Aman had finally done it. He was officially a doctor. He stood there the weight of the degree finally sinking in, feeling a rare surge of pure, unadulterated pride. So many had fallen by the wayside, crushed under the relentless pressure of exams and the soul sucking exhaustion of forty eight hour shifts. But he had endured.

  He knew, however, that he hadn't walked that path alone. Sophie had been his gravity. They had become each other's anchors in a sea of medical textbooks and caffeine fueled madness. Whenever Aman was on the verge of total breakdown and he was human, he had broken more then once, Sophie was the one who reached into the dark and pulled him back. He looked at his reflection in the mirror, then turned to her: she was beaming at him, her face lit with a triumph that matched his own

  They had survived . "We're doctors now Aman. That means the era of sleeping until noon is officially over". She told him, her voice a perfect blend of firm authority and playful teasing. " We have to start looking after our own health before we can even think of touching a patient".

  Aman, a notorious night owl who thrived in the quiet hours of 3:00 AM, just groaned. Even during the peak of medical school, he had always found a way to squeeze in a few hours of gaming to keep his sanity. " What do you mean i can't play video games anymore?" he asked, his lips twitching into a grin " is that in the Hippocratic oath now?"

  "Shut up dork, i have a present for you", she said snagging his arm and dragging him towards the door. Her apartment was a reflection of her mind: clean, minimalistic, and organized. Shelves were packed with clinical precision and a coffee table sat dead center in the living room. But the walls....the walls were different story. They were covered in bizarre paintings, violent splatters of colors and jagged lines that looked like a child had been given a brush and a nightmare.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Aman sighed internally. "This generation has a weird taste in art". He didn't notice the way the colors seemed to swirl if he looked at it for too long. "So coffee or beer?" she asked heading for the kitchen. "Only an idiot would drink coffee in this heat. And besides, i have tasted your coffee, i would like to keep my stomach living thanks".

  The banter was easy, a familiar rhythm they had perfected over years of friendship. Finally, Sophie emerged. She was holding a wall clock. "You didn't have the decency to pack it, did you?" Aman asked, his grin widening as he took the gift. "Shut up dork. Just take it she snapped back.

  For a second, their eyes met. Her blue eyes were soft, yet they held a depth Aman couldn't quite navigate, a swirling oceanic intensity that made the room feel a fraction smaller. Back in the present, Aman stood in the suffocating silence of his apartment, staring at that very same clock. It had been years since she gave it to him. He wasn't a superstitious man, but the rhythmic, steady tick-tock of that specific clock was the only thing that could truly calm his mind after a long day of blood and bone.

  Now, the pe?ndulum was frozen. The silence was deafening. " I hate going out in this heat," he muttered to the empty air, his sounding thin without the clock's accompaniment. He grabbed his keys. He didn't care about the sun pr the sweat. He needed those batteries. He needed the heartbeat of his room ton start again.