Chapter Three.                                           

Back to work, Dr.Song!

..

"I love you, baby," Baekhyun cooed as he bade Soojung goodbye while Hana cringed, yet again, at the couple's sweetness. She anyway had a lot of things to do, so she left the couple alone and went into her room. Dr. Zhang had a very important surgery lined up and she wished to assist him. But she could only wish.

"Mr.Kim, aged 45 years old, presented with abdominal discomfort. Symptoms were thought to be secondary to IBD or GERD, was started on Prilosec. Symptoms persisted despite Prilosec. He now has remarkably elevated LFTs and full-fledged jaundice.

Abdominal Ultrasound revealed enlargement of the head of Pancreas. Follow up CT scan confirmed mass in HOP 4.5X2cm with dilatation of the intra-hepatic and pancreatic ducts."

Yixing nodded his head as he heard his intern reporting the case.

"What's the diagnosis?" he asked in his usual stern voice which Hana was mildly terrified of. She noted how taut his face was. Did he ever smile? She had only seen him smirking, most of the times at her, which sent chills down her spine. She shrugged her thoughts off, wanting to concentrate on the case. Besides, it was none of her concern if he smiled or not; he could do whatever he wanted to.

"Adenocarcinoma." 

"How about the TNM? Any Mets?"

"No, Dr. Zhang." The intern, Hwang Sara, looked at him expectantly, thinking he'd ask her to scrub in on the surgery. That was one of the reasons all the interns were early today. All of them wanted to assist Dr. Zhang, because they knew that a Whipple procedure was quite rare, the cases came once in a blue moon and they may never receive any more opportunities to learn. Besides, who'd want to miss a surgery performed by the eminent Dr. Zhang? He did everything so meticulously that it left everyone in awe. Until now, Hana had only managed to witness a few surgeries from the gallery on top of the OR, and she had to admit that the view wasn't really that great. Nothing would ever compare to standing right beside Dr. Zhang while he put his skilled hands to work and saved a life.

"Hmm... what do you suggest we do Dr. Hwang?"

"Uhm... we can do the Whipple procedure, Dr. Zhang. And resect the tumor."

"And what could be the complications?" he questioned, in order to test his interns.

"Weight loss is a frequent complication. Diabetes. In general, many people do very well after the Whipple procedure," she beamed with pride as she answered his question. She had probably spent the entire night cramming, Hana thought. It wasn't like she was so different herself, she had stayed up all night, going through the case file.

She knew she didn't have any chance of scrubbing in today. She groaned slightly, so much for staying up all night to study the case, she won't even get to see it.

"Anything else?" Yixing turned to look at his interns. "You missed out something very important Dr.Hwang. 

Dr. Song... What do you think it is?" 

Hana's eyes widened as his eyes caught hers, she cleared to answer him. She knew it, she had been reading about it all night. She wondered how Sara had missed out on something so simple and basic. Would she be able to scrub in if she answered him? She had to seize this chance, she thought.

"Well, there could be leaking of pancreatic juice from the incision. But we can always insert a drain through the skin to allow drainage," she answered, her voice sounding a lot squeakier than usual. She wondered if it had anything to do with Dr. Zhang's intense stares.

"Correct...Dr.Hwang, prep the patient and scrub in. Meet me in the OR."

Sara smirked in triumph as she followed Dr. Zhang out of the patient's room, while Hana was slightly disappointed. Maybe Dr. Zhang had already made up his mind on whom to pick. She was about to turn and go on rounds when he called out to her.

"And Dr.Song...a double espresso, no cream, no sugar." He waved a 5000 won note to hand it over to a flustered Hana, while the others sniggered more.

'That jerk' she cursed mentally. She just couldn't understand what she had done wrong. He seemed to treat the others with respect, while she was treated like his personal maid. What had she ever done to him?

"I'll get it Hana," Kyungsoo said grabbing the note from Hana's hand.

"You seem tired. Go take a nap in the on-call room. I'll wake you up in half an hour."

"It's alright Kyungsoo-ah," she said as she sighed dejectedly. "I'd get into more trouble if you get him coffee and not me. I'll go fetch it myself."

With slumped shoulders she made her away to the cafe across the hospital, because Dr. Zhang apparently couldn't drink