The Strings Of Heart

32

David's POV

I sigh heavily taking the files from Meera. She stands beside me with Yasmeen. "Where is Yashwanth?" I ask them.

"I don't know, but I think he is in the lounge area," Meera replied.

"What is he doing there when he has to report me?" I asked looking at them. Yashwanth is one of the new residents, among everyone he is the clown and active guy.

I have no issues with him but he doesn't stay in one place. I have to go and find him or one of the nurses runs around to find him.

"We have a demonstration today and he has to be there, call him," I tell Meera. Meera, Yasmeen, Vikram and Yashwanth are under my team.

"But doctor... It is very hard to find him," Meera groans.

"And we need to meet the professor too and we can't be late," Yasmeen adds. I close the files and look at them.

"Where is Vikram?" I ask.

"Probably with Yashwanth."

"You girls go and meet professor Kaushik, he wouldn't like it if you two are late. I will call them up," I said.

"Thank you, doctor," Meera said.

"Thank you, doctor, see you later," Yasmeen said.

"Yup. It's okay to be nervous but don't let it overshadow your confidence." They nod their heads with a smile. I go over to my desk while they leave my cabin. I open the drawer and take my phone out.

I see that I got four messages from Sitara. I sigh keeping the phone down on the desk. I check the patient's file whom I'm treating.

I pick the phone up and unlock it. I open the message box to read her messages.

'i'm going to a house party.'

'won't be meeting you today, let's meet tomorrow.'

'alright bye.'

I type a message but then backspace everything and close the message box. I truly feel bad for rejecting Sitara but I can't help it.

I do not understand how she can like me when all she did was dislike me. I sometimes feel like she used to hate me. But hate is a strong word so I don't use it.

I don't accept the things she brings and the flowers she gives knowing I can't develop my feelings on her or I can't give her hopes.

I call Yashwanth's number and wait for him to pick the phone up. He doesn't answer the call. I call Vikram and he does the same.

"Where these guys are..." I tell myself leaving the files on the desk.

I walk out of my cabin in search of them. They have a demonstration session with professor Kaushik after Yasmeen and Meera's demonstration session.

I need to find them and warn them about professor Kaushik. Mainly Yashwanth tends to joke with everyone.

I push the phone inside my pockets waking down the hall towards the elevator.

"Hey David," Doctor Atif greets.

"Hey, Atif."

"How is it going? He asked as the lift doors open.

"Hectic like every day," I tell him and he chuckles.

"How many residents are under you?" He asked as I press the four button.

"Four and what about you?"

"Six."

"Six? Why did you got six when everyone got four under them," I ask him.

" Professor Pratul! Man, I'm telling you he surely holds a grudge over me. Damn... my juniors got three residents while he gave me six," he says.

I chuckled nodding my head, "professor Pratul is a tough nut. He remembers everything."

"That he does..."

"What you have done then?" I ask him walking out of the lift with him following me.

"I gave him some tough time while I was a resident under him. That was six years ago and now he wants me to go through the double pain."

"Yeah... You were the walking question bank," I say laughing at the memory and nickname he got.

"Hmm... Residents can be handy, man. They are like little babies all over again. Teaching them and being patient is a whole new task," Ajitesh said joining us.

"So true."

"Are they punctual?" Atif asks Ajitesh.

"Yeah... It took them two weeks to be on time. I decided not to be too strict on them," Ajitesh replied.

"Haha, be strict or else the professors will have your head. Haven't you heard their rules and regulations, they told us to be strict and serious with them. No friendly connections with residents," Atif reminded Ajitesh.

"How can we be so serious with them doctor? While they are working so hard staying up late hours. I feel bad for them though," Ajitesh said. I smiled nodding my head. I look here and there to find Yashwanth and Vikram.

The residents hang out in the fourth-floor lounge area. They have their personal coffee and snack counter.

"Our profession is like that, even we stayed and worked late hours. Don't forget how they used to make us do the night shifts," Atif said.

"Professor Pratul and professor Sandhya were horrible towards us. The others were good," Ajitesh said stopping at the coffee counter.

"How was your residency? Did you enjoy being the resident?" Atif asked me.

"Yeah, I didn't have any problem being the resident. I enjoyed my residency years in Russia," I tell them.

"You did your residency in Russia and?" Ajitesh asked.

"Russia and Chicago, then I worked under Mr Hamilton in Russia," I tell them.

"Wah (wow), you must be delighted to work with him?" Ajitesh asked.

"Yeah, I was actually honoured to work with him," I tell them making my coffee.

I pull my phone out and dial Yashwanth's number. There are a few residents hanging out or taking a nap in the lounge area but I don't find Yashwanth and Vikram.

I sigh when he doesn't answer my call. But thankfully I see Vivek walking towards the coffee counter with his other friends.

"Hello doctor," he greets me before greeting Atif and Ajitesh.

"Hello."

"Have you seen Yashwanth and Vikram?" I ask Vivek. Vivek is a friend of Yashwanth and Vikram.

"I guess I saw him in the dormitory, he is flirting with Teju," Vivek said.

"Seems like Yashwanth can't hold his horses," Atif joked and everyone laughed. I shook my head with a smile on my face.

"See you guys later," I tell them picking my coffee.

"See you."

"See yeah."

"Yup."

"How was it?" I heard Atif ask Vivek about their seminar with the professors. I walk down to the hallway to the lift.

"Good evening doctor David," the nurse greeted me.

"Good evening," I greet making some space as she gets into the lift with the patients.

"Isn't the other lift working?" I ask her. There are three lifts of two sides of the hospital. One is for visitors, one is for patient's and the other is for faculty.

"The two are busy and I need to take him to the fifth floor," she replied. I nodded my head looking at the patient. She reached the floor and I need to go to the eighth floor where the resident dorms are.

Yashwanth is surely a brat like Sejal said. He sometimes reminds me of Sitara, the same stubbornness, the same cold nature at the first seeing. Their attitude, but Yashwanth is a funny guy while Sitara carries a cold face. Yashwanth mingles with everyone while Sitara doesn't.

I walk towards the dormitory where only residents are allowed. I watch a few residents sitting on the chairs.

"Have you seen Yashwanth and Vikram?" I ask one of them.

"There are standing over there doctor," the girl said pointing her finger to the left side.

"Thank you," I tell her before walking towards the way she pointed. I stop and watch as Vikram is taking a nap on the lounge chair while Yashwanth is talking with the girl.

I cross my arms and watch him as he uses his cheesy pick-up lines on the girl named Teju. Teju is a resident under doctor Janaki.

"Well... Well... She will go on a date when you finish your residency. Now come on boy, let us go and be ready for your demonstration," I say walking over to them and placing my hand on Yashwanth's shoulder.

"Good evening, doctor David," Teju greets me.

"Good evening, Teju," I greet her.

"Huh, see my doctor is also here. Tell me are you free next Saturday?" Yashwanth asks.

"I will see you later doctor David," Teju said running to the other side.

Yashwanth groans, "what doctor David... I was trying my shot and you spoiled it," Yashwanth said looking at me.

"Spoiled your shot? What did I do?" I ask him in bewilderment.

"She was going to give me an answer and you came. She became shy and ran away..." Yashwanth spoke looking at the way Teju ran away.

"Woah... But how many girls are you going to ask? You asked Ishita, Kaveri, Pranitha..." I tell him.

"Till I find the one," he said.

"Huh?"

"Come on doctor David... It's not like you haven't asked any of the doctors out." I blink my eyes shaking my head.

"Seriously?" He asked in shock.

"No, I have not asked any doctor to go out with me before," I tell him truthfully.

"Why?"

"Because I never felt like asking." Yashwanth slaps his head shaking his head.

"Doctor David, this is the time we see the girls and decide one."

"Oh?"

"See, I had previous love affairs in school but they'd didn't work out. Then I chose MBBS, didn't had the time and privilege to date, anyone. Now I'm 25 and if I don't date now, I fear that I don't find later. So I'm shooting all the shots now so that I can connect with that one person," he explains as I wake Vikram up.

"You can try later too, why now?" I ask him.

"And residency is hectic and hard. You have seniors above you, who will make you do night shifts and long shifts. You won't be finding time to date," I tell him.

"That's the reason I'm searching for my girl. You see doctor David, I'm done being alone and single. Now I need that one person who showers me with love, with whom I can have a coffee maybe on a hectic day, where I can complain about my seniors and day to her without any filter, it would make me feel less stressed after telling her everything."

"Doctor David, he is a hopeless romantic," Vikram said as we three walk towards the hallway.

"Seriously doctor David, just imagine having someone who would bring you coffee, understand you and come visit you on your tiring days, someone who would make you feel less stressful and also make you carve to see them," Yashwanth adds.

I chuckle, "good luck with that."

"Haha... You don't have to try, you have doctor Sejal and why would you understand my situation," Yashwanth said.

"Sejal?"

"Yeah, she sends you coffee to your cabin. Sends your flowers when you have a hectic day, sends your dinner parcel to your cabin. She even sends you the homemade lunch boxes. Honestly, I'm jealous of you doctor David. I wanted to ask her why sends them secretly when everyone knew that she likes you," Yashwanth said.

For a second my brows frowned in confusion but then I understood what he is talking about. It wasn't Sejal who sends all the things, Sitara sends all the things every day. I even told her not to send but she does.

"You are crushing on someone?" I ask Vikram.

"Hmm no."

"Why?"

"Because the female residents here don't make him go crazy or give him the feeling of an adrenaline rush," Yashwanth said.

We decided to take the staircase, I'm standing in the middle with two of them standing on my each side.

"Huh?" I turn my head and see Vikram. Vikram is the silent one.

"I want to date an opposite person of me doctor David. I'm a laid back person and I know I shouldn't be but I can't help it. So I want someone who is the opposite of me, so that I can go on adventures like she wishes and who would make me go crazy for her. Bring the other side in me just for her."

"You two got so many ideas stored in your mind," I tell them.

"Of course."

I open the cabin door and walk in with them following inside.

"You two have the demonstration session with professor Kaushik, have you guys forgotten about that?" I ask them. Picking the files I have left behind and walking over to the sofa.

"Nah... How can we forget that? We just tried to forget about it for a while," Yashwanth says sitting in front of me.

"Are they my files?" Vikram asked pointing to the blue files.

"Yes."

"Where are my green files?" Yashwanth asked.

"Maybe on the drawer," I tell him. There was a knock on the door before Sejal stepped in.

"Doctor Sejal..." Yashwanth greeted when Sejal looked at them.

"Huh... I thought you were alone," Sejal said looking at me.

"Good evening, doctor Sejal," Vikram greeted.

"Good evening guys."

"Hey," I said looking at Sejal as she walked towards me.

"Hey, David."

"Don't you two have a demonstration session? Everyone is getting prepared for the session," Sejal said taking the seat beside me.

"Even we are preparing for the session," Yashwanth replied.

"Where? Here? You guys seem like having fun in doctor David's cabin. Why do you guys hang out here?" Sejal questioned them.

"Because doctor David is our head and we are in his team. And he is like our brother and he told us to hang out in his cabin. So yeah.. we are always here," Yashwanth replied.

"You are spoiling them," Sejal said looking at me.

"He is not..."

"Do you need anything?" I ask Sejal.

"Oh, yeah. I wanted to ask you if you are free tonight?" Sejal questions. Yashwanth and Vikram give me their teasing looks.

"Yeah... I don't have any night shift. I'm free tonight, why?" I ask her.

"Can you join me for dinner? We haven't had dinner together in a long time," she said.

I'm not sure if I should join her for dinner or not. I wanted to leave early and take a rest and have a good sleep.

"David, if you have any plans. It's fine, we can later," Sejal face falls down.

"No... No... I will join you for dinner. Call me when your shift ends," I tell her. Her smile widens.

"Okay David, I will call you when my shift ends," Sejal says before standing up and leaving.

"Oh... Oh... Doctor David going on a date..." Yashwanth teases.

"You guys are up next for the demonstration, concentrate on that," I tell them.

"Yeah... Yeah..."