Chapter 166
And so, before I knew it, I ended up walking along with Baek Eun-seo.
“By the way, are you okay with night shift today?”
I asked, checking my watch.
“Uh... Professor Park gave me some time off, so I still have about an hour. I’m fine.”
“I see.”
Well, if Eun-seo said they were fine, I had no reason to stop them.
We stopped by the franchise café at the hospital entrance.
“What can I get for you?”
“One iced Americano. What about you, Doctor?”
“I’ll have an iced Americano too, with an extra shot.”
“Yes. One iced Americano with an extra shot, and one plain. I’ll pay!”
What a model junior!
“I could pay for it, you know.”
“I’m treating you today!”
A moment later, we left through the hospital front gate with coffee in both hands.
“This way!”
Baek Eun-seo led me to a walking path that extended from the road in front of the hospital.
For a newly built hospital, they’d done an amazing job with the landscaping.
The landscaping wasn’t completely finished yet, but it was still a rather scenic path with the sea visible in the distance.
Only the sounds of dirt and gravel underfoot echoed softly.
The sound gravel makes when it cries is dirt-dirt.
‘I probably shouldn’t make jokes like that.’
As we rounded the hospital building, the view opened wide.
“It really feels like a coastal city. I can smell the salt, too.”
“The main hospital was in Busan too, wasn’t it?”
I gnawed on my straw and waved a finger.
“There’s no sea in Dongnae-gu, Eun-seo. If you open a window, all you see are apartment blocks and villa complexes.”
“I was just making conversation.”
Baek Eun-seo gave an embarrassed smile.
…
We walked for five minutes, chatting about absolutely nothing of value.
What was with this strange atmosphere?
As I slurped at my Americano, a very strong question came to mind.
‘Why did Eun-seo call me out here, anyway?’
Eun-seo said there was something to say.
They could’ve just said it in the hospital lobby, or while we were sitting in the café.
The streetlights glowed softly, there were few people around, waves whispered in the distance, and the breeze was gentle.
The mood was... way too good.
I started racking my brain.
‘What kind of scenario is it when two people walk alone on a coastal path like this at night?’
Scenario 1.
‘Doctor, the truth is I’m a killer. You’ll have to die here.’
That was obviously total nonsense, so pass.
Scenario 2.
Loan.
‘I invested in crypto, and...’
Baek Eun-seo’s family is well-off.
Then there’s only one thing left.
‘A confession?’
No way. Come on.
We’re definitely comrades, aren’t we?
We’re comrades who’ve gone through it together, not some flirting pair.
But Baek Eun-seo’s attitude was suspicious.
‘But Eun-seo wouldn’t talk about a paper in a place like this.’
If Eun-seo suddenly pulled a paper out of a bag and asked whether the statistics were significant, that would be terrifying in its own way.
So the remaining possibility was...
‘Okay. Let’s draw the line!’
I made up my mind.
If it was really a confession, that would be a problem.
I don’t have time for dating right now.
I had to protect my peaceful third-year life.
Even if I was getting ahead of myself, it was best to put up a defense in advance.
I stopped walking and, looking out at the sea, began.
“Eun-seo.”
“Yes?”
“But you know, I think our bond as coworkers is really deep. Right?”
“…Pardon?”
Baek Eun-seo looked at me as if I’d come out of nowhere.
“What I mean is, I think our relationship is just right as it is now. Comrades who trust and rely on each other—that’s beautiful enough. We’re just senior and junior...”
Baek Eun-seo’s eyes grew wider and wider.
“Huh?”
“What?”
“Huh? No? Huh? Yes?”
Baek Eun-seo darted their eyes around.
“Huh? Huh? Why... why?”
Now I was getting flustered too, for no reason.
“No, no, Doctor! Wait a second!”
Baek Eun-seo waved their hands frantically in alarm.
“That’s not what I meant! No, um, I think you’ve misunderstood!”
“Uh... no?”
“Ah, sorry, Doctor! Now that I think about it, this really does look like a confession! Ahh, no, it’s not that! Doctor, it’s absolutely not you! Never! Absolutely not!”
Tss.
That denial is a little too strong, isn’t it?
“Absolutely?”
“Yes! I swear! I’ve never felt anything toward you beyond respect for a senior I admire! I mean it!”
“Hmm.”
“I’m serious! I swear to heaven!”
I should be relieved, so why do I feel annoyed?
“Is that all I am?”
I did feel relieved, but for some reason I felt annoyed anyway.
There was no need to keep stressing, right in front of me, that it absolutely wasn’t me.
“No, Doctor! Don’t make that face!”
Baek Eun-seo brushed back their hair while watching my expression.
Eun-seo must have realized they’d denied it a little too hard.
“You’re not hurt, are you? It’s not like that—you’re actually pretty good-looking, Doctor! You’re tall! You’re great at your job! If you dressed up, you’d probably be really popular! It’s just that with me, um... yes! Your expression! Please relax it! You’re scaring me!”
The desperate way they tried to smooth things over was kind of funny.
Well, it was funny, so I let it slide.
“Okay, okay.”
I lifted the corners of my mouth as much as I could to comply with the request to relax my face.
Baek Eun-seo flinched and took a step back.
“Um... Doctor.”
“You told me to smile.”
“Not like a psycho. More naturally. Right now, only your mouth is smiling and your eyes aren’t.”
This was my secret move, my capitalism smile.
“Like this?”
I narrowed my eyes and tried to make the kindest smile I could.
“Yes. Better. Much more human.”
“Thanks, man.”
After that little commotion, the atmosphere got a little better.
The awkward tension lifted, and we were back in our familiar senior-junior mode.
I started walking again and asked,
“So it wasn’t confession time. Then why did you call me out here?”
It wasn’t about a paper, and it wasn’t about romance either.
Then the only things left were hospital business or some trouble they’d gotten into.
“I have something to confess!”
Didn’t you say it wasn’t a confession?
When I made a dazed face, Baek Eun-seo hurried to correct themselves.
“No, not that kind of confession! Another kind! I just have something I wanted to tell you...”
Ah, another confession.
“What is it?”
“Ah, um... and you look much better with your hair covering your forehead like you used to!”
Baek Eun-seo suddenly pointed at my forehead and shouted.
“…You called me out here to say that? To make a bold statement about my hairstyle?”
“N-no! Of course not! It just happened to flow this way, so I was saying it to change the mood! A-anyway, that’s not what matters.”
Baek Eun-seo cleared their throat and got back to the main point.
“Go on.”
“W-well, lately the number of chat questions has gone down a little, right? You’re not sending papers in the middle of the night like before, right?”
“That’s true. The frequency has definitely gone down.”
“Also, as I’ve learned more overall, I’ve figured a lot of things out on my own, but...”
Baek Eun-seo paused for a moment, as if organizing their thoughts.
“Lately I’ve been wondering whether, no matter how much of my role model you are, and no matter how curious I am, I might be asking too many questions.”
“Huh?”
“I mean, I’m kind of unusual. I had a rough idea already, but... objectively, I think it’s a bit much.”
“Yeah, go on.”
I quietly decided to hear out Smart Baek’s concerns.
“Usually first-years or second-years don’t ask one specific senior that much. But because you answer everything for me, I think I’ve picked up a bad habit. And besides...”
Baek Eun-seo let out a sigh.
“No matter how difficult a question from another department is, or how complicated the case is, when I ask, you always have a clear answer right away.”
That wasn’t because I was a genius; it was because the ghosts were answering.
But I couldn’t say that, so I just nodded.
“So instead of studying to find answers, I think I’ve ended up asking you and treating you like a cheat code. For my own growth and for your peace of mind, I felt that wasn’t right.”
“So?”
“Just, um. During work hours, unless it’s something urgent with a patient’s life on the line, I’m going to start cutting back on my dependence on you a little.”
“?”
I blinked.
Reducing dependence on me?
“So you’re saying you won’t ask me things because you don’t want to bother me? You’re just going to suffer on your own?”
What are you talking about?
Thinking things through on your own is good too.
That’s how I improved my skills too.
But when you’re completely stuck, you should ask.
“If you don’t know, you ask. Are you going to experiment on patients? Doctors shouldn’t be ashamed of not knowing. Pretending to know when you don’t...”
“N-no! That’s not what I meant! I’m not saying I won’t ask at all!”
Baek Eun-seo waved their hands in protest.
“What I mean is, whenever possible, I’ll make it neat! So it’s much easier for you to look at! I’ll do the first round of filtering myself!”
“Filtering?”
“Yes! I’ll look up all the papers first! Dig through the textbooks! Check which evidence guidelines conflict! And come to my own conclusion about whether option A or option B is more reasonable, before I ask!”
Baek Eun-seo’s eyes sparkled.
“I’ll organize it so neatly that you can answer with a clear Yes or No!”
“…Really?”
“That way it saves your time, and I get to study too!”
“Oh, I see.”
That’s really commendable.
It made me feel like I should reflect on myself.
“So that was what you were worried about.”
“Up until now, because you always took every question so kindly, I think I started feeling like it was only natural...”
Baek Eun-seo tapped the ground with the tip of their shoe.
“Lately I’ve been wondering if maybe it’s not that you genuinely enjoy answering me. Maybe you’re just too kind to refuse. I guess I was being really oblivious.”
“Hmm... I see.”
Actually, half of that was right and half was wrong.
It’s not like it isn’t a hassle, though.
Still, as someone tormented by ghosts, there were times when passing on knowledge to someone else was actually pretty enjoyable.
And Eun-seo’s questions were high-level enough that they were good study material too.
“Among the seniors and other doctors I’ve seen, you’re also the kindest, the most skilled, and, as a person...”
“Uh, Eun-seo. The conversation shouldn’t head toward praising me again.”
“I’ll be careful.”
Baek Eun-seo clamped their mouth shut.
“I get what you’re worried about. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”
I finished the rest of my coffee and summed it up.
“Still, if it’s really urgent, don’t worry about formality and contact me right away.”
“Yes! I’ll keep that in mind!”
“If it’s not that kind of case, I think it’d be better to organize them neatly like you said and send them all at once around 9 a.m. Like a daily report.”
Color came into Baek Eun-seo’s face.
“Would that work? 9 a.m.?”
“Yeah. That should be fine. I’ll read them then with my coffee.”
“Thank you!”
In fact, these days Baek Eun-seo had grown so much that I almost never got questions from them anymore.
Still, if they thought that way and wanted to improve more, I had to support them as a senior.
“Shall we head back in soon? The wind’s getting cold.”
Baek Eun-seo said, pulling their collar closed.
“Sure. We need to go in and rest a bit if we’re going to keep grinding.”
The moment we turned the alley and the view opened up toward the sea,
our two sets of footsteps stopped at the same time.
“Buuuuut...”
Two Coast Guard patrol cars.
And one 119 ambulance.
Out on the water, a rubber boat with its searchlight on was circling nearby.
“Looks like we won’t be going back quietly.”
“Looks like they’re still treating someone or carrying out a rescue.”
“Let’s go.”
I tossed my coffee cup into the trash can.
“I think so too. Let’s go, Doctor.”