Being Stephanie King!

"Nurse Ah Xin !" a voice called me from behind and I had to stop to wait for whoever it was to catch up with me.

"Oh it's you Meimei," I acknowledged before continuing, "Are you also going home?"

"Yes," she answered breathlessly, her youthful face flushed pink. "I can drop you off at your house if you would like?"

I looked at her eyes and noticed the sincerity in them but then I saw a spot of pity in them. Is she asking because I'm old? I thought slowly growing conscious of my appearance.

"Oh it's fine!" I exclaimed ambiguously trying to mask the heaviness in my heart. "Don't mind this old lass, you go on your car, I'll take the bus home, the weathered bones need some exercise eh?"

I watched her as she puffed a sigh from her soft unwrinkled cheeks. "If you insist then okay I will let you go today, but after the new year begins I will not take no for an answer."

I let out a small chuckle at her stubbornness and said, "Alright child, I will definitely not refuse you then. This new year, a few things will change."

"They better!" she huffed, crossing her slender arms that seemed to be as smooth as Jade.

"Give me a hug," I beckoned her, "I will see you after new year's, okay, and you can tell this old lass about your honey moon!"

"Nurse Ah Xin !" she exclaimed trying to hide her deep blush.

"Enjoy life whilst you are young child, some of these moments don't last," I mumbled.

"I will try my best to!" she answered ambitiously before bidding her goodbye and I was left alone once again at the entrance of the hotel.

Lifting my tired legs, I walked over to the bus stop where I took the bus to my house. That was the last day I stepped in that hospital as Ah Xin.

★

Stretching my tense body I slumped in the dusty sofa as I thought of how the next was going to be for me. I hated the routine that I had gotten accustomed to and my own appearance irked me. Layers of excess and wrinkled skin, slightly greying hair and calloused palms.

Who would have known that I would end up this miserable?

Letting out a shaky breath trying to restrict my mind from wandering back to when I was younger and happier. I reached into my purse and took out my note book where I wrote about this plastic surgeon advertised on the road.

Taking a deep breath, I dialed the number, my next words bent on changing the course of my life. Even though life had been miserable till then, it did not mean I could not try to make it better.

★

Lying in the hospital bed as wondered why the surgery was scheduled on New year's Eve not that I was complaining. This was less depressing than sitting alone in my tiny home drowning myself in cheap alcohol.

The doctor came to greet me before I breathed in the anestisia when the resolution 'new year, new me' got stuck in my mind as the darkness enveloped me.

★

The surgeon was sweating profusely upon noticing her limp body. The surgery had been done now and she was expected to wake up by noon on the new year's but her body remained stationery, unmoving and unresponsive.

The doctor knew he was in deep trouble, when he saw an old lady trying to revive her youth through plastic surgery, he became greedy and extorted a lot of money from her.

Ah Xin sold most of her possessions and run her savings dry for this surgery as she was determined to change her appearance completely.

"Doctor Gao," his timid assistant called him for the umpteenth time, "We need to take her to the hospital or she will die!"

The doctor paid no need to her as he thought on how the surgery went terribly wrong. He made sure he did everything correctly, so how did her body just shut down?

"No... no..we cannot take her to a hospital," he murmured silently. "We will get arrested!"

"But doctor, we just can't..." the assistant drawled unable to finish her sentence.

"I know," he answered solemnly, "Keep the machines running and let us wait for her wounds to heal and close the hospital...we will not perform these surgeries anymore!"

"Yes Doctor!" the assistant answered determinedly almost saluting.

Meanwhile a very confused fifty two year old woke up in the body of a twenty five year old woman