Chapter 179
Rain was falling in a steady drizzle that afternoon.
Tap, tap-tap.
The rain striking the window showed no sign of letting up.
The Medical Center Director's office, located on the highest floor of the main hospital.
The 18th director of Cheongjin University Hospital and the inaugural director of the newly launched Cheongjin University Medical Center.
Thoracic surgeon Lee Jae-yoon.
Lee Jae-yoon was sunk deep into a leather chair, watching the blurry scenery outside the window.
“Vice Director.”
Lee Jae-yoon opened his mouth.
His eyes remained fixed on the window.
“Yes, Director.”
Yoon Tae-ryong, the vice director of medical affairs, sat neatly across from Lee Jae-yoon.
“What happened to that guy, Park Gwang-seok or whatever...? What happened to him?”
There was not a shred of emotion in Lee Jae-yoon's voice.
That indifference itself was proof of how trivial Park Gwang-seok was to Lee Jae-yoon.
Yoon Tae-ryong took a sheet of paper from inside his jacket and placed it on the desk.
“As of today, he submitted his resignation to the faculty personnel team. He seems to have decided it was better to resign on his own before being referred to the disciplinary committee.”
“Hmm...”
Lee Jae-yoon tapped the paper twice.
“He should have put up more of a fight. Filed a lawsuit claiming it was unfair, and played the media a little too.”
He clicked his tongue.
“No guts at all, and yet all the greed in the world.”
Park Gwang-seok was finished like that.
His brief power play at the Geoje branch hospital came to a futile end with a single personnel order bearing the hospital director's signature.
To Lee Jae-yoon, Park Gwang-seok was nothing more or less than a textbook example for restoring the hospital's discipline.
“So why did you call me in? You didn't summon me just to report that his resignation was accepted, did you?”
Only then did Lee Jae-yoon turn his chair and face Yoon Tae-ryong directly.
“No, this is about the vacant head of Geoje Hospital's emergency medical center. We need to fill it.”
The director tapped the tip of his pen against a thin file on the desk.
“Clean up the mess Park Gwang-seok left behind and settle the chaotic atmosphere, too.”
[Cheongjin University College of Medicine / Department of Emergency Medicine / Associate Professor Cheon Eun-jeong]
“Professor Cheon, huh...”
Yoon Tae-ryong stroked his chin and went on.
“That seems like a suitable appointment. Her reputation inside the hospital is good, too. She'd be a boon to a place like the branch hospital. Her publication record is steady as well.”
“Right. Talk things through with her and see if you can send her down there somehow. Offer her a research year if you have to.”
“Understood. I'll do my best to persuade her.”
Lee Jae-yoon signed the approval document in one stroke.
One item had been processed.
Lee Jae-yoon set down the pen and laced his fingers together.
“The board's opinion and the professors' opinion are the same. When my term ends, the next hospital director will probably be you, Vice Director Yoon.”
A sudden change of topic.
But Yoon Tae-ryong wasn't flustered.
It was already a topic circulating behind the scenes and the expected sequence of events.
“Yes. For now, that's true. But nothing has been finalized yet, has it?”
“Don't be modest. Who else is there besides you?”
Lee Jae-yoon paused for a moment and opened a drawer.
Then he pulled out a personnel record file worn from use.
It was another document tucked beneath Professor Cheon Eun-jeong's file.
[Personnel Record]
...Emergency Medicine Department / Name: Han Hyeonjae
Position: Resident
- Award: Outstanding Resident in Emergency Medicine (2nd year)...
Lee Jae-yoon stared blankly at the profile photo.
“..Hmm.”
Lee Jae-yoon let out an odd sound.
“What do you think?”
At the sudden question, Yoon Tae-ryong asked back.
“Yes? Do you mean Han Hyeonjae?”
“Right. This guy.”
Lee Jae-yoon recalled his memory of the operating room at Geoje Hospital.
The hand movements of that resident who had moved as if he were Lee Jae-yoon's own hands and feet amid the chaos of blood splattering and alarms blaring.
The nerve to open a chest and clamp the aorta, even though he wasn't even a thoracic surgery resident.
“It was you, Vice Director Yoon, who first noticed him and recommended him.”
“That's right. I remember.”
Yoon Tae-ryong smiled faintly.
“Even with laparotomy and the medical helicopter incident, he looks like he's causing trouble, but in the end he saves them.”
“He had good hands, too.”
Lee Jae-yoon murmured as if lost in recollection.
“He gives you a brilliantly clear view of the field, I tell you. Better than most fellows. I even thought his hands might be better than mine.”
That was high praise for it to come from the hospital director's mouth.
Yoon Tae-ryong wasn't surprised.
“Technique improves when you teach it, and knowledge accumulates when you read books, but...”
Lee Jae-yoon slowly raised his head and looked at Yoon Tae-ryong.
“What I felt while watching Han was something more fundamental than that. Above all, guts and...”
The same word popped out of both men's mouths at once.
“Attitude.”
“Mindset.”
At the word that burst out simultaneously, the two old doctors looked at each other and burst into laughter.
“Hohoho! Right, that's it! Mindset!”
Lee Jae-yoon slapped the desk.
“That kind of guts to bark at the hospital director to put on a surgical gown because he wanted to save a patient. Who else could have that? And on top of that, he's friendly, polite, and good at his job.”
Yoon Tae-ryong nodded.
“That's right. I'm glad sending him to the Geoje branch turned out to be good training.”
“Training? Training, huh...”
Lee Jae-yoon's eyes grew serious again.
Lee Jae-yoon soon closed Han Hyeonjae's personnel card and brought over a thick binder that had been sitting at one corner of the desk.
“Yes, training is what he needs.”
“That's right, Director.”
“After my term as hospital director ends and Vice Director Yoon becomes hospital director, please take good care of him.”
“Yes. Of course. If that's your wish, Director, I'll see it through to the very end.”
At Yoon Tae-ryong's answer, Lee Jae-yoon nodded with satisfaction.
Then, without hesitation, he turned over the cover of that binder.
Lee Jae-yoon's finger tapped the thick paper.
[Department and Center Reorganization Plan Including the Establishment of the Acute Care Department (tentative name)]
...
***
“..Is someone talking about me?”
My left ear was unbearably itchy for no reason.
Someone must be cursing me or praising me very, very intensely.
Of course, based on the big data of my life, the former was more likely.
“Hyeonjae, there isn't any ENT(* ear, nose, and throat) duty today, so stop picking your ear already.”
Professor Kim Soo-rim, who was reviewing charts beside me, chided me.
“Ah, yes.”
I quickly lowered my hand.
But it itches.
'Anyway...'
I had roughly figured out the real-world identity of the Gallery old-timer—the Scalpel God—who came and went through my body as if it were his own home.
He staged a lie-down protest in front of the Ministry of Health and Welfare minister's office in 2012.
A trauma surgery professor at some university hospital in the Chungcheong region.
With clues like that, identifying him was a piece of cake.
After comparing the news photo from that time with his profile, there was one person I could be 99.9% sure of.
But.
'Could I really blab this in the Gallery?'
I wanted to blurt it out, but I held back.
Because I was afraid of something.
'What if that Scalpel God bastard is hiding it that desperately for some special reason?'
'In the Gallery rules, if I spill the red pill, do I get banned or something? Or do I just ascend and disappear?'
If I pretended to know and said, 'You're Professor OOO, aren't you?' and got banned for 30 days, that would be pretty disastrous.
That old man is a cheat code I need to save for emergencies.
'Let's play it safe a bit. I'll ask him sometime during the next possession, or when the time is right.'
I decided to bury the secret deep in my heart.
Just then, the wall clock chimed the hour.
“Ah, everyone, thanks for your hard work! I'm heading out first!”
I sprang up from my seat and shouted.
At last, freedom.
“Sure. Good work. See you next time.”
“Yes! Then I'll be heading out!”
“Go on.”
Professor Kim Soo-rim gave a cool wave.
...
***
A great many things happened during the remaining month, too.
The Geoje Hospital emergency room was still peaceful compared to the number of beds, but word must have gotten out, because patients gradually began to increase.
There were rumors going around local cafés and community boards that a renowned doctor was there, and rumors that any serious patient from the shipyard side was being properly treated.
Thanks to that, even though I was the top dog among the residents, I had to run myself ragged a bit.
And above all, the biggest event was.
“That new center director who came in...”
In place of Park Gwang-seok, who had been kicked out, a new center director came down from the main hospital.
Professor Cheon Eun-jeong, the main hospital emergency medicine department's resident killer.
“Hyeonjae, since there aren't many patients and we've got plenty of time, how about writing a paper with me on improving the efficiency of the emergency medical transfer system for island regions? The data is pure gold.”
Professor Cheon, who tried to tempt me with the devil's lure from her very first day on the job.
I had to desperately run away, saying, “Oh no, Professor! I don't have the headspace for it because I'm busy preparing to go back to the main hospital!”
'Could I really have aged that much in just two months?'
When I looked in the mirror, the dark circles under my eyes had sunk all the way down to my chin.
It was a survival stint so spectacular that “eventful” didn't even begin to cover it.
Taking down Park Gwang-seok, operating with the director, and pulling 24-hour shifts...
But all things come to an end.
“Goodbye, Geoje Hospital. Let's never see each other again.”
I emptied my dorm room and loaded my luggage into a taxi.
...
***
[Cheongjin University Hospital]
When I turned the corner, the massive hospital building came into view.
Ambulances were coming and going nonstop at the entrance to the emergency medical center, and the sound of sirens kept my nerves on edge.
A level of bustle and liveliness completely different from the quiet branch hospital.
And the density of people.
“Hah...”
I took a deep breath.
'The smell of home!'
Of course, my hometown is Seoul.
The hospital is my emotional hometown.
Though the smell of home isn't exactly fragrant.
I passed through the emergency medical center's automatic doors.
“I'm here!”
The moment I stepped through the door into the staff-only area, I shouted.
The air of the regional emergency medical center after so long.
A few nurses and doctors sitting there jumped when they saw me.
“Oh? Hyeonjae?”
“You're back! Han!”
Then the door to the section chief's office at the very back opened, and a familiar face walked out.
Park Woong.
The chief of our emergency medicine department, and my dependable backer.
The moment I saw him, I rushed toward him with delight and was about to give my return report.
Spectacularly, movingly.
“Chief! This Han Hyeonjae has safely returned, alive and well...”
Thwack!
“Ow!”
A crisp thwack rang out through the emergency room corridor.
Park Woong's huge fist gave me a solid knuckle tap on the crown of my head.
Tears pricked my eyes.
Ah, that impact.
This is the main hospital.
“You brat, you went over there and caused all kinds of trouble, huh? What exactly did you do?”
Park Woong laughed.
His words were rough, but his eyes were full of warmth and pride.
“There was stuff like that. Life throws all kinds of things at you.”
I rubbed my head and smiled awkwardly.
“The rumors spread. Heard you stitched up a heart. You crazy bastard. Is that what I taught you? Huh? Fearless as hell.”
“Yes, Chief! I came back having put everything you taught me into practice!”
Park Woong looked briefly speechless before breaking into laughter.
“Still the same, huh. Look at you, you've lost weight. You must've had it rough.”
He patted my back hard a few times.
“My lungs almost flew out of my mouth.”
Ow, that hurts like hell.
“I'll unpack the department stuff first. I already unpacked the dorm stuff at home. So for today...”
I asked, naturally expecting some sweet time off.
Returnees from assignments should get recovery leave, right?
Yep.
“Unpack your things later. Go up to the director's office right now.”
What Park Woong said was a bolt from the blue.
“Huh? Right now? I just got here?”
“Yeah. Right now.”
Park Woong jerked his thumb toward the ceiling.
“The Medical Center Director specifically told me to send you up the moment you arrived. So I'm supposed to take you up there.”
...
This is ominous.
Very ominous.
Who would've thought the director's “see you in a month” meant “see you right away”?
Usually, when the director calls you in, it's one of two things.
Either they're giving you a commendation or an enormous quest.
And my instinct was pointing to the latter.
“Understood. I'll just change and go.”
“Hurry up. If you're late, you'll get chewed out.”
“Yep!”