Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 280

280. Even the Teacher Dates

“Wait a minute! Doesn’t that seem a bit odd?”

Lee Chan-hee, who had been lost in thought, looked at the two of them with a serious expression.

“What is it?”

“It’s about our teacher. No matter how I think about it, it’s suspicious…”

“Suspicious teacher? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“Isn’t Teacher Euijin also off today?”

“So what? Teacher Euijin is also going to the wedding with us today.”

Euijin was also off today, and as Nurse Lim Jeong-suk said, the two were supposed to attend the wedding together.

“As Teacher Su said, it’s not really that strange that the two of them are attending the wedding together.”

“But?”

“Think about it. Lately? No, not just lately. When you think about it, aren’t the teacher and Teacher Jeong often together?”

“So what about that?”

“I was trying not to say this out of respect for their privacy, but I guess I have to.”

Lee Chan-hee put down the *sundae* [Korean street food made of boiled pig’s intestines stuffed with glass noodles and barley] he had been skewering with his fork, downed the fish cake broth in his paper cup, and told the two what he had seen.

It happened a few days ago.

Lee Chan-hee, who had come to the cafeteria for coffee because he was overcome with sleepiness, saw Taekyung and Euijin sitting at a table.

He was about to casually say hello as usual, but he couldn’t readily approach them because of their next actions.

Taekyung was naturally stroking Euijin’s hair and sending her affectionate glances.

Seeing that unique, warm gaze he usually gave to patients, but with added sweetness, Lee Chan-hee was quite surprised.

“I mean, I never imagined that the teacher would have such a sweet gaze. He’s always shooting lasers at me…”

“Okay! So what are you trying to say? Just get to the point. Just the point.”

“Hey, Gae Mona, give him a minute. Wait. He’s trying to say it now. So, my conclusion is… Don’t be surprised when you hear it.”

“Alright, hurry up and say it. You’re killing me.”

“I think the two of them are dating, no, I’m sure they’re dating.”

“…….”

“……!”

Choi Mona and Nurse Lim Jeong-suk, who were expected to be shocked to hear that Taekyung and Euijin were dating, had almost no reaction, which was embarrassing.

“Teacher Choi, have you tried the vegetable fritters?”

“Yes, I think the snacks in this neighborhood are the best.”

“I think so too. The batter is different. It’s not heavy, but chewy.”

“That’s right.”

“Wait a minute! Why are you guys reacting like this?”

“What do you mean?”

“I just said that the teacher and Teacher Jeong are dating. But why aren’t Teacher Su and Choi Mona saying anything?”

“Do we have to react?”

“Teacher Choi? Aren’t you surprised? Teacher Su, aren’t you surprised?”

“Well, I don’t really think we need to be surprised.”

“Huh?”

“We knew the two of them were dating.”

“I knew it too.”

“Yes!? What?”

Lee Chan-hee, who was trying to surprise the two, was even more surprised and reacted greatly.

“No, so, the teacher and Teacher Jeong are dating?”

“Yes. Most people in the hospital probably know… Right? Teacher Choi.”

“Yes, that’s right. I think everyone except Teacher Lee knows.”

That was the truth.

Taekyung and Euijin had never told the hospital staff that they were dating, but they had never hidden it either.

From some point on, the two of them were seen together more often, and a more affectionate atmosphere was created than before, so the staff naturally thought they were dating.

“Wow. The two of them are really dating… Wow! But why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, why would we tell you that? You can tell just by looking.”

“Well, I’ll get up first because of work. Enjoy your meal.”

Clang-

“I’ll go first too…….”

As Nurse Lim Jeong-suk left the medical office, Choi Mona was about to leave as well, but Lee Chan-hee, who was next to her, grabbed her gown sleeve.

“No! You wait a minute.”

“Why? Do you have something to say?”

“Gae Mona, aren’t you being too much?”

“What do you mean?”

“If the two of them are dating, you should have told me. You could have given me a hint.”

“Whatever.”

“How could you leave me out like that… I’m disappointed. Hey!”

“You have a lot to be disappointed about. Isn’t it weirder that you only know when we tell you? Can’t you tell just by looking?”

“I really didn’t know. Wow! Even our teacher dates. Ha! Kim Taekyung, of all people, is dating…….”

“Don’t overreact. Well, the teacher is also a person, so why wouldn’t he date? And the two of them look good together.”

“Um… That’s true. Well, the two of them were friends, and doctors often meet while working at the same hospital. There are good things about doctors dating each other, and it’s okay. Don’t you think so? What about you, Gae Mona?”

“Not me?”

Choi Mona, who was cleaning up the snacks she had eaten, answered firmly to Lee Chan-hee, who was expecting something.

“Not you? You don’t like doctors dating each other?”

“Yeah. I just don’t like it.”

“You just don’t like it? Why? What? What is it? What is it about?”

“Why are you like this?”

“Oh, no, I’m just curious.”

“I don’t know, there’s just something about it.”

“Oh, what is it? Tell me quickly.”

“They know too much about each other’s work.”

“Why? You’re thinking wrong about that.”

“That’s what I think, so what’s wrong with thinking that way?”

“You don’t know, so you think that way. Because they know each other well, they have more understanding and think more about each other. Okay?”

“No!”

Lee Chan-hee followed Choi Mona, who was leaving the medical office with a bothered expression, and continued to talk, but the person in question had no intention of listening.

“Hey! Gae Mona, stop there!”

* * *

Wedding hall-

“Hello? Oh, Euijin.”

Taekyung, who was supposed to meet Euijin in front of the wedding hall, was on the phone.

“I’m here at the main gate. Where are you now?”

-Sunbae, I’m also near the main gate. Can’t you see me?

“You’re at the main gate? Where? I didn’t see you…….”

“Sunbae? Over here!”

Taekyung, who was turning his head around at Euijin’s voice coming from nearby, paused.

“I couldn’t see you because of the people.”

“…….”

Taekyung was speechless when he saw Euijin dressed in an elegant two-piece suit.

Euijin, who wore work clothes and a gown every day, was also pretty, but when he saw her with makeup and a skirt, her beauty seemed to explode even more.

It was a different feeling from when he saw her in casual clothes at the baseball stadium before.

“Sunbae!”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Why are you staring at me like that? I put some effort into it… Am I not pretty?”

“No, that’s not true. You’re pretty. Really pretty.”

“What is it?”

Taekyung’s words, which came in without warning, made Euijin feel even more excited.

“I didn’t know Sunbae could say such things.”

“I was just telling the truth.”

“Sunbae looks handsome today too.”

Taekyung, who was wearing a suit, also looked handsome in Euijin’s eyes.

“Shall we go in?”

“Yes.”

The two held hands tightly and entered the building.

“Welcome.”

Choi Seon-hae, who was greeting the guests, recognized the two of them first and approached them. His face, which was limping on one leg, was filled with more happiness than ever.

“Director, Teacher Jeong. Thank you for coming even though you’re busy.”

“Of course, we had to come. Thank you for inviting us.”

“Congratulations on your daughter’s wedding.”

“Thank you. The food is delicious here. Please have a meal before you leave.”

“Yes. We will.”

After exchanging greetings, the two paid the congratulatory money in the name of our hospital, conveyed their congratulations to the bride, and entered the wedding hall.

“Sunbae, are you looking for someone?”

“Huh?”

“I thought you kept looking around and fidgeting since earlier.”

In fact, Taekyung was not looking for a person, but for the smell of the fifth vital [a heightened sense of awareness of a patient’s condition].

He was looking around in case there was someone sick among the many people. It was a kind of habit that he instinctively looked for the smell of pain when he went to a place with many people.

“Are you sick somewhere?”

“Of course. It’s not that, I was just looking around because it’s been a while since I came to a wedding hall.”

Taekyung decided not to smell sensitively anymore.

Today was a day to celebrate, and more than anything, it was a date with Euijin, so he decided not to try to find a patient who didn’t exist anymore.

And more than anything, it was a good thing that there was no one sick.

“Come to think of it, it’s been a while since I came to a wedding hall too. I think it’s about to start.”

Soon, the venue was cleaned up and the wedding began.

“Wow! The bride and groom look really good together.”

“I know. They look so happy.”

The wedding was completed with the support of the guests, and the order of taking pictures and throwing the bouquet by the bride was approaching.

“Okay! Please come forward if you want to receive the bouquet.”

The bride’s friend came out at the photographer’s request.

“Our bride, please throw the bouquet back with strength.”

“Yes. Sunmi, catch it well.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll catch it in one go.”

“One! Two! Three!”

The bride threw the bouquet in time with the photographer’s command.

Everyone’s eyes were on the bouquet, and then the eyes were on the friend who was waiting. But there was nothing in the friend’s hand waiting for the bouquet to fall.

“Oh my!”

“Where did the bouquet go?”

The bride was so nervous that she threw the bouquet with too much force, and the bouquet fell right into Euijin’s hand, who was standing on the bride’s side.

“Euijin. You caught the bouquet?”

“Well, I did. It fell in front of me, so I just grabbed it…….”

“There, the person who caught the bouquet, please come forward.”

Euijin, who came forward at the photographer’s request, felt sorry for the bride and handed the bouquet to her friend, but the two said it was okay and did not receive the bouquet.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, Teacher. I threw it wrong.”

“This kind of thing happens occasionally. I’m sorry to your friend, but we’ll take a picture of the person who received the bouquet, the bridegroom, and the bride.”

In the end, the bouquet incident ended with Euijin receiving the bouquet, and the wedding was completed successfully.

After that, the two watched a horror movie that was very popular these days and came out of the theater to have dinner.

“Honey, are you okay?”

“I don’t know. I told you not to watch that. I can’t sleep at night if I watch something like that.”

“I didn’t know it would be so brutal and scary. I’ll protect you at night.”

“Forget it!!”

Every couple coming out of the theater shuddered, saying they were scared, but Taekyung and Euijin’s expressions were calm.

“Euijin. About that basement scene earlier.”

Eventually, they even discussed the scene in the movie and analyzed it medically.

“The scene where the main character was avenging? But if you stab someone with a knife to that extent, they usually die, right?”

“That’s right, the amount of bleeding is enormous, so if it were real, they would have already died from excessive bleeding.”

“Pfft!”

“Haha!”

The two, who were talking seriously as if they were treating a real patient, suddenly made eye contact and burst out laughing at the same time.

“Sunbae. Do you know that we do this every time a scene comes out where someone gets hurt in a movie?”

“Come to think of it, we do. Is this also an occupational disease?”

“I can’t say it’s not?”

“That’s interesting.”

The two, who had been laughing for a long time about the movie, suddenly changed the subject to dinner.

“Euijin, what do you want to eat? I’ll buy you everything you want to eat.”

“Really?”

“Of course, just tell me. Do you want to eat meat?”

“Sounds good.”

“Shall we have Korean beef and a glass of beer?”

“That sounds good too, but how about *sam-so-maek* [a combination of *samgyeopsal* (grilled pork belly), soju, and beer] today?”

“Sam-so-maek? What’s that?”

“It’s a glass of soju and beer with grilled pork belly.”

“I was going to buy you Korean beef? Is that okay with you?”

“What are you talking about? That’s my soul food.”

“Okay, then let’s go eat sam-so-maek.”

The two headed to the restaurant district for dinner, but the waiting lines were enormous everywhere they went.

“There are so many people.”

“I think it’s because today is a bridge holiday [a day that connects a holiday to the weekend, creating a longer break].”

“It’ll take more than an hour just to wait. What should we do?”

“Then why don’t we go somewhere else?”

“Where else?”

“A place where you don’t have to wait and the night view is amazing.”

“Where is that?”

An hour later-

“Are you really okay with this?”

“Of course. There are a lot of people and it’s noisy everywhere you go at this time, but I like it better here.”

The place where the two went after shopping at the mart was none other than Taekyung’s rooftop.

Euijin had asked to come here instead of many restaurants because of what Taekyung had said before.

‘Sunbae, isn’t the rooftop uncomfortable?’

‘I spend most of my time at the hospital, so it’s not that uncomfortable. And the night view there is amazing. Sometimes when I sit on the platform and eat, I don’t envy fancy restaurants. I’ll invite you sometime.’

Euijin, who suddenly remembered those words while waiting in line at the restaurant, told Taekyung, and the two ended up coming to the rooftop.

“Okay! This is where I live. What do you think?”

Euijin put her bag down on the platform, slowly looked around, and then stood facing Taekyung.

“I like it?”

It wasn’t just a nice thing to say. Maybe it’s because the neighborhood itself is on a hill, but the night view from the rooftop was like a painting.

The lights on in each house, the lights in the park in the distance, and the lights of the cars passing by next to it all added up to make it look like small stars were shining in the night sky.

“The night view is really pretty.”

“I wanted to take you to a good place, but I didn’t know you’d want to come here. Let’s go to a really good place next time.”

“No. My dad said that who you eat with determines the taste of the food more than where you eat it. I like it here.”

“That’s a great saying. By the way, I don’t know whose girlfriend she is, but she speaks so beautifully.”

“I wonder whose girlfriend she is?”

Euijin retorted primly at Taekyung’s joke.

Taekyung’s lips also gradually drew a parabola following the smile drawn on Euijin’s face.

The hospital life, where they lived fiercely for the patients, was also good, but this moment with the person they loved was also very good.

It was a very comfortable feeling, how long had it been since they felt this relaxed.

The fifth vital was not felt even in the refreshing night air carried by the shallow wind.

The happiness felt in everyday life was gratefully approaching.

“What are you thinking about so much?”

Euijin asked Taekyung, who was staring blankly at her.

“I’m not thinking about anything.”

Taekyung tucked Euijin’s hair, which was fluttering in the wind, behind her ear and gently placed his hand on Euijin’s cheek, which boasted white skin.

The eyes looking at each other were endlessly affectionate, and the lips of the two were slowly getting closer.

Just as their lips, which were getting closer and closer, were about to touch,

Clang-

The front door of the empty house suddenly burst open.