The Burn of Nursing - Part 2
"Is anyone there…?"
A cautious voice called from outside the door. It was small and trembling.
"Yes! Come in!"
Jang Eunbi greeted the visitor with lively energy.
Her attitude was so natural, as if she had always been the owner of this club room, while I could only sit there blankly and watch.
The door slowly opened, and a female student stepped inside carefully.
She was on the shorter side, around 155 centimeters, with a pure and innocent first impression.
Her neat shoulder-length hair shone with a healthy luster, and her large, round eyes gave her a gentle, docile look.
She wore boot-cut jeans and a long ivory knit sweater that reached her hips, creating an overall neat and tidy style.
It was the complete opposite of Jang Eunbi's outfit.
While Eunbi flaunted her sensuality in a revealing crop top and miniskirt, this student embodied a pure, delicate style with minimal skin exposure.
I couldn't help but think how two female university students could have such different vibes.
"Is this… the counseling club?"
The student asked, glancing around nervously.
She looked tense, like someone visiting an unfamiliar place for the first time.
"You found the right place! Would you like coffee or green tea?"
Eunbi asked with the smooth professionalism of a café employee.
"Then… green tea, please."
Our club room didn't have a coffee pot, and there weren't any coffee or tea bags at all.
I shot Eunbi a sideways glance while thinking this, but she casually pulled a small thermos and a green tea bag from her own bag.
She had even brought paper cups.
Eunbi poured warm water from the thermos, added the tea bag, and placed it politely in front of the guest.
A subtle green tea aroma spread through the room.
The guest sat in the seat Jang Eunbi had occupied earlier—directly across from me—while Eunbi naturally moved to sit right beside me, pressing close.
With two chairs side by side at the narrow desk, our shoulders were bound to touch.
Eunbi's shoulder brushed against my arm.
Then she leaned in slightly, and her soft chest pressed against my elbow.
"…!"
My body stiffened. My heart started pounding, and my face grew hot.
I wanted to pull my arm away, but I was afraid it would be too obvious, so I remained frozen.
Eunbi looked at the guest with a completely nonchalant expression.
I couldn't tell if she was doing this on purpose or genuinely unaware.
Eunbi spoke first.
"You can start whenever you're ready."
"Ah, we're jumping straight into it?"
The guest looked slightly surprised.
"Ah… I understand… I guess that's how professional counselors work. Skipping the small talk and getting right to the point…"
…This woman seemed to have a serious misunderstanding.
Professional counselors? This was my first time doing this.
Well, if you counted last week when Jang Eunbi forced me to buy her leftover women's clothes under the pretense of "counseling," then this would be the second time.
But that wasn't counseling—it was blackmail.
I glanced at Eunbi, but she simply nodded with a calm expression.
As if she were a real expert. I wished I could learn that level of shamelessness.
"I should introduce myself first…"
The guest continued carefully.
Her voice was so soft I had to strain to hear it.
"I'm Na Eunyoung, a fourth-year nursing student…"
She clasped her hands tightly on her lap. Her nervousness was obvious.
"Ah, I took the exam three times, so I'm twenty-six… I didn't need to mention my age, did I…? Ah… anyway."
Na Eunyoung trailed off awkwardly.
She was a year younger than me, but as fellow retakers, I felt a strange sense of kinship.
"Do you know about the Nurse Internship Program?"
Na Eunyoung asked cautiously.
"Nurse internship?"
I repeated. Eunbi tilted her head, looking confused.
"Yes… Fourth-year nursing students don't have regular lectures. Instead, we have to do clinical practice at hospitals all year round. It's called 'Advanced Clinical Practice.'"
Na Eunyoung began explaining slowly. I noticed her fingers fidgeting as she spoke.
It seemed like a habit when she was nervous, and it felt oddly familiar. I had the same habit.
"It's a process of building real nursing skills in an actual hospital, based on the theory and basic practice we learned up to third year. It's mandatory for graduation—eighteen credits. In short, you have to take it. If you don't pass, you can't graduate."
"Wow, so you work at the hospital all year?"
Eunbi asked, eyes wide.
"Yes… I'm currently doing my practicum at Seohan University Hospital's Gastroenterology ward. I started in February, so… I'm seven months in now."
"Gastroenterology—that's where they do gastroscopies and colonoscopies, right?"
"Yes, that's right. But we also see a lot of patients with milder issues like indigestion."
Na Eunyoung took a sip of her green tea and continued.
"We handle endoscopy patients and also care for those with digestive cancers like liver, stomach, or colon cancer. Most of them are elderly… We work in three shifts: day shift from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., evening from 2:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., and night from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m."
"Whoa, that sounds brutal…"
Eunbi stuck out her tongue.
I was surprised too. Three shifts? That was much tougher than I'd thought. I never realized nursing was such a demanding job.
"But honestly, the work itself isn't the problem, even though it's hard."
Na Eunyoung said, cradling the paper cup with both hands.
The green tea scent lingered softly.
"The real problem is taeum."
I'd heard the term before in internet stories. It referred to nurses enforcing discipline among themselves, but I didn't know the details.
There was a similar culture in the military where seniors hazed juniors, so maybe it was comparable?
"I can't take the taeum anymore…"
Na Eunyoung lowered her head.
I could see her gripping the cup tightly, slightly crushing it.
"I only need to endure until February, but it's so hard… If I quit now, I'd have to start over next year, and it would leave a mark on my nursing record… I've already retaken the exam once, and if I delay another year…"
Her voice grew quieter until it stopped completely.
The room fell silent for a moment, with only the old fan humming in the background.
I thought about what I would do in her place.
Five months. She said she only had to endure five more months. It would be tough, but couldn't she just grit her teeth and push through?
"Can't you just endure a little longer? If you hang in there for four or five months, it'll be over."
The moment I spoke, Na Eunyoung's expression hardened.
The fragile, delicate atmosphere from before vanished, replaced by a look of disappointment.
"…Do you think taeum is something you can just endure?"
Her voice turned cold.
"Ah, no, that's not what I meant…"
I waved my hands in panic.
I felt Eunbi sigh beside me.
"Let me explain what taeum is like."
Na Eunyoung spoke slowly.
She set the cup down and clasped her hands on her lap.
"First, there's work dumping."
Her voice was calm, but I could sense suppressed emotion beneath it.
"New nurses and interns have a hard time knowing where their responsibilities end. When seniors tell you to do something, you assume you have to do it all. The old-timers… Ah, 'old-timers' means senior nurses. They exploit this."
She sighed and continued.
"They deliberately give new nurses an amount and scope of work they can't possibly handle. Then, when you fail, they attack you with things like, 'You can't even do this? What did you learn in school?' They set you up to fail and then berate you for it."
"…"
"And it gets worse on special days."
Na Eunyoung gave a bitter smile.
"On a senior's birthday or anniversary, the new nurse has to prepare a generous roll cake. Not just some convenience store cake, either—they have to buy expensive, hard-to-find pastries or desserts from high-end department stores. If the seniors don't like it, they say things like, 'No sincerity,' or 'What do you take your seniors for?' and harass you."
Her fingers began to tremble.
"Yesterday was the head nurse's birthday… I exhausted myself trying to get these really rare macarons and those Dubai cookies that were popular a few months ago. They're from a chef who was on a cooking competition show. I had to line up for two hours in an open run just to buy them. It cost a fortune… My entire day's part-time wages went up in smoke."
"…"
Na Eunyoung's voice dropped even lower.
"And recently, I was looking for medicine in the pharmacy room. As an intern, I'm still not familiar with all the drug names and locations. There are so many similar-looking medications, so I was checking each label one by one…"
She clenched her fists.
"The head nurse suddenly came in. Then she said, 'Why are you here for so long? Don't you know you're not supposed to stay here long?' As an intern, it's natural that it takes time to identify medications, but she didn't consider that at all…"
Her voice trembled.
"That day, the head nurse was angrier than I'd ever seen her. I stood there for over ten minutes in the pharmacy room while she yelled at me. 'You can't even find one drug, what are you good for?' 'Do you want to kill a patient?' 'What's wrong with your head?' Later I found out she'd been criticized by a professor that day. She took it out on me."
Then Eunbi asked carefully.
"Um… is there any physical violence involved?"
Na Eunyoung flinched. I saw her clench her fists, and her face turned pale.
"…There is."
Her voice became almost inaudible.
"Our head nurse… is notorious in the hospital for being vicious. Even if there's no real mistake, she finds a way to create one…"
She couldn't continue and bit her lip. Her eyes began to redden.
"Last time, she said I was too slow changing in the locker room and hit me on the head repeatedly, then punched me in the solar plexus… hard…"
Her voice caught in her throat.
"I've been hit… probably more than ten times over things like this."
"…"
The room was engulfed in heavy silence.
"Every time I got hit, I wanted to quit right away. That day, I couldn't even eat. I just… in the bathroom, alone…"
She trailed off and lowered her head. Her shoulders trembled slightly.
I was at a loss for words.
Eunbi nudged my arm from the side. When I turned, she was looking at me with eyes that said, "What are you going to do?"
With the mood turning emotional, I had no idea what to say and shook my head.
I glanced at Eunyoung, but she was also looking at me.
Her eyes seemed to say, "Give me a solution now," but I'd never done counseling before and wasn't good at it!
A science student's problem-solving skills only worked when there was a formula, and human relationship issues didn't have formulas.
What the hell was I supposed to do?!
Eunbi looked at me with disdain, then stepped in herself and spoke to Eunyoung.
"Then how about reporting it under something like the Workplace Harassment Prevention Act, or informing the doctors about what's happening? If you've been subjected to violence like you mentioned, it should definitely be a legal issue."
Oh, Eunbi had said something surprisingly smart.
But Na Eunyoung shook her head, a bitter smile spreading across her lips as if she'd expected this.
"The thing is… even if someone reports it, they just deny it or say it was for educational purposes, and most of the time it gets brushed aside… Hospitals are so closed off that anything that happens within the nursing department gets handled internally."
She sighed and continued.
"If anything, reporting it just marks you as 'that unlucky bitch,' and the harassment gets worse. There was actually a senior who reported it before, and afterward no one spoke to her—she was completely ostracized… She ended up quitting after a month."
"Ah…"
Eunbi seemed lost for words too.
I racked my brain for something helpful. There had to be a way.
If there was a problem, there had to be a solution. I tried putting myself in Eunyoung's shoes. What would I do?
Suddenly, an idea came to me.
"Um… what if you found some dirt on the senior nurses and used it to threaten them back?"
Smack!
The moment I finished speaking, Eunbi slapped my arm hard. It really hurt. I felt it in my bones.
"Ow! Why did you hit me?!"
"Because you keep saying things only kids would say!"
Eunbi glared at me.
"This isn't a drama. What do you mean, find their weaknesses and blackmail them? What if you get charged with blackmail instead?!"
…Well, she had a point.
But why was this girl, who knew that so well, blackmailing me without any hesitation?
Yet Na Eunyoung's expression was surprisingly serious after hearing my words.
I'd expected her to scoff or look bewildered, but instead she seemed deep in thought.
"Actually… there might be something."
Na Eunyoung spoke slowly.
"During the seven months I've been there, I've seen countless new nurses quit because they couldn't take it. From what they… or rather, what those people said, there's a rumor that the two main perpetrators of the taeum—Head Nurse Park Miyoung and Preceptor Han Jiyeon—have committed illegal acts in the hospital."
"Illegal acts?"
Eunbi's eyes widened.
"Yes… I don't know exactly what. I only heard it as a rumor. Things like, 'Those two have something going on,' or 'They're doing something shady behind the scenes.'"
"You don't know what it is?"
I asked.
"No, I don't know if it's true or just a lie."
Na Eunyoung shook her head.
"It's just a rumor circulating among the nurses who quit, so I don't even know if it's credible… And even if it were true, without evidence, it wouldn't mean anything."
The room fell silent again.
Illegal acts… What could it be? What kind of illegal activity could happen in a hospital? Medical malpractice? Embezzlement? Or something else?
But if it was just a baseless rumor, then there was nothing there.
No evidence, no specifics, no way of knowing if it was true.
This wasn't a lead—it was just smoke in the air.
Try to grab it, and it would slip right through your fingers.
Eunbi frowned and sighed too.
Her usually confident face looked troubled for the first time, as if she couldn't find a solution.
Resigned, she seemed to decide to retreat for now. She brightened her expression and spoke to Eunyoung.
"Understood. We'll find a solution and definitely help resolve your problem!"
…What?
"Trust us and leave it to us. For now, let's stop here, and could you come back in four days?"
Promising to definitely solve it. What a reckless thing to say!
I screamed internally. I didn't want to take any responsibility at all.
I had zero confidence in solving it, and we weren't even real counselors to begin with.
This was just a ghost club that only had "career counseling" in the name!
I glared at Eunbi, but she pretended not to notice.
This woman really…
"Yes… Well, even the best counselors need time to think."
Na Eunyoung nodded in response. Her expression seemed a bit brighter than before.
She looked like she'd gained some hope, which only made me more uneasy.
If we couldn't solve it, she'd be even more disappointed. This was bad…
"Understood. I'll come back in four days."
Just as Na Eunyoung was about to stand up, Eunbi raised her hand to stop her.
"Oh, and could you do me one favor?"
"Yes?"
"This is a necessary request to help solve your problem."
There was a strange force in Eunbi's voice. Her tone suggested she had a plan.
"If it's something I can do…"
Na Eunyoung answered cautiously.
Eunbi smiled meaningfully.
The moment I saw that smile, a chill ran down my spine. That was definitely the smile she made when she was plotting something.
She'd had the same smile before forcing me to cross-dress last week…
Don't tell me.
A sense of foreboding wrapped around my entire body.