Wrapping Up the First Year (1)
Time flowed by mercilessly. Before I knew it, autumn had ended and winter had arrived.
“Ugh, so chilly.”
I shivered in the cold air, even though I had layered a thick padded coat over my sweatsuit. Without fail, I threw myself into the backseat of a called taxi and headed toward the hospital. Looking out the window, the streets of Busan looked... how should I put it? Extremely winter-like.
As my frozen body began to melt slightly under the warm blast of the heater, I summoned my only conversational partners out of habit.
In response to my slightly whiny post, the ghosts of the gallery rushed in as if they had been waiting just to mock me.
...Those bastards.
Still, it wasn't all bad. Let's look at it paradoxically. If it weren't for these lunatics, how on earth would I have survived this hellish commute?
After a long round of sarcasm, someone left a fairly serious and useful comment.
Oh, this was actually quite intriguing.
Other ghosts started tossing in their own golden tips one by one.
Hmm, as expected. These tsunderes never disappoint. I replied to them, trading silly jokes back and forth. As I giggled along, the taxi arrived at the familiar entrance of the hospital's Emergency Medical Center before I knew it. I closed the gallery window and got out of the car.
Beep—
“Ah, good morning. Keep up the good work.”
I offered formal greetings to everyone I passed in the hallway. After walking a bit, I finally stood in front of the door of the residents' office, my sole sanctuary. Opening the door and stepping inside, the warm air from the heater welcomed me.
Ah, so warm. This is the life.
Sipping on a freshly made cup of instant mix coffee, I stared blankly at the giant whiteboard hanging on the wall of the residents' office. The duty roster. It was packed with names and symbols representing shifts. My eyes naturally drifted toward the names of the fourth-year residents, the absolute heads of the trainees: Lee Min-jae, Yoo Sung-hoon, and even Kim Min-wook, whom I barely had any interaction with.
...Wait, what?
I furrowed my brow. This was strange. The slots where their names should be were conspicuously empty. Next to the names of those who would normally be lurking somewhere in the ER, day or night, to torment us, there was only the word [OFF] or the mysterious term [RESEARCH] written in their place.
Research? What kind of research does a resident do? What on earth is this? For what? In the dead of winter? Are they running some secret project?
An inexplicable anxiety washed over me. A decrease in senior staff meant an increase in the workload and responsibility for juniors like me. Hmm... No matter how much I racked my brain, I couldn't find an answer.
In response to my question, the gallery mocked me as if they had been waiting.
Ah! Right! Of course. That's it. The board exams were right around the corner, weren't they? The final gateway to put an end to this dreadful residency life was fast approaching.
It was just as I was realizing my own stupidity with a gasp of realization.
Creeeak.
The door of the residents' office opened, and Lee Min-jae walked in with a ghost-like face.
“Are you here, senior?”
“Yeah, I'm here~,” Lee Min-jae replied weakly, plumping down in the seat next to mine.
“You're almost a second-year too. Just hang in there for three more months, and you can finally strip away that cursed low-rank scrub title.”
“Ah, yes. That's true. Haha...” I laughed awkwardly.
“By the way, uh, have you been treating the interns warmly lately?”
“Pardon?”
“I asked if you've been warm to them. It's almost the season for interns to choose their departments. Depending on how you behave, the number of juniors entering our department next year will be decided. You have to show them a kind, competent, and cool senior image so they'll think, ‘Wow, Emergency Medicine is so cool! I want to be just like that senior!’ and apply. Right?”
At those words, a vivid scene from the past flashed through my mind.
‘...Senior, I checked, and they only did the history taking. Nothing else has been done...’
The image of myself tossing a rectal foreign body patient entirely onto the innocent intern, Park Seongjeong.
‘...’
Lee Min-jae seemed to take my silence as a sign of affirmation.
“Yeah, I'm sure you're doing great. The future of our department rests on your shoulders, Hyun-jae.”
He patted my shoulder and buried his head back into his textbook.
‘I'm treating them... very educationally.’
Yes. It was extremely educational. I had taught him with his entire body the essence of this shitty hospital ecosystem, where the dignity of interns is ground down to ensure the comfort of their seniors.
Yeah, I did well. Oh, whatever. It's hard enough just keeping my own head above water, so why should I be responsible for the future of the department?
Yet, those words wouldn't leave my mind so easily.
‘Treating the interns warmly...’
Okay. Let's do this. I prowled around the ER, searching for prey. Right, Park Seongjeong. I should at least make some minimal atonement. And if I can subtly brainwash him with the greatness of Emergency Medicine during that process of atonement, wouldn't that be a win-win? I really am a genius.
I headed to the vending machine. Then, I pulled out a can of cider that looked like it had the most intense carbonation.
Pitter-patter.
Holding the cider can in one hand, I approached Park Seongjeong, who was organizing EKG papers in a corner of the station, walking with the most natural and benevolent senior stride I could muster.
“...Seongjeong.”
At my voice, Seongjeong's shoulders flinched.
“Yes? Yes, senior?”
“Here.” I handed over my secret weapon, Bribe No. 1, to break down his guard. “This is a very cold, fresh cider I just pulled out. You must be tired, would you like to drink it?”
“Um... Yes. Thank you, senior.”
“Good, good. How is the ER treating you lately? Anything too hard?”
“Yes. I think it's alright. I still have a lot to learn...”
“Better than where? Internal Medicine? General Surgery? Isn't it better than Surgery, where you get tormented by professors in the operating room all day? Or Orthopedics and Neurology, where they see the exact same patients every single day? Our ER is way more dynamic and fun. What exactly makes it alright?”
Under my relentless questioning, the intern's pupils shook anxiously.
“...Uh... Well... Everyone is... nice...”
“Exactly! They are nice! Even if the people in our department have trash personalities, they're all warm-hearted deep down.” I patted his shoulder and began my full-fledged sales pitch. “So, Seongjeong. Honestly, Emergency Medicine is a really great department, you know? For your life...”
Wait. How do I persuade him?
Amidst the conflicting advice, I decided to craft my own ultimate move. Yes, honesty mixed with a pinch of exaggeration. Finding that golden ratio. Just like the 7-to-3 ratio of somaek.
“Seongjeong, I'll be honest with you. Our department is tough. But you see...”
I paused for a moment and looked him straight in the eye. This was a technique from a book called The Art of Conversation that I had borrowed from an e-book store earlier.
“But you get to revive someone whose heart has stopped, secure an airway for someone who can't breathe, and be the very first to diagnose an illness of unknown cause. That's a thrill you can never understand unless you experience it yourself. You're changing a person's entire life with your own hands.”
I drove the final wedge in.
“Of course, the choice is yours. But think about it seriously. Do you want to just become a stable specialist, or do you want to become a real doctor at the forefront of this hell?”
It was a pretty cool speech, sounding far more plausible than I expected. Park Seongjeong stared at me with a blank expression.
“Ah, yes. I hear you loud and clear, senior. I'll... think about it positively.”
...Positively?
The moment I heard those words, firecrackers went off in my head.
“Yeah, yeah! You must do that!”
I grabbed Seongjeong's hand and shook it like crazy. Yes! I did it! I triumphantly ran back to the gallery to announce my victory.