Cardiothoracic Surgery (5)

And so, we finished the morning rounds safely and gathered in the resident conference room ten minutes before 7 o’clock.

As if by prior arrangement, the residents with zombie-like faces crawled out one by one from the wards, the ICU, and the corners of the on-call room.

The seated man got up when he saw me.

“I’m Hong Seon-ho, a fourth-year thoracic surgery resident, and the chief resident.”

He rubbed his hollow eyes and held out a hand to me.

“Honorifics? What a remarkably decent guy.”

He had the face of someone who’d spent four years in thoracic surgery, with resignation and exhaustion coexisting.

I quickly bowed.

“Ah, yes. Hello. I’m Han Hyeonjae, a third-year emergency medicine resident. I’ve been dispatched here for two weeks. Nice to meet you.”

“Ah, I heard about you. I heard you handled the mess you almost caused in the ICU earlier….”...