Me After Meeting You

Amber had only wanted to get justice for Elly, to right the wrong that had been done to her by making those who had bullied her suffer the punishment that they ought to suffer. However, she never sought to have Mark do so in such a terrible manner.

And now, she only felt a terrible guilt eat at her, the guilt that she had single handedly orchestrated the poisoning incident between Mark and the bullies’ parents and family members.

Nancy simply sat by her side and listened. Amber was the most gifted and empathetic of all the students that she had ever advised, and that latter point was both her greatest strength and weakness.

For psychiatrists, being empathetic was a particular compliment, because it meant that they wouldn’t blindly follow the rules and would instead genuinely try their best to help their patients through more humane means.

But such actions had to be taken in moderation. Nancy believed that what had transpired this time would help Amber realize this, and this failure would help her become an even better doctor than the one she was today.

All good doctors needed to grow, so Nancy didn’t do anything to hinder that growth, only saying, “Don’t think of yourself as the most important actor in this play. Perhaps the role you had in this wasn’t so important after all.”

Nancy’s words were simple, but they immediately woke Amber up. In truth, after she had cried and revealed all her worries to Nancy, her reasoning had finally returned to her.

She knew that she was shouldering far more responsibility than she should. Mark had been planning this for quite a while, after his initial return, he had only visited Elly once, dealt with his mother’s funeral, and then immediately went back out to sea to purchase fresh blowfish. From his actions, Amber could see that he had already been planning this for a long time.

Perhaps he had wanted to get justice for Elly a long time ago, but just in his own way.

And perhaps some of his motives were selfish: some of the people that he had invited that day were not the parents of those that had bullied Elly

Even so, Amber still felt that she had made a mistake. She had gone too deep, to the point that even she had lost her balance. She was this way with Elly’s illness, as well as with Mark.

When Nancy saw Amber realize the truth, she finally let out the breath she had been holding. “Alright. Now that you’ve thought everything over, why don’t you treat me to a meal as the fee for seeing you.”

Amber knew that Nancy didn’t want her to keep thinking about these matters so she responded, “Then I’ll have to make it a big affair, your fees aren’t cheap, Professor.”

“It’s good that you know that.” Nancy stared at her seriously. “Don’t just come crying to me aimlessly next time.”

Amber was very embarrassed, but did sincerely treat Nancy to a meal in the end. Of course, she invited not only her but also her assistant, the other seniors and juniors in Nancy’s office, and everyone else she saw in the lab.

Since they knew that Amber was paying, they all smiled and responded, “We’ll treat it as a free get together, then.”

***

The whole crowd split up into several different cars, all driving to the restaurant excitedly. The place that they’d decided on was close to the foot of the river, very famous for its fish head dishes. Even better, it was just the right kind of weather to get together for a spicy fish head hotpot.

Amber wasn’t particularly hungry, but since everyone else was eating, she’d naturally do her best to keep up with the crowd.

But the meal didn’t end up costing Amber anything after all as they coincidentally encountered Calvin there having dinner with a few friends of his. The two were each with their own separate parties, and so could only greet each other briefly.

The two tables were even next to each other, and from that distance, Calvin had probably overheard that Amber was paying for her party’s meal. Thus, when she flagged a waiter over to pay the bill, she was told that it had already been paid.

Amber didn’t understand what had happened at that point, so she could only smile and ask around sheepishly. “Alright, which of you guys were so noble as to save me some money? I’m so embarrassed.”

No one claimed the honor, and it was finally the waiter who said, “It was Mr. Kenric from table 9. He said that he’d treat everyone to this meal for you.”

Amber had no response to the waiter’s words.

The people beside her all went crazy, excitedly yelling out a long ‘Ooooo’ from their mouths in unison. “Is that rich boyfriend of yours finally showing up?”

They all knew that Amber had had all of her appointment slots booked by a rich man, but they didn’t know who he was. But now, when they saw that someone had paid the bill for her of his own accord, they remembered this incident again, and quickly stuck their heads out to try and catch a glimpse of that mysterious ‘Mr. Kenric.’

Luckily for Calvin and his friends, they had finished their meal first, and he had sent his friends out right after paying to save Amber from her party’s interrogation.

Amber covertly wiped the sweat from her forehead. But when she raised her head, she saw Nancy smiling at her, a mote of caution in her gaze.

Amber sighed.

Actually, even without Nancy saying so, she already knew that her actions with Ian were very ill advised. Elly’s matters had also shown her that she couldn’t interfere with patients too much, even if she had good intentions.

This was especially true given that she now had a ‘Mr. Kenric’ by her side.