The emergency department was crowded that night. The hospital needed all hands on deck to treat the MVC patients; even Tiffany, who was supposed to officially start her first day tomorrow as the new head of OB/GYN, was doing absolutely everything she can to save lives like everyone else.

Jessica and Taeyeon’s argument ended prematurely. It could’ve been worse if you’re accustomed with Taeyeon’s temper, but there were more important things to tend to than their five-year grudge, they were surgeons after all.

The department of Neurosurgery was understaffed that night and Taeyeon was currently running the place: being paged left and right for consults as Hyoyeon was already on another case. Unfortunately for Jessica, she was in the same room as her again.

“Where’s the other Dr Kim?” asked Jessica to one of the nurses as she caught sight of her superior stepping in the trauma room. The fellow was too occupied to notice her resident wanting to replace her already.

“Dr Kim, this is Yoon-hee. 16 years old and she’s suffering from sustained cervical spine injury and was hypotensive on the scene. She complained of pain in the lower abdomen…” an intern briefed the doctor in charge.

“Did you take her to CT yet?” Taeyeon wore her gloves and shone a light to the unconscious teenager’s pupils. They’re still responsive.

“Yes, ma’am,”

“Dr Jung,” she called her flatly, as if they weren’t out for each other’s blood half an hour ago.

“Y-yes?” she responded from the corner of the room. She was stunned from hearing her name come out of Taeyeon’s mouth in a calm tone unlike before.

“Can you page Dr Kwon? The patient may need surgery for this,”

“But we don’t have the scans yet,” puzzled Jessica. She wonders what makes Taeyeon so sure that the patient needs Dr Kwon, a general surgeon, when she specializes in neuro.

“Just trust me on this,” she insisted.

For someone who needs anger management, Taeyeon seems to be holding up to her name during this stressful night in the hospital. Are there other sides of her that Jessica doesn’t know?

The elevator dings and the doors slid open to the PACU where Yuri was last seen supervising her residents.

“Dr Kwon,” Jessica rushed to the nurses’ station, out of breath from zooming out of the elevator.

“You’re the one who paged?” Yuri said as she signed papers on the desk.

Jessica stood in awe as she noticed how her attending looks so much younger than she had imagined. She meekly nodded. I am an ajumma… she thought to herself.

“Miss Jessica, I know your family is one of the most powerful people in South Korea. Don’t look at me like I’m your boss,” Yuri chuckled.

“You are, though,” she replied.

“That’s true, but I should be the one intimidated by you,” she shrugged.

“I won’t be scary if you keep my other identity to yourself,” Jessica jokingly negotiated with her lips pursed.

“I won’t, Dr Jung,” Yuri laughed once more. “Now what did you want me for?”

The pair casually arrived to the trauma room together and Taeyeon was grinding her teeth with impatience. “What took you guys so long?”

“We stopped by to see the scans,”

“Great, take her to surgery now,” she ordered. Jessica was left dumbfounded.

One of the interns booked an OR and the rest of the staff began prepping the patient for a laparoscopic hernia repair by which Taeyeon had perfectly guessed from only a few overt symptoms.

The team—that now has Jessica as Yuri’s right hand on the emergency surgery—were wheeling the patient to the elevator. The doors closed and she whispered to Yuri, “How are you guys so chill when Dr Kim keeps ordering everyone?”

“Oh, no one’s told you yet?” Dr Kwon replied in shock, as if Jessica was from another planet.

“About what?”

“She’s called an ‘ace’ around here since she was an intern,”

Jessica scoffed almost too loudly.

“I’m serious. Taeyeon knows all about the medical specialties and her hunches are usually correct, like this one,” Yuri was referring to their patient. The resident has a hard time believing her.

Great. She suddenly got a history lesson about her new enemy at work.

Meanwhile, Taeyeon was using her smoke break to hate-stalk Jessica on a search engine. She doesn’t know if she was doing it to potentially blackmail her or if she was just curious about what the director of Jung Foundation was up to in the last 5 years since her career went down the drain.

Birthday. Age. Blood type. Zodiac sign. None of which were useful to her but she read them anyway.

Jung Sisters, Jessica and Krystal, reported to have a reality show in the works [2014]

Jessica Jung’s Plans for Marriage, Favorite Desserts, And More! [2015]

When the Ice Princess Melts [2015]

Out of curiosity, she taps on the last headline.

“The first daughter of the Jung Family, whose name everyone is certainly sick of by now: Jessica. Unlike her sister, Miss Jung had received quite a huge blow from dating scandals with the CEO of a music label, to getting lawsuits from her former employees because they weren’t paid enough.

“The financial manager and model had the nerve to call up her lawyer and deny all allegations, but everyone knows they’re true.”

“Of course, it’s written by a man,” Taeyeon spat in disgust. She may hate her hoobae right now, but the article is obviously biased. Even she knows Jessica wouldn’t do any of those.

“Having fun being a stalker?” Hyoyeon creeped from behind, making Taeyeon jump and drop her newly lit cigarette.

“Not cool,” she immediately closed her phone and hid it inside her scrubs pocket. She took out a fresh stick from the other pocket and offered it to her. “Want one?”

Hyoyeon shook her head almost aggressively. “No. You should really stop smoking, by the way,”

“Suit yourself,” she ignored her remark and let out a big sigh.

“Why are you stalking your resident?” Hyoyeon asked.

“Nothing. Just wanted to justify my anger, I guess,” she answered, mostly to herself.

“But you ended up empathizing with her?”

“Now let’s not peel off the bandage yet. I’ve been holding onto this grudge for so long I’m forgetting why I was angry in the first place,”

“Look, I don’t know what happened between you two, but I’m glad you’re learning to see things in her shoes. Sounds like you guys need couple therapy,” Hyoyeon snorted.

Taeyeon hadn’t thought of it until now. If they weren’t at war, she would’ve considered dating her—she shook off the repulsive thought with her whole body, leaving Hyoyeon confused at her abrupt action. Taeyeon went home early as she had no more pending surgeries to do. She drove in silence, reflecting on tonight’s events. She thought that maybe she was too hard on Jessica and herself.

Once she got home to shower and cook ramyun, Taeyeon received a message from her group chat.

“our hospital is saved 🤧” texted Sooyoung.

“did dr nam win?” Seohyun replied.

“not quite. just that GUH is out of trouble for the malpractice. dr nam is facing the music on his own” Tiffany informed.

“wow. the new chief of ob/gyn shouldn’t be snooping around already” Taeyeon said.

“old habits die hard i guess lol”

Taeyeon turned off her phone and switched channels on the TV as she ate dinner.

“Multiple men armed with assault rifles terrorized the quiet street of Cheongdam last week. The authorities named the suspects and they’re reportedly going on trial on the 23^rd. In other news, Gangnam University Hospital has its charges dropped as further investigation confirmed that Dr Pil-ho Nam, baseball star Kim Seung-hyun’s surgeon, wasn’t an employee but owns a private practice. The hospital made it clear to inform its patients whether their doctors are independent contractors or not...”

“What a cheerful news in the morning,” Taeyeon commented sarcastically.

Her morning didn’t go so well as she hoped. She woke up with regret being the first thing in her mind, recollecting the ramyun she ate at midnight which resulted to a puffy face, and her anger getting the best of her. Seeing Jessica again after half a decade really unlocked something in her brain. She hears her name and all the past trauma comes rushing to her conscious mind like they’re already associated with it. In a sense, they do. She’s the one who caused it after all.

On her way to get Iced Americano, Lady Luck wasn’t sparing Taeyeon a glance, especially today.

“Good morning, Dr Kim,” greeted Jessica sheepishly.

For someone wearing Burberry pumps on a Monday morning, she seems to know her place, thought Taeyeon to herself. Was she finally respecting me as her senior or just up to me because I’m her senior?

“Oh, uh, hey,”

Words have become nonexistent to her now and were replaced by single syllable sounds.

Taeyeon got her venti drink and power-walked to the door. Jessica did the same, considering that she’s late for rounds.

She entered the ED with confidence seeping through her expensive heels. In contrast, she jogged shamefully to the locker room with her coffee ineffectively hiding her face. Sunny recognized her right away.

“Dr Jung,” bellowed Sunny. Jessica only stopped to bow swiftly and apologized, then continued her shameful jog to get changed into scrubs.

“Sunkyu!” Sooyoung called out, knowing full well it’ll get her hit in the head.

“Yah!” Sunny glared at her friend. She noticed a paper Sooyoung was holding.

“Are all the attendings present?” Dr Choi asked.

“I think so,” Sunny tried to sneak a glance but failed. “Come on, what is it about?” she pouted like a puppy. That doesn’t work on her.

Sooyoung held her index finger up to shush Sunny. “You’ll see when I post it,”

Taeyeon arrived minutes later in her scubs and coat to see a crowd forming around the announcement board. Hyoyeon looked just as confused. She asked, “Do you think it’s bad?”

“I don’t know…”

The two neurosurgeons slowly approached the piece of paper attached on the big cork board, squeezing through the interns and residents to see what is written.

Moonlighting Policy, it read. All physicians are required to fill up a form which states what other side jobs they have in addition to their primary job in the hospital. In other words, all of them are screwed.

Quite a lot of surgical departments were losing funds from bringing in patients who can’t pay their bills. For physicians and other medical staff to earn more, side hustles are almost always the solution. That includes Jessica and a few other attendings.

Now, it’s definitely not an understatement to say that she was having a mental breakdown. She went through tough breakups, nasty rumors, and her own people going against her – not this. It certainly feels like she was secretly running a mob. Sooner or later, she’ll give up the form and wait until she gets ostracized by her peers for ruining tons of surgeons’ careers. This is not how she wants to go.

On the other side of the room were the two Dr Kims of neurosurgery standing next to each other while staring at the paper. Taeyeon was spinning her pen, Hyoyeon was glaring at her paper. It was all but nothing to them.

“Do you have another job?” Taeyeon asked.

“I do consultations sometimes. You?” Hyoyeon was now asking her, but she was too embarrassed to answer.

“Do you run a bar or something?” gasped Hyoyeon.

“No!” Taeyeon slapped her shoulder playfully. “I’m a… Pilates instructor,” she uttered the last two words quietly.

“Wait, really?” Hyoyeon’s smile dropped like she was underwhelmed by Taeyeon’s answer.

“Yeah, I was bored when I went to get my certificate while being a resident. I only got to use it now because I owe a friend a favor,” Taeyeon explained with a sigh.

“That’s the lamest thing I’ve ever heard,” Hyoyeon earned another slap on her arm.

Jessica was by the nurses’ station, tapping her foot and biting her lip. She doesn’t have a plan to get out of this. This hospital has the best programs for her education in Seoul, she doesn’t have anywhere else to go.

The phone behind her rang, taking her by surprise. Jessica picked it up as Sunny walked past her. “Dr Lee, we have burn patients coming in,”

Since the day Sunny remembered where she first seen Jessica, she had only felt indifference and hatred towards her on behalf of Taeyeon. As an attending, she neither feels like treating her badly nor softening up to her.

“ETA?” she asked in a nonchalant manner.

“About fifteen minutes,”

“What are the—”

“First and third degree burns,”

“Call the burn unit,”

Jessica nodded and dialed the number for the burn specialists, from dermatologists to plastic surgeons in the hospital.

Fifteen minutes later and the EMS arrived just in time. The door of the first vehicle opened, a gurney was wheeled out by Yoona who was luckily at the scene.

“Twenty-three-year-old female, penetrating injury in the upper abdomen and full thickness burns from the left collarbone to the left forearm. The other guy is bleeding from a scalp lac – you should page Dr Kim,”

“Which one?”

“The one from neuro?” Yoona furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. The interns and attendings took the patients and Yoona was greeted by Tiffany in a hug.

“I head there was a fire in your hotel,” Tiffany said, worried. “I’m so glad you’re okay,”

They both separated, but their arms are still wrapped around each other as they walked into the ED.

Yoona shrugged. “If I hadn’t forgotten my charger, who knows what would’ve happened without me there,” she added after a pause, “By the way, didn’t you say you were investing somewhere? How did you know GUH wouldn’t get sued?”

Tiffany froze and took her arm off her friend’s waist. She inhaled sharply and said, “You know how I always get referrals when I was still in a private practice? They’re mostly from here and I kinda knew their system by now,”

“Ohh… Is that why you wanted to work here?”

“Yeah,” Tiffany quickly responded as she fidgets with her fingers. “Thanks for stopping by, Yoong. We got it from here,” she waved goodbye and walked off.

Yoona thought that her unnie was just being her weird self and approached Taeyeon who was treating a burn patient.

“Anything I can help with?” she offered.

“You don’t have classes right now?” Taeyeon asked as she was stitching up a scalp lac.

“I actually took a week off, unnie. Worst idea ever. I’m bored already,” groaned Yoona. Taeyeon chuckled, she understands what she means.

“You’re welcome to walk around or help out, if there’s babies that need helping,”

“I’ll just annoy Seohyun at her clinic. Have fun, unnie!”

“You probably shouldn’t say that here!” she shouted back.

Jessica was paged to the trauma room with Sunny, carrying sterile equipment for treating a superficial burn. The woman was screaming in pain, loud enough to hear outside the room. Dr Lee didn’t let her near the patient and only made her watch. Jessica thought she had enough mistreatment in this hospital. After admitting the patient, she grabbed her superior’s arm.

“Dr Lee, did Dr Kim tell you about what happened five years ago?”

“Dr Jung, we’re at work. Let’s talk about this later,” Sunny was about to walk off when Jessica grabbed her by the shoulder.

“No, I’m tired of being tossed around like garbage,” she fumed. It was time she put her foot down, she wasn’t afraid of the consequences that comes after this.

“I’m not treating you like garbage,”

“You must have a different definition of unfairness, then,” she crossed her arms.

“What do you want me to do, huh?” she snapped, she just wanted to get away from her.

“I want you and Dr Kim to stop with your prejudice against me. I did nothing wrong—”

“You did nothing wrong?” Sunny laughed in annoyance. “You have no idea what Taeyeon went through when you rejected her years of work. I was with her when she suffered because you decided to end careers that night. I was there, you were not. You have no rights to tell us to stop mistreating you when you did the same,” Sunny exhaled. Jessica couldn’t answer. The shorter woman took her silence as defeat and left her alone.

“Taeng, any surgeon would’ve made the same mistake as you did. No one expected that to happen,”

“She burned her dissertation in the lab. I also saw a pack of cigarettes there,”

“I haven’t seen Dr Kim do anymore major surgeries after that…”

Sunny was right. What does Jessica know about Taeyeon? She only knows about her from five years ago and now. Nothing more and nothing less. She had already atoned for what she did as a former financial manager, maybe that wasn’t enough.

“Dr Jung, I saw your paper on the floor. I gave it to Dr Choi,” Dr Han informed Jessica who spaced out.

“Y-you did?” she stammered, snapping out of her trance.

“Sorry, noona,”

Oh God.

She has too much on her plate today and alcohol can’t wash it all down.