Chapter 163
Since it was daytime on a weekday—Monday morning, to be exact—the bus was completely empty.
“Isn't this a chartered bus?”
I loaded my suitcase into the luggage compartment, sat down, and looked around.
But for some reason, the atmosphere felt familiar.
The man in the front seat, the woman seated diagonally across, and the logo badge.
It was obvious they were two people from our hospital.
With the four of us on board, the bus left the terminal.
‘I’ve seen all of these faces somewhere….’
Just as I was trying to shut my eyes, feeling a pang of shared misery.
“Doctor, so, about that.”
Baek Eun-seo beside me lowered her voice and began bombarding me with knowledge.
“I'll continue what I was talking about earlier.”
“…Uh, sure. Go ahead.”
I leaned back against the seat, resigned.
“I'm talking about the initial treatment for sepsis.”
Baek Eun-seo continued in crisp diction.
What are you, a newscaster?
“First, the key is improving sepsis bundle compliance, but compared with the recent SSC guidelines, there’s apparently not much difference in giving antibiotics within one hour. However, fluid resuscitation….”
“Mm, right. After all, whether on land or at sea, sepsis is all about the golden hour.”
I gave a mechanical response.
Just let me sleep.
“And seawater! We have to talk about seawater too!”
“Uh, sure.”
“Seawater is nice.”
“Salty and cool.”
“Since it's an island, there'll probably be a lot of drowning accidents and injuries during maritime work. With seawater, there are osmotic issues too, but bacterial infection is the scariest thing.”
Baek Eun-seo turned the page.
“The risk of Vibrio sepsis is high, and the progression is usually terrifyingly fast, right? So when washing wounds, it's important to decide in advance how to dilute the disinfectant, and whether to immediately add doxycycline to a third-generation cephalosporin as empirical antibiotics….”
‘Haa….’
I swallowed a sigh inwardly.
I'll admit it—you're passionate.
You're thorough in your prep, and your knowledge is extensive too.
I know.
But, Eun-seo.
Right now, we're on a bus headed to work right after coming back from vacation.
‘Maybe she'll talk her heart out for about twenty minutes and then stop.’
A normal person would usually tire themselves out talking alone and fall asleep.
With that hope in mind,
“Yeah”
“Okay”
“Right”
I kept the conversation going with those three replies.
But.
My prediction missed the mark spectacularly.
…
[Thank you for using Busan Express today as well. We will arrive at Gohyeon Bus Terminal shortly. Please make sure you haven't left anything behind….]
“Ah, let's stop here, Doctor! You need to get off!”
Baek Eun-seo smiled brightly as she closed her laptop.
“Yeah….”
I answered with hollow eyes.
1 hour and 20 minutes.
Without even a single minute of rest, Smart Baek talked nonstop from Sasang to Gohyeon the whole way.
Starting with sepsis, then tetanus and gas gangrene, followed by decompression sickness, jellyfish stings, and even ship paint poisoning.
It felt like I’d sat through a marine emergency medicine 101 lecture.
I'm tired….
I was already completely drained before even reaching the hospital.
“Doctor, let's go together! We're going the same way anyway!”
I was looking around the terminal when Baek Eun-seo came after me, dragging a suitcase as big as she was.
“Yeah. Saves on taxi fare, so why not.”
I nodded, having no strength left to refuse.
We went to the taxi stand and loaded our luggage into the trunk of a waiting cab.
Thud.
“Where to, then?”
The elderly driver asked, tilting his head.
“Sa… what was it again?”
The place name was unfamiliar, so it lingered on my tongue.
“Sagok-ri! Please take us to the new hospital in Sagok-ri!”
Baek Eun-seo winked at me as if to say, ‘I remembered it.’
Wink.
…
Yeah, good for you.
Must be nice to have such a good memory.
I didn't even have the energy to reply, so I sank back into the seat.
If I just closed my eyes for about twenty minutes, we'd probably arrive.
The driver tilted his head and struck up a conversation.
“The university hospital? I heard rumors there's nothing there. If it isn't a serious injury, why go there? People usually go to Changwon or Busan instead, so why head all the way there?”
“Is that so?”
I answered lifelessly with my eyes still closed.
“They just built a grand-looking building and that's it—there aren't even any doctors. They hung banners and advertised like mad saying they'd open in March, but according to people who went there, proper treatment only started in earnest in April.”
The driver clicked his tongue.
“I hear that even if you go there, it's only young kids—interns or whatever—so they can't even give an injection properly. If you two are going there because you're sick, you'd better think again.”
Ah.
‘There’s nothing there’
‘There are no doctors’
‘Only young kids there.’
Not a single word was wrong, so I couldn't argue back.
Though we were exactly those young kids….
“I see.”
‘We’re the doctors, sir.’
I couldn't bring myself to say that.
All I could see clearly was the thorny road ahead.
***
“Doctor! I'm headed to the women's dorm, so I'll go that way!”
“Sure. Get some rest.”
Baek Eun-seo cheerfully dragged her suitcase away and disappeared into the distance.
She's got stamina.
…So this is the dorm.
I looked up at the building in front of me.
It was a very neat, modern officetel-style building that looked newly built.
It was on a completely different level from the crumbling resident housing at the main hospital.
After all, the reason I had rented an officetel in the first place was purely because the resident housing was so lousy.
“It's modestly compact and pretty nice. Not an ocean view, but it should at least be a mountain view.”
I dragged my suitcase up to the room assigned to me.
“Tra-la-la~”
I hummed the Love House BGM to myself as I opened the front door.
And then.
“Oh?”
A gasp escaped me the moment I took off my shoes.
“Pretty spacious?”
It wasn't a cramped studio.
There was a living room.
What's more, the floor was clean and the wallpaper spotless.
“Wow… they gave us a nice place. That's one thing I like.”
I left my suitcase in the living room and started looking around.
“This is the living room. Over there is the bathroom… There's even a bathtub? Insane.”
Then I opened the doors one by one.
“This is the bedroom? It's pretty big.”
I nodded in satisfaction and headed to the small room across from it.
“Then is this a closet or….”
Without thinking, I flung the door open.
Bang.
And at that moment.
“Ah! What took you so long!”
Tap-tap-tap!
The sound of frantic keyboard mashing assaulted my ears.
“Oh fuck, you scared me!”
I almost lost my soul.
There was some unidentified monstrous creature in the room, playing a game.
“Hey, you insane bastard!!!”
When I shouted, the creature took off its headset and turned around.
“…Oh? You're here?”
It was Son Jongun.
He looked at me very casually and waved.
“You… what the hell? Why are you here?”
“Your roommate.”
“Huh?”
“You didn't know? It's a two-person room.”
A two-person room?
Was it?
No, wait—though the lodging did seem a bit too spacious…
I think the corner of the official notice had tiny print that said [Housing provided (single room / two-person room)].
‘Is this revenge for making a habit of barging into my male friends’ apartments?’
Back in college, whenever I drank, I’d routinely storm into a friend’s place, raid the fridge, and cook ramen.
Was this how my karma was coming back to me?
This is why I should've built up some virtue.
“Doctors get single rooms, don't they? Don’t they respect privacy?”
When I asked in protest, Son Jongun replied.
“Nope. Congrats—you fell into the trap in the paperwork. Still, at least it isn't a one-room dorm, so that's something.”
“Kraaagh.”
My dream of a solitary room flew away.
Well…
whatever.
It wasn't a studio-type dorm, after all.
Let's think positively.
And it's better to share with a classmate than with some stranger.
…
After all that commotion passed, Son Jongun came out of the room.
We sat facing each other at the living room table.
“Hey.”
“What.”
“When did you get here?”
“Me? Last night.”
“Did you find out anything?”
Son Jongun had arrived a day earlier than me.
He must have gone to scout the hospital.
“Yeah. I introduced myself to the staff here and took a quick look around the facilities.”
Son Jongun said, chewing on a snack.
“…Really? How is it? Is there really nothing there?”
“Yeah. There really wasn't much.”
Son Jongun said firmly.
“For starters, the ICU is only operating with the medical and surgical units open.”
“I see….”
“And I'm pediatrics, right? I checked, and the neonatal ICU only has five beds open.”
“Does five even mean anything?”
“Probably not. It's just for show.”
Son Jongun gave a self-deprecating laugh.
“Then what about the ER? Do you know anything about that? That's the most important part.”
I leaned forward.
Because this was the most important thing right now.
“The ER….”
Son Jongun propped his chin on his hand and searched his memory.
“That place was the worst.”
“Why? Don't tell me the ER only has five beds too?”
“No, there are plenty of beds. The facilities are good too. But I think they cover both the EICU and the ER at the same time.”
“What?”
“They don't have enough staff. The doctor on ER duty is supposed to see ER patients and care for the emergency ICU patients too.”
“Insane….”
This was a disaster.
At the Busan main hospital, the EICU and ER were of course run separately.
The physician staffing was the same.
“Then how many people? They're not seriously telling you to handle it alone, are they?”
“From what I heard, one specialist and probably two residents….”
Son Jongun trailed off and checked my expression.
“Why does your face look like that? It’s going rotten.”
“No, does this even count as enough staff? What about off-days? Duty shifts?”
One specialist and two residents.
The three of them are supposed to cover the ER and ICU at the same time?
Does that make any sense?
“Hey, hey, it's still better. Your situation is better than mine.”
Son Jongun said consolingly.
“How is it better?”
“I'm in pediatrics.”
“So?”
“I'm a third-year, and I'm the chief. There's no senior resident above me. I have to make every decision and take all the responsibility. Once the professors leave for the day, I'm the one in charge.”
Son Jongun made a tearful face.
The pressure must be huge.
Having no one above you means there's nowhere to ask for help.
“But you're in emergency medicine. It's a four-year program.”
Son Jongun held up his fingers.
“Even if you don't have a professor, there'll be fourth-years above you, right? What are you worried about? You just need to do your job as a third-year and hold down the middle.”
What Son Jongun said was true.
If this were a normal situation, anyway.
But.
“Hey?”
Son Jongun found my silence odd and asked again.
…
“Hey?”
Son Jongun’s eyes widened.
“Seriously? There isn't anyone above you?”
Son Jongun froze.
The two fourth-years are staying at the main hospital.
I'm the only third-year here too.
Then who is the highest-ranking resident here at Geoje Hospital?
Who is the actual on-site boss of the ER?
It’s Me!
Han Hyeonjae!
Fuck.
I'm fucked.