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# Chapter 1. Code Black (1)
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At the same time, in a private room at Akatsuki (暁), a Japanese restaurant in Baekje Hotel.
Yesterday, I suddenly received a call from the matchmaking agency I had joined and met a woman at the lounge bar on the
first floor.
I had initially thought we'd have some coffee, introduce ourselves, and chat, but she said she was hungry and wanted to
have a proper meal instead of coffee, so we came straight here and were now having dinner.
Today's meeting was the twelfth and final introduction included with the most expensive Noblesse membership, which cost
ten million won.
In other words, if I wanted to be introduced to anyone else after today, I'd have to pay another ten million won.
Judging by her profile picture, she was the prettiest woman I'd ever seen among all the women I'd been introduced to.
That's why I'd asked to meet her ever since my very first session, but every time, I was told that this female member,
who worked as a flight attendant, had such a busy flight schedule that it was difficult to match her schedule with mine.
And in the end, I only got to meet her during my final session.
Of course, I had my suspicions.
I figured the other side had probably been rejecting the idea of meeting me after seeing my profile from the very
beginning.
I was only 168 centimeters tall, weighed nearly 93 kilograms, and had rather rough-looking skin because I'd neglected
skincare and grooming.
Even if I'd been the woman on the other side, I probably wouldn't have found my appearance particularly impressive.
I understood that perfectly well.
So from the perspective of the Noblesse matchmaking manager assigned to me, she probably didn't want to lose a sucker
who kept paying ten million won in membership fees.
And since the manager had recently been probing me repeatedly about extending my membership contract, I figured she'd
prepared today's meeting as a particularly tempting carrot.
Maybe she'd begged this woman to meet me even though she didn't want to, or perhaps she'd offered her a discount on the
membership fee or some other incentive to persuade her.
I wasn't that oblivious.
I'd also joined two major matchmaking agencies as a Noblesse member, moving from one to the other, and I'd been on more
than fifty blind dates in total. Including introductions through relatives and acquaintances, I'd met more than a
hundred women in similar circumstances.
So, in my own way, I was something of a veteran, and I was fairly quick at picking up on these things.
Steamed abalone came out as the appetizer.
I picked at it half-heartedly before putting it down.
Then the assorted sashimi of white-fleshed fish came out, and I ate a little more than half before leaving the rest.
The reason was that I'd deliberately stopped by a convenience store near my home before coming here and eaten a cup of
instant noodles and two triangular kimbaps.
I didn't want to hear through my matchmaking manager, as I had last time, that she'd rejected my request for a second
date because she'd been put off by the way I wolfed down my food.
So this time, I'd filled my stomach beforehand.
The next grilled dish was smoked cutlassfish.
It was so savory, and the unique smoky aroma was so irresistible that I ended up eating the whole thing without even
realizing it.
Then came fried Japanese whiting. Its crispy texture and savory flavor were excellent.
After that came sushi made with fresh ingredients such as sea bream and raw shrimp. The harmonious texture of the rice
and fish almost made me blurt out, "Wow~!"
Around that time, the woman, who had been quietly eating, put down her chopsticks and spoke to me.
"Ah~ I finally feel like I can live again."
"Huh? Were you really that hungry?"
"Yes. I had to go somewhere because of work and ended up skipping lunch, so I was extremely hungry."
"I didn't realize that. When you came to the lounge bar earlier and immediately said coffee was fine and suggested we go
eat because you were hungry, I misunderstood."
"How?"
"I thought you didn't really like me and didn't want to sit and have coffee together, so you figured you'd at least fill
your stomach before leaving."
"Pfft~ I'm the type who can't hide what I want to say, but that doesn't mean I have no manners or don't know proper
etiquette."
"Yes, I got a very strong impression that you're like that, Ms. Kim Ha-yeon."
At my words, she looked slightly surprised, as though she hadn't expected that answer.
"You must have a lot of experience with these matchmaking meetings. You've already figured that out after only about an
hour together?"
"I'd already seen your profile, and the matchmaking manager gave me a general explanation about you. You also came here
after looking at my profile and hearing an introduction about me, didn't you, Ms. Kim Ha-yeon?"
"That's true. Hehe."
I began to think that she was somewhat different from the women I'd met before.
Most of them either treated me coldly after seeing my short height and overweight body, or were extremely friendly to my
face but made their rejection clear by turning down my request for a second date through the matchmaking manager.
But this woman, Kim Ha-yeon, smiled brightly and laughed easily.
If I was lucky, perhaps I could form a good relationship with her.
That was my vague, hopeful feeling.
Though I didn't know if it was merely something I'd imagined on my own...
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For the main course, a rice bowl topped with crab meat, uni, and salmon roe was served.
Even though I was a doctor with a high annual salary, it wasn't as though I could casually spend 250,000 won on a single
meal whenever I wanted. And since I had never had a woman to eat something like this with, this was only my third time
having it.
Once again, I was completely satisfied.
It was really delicious!
"But you became a doctor rather late in life, didn't you?"
I knew she'd ask.
Every woman I'd met on a blind date or matchmaking meeting had been curious about the same thing.
"Yes."
"Was there some reason for that?"
"Hmm. Rather than there being some particular circumstance, the first thing is that I didn't graduate from medical
school. I graduated from what people commonly call a crappy regional university, majoring in chemistry. It wasn't even
one of the prestigious national universities outside Seoul. It was just a really crappy university."
I practically delivered the final blow to myself.
Even if I'd graduated from a crappy university, I was still a graduate of a medical graduate school, and I was currently
in my second fellowship at Korea University Hospital. In my own way, I was a doctor in a high-income professional field.
"Ah~!"
Perhaps my confident tone had piqued her curiosity. She rested her chin on one hand and leaned her upper body slightly
closer, ready to listen.
"Well, you've already seen my profile, but just to briefly introduce myself in my own words, I was born in a small
provincial city and graduated from a general high school there. Then I graduated from a private university in the
provinces, not too far away. I enlisted in the military right afterward. Originally, after being discharged, I was
planning to take over my father's orchard instead of getting a job."
"Ah~ I see. But taking over an orchard and becoming a doctor are worlds apart. Something must have happened in between
that changed your path, right?"
"Yes, that's right. I was originally going to inherit the orchard, but an accident happened that changed the course of
my life."
"What happened? If you're comfortable telling me, could you?"
She leaned a little closer toward me.
"Yes. It happened while I was serving in the military. One rainy night, I was riding in a half-ton truck that had been
sent to support a night march. I guess I was just unlucky, because the bridge we were crossing collapsed, causing the
truck to overturn and tumble more than ten meters down."
"Ah~ Oh my goodness~"
"Whew~ Back then, I was lucky enough to suffer only minor injuries. But two junior soldiers who had been sleeping in the
beds right next to mine for more than a year died. One of them was already dead at the scene in a horrific condition,
while the other died after enduring excruciating pain for a long time, despite undergoing major surgery in which all the
limbs on one side of his body were amputated. All I could do was helplessly watch him die. The shock was enormous."
"Oh my God~ What do we do..."
She looked at me with a pained expression.
At least at this moment, I wasn't trying to commit the despicable act of selling the horrific story of what had happened
to my junior soldiers as entertainment for the woman sitting across from me simply for the sake of getting married.
She had asked why I had become a doctor, and I was merely answering honestly.
Yet I couldn't help feeling uncomfortable, as though I were exploiting the deaths of those men.
Please, guys... I hope you're resting peacefully somewhere now, free from all pain, forever.
"Until then, I had lived a dull, uneventful life without any particular goal. But during the accident, I saw the
military doctor and medics desperately performing emergency treatment, doing everything they could to save my junior
soldiers. That image became deeply etched in my mind."
"Hmm..."
"Not long after that, I went on leave and talked it over with my father. I told him that after being discharged, I
wanted to attend medical graduate school and become a doctor so I could help patients who were suffering. I also told
him how much money I'd saved from my military salary and asked him to help me with the tuition I couldn't cover. Instead
of scolding me like I'd expected, my father readily told me to go ahead. After that, everything went smoothly. For the
first time in my life, I had a goal, and I really worked as hard as I could."
"Ah~ Medical graduate school. I'd seen it on the news, but there really are people who become doctors through medical
graduate school?"
"Huh? Didn't the matchmaking manager tell you that?"
"No. It's just... um..."
She stammered, apparently flustered by my question.
"Well, I don't know much about you either, Ms. Kim Ha-yeon, apart from your brief profile. What exactly did you hear
about me?"
"Yes, they just... um... told me that you became a doctor after graduating from a relatively unknown regional
university, and that you're currently a fellow in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Korea University
Hospital."
Had the matchmaking manager thought that telling her about my alma mater as well would make things even worse when
introducing someone who was already short and overweight like me?
"I see~ So that's what you were told."
"Is there anything else you're curious about? Anything the matchmaking manager didn't tell you. You can ask me whatever
you want. I'll tell you everything I can answer."
I wasn't expecting much.
But I was going to do the best I could.
That was all I was thinking at the moment.
I simply wanted to be satisfied with having met and spent time talking with such an astonishingly beautiful woman, and
having shared an expensive meal with her.
As expected, she looked quite apologetic and hesitated, as though she wanted to say something.
Judging from the feeling I was getting, perhaps she'd made up her mind after hearing about my educational background and
my family, which ran a small orchard in the provinces.
Maybe even the one thing she had liked about me despite my short height and overweight body—being a doctor—had
disappeared after learning about my education and family background.
"Um, I'm really sorry, but..."
That's it!
I'd allowed myself to hope for a moment in the middle of the conversation, but once again, it had been wise to empty my
mind of expectations.
It was bitter, but this was something I'd experienced countless times before.
I was just about to smile and tell her, "I had a wonderful time today," and send her on her way when my phone suddenly
rang.
But this particular ringtone was one I'd specifically assigned to hospital calls.
"Uh, excuse me for a moment! This is an important call, so I'll take it."
Asking for permission was merely a formality. Even if she'd told me not to, I would have answered the call without
hesitation.
"Yes, this is Han Joo-won."
Please, let it not be anything bad...
I hoped it was simply Dr. Choi, who had switched today's duty shift with me, calling to check whether my blind date was
going well.
But...
"This is Lee Hyung-seop from the ER, Dr. Han Joo-won. Where are you right now?"
The fact that Dr. Lee Hyung-seop, an emergency medicine specialist who worked exclusively in the ER, was calling me
personally made me uneasy.
"Yes? I'm at Baekje Hotel in Gangbuk. Why? What's going on?"
"Ah! You're way too far away."
"Why? What's happened?"
"It's a Code Black. There was a multiple-vehicle collision on Olympic-daero. From what I've heard, more than fifty
vehicles were involved in the accident. Most of the critical patients were sent to nearby major hospitals, but they
couldn't accommodate them all, so we've already received more than fifteen patients here in our ER."
Oh, damn it!
"What about Dr. Choi?"
"He just went into the operating room. There are a lot of emergency surgery patients, but we're short on
anesthesiologists, so we're making emergency calls right now. Dr. Han, there's no time to waste. You need to come in
immediately. This is a very serious situation."
"Yes, understood. I'll leave right away."
Watching me handle the urgent phone call, she also looked concerned and asked,
"Is it the hospital?"
"Yes. It's an emergency. I'm sorry, but I think I have to go to the hospital right now."
I hurriedly jumped to my feet.
The Japanese chef who had been preparing the omakase for the two of us in the private room looked at me in surprise.
"You should hurry. But did you bring your car?"
"Yes."
I was in such a hurry that I didn't even have time to put on the coat hanging on the coat rack. I simply grabbed it in
one hand and picked up my bag.
Then she spoke.
"I'll drive you."
"What?"
"If you drive in such an agitated state, you could put yourself in danger, Mr. Han Joo-won. I'll drive you to the
hospital."
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