Dr. Shin Seonhan: The Doctor Who Sees The Future [EN]: Chapter 235

#Extra Story 17. Snake and Wild Cat (3)

“Nice to meet you. I’m Na Dong-tak, the vice president of the student council.”

He grinned.

Na Dong-tak suddenly smiled and started using polite language.

His face was full of mischief, and his eyes radiated unpleasantness.

“You liked it because the professors treated you with smiles, right? From now on, we will directly show you what real college life is like. Don’t misunderstand the initial harsh words; it was just to bring you to your senses.”

The freshmen were bewildered.

Even if it was to bring them to their senses, swearing at them upon first meeting?

It was strange, but they quietly listened to him.

“I think everyone has heard about the medical community through various channels.”

Na Dong-tak began to speak seriously from the platform.

Then, some seniors who appeared to be members of the student council wandered around the freshmen.

Thud, thud—

The gazes directed at the freshmen were not entirely friendly.

The freshmen swallowed hard at the sudden change in atmosphere.

“Even 3rd and 4th year medical students find it difficult to talk to resident seniors during their practicums [clinical rotations]. That’s how important the hierarchy is. But a mere student dozing off while a professor, who is like the sky, is speaking? How dare you!”

Thump!

Na Dong-tak slammed the platform.

His stage presence was so overwhelming that some freshmen flinched in surprise.

“Listen carefully to what I’m about to say. You’ve all been to Yonsei University Hospital at least once, right?”

“……”

“Aren’t you going to answer?! The freshman in the khaki jacket in the third row! You’re not dozing off, are you? Everyone, raise your heads 15 degrees upwards.”

The freshmen all raised their heads and looked forward.

“I’ll ask again. You’ve all been to Yonsei University Hospital at least once, right?”

“Yes!”

The freshmen answered loudly in nervous voices.

“Not just anyone can become a doctor at Yonsei University Hospital. To enter the hospital community, you need to go through each step. You are gathered here as medical students, the first step……”

Soon, a long lecture followed.

The vice president of the student council gave a speech, saying he would ‘inform them about the medical community.’

Of course, he was still just a student.

However, to the freshmen who had just entered, the senior medical students felt like people at the top of a giant pyramid.

“……In other words, you are now all in the same boat. You all know that one of the scariest things in medical school is ‘failing a grade,’ right?”

“Yes!”

“Our student council’s goal is for all of you to graduate safely and become doctors without anyone dropping out. To do that, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.”

Na Dong-tak shouted loudly enough to echo throughout the auditorium.

“First, greetings!”

“!”

“From now on, if you meet someone you don’t know in the medical school building? Immediately bow and greet them.”

“……”

“Among them are professors and seniors. Keep in mind that these are the people you will have to serve and learn from for at least the next 10 years.”

Up to this point, it was somewhat acceptable. There was no harm in greeting and getting close to the medical school seniors.

Greeting professors and seniors fell within the bounds of etiquette, so it seemed like they were just emphasizing etiquette.

But the story was getting stranger and stranger.

“The same goes for the path from the dormitory to the medical school building. The seniors recognize the freshmen at a glance. If we hear that this year’s freshmen aren’t greeting well, we won’t stand still. We’ll immediately have the entire freshman class assemble!”

Assemble?

Assemble, you say……?

This isn’t a high school retreat, is it?

The freshmen exchanged uneasy glances.

‘What, does that mean we have to greet everyone who passes by the medical school building?’

‘It doesn’t seem like there are only one or two people passing by there…….’

‘I should just keep my head down and walk.’

As if reading their thoughts, Na Dong-tak said,

“There are freshmen who are thinking of just keeping their heads down, right? Just because you keep your head down doesn’t mean you’re invisible.”

Some of the freshmen who felt guilty held their breath and listened to the next story.

“Second, appearance.”

“?”

“Freshmen are prohibited from dyeing or perming their hair. In particular, female students must tie their hair up so that their forehead and ears are visible. Do you understand?”

The freshmen stirred.

What…… what is this?

Isn’t this a bit much for college?

“Have you ever seen a doctor in a university hospital with dyed or permed hair? Have you ever seen anyone walking around with their hair down like a ghost? Don’t walk around with an appearance that makes the professors uncomfortable.”

Having these kinds of rules for college students?

I’ve never heard of it.

Moreover, it didn’t end here.

“Third, attire.”

“?!”

“You are not allowed to come to the medical school building wearing skirts that come above the knee.”

Na Dong-tak added specific dress regulations, citing the reason that the medical school building and the hospital building were right next to each other.

“Of course, no tank tops or shorts! Don’t even think about entering the medical school building wearing slippers, high heels…… or anything like that. Do you understand?”

Uh oh?

Everyone sensed it.

That their college life had begun to go wrong.

It meant that they would have to spend most of their college life abiding by those stuffy rules.

“And freshmen are not allowed to walk around with earphones in front of the seniors. If even one person is caught, we will immediately assemble. Also……”

All sorts of rules continued to pour out.

The freshmen’s heads became complicated.

……What is this?

Is this a level that can be forced on college students?

Do you have to do this to become a doctor?

Yeo Bong-cheol and Ma Dong-seop, who were observing the situation, also felt that something was wrong and whispered to each other.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“Looks like they’re cracking down.”

“Are they crazy?”

“I didn’t expect Yonsei University, which is said to be prestigious, to be like this…….”

In the days when ‘toxic military culture’ was still rampant in universities.

The medical school of Yonsei University, where the best elites in Korea gathered, was no exception. No, it was more serious than most universities.

There were remnants of bad habits created in an authoritarian and closed environment.

‘This is unexpected…….’

Kim Viper frowned.

Many parts of it seemed strange to his common sense as well.

Of course, he knew there would be rules, but he didn’t know it would be this suffocating!

The majority of the freshmen gathered in the auditorium thought so, but no one could easily open their mouths.

“Pfft.”

……Except for one person.

“Who laughed just now?”

“I heard it!”

“Who dares to make a sound impudently while the seniors are speaking!”

“You, the brown-haired female freshman over there, stand up! I’m talking about you!”

The eyebrows of the student council members, who were walking around the students, sharpened. They pointed to the student who had made the sound.

Swish—

The female student sitting in the front row stood up.

A small and thin figure.

Eyes that were raised like a cat.

A cold, expressionless face as if carved from ice.

All eyes turned to her.

Na Dong-tak looked down from the stage with a fierce expression and asked,

“Was it you?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you laugh?”

It was chilling.

The sophomores and juniors glared with menacing eyes.

The freshmen were sweating in their hands.

When the auditorium fell silent—

She replied with an indifferent expression.

“I laughed because it was funny.”

Kim Viper’s eyes widened.

Ma Dong-seop clenched his knees tightly.

Yeo Bong-cheol covered his mouth.

Everyone stared at her with dumbfounded expressions, their mouths agape.

Na Dong-tak’s face turned red, unable to speak.

Freshman Song Yu-ju.

It was the moment when every student at Yeon Guk University’s College of Medicine deeply engraved her existence in their minds.

* * *

The orientation ended.

The atmosphere was the worst.

The stone thrown by Song Yu-ju caused a huge ripple, and as a result, the student council seniors yelled at the top of their lungs for the rest of the time.

—I’ll understand that you don’t know much about medical school life because it’s the first day! You don’t want the entire medical school and hospital to spread rumors that this class has no manners, do you?

They threatened like that.

—Including the brown-haired girl with no manners just now, those with improper hairstyles!

If you don’t want to harm your classmates, come back with neat hair by the next time we see you. If you don’t, your 6 years of medical school life won’t be easy!

They warned like that.

The freshmen, whose souls were completely drained, walked out of the medical school building powerlessly after the orientation.

“Haa.”

“What should we do?”

“We have to dye our hair back, what else can we do?”

“I’ve always had curly hair, I didn’t actually get a perm… It’s so unfair.”

The students who had styled their hair to look good as freshmen sighed deeply and left to find a hair salon.

“Is Yeon Guk University’s medical school always like this? I thought it would be different because it’s prestigious, but it seems even worse?”

“That senior named Dong-tak is a real drill sergeant. I heard he transferred from another school after attending for 2 years…”

The friends who knew a little shared the information they knew.

“Mom, I think I came to the wrong school… The seniors are so scary… Sob.”

Some freshmen were muttering in a corner, clutching their phones.

They were adults in body, but they had just left their parents’ embrace.

They still lacked the ability to make independent judgments and had no choice but to follow the student council’s words.

Meanwhile.

Ma Dong-seop and Yeo Bong-cheol looked up at the sky with troubled expressions, their hands in their pockets.

“What should we do?”

“What do you mean, what should we do?”

“Are you going to listen to the seniors?”

“We have to listen.”

“Shouldn’t we just flip the table? I feel terrible.”

Yeo Bong-cheol growled.

He was from a macho family in Gyeongsang Province [a region in southeastern Korea known for its conservative and tough image] and had a rebellious personality.

He couldn’t stand seeing nerds who seemed to have never done a hard day’s work in their lives acting tough just because they were a few years older.

Ma Dong-seop stood next to him with a cautious expression, but he was just as unhappy with the situation.

However, Kim Viper’s thoughts were different.

“What do you mean, flip the table? Are you crazy? The seniors there aren’t people we’ll only see for 1-2 years. We have to think about our future medical careers.”

“Beom-soo is right.”

“I guess so…”

The two nodded.

To explain the medical school’s unique , you must first look at their life course.

Medical school is 6 years.

It’s longer than a normal college course.

But it’s not just pre-med and medical school.

What if you complete your internship and residency at Yeon Guk University Hospital?

You might have to see the same faces until you’re over 30.

It means you have to live in one group for over 10 years.

The freshmen who came to Yeon Guk University naturally want to become doctors at Yeon Guk University Hospital, so…

There’s no ‘escape route’!

That’s why the hierarchy is so strong.

In addition, due to the strong connections between seniors and juniors, ‘reputation’ is easily shared.

This was the reality of the medical school’s unique closed environment.

“A senior told me. Even if you mess up your military life, it’ll be erased in 2 years, but if you mess up your medical school life, your life will be twisted.”

“…Is that true?”

“Yeah. So, control your temper and endure it.”

Ma Dong-seop patted Yeo Bong-cheol, who was suppressing his anger, and comforted him with a joke.

“Honestly, your hair wasn’t great anyway. What era is that shaggy cut from? Are you going to sing a song in the cattle-driving style [a traditional Korean folk song style]?”

“Hey, you should dye your hair back, you punk! You’re not Goo Joon-pyo [a popular character from the Korean drama ‘Boys Over Flowers’], the flower boy!”

Yeo Bong-cheol and Ma Dong-seop bickered and chuckled with each other.

They had been branded as ‘hair delinquents’ and had to fix their hairstyles.

That’s how they became best friends from the first day, and they dragged Kim Viper along.

“Why me?!”

“Hey, it’s obvious you need a haircut too!”

“Yeah, Beom-soo. Let’s hang out together. Let’s get a haircut and go to a PC cafe [internet cafe].”

That’s how the three men headed to the hair salon together(?).

Men sitting in a row getting haircuts.

But after a while.

A familiar voice was heard from the next seat.

They all turned their heads and saw a small, thin, cat-like woman sitting down.

The problematic freshman.

It was Song Yu-ju.

“How did you come here?”

“I’m going to change my hair color.”

“Oh my, it looks like you haven’t dyed it brown for long, it’s a waste… But did the seniors at school say anything?”

Kim Viper glanced at her and smirked.

‘Yeah. No matter how stubborn she is, she’ll have no choice but to adapt if she wants to live her college life.’

That’s how group life is.

There are always .

Even if it feels unfair, you have no choice but to follow them.

‘But I’m glad she doesn’t seem like the type to stubbornly insist until the end…’

However, Song Yu-ju’s next words shocked everyone.

“Please bleach it.”

“…?!!”

“Pink.”

“Hey hey hey hey! Stop!!”

The horrified trio jumped up and rushed to stop her.

Song Yu-ju.

It was the birth of a freshman called the most legendary ever…

And it was also the beginning of an anecdote that would remain a legend in Yeon Guk University’s College of Medicine in the future.