“We have an incoming!” Kim Heechul the head nurse just got dispatched by 119 and relayed the message to Choi Sooyoung, who happened to walk pass him after finishing her patient’s chart and was about to grab some coffee. It was a rather busy night at Seoul Memorial Hospital. They were pretty much outstaffed that weekend. Henry Lau was away for a conferrence in Jeju and Lee Sunny suddenly called in sick, leaving only Sooyoung and Minho to cover the whole holy ground of ER.

“What’s happening?” Sooyoung put on some latex gloves and briefly glanced at the huge digital clock on their wall. s always happen in the wee hours of the morning, she minded herself. She could hear the familiar wail of siren nearing from distance.

“Car accident they said,” Heechul stood by her side, ready to welcome the new patient.

The ER door burst opened, followed by a gurney pushed by two EMTs and an army soldier who was rhythmically pressing the ambulatory bag attached to the patient’s endotracheal tube.

Sooyoung looked around and pointed at the only vacant trauma bay at that time.

“Trauma six!”

“A hit-and-runner, female in her twenties, possible head injury with blunt thoracal trauma,” one of the EMTs was rapidly firing information, “GCS five. Vitals are stable, oxygen saturation above ninety after he performed an emergency chest decompression with a pen…”

“Hold on,” Sooyoung stopped in her track trying to digest his words, “Who did what?”

Though heroic it might sound, she thought the idea of stabbing chest with a pen only existed in fictional universe.

“Flail chest on her right. I had to do that for a temporary measure, they didn’t carry any large bore needle. It’s a tension pneumothorax,” the soldier raised his head and only then Sooyoung had a better view of his face.

She drew a sharp breath at the sight in front of her. It had been too long since the last time she saw him. Never occurred to her that a day like this could eventually come. She didn’t realize she had been frozen in place until she heard him calling.

“Come on, Soo,” the soldier nudged his head as they arrived at trauma bay number six, “Help me move this patient.”

Sooyoung snapped out of her trance and immediately joined them.

“On my count of three. One, two, three!” she led the patient transfer from gurney to the examination table and everyone worked in sync connecting the patient to the monitor, providing fluids and oxygen.

“V-fib! BP’s dropping!” Heechul alerted them.

Sooyoung placed her Littmann on the patient’s chest, “Her heart sounds muffled.”

“I’ll get the crash cart,” said Heechul.

“There’s no need to. It’s a cardiac tamponade,” the soldier grabbed a portable ultrasound device nearby and set it on the patient. “Just get me a fifty mililiters syringe and a large bore catheter.”

“Hey-” Heechul tried to warn him for being too involved, but Sooyoung cut him.

“That’s okay, Heechul. He knows what he’s doing,” she whispered.

“Do you know him?” Heechul didn’t hide his suspicion. He was sure he heard the soldier casually called Sooyoung by her nickname.

“Sort of,” Sooyoung sneaked a look at the soldier, quick enough to caught a sneer on his face at her vague answer.

“Hey, Heechul, right? It’s Captain Choi Siwon. Doctor Choi and I are pretty familiar with each other. I serve as an army doctor myself. Should you require any credentials, I’d love to connect you to my superior. But unfortunately we don’t have that much time,” he blatantly explained. “Now that you know who I am, would you kindly get me the syringe I asked you, please? We’ve got a patient to save here. A pericardial tapping is due pronto.”

Sooyoung bit her tongue from retorting back. Did he just announce their relationship to everyone in this room?

Heechul glanced at his side. Even with the mask on he could tell Sooyoung was anything but amused.

“Oh, and someone should page the thoracic surgeon and contact her family too. Multiple ribs fracture. She might need a surgery,” Siwon added.

…

Sooyoung quietly watched Siwon worked while assissting him.

He was as good as she remembered, if not better. Years of working in conflicted areas as an army medic had done him good. A simple pericardiocentesis like this one was something he could do with closed eyes. She watched as his trained hands smoothly pulled the now filled syringe out of the patient’s chest and grinned in satisfaction.

“BP’s increasing,” Heechul monitored closely, “Heart rhythm’s back to sinus. Well done, Captain.”

“I’m going to insert a chest tube now,” Sooyoung made a small incision on the right lateral side of the patient’s chest, “Any news from her family?”

“They’re on their way,” the EMT answered, taking it as their cue to leave. “We’re good here?”

“Yeah yeah, thank you for the good work,” Sooyoung nodded without looking. She was in the middle of pushing a trocar-guided chest tube into the patient’s pleural cavity. Once it got in, she withdrew the trocar and connected the chest tube into a water-sealed drainage system.

“Heechul, would you please get her a brain and chest CT? I’ll talk to her family once they get here.”

“Sure thing, Doctor Choi.”

She took off her gloves, “Have you paged the on-call thoracic surgeon?”

“Doctor Kim’s in the OR, he’ll come down after he finishes.”

Sooyoung patted the nurse’s arm in appreciation, “Thanks, Heechul, what would I do without you.”

She left trauma six and went out with Siwon following behind. Once the cool dawn air hit her face and there were just the two of them, she turned to him and shot the question she had been itching to ask.

“What’s the deal?”

“What does that mean?”

“Why did you decide to show up here?”

“Are we really having this conversation now? Look, I can’t just drive pass through knowing there was someone badly injured, not when I know I can do something.”

“Oh, come on,” Sooyoung groaned, “This is not even the closest hospital in the proximity.”

“It’s the biggest, Soo. She’s going to need all the help she could get.”

Siwon stared her hard in the eyes for one second and shook his head, “… and yes, I was hoping maybe I could see you because I knew you’d be here.”

Sooyoung didn’t miss a glimpse of ache when he admitted it. Deep in the back of her head she knew Choi Siwon was there to see her. She too, felt her stomach churning. Both of them drew a long sigh as they became quiet.

When Siwon watched the wind played with Sooyoung’s shoulder-length hair and the light from the LED lamps glowed on her small face, he couldn’t help but think of how pretty she was. Still as pretty as he remembered.

“Good to know that you’re doing well with your life,” he said, finally breaking the silence. But Sooyoung’s page went off before she could reply.

“Gotta go, her parents’ are here,” she dismissed herself but stopped midway at his next words.

“I never say this easily, not to you at least,” his deep voice resonated, “I’m truly sorry for what happened between us.”

…

“You are right,” Kim Youngkwang, thirty three, was the thoracic surgery department’s star athlete. He could easily be spotted in the crowd, being a tall, brooding figure with handsome, chiseled face and lean, muscular built. With a face fit for a model, little did people know that he had always been a self-made man. His strong work ethic, talents, skills, and intelligence were powerful combination that propelled him to where he was now. He proved his worth as SMH’s best thoracic surgeon in a matter of few years despite of his age. Eventhough he wasn’t exactly the friendliest person, being well-known as cold and distant, he was the guy you turn to when a difficult case of lung injury, con heart disease, or even conjoined twins ensues.

“She’s gonna need those ribs fixed. Maybe a pericardial window as well, depends on how bad the bleeding. Send her up after her family signs consent.”

The radiology room was dimly lit, the only other source of light around them was coming from the computer monitor in front of them. He scrolled down the entire chest CT scan of the hit-and-run victim for the last time.

“Thanks for doing this on short notice, Youngkwang. I’m going to prep her for surgery then,” Sooyoung took the patient’s chart.

“The pen-thing was genius,” Youngkwang turned to her looking fascinated, “Did you find out who did that?”

“No,” the lie naturally slid out of her tongue without any second thought.

“It was done neatly and calculated. Whoever did that must’ve been a very skillful medical provider. She was lucky,” Youngkwang rubbed his chin pensievely, “Oh, anyway, Soo?”

“Yes?”

“Have you heard? The board is going to hire a new ER doctor. He’s an SNU graduate, an army medic they said. He just came back from a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.”

Sooyoung’s heart dropped at the news.

Youngkwang’s brows creased, he caught her feebling a bit.  “You alright? You look pale.”

“Yeah, I-I think I’m just tired,” she quickly replied. “It’s only me and Minho tonight.”

Youngkwang was not into displaying affections in workplace, but his gaze softened.

“I’ll finish this quick and then we can go home together,” he promised her.

…

Monday was fast approaching. Exactly by 6.30 am Sooyoung, who had just finished her second night shift in a row, came freshly showered and seated herself at the third row of the hospital auditorium for their weekly staff meeting. Youngkwang joined her a few minutes later with a cup of steaming hot coffee in which she received gratefully.

“You’re doting on her too much, Doctor Kim,” teased Sunny who sat one row behind them.

“Get yourself a boyfriend who’ll get your morning coffee if you’re that jealous,” Henry grinned and plopped himself beside Sunny, “Someone like me, for example.”

Sunny rolled her eyes.

“Good  morning, peeps! Here, have some,” he cheerfully greeted and handed each one of them tangerines he brought form his Jeju trip. He saw Minho arrived by the door and waved excitedly.

“Yo, Minho, catch this!” he threw a tangerine to Minho’s direction. The youngest of them all, although startled, managed to catch it by instant reflex just in time. He swiftly made his way to a seat beside Sooyoung.

“I bumped into the new ER guy while waiting for the elevator just now. A chill dude. He’s pretty cool,” he told them.

“Is he good-looking?” Sunny asked.

“If you mean by good looking is tall, has square jaw, neatly trimmed facial hair with crescent eye smile and dimples on both cheeks, then I guess he is.”

“Eww, you’re so gay,” Henry made a face.

Minho shrugged.

Monday mornings were the only time of the week where doctors from all departments of Seoul Memorial Hospital got together led by the hospital director himself. Sixty six years old Lee Sooman was a brilliant general surgeon who was retired from the operating theatre to focus more on hospital managerial work. It was lesser known to public, but he was also Sunny’s paternal uncle though Sunny would cunningly deny it had someone asked her.

The usual staff meeting consisted of difficult case presentations that required certain multi-disciplinary procedures, then proceeded to exchanging latest updates in the hospital and sometimes introducing a new staff if there was any.

That morning the staff meeting began in reverse order.

Everybody ceased talking when Lee Sooman entered the auditorium accompanied by a male in his thirties. He stood by the podium, adjusted the microphone to his preferred height, and gestured to the male beside him.

“We already knew that our ER is currently outstaffed and I couldn’t think of a better candidate for an extra pair of help other than him,” he began his speech, “He was one of my best pupils at the SNU medschool and I’ve heard great stories from his superiors in the army medical corp. He is no doubt an emergency medicine expert. I was thrilled when he gladly accepted my offer to join us here at the SMH. Everyone, please give your warmest welcome to Captain Choi Siwon.”

Everyone, especially the women, clapped excitedly at the sight of a new eye-candy. Choi Siwon, looking dapper in shirts and dress pants underneath his white coat, bowed ninety degrees at the audience.

“How come he never told me anything about him?” Sunny shook her head in disbelief while not so discreetly oogling him like the rest of the female there.

“Duh, why would he?” Henry scowled. He was bothered by her reaction.

“Thank you,” Siwon’s eyes roamed the room, searching for something – or someone, and stopped right at Sooyoung’s, who was intentionally looking at anywhere but the front. He knew she felt him staring because he saw a smear of blush on her cheeks. Right then he decided two can play this game. “Oh, and please, since this is not my base, it's either Doctor Choi or just Siwon.”

He managed to charm the crowds within seconds with his confidence and light humor.

"He received an exemplary award from the president after his last deployment in Lebanon. It can't be more obvious that your uncle wants good publicity for the hospital by hiring him. He's killing two birds with one stone," Henry scrolled down his phone.

"I don't know which one is more unsettling, her uncle hiring him for publicity stunt or you google-searching his name," Minho chided. 

​​​​​​Henry claimed in his defense. "He's going to work with us. No harm in doing some background checks."

“Hei, Soo,” Sunny nudged Sooyoung, “He’s a Choi, do you guys happen to be somehow related?”

“Nope. Not at all.”

Youngkwang felt her shoulder tensed a bit, but pretended to not notice. The words of what happened on Saturday night, about a certain army doctor who claimed himself well acquainted with his girlfriend doing a pericardiocentesis, traveled fast and he had actually been waiting for her to tell him personally but she never did. He didn’t want to push her though – she seemed a little off after that. He decided to give her some space and keep it to himself.

…