It was an extremely embarrassing feeling I had at that moment. Holding your patient in your arms is something you're absolutely not supposed to do… I think it might even be a crime if you think about it. I probably went too far…
As I was mentally complaining to myself, I leaned in to check how she was doing, and when I saw Claire's tear‑stained face, I couldn't stop an uncontrollable desire to help her. It's one of the reasons I wanted to become a doctor—to help people in need, to support them, maybe even save them.
I gently stroked her head and whispered softly in her ear:
"I'm here… Don't cry anymore…"
It was extremely embarrassing to say something like that. The things I do for my patients…
After she finished crying on me and calmed down, we stayed like that in a painfully awkward silence. Words didn't seem necessary anymore, and only her small, exhausted face resting against me remained.
Then, when I noticed the time, I left, and without a word she slipped under her blanket.
"That was really embarrassing…" I muttered with a sigh.
…
The next day, when I arrived early in the morning to continue the psychological follow‑up of my "patient," I decided to walk a bit in the park. Strangely, Rose insisted on coming with me, saying she wanted some fresh air before work.
"Ah~" I yawned early in the morning.
"How can you yawn when you're in the presence of a beauty like me?" she said, annoyed by my behavior.
"Huh? Where? I don't see anyone~" I teased.
"Forget it. How are things going with your patient?" she suddenly asked, looking at me with an adorable expression.
"Well—" I began, before remembering what happened yesterday and the possibility of ending up in prison because of it.
"I'm managing," I said, avoiding her gaze as I felt my face heat up.
"You seem to be having fun with her. You, who are usually so lazy, suddenly look motivated these days," she remarked, always seeming a bit spaced out.
"What do you mean? I've always been hardworking and motivated," I replied, offended.
"Well, in one year you had 34 tardies and 23 unexcused absences. And yet you're still first in your class. Some professors even reported a certain arrogance toward them. You agree that this isn't the definition of a good student, right?" she insisted.
I had forgotten she had so many files on me. I should be careful.
"She motivated me, that's all," I said, looking up at the sky as my face burned.
"Huh?"
"Anyway, I'm going. See you later," I said, heading toward the patient's room, too embarrassed to stay.
"You've really grown," Rose said as Léon walked away.
She had always watched over him since he arrived at the university. When he ate alone during breaks, at lunch, and even sometimes at home, she accompanied him. Whenever he was absent, she asked his classmates for the lessons. She helped him and was there during every difficult moment. She even managed to help him find good internships. She had accompanied him for eight years, watching him grow and become better every day. Like a mother with her son, she had watched over him all this time, and it seemed like the moment had finally come for him to leave the nest.
"A mother is proud of you," she said with a smile, tears running down her cheeks.
As Léon walked toward Claire's room, he remembered all those moments with Rose— the time she helped him with Tom, the day she helped him with his family problems, the time he got stuck abroad and she handled everything so he could come back.
Between the two of them, it had always been ambiguous for others, but they both knew exactly what they were to each other: substitutes for the families they never had.
Rose had become the replacement for a mother who never showed him affection, giving him all the attention and love he had never received. Léon, on the other hand, had become the replacement for Rose's daughter. She used to take care of her sister's daughter after her sister died in an accident, but she never gave the girl enough love because she was too consumed by her work. In the end, the girl took her own life.
Léon became the substitute for that daughter. Rose gave him all the love she should have given the other. She saw in him a child who only needed a bit of love and attention. That's how the two of them had functioned from the very beginning.
"Thank you… Mom…" Léon said with a fierce smile.
"Honestly, I don't like calling you that. You're only six years older than me, you know?" he muttered to himself with a smile.