Chapter 51
Professor Cheon Eun-jeong stared blankly at me for a moment, then came to her senses and hurriedly turned on her tablet PC.
"You just sent the email?"
"Yes, I just sent it."
Professor Cheon skillfully opened her inbox.
[Emergency Medicine R1 Han Hyunjae] Submitting the draft abstract for the fall academic conference.
was at the very top.
Ah, I forgot to change the attachment file name.
‘HanHyunjaeHyunjaeFinalFinalrealFinalTrueFinal.docs’
Anyway, Professor Cheon casually ignored the file name I had painstakingly crafted and kept looking back and forth between the email subject and my face, as if she couldn't believe I'd drafted and submitted an abstract in such a short time.
"Come here."
Professor Cheon led me to a relatively quiet spot in a corner of the station.
But there is no such thing as a quiet spot in the ER.
That's the truth.
At most, it's relatively quiet—which still means it's right in the middle of a passageway where countless doctors, nurses, patients, and family members are constantly coming and going.
In the first place, because of the ER layout, the station is in the middle anyway, so the closest thing to a quiet spot here is...
And just like that, I became an unavoidable spectacle for the entire ER.
Haha, everyone. Look at me. It's my day off, and I'm standing awkwardly in the middle of the ER in a hoodie!
Professor Cheon opened the Word file attached on the tablet screen.
And then began the longest, most suffocating paper review of my medical career.
Damn it.
Can't breathe.
Ah, save me.
Please, somebody do something about this awkward atmosphere.
I stood by Professor Cheon like some vaguely guilty criminal.
I really didn't know what I was supposed to do.
I couldn't sit down, but I couldn't stand too far away either.
In the end, the pose I chose was the most awkward and demure pose in the world.
You could say I'd chosen the path of the Confucian boy.
Wearing nothing but a hoodie, standing quietly beside the professor with my hands folded behind my back...
No, not behind my back—was it in front?
Anyway, just standing there with both hands neatly folded in front of me was unbelievably conspicuous.
I tried my best to become invisible.
But for a first-year resident to show up on a day off in a hoodie, frozen stiff beside an emergency medicine professor, was itself one huge magnet for attention.
Even patients passing by with their families were glancing at me.
Their gazes stabbed into my cheeks like daggers.
Their eyes clearly said:
'That young doctor must've caused some kind of trouble.'
'Looks like he's getting torn apart by the professor. Tsk tsk.'
Something like that.
'I'm not the culprit who caused a medical accident. I'm not being scolded right now. I'm just getting my homework checked...'
Unfortunately, my inner cries never reached anyone.
Professor Cheon focused on the screen, utterly unconcerned with my inner thoughts.
Professor Cheon's brow furrowed slightly.
Her scrolling finger paused.
"Huh?"
A low sigh slipped from Professor Cheon's lips.
I flinched.
Had she already found a typo?
Or was the content such a mess she was at a loss for words?
Professor Cheon rested her chin on her hand and began reading the screen again.
From top to bottom, then from bottom to top again.
"Hmm..."
Professor Cheon muttered while pointing at a sentence on the screen with her finger.
Time passed. One minute, two minutes, five minutes.
Cold sweat ran down my spine.
When would this hellish time finally end?
At last, she lifted her head from the tablet.
And looked at me.
"Hyunjae."
"Yes, Professor."
"Well..."
Professor Cheon took a moment to choose her words.
"To be honest, I thought you'd probably struggle to write it properly, so I'd planned to help you out over lunch."
"Pardon?"
"I mean... well, the younger residents should at least get some conference experience. Having a poster presentation on your CV would be a good line to add, right? So when we give out assignments like this, it's usually more of a 'just give it a shot first' kind of thing. Then, of course, you'd turn in some total mess, and I'd fix it up again and say, 'See? This is how you write a paper,' or something like that... I was thinking of some educational picture like that."
"Yes, Professor."
"This thing, you know..."
"Yes."
Professor Cheon began speaking with a deep sigh.
"Uh, to be honest, the English phrasing and all that? There's nothing to correct."
"Pardon?"
"Nothing. At all. No grammatical errors, the word choice seems even better than mine, and the sentence structure is... native-like."
Professor Cheon asked me with a face that said she truly couldn't understand.
"Did you perhaps study abroad? Or live overseas when you were young?"
"No, I'm 100% homegrown. A true-bred Korean. I'm pretty sure kimchi broth runs through my veins instead of blood."
"Hmm..."
Professor Cheon looked back and forth between the tablet screen and my face once more.
I just stood there awkwardly, smiling.
'Phew, ghosts are the best.'
"Anyway."
With a deep sigh, Professor Cheon brushed her hair back.
"First-year and second-year residents are supposed to use this as the standard when writing their first case reports or papers."
...Huh? As the standard?
"You know your fellow resident Jihoon, right? Kim Jihoon."
"Yes, I do."
"What he wrote last time was, wow... no, let's not even go there. He'd been holding onto it for over a month, and that writing level was really... should I say it's very much like a first-year resident... just..."
Professor Cheon couldn't continue and clicked her tongue.
"No, no, of course Jihoon is the normal one... he's the average, the utterly ordinary result of a first-year resident, and whew..."
Professor Cheon's gaze returned to me.
"Yes?"
"No, no. That doesn't mean you're abnormal or anything. It means you're very good."
Professor Cheon tried to smooth things over and change the mood of this awkward situation.
"Anyway... Ah! I've got a good idea. From now on, when the other residents write English manuscripts, I should show them yours as a sample! 'Look, this is how your fellow resident Han Hyunjae wrote it!'"
What?? Mine??
I was horrified.
Even now, in the department, I was already drawing all kinds of attention as 'the crazy bastard preparing a double board,' 'the guy who'll open his veins,' and 'the guy who's going to yank out your teeth.'
And now she wanted to add the title of 'that annoying classmate who even writes papers well'?
Was she trying to make me a public enemy and get me ostracized?
"Haha, I'm joking, I'm joking."
Seeing my face go deathly pale, Professor Cheon laughed brightly.
"Anyway, it was really well written... hmm..."
I asked cautiously,
"Then what happens to me?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Well... this... the abstract."
"Ah, the abstract?"
Professor Cheon replied with a very bright expression.
"Ah, that? The IRB exemption application was already processed electronically this morning too..."
What? That fast?
My pupils were shaking like an earthquake again.
IRB.
The infamous mountain of bureaucracy that can send you back for weeks if you get one form wrong—was that handled with a few taps of the professor's finger?
"Yeah. Why?"
As expected.
Professor, you're the best.
'No, wait, this is the same person who had me do this in the first place. What do you mean, "the best"? That's just causing trouble and then handing out the cure.'
What is this, the victim growing attached to the criminal... Stockholm syndrome or something?
I tried hard to suppress my mixed-up feelings.
"Anyway, we're submitting it like this?"
"Pardon?"
"We're submitting it like this. I mean, I'm pressing the submit button."
"Yes?"
I stupidly asked back.
"I mean... no proofreading, or revisions, or anything like that?"
"There's nothing to revise."
Her expression said there truly wasn't a single thing to fix.
"If I touched it any more, I'd just be overdoing it. It's perfect as is. Now go clock out again. Sorry for keeping you on your day off."
"Ah... yes."
"It'll probably go through without a problem. You might even get an official email from the conference later, so be sure to check your spam folder too."
"Yes, Professor. Thank you."
"Sure~ See you next time~"
Professor Cheon waved and disappeared with light steps that almost sounded like she was humming.
I stared blankly down the hallway where Professor Cheon had vanished.
It was over.
At least the whole process up to submitting the abstract was over.
In a single day.
Was she insane?
I muttered with empty eyes.
'I didn't even come in to work. Clocking out, my ass....'
With a hollow laugh, I opened Gallery.
In just one day, data had been collected, and an abstract that had been completed in under thirty minutes had been approved by the professor on the first try.
Even if it was only for a poster presentation!
=========
Title : Gallery folks, the professor said I can just submit it without any edits
Author : Hell Joseon Slave 1
Yeah, they said I can just turn it in as is.
=========
Back in My Day : Isn't that obvious?
Cardiology Wraith : What's the big deal? We all put our heads together to look it over, so it'd be weirder if it didn't come out that well.
Scalpel God : Who would dare put a red pen to a sentence I reviewed?
Why is this Scalpel God bastard so annoying every time I look at him?
Hippocrates' Descendant : Do not be elated or disheartened over the obvious result, living one. The path of scholarship is long and arduous.
Damn it, they're all irritating.
These damned ghosts.
Still, it's over.
I stepped out through the hospital's automatic doors and took a deep breath of the refreshing air.
Hmm, this is what fresh air feels like.
It was like the feeling of leaving school early back in my student days.
Anyway, it was a hellish 24 hours.
After suffering this much, I should get some kind of reward.
I passed the bus stop and headed toward the main road.
And waved at a taxi.
'Today I'm taking a taxi home too! Bwahaha! What outrageous extravagance, extravagance!'
Who cares if my salary gets cut a little.