“I mean, it’s my duty as a highly ethical person, to ring the police if there’s a gangster in her hospital, isn’t it?” It was meant as a joke, the tone of her voice very clearly humorous. A nurse had walked into the room and the two of them exchanged brief looks as the other woman proceeded to walk to another patient. Had the daily rounds begun? If they had, Seol-ju had no business intervening, not here at least, but she comforted herself with the fact that at the very least, Oh Junseo was her patient. None of the other men in the room were, but he was.
“Thirty?” His blatant lie snapped her out of her thoughts and she gave him an almost contemptuous look. “You don’t need to lie, Junseo-ssi, you’re clearly much younger than that.” Early twenties, she had decided, willing to stretch it to about twenty-four or twenty-five. It was odd how predictable human age could be, even if one wanted to fool oneself otherwise. But, there was a boyish defiance in his eyes, a kind of light that she rarely saw in any of her peers, yet it was accompanied by a strange and distant fatigue that she could not associate with his current post-accident state. Nonetheless, his hands were what betrayed him the most - their youthful glow and perfect anatomy could not have belonged to anyone in their thirties. One could call it a hunch, but that was what Doctor Park was going to go with.
“Minister of Justice?” she repeated. Oh boy. Did she have a spoiled “heir” on her hands? He certainly looked the part, almost, though the name he gave her rang no bells. “I’m sorry but I don’t have a TV.” Snorting at the comment of his phone number, she “Hey!”-ed him when he just grabbed her pen. Taking the paper from him, she looked down at the numbers and nodded, letting out a sigh. “Try not to give the rest of the staff any trouble, okay, Junseo-ssi?”
When she left the room, she did it with some strange air of regret. The daily rounds must have proceeded, and Chief Kim must have checked up upon Mr Oh as well, but the strange feeling that weighed on her persevered, and only intensified when she rang up the boy’s mother. Such disregard - stunned by the woman’s indifference at the fact of being at a hospital, Seol-ju was left speechless and dwelt on it the entire rest of her shift. When the evening came and she was passing by the room where Junseo had been staying, she saw that he had already been discharged and she felt a sting of regret yet again. She could have said goodbye more properly, she could have made sure that someone came to pick him up.
By the time she walked out of the hospital, she was already listening to the phone ring, as she waited for him to pick up. “Hello? Oh Junseo-ssi?” she asked when she heard it answered, without waiting for the other person’s voice. “It’s Doctor Park, from Anam Hospital.”
Eventually, the doctor left, and Junseo had to humor himself -- all by himself. Here and there, the occasional nurse walked in with whom he could flirt. But all in all, time seemed to move slower when he had to live through it sober. It dragged on endlessly, shapelessly, until the very late hours, right before the sun went down and he would be released.
Junseo, of course, knew what it meant that no one came in again to inform him about what he had heard from his family. They must had called his mother. And while he was definitely disappointed at the outcome of things, he wasn’t surprised: No one would be coming. No one had the patience for his antics, no one from his immediate family anyway.
Junseo was discharged all by himself, even if hospital guidelines suggested otherwise. As he walked out of the building, he struggled with the crutches. Who would have thought being a cripple was this much a pain in the ass? The evening air was cool and soothing. A few cars passed him by, and he watched a young girl help an old man into a taxi. As his eyes trailed his surroundings, they eventually landed on a bench just accross the street.
He sat down there eventually, his phone in hand, hoping to find someone to pick him up. In a condition like this, he couldn’t go back to Haesoo. Not that he was ashamed --- he simply didn’t want to be mothered by her. She liked to do so already, anyway, and acted like the kind of mother he had never had: strict and disciplinary.
His contacts, however, did not seem like much of any solution to his problem. Noona #1, Noona #2, Big breasts, Delivery, Daewoo, Daewoo’s sister, Short delivery girl, Yera --
“Hello? Oh Junseo-ssi? It’s Doctor Park”, the voice spoke from the other line. Instinctively, Junseo raised his eyes and saw the female doctor standing in front of the entrance of the hospital. He was a little far for her to notice him right away.
“I knew you’d call.” Even through the phone, his smirk could be heard. Unlike this morning, he wasn’t too weak anymore to play his usual game. “To what do I owe the honor? You of all people should know I’m not in the right state for anything tonight.”
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