The Warmth That Remained
The loose air of early summer night snapped taut all at once.
Sirens slamming against the eardrums, groans rising from every side, medical staff shouting over one another—the entrance to the emergency room was pure chaos.
"Multiple-fracture patient!"
"Ribs?"
"Yes. There's vehicle debris embedded in the right thigh as well."
Listening to the paramedic's briefing, Dajeong looked down at the child on the stretcher.
"What's our little prince's name?"
"Waaah! Hwaa!"
"Alright. Doctor's name is Yu Dajeong. Can you tell me your name and age? Even if you can't remember, you have to keep trying to think of it."
She soothed the crying child with practiced ease while checking pupils and pulse, then began to pull the transfer bed forward.
Moving so quickly she never saw the large planter behind her, she was a breath away from colliding with it head-on.
"Dr. Yu!"
In that instant Taekyung, who had been nearby, stretched out an arm and caught her.
"Careful—"
But Dajeong seemed aware of neither the planter she had nearly struck nor the person who had just caught her.
She brushed past him without a glance and vanished urgently into the emergency room.
"……."
Taekyung slowly withdrew the arm he had extended to brace her back.
The feeling was strange.
It was not anger. In an emergency, of course she would react that way.
The problem was the warmth that remained in the brief moment her body had touched his arm and then slipped away.
And when her tied hair had swayed, the clean, refreshing scent that had cut straight through the disinfectant and settled over him as well.
Something like a quiet, subtle flower fragrance.
……Somehow heat seemed to pool in his arm. Taekyung clenched and unclenched an empty fist several times.
Still it would not leave him. That sensation. That lingering scent.
Am I out of my mind? What the hell am I thinking in a situation this urgent.
"Clear every planter or anything else blocking the path near the ER. Immediately. And make sure nothing like that gets put back."
"Yes, CEO."
Giving the calm order to the secretary who had already appeared at his side, Taekyung kept his eyes fixed only on the direction in which Dajeong had disappeared.
"I hear the accident was quite serious. Find out whether the emergency department needs any additional support."
After issuing several rapid instructions, Taekyung fell silent for a moment, then left the spot.
"Hajun! What do we do! Hajun……!"
"Ma'am, please try to stay calm—"
They were preparing the child's treatment when the mother, one arm already in a splint, came running in and burst into sobs.
"Doctor! Please—please save our Hajun! Please!"
It was not that they failed to understand a parent's heart, but sometimes agitated guardians made smooth treatment impossible.
"Hajun, Hajuuun!"
No one dared stop the mother who was screaming herself hoarse.
Then Dajeong appeared, medical goggles already on.
"Ma'am. Go get yourself treated first."
"How can I get treatment! My child is hurt like this—what right do I have!"
Pressing carefully here and there along the groaning child's ribs, Dajeong opened her lips with quiet composure.
"Please step aside. We need to begin."
"Ha—Hajun!"
"Ma'am."
Her tone was calm yet unyielding. The smile had left Dajeong's large eyes; they were utterly serious.
"You have to recover first if you want to take care of Hajun. If Mom is sick, who looks after him?"
"B-but……!"
"Screaming here won't help your child right now."
Behind the mother's sobbing voice, Dajeong requested the setup for chest-tube insertion. Blood had collected inside the child's ribcage.
"Leave this to us and go get yourself treated right away. Only then can you look after him."
With those clean, decisive words she pulled on a pair of medical gloves.
Overwhelmed by her presence, the guardian could only stare blankly at Dajeong's fingertips.
"Please help us concentrate on treatment."
"Ah—aah! Yes, I will……."
The wailing mother hurriedly disappeared. The emergency-medicine resident who had been sweating bullets shot Dajeong a firm thumbs-up.
"Dr. Kang Jiho."
"Yes! Chest tube usually goes between the sixth and seventh ribs."
Having already anticipated what she would ask, Kang Jiho answered with bright energy.
"Correct. But in a case like this you have to judge carefully."
Studying the X-ray, Dajeong carefully felt along the bones until her fingertips stopped at one place.
The fractures are too severe. Then we need to go a little higher than this spot.
Still resting her hand on the third rib, she held it out.
"Scalpel."
She made a precise one-centimeter incision through skin only and inserted the tube. Ohh. Kang Jiho nodded, eyes shining.
Leaving the rest of the tube work to a nurse, she turned next to the child's thigh.
Thankfully the shard of metal had missed the artery.
When Dajeong knelt close, Kang Jiho held the leg steady to assist.
Hoo. After a deep breath she pulled the metal piece, so cruelly driven into the thin little leg, free in one clean motion.
"Aaaah!"
"Shh, good job. Hajun is really amazing."
A little blood had spattered her face and gown, but she was long used to that much.
Once the dressing was finished she straightened her back for a moment.
The second she caught her breath, a nurse on the far bed spotted her and raised a hand high. Time for the next patient.
After the tidal wave had swept through, the emergency room felt markedly calmer.
Dajeong stood at the station entering treatment records.
"This is a problem. The PED ward has been full since yesterday."
"We need to send Hajun upstairs now."
Looking over the chart, Dajeong quietly agreed with the nurses' concern.
Inpatient beds often ran short—partly because the hospital never expanded capacity, partly because lighter patients dug in their heels and refused discharge.
"Huh? Wait a second. Hajun might be able to go up after all?"
The nurse who had been fretting suddenly brightened at the monitor.
"A bed opened?"
"Uh……. But it says send him to a VIP room."
"What?"
"There's a new directive. From now on, if there aren't enough beds for patients coming up from the ER, open the VIP rooms."
Everyone nearby tilted their heads in unison.
They had thoroughly kept ordinary people away from those unattainable rooms—and now they were opening them?
"I've been at this hospital a long time and this is a first."
"Right? Even a few more beds is something. Great for Hajun too."
"Guess upper management finally woke up."
Upper management decisive enough to make that call this fast…….
Could it be that man?
The deep gaze that had watched her, and Taekyung's solid low voice, rose unbidden in her mind.
"Dr. Dajeong, you can head up now. Good work tonight."
"Ah—yes."
The nurse's kind farewell broke her thoughts. Dajeong dragged her exhausted body out of the emergency room.
Even the frantic night was already slipping past.
One in the morning—the quietest hour in a hospital that never slept.
Instead of going straight up to the on-call room, Dajeong stepped outside. She needed fresh air to clear her head.
The faint beginning of cicada song announced the start of summer. A gentle breeze brushed the loose strands of her hair.
Hands thrust into her gown pockets, she slowly rolled her stiff neck and walked toward the garden.
"I should wash my hands first when I go back in."
About to retie her scattered hair, she discovered the aftermath of the ER shift.
Bloodstains and disinfectant dotted her hands and gown. Yet even those felt like something to be grateful for right now.
The hollow freedom after every procedure had ended safely. The health that let these hands move freely. This peaceful summer night.
Dajeong smiled quietly. The small achievement of having done it again today was thrilling.
This is why I keep being a doctor.
She was untying her loosened hair and shaking it free, savoring that thrill, when—
"……CEO."
Her eyes met Taekyung's. He stood in the smoking area with a cigarette between his lips.
Seeing Dajeong, Taekyung's expression hardened for a moment. Under the late-night streetlight the shadows carved his features deeper; his eyes looked darker, the bridge of his nose higher.
"What's with the face."
His chin gestured toward her flushed cheek.
Ah. Blood must have spattered. Dajeong wiped her cheek and gave an awkward little bow.
"……."
"……."
After that he said nothing more. From a few steps away she could feel him studying her, and the back of her neck tightened.
Close to him again, her solar plexus felt tight and breathing turned uncomfortable.
Dajeong quietly bit her lower lip.
"Good work."
The low voice that spoke first was calm and serious.
"You were having a rough time earlier."
How was she supposed to answer? Dajeong's eyelids fluttered rapidly.
For a doctor it was nothing but ordinary routine, yet the voice that so casually soothed an unremarkable day…… seemed almost to carry warmth.
"……Yes."
After a brief moment of consideration she decided simply to accept it without feeling.
As if Jang Taekyung's voice could ever be warm. My exhausted brain has definitely got it wrong.
"Huh. Sounds like you think the praise is well deserved."
"Of course. To some extent."
He crushed out the cigarette he had smoked to the filter. The careful gaze that examined Dajeong as she retied her hair made heat rise for no reason at all.
"Are all doctors like that, or is Dr. Yu Dajeong just particularly conspicuous?"
"Pardon?"
"It's really irritating, you know."
Taekyung's eyes curved with elegant amusement as he let the cryptic words slip free.