The following day, Yuan decided to visit the patient on the file that Dr. Nam had given her, paging Jackson and Bambam to report to the patient’s room, too. Apparently, she needed to interview the patient for the kinds of food she has consumed recently for Diagnostics. Dr. Do seemed to have recommended them for the job after the case on Vitamin K deficiency.

When she got to the room, she was surprised to see the pregnant woman who was brought the previous morning to the hospital through the emergency room. She wasn’t really expecting the woman to be included in their case, but upon checking the woman’s medical history, it wasn’t the first time she will be admitted after suffering from bleeding during her pregnancy a month ago.

“Mrs. Jang?” Yuan said as she entered the room. “Good afternoon. I’m your assigned dietician. Is it a convenient time for you? I need to conduct an interview.”

The patient on the bed looked sallow and tired as a result of an emergency C-section she had to undergo. Her baby had problems, according to the file, and had been taken away to the ICU after seizing. It broke Yuan’s heart, and she wished she wasn’t assigned to the mother, seeing how things were, but she had to do her job.

Mrs. Jang nodded. “How’s my baby?” she asked.

“I am not sure about that, Mrs. Jang, but the doctors are doing everything they could. I’m afraid I’m not directly in charge of your son,” Yuan explained. “I’m sorry about that.”

Mrs. Jang looked away. “It’s not your fault.”

Yuan guessed she was crying. “I need to interview you about your recent diet. Dr. Do thinks that you might have consumed something that was unsafe for the baby,” Yuan started. “We have to know so we can figure out what’s wrong with your son.”

“Jiyong,” Mrs. Jang said.

“Pardon?” Yuan asked, rounding the bed to take a better look at the patient. “Jiyong?”

“That’s my son’s name.”

Yuan nodded in understanding and started the inquiry. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the food the mother has consumed. “What about drugs? Have you been sick during your pregnancy?”

The woman on the bed tensed and more tears started b from her eyes. Yuan just watched her quietly, trying to figure out the sudden change in the patient’s bearing. It took her a while to say anything, but finally, in a shaky voice, she said, “One time. I had a cold, so I asked for cold pills. My OB gave it to me.”

“I see.” Yuan didn’t think that the cold pills caused the symptoms on the baby.

The mother started breaking down. She sat up abruptly, her face contorting in pain. “Doctor, please tell me. Did I do this to Jiyong?” She grabbed Yuan’s hand, almost begging, but she did not know what to say to comfort Mrs. Jang.

“Mrs. Jang, please calm down.” She helped the woman back into the bed. “You might tear your stitches.”

“I don’t care. Please save him. I beg you!”

Yuan held Mrs. Jang’s hand. “This interview is inconclusive. We still have to find out what’s wrong with your child. Are you sure you didn’t take anything else?”

Mrs. Jang looked at Yuan for a moment, seemingly wishing to say something but couldn’t. She withdrew her hands and lay back down on the bed. “I’m sure.”

“Alright. Please take it easy.” Yuan finalized her notes. “I can’t tell you not to worry, but please strive to become stronger for the sake of your son.”

When Yuan made her way out of the room, she met Dr. Do and Jinyoung heading towards her. She momentarily forgot about the case and remembered the latter’s words at the restroom the previous day, filling her with resentment.

“Dr. Do, do you have a minute?” she asked, bowing before the two doctors. 

Dr. Do smiled at her and said yes, but Jinyoung just looked at her. He was back to his cold self again. “Oh yes. How was the interview?” Dr. Do asked.

“She’s lying,” Yuan answered with a sigh.

“What do you mean? Are you referring to the patient?”

Yuan nodded. “There’s nothing wrong with the food she consumed since the bleeding incident prior to the delivery, but when I asked her about drugs, she went hysterical. The symptoms on the baby include cardiac problems which could possibly be explained by substance abuse.”

“How did you come up with that conclusion, Miss Ang?” Jinyoung asked. “Wouldn’t you think it’s just natural for her to be hysterical considering that her newborn son is in the ICU?”

“Dr. Park, she was fine until I mentioned drugs. She wasn’t tested for anything yet. We need to make sure.”

Dr. Do sighed. “It is possible. Any guesses, Miss Psychologist?”

Yuan heard the teasing undertone in his voice, but ignored it especially since the observant Dr. Do’s eyes flashed wider at her. “Heart problems in newborns could be caused by barbiturate abuse during gestation. It’s just a hunch.”

“I’ll check myself,” Jinyoung said and proceeded to the patient’s room. It wasn’t long before a team was called to sedate the patient.

**

The test came out positive for barbiturate abuse. Yuan couldn’t quite function after picking up the result of the test from the lab. It was even more aggravating when she was tasked by Jinyoung himself to attend to the same patient, someone she didn’t want to see again after finding out that she was at fault for the situation of her son at the moment.

It didn’t quite sink in why she continued to be an addict throughout her pregnancy. Another thing she couldn’t wrap her head around was how Mrs. Jang seemed to be regretting her actions, even going through frenzies, begging her to save her child, but she still stood by her lie. If it saved the child’s life, she wouldn’t even come clean. It frustrated Yuan days on end, and though it induced guilt in her, she did not go to fulfill her duties to the patient, sending either interns on her behalf.

“Do you have an issue with the patient?” Jackson asked.

“No,” Yuan answered, sounding defensive even to herself. She didn’t mean for it to come out that way, but she knew it was too late to take things back when Bambam and Jackson crossed their arms and eyed her with doubt. “What?”

“We refuse to go to the patient’s room.”

“What?!” Yuan stood up, nearly knocking her chair off. She wanted to pull her supervisor card on them, but decided against it. It was unfair and she hated doing that. She hated her superiors for doing that to her in the past, not that she ever refused orders. The last thing she wanted was for the boys to hate her, too.  “I have no choice, do I?”

“What happened?” Bambam asked, sounding a bit more sensitive than Jackson who was just plain curious as to what transpired that she did not want to show herself to the patient.

Yuan had no choice but to explain matters. She felt responsible for tipping the attending doctors about Mrs. Jang’s drug use. Though she felt despicable, the interns saw nothing wrong about it. In fact, she did the right thing. Still, it ate her from the inside out.

“If anything, you shouldn’t even be feeling bad. What she did caused her son’s condition, so it’s her fault. Dr. Do and his team were bound to find out in the end,” Jackson stated, looking thoughtful. “You didn’t have a hand in making her miserable. It’s her fault. If she has to suffer whenever she sees you, she deserves it.”

“You think?” Yuan flashed them a pained look. “Fine. I’ll bring the food and make sure she eats it, but if this turns out badly, I’m reporting you for insubordination.”

The boys laughed. “You won’t even if it saves you,” Jackson said.

He’s right. In the end, she went to the room with the food, setting the tray on the trolley table at the food of the table. “Mrs. Jang, your supper is here.”

The woman on the bed just watched her on the bed. “Take that away. I don’t want it.”

Yuan sighed. “Mrs. Jang, you need to eat. The interns have reported that you haven’t been –”

“Why were they the ones sending my food anyway?” she demanded, interrupting Yuan. “Is it a matter of hierarchy or you can’t come here yourself? What changed?”

“They were given that task since I was preoccupied with papers,” she lied, walking closer to the bed.

Mrs. Jang smirked at her. “Are you sure it’s not because of guilt?”

“Guilt? Whatever would I be guilty for?” Yuan challenged. If anything, you should be the one feeling guilty.

“You ratted me out to the doctors!” Mrs. Jang yelled at her. “You couldn’t just shut up, can you?”

“They have better solutions for your son now that they know. They’re bound to find out anyway, and you can’t guilt me that way because I did my job properly.”

“I trusted you,” the woman sobbed. “Now every person who enters here is making me feel just what a bad mother I am. It’s your fault.”

“Shouldn’t you have thought about that before you continued to take drugs while you were pregnant?” Shrugging, Yuan took the soup from the tray, along with a spoon. “You asked me to save your son. That’s the least I could do. Please eat.” She handed the bowl to the patient.

“I said I don’t want it!” she shrieked and knocked the bowl over, causing the steaming hot soup to spill over Yuan’s arm, causing her to back away and scream in pain. She knew she was going to fall on the floor as she keeled over backwards, enduring the burning pain while trying to hold the patient down, but before she could touch the ground, she felt hand catch her by the arm, immediately steadying her on her feet.

When she looked up, she saw Jinyoung standing behind her holding her in place while two nurses came to pacify Mrs. Jang who was screaming at Yuan. “Get out! I don’t want to see you!”

It broke her heart in two seeing how the patient was reacting her and she felt tears stinging her eyes but she blinked them back. One hysterical woman is enough. Just then, Jinyoung turned her around and led her out of the room. Once out, he stopped and stared at her searchingly. “Are you alright?” he asked frantically, checking her when his eyes landed on the soup-soaked right arm of her lab coat, still emitting steam. “Take your coat off.”

“Huh?” she asked, still in a trance, quite numb to anything else apart from the piercing screams coming from the room.

“Your arm’s been burnt. Get rid of the coat,” he told her urgently, taking possession of the lapels when she didn’t move any sooner. Yuan completed the task herself, revealing red, raw skin from her wrist, extending halfway through her arm. Her skin was scalded and is showing early stages of blistering.

“,” Jinyoung muttered under his breath and dragged by the arm, walking away from the room.

“Dr. Park, where are you taking me?” she asked. She wasn’t satisfied with an answer. Instead, she was dragged towards the elevator and into the third floor where they passed Jackson and Bambam who looked at her and Jinyoung with wide, surprised eyes. Bambam frowned, almost ready to jump to her rescue. Jackson, on the other hand, cheekily grinned at her before she turned her head to see where Jinyoung was taking her.

In the end, she was led to sit down on the couch after being told to wait. Jinyoung disappeared into the adjoining room while she was left to look around her. It was the first time she would see the inside of his office. The walls were sterile white with dark accentuations, similar to her office, but everything else was glass and metal apart from the leather couch. She smiled to herself, thinking how it suited his personality. Everything was neat, even his table which she imagined would be cluttered with files. No such thing was in sight.

Jinyoung came a few minutes later, bearing some ointment tubes, scissors, gauze and plasters, all of which he set on the center table. He sat on the couch beside Yuan, extending his hand to her, palm up. “Your arm.” He sounded and looked quite sullen.

Yuan looked down, hiding her scalded hand from him. “I’ll have it dressed at the consultation –”

“Nonsense.” He took her arm and stared at the extent of damage, clucking his tongue. He then proceeded picking up some cotton to get rid of the soup remnants on her hand. He sighed heavily while the scene days ago at the hospital entrance just kept playing in Yuan’s mind.

“You should be careful next time,” he told her.

“I wasn’t expecting that, Dr. Park,” she muttered under her breath, suddenly falling into a foul mood. Out of the blue, she remembered what he said