Chapter 52, Part 1: The Birth of a Show-Off (2)

"Lee Min, are you alive? If you're alive, answer me. Over."

"Ugh."

I, sprawled out on the bed, responded with a groan instead of words.

The real answer I wanted to give to Shin Cheol-woo's question was, "I'm alive, in hell."

In the wild drinking party, I finally managed to save Nam Chorong.

To avoid ruining the mood, all I had to do was finish my drink.

Following this rule, I ended up drinking all the alcohol that Nam Chorong couldn't handle.

But as they say, every gain has its loss.

I suffered from a hangover that felt like hell.

It was as if someone was intermittently chopping my head with an ax.

My head felt like it was splitting apart.

I couldn't even count how many times I rushed to the bathroom throughout the night.

In the bathroom, I clung to the toilet like a lover and vomited uncontrollably.

"Seems like you've really fallen for Nam Chorong. I've never seen a black knight at a drinking party be braver than a medieval knight."

Shin Cheol-woo, sitting at the foot of the bed, threw out a joke.

My friend, who was on the verge of death from a hangover, was still making pointless jokes...

Shin Cheol-woo was annoying, but I didn't have the energy to respond.

But I thought that most of the people at the party probably had similar thoughts to Shin Cheol-woo.

The first day of orientation.

A male student, who barely knew a female student, kept drinking in her place?

The only explanation for this situation was that he had fallen in love at first sight.

I seemed to have caused some unwanted misunderstandings, but I didn't care much.

Time would prove everything.

"Water... a little..."

I spoke with a voice that sounded like I was dying and managed to prop myself up against the bed's headboard.

Did all that vomiting last night have any effect?

My condition was slowly improving, albeit faintly.

"Sir Black Knight, your throat must be very dry. Drink a lot of water."

"Can you stop calling me 'Black Knight'? Do knights even exist in this era?"

"They do, right here."

Shin Cheol-woo, pointing at me with his index finger, chuckled.

During my time in medical school, I had a foreboding feeling that my nickname would be 'Black Knight.'

But maybe it was better than being called 'dandruff.'

"Huh, I feel like I might survive now. Thanks."

"Anyway, thanks to you, I saw a lot of interesting things yesterday. Did you know that people from other groups even came to watch you?"

"Really?"

I was surprised and asked.

After about two hours into the wild drinking party, my memory became hazy. I couldn't remember how many drinks I had or who was around me.

"Did I do anything strange?"

The thought of my bad drinking habits from my previous life made my spine shiver.

In my previous life, after drinking too much, I would shout loudly and pick fights with people next to me.

No wonder people joked that I was a minister in the operating room and a dog at a drinking party.

"Did you?"

"You should have tried to stop me. The atmosphere must have been a mess..."

"What mess? The female students were going wild with joy."

The drinking habits Shin Cheol-woo described were shocking.

I suddenly took off my shirt, exposed my upper body, and started telling everyone around me that I loved them.

Compared to my previous life's drinking habits, this was better, but it still didn't look good (it seems that drinking habits change when life changes).

'Embarrassing. Really.'

Imagining myself doing those things made my face burn with embarrassment.

I even felt a revolting urge to vomit again.

"Lee Min, are you some kind of manga protagonist?"

Shin Cheol-woo asked with a smirk.

"What do you mean?"

"From the first day of orientation, you saved a traffic accident victim, dominated the talent show, and even showed your presence at the drinking party."

"..."

"Isn't that practically the plot of a manga protagonist? Now, there's probably no one in our department who doesn't know you."

"Come to think of it, my first day was quite impressive."

I nodded in agreement.

While others struggle to achieve one thing, I managed to do three in one night.

Perhaps my performance during the orientation symbolically revealed the life I would live as a show-off.

"But if we're talking about characters, you're not easy to handle either. It's just that you're overshadowed by me."

"I can't even reach your ankles. You're a tree I can't climb."

"Please, climb up. I'm lonely."

"Look at what you're doing."

After exchanging jokes with Shin Cheol-woo, I moved to the bathroom.

My haggard face was reflected in the mirror.

Despite various twists and turns, I ultimately succeeded in saving Nam Chorong.

If the Nam Chorong from my previous life had died tragically in a drinking accident, perhaps this time, Nam Chorong would grow up smoothly and become a great doctor.

Of course, this was a story only I knew, but that was enough.

The satisfaction of saving someone with my own hands was the greatest reward for me.

In my previous life, that satisfaction alone helped me endure the grueling life of a thoracic surgeon.

If I had wanted money or fame, I wouldn't have chosen thoracic surgery in the first place.

Happiness that doesn't beg from the outside.

Happiness that one discovers and finds on their own.

I firmly believed that this was the most important happiness in life.

"If you feel better, let's go get some breakfast. You must be hungry after vomiting all night."

"Of course."

After washing up, Shin Cheol-woo suggested breakfast.

There was no reason to refuse, so we left the room and headed to the first-floor dining hall.

Perhaps due to yesterday's shocking (?) events, I could feel the gazes of my classmates as they glanced at me.

It was a gaze I would have to get used to in the future.

"Hey... Min."

During the meal, someone called out to me, and I turned my head. Nam Chorong and her best friend, Kwon Ah-reum, were standing behind me.

Seeing Nam Chorong, full of vitality and not a cold corpse, made my heart warm.

"Hey, hello."

"Thank you so much yesterday. If it weren't for you, I don't know what would have happened after drinking the alcohol the seniors gave me."

"You don't need to be so grateful. That's the role of a black knight."

"Hey! Enough. Okay?"

Because Shin Cheol-woo was being cheeky on my behalf, I gave him a stern warning.

"Did I cause you a lot of trouble?"

"I'm fine now. I'm pretty good with alcohol."

"Sorry. I can't do much, but at least drink this. And thank you so much yesterday. I won't forget the help I received."

Nam Chorong placed a bottle of honey water from the vending machine on the table and left quickly.

After finishing my meal, I held the honey water in my hand.

The honey water was warm.

The honey water that went down my throat was sweet.

It was a precious honey water I hadn't tasted in my previous life.

* * *

The next morning, I was having breakfast with my mother.

She was very interested in the orientation I attended yesterday.

She seemed curious about how the medical students, known as geniuses, conducted their orientation.

"It's not much different from other departments' orientations. We just have good college entrance exam scores, but we're still first-year college students, after all."

After explaining, I summarized my impressions in a few words.

"Did you meet any girls you like? The eldest son should start dating soon."

My mother smiled mischievously.

"I don't know. I'm not really thinking about dating..."

"Oh, right, isn't dating hard? Because of Joo-sun. If Joo-sun finds out that the eldest son is dating, she might be very hurt."

"Joo-sun might date before me. We're both busy, so we might not see each other much in the future."

"Really? I don't think so."

My mother added that she would pay more attention to my meals since my medical school life would be tough.

But I said I was fine.

The two years of pre-medical school were a period to compensate for the time I had sacrificed for the college entrance exam.

In reality, the courses and schedules were not much different from those of students in other departments.

As long as I did well in my major subjects like medical terminology and anatomy, I could play around without any problems.

Since the pre-medical school grades were not reflected in the medical school or employment, there was no need to worry.

"Of course, I'm different."

Unlike my classmates, I had no intention of wasting my two years of pre-medical school.

I would pass Professor Yang Sun-jae's skill test without any problems.

Through this, I would pre-study the thoracic surgery fellowship program for the lung and esophagus.

This was my heartfelt goal.

Whether in the past, present, or future, thoracic surgery has always suffered from a chronic shortage of personnel.

Therefore, if a cardiac specialist can also handle lung and esophagus cases, it would be a great help to thoracic surgery.

I didn't want to see the tragedy of a lung or esophagus trauma patient dying because they couldn't get timely surgery again.

To me, a former associate professor of thoracic surgery, the pre-medical school curriculum was as simple as addition and subtraction in mathematics.

Since cardiac surgery was my specialty, I didn't need to go through rigorous training.

"Medical students are supposed to keep studying, but it doesn't seem to be the case."

"Yes, the two years of pre-medical school are quite relaxed."

"Well, people need some breathing room. The eldest son should take a break from studying and enjoy campus life."

"..."

"I know it might sound too serious, but people can only experience certain things during that time. If you miss it, you'll regret it for a long time."

I burst out laughing at my mother's uncharacteristic way of speaking.

"Mom, you're being serious, but why are you laughing?"

"It just seems like you're using Dad's way of speaking. You don't usually talk like this."

"People tend to influence each other when they spend a lot of time together. Now that I think about it, this is Dad's way of speaking, isn't it?"

My mother smiled, realizing her own way of speaking.

Thud!

As the saying goes, "When the tiger speaks, the tiger comes," and my father came out of the bedroom.

My father, who was finishing a novel about family love, looked haggard.

"Eldest son, are you going to school?"

"Yes, you look tired. Did you work late into the night again?"

"I had an idea in my dream, and I didn't want to lose it. So I pushed myself a bit."

"Still, you should get a good night's sleep. Have a light meal and get some rest."

"Is sleep really that important when it comes to finishing a novel?"

My father treated his own efforts and fatigue as trivial.

In my previous life, he didn't take care of his health and ended up with angina.

I was annoyed by my father's overwork.

"It is important. So don't push yourself and get some rest. Promise me."

I asserted strongly, unlike my usual self.

Sleeping time is wasted time.

Sleeping time is precious time.

Many people think this way, but I could never agree with such an opinion, even if a knife was at my throat.

Let's use a mobile phone battery as an analogy.

If a mobile phone battery is completely drained and needs to be charged, is the charging time really wasted?

On the contrary, isn't it a necessary time?

Living on a battery with barely any power left and eventually having it die.

Even breaking the mobile phone.

I consider this a disease.

Stress management and sufficient sleep.

Although it's hard to maintain in the competitive modern society, I believe these two things are essential for health.

"I should listen to the eldest son, who is a medical student. I'll do as you say. Have a good day at school."

"Yes, get some good rest."

After my father, who had drunk some water, went back to the bedroom, I finished my meal and left the apartment complex with my mother's farewell.

The first day of school after the orientation.

Today, I had a meeting with Professor Yang Sun-jae in the afternoon.

To be more precise, it was a skill test.

Thinking about showing off my medical knowledge after a long time, my steps were light.