Chapter Text
Thirty-three.
Thirty-four.
Thirty-five.
“He’s got a pulse!” You hear your partner, Wendy, say and you finally lean back to catch a breath. Your arms are tired from giving CPR but it’s all part of the job. The burning sensation on your palms and arms are proof of your hard work.
“Let’s get him to the hospital. He’s unstable.” You command and hold on as the ambulance starts its way.
It was only seven in the morning but you suddenly got a call for a vehicular accident. You didn’t even finish pouring your coffee yet. Woes of being an EMT, you always had to be on the go. But you wouldn’t want it any other way. You loved your job.
You continue to monitor and attend to the patient. Thankfully the ride wouldn’t take too long. Hang in there man. You silently plead to the unconscious patient.
“We’re here.” The ambulance driver announces.
You and Wendy lose no time and open the ambulance to unload the patient. You two work seamlessly, years of being partners meant there was no need for words. Wendy pushes the stretcher into the hospital emergency room and nurses start to file in.
One doctor approaches you and the patient first. “What happened?” The doctor asks you while still pushing the patient further inside.
“Fifty-two year old man, arrested while driving, crashed his car during the arrest hence trauma to the chest and face. We got his pulse and breathing back but his vitals aren’t stable.” You quickly relay to the doctor.
“Got it. Yerim, get me an endotracheal set. Sooyoung you’re going to assist me.” She calls calmly but commandingly and the people with her follow her set instructions.
“You’re going to have a hard time inserting a tube. We stopped the bleeding on his face but he’s still vomiting out blood.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Thank you miss Kang.” And with that they vanish behind the curtains and you’re left there standing in the hallway.
“Seulgi?” Wendy calls your attention but you’re still in a bit of a daze. “Seulgiiiii.” This time Wendy snaps her fingers in front of your face.
You finally get a hold of yourself and turn to Wendy. “She knows my name.”
“Who?”
“Doctor Bae.” You’re starting to blush. “The Doctor Bae Joohyun knows my name Wendy!”
“Okaaay calm down lover girl.” Wendy says with a chuckle. “Let’s get the paperwork done before you go and start fantasizing over your crush all over again.”
“Seungwaaaan.” You whine and give her a pout but do as she says and accomplish the paperwork anyway.
//
The life of a doctor wasn’t easy. Particularly the life of a certain Doctor Bae Joohyun.
“Laryngoscope.” You quickly ask as you prepare to insert an endotracheal tube into a patient. Damn it, there was so much blood but you didn’t have much time. This guy needed to breathe. You were going to have to insert blindly.
You take a deep breath and just hope to god you’ll be able to get this in one take. The intern, Park Soooyoung, hands you the tube and you brace yourself before gently but accurately inserting the tube into the patient’s throat.
“Sooyoung, cricoid pressure.” Sooyoung immediately follows your instruction and pushes the patient’s throat while you were inserting.
“You’re in!” The nurse, Yerim, announces as she listens to the patient’s breath sounds with a stethoscope.
Thank goodness.
“Great job doc.” Sooyoung congratulates you.
You nod meekly in reply. “Will you be alright on your own?”
“Yeah, we’re good. I’ll page you if something happens.”
Right at that moment, your beeper signals a message and you bring it out. “Duty calls.” You say before leaving for the next call.
The life of a doctor definitely wasn’t easy. But you wouldn’t want any other job anyway.
--
Six hours.
That was how long the laparotomy took. Thankfully it only took that long.
You stretch, feeling all your muscles aching after standing in for hours. What time was it? It always felt this way after an operation, like the world stops moving inside the operating room and once you move out it’s moving too fast.
“Hey, you did well in there.” Doctor Kim Seokjin, a senior, tells you as he disposes his gown and gloves.
“Thanks.” You weren’t really in the mood to talk to anyone right now.
“Hey some of the hospital staff are going to a bar tonight. Why don’t you join us?” He asks hopefully. “I promise I’m going to control myself and my dad jokes.” He even adds.
You just chuckle then shake your head. “I’m sorry but I have a seminar to teach tonight. Maybe next time.”
Maybe next time.
That’s what you always tell everyone who tries to socialize with you. It’s not that you didn’t want to, you just weren’t interested. There were other more important things to do. Like doing laundry and cleaning your apartment.
Okay maybe you were just really introverted. But there was nothing wrong with that.
“Oh I see, next time then.” Doctor Kim says wistfully. You slightly feel bad, doctor Kim was a really nice guy, he was like everyone’s big brother or more like an uncle to everyone. Uncle Jin, yeah definitely fitting.
“I’m sorry. I’ll be going ahead now.” It was true that you had a seminar to teach tonight though. You take a quick shower and change into your casual clothes and head to the seminar room.
Apparently you were going to lecture emergency trauma care to a batch of EMTs. A fellow trauma doctor asked you to do this as a favor as she had other plans for tonight. Honestly you didn’t mind. The lecture was your specialty so it wasn’t a problem.
You were also hoping you’d be able to see a certain EMT tonight. Smiling, you stretch one more time before setting up all the necessary equipment. This was going to be a long night.
//
Thank goodness you didn’t forget your spare set of clothes. Your shirt was drenched after cleaning the ambulance up once you and Wendy got back to the base. You walk out of the locker room and get yourself the cup of coffee you were craving since you woke up while whistling.
“Someone seems to be in a good mood.” Your EMT chief, Kim Heechul, observes beside you while preparing a cup for himself too.
“Well she saw her crush again so.” Wendy says from where she sat on the couch.
“Is that so? “ The chief remarks while sipping his coffee slowly, eyes gleaming with curiosity and a knowing look.
Sometimes you hated your complexion because your blush was really evident right now. Like from neck to face and ears. Only one person had the ability to make you this flustered. You’re brought back to the first time you saw Doctor Bae Joohyun.
-
You push the stretcher as fast as you could into the emergency room by yourself but get surprised as a woman in a white coat already attends to you even before you set foot into the room.
“No breathing, no pulse.” You inform the woman, most probably a doctor.
She didn’t reply and instead jumped onto the stretcher beside the patient and started CPR. “Keep moving.” She instructs you.
You couldn’t take your eyes off the woman but continue pushing the stretcher zooming past the hallway and into the code room.
The code team comes in and takes over. This wasn’t your field anymore but you stayed to help out in any way.
In the end, the patient was revived and transferred to the critical care unit. You breathe out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness you didn’t lose him. Dying patients were part of the game, you know that. But it didn’t change the way you would re-assess yourself to check if you could have done something else or more to save a person.
Your thoughts are broken as a water bottle appears in front of you. You look up but regret doing so as the doctor who attended to the patient earlier was standing there handing you said water bottle.
She laughs (damn she had a beautiful laugh) as you comically look around to make sure she was referring to you. Still not sure, you point to yourself to which the doctor nods her head at.
“Take it, I noticed you were by yourself when you wheeled the patient in. You did a great job even without a partner. If you didn’t attend to him on time we would have lost him.”
“Ohh, uhm. Thank you, I guess. All part of the job.” You scratch the back of your head but accept the bottle of water. “You were great too, you knew from just one glance that the patient was in cardiac arrest.”
She smiles at that (a beautiful laugh and now a beautiful smile, seriously?). “All part of the job.” She says mimicking your earlier words. “I have to get back, just wanted to check on you. See you later.”
“Y-yeah, see you doc.” You lamely reply as she turns around and goes back into the fray that is the emergency room.
You feel your face heating up so you just raise the cold water bottle to your cheek. You think you’re starting to have a crush.
Oh gosh.
-
“Can we please not talk about this in front of chief?” You couldn’t help but beg.
“Oh don’t mind me.” Heechul actually says. “So did Seulgi finally ask that doctor out?”
Wendy snickers and you almost spit out your coffee. “Chief!” You exclaim.
“She wishes.” Wendy says and laughs out loud.
So here’s the thing. You had the biggest, most embarrassing crush on a doctor so out of your league. How could you even have the courage to ask her out when it takes you so much effort not to mumble and crumble in front of her.
“Seulgi’s always acting extra cooler whenever doctor Bae is around but turns into a stuttering mess when they talk around casually.” Wendy teases.
You’re about to berate Wendy when a voice on the radio calls for your team. In less than a second, you and Wendy are up and running to respond to the call.
“Take care you two!” Heechul yells as you and Wendy run out to the ambulance. “Oh and Seulgi! Talk to that doctor!” He calls out.
You ignore his last call and close the ambulance door to his face.
“Do you think we’ll make it to the seminar tonight?” Wendy asks you as she prepares your gloves and masks.
You check your watch. It was already five thirty in the afternoon. “I think so.” Thankfully, the call wasn’t too urgent.
“Alright, let’s do this then.”
You nod and prepare yourself.