Chapter Text
8:33am - Yulje Medical Center, Emergency Room
Her shift has barely started and yet there had already been three patients rushed in the ER, all needing a GS resident to attend to their ailments. Good thing Dr. Lee Chang-min, the GS chief resident is here with her to show the ropes; the new and only intern for GS, Dr. Jo Ha-seul.
It has been a month since she started, the workload was demanding since there are only two residents and one intern for the fifteen GS doctors, including the one man team of Pediatrics. Ha-seul has met most of the professors, aside from the one fellow who is attending a conference in Europe for four weeks. All of them seems so happy to have an intern, they keep mentioning how good it was in GS and that you can have a social life if you are in GS. Ha-seul thinks there is some inside joke there but she is too busy to even think what it is about.
All of her professors are male, while it is quite hard to navigate such too much testosterone but she’s used to having men surround her. She has four older brothers after all. The professors treats her as if she’s their daughter and just good to her, which weirded her out at first but her sunbaes told her that’s just how these professors are. They explained that there was once a time wherein for three years, there was only one resident in the GS department and they all had to compete for her time so they got used to pampering their residents and interns.
Aside from the solely GS professors, there was also the only professor in peds. Ha-seul heard that his nickname is Buddha, because he is just so kind. She met him on her first day, Dr. Ahn Jeong-won was the first doctor she saw when she entered in the GS room with the chief resident.
“Say hi, Dr. Jo. This is Professor Ahn Jeong-won of Pediatrics.”
Ha-seul bowed and offered her hand, introducing herself. “Hello, Dr. Ahn. I’m Jo Ha-seul.”
Professor Ahn turned his head and Ha-seul was struck by how handsome this person looks. He stood up and grasped her hand in a shake. “Oh hello. I hope to work with you.” He said with a smile, a smile so warm she felt herself relax and the tension from her body melting away.
The professor’s phone suddenly rings and he let go of her hand, where she still feels the warmth from his hand. He pulled his phone and smiled. Not like the smile he gave her but a smile with more warmth, a smile that reached his eyes and even she can feel how happy this year phone call makes him.
He turns back on them and excuses himself. “It was nice meeting you Dr. Jo. Please excuse me, I have to take this.” He walked away, answering his phone. “Hey...”
Dr. Lee Chang-min was lightly laughing and saying, “Years later and he’s still lovesick.”
Oh, of course. A person like that is already taken.
Here she is, one month on her internship and crushing hard on someone already so unattainable.
12:42pm - Yulje Medical Center, Cafeteria
Ha-seul walks with Dr. Kim Ji-woo, an intern at the NS Department and her best friend, heading to the hospital cafeteria for lunch. Ha-seul will be joining Professor Lee Ik-jun at 2PM for his outpatients so she needs to eat already.
“Wah, I still can’t believe we got to be interns here!” Ji-woo exclaims. “I was worried when we were gonna start the residency program and we’ll be at different hospitals and I won’t get to see you, but here we are! We get to have lunches and still see each other.”
Ha-seul smiles and agrees with her exuberant friend. It was such good news when they both got accepted at Yulje. “By the way, how are things at NS?” She asks.
“It’s so fun!” Ji-woo says with a smile. “You know there is another intern aside from me so at least the workload is not that bad. Our seniors are so helpful too!” She laughs. “The NS fellow, Dr. Yong Seok-min has given us interns the low down for the Professors.”
“Have you met all the professors in your department?” Ha-seul asks her.
“Yeah!” Ji-woo nods. “I was so pumped to meet all of them, I specially like Professor Chae Song-hwa. Dr. Yong told me that she is the best in the department and if I’m gonna choose a mentor I should choose her.”
“Have you met the professors in your department, Ha-seul?” Ji-woo asks.
Ha-seul shakes her head. “Not quite. I still haven’t met the one fellow who was abroad. The board shows her to come back this week so maybe I can finally meet her.”
They head inside the cafeteria and pays their food from the machine. They line up for the service and saw Dr. Jang Yoon-bok at the end of the line. “Dr. Jang!” Ji-woo greets.
They reach her and they bow in greeting. “Hi Dr. Jang, this is Dr. Jo Ha-seul, from the GS department.” Ji-woo introduces.
“Hello, Dr. Jang.” Ha-seul says.
“Intern too?” Dr. Jang Yoon-bok asks and she nods.
“GS huh, you have multiple fathers in there so have fun.” She says. “The rest of the interns and residents are here too, join us.” She smiles at them and both interns agreed.
They get their food and head to the table with the other residents and interns. Most of the interns know each other already so it wasn’t awkward at all. You would think the residents are gonna share insightful information but all they are saying are about the gossip inside the hospital.
A resident from the CS department opened the topic about the five professors who have been friends since their med school days. The five professors who are famous in their departments.
“Dr. Bong of Emergency Department calls them the Lacking 5. Professor Lee Ik-jun of GS, Professor Kim Jun-hwan of CS, Professor Yang Seok-hyeong of OB, Professor Chae Song-hwa of NS, and Professor Ahn Jeong-won of Peds.” He said.
“Wait, so they’ve been friends for over twenty years?” An intern from OB asks.
“Yeah, they actually have a band together. They played at the Christmas party last year.” The CS resident confirms.
“Also, two of them are chaebols. Professor Ahn and Professor Yang. Although, they chose to be doctors.”
Ji-woo asks the residents if these professors are single. Their seniors laughs. Ha-seul wasn’t surprised at her friend’s nosiness, she loves these types of gossips.
“Dr. Jang Yeon-bok?” The residents pointed at her.
“Why me?” She exclaims.
“You’re the one here when all of their relationships started, so you get to tell the kids.”
“Lee Chang-min was here too!” She says.
“Ey....” The residents laughed.
The interns chanted “Tell us. Tell us. Tell us. Tell us.”
“Okay, okay, okay.” Dr. Jang told them.
The rest of the table erupted in cheers. Dr. Jang sighed in resignation.
“Okay, out of the five, there is nobody single.” She starts. Remarks of of courses rendering the interns. “Two are married, one is preparing for a wedding, the rest are engaged.”
The table is immersed in her revelations. In her head, Ha-seul ticks off her guesses. Professor Lee and Professor Chae are the ones married. Professor Yang the one preparing for a wedding, and Professor Kim and Professor Ahn are the ones engaged.
“Professor Lee and Professor Chae married each other last year.”
“What?!” Ji-woo exclaims. Ha-seul’s eyes bulged, she guessed they were married but not to each other.
“Yeah. Professor Kim is the one preparing for his wedding to Professor Lee’s sister.”
“Professor Yang got engaged to Dr. Chu Min Ha last year.”
“And Professor Ahn got engaged last winter...”
Ha-seul waited for the name, the name that she knows would ultimately destroy her budding crush to the Professor.
“…to Dr. Jang Gyeo-ul.”