still in college.

"Are you having problems with Arga again? Or—"

"Starting to be interested in my story, huh?" Nathan showed an annoying smile, which made Erick snort lazily because he couldn't help but have to admit that what Nathan said was true.

After all, according to Erick, the romantic journey of his colleague and friend was indeed unusual and different from the others. Not different actually, it's just... How do you say it?

"Still making me the object of your observation?" Nathan quipped again, still with the same teasing smile.

If Nathan's words were directed at people who don't know him closely or know his character, they might think Nathan's words were an attack to deter the person he was talking to. Unfortunately, even though Erick initially felt the same way, now the man knew that the intention of what Nathan had just said was just to tease him, not to make the person he was talking to scared and not talk to the man about the same thing.

Because... Yes, because, Nathan's love journey may be unusual for some people, but it is certainly normal for others. Yup, Nathan is in love with another man, a fellow man—and as Erick mentioned earlier, Nathan's lover for the past year is named Arga—Argantara, a final year student at the Department of Communication Sciences.

“If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. I'm not going to force." Erick said he pretended to be selling expensively, even though he was curious and not kidding.

The reason is, Nathan's love story is not just about two people, but... there is more than that.

"Yes, Yes, Yes. You win. I will indeed tell you without being asked. Or you may assume that this consultation is free because I am willing to share it with you.”

Erick's eyes rolled lazily. “Your language! Next time you want to ask for my opinion, let me give you a special price, and it must be more expensive than the fee determined by the hospital."

“My parents demanded that I remarry.” Nathan started his story without listening to Erick's previous complaints, and of course, Erick was successfully persuaded to focus because of Nathan's words.

“Huh?” Is that right? If it's like this, Erick will forget his previous demands.

“Yes, they forced me to remarry. After failing once, they haven't given up on making me have a companion according to what they want. I just don't remember what happened after they imposed their will on me."

"So? Did you accept their request?”

Nathan, who observed the facial expressions of his colleagues in front of him, was made to laugh. This Erick is very easy to read if you are interested in the story. If you consult with other people or share their various problems with various backgrounds for each patient, Erick can be perfectly neutral, showing his professionalism with a fairly high patient satisfaction rating. But when he heard stories from people he knew personally, all that authority disappeared.

“I think I understand why some professions don't allow us to serve or handle people we know, especially professions like yours, Erick. Because when it comes to personal relationships, people sometimes forget about professionalism."

Sometimes, Erick feels tired of Nathan. Because in the middle of the story, that person would always divert their story here and there, even though in the end Erick would still listen, but Nathan's habit was still annoying.

"Let me guess. You didn't listen to their request, right?” And the only way to get Nathan back on track was to provoke him again.

"Of course. Do you think I will easily get married just like that? Especially with a woman."

It worked, right? But their conversation isn't finished here.

"And that's also the reason why Arga is angry with you? It's not just because you don't have time with him, right? But also because Arga knew about this problem, he was suspicious of you, thought that you had accepted your family's offer and—"

“Ended up being mad at me.” Grab Nathan quickly.

Look. Even though Erick hasn't told the whole story, he can already conclude that Nathan's life story has become so readable to Erick. Even so, for some reason, Erick never gets tired of listening to it.

"Then you haven't explained it to him?"

“He doesn't want to listen to me, so why should I force him? Let me just wait until he looks for me and is willing to listen to me first because I know it's useless to talk to people who aren't willing to listen."

Erick admitted that what Nathan said was true, but examining some of the problems that a couple of different ages had faced, for some reason Erick felt that something was wrong.

“Are you sure you love him?”

“Huh?” An attack of questions that Nathan didn't expect, and indeed Erick is only now asking questions that have been in his head for a long time.

"What do you mean? We've been together for more than a year, Erick. If we don't love each other then what?”

Erick's shoulders shrugged indifferently, "You also say the same thing to your lover who has been in a relationship for 3 years, 5 years, even 8 years. But in reality? You guys need it too, right?"

Nathan's gaze looked away from Erick, taking a lazy breath. “Sometimes, I regret telling you some of my stories. If you are clever at bringing it up like this."

Erick raised his eyebrows, showing Nathan that he was not at all bothered by Nathan's words. “In essence, I just wanted to remind you. Stop playing with feelings that you don't believe are true and claiming that those feelings will last when in reality you will deny them too."

Nathan may not have realized it, but when Erick gave him input in a serious tone - several times Nathan looked uncomfortable and preferred to avoid it. Like this time.

"Ah... I think it's better if I just take a break before my working hours come back into effect." The man got up from the chair in front of his colleague, and walked out of the room, still under the supervision of Erick, who was scrutinizing Nathan's every move.

“Occasionally think about what I said just now. Don't hunt for love if from the start you don't believe that love exists!" Erick exclaimed before Nathan left the room and closed the door.

Erick doesn't know and probably doesn't see it. Nathan froze in front of the door of his colleague's room for a long time before leaving there.

"You just don't know, Erick. You just don't know..."