Dara

 

 

"Ah ah ah ah." Soohyuk yelped as he winced in pain, his voice higher at each small scream. I immediately let go of the sides of his lower abdomen.

 

 

"I didn't feel anything that can be causing your pain," I told him as I frowned. I gently reached at his stomach again, continuing the search for anything unusual.

 

 

Soohyuk, a student at the nearby college, was here for medical attention. I've seen plently of students who came here, faking an illness to get a doctor's note. Unfornately, I think he was serious because they never come with their parents.

 

 

"Hae young, do you see anything?" I asked, making use of the apprentice at my side.

 

 

I watched her eyes scan the screen of the laptop, searching for anything in his medical history that could tell us possible reasons.

 

 

"Nope, nothing. Even new pills prescribed to him are mild," she informed me as she shooked her head.

 

 

I ran my glove-covered hands once more over his stomach, confirming that there were no bumps or redness.

 

 

"It's not heirna. Doesn't show other important symptoms of cholecystitis either." I said, throwing away possibilities as Hae young checked them off my clipboard. 

 

 

I took off my stethoscope around my neck to put it on. I set the end of the medical instrument under his belly botton an strained my ears as I tried to hear any sounds of irregularities.

 

 

"Tell me if this hurts," I warned him as I gently pressed the end of the stethoscope against his stomach. Hearing no response, I dug deeper. Instead of his expected voice, a long, almost quiet, 'pffftt' cut the silence. Not even minutes after, a stench was floating through the air. It didn't take long to realize that he had farted.

 

 

I backed up away from him, taking the stethoscope off in the process. Hae young began to chuckle, making Soohyuk's face grow red. I looked at her and subtly shook my head, reminder her to stay professional as possible.

 

 

"Right, sorry." Hae young said. She coughed and opened the supply cupboard, using it block her from view as she quietly laughed while pretending to do something.

 

 

"My stomach doesn't hurt anymore." The young adult smiled in awkwardness, hugging his lower abdomen.

 

 

I fought off the laughter for my serious face to keep him from any further embarrassment.

 

 

"I'm sorry." Soohyuk's father said.

 

 

"No, worries." I assured the family, "if something doesn't feel right, you should always check it out."

 

 

They thanked me as they left the room. Once the door was closed, leaving Hae young and me alone, she closed the cupboard and burst out laughing.

 

 

I chuckled along. It's rare to find humor while I'm working. Being a doctor requires a lot of seriousness.

 

 

After showing Hae young how to tidy up the used room, I sent her off to another doctor with a patient where she can do extra training.

 

 

I was making my way back to my office when I bumped into Gummy. She was one of the full-time nurses of the hospital. Working side by side with each other almost every day brought us closer.

 

 

"Dara, I was just looking for you. Do you know which room they moved patient Lee Minwoo to?" She asked as she tried to multitask texting information of the patient to her colleagues and writing it down on her notepad.

 

 

"Nope. Sorry, you'll just have to ask Hyesung. I'm going to be off the clock for a bit." I told her tapping my watch.

 

 

"What?" She yelled, grabbing my wrist to check the time. Her brows grew huge as horror struck her face.

 

 

"Oh no! It's already four!"

 

 

"Yeah, Why?" I asked.

 

 

"I need to turn in the assignments to Dr.Kim!" Gummy shoved her notepad and phone into her pockets and began running towards the nurse's lounge.

 

 

"She's going to kill me now!" She yelled, passing wounded patients, worried visitors, and busy nurses who all threw her questioning looks.

 

 

Typical Gummy, I thought as I watched her run out of sight. I continued on my way to my office. On my desk, there was a carton of apple juice and a sticky note. The note read:

 

 

Drink up ~~ 

- Dong won :)

 

 

I smiled at the cute happy face drawn to the side. Dong won was one of the doctors that already worked here before I came. He was a few years older than me. He's known as  "the big brother" around the hospital since Dong won looks after his colleagues. There were times where he offered to take my shifts so that I could rest for a bit. I'm grateful to be working with him.

 

 

I switched my white doctor coat for my cardigan. I grabbed my purse, phone and the carton of apple juice as I head to the front of the hospital.

 

 

"Okay, I'm going out. See you in a bit." I told the lady, behind the front desk, who was in charge of the staff's schedule.

 

 

I walked out of the building and took a deep breath of fresh air, replacing the chemical smell of the hospital that was in my lungs. I stuck the small straw into the carton and took a sip, feeling relaxed.

 

 

Fortunately, there was a convenience store down a few blocks from the hospital. Almost every staff goes over there once in a while to pick up snacks for their tight shifts. I'm a regular there. My break only last 30 minutes, giving me enough time to walk the couple blocks, grab a few bags of chips and back. Taking my car to the place would take the full 30 minutes. The streets of Seoul was always crammed, as well as the sidewalks but it's more convenient.

 

 

When walking, I often look at the items displayed in the windows of the shops. Doing so help me avoid awkward eye contact with passing walkers. I stopped in front of the pet store, right next to the convenience store, waving at the interested puppy in the window. I smiled as a few of the puppy's sibling came over to greet me. The little brown dog stood up on its hind legs, with her two front paws against the window glass to hold herself upright, as she yapped.

 

 

Nearby, I could hear muffled sounds of an argument. It wasn't until I said goodbye to the puppies and made my way to the convenience store to see the debate was taking place in between the alleyway of the two shops.

 

 

The two men shouted at each other. One was shorter, rounder and older. The other was young, tall and muscular, not to mention very attractive. Their face was red, eyebrows were furrowed and their veins were popping out of their necks.

 

 

The verbal fight looked heated, at the edge of it getting physical, arms and hands moving as they yelled to make their point. The debate was going on in a different language, sounds like Japanese. Since I was unable to understand the situation, I decided not to interfere. Feeling uneasy, I moved forward to the store.

 

 

Jiyong

 

 

"I thought we had a truce!" I yelled, angrily at the man in front of me. "We were supposed to put our difference aside and work together until we landed a deal with the French!" 

 

 

"Then why were five of my best men killed, G dragon? You and your father were the only one who knew their exact location that night." Kyesang said, throwing accusations.

 

 

"And you knew where our men were that night too. They weren't around yours." I defended.

 

 

"How am I supposed to believed that? Do you think I'm stupid? Of course, you and your men would hold your part of the deal." 

 

 

This is ridiculous. I was just out, running errands for my grandmother when I ran into Yoon Kyesang. Somehow, I ended up in an alleyway, between a pet shop and a convenience store, arguing with Kyesang like a madman. My mother was right. Mafia business is messy. I should have left with her to England.

 

 

"Look, we can get to the bottom of this together. We still need to get the French's deal."

 

 

"No, Danny wouldn't like that." The way Kyesang mentioned his recently dead right-hand man sent chills down my back. He took a step closer to me, revealing his pocket knife.

 

 

"No, Kyesang. Not here, not now. We can work this out, just let me speak to the father." I said, firmly, as I slowly backed up and eyed the switchblade.

 

 

Dara

 

 

Walking into the store, the bell rang, informing the worker a customer had arrived.

 

 

"Hey, Dara." Mino, the recently new cashier, greeted me.

 

 

I come here so often that we were on a first name basis. Mino was a 17-year-old high school student, taking the cashier job to save some extra money for college. When she rings me up, we often chit-chat about new gossips and unusual events.

 

 

I waved and walked over to the middle aisle, knowing that's where the snacks were kept. I grabbed a bag of gummy worms and lemon lay chips. Before walking over to Mino, I stopped to grab a can of Coke.

 

 

"You are a doctor, right?" He asked me as he rang me up.

 

 

"Yes." I answered. "Why? Is something wrong?"

 

 

"No. I was just wondering why you always get unhealthy snacks? You know we have apples, carrot sticks, and water." Mino told me, bagging my items into a plastic bag after judging them.

 

 

"Hey! I work out." I told him, pretending to be offended.

 

 

"Really?" His eyebrows cocked up as he handed me the bag.

 

 

"Yeah, walking here and back is enough exercise."

 

 

Mino only shook his head and rolled his eyes. I looked down at my watch to see I had ten minutes left to make it back to the hospital. I said goodbye and headed out.

 

 

Stepping out, I noticed it was quiet. I walked past the alleyway and stopped to see that the two men that were fighting were now gone. They probably brought the argument inside or settled it. I was about to walk off when I heard a groan of pain. My concern caused me to looked back into the alley.

 

 

On the ground was one of the two men from earlier.

 

 

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