Chapter 34

EUNJEE

I saw the poster made by the human resources department and its all about me. I was awarded as employee of the month so that's the reason why my photo is hanged up in one of the hospitals pillar together with the other employees of the month from different departments. They usually do this to encourage their employees to work hard in their field and they give incentives to those who get the award, but I wasn't encouraged at all, this is embarrassing in so many levels. My surgical success rate was also included in the banner and so was my other achievements, some of them were something i'm not really proud of.

I covered my face as I walked back to the emergency room hoping that no one recognizes me.

"Doc, did you see it already?" Annie approaches me as I entered the room, I nod at her.

"That poster looks so embarrassing. I can't believe they even do that" I told her and she just laughs at me

"But you look fine in the poster doc" she tells me, she hand me one subway sandwich "Your credit card is still with Boom his just running some errand" she adds and I just nod.

The emergency phone rang and one of the nurses rushes to answer it.

"Jk Hospital Emergency....Yes?" the nurse took note of whats the person on the other side tells her and then she drops the phone

"Two car accident patient coming in five minutes. One is a four year old with suspected rib fracture and the other one is the guardian with head injury, multiple broken ribs and shes pregnant with her second baby" Nurse Seo informs us and we all prepared for the coming patients.

"Call the pediatrics and ob-gyn department. Informed them about the patients coming in, also please call the surgery department just in case we need to do simultaneous surjury" I told one of the nurses and they followed.

"Prepare the sterile room" I shouted

I went out of the emergency room and waited for the patients to arrive, a few seconds past and we heard the sirens coming in so was the specialist from the Pediatrics and Ob-gyn department. The two ambulance pulled over and we rushed behind it to claim the patients.

I received the child that was suspected to have a broken rib, she was unconscious and that's alarming, we pushed the stretcher inside the emergency room and the nurses assisted me as I attached some of the machines to her body.

"Vitals" I shout as I took the intubation kit, I took out the blade that was used for kids and delicately opened the childs mouth to insert the blade to open her mouth wide to I can see her larynx, I inserted the intubation tube, Annie checked her lungs area "Its in" She tells me and the nurse assisting me attached the tube to an ambu-bag.

I moved to her side and saw that she has multiple bruises around her back and her sides so was her chest area.

"Doc, her oxygen saturation is getting low" Boom informs me.

I was about to move and check her lungs again but someone beat me to it.

"Leave this child to me, you can go check the patients mother, her head injury doesn't look good." he starts checking the kids chest area with his stet, he sounded so familiar but I wasn't going to leave my patient to someone I don't know so I had to pull his arms and when he finally faces me, i almost screamed not because I was scared but because I was excited. "Catching and explanation later, go and attend to the injured mother" he smiles at me and I just left him nodding in understand.

I ran to the injured mother and true enough her head injury is severe.

"Doc, I need to get the baby out or this baby won't survive. Her body is barely holding up, I dont know how long it would help the child cope up though." Doc Abby, one of the specialist from the Ob-gyn department tells me.

"Book an OR, we'll manage the head injury there while you work on the child" I told one of the interns and Doc Abby. "You" I called one of the interns I saw running "Look for their family or any guardian and informed them about the situation we need to do. Also, explain why we need to do an emergency operation on them" I instructed and he follows. Remind me to thank him later.

One intern came back and told us that two Operating rooms were available so we rushed there to save the mothers child inside her womb and to save her as well from her head injury.

*skipping the surgery part*

I walked out of the operating room and there I saw a guy and an old lady waiting, when they saw me come out they ran to me and their eyes were filled with unshed tears.

"Hows my wife and kid doc? are they fine? what happened?" The husband asks me and I gave them a smile.

"Your wife miraculously survived the operation and your beautiful baby boy is safe and sound, your wife was a fighter, you should be proud, though we still need to observe her until she wakes up, she is still fighting. Your baby boy, was sent to the Neonatal Intensive care unit, where he can get what he needs since he was born prematurely, you can visit him later after they take care of him. Your baby girl is still inside the operating room but I can assure you that one of the our best pediatric surgeon is inside and operating on her. She acquired multiple internal injuries due to the crash, she came unconscious but she will be alright you just need to keep praying" I informed them and they were holding my and for support, although I know its wrong to give false hopes to critical patients family, I just know that whatever the case, the one performing the little girls operation will rise and do an amazing job. He always does anyways.

"Shes right" I didn't notice him coming out of the operating room, I faced him and he smiles at my direction and walks beside me. He bows in front of the family then smile "I'm Doctor Loui, I was the one who operated on your child and i'm happy to tell you that she survived. She's is still in the recovery room with her mother and they will be tranferred to the ICU later. You can breathe now and see them later. Also congratulation, you have a beautiful baby boy." He informs them and we both smiled to the family in front of us as they kept thanking us.

We both left the family behind and walked to the lounge together with silence in between

"So?" I started

"So?" He answers back

"Are you going to tell me why are you here and why didn't you even once contacted me?" I asked him and he stops walking to face me.

"Yeah about that, First im sorry I didn't contact you but i have a pretty good reason why I wasn't active for the past few years, second I'm here because, as of yesterday I'm officially one of the pediatric surgery department" he shows me his identification card and I rolled my eyes because he wasn't explaining why he hasn't contacted me for years. "Fine, I got an offer to study abroad with full scholarship and allowance grants, I didn't have a chance to tell you or Anne what my plan was because after I received the grants, I needed go the next day and so I did that, I wanted to contact you guys but I decided that I wasn't the right time to get distracted and homesick so I studied hard so I can go back here" he tells me, I wasn't budging because he completely ignored me and Anne after we entered the second year of college "How about this? I'll make it up to you and Anne, how about we hang out after work my treat?" he tells me and thats my turn to smile

"Fine, I'll tell Anne." He smiles and we continued walking back to the lounge " By the way" He looks at me again "Welcome Back" He give me his signature smirk and we both got along.

// MARK

We waited for the guys in my car for a few more minutes and by the time they got out of the building and going to Jacksons car we were already set to book a ktv room where they serve food. We found a good place and decided to go there without consulting the other guys they'll just eat anyways. The other guys followed us behind as we navigate to the place. The place wasn't so far from our office so we didnt have to drive that far to reach the place.

After we found ourselves some space to park, we got out and walked to the place, good thing that there were only a number of people inside so it wasn't so hard for us to enter out pwn booth. Reviews about this place were very high because of their good service and yummy food so when we settled down, we immediately ordered ourselves a bunch of food.

"I want some spicy tteokbokki and this grilled squid" Youngjae added as he was the last one giving out his order and we were all scanning the song book because whats the ktv booth for if we weren't going to sing and have fun.

"Hey guys, i'm just gonna use the toilet real quick" I

told them but it was obvious that they weren't listening because they were too focused on the tv in front of them, so I just went out.

The only thing that leads me to their toilets where the single hallways the connects all rooms, the place looks bigger from the outside but its really small inside.

I found the toilet and good thing it wasn't like the ones you use in public where you can share it with girls, not that I have a problem with that, but its still better to have separate toilet bathrooms with the ladies and the guys. I was done doing my business and washed my hands when I heard a very familiar voice outside of the toilet room.

"Yah!! How can you even drink that much?" The person shouted and I was about to open the door but a knock stops me from doing so. "Excuse me. My friend really needs to use the toilet now. Are you almost done?" The lady on the other side asks. My heart is beating like crazy after hearing her voice, i know she sounds familiar but I don't know why am I so nervous about it.

I opened the door slowly and I was ready to face the familiar voice just incase I actually know the person, but what got me so surprise was not the person in front of me but the sudden blow of vomit on my shirt from the guy that was now leaning his head on my chest.

Being dumbfounded and shocked to what just happened, I didn't notice the person in front of me and damn I regretted not opening the door sooner because I did open the door sooner maybe I would have gotten away from this vomit situation and went on with the guys. I was so irritated that the first thing I did was leave the guy and went to the faucet to clean myself.

"Mark?" I heard a faint sound, I was about to turn around my head to see who it was but the mirror placed above the faucet, showed what I needed to see. "Long time no see" she faintly smiles but I know that thats not her smile, her true smile can reach both her ears without her even noticing that.

"Eunjee?" I didn't had the chance to answer her because the guy she was with awhile ago is now fully conscious. "Wheres am I?" He sluggishly answered. Eunjee didn't take a second to respond. She grabs the guys arms and pulls him up but because the guy was pretty much wasted, they just keep falling every time they start standing up.

Getting tired of their constant falling I decided to help them by lifting up the guy myself, aside from I was getting irritated because Eunjee was basically ignoring me and its not helping that his with a guy I dont know, its making me really annoyed.

"Are you also planning to take a drunk man home?" I asked her annoyingly and she just silently looks at me.

"I'm not, thank you for helping me but I can take care of him you can just go back to what you were doing" She tries to take the guys arms away from me but I stopped her by looking at her

"Just tell me where you want him then i'll just leave you there." I told her, also adding "Its better that I'm the one carrying him than you. His drunk he might not know what his doing"

"You don't have to do this Mark, if someone sees you like this they might assume you a lot of things" She tells me. She's still Eunjee my cautious girl.

"You don't have to worry about me, you already lost that chance when you decided to break things off" I told her which is quite rude but it did hurt me when she decided to break things off with me, i do understand the reason but it was painful.

"Ma—..."

"Mark!" Jackson cuts Eunjee off. He pauses for awhile processing what happening before seeing the man I was helping and Eunjee in front of me "Shoot" He covers his mouth before noticing whats happening.

"Wang, go bring Eunjee home, tell the guys i'm driving this guy to wherever he lives. I'll be right back" I instructed Jackson before he says anything but that didn't stop him still.

"Who is he? Is he your boyfriend perhaps?" Jackson teases Eunjee which makes me curious as well. I mean they can be just drinking buddies or they can be in some kind of relationship, whatever it is I'm curious.

"Really? thats how you talk to me now. No more 'Hey Eunjee how are you doing? Its been awhile' You just have to go straight and ask me about my personal life?" Eunjee rants which is a little bit cute

"Fine! How are you eunjee? Its been awhile! So tell me now, is this guy your boyfriend?" Jackson asks "Happy!" he adds

"Wang seriously, can't you stop with the questions and just help me?" I told him but he didn't answer to me.

"No, he's my friend. Can you two just help me get him back to our booth I'll ask someone else to bring him home. Anne's with me and I can't just leave her behind. Shes pretty wasted aswell" Eunjee explains and so without question Jackson came to the other side of the guy I was carrying awhile ago and helps me. We followed Eunjee to their booth which weren't so far from us. The vomit on my shirt is starting to bother me now, I almost forgot I even got them because Eunjee was pretty much all I can see now.

She looks different now, she got her hair dyed dark ashy brown which suits her skin well, she looks thin bit but in a healthy kind of way. She looks more radiant now and shes very beautiful.

We place her friend together with Anne which was also pretty wasted.

"Soooo" Jackson started "Eunjee" he rans to Eunjees side "Why dont you come with me first, the guys are here and I'm pretty sure they'd like to see you aswell. They wont be gone from here out booth is just a couple of doors from here" I dont know what was Jacksons plan but I didn't really have a choice but just follow them as he pushes the very hesitant Eunjee out of their booth and towards our own booth. "You could have told us you were coming here, we could have joined you guys" Jackson starts

"That would be unnecessary and besides, I can't just invite you like that" she tells him

"Why not?" Before Eunjee could answer Jacksons question, I pushed our booths door and they both just became silent. Jackson leads her inside as I went to the corner and grabbed some tissue to clean up myself.

"What happened to you?" Jinyoung asks me but he was cut off when Jackson starts talking.

"Guys!" He pushes Eunjee in front of the guys and they all grew silent for a minute, trying their best to clear their minds if the situation was true.

"Hey guys!" Eunjee waves at them and that made them realize that everything was really happening.

"Oh my gosh NOONA WE MISS YOU" Bambam and Yugyeom was the first one to come up and hugs Eunjee after that the rest did the same.

"What are you doing here and how come you came in with them?"  Youngjae asks

"I came with my friend and Anne, my friend just got here so we decided to celebrate so both of them are pretty much wasted and I was their designated driver. I was helping my friend when Mark bumped into us, well more of coincidently had an interaction with us. Im sorry by the way for your shirt, you can send it to me and I'll have it cleaned up for you" Eunjee explains to them and they all look between us.

"This friends of her is not a she guys, its a he" Jackson teases again.

"Ohh, its good to know your doing great noona. I hope his making you happy" Yugyeom says to Eunjee and I was just there looking at their interactions with my heart aching and all my hopes dropping when she tells everyone

"Oh he has always been the source of my happiness" she gives the guys her very sweet smile, the smile that she shows only when we were together but now, she is freely giving it to everyone else and its slowly crushing my heart.