Chapter 88, Part 3: Troublemaker (3)

"Senior, I need to take a call. It's Professor Kim... Yes, Professor. This is Lee Min."

I naturally pulled out my phone from my lab coat.

There was no call from Professor Kim.

I was just improvising to avoid this wretched situation.

"Yes."

"You mean the lab now? Yes, yes. I understand."

I put the phone back into my lab coat with my left hand.

Because Kim Seulgi was on my left.

If I had held the phone with my right hand, it would have been obvious that it wasn't a real call.

To consider such a minor detail in such a short moment...

I thought I had impressive reflexes.

If I ever quit being a doctor, I might have to enter the entertainment industry.

"Why did the professor call you?"

Kim Seulgi's voice cracked, a mix of confusion at Professor Kim suddenly looking for me and annoyance at the possibility that I might have work that couldn't be passed off to her for the abscess incision and drainage.

If I had to guess, the latter emotion was stronger.

What a despicable person.

"Do you remember that Professor called me after the morning conference?"

"Of course I remember that."

"He said there were some things and materials he couldn't tell me then, and he wants me to come now..."

"Go ahead. If the professor calls, you can't do anything about it."

"Then what about the treatment..."

"There's no other way. I have to do it. Go quickly."

"I'll see him as soon as possible and come back."

With a sense of relief, I left the ward and moved to the main building's first-floor lobby.

Since I was away, Kim Seulgi would have no choice but to handle the treatment.

The thought of her cursing and handling the treatment made me smile.

This operation was so subtle that there was little chance of it being discovered.

The fact that Professor Kim called me in the morning was true.

A lie placed gently on top of a fact is hard to detect.

-Professor, did you call Lee Min yesterday afternoon?

There was no way a first-year resident like Kim Seulgi would dare to ask such a presumptuous question to an internal medicine professor.

A rare moment of free time.

I wandered around the first-floor lobby, lost in thought.

It was good that I had avoided taking on the treatment with my impromptu acting, but this was only a partial victory.

To have a comfortable and normal intern life, I needed to neutralize Kim Seulgi.

The simplest and most effective way to neutralize Kim Seulgi was actually to report her.

A third-year resident I had befriended through the volunteer club.

I would report Kim Seulgi's unreasonable actions to him.

However, this method, while easy, also had its drawbacks.

The upper-year residents liked Kim Seulgi.

In that situation, if I, who had just started my intern life, reported Kim Seulgi's misdeeds, I would likely be seen as a naive troublemaker who badmouths his superiors.

Therefore, to get the upper hand over Kim Seulgi, I needed to hold a more decisive card.

* * *

Cardiology on-call room.

Tap, tap, tap.

Kim Seulgi was so busy typing that her arms felt like they were about to fall off.

Progress notes.

Admission records for new patients.

Prescription entries for patients under her care.

Procedure records for coronary angioplasty and the like.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that a first-year resident's work starts and ends in front of a computer.

Perhaps that's why.

Kim Seulgi often got confused about whether she was at the hospital to see patients or to type.

Drrr.

The on-call room door opened, and Oh Hyunjun, a first-year resident and her colleague, came in.

"You look very tired. Your dark circles have reached your lips."

"I got a good scolding from the chief. He said I didn't assist the CAG (coronary angioplasty) properly."

Oh Hyunjun answered in a weak voice and sat down next to him.

"Anyone can get in trouble if they run into the chief. Just think of it as bad luck."

"Bad luck turned into a disaster. I really feel like I'm going to die."

"What about Nam Chorong? She's an intern, right?"

Kim Seulgi took an interest in Nam Chorong, but it wasn't a romantic interest.

To her, an intern was just an extra pair of hands to do her bidding.

"She works very efficiently. She understands what I say well. And she seems kind of cute when she's flustered."

"..."

"How about Lee Min? She's been flying since medical school."

"She's not very perceptive... but she does her job very well."

Kim Seulgi rarely praised an intern so much.

She had tried to pass off a few prescription entries she needed to input, and Lee Min had handled them neatly.

Even the speed was faster than when she did it herself.

"Did she learn the OCS (prescription transmission system) that quickly? On the second day, she would struggle to write discharge prescriptions..."

"I don't know why she's so good. But isn't it a windfall for us?"

Kim Seulgi smiled.

The better Lee Min performed, the more work she could assign, and the less burden on her own workload.

How could this not be a good thing?

"Hey, don't exploit the interns too much. They're not your slaves. You need to take care of them and teach them."

Kim Seulgi listened to Oh Hyunjun's criticism with one ear and let it go with the other.

What a fool.

So you don't want to hear that you can't do your job.

Pass off the annoying tasks to the underlings.

Don't you still not understand that you need to do the work that will get you noticed by your superiors to be recognized?

We started on the same level, but you'll soon be under me.

"They'll have to learn these things when they become residents anyway. I'm just giving them early experience."

"What if they quit because you treat them like that?"

"If they quit, it's their loss. Where will they go if they get blacklisted from a Big 5 hospital?"

"You're really ruthless, you know."

Oh Hyunjun shook his head in disgust.

"The world is a place where only the ruthless survive. How about a drink during tonight's on-call?"

"What do you mean by a drink? If we get caught drinking without your knowledge, we're dead."

"Kid, it's fine as long as we don't get caught."

Kim Seulgi was annoyed by Oh Hyunjun's excessive caution.

What a pain to have a colleague who doesn't get along with you...

"Is it a crime to have a few drinks when the upper-year residents are all asleep? Where else can we relieve our stress?"

"I don't care. Do as you please."

"Such a petty kid."

Kim Seulgi turned her gaze away from Oh Hyunjun and started inputting prescriptions again.

* * *

Internal Medicine Lounge.

I was having dinner with Nam Chorong, who had finished her work in the angiography room.

The dinner menu was cup ramen and sandwiches.

I couldn't even think about going to a restaurant because my phone kept ringing.

If an emergency call came during dinner, I would have to throw away the food and go to the ward.

During the intern period, the best food was something that could be eaten quickly and easily.

"How was your work in the angiography room?"

"It was hectic as it was my first shift. I felt like I was just a backdrop while everyone else was busy. How about you, Lee Min?"

"I was called all over the place, so I was busy. But other than that, it wasn't bad."

For me, a former associate professor in thoracic surgery, the difficulty of an intern's work was not an issue.

The only thing that annoyed me was Kim Seulgi.

Because of Kim Seulgi, I couldn't find any free time.

And without free time, I couldn't study the ECG files given by Professor Kim.

"You don't seem worried since you do your job so well."

"Please, worry about me. I still need a lot of worrying. I actually like being worried about."

"You're something else."

Nam Chorong laughed.

Although we didn't see each other often because of our different duties, it felt like the first time I had seen her laugh today.

It was a natural thing.

How many people can maintain a smile and laughter while living a slave-like intern life?

If there is such a person, they must be a remarkable human who can laugh even in hell.

By the way, Nam Chorong was working in the angiography room.

I was working in the ward.

In two weeks, we would switch shifts.

We continued our conversation while eating, but I mostly listened.

I had already experienced everything in my previous life.

There wasn't much to talk about regarding the work.

"By the way, Lee Min. Can you teach me the technique for ABGA (arterial blood gas sampling)?"

"ABGA?"

"Yes, I heard from the nurse that you've never failed an ABGA. Even the nurses were surprised."

"Well, it's about time for me to do an ABGA, so let's go to the ward together. It's better to see it in action than just talk about it."

"Thanks."

"Here, have this."

After hastily finishing my meal, I took out a bottle of cabbage juice from my lab coat pocket and handed it to Nam Chorong.

"What's this cabbage juice for?"

"I'll be eating bread and ramen for a while, and that will ruin your stomach. You'll end up with reflux esophagitis and gastritis."

I answered confidently.

Cabbage juice was one of my secret weapons to survive the intern period.

Anyone who has experienced the burning sensation of reflux esophagitis knows that it makes it hard to focus on work all day.

"We need to be prepared in advance."

I drank the cabbage juice neatly and threw the packaging in the trash.

"Ugh... it's bitter."

Nam Chorong followed my lead, drank the cabbage juice, and frowned.

Her expression reminded me of my daughter, Sarang, when she was forced to eat carrots as a child, and I burst out laughing.

Speaking of which, I miss Sarang.

I miss my parents and my in-laws.

After finishing our meal, we immediately went up to the ward.

We started the ABGA rounds, pulling the dressing cart.

I demonstrated twice, and then Nam Chorong started the ABGA herself.

Of course, she wasn't as good as me.

The patients' veins were generally thick and firm.

Nam Chorong had good hands.

Out of 10 attempts, she only failed 3 times.

She didn't even have to stick a patient more than 3 times when she failed.

It was a shame that such a talented person left the world due to overdrinking during the OT in her previous life.

Thinking about her, I felt only regret.

"Thanks, Lee Min. I feel like I can do it well tomorrow morning too."

"Don't worry. I think you'll do well not just tomorrow morning but from now on."

After boosting Nam Chorong's confidence, I moved to the male on-call room, and she went to the female intern on-call room.

As I walked down the ward corridor, I glanced out the window, which was dark.

It felt like I had just woken up early to do the ABGA, but it was already 9 PM.

The hospital, the intern life, was a monster