Golden Time

When Suhyuk was completing his one-month interns.h.i.+p at the surgery department, Im was in charge of him.

He reached out his hand to Suhyuk.

He was wondering which ‘monster’ Kim was talking about, and now he figured out who it was.

“My service to you, young man!”

He held Suhyuk’s hand.

“I welcome your great teaching, sir,” answered Suhyuk.

At Suhyuk’s words, Im was shaking his head slowly.

Is there anything I can teach him?

When Suhyuk was an intern, Im showed him all the charts about his patients. Then Suhyuk instantly found out which surgery a patient had underwent or which treatment given. Im still vividly remembers the feelings he felt about him back then.

So, Im sorted out the nicknames that Suhyuk carried with him and summed them up in one word: alien.

“Welcome to the thoracic surgery department. I have no doubt at all that you won’t adapt well here.”

“I’ll try my hardest.”

“Follow me, guys. You have to at least be able to recognize other doctors’ faces, right?”

The new residents, guided by Im, went to meet the other doctors to say h.e.l.lo.

Going around the hospital wards, Suhyuk looked around slowly.

Was it because he became a resident?

He felt a sort of different feeling compared to what he had felt when he was an intern.

As it happened to be his first day as a resident, it was pa.s.sing slowly with no specific a.s.signment. He just went around the patients’ rooms to say h.e.l.lo to the doctors in charge.

“I’m Lee Suhyuk. My service to you, sir.”

Looking at a patient’s chart, a senior resident raised his head, saying,

“Oh, I’m glad to see you.”

He was Chief Resident Kang Mingyu.

“You’ve come a long way, but keep in mind that it is a fresh start from now on. As you’ve made the decision to work here, you won’t be free even to go to the restroom.”

Suhyuk nodded his head. Actually he was already fully prepared for it, so the chief’s remarks were not that scary.

“Take a good rest today. See you tomorrow.”

Saying that, Kang left the place.

He was in charge of as many as 12 patients’ rooms. He was just too busy.

***

Coming back to his lodging, Suhyuk lay on the bed and closed his eyes.

He thought every day was a new beginning, and that now was the real beginning.

‘Prof. Han Myungjin...’

He heard that he would serve as a resident with Prof. Han for one month.

He recalled Mr. Han’s image.

He heard it before that it’s like picking a star from the sky to see Prof. Han in the hospital.

Prof. Han would often go out to move an emergency patient to the hospital or spend most of his time in the surgery room.

It was still vivid in Suhyuk’s memory that Prof. Han took care of a wounded patient inside a helicopter, or watching the sleeping patient’s face quietly while performing the surgery.

Suhyuk murmured to himself. “He’s a real doctor...”

—–

The time was 1am.

Right after an emergency surgery, Prof. Han was coming out of the operating room.

“Nice job, sir.”

When Kang Mingyu said that, Han patted him on the shoulder.

“You, too, did a good job.”

It was a patient whose spleen was ruptured in a traffic accident. Fortunately, however, the surgery was well done as planned. The patient moved to the recovery room, and Han Myungjin moved with him.

A man in his early 30s.

He lifted up his trembling eyelid as he moaned.

Looking at him, Han smiled and asked,

“Mr Park Hyunjin, do you know where you are right now?”

With a deep frowning, Park slowly moved his pupil.

“It looks like a hospital... What happened?”

Han, patting him on the shoulder lightly, said,

“You were brought here as you were in a traffic accident. Don’t you remember?”

“Ah...”

Now he began to make an expression as if he suddenly remembered what happened.

Though his blood pressure was a bit unstable, he was otherwise normal.

As Park was a young man, he could open his eyes easily.

“You can get discharged after lying in bed a bit more.”

Saying that, Han went out of the recovery room and met his guardians.

“Oh, doctor!”

Park’s guardians, waiting for him anxiously, approached Han quickly.

“You must have been worried a lot.”

They waited for Han to say something about Park’s condition.

“Surgery did go well, as planned. We’ll continue to monitor his condition while he’s in hospitalization here...”

With a smile, Han looked at the baby in her mother’s arms.

“Look like he wants to get discharged quickly to play with this cute little girl.”

A sigh of relief came out of their mouths.

Then an automatic door opened, and the patient was carried outside.

“Junghee’s Dad!”

They quickly came up to the patient.

Han, looking at them with a happy look, and said to Kang,

“Carry the patient to the patients’ room and give a good briefing to his guardians.”

“Yes, sir.”

Watching over the patient who was carried on a stretcher quietly, Han moved out to go smoke a cigarette.

Walking down the hall, he looked feeble in a way.

That was natural, as he could not sleep more than 3 hours a day recently.

He looked exhausted on his face.

When he was going out of the lobby, someone called him from behind.

“Prof. Han.”

He turned back his head.

“How are you sir?”

Recognizing Suhyuk, Han nodded his head with a smile,

“Is your interns.h.i.+p interesting?”

“I’m now a resident, sir.”

Han was a bit surprised at his words.

It seemed like just yesterday when he introduced himself as an intern, and now he had already become a resident.

“So, what have you been up to until now?”

“I was just going around this place as I couldn’t go to sleep.”

He had a c.o.ke can in his hand.

Noticing it, Han said, “Cola can have a high acidity and cause dental acidosis. It also prevents calcium absorption.”

With a smile, Suhyuk then looked at Han’s cigarette, “How about your cigarette, sir?”

Suddenly at a loss for words, he said, “Won’t you come out for some fresh air?”

Outside the lobby, Han drew in the cigarette smoke deeply.

“Huuuuu....”

A curl of white smoke disappeared into the night sky.

Suhyuk drank the c.o.ke in a big gulp.

Han watched him with a curious look.

“Don’t you feel your throat sting?”

The carbon dioxide tickling the esophagus and the coolness of it pa.s.sed on, Suhyuk felt good about it.

“You look very tired, sir...”

Yes, Han looked almost like a patient, with bloodshot eyes from a fatigue.

“When a doctor like me who was performing the surgery is in such a bad shape after, the patient whose abdomen was opened for surgery must be worse than him.”

Suhyuk nodded. Han’s remarks were in line with what he usually felt about patients.

“Which department did you decide on?”

“Thoracic surgery department, sir.”

Han, gazing up at the night sky, then looked at him and asked,

“Who’s the chief?”

“Mr. Kang Mingyu, sir.”

Soon Han smiled. Kang was a resident under his care. Then, Suhyuk would also be under his care.

“My service to you, sir.”

With a smile, Han said, “You’ll go through lots of hards.h.i.+p for one month.”

That meant he could not sleep or eat properly working side by side with him.

“That’s what I’ve been looking forward to, sir.”

—–

Getting up early in the morning, Suhyuk went out in a gown. He had a light breakfast with seaweed rolls and milk.

The surgery building.

As a resident he was walking toward it.

Then he heard some woman’s voice.

“h.e.l.lo, sir!”

She was Binna.

With a chart on her chest, she, coming out of the patients’ room, bowed her head.

“Good morning!”

“Yes, it’s such nice weather today.”

Then Im’s voice made him turn his head.

“Lee Suhyuk, what’re you doing over there?”

“See you next time then.”

With a light greeting, he began to move.

Though she felt it a bit regretful that she could not see him for a bit longer, she had lots of chances to see him because he was working at the thoracic surgery department.

“Good morning, sir.”

At his greeting, Im nodded his head, and said,

“As I told you yesterday, we’re making the rounds with the professor.”

Kang Mingyu was beside them.

“Let’s go.”

Prof. Han joined them in no time at all.

“Give me the chart,” said Han to Kang.

Looking over the chart quietly, Han went into a patient’s room.

There, the patient Park Jinhyun, who was lying in bed, was the one who had a surgery because of a car accident yesterday.

“Good morning. I don’t see your guardian.”

“Oh, she went out to the restroom.”

With a good smile Han asked, “How do you feel now? Do you feel uncomfortable or pain anywhere?”

“Well, I feel the surgery area sort of tingles a bit.”

Nodding his head, Han patted him on the shoulder.

“Of course it hurts, as I was the one who sewed your flesh.”

Park smiled when he said that jokingly.

“The surgery did go well, as planned, and your condition is very good in my opinion. After a few more days of hospitalization, please tell them that you want to get discharged, if you want. And tell us if you feel anything uncomfortable.”

Han and his residents went out of the patient’s room to see other patients.

Suddenly Han spoke to Suhyuk who he was walking side by side to.

“Do you know what’s the most dangerous thing for a patient who had an accident?”

Kang said first, “I think organ damage is the most dangerous.”

Han stopped walking and looked at Im, asking, “What do you think?”

Whenever he made his rounds, he would always ask that kind of question for the purpose of teaching.

“Well...” Im hesitated a bit, but it was only for a brief moment.

“Brain damage seems like the most...”

Nodding his head, Han opened his mouth,

“You’re right. But there is one more important thing for a wounded patient to survive.”

“What do you think, Suhyuk?”

“Bleeding and fight against inflammation, I think.”

Hearing his reply, Han turned back and began to move.

He wondered what kind of doctor he would be over time.

‘Daehan Hospital would be in for big, big news.’

Yes, that would be a sure thing.

Their round visits lasted an hour, and the condition of the patients’ were all good.

“Any uncomfortable feeling?”

Suhyuk quietly looked at Prof. Han who was looking over the patient with such kind words.

And one thing came to his mind out of the blue.

‘I want to be a doctor like him.’

It looked as if the professor was treating the patient with his words alone.

The patients who were talking with the professor were beaming brightly as if they forgot their pain.

***

Finally, they could finish the round visits after checking the last patient.

Ha pressed the b.u.t.ton on the elevator to head for his office.

He turned his head light to one side, where Suhyuk was turning over a chart.

‘A genuine doctor will appear soon.’