"Where's Nayeon Im? I'm her girlfriend."

Jeongyeon didn't recognize the lady at the counter that stared back at her. Her extreme tiredness was wearing her sight out. You The woman didn't recognize Jeongyeon either, giving her a peculiar stare. She tightened her grip on the click board, scanning down the list in a jiffy, snapping back up.

"Umm ma'am...There doesn't seem to be anyone checked in wi—"

Just in time, Dr. Fan walked through the doors with a clipboard of her own. She noticed Jeongyeon and approached her straightaway, an unreadable look on her face.

"Jeongyeon, there you are."

"Dr. Fan! Please tell me everything," Jeongyeon asked in a panic.

Jeongyeon was a mess and looked like one, tripping on air as she met the doctor halfway. Slamming her hands down on her shoulders to try and keep herself upright.

Dr. Fan wondered how long Jeongyeon would get here, not expecting Chaeyoung to be with her, sitting in the corner, looking stout. Both of them looked distressed, to say the least. She cleared , helping Jeongyeon up to listen to her properly.

"I'm afraid I have some news."








 

Jeongyeon was anticipating for Dr. Fan to continue, but it felt like she was hesitating. The atmosphere around the three was a concoction of agitation and worry, a recipe for panic at the hospital. But such attitudes were common in a hospital setting. Dr. Fan's eyes switched between Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung, looking like human forms of a tumbleweed.

She grabbed the inside of her coat with caution and nervously gulped.

"Which would you like to hear? The good news or the bad news or the semi-good and semi-bad news?"

It was a setup to a well-worn genre of joke, but it was no laughing matter. The information that Dr. Fan was a bit dire that she didn't know how to give it to the two without tearing them down. Inevitably, it couldn't be helped. Jeongyeon's emotionally tired state was instantly changed when the last part of the question was asked.

Semi-good? Semi-bad? What the hell was she talking about? Which one do I choose first? Do I want to be relieved first and then get slapped in the face? Or get slapped and have some ice put on my cheek? Or both at the same time? Gahh-

The internal battle she had about weighing her options was overpowered by the answer that came out of . Although quite confused on her given choices, Jeongyeon thought that the last one was ambiguous, meaning her reaction could go either way.

"The last one doesn't sound so bad."

Dr. Fan stared at Jeongyeon's tear-stained cheek, gritting her teeth while trying to pick her words like she was playing a game of Mineshaft. She needed to choose the spaces that were safe and would not cause an explosion in the waiting room. But that couldn't be helped either.

Briskly inhaling then exhaling a deep sigh, Dr. Fan looked back at Jeongyeon before glancing at a dazed Chaeyoung, drumming on her lap. The next thing she knew, Chaeyoung popped right next to her friend, appearing shorter than Dr. Fan thought.

"Hey, Jeong. What's the news?"

Jeongyeon gave Chaeyoung a dead-serious glare. "I haven't received anything yet." She returned to looking at Dr. Fan, ignoring Chaeyoung completely.

Continuing before she could even start. "Your friend's condition's is very unstable. She was in a car accident. Through the several tests that we did earlier, she appears to not be showing any signs of activity. In addition, there are clear signs of brain damage...that should be obvious. The force from the impact also affected part of here cerebrum, or brain stem."

Jeongyeon's chest ached, gripping on to her musty uniform, the tips of her knuckles overflowing into a pasty white color. Her knees were beginning to buck so Chaeyoung offered herself as a boulder and Jeongyeon woefully grabbed on to her. The shorter girl had a hard time keeping Jeongyeon up. The waterfall came rolling soon after.

"N-Nabongs.." Jeongyeon achingly choked through her tears. Desperately trying not to seem like she was struggling to pick Jeongyeon up, Chaeyoung took all the strength she had from wiping down counters to lead Jeongyeon to sit down.

Dr. Fan was stumped for a few seconds, hearing Jeongyeon. It hit her that Jeongyeon didn't fully understand what she told her. Sighing again and not wanting to give explain the bad news, she knew she had to clear up the air with the two. Breaking bad news for the second time and within the span of three minutes. Must be a new record. Great job, Doc.

"Umm.." Lowering her top half to catch the two's attention and it worked. "It isn't Nayeon, Jeongyeon."

Simultaneously, their heads shot up like canons. The size of their pupils expanded thrice their size and Dr. Fan had to keep her notice to herself. Jeongyeon removed her face from her hands with a flabbergasted scowl on her face. Snot that was starting to drip out was wiped away by her sleeve. 

 

All through the hospital, it was quiet. Everything had been settled and the patients were situated in their rooms. The only noise that went inside was the sounds of crying within the hospital's very own mourning room where families' could go into a room within that room and cry their hearts out. The rooms were completely soundproof, in respect for the people's privacy. Other than that, it was silent.

In a flash, the EMTs bolted through the doors with the body on the gurney.

"Due to this one's severe head injuries and facial disfigurement, we couldn't identify her. Height is 165 centimeters. Looks about to be 18 years old," he yelled as they moved.

A woman behind the counter wrote everything down. It was her job to when a patient comes in to keep a record of it. Her pen was always ready in her hands. She left the name blank since the victim was not identified yet. She'd have to go back to it later.

"Get her to the OR. Stat!"

They crashed through another set of doors that lead to the operating room, where she would be prepped for surgery.

"She looks pretty mashed one." One of the doctors that came commented as she put on her gloves. The pair arranged the whole set up, putting in a tube down and starting up machines.

"Yeah, how did it get this bad?" Her colleague asked, making a mental note to himself. He pushed up his glasses, his nose already sprouting sweat.

"There appears to be internal hemorrhaging...golly, her brain's swollen."

She grimaced for a couple of seconds, staring at the gruesome sight in front of her hands. Her coworker stared at what she was looking at and understood her painful expression. He had never seen such a mess.

Lowering her mask, she went out of the room to yell out.

"We need Doctor Fan over. Stat!"

Dr. Fan immediately prepared her getup before entering the operating room. The whole process was lengthy and cumbersome.

But with Dr. Fan's quick-witted thinking and the cooperation of her colleagues, they were able to clean up the person as much as possible.

The group of exhausted doctors blew out a sigh, glad to be done with the whole thing. The patient was then transported to another room.

More machines were plugged in and and additional tests were run by Doctor Fan after she cleaned herself up.

Looking down at her clipboard, seeing the results made her seething with dejection.

They were what she expected at all, especially because she knew she did everything with precise attentiveness.

A nurse came in to accompany her, holding a folder that Doctor Fan was hoping would by the patient's file.

"Updates on the identity of this patient?"

The looked at her and shook her head.

"I'm afraid not yet, Doctor Fan. Police are still at the scene, looking for more clues."

Doctor Fan sighed, shutting her eyes.

   "Nevermind. It's probably no use. Even if we did get a hold of her family, the chances of her survival are slim to nothing. The impact of the crash was quite critical. She also lost a lot of blood."
She looked away from the nurse and placed her sad gaze on the patient.
   "The possibility of regaining consciousness is narrowing."

At that very second, a knock interrupted their conversation.

A police officer peeked through the door, seeing if he cut into something.

"Excuse me? Is this the room of the unidentified woman that was involved in the car crash at the intersection today?"

Doctor Fan turned to face him, her arms folded in waiting.

"Indeed. I am Doctor Celine Fan. What news do you have for us, officer?"

The cop briefly nodded and glanced at the patient.

He cleared his throat, feeling woozy at the sight of the person's condition.

"We figured out who the woman is."

He pulled out a plastic bag and handed it to Dr. Fan who fetched it pretentiously.

"This was found lying around at the scene so we picked it up. It turns out to be the wallet of the victim. She also recently registered as an organ donor."

Dr. Fan walked over to a cabinet, fishing for a pair of latex gloves. She slapped them on before diving into the contents of the bag.

Pulling out the wallet and donor card, she looked at the card for a second and nodded, moving on to check the inside of the wallet.

There were more cards and a couple of dollars in it. A school ID caught her attention and she examined it, her face falling shocked.

So she goes to Nayeon and Jeongyeon's school, as well. And they're in the same grade.

"This ID is a school ID from Seoul High School.

"Who is she, doctor?"

Staring at the card intently, a bit of worry glinting in her eyes.

"Her name is—"


































































 

"Mina Myoui."

Dr. Fan wasn't sure if she was pronouncing the last name correctly. But she was confident in saying it anyway.

Chaeyoung was the one to break down this time. Her eyes dramatically grew larger, fluttering many times. Not saying anything, dead silent. She didn't know how to act, what to say, what to think in this situation.

"Mina? You mean my Mina? I—"

"T-then, where the heck is Nayeon?"

As if on cue, a bark sounded odd from the corner. They all turned their heads to see Nayeon standing there, her head stuck up in the air, perplexed. She was listening in to the voices that were talking, wondering if she actually heard