April 2014

“Lee Seokmin to Dr. Jung.”

“Kim Mingyu to Dr. Song.”

“Myoi Mina to Dr. So.”

“Jeon Jungkook to Dr. Lee.”

This is our first day of internship in the best Hospital here in South Korea, Samsung Medical Hospital.

We are currently in our last semester of third year in Medical school. And at this point, we should be taking practical lessons, hence, here we are taking our internship which will last for a year.

My parents are both renowned Doctors of the country which made the expectations on me truly high. And luckily, I haven’t disappointed them, just yet. I was placed first in the recently concluded Medical Mock Exam and if I may just brag, my younger sister, Jeon Somi won the science international competition held in Japan last month which earned a lot of praises and attention from the public and the media tagging our family as the future of Medicine in the country.

Now you see, there’s no way I am allowed to fail.

Not even once.

That’s why even though this is just an internship my father consistently reminds me to “Do well and make a good impression.”

And being assigned as the intern of the best Surgical Oncologist is definitely an honor and a pressure on me.

“Good morning, Jeon Jungkook and Kang Seulgi.” Ms. Lee Young-Ae greets us as she reads our profiles. “Ohh, the best students of Sungkyunkwan University. It’s my pleasure to teach you both.” Her eyebrows then lift up and she looks up at me “So, you’re the famous son of the Jeons.”

“Good morning, Dr. Lee.” We bowed at her 90 degrees. “We’ll be in your care from now on.” We both say in unison

She then smiled at me. “Let’s not waste any of our time. I’ll assign you two to two different patients.”

We were guided to the first patient, a young girl who’s diagnosed with stage 3 Leukemia.

We then watched Dr. Lee as she approached the young girl, “So-wonie, how are you?” the girl responded with a bright smile and enthusiasm "Hi, Dr!" she greets while hugging her bear tightly.

"How was your day? Did you play a lot?" she questions.

The girl's smile grew wider "Yes! Chaeyoung unnie designed my doll house. It's so beautiful."

"Oh, really?" Dr. Lee asks smiling at the young girl "You seem to really love your unnie huh?" she .

The little girl just nods her head "So much!!!"

With that, Seulgi and I can't help but smile while watching the two. This little girl's adorable but something that caught my attention broke my heart, she's KAL SO-WON, 8 y/o, Stage 3 Leukemia.

"This is Seulgi unnie, she'll be your newest playmate from now on. Come on, greet her."

So-wonie stared at Seulgi for a while until Seulgi bends down to the young girl's level and greets her as well, "Hi!! How are you? Let's be friends, okay?"

It seemed like the little girl found Seulgi adorable cause she immediately hugged her and gave her kisses.

Dr. Lee and I smiled at the sight. "Hmm, it seems like you easily grabbed her heart. So, Jeon and I will go to the next patient." she said as she caressed the head of the little girl.

While walking towards the next room, I heard Dr. Lee muttered "Tss, I hope she has not prepared some naughty tricks this time."

Tricks?

Oh, this may be a more playful little girl. I hope I have some patience for this.

As Dr. Lee entered the room, we were welcomed by an empty space. I roam my eyes around trying to look for the little girl, Dr. lee then called out, “Chaeyoungie, come out now. Dr. Lee is here."

And to our, mostly my surprise, a not-so-little girl come out from under the bed and shouted "BOOM!"

She is covered with paint, her hair is all over her face and a wide smile plastered on her face.

"Chaeyoung-ah, didn't I tell you to not go under the bed? What if your head bumps and bleeds?"

The girl stands, whoa, she's almost as tall as I am, and fixes her hair while pouting.

"But it's warmer below. I'm freezing, look." she says while acting like she's shivering.

Dr. Lee laughed at this girl's antics, while here I am standing, frozen in place.

Is she really going to be the patient assigned to me?

Just then, Dr. Lee assisted her to lie down her bed and cleaned her face with wet cloth. Right after that, she turned to me the said "Park Chaeyoung, this is my intern who'll be in charge of you from now on." Dr. Lee informed this bright and beautiful girl infront of us.

The girl just looked intently at me. "Jeon Jungkook." she reads my name plate attached to my lab coat.

"So, you're the future of Medicine?" she tilts her head at the side and showed me a playful grin.

But despite the strong facade she's showing me, her words carry sadness and fear that I did not fail to notice. "Tell me, how long can you extend my life?"

I turn my gaze at the board above her head, and there written, PARK CHAEYOUNG, 22 y/o, Stage 3 Leukemia.

"Hey, stop with your silly questions Chaeyoungie, you'll live longer, okay?" Dr. Lee tries to soothe her.

She just chuckled a little "Okay Dr. Lee. I trust you." She smiled at Dr. Lee.

"Okay, now, I want the two of you to be comfortable with each other." Dr. Lee starts, then turns to me "I'll leave her in your care, Jungkook-ssi." and before leaving the two of us alone, she handed me a pck of candies as she whispers "This might help you."

I gulp so hard before I face this girl, I cleared my throat "Good morning Ms. Park."

She looks at me as if studying me while hugging her knees. "So, how old are you?" I was taken aback with her question.

"Uhm, 22."

Her eyes then lighten up, "We're just the same age? Daebak!" she clasped her hands together, "Whoa, we're just the same age but I'm here as your patient." she chuckled.

And without an idea, she gets something from under her pillow and there, she aimed her water gun at me. I was so shocked that I wasn't able to shield myself from her continuous shots.

She was laughing so hard while I was there standing, soaked in water. I look at her with wide eyes, she looked so happy, happy to probably have found a victim.

I just take a deep breath and forced my lips to curve into a smile, "Whoa, I really enjoyed that. That's a nice gun, huh?" I say, my hands on my hips, shaking my head still in disbelief that I just got wet on my very first day.

"I hope you enjoyed that as well." I said sarcastically.

She just raised her brows and nod her head nonchalantly, "Oh yeah, I did. Thank you very much." she answered.

Oh . I could feel this girl still has a lot of tricks saved for me.

"How was it?" Dr. Lee checks on me as I enter her office to submit my report for the day.

"It.." I paused for a moment, denying to remember the hell I've been in today, "It's fine."

She then laughed at me, "You don't have to lie. The nurses and I, myself, can attest as to how playful she is."

I just scratched the back of my neck as I think about what happened today.

While trying to give her the medicine she should be taking, I failed to notice what her hands are doing. I just turn to her when she exclaimed "Whoa! I didn't know pink looks good on lab coats!"

. What has she done?

I check the side of my coat and to my horror, I found a pink unicorn drawn on it.

"What the !" I wasn't able to stop my mouth from blurting out.

She looks taken aback for a moment, "Di-did you just say a bad word?" she says, acting so pitiful and horrified with my words.

Okay, if there is someone to be horrified here, it should be me.

I take a deep breath and calmly ask her, though I'm sure my nose is flaring in anger. "Why did you write on my coat?"

"Because I think it's pretty." she says.

"But did you know that I should maintain this clean?" I retort back.

She just rolled her eyes, "You should keep your mouth clean first!" She then brings the blanket over her head, refusing to show her face to me again.

I tug on the blanket as I called out to her, "Ms Park, please drink your medicines." No matter how much I try, she's not even budging.

Ugh. Just then, I saw the pack of candies Dr. Lee left.

I bite my lip before trying the only solution I have in mind. "Ms. Park. I have some candies in here."

And I was startled when she suddenly pulled the blanket down till her chin, "Give me some."

I almost chuckle with how childish she is. But still, I kept my professional persona. "But, you have to take these first." I showed her the tablets and capsules she has to take.

She stubbornly rolled her eyes on me and muttered "Whatever." But still took the medicines in my hand and drank some water.

When she's done, she brought out her palm, "Give me my candies."

I chuckled quietly and hand her the candies.

"She drew that?" Dr. Lee pointed at the unicorn on my uniform.

I just nod my head and answered "Yes ma'am."

But instead of getting mad, she just laughed a little louder this time, "She loves painting."

I glance up at her, curiosity overpowering me.

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