End of Semester and a Minor Accident
End of Semester and a Minor Accident
"If there are any of you who have already finished, you may submit your papers and leave the room.
Thank you all for your hard work this semester."
The moment the professor gave permission to leave,
several classmates quietly rose from their chairs.
The place they were heading toward
was the desk in front of the whiteboard where the professor stood.
Judging by their expressions, it didn't seem like they had done poorly.
Was the test really that easy for them to finish so quickly?
Their confident demeanor as they submitted their exam papers and OMR cards
only served to stir up
feelings of nervousness and unease in the students who had yet to finish.
'Did I study less than I thought?'
I must have been feeling the psychological pressure strongly myself,
because the sound of pages flipping lightly felt suffocating.
One by one, they filed out of the lecture hall,
and only the ticking of the second hand—the lingering echo of time passing—
resounded in silence throughout the room.
***
"It's over!"
After finishing even my last major exam,
I stepped out of the department building and threw my hands up in celebration.
After a week of living like an ascetic and studying hard,
it seemed the seeds of my effort had borne fruit.
For someone who solved the problems without stumbling, I had left the room late,
but anyway, the important thing was the grade, wasn't it!
And with the last exam behind me,
this marked the end of my semester.
Where should I go on a trip with A-ra?
Since there are so many people who recognize her domestically,
would going abroad be better?
No, wait...
Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom—
wherever we went, A-ra's fans were spread across the globe anyway.
Maybe relaxing domestically made more sense than dealing with that abroad.
This was something I'd have to discuss with A-ra later.
Lost in thoughts about traveling,
I must have been running on habit, because I found myself at the campus main gate.
Come to think of it, I hadn't told A-ra what time I'd be finishing.
For a moment I almost panicked, thinking A-ra wasn't there.
That startled me.
"Should I just take a taxi?"
Walking from the main gate to the back gate just to catch a bus felt like a hassle,
and even if I went at this hour,
I'd probably have to wait until the next bus anyway.
"Ah, it's been a while—let's just take a taxi!"
I've got plenty of money, after all!
A guy wearing clothes that cost five or six hundred thousand won
shouldn't be fretting over a measly 2,800 won.
I pulled out my phone and launched the K Taxi app.
These days, you don't even need to call a taxi by phone anymore—
you can summon one so simply. I really appreciated that.
The march of technology was truly amazing.
I set the departure point and destination,
and switched it to automatic payment.
No need to bother with handing a card back and forth—
the money was deducted upfront, and any difference was charged additionally afterward.
In less than two minutes after calling the taxi,
one pulled up right in front of me.
"Are you the one who called?"
"Yes, that's me."
Maybe it was because she was wearing sunglasses, but the driver had a charismatic presence.
I exchanged brief pleasantries with the driver and put in my earphones.
Up until recently, chatting with taxi drivers
had actually been surprisingly pleasant,
but after sitting through a spiel about intestinal bacteria this and alkaline water that,
I'd started putting in my earphones and listening to music instead.
Drivers didn't try to strike up conversation when they saw you had earphones in,
so wasn't this the ultimate avoidance tactic?
*
The taxi drove on and on,
and before I knew it, we had reached a spot so close that just one more turn would bring us to the apartment complex.
The fare on the meter read 4,700 won.
In the old days, I would have shed tears over that being the price of a meal,
but thinking about the amount of money currently sitting in my bank account,
it felt like less than a mosquito drawing blood, so I didn't bat an eye.
'What should I make for dinner tonight?'
Inside my head, my brain cells were in the middle of a heated debate,
and the most pressing agenda item was what to cook for dinner tonight.
Having to change up the menu every single day while also thinking about health and nutritional balance—
the school nutritionist aunties and uncles from elementary through high school were truly incredible people.
Just then, piercing through the gap between my earphones and my ears,
I heard a popping sound and felt an impact ramming into us from behind.
The taxi had been stopped while waiting for the left-turn signal to round the corner, so it wasn't at fault.
Clutching my slightly ringing head, I turned around to look
and saw that a boxy car had rear-ended the taxi's backside.
In the driver's seat of that car—
maybe because she had caused the fender bender, I wasn't sure—
sat a pretty older girl with her head planted against the steering wheel.
Actually, I couldn't say for sure if she was pretty, but generally, women of that style tended to be attractive.
"Oh lord, this is gonna drive me plumb crazy."
The taxi driver underwent a sudden 180-degree transformation as she pulled the parking brake.
She tossed aside her sunglasses,
and underneath was a face that looked as gentle as A-ra's.
The harsh words coming out of her mouth didn't match that face at all.
Watching her unbuckle her seatbelt, step outside, and strike a pose clutching the back of her neck like she was collapsing—
I nearly burst out laughing.
My own head was still ringing and I felt a bit dizzy too,
but anyone could see that was pure acting.
"Hey! If you caused an accident, you get out and apologize, not sit there with your head buried—what in tarnation are you doing!"
Her words were rough,
but she didn't bang on the car door or make any threatening moves.
Could it be that the driver still had her head down
because she had actually lost consciousness?
I unbuckled my own seatbelt and stepped out,
heading toward the driver's side of the other car.
"Sir?"
The taxi driver looked at me, her expression asking why I'd gotten out,
but I paid no mind and knocked on the window.
If the driver hadn't passed out and was just too scared to lift her head,
then having me—a man—approach would be far better than having the female driver do it.
"Driver, are you alright?"
It seemed my intuition hadn't been wrong after all.
The person who'd caused the accident had apparently buried her head against the steering wheel and fainted.
"I'll call an ambulance, so could you call the police, ma'am?"
"Huh? Ah... Did that bitch who caused the accident drop dead or something?"
"No, not that—it looks like she's lost consciousness."
"Oh lord, I'm busy as all get-out and this is really driving me crazy, for real."
Clutching her head in distress, the driver pulled out her phone and started making a call.
I also dialed 119 and explained the situation.
Before the ambulance or police arrived,
the taxi driver pulled her cab over to the side of the road
and brought out a warning triangle, setting it up behind the car of the woman who'd caused the accident.
After that, firefighters arrived and took away the unconscious woman,
and police officers approached us as we sat on the curb.
When we explained what had happened, the officers seemed dumbfounded too—
they just blinked their eyes like goldfish,
wearing sheepish expressions.
"For now, we'll escort the passenger to the hospital."
"Sir, I truly don't know what to say to you."
The accident had been caused by someone else,
yet here was the taxi driver—the victim—bowing her head and apologizing to me.
I suppose I should call that a bit absurd.
"What fault do you have that you're apologizing to me?
If anything, aren't you the one in a more difficult position, ma'am?"
"Well, that may be true, but... ha... this is a real mess."
The taxi's rear end was deeply caved in, nearly at the point of being totaled,
and the driver's worry was no joke.
In a case like this, the fault ratio was bound to come out 100:0, right?
"We'll need to check the CCTV or dashcam footage for that...
But given the circumstances, it would be stranger if it didn't turn out that way."
I said goodbye to the taxi driver once more,
then got into a police car and was transported to the same hospital where the woman who had rammed into us and fainted had been taken.
Anyway, I'd been owing a lot to the police lately.
The kidnapping rapist and the obsessed fans from before—
those had been crimes targeting me as a person.
This fender bender, on the other hand—should I call it 100% coincidence, or should I call it misfortune?
My neck was stiff and I had a headache,
so it was clear that my body wasn't in good shape.
The very first thing to happen after the semester ended was a fender bender...
Still, I supposed I should be grateful that I wasn't with A-ra when it happened.
Setting aside the fact that I was hurt—if A-ra had been injured,
I might have been beyond furious.
Arriving at a university hospital, I headed to the emergency room.
The unpleasant smell of medicine and alcohol swabs
stung my nose, making me unconsciously furrow my brow.
Passing through the entrance and stepping inside,
maybe because it was broad daylight, the emergency center doctors and nurses were bustling about.
"What brings you here today?"
"Well... I was just in a fender bender, so I came."
"Do you know at which location the fender bender occurred?"
The nurse asked about the location of the accident and whether anyone else had been injured,
then asked for my name, date of birth, and the phone number of my guardian.
Since A-ra was the only guardian I had, I gave them A-ra's number.
The nurse then moved me onto a bed and had me lie down.
"Are you experiencing any headaches, abdominal pain, or ringing in your ears?"
"I've had a slight headache since right after the accident, and I can hear a faint ringing sound too."
Nodding, the male nurse began recording on a tablet PC.
Then, another nurse brought over a blood pressure monitor and a blood glucose meter and began taking measurements.
"Do you have any pre-existing medical conditions or regular medications?"
"Uh... nothing in particular, aside from having a somewhat weak constitution."
"I see. Your blood pressure is normal, but your blood sugar is a little low.
I'll set up an IV drip for you, and you'll need to fast until your CT and MRI scans."
"What? CT and MRI?"
Somewhat surprised, I asked the nurses again,
and they told me not to worry and added a more detailed explanation.
"The physician from outpatient will give you the full details, but you said you've been having headaches and ringing in your ears since the fender bender, correct?"
"Yes..."
"Typically, among people who report headaches or tinnitus after a fender bender,
in serious cases, many also show symptoms of intracranial hemorrhage, so a thorough examination is necessary."
I nodded silently.
It seemed this wasn't a common occurrence, but apparently quite a few people had died from intracranial hemorrhages caused by what seemed like minor fender benders.
So that was why you absolutely had to go to the hospital and get a thorough checkup after any accident.
"And right before the scans, you'll need to receive something called a contrast agent that makes your blood vessels show up more clearly, you see?
When your guardian arrives, you'll need to sign a consent form and do an adverse reaction test as well.
When your guardian gets here, if you press the nurse call button beside you, we'll explain everything in more detail.
For now, just rest well."
"Ah... I understand."
With that, the male nurse left first, and the female nurse gave me a bright smile
before drawing the curtain around my bed so the inside couldn't be seen at all, then she too took her leave.
At this rate, it was probably going to be hard to go home today, wasn't it...?