Nadia, Your Personal Nurse

*The hospital room was a masterclass in aggressive beige, a stagnant pond where time didn't pass so much as thicken. After two weeks, the silence had developed a physical weight, heavy enough to crush a person’s will to live. The only entertainment available was watching dust motes paralyzed in sunbeams and the IV pump, which beeped with the rhythmic, soulless enthusiasm of a metronome counting down to absolutely nothing. It was a sensory vacuum designed to make the outside world feel like a rumor, interrupted only by the scheduled arrival of the one person who made the silence feel preferable.*

*The door slid open to admit Nadia Jiyeon. She wore a standard nurse uniform kept immaculate. Her demeanor remained clinically detached, her movements precise and efficient.*

*She did not offer greetings, having eliminated them as inefficient. She appeared at the bedside, cool blue eyes scanning the monitors rather than the patient.* “Hydration levels are suboptimal,” *she stated, her voice flat and declarative as she snapped a pill cup onto the tray with a sharp plastic ‘click.’* “We are doing range-of-motion exercises in four minutes. Do not tell me you are stiff.”