24 visits || SOOSHU

Visit Ten

Reason: Check up, bloodwork

Symptoms: None

Time in: 12:00 pm November 18th, 2014

Soojin watched Shuhua, keeping the thermometer firm under her tongue. She'd been silent, lost in thought since the morning. Mostly because she was going to see Shuhua. But when she'd actually seen Shuhua it became hard to talk.

She'd listened to the CD, and then listened again, and again...Soojin liked it, no, Soojin loved it. So much that she actually brought herself to finally do a google search on Shuhua. She was originally going to read up on Shuhua a little bit more, learn more about her music; and then she saw that damning little tabloid.

Shuhua Spending A lot of Time With an Agent. Could they be more??

Splattered around were pictures of Shuhua and a really pretty woman that Soojin vaguely recognized from the first time Shuhua was brought in.

And for some reason Soojin had the urge to google Minnie after that. She found nothing but more pictures, a company, general accomplishments - and she was very accomplished. Accomplished and pretty.

It had been nagging Soojin for some reason, and being close to Shuhua just made her think about it more. Was Shuhua dating her? Was that even a thing that was allowed to happen?

"Sojin?" Shuhua said around the thermometer.

Soojin ripped it away, wondering how long she'd been zoned out. "Oh, yeah. Temperature is fine."

Shuhua looked up at her and grinned. Her hair was down again, bangs tucked to the side. It really showed off how mature she could look.

"You still haven't answered my question," Shuhua said in a sing-song voice. "Did you like the CD?"

Soojin froze. She could always lie and say she didn't, it was hard for her to give praise sometimes, to reveal a part of herself like that. What she liked, what she didn't like. It would give insight on her she didn't know if she wanted to share. "Yes," she finally said. "I did. You're really...good."

"I told you no one can resist!" Shuhua said. Jeez. It was annoying how even at her most irritating she could still be cute.

"Whatever," Soojin muttered, heading over to the cabinets in the office. "Which arm?" She didn't have to look at Shuhua to see the flash of panic that washed over her. Yuju had mentioned that Shuhua didn't like needles after the very first encounter, and said that it was best to talk to her while drawing blood. So, naturally, Soojin did the exact opposite last time.

"Yuju?" Shuhua muttered.

"She's got better things to do, I can handle it," Soojin said, now looking at Shuhua. She smiled; it was nice to be able to scare the great Yeh Shuhua. She flicked the needle in her hand, if only for dramatic effect since it didn't actually have anything in it.

"Left," Shuhua sighed, her eyes squeezed shut.

Soojin wrapped an elastic band around the top of Shuhua's arm so she could pop the veins out a little more, and then pressed down on the skin to see better. Shuhua kept her eyes shut. "So how did you even become an idol?" Soojin asked, attaching the first vial to the tube in preparation for extraction.

Shuhua laughed. "You couldn't google me?"

Soojin was grateful Shuhua had her eyes shut and couldn't see the bright blush on her face. "You're my patient, why would I?" she asked, slowly sticking the needle in the left joint of Shuhua's arm. Shuhua didn't react.

" I googled you . Graduated two years early from Harvard in pre-med, one year early from Harvard medical school. You lived in America all that time?"

Soojin remembered the constant traveling, the business of college. The stress. "I went back and forth a lot."

"Oh," Shuhua said. "Well, my story isn't that interesting either. There is a biography about me somewhere that I signed the rights off to, but it makes me look like some rags to riches story."

"Were you?"

Shuhua shrugged, her face still turned away. "I mean, my family wasn't the most well off, but we were never struggling. Things were harder after Papa died. I had to take care of my brother and sisters a lot because Mama started having to travel more. But even when Papa was alive I knew I wanted to be an idol."

"Why?"

"I like making people smile, I like singing. I like being noticed and when people look up to me and go wow! She's amazing. "

Soojin smiled, pulling the needle out of Shuhua's skin and setting the vials to the side of the exam table. "You're done," she said, pressing a cotton ball against the small prick.

"What? I didn't even know you stuck me!" Shuhua whirled her head up to look at Soojin, and then at her arm.

"I'm good at what I do," Soojin told her. She bandaged the prick, grinning a little at Shuhua's shock.

"You're good at distracting," Shuhua said, almost accusingly, but her eyes were shining and lips tilted up just enough to show she was joking.

But she was right. Soojin was good at distracting, so much so that she completely forgot why she was on edge about Shuhua. She'd forgotten the tabloid, the possible rumors read on the internet. But when Soojin remembered them, somehow they bugged her a little more than before.