Dr. Shin Seonhan: The Doctor Who Sees The Future [EN]: Chapter 30

#30 Gangnam Station (9)

“Hello!”

“Greetings.”

We bowed to each other.

But unlike usual, the residents’ gazes aren’t so friendly.

They all enter the conference room and take their seats with cold expressions, without a word.

…There’s an uncomfortable atmosphere.

It seems the rumors about what I did have already spread.

Thud, thud—

Everyone from the emergency department gathers.

Soon, the morning meeting is about to start as usual.

Then, suddenly, the professor speaks in a sharp voice.

“Hold on.”

“Yes?”

“Before we start the meeting, let’s get rid of unnecessary personnel.”

He says, glancing at the residents.

“An intern who presumptuously performs medical procedures outside the hospital—we don’t seem to need him in our department.”

“……!”

The professor doesn’t even look my way.

But it’s clear to everyone that he’s reprimanding me.

As the chiefs give me a look, Yeo Bong-cheol approaches me and whispers.

“Seon-han, just stay out of here today.”

“…Yes.”

I bow my head and leave the conference room.

More than a dozen pairs of eyes stab me in the back like daggers.

Clang—

The moment I close the door, a hollow laugh escapes me.

Was this what Kim Viper was warning me about last night?

—You think organizations only hate people who can’t do their job?

—No way. Doing things that others don’t is what makes you a malcontent.

—Your hospital life is going to be tough from now on.

Kim Viper was right.

Clearly, I crossed the line in the organization, and I’m paying the price.

‘Well, I have to accept it.’

I smile bitterly.

The nail that sticks out gets hammered down, right?

I guess I’ll get hammered a bit.

It’s not like I wasn’t prepared for this much from the start.

* * *

Time goes by.

Every minute and second is agony.

After enduring the residents’ unfriendly gazes and doing the morning work, I’m completely drained.

“Hoo.”

I stand in front of the monitor and take a breather.

The glares from around me?

Actually, it’s nothing much.

More than that, the patient’s condition being uncertain is what bothers me.

Did I do something unnecessary?

Was what I did yesterday really wrong……?

My heart was troubled by various thoughts.

“Hey.”

“?”

Then, I turned my head at the voice suddenly heard from behind.

Sodam’s hamster-like face is staring at me.

“Sodam.”

“I need to use that……”

“Oh, sorry.”

I quickly came to my senses and moved away from the monitor.

Sodam glanced at me and said.

“You look gloomy. Not like you.”

“Is that so.”

I smiled bitterly.

Sodam must have heard everything that happened yesterday too.

Probably, the rumors have spread so much that there’s no one in the hospital who doesn’t know.

“Do you regret what you did yesterday?”

I shook my head at Sodam’s question.

Regret?

No way.

I don’t regret it.

Even if I could turn back time, I would do the same thing.

It’s just that my head is complicated.

“I don’t regret it, but I’m confused about whether I did well or not.”

Then, Sodam suddenly said while pressing the button on the monitor.

“There are 18,000 media companies in Korea.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry about a few of them saying weird things.”

I looked at Sodam with slightly surprised eyes.

It was a bit awkward and clumsy, but it seemed to be Sodam’s way of comforting me.

“You made the best judgment you could as a doctor. I think you did something brave.”

Surprisingly, that makes me feel better.

Yeah, screw it!

Let’s not think too complicatedly.

I did what I thought was right in my own way.

Since I made the choice according to my will, I can accept any price with dignity.

Thinking that way made everything simple and clear.

“Thanks, Sodam.”

“And……”

Sodam tiptoed and came closer to me, whispering in a small voice.

“I’ll try to find a way to help you somehow. You helped me when I was having a hard time.”

Sodam’s expression is serious as she says that.

I could feel how much she was thinking of me as a friend.

“Okay. I appreciate the thought.”

I smiled and nodded.

And soon I forgot what Sodam had said.

Because there’s probably nothing fellow interns can do to help in this situation anyway.

But I was overlooking two things.

First. Sodam wasn’t an ordinary intern.

Second. Sodam was the type of person who didn’t take what she said lightly and kept her word.

* * *

“Choose one of the two.”

“Two?”

“Good news, bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

Yeo Bong-cheol asks abruptly.

He hadn’t said a word all morning, and this is the first thing he’s saying to me after calling me out after lunch.

I answered without hesitation.

“If possible, I’d like to hear the good news first. I’ve been hearing a lot of bad news since yesterday.”

“The patient got a lot better overnight, they say.”

I asked Yeo Bong-cheol with delight.

“Are you talking about the patient Jin-woo?”

“Yeah. They say they’re going to do extubation [removal of the breathing tube] sometime this afternoon or tomorrow.”

Whew……

That’s a relief!

I sat down in the chair, relieved.

Removing the endotracheal tube means that the patient’s condition has improved that much.

Even though my situation is going in a difficult direction, it’s enough that the patient is getting healthier.

I asked with a much lighter heart, as if a nagging tooth had been pulled.

“Then what’s the bad news?”

“They say a disciplinary committee will be held tomorrow.”

“I understand.”

I nodded.

Actually, I expected it to some extent.

It seems I’ve been firmly targeted by the professor for performing medical procedures without permission.

‘It’s better this way.’

If I did something wrong, it’s much better to just get disciplined and end it cleanly.

I smiled, thinking that way.

Then Yeo Bong-cheol looks at me, dumbfounded, and says.

“Oh ho. Is that something to smile about?”

“I can’t cry when Jin-woo’s getting better, can I?”

“Heeey. This guy was completely crazy. I should have known from the first day.”

Yeo Bong-cheol clicks his tongue in amazement and says.

“If you had just stayed quiet for the rest of the time, you would have gotten a good evaluation for this month’s internship and gotten through it, why did you have to do that?”

“The patient was a young student.”

“What’d you say?”

“A young friend was sweating and going into shock, and I was the only one who could help.”

“……”

Yeo Bong-cheol is momentarily speechless.

He too would have tried to do something if the patient had been in front of him.

Yeo Bong-cheol scratches his head and sighs deeply.

“You little punk, you leave me speechless. I can’t spit on a smiling face.”

“I’m sorry for making you worry.”

“Forget it. Go to the disciplinary committee tomorrow and answer as glibly as you do now.”

“What kind of answers should I prepare?”

“How would I know? I’m experiencing this for the first time too.”

Yeo Bong-cheol says that, then chuckles and pats me on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry. They’re not going to kill you, are they?”

“That’s even scarier.”

“Scary?”

“Yes.”

“You’re lying. Is that the face of someone who’s scared?”

Yeo Bong-cheol puts me in a headlock as if he’s getting angry.

Ugh!

It smells like sweat!

And the next day.

I was called to the conference room, exhausted after a 24-hour shift.

* * *

How should I express my feelings right now……

The feeling of a new employee of a large company being surrounded by executives and undergoing a pressure interview?

Or the feeling of a private being interrogated in front of generals with stars?

I’ve never worked for a company or been in the military, but I feel like I can understand that feeling.

My shoulders become stiff as stone, and I get nervous.

[Professor Shin Seung-woo] Head of the Department of Emergency Medicine

[Professor Seo Min-seok] Head of the Department of Cardiology

[Professor Min Hyung-joo] Head of Education and Human Resources Development

And so on……

Professors who I can’t even talk to normally are sitting there.

Besides them, there were also non-doctor staff, probably from the legal team.

It’s an uncomfortable place that makes me feel like I’ll get indigestion just by sitting still.

I decided to be confident, but my lips are dry when I see the faces of the professors.

“Is everyone here?”

“Then shall we start the story slowly?”

The professors talk in dry voices.

“Wait. The head of the Department of Thoracic Surgery isn’t here yet.”

The head of the Department of Thoracic Surgery.

The moment I hear those words, the professors sigh as if they had promised to do so.

“Haa. It’s a mess when that guy comes…… Can’t we just do it among ourselves?”

“Even so, we can’t proceed among ourselves when it’s an issue related to the heart.”

“Let’s wait a little longer.”

The professors are talking among themselves with slightly displeased expressions.

Who is ‘that guy’?

Judging from the conversations, it seems he’s not on very friendly terms with the other professors.

Then, as the saying goes, speak of the devil, and the door bursts open.

“Oh my~ I’m sorry I’m late!”

A relatively young face in his early 40s appears.

But he’s wearing a surgical cap on his head.

It’s not just an ordinary cap.

Unbecoming of his age, it’s an adorable personal surgical cap full of cute rabbit characters.

[Professor Heo Jun-im] Head of the Department of Thoracic Surgery.

That was his name.

“Professor Heo, are you coming from surgery?”

“Oh, how did you know?”

“It’s so obvious, it would be stranger not to know.”

“Oh my~ I wasn’t even taking this off! No wonder my head was itchy!”

Professor Heo Jun-im took off his surgical cap with a silly smile.

A disheveled mop of hair is revealed.

……What should I say.

He’s a person with a unique atmosphere.

Should I say he’s frantic, or bustling?

He’s constantly wearing a silly smile.

But I’m sure it’s a familiar name and face……

Where did I see him?

‘Ah! I remember.’

My eyes widened.

The documentary ‘Gods in White Coats’ that I had watched over and over since I was young.

He was definitely one of the cardiac surgeons who belonged to the ‘Gods in White Coats Team’.

Of course, his face has changed a bit over the years, but his unique impression remains the same.

It felt strange to actually meet someone I had often seen in videos since I was young.

“By the way, I heard there was something fun last night?”

“Something fun?”

“It’s something fun, where in the world is there anything more fun than this?”

Professor Heo Jun-im starts making a fuss with a silly smile.

“Hyaa~ That takes guts. Pericardiocentesis [surgical puncture to remove fluid from the sac around the heart] in the middle of Gangnam Station! I wanted to do something like that at least once in my life, but I never had the chance. Isn’t that every doctor’s dream? Huh? Huh?”

I thought he was rapping.

It was truly rapid-fire.

Then the professors clear their throats uncomfortably.

Nevertheless, Professor Heo Jun-im’s words don’t stop.

“Moreover, a green intern succeeded in doing that without an ultrasound. Who on earth is that brave friend? Is it you?”

As he says that, his eyes looking at my face are full of curiosity.