NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Side Story 1
A Report on the Correlation Between the Heart and Love (3)
The movie is fun.
It is a two-hour blockbuster with explosions galore, so everyone can forget about their hospital work and immerse themselves in it.
…Except for An Gyeong-sik.
He can’t focus on the movie.
This is because intern Kim Su-jeong is sitting right next to him.
Every time he steals a glance, her eyes, focused on the screen, are so dazzling…
When the movie ends, it is already late at night. Ma Dong-seop starts to wrap things up.
“Are all the interns heading back to the hospital?”
“Yes, we’re going back to the dormitory!”
“Okay. Don’t forget to apply for thoracic surgery at the end of the year. You all remember the pinky promises we made earlier, right?”
“Hahaha…”
“You think I’m joking?”
“…”
“Think carefully.”
Ma Dong-seop, attempting to recruit them for thoracic surgery with a half-hearted threat until the very end.
After the intimidated interns disappear in taxis, he wraps his thick arm around An Gyeong-sik’s shoulder.
“Hey, An Gyeong-sik. Don’t we have something to talk about, man to man?”
“Huh?”
“We all know, buddy.”
“W-what do you mean?”
“Hey, Shin Seon-han. What do you think?”
At Ma Dong-seop’s mischievous question, Shin Seon-han, who is munching on the remaining popcorn, nods.
“I noticed it too. From Dr. An Gyeong-sik’s physical reactions earlier.”
“…Are you going to talk about hormones again?”
“Yes.”
There is an experiment conducted in Spain.
What physical reactions occur when men are in the same space as a beautiful stranger?
They experience immense stress.
Enough to put a strain on the heart if it persists.
Cortisol, a stress-response hormone, rises sharply.
The research team explained that it’s a level of stress similar to “jumping out of a flying airplane.”
“Oh, come on, don’t exaggerate! Strain on the heart, what… I’m not that nervous because of Dr. Su-jeong!”
“So you do like Dr. Su-jeong.”
“…”
An Gyeong-sik’s face flushes red.
He falls for the simple interrogation.
If Ma Dong-seop is a tough detective, Shin Seon-han is an intelligent investigator.
Seon-han smiles faintly.
“I’m not really interested in other people’s love lives, but if you’re struggling with your feelings, feel free to confide in us.”
“Sigh.”
An Gyeong-sik gives up.
There is no point in hiding it now that they know.
Soon, the three of them are sitting on a bench in front of a convenience store, each holding a can of beer.
It is the same trio that drank together during the “An Gyeong-sik runaway incident” last winter.
“Alright, alright! Fine! I like her! I’m a sucker for love, okay?”
As soon as the alcohol hits him, An Gyeong-sik confesses his feelings. Ma Dong-seop chuckles and points at him.
“See? I told you you’d fall for another girl soon. What was all that talk about your heart?”
“It’s embarrassing.”
“Oh, this is fun. Hehehe!”
“Ah, stop teasing me! You shouldn’t play with people’s feelings…”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“…I don’t know.”
An Gyeong-sik mumbles with an uncertain tone.
Usually, when guys drink and talk, the conversation goes something like, “Men should be direct!” or “You have nothing to lose, so go for it!”
But Ma Dong-seop offers cautious advice.
“Think carefully. You had a campus couple relationship in medical school, right? And you dated someone in the hospital last year too? You’re not in a position to act on a simple infatuation anymore.”
An Gyeong-sik is taken aback by Ma Dong-seop’s advice.
He is right.
The hospital world is small.
It might have been fine when he was a fresh intern out of university, but now he’s at an age where he needs to be mindful of his reputation as a working professional.
An Gyeong-sik finally realizes that Ma Dong-seop isn’t just meddling; he is offering advice as a senior in the working world.
“Well, I’m not saying you should suppress your feelings… but you need to be cautious. You’re now a ‘senior’ to someone, so you need to consider that and understand the other person’s feelings.”
An Gyeong-sik nods.
Ma Dong-seop is right.
The intern-resident relationship inherently has a hierarchy.
Of course, Kim Su-jeong doesn’t seem to dislike him… but what if that was just wishful thinking?
Even if an intern smiles and acts friendly, it’s not easy for most men to distinguish between “professional courtesy” and “genuine interest.”
Therefore, Ma Dong-seop’s advice is to be extra careful with his actions.
“If you’re sure about your feelings for each other, I think it’s better to follow your heart than worry about what others think.”
At Shin Seon-han’s words, An Gyeong-sik picks up his beer can with a wry smile.
Sure?
He doesn’t have that kind of confidence.
An Gyeong-sik has never had high self-esteem.
His appearance is average, his height below average.
His family isn’t well-off either.
He felt quite proud after becoming a doctor at Yeonguk University Hospital, but that pride diminished after joining the thoracic surgery department.
Some people think that having the title of “doctor” means having nothing to envy, but that’s not true.
Being scolded by professors every day, sometimes he feels like trash.
Perhaps that’s why his connection with Kim Su-jeong feels special.
— She even helps me with dressings, and whenever I ask her something, she answers right away…
In the thoracic surgery department, where he’s constantly being reprimanded, someone acknowledges him.
— Thank you for teaching me and helping me every day.
She thanked him…
That’s why his heart fluttered.
That’s all.
An Gyeong-sik sighs deeply and fiddles with his beer can.
“Thinking about it, I think I got carried away for a moment. It’s probably best to do nothing and let it pass.”
“Are you sure?”
“If it’s meant to be, we’ll find our way back to each other.”
An Gyeong-sik takes a sip of beer to soothe his dry throat.
Yes, let it be.
This too shall pass.
Spring, with its mischievous hormones, is fading away, and summer is approaching.
***
The first week of June.
8:00 PM, after sunset.
After a seven-hour aortic replacement surgery, An Gyeong-sik emerges from the operating room, pulling the patient’s bed.
Clank—
The patient is accompanied by the thoracic surgeon and anesthesiologist who participated in the surgery.
As the ICU door opens, An Gyeong-sik shouts,
“Where should I take Mr. Son Byeong-gi from room 14?”
Usually, after surgery, the patient is taken to the recovery room to stabilize before being transferred to the ICU.
However, for high-risk surgeries like heart surgery, the patient is taken directly to the ICU immediately after the operation. This is because they need intensive care for their safety.
“Please bring him to bed number 3.”
An Gyeong-sik pulls the bed to bed number 3 and connects the endotracheal tube, which is already in the patient’s throat, to the prepared ventilator.
“Set the PEEP (Positive End-Expiratory Pressure)[mfn]is a treatment that applies pressure to the lungs at the end of exhalation to help patients breathe when they are unable to on their own.[/mfn] to 10 and give 200mcg of Nikadipine.”
He adjusts the ventilator settings and administers medication to prevent the patient’s blood pressure from rising.
Finally, An Gyeong-sik takes off his mask and surgical cap.
Gulp— Gulp—
He takes a glass of cold water from the station and drinks it down.
Water after seven hours.
The cold sensation flows down his esophagus.
“Phew.”
His tension eases.
Perhaps this is what people mean when they say, “Water tastes sweet.”
But no matter how much water he drinks, a corner of his chest still feels tight.
As if he’s constantly plagued by an unquenchable thirst…
Just then, something catches his eye.
‘Huh? That figure from behind…?’
An Gyeong-sik’s eyes widen.
A familiar silhouette turns around after finishing dressing the patient’s wound.
The moment he recognizes who it is, An Gyeong-sik’s mouth opens automatically.
“Dr. Su-jeong?”
“Oh, hello, Doctor! How have you been?”
The face he’s been longing to see is beaming at him.
“Oh… It’s been a while. What are you doing here?”
“I’m on call for both the general surgery ICU and the thoracic surgery ICU! One of the interns ran away last month, so that’s how it ended up.”
“Huh? Why did they run away?”
It’s rare, but sometimes interns run away during their training.
“They said they didn’t think they would get a good evaluation, so they quit in the middle of their internship. They said they’ll restart their internship somewhere else next year and left without looking back.”
“Ah, I see.”
“They could have at least finished this month… Isn’t that irresponsible?”
“Haha. Y-yeah.”
An Gyeong-sik averts his gaze.
He felt a pang of guilt because he had also run away from the thoracic surgery department.
However, at this moment, he was grateful to the intern who ran away.
Thanks to that, he was able to meet intern Kim Su-jeong like this.
“By the way, you must be tired after that long surgery. It must have been tough, right?”
“You must be tired.”
Her single sentence makes the fatigue accumulated over seven hours disappear.
An Gyeong-sik realized for the first time that someone’s words could have such a powerful effect.
“…Well, that’s how thoracic surgeries are. It ended relatively early today.”
“The thoracic surgeons are amazing!”
“Not at all… Anyway, I guess we’ll be seeing each other often from now on. Please take good care of the patients’ dressings. I’m sure Dr. Su-jeong will be meticulous as always.”
“Oh, yes, thank you!”
After that.
The two of them often had overlapping shifts.
When they encountered each other in the ICU, they would often go down to the basement to buy drinks.
Aren’t there drinks available in the ICU?
Yes, there is coffee in the break room at the station, and there are vending machines in the hallway.
But both of them knew why they had to go down to the basement.
That’s where they could find a quiet space in the hospital to talk.
Late at night.
The cafe in the basement was closed, so they headed to the convenience store.
Each holding a drink they picked out, they sat on a bench across from the convenience store and chatted.
“How is the ICU?”
“Well, it seems more comfortable than thoracic surgery.”
“Haha. Did they give you a hard time in thoracic surgery?”
“No, that’s not what I meant!”
“I also rotated in the neurosurgery ICU during my internship.”
“Oh, really? I heard from a friend that in the neurosurgery ICU, you often have to accompany patients going for brain CT scans…”
They had only been apart for a few days.
But they had so much to talk about.
Their conversation continued until a call came in on their pagers.
“Oh, I have to go… Good work, and see you again.”
“Yes, Doctor. Good work to you too!”
Walking back to the thoracic surgery ICU with a regretful expression, An Gyeong-sik glanced at the clock on his phone and was surprised.
‘Whoa, I thought we only talked for a bit… but 40 minutes have already passed?’
His sense of time becomes distorted.
He feels like he’s floating on a cloud.
His footsteps, as he hurries back to the ICU, seem incredibly light.
He starts to think that maybe it’s fate that they met two months in a row in this vast hospital.
When you assign meaning to coincidence, it becomes fate.
— Oh, come on, what? ‘This too shall pass?’ Pass my ass! I knew you’d be like this!
Ma Dong-seop’s teasing voice already seems to echo in his ears, but An Gyeong-sik pretends not to notice.
—————–
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