"Belle." Neon hugged his sister tightly, burying his face in the crook of her neck. His silent, muffled sobs broke her heart, and Belle suddenly realized how incredibly selfish she had been for wanting to leave Neon behind.
"Belle... I was so scared," the boy whimpered.
"Hm? Why is my big boy scared?" she murmured softly, rubbing his back. "I thought you were going to grow big and strong to protect me?"
"I know. I always remember my promise. I didn't even cry when you left."
Belle felt the air completely leave her lungs. She trembled slightly as she held the little boy closer. She had missed him. She only truly realized it just now, feeling his small frame in her arms. "Neon... when I get discharged from this place, let's move far away."
"Move where?"
Eli couldn't help but interject. He had fully intended to stay silent and give the siblings some private space, but hearing her words, his mouth had already blurted out the question his mind—or perhaps his heart—was desperate to ask. He wasn't entirely sure which. "Are you planning to quit your job?"
"I don't even remember anything," Belle replied coldly, not looking at him. "What's the point of keeping a job I don't know how to do?"
"But I promised I would help you recover your memories."
"What does that have to do with you, Dr. Rivera? You can just go on with your daily life and forget about me. I'll find a better job."
Eli's mouth hung slightly agape, completely caught off guard. He hadn't even begun to repay her for everything she had done for him in the past. "Do you... hate me?" he blurted out of nowhere.
The question didn't just catch Belle by surprise; it visibly worried Neon, too. Neon genuinely liked Eli because the doctor was always kind to him and kept him company whenever his sister was pulled into back-to-back shifts. Sensing the sudden tension, the boy became terrified that his sister disliked the doctor he admired so much.
"Belle?" Neon tugged at her gown, drawing her attention back down to him. "Do you really hate Eli?"
"Why are you calling him Eli? That's Dr. Rivera to you," she chided gently.
"But Eli said it was okay," Neon retorted, flashing a pair of wide, puppy-dog eyes that could melt the hardest of hearts. "So... do you hate him?"
Belle stared at the little boy. In reality, the question should have been entirely meaningless to her; she had already resolved to give up her past life, including her buried affection for the doctor. But looking past Neon's shoulder, she caught Eli watching her, visibly holding his breath for her answer.
"We just don't need his help," she deflected quietly.
"That's not an answer to the question, Belle."
"Stop nagging," Belle retorted, lightly pinching her brother's cheeks to distract him. "I don't hate doctors."
Eli knew he wouldn't get an honest answer out of her with Neon sitting right there. Deciding to drop the matter for now, he resolved to corner her later when the opportunity arose. He would make sure to get the real truth out of her eventually.
"I'll go grab you both some snacks," Eli said, clearing his throat. "Since you're both technically patients, you're strictly on a fruit diet. I'll be right back."
The moment the door clicked shut behind the doctor, Neon giggled and kissed his sister's cheek. "Eli is really the best. He's so kind."
"Kind people are the most dangerous," Belle replied.
Outside the door, Eli paused, the words instantly freezing him in his tracks. He hadn't expected a statement like that to come from someone as notoriously selfless as Isabelle.
"Remember, Neon," Belle continued inside, her voice dropping into a dark, pragmatic register. "We've already fallen victim to someone who hid behind a mask of kindness once. We cannot let a pretty façade fool us again."
"Belle... are you still angry about what happened?" When she didn't answer, Neon lowered his gaze, his voice cracking. "Are we... going to be homeless again?"
Eli had heard enough. He quietly stepped away from the door, a heavy, bitter annoyance settling deep in his chest. Isabelle was the kindest soul he had ever encountered at this hospital, and she deserved the absolute best out of life. Hearing that someone had severely mistreated her—or caused her and her brother to lose their home—irked him to his very core. He couldn't even fully comprehend the intensity of his own reaction. It wasn't just professional worry; it was raw, protective anger. He hadn't even felt this profoundly unsettled when Jillyanna had been kidnapped.
Trying to shake the feeling, he walked out to the street market near the hospital facade to pick up some fresh apples, oranges, and grapes. [I'm just doing my job as a physician], he rationalized to himself, trying to ignore the knot in his stomach. [Even if they aren't my direct patients.]
"Excuse me," a timid voice interrupted his thoughts.
A elegantly dressed woman approached him, a tentative smile gracing her lips as she scrutinized him from head to toe. "Are you Dr. Rivera?"
"Yes?"
"Uh... well, our mothers sometimes meet for afternoon tea," she explained, her cheeks flushing slightly. "They highly suggested that I drop by and introduce myself. I'm Rachel."
She was undeniably stunning—tall, elegantly styled, and possessed all the right curves. But Eli's gaze only briefly fell on her outstretched hand.
"I just stepped directly out of a pediatric isolation ward," Eli said flatly, his tone completely devoid of warmth. "I've been handling children with various highly contagious illnesses all morning."
The woman pulled her hand back instantly, her face turning bright red from a mixture of horror and sheer embarrassment.
"Furthermore," Eli added coldly, "I don't appreciate people showing up at my workplace for casual chitchat."
Completely mortified, the woman didn't even bother to reply. She shielded her face with her designer handbag and practically fled down the sidewalk.
"Yo! That is definitely not how you treat a lady."
His colleague Cheska, an OB-GYN, suddenly materialized from the crowd and dealt a sharp smack to his shoulder blade. "She was an absolute beauty, Eliezer."
"I am not looking for beautiful women."
"Oh, really?" Cheska scoffed, rolling her eyes dramatically as they began walking back toward the clinic entrance. "So, who was she? Another one of your mother's engineered blind dates?"
"My mother refuses to stop setting them up."
"Alright, what was wrong with this one? Give me the breakdown."
"She was a walking luxury billboard," Eli muttered, adjusting the bag of fruit in his arms. "Everything she wore just to meet a guy at a hospital came from international high-fashion brands. She reeked of expensive perfume, and I could practically smell the toxic fumes from her fresh manicure from a mile away. I can't afford a high-maintenance woman like that."
"What if she has a massive salary of her own? You judge these poor girls way too quickly, Eli."
"If she has a high-paying executive position, why on earth would she waste her time meeting someone like me? I am nothing but an ordinary doctor."
Cheska could only shake her head at him. For a man who excelled so brilliantly in medicine, his self-confidence in his personal life was utterly abysmal. Sometimes, she genuinely wondered if he had ever truly moved on from Jillyanna Madrigal.
"Anyway, let's drop the blind dates," Cheska said, waving a hand dismissively. "Let's talk about someone else. How is your junior doing? The nurse who got injured during the flash flood on the medical mission?"
Eli instinctively glanced up toward the east wing of the hospital, even though Belle's room was located in the opposite pavilion. "She looks vastly better physically compared to the day she was airlifted in. But at the same time... it feels like she's completely changed. Maybe it's a psychological side effect of the amnesia? Oh, but she actually smiled today for the first time when she saw her brother. The two of them hadn't seen each other since the accident, so it was incredibly heartwarming to see them reunited. Neon is a fantastic kid. Isabelle has done an incredible job raising him entirely on her own. By the way, what do you think I should do to cheer her up? Last time—"
Listening to his sudden, uncharacteristic torrent of words—a phenomenon that had literally never happened before—Cheska's lips curved into a highly meaningful, knowing smile. Eliezer was completely oblivious, innocently rambling about what he thought was a purely professional case study, completely unaware of how transparent he was being.
Cheska playfully offered a few standard suggestions, but Eli shoot down every single one of them, nervously protesting that they were "too personal" or that Belle might "get the wrong impression."
In the end, Cheska threw her hands up in mock defeat. "You are impossible. Just do whatever you think she'll like and leave me out of it. Stop analyzing everything!"
"Huh?" Eli scratched the back of his neck in confusion as he walked back down the quiet hallway toward Belle's room. [Did I say something wrong?]
The moment he pushed the door open, the sight before him took his breath away.
Belle was leaning forward, animatedly telling Neon a story. Whatever she was saying must have been incredibly amusing, because both of them were laughing uncontrollably. In that split second, she didn't look like the guarded, cynical woman who wanted him gone. She looked completely carefree, vibrant, and utterly charming.
[Charming?] Eli caught himself, a sudden warmth hitting his cheeks. "Who's charming? What am I thinking?"
"What are you whispering about out there?" Belle inquired, her sharp eyes immediately catching him standing frozen in the doorway, muttering under his breath. "You shouldn't let the hospital staff catch you talking to yourself, Dr. Rivera. They'll think the chief resident has finally lost his mind."
"Eli! Eli! I have an awesome story to tell you!" Neon shouted excitedly, jumping out of his chair and running straight toward the doctor.
"Really? I'd love to hear it," Eli recovered quickly, offering the boy a warm smile. "How about you tell me all about it while I go wash these fruits in the sink?"
"Great! So, Belle said—"
Suddenly, a massive wave of exhaustion crashed over Belle . Her eyelids grew incredibly heavy, and her vision of the handsome doctor at the sink began to blur into a soft smudge of color. Neon's cheerful voice felt like it was drifting away, echoing down a long, distant tunnel.
[Please... take care of him...] she thought desperately, her conscious mind slipping.
When Eli turned around from the sink with the wet grapes, he froze. Belle had completely passed out, her body slumped sideways against the metal guardrail of the bed in an incredibly awkward, uncomfortable angle.
"Eli, can you help my sister?" Neon asked, his excitement instantly melting into worry. "She's going to hurt her neck if she sleeps like that."
"Yeah. Hold on, buddy."
Eli set the fruit down and quickly approached the bed. He gently slid one arm behind her shoulders, lifting her upper body to support her dead weight while using his other hand to fluff and reposition her pillow. With her head resting heavily against his shoulder, their chests flushed together. Through the thin fabric of her hospital gown, Eli could distinctly feel her heartbeat—rapidly accelerating, thumping hard and fast against his own ribs.
"Belle?!" he whispered, startled by the sudden tachycardia.
The instant he pulled back slightly to check her face, he met her dazed, disoriented gaze. Her eyes fluttered open just a fraction, glassy and unfocused.
"Why are you... touching me...?" she muttered, her voice a faint, lethal whisper before her head fell back against the pillow, completely unconscious once more.
Eli blinked in absolute stunned silence, his heart hammering against his ribs. He slowly turned his head to look at Neon, who had immediately clamped both hands over his mouth to smother a burst of giggles.
"She was... just sleep-talking, right?" Eli asked the boy softly, his face burning.
Neon nodded vigorously, eyes crinkling with amusement.
Relieved, the two of them let out a quiet, synchronized chuckle. Eli carefully adjusted the sheets around her, ensuring she was positioned comfortably for a deep sleep.
"Let's leave your sister to rest for now," Eli said gently, patting Neon's shoulder. "I have to get back to my rounds, and you need to head back to your room to rest up, too."
Taking the doctor's larger hand in his own, Neon looked up at the reliable man before casting one last, protective glance at his sleeping sister. "Eli... when can I come visit her again?"