Chapter 39

“S-S-Slave…?”

Jaewon chuckled awkwardly, thinking it was a joke.

But he quickly realized he was mistaken.

“Yeah. Slave works. It has a nice meaning too. A medical slave—someone who burns their body out working for their patients.”

“How is that a nice meaning…? It’s slave.”

“Ah, whatever. Food’s here. Eat up, Slave.”

“Come on….”

As if on cue, the door opened, and the waiter began setting down the course meal.

Unlike typical course meals, they brought out everything at once.

Because let’s be real—how many hospital staff had the luxury of a slow, relaxed meal?

It didn’t matter how expensive the food was. The best they could do was shovel it down quickly before heading back.

Kang-hyuk gestured toward the heaping plates.

“Eat, Slave.”

“Ugh….”

It was humiliating to be called Slave while being told to eat.

But what was even more humiliating was the fact that his stomach had been growling for ages.

He had skipped breakfast, and his lunch was just a rice ball.

It was only natural to be starving.

“You eat too—oh? Gangster, you’re really going at it.”

“Of course! I never waste a chance to eat good food.”

Watching Jang-mi happily devouring her meal only made Jaewon’s hunger worse.

And Kang-hyuk delivered the final blow.

“Slave. If your phone rings, you won’t get to eat at all. You sure you wanna wait?”

He spoke casually, his mouth still full of food.

And yet, not a single crumb fell from his lips.

A skill in itself.

“Goddamn it….”

In the end, Jaewon surrendered to the meal in front of him.

No one had the right to judge him for it.

Unless they had personally lived his life, they wouldn’t understand.

Chomp, chomp.

Soon, the only sound in the room was the noise of ravenous eating.

Even Kang-hyuk, who usually kept up his cocky attitude, was too busy stuffing his face to speak.

The waiter, peeking through the half-open door, shook his head.

“Man… doctors really have it rough.”

It wasn’t just once or twice.

Every day, he saw doctors shoveling food down their throats before rushing back to the hospital.

And the people in this room?

They were trauma surgeons.

The fact that they had made it this far was a miracle.

But miracles never lasted long.

Riiiiing!

Jaewon’s phone blared from his pocket.

“Oh, come on.”

Jang-mi, not even checking the caller ID, scowled immediately.

It was obvious who was calling.

“Aaah….”

Unlike Jang-mi, who was annoyed, Jaewon looked resigned as he pulled out his phone.

Meanwhile, Kang-hyuk didn’t even glance his way.

He just picked up the pace, eating faster and choosing the highest-calorie dishes.

He hadn’t said anything, but it was clear.

He already knew they were heading back.

“Yes, this is Yang Jaewon from trauma surgery. Yes. Ah… yes.”

Jaewon lowered his head like a criminal on trial.

Seeing this, Kang-hyuk sat up from his chair, still chewing his food.

If Jaewon was acting this way, it meant the patient’s condition was critical.

The only relaxed person at the table was Jang-mi.

Unlike these two, she wasn’t on call tonight.

“Yes, yes. Traffic accident… an Out Car Traffic Accident?”
(T/N: Out Car Traffic Accident = Pedestrian traffic accident.)

At those words, Kang-hyuk stopped eating entirely.

Instead, he popped a tea leaf into his mouth, chewing slowly.

When trauma surgery got called in for a car accident, it was almost always severe.

And a pedestrian accident?

That was nearly 100% fatal.

Even within the same category of car accidents, being hit outside the car was worlds apart from being inside the car.

“Understood. We’ll be there immediately. About….”

Jaewon trailed off and glanced outside.

Across the six-lane road, he could see the massive hospital building.

Even if he crossed immediately, it would still take several minutes to sprint through the hospital corridors.

Ten minutes? Fifteen?

As Jaewon did the math, his phone was suddenly snatched away.

By Kang-hyuk.

“We’ll be there in five. Prepare the treatment room and notify the OR. Keep CT clear, just in case.”

“Huh? Five minutes?!”

“Run, Slave.”

“Wait—”

It was one thing to be called Slave.

But hearing “Run, Slave” out loud?

That was next-level demeaning.

Like he was an actual slave.

“The patient’s dying, dumbass.”

And that was the magic phrase.

Jaewon had no choice.

Grabbing his coat, he bolted out of the room.

Right behind him, Kang-hyuk followed suit.

“Gangster, finish your meal and head home. See you tomorrow.”

He left a parting remark for Jang-mi.

“Yeah, yeah. Got it, Professor!”

Jang-mi waved hesitantly.

But she didn’t fully stand up.

Her chopsticks were still clutching a mouthful of noodles.

Thud, thud, thud.

By then, Kang-hyuk and Jaewon had already burst out of the restaurant, running toward the main road.

The light was still red, but neither seemed to care.

Technically, they should follow the law.

But in every situation?

Kang-hyuk didn’t believe so.

“Slave, don’t stop! Just run! There’s no traffic at this hour anyway!”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

As he dashed across the street, Jaewon had one thought.

If I die here, my obituary would be hilarious.

“Trauma surgeon dies jaywalking after receiving emergency call.”

A dumb, but oddly badass way to go.

At this hour, the road was just as Kang-hyuk had predicted—almost empty.

Not a single car honked at them as they safely crossed the street.

Though, the parked van and police car by the roadside were a bit concerning.

“Keep running, Slave!”

“Ugh…”

Jaewon cursed his reality—having to sprint while being called Slave.

But even as he cursed, his feet never stopped moving.

In the past two weeks, following Kang-hyuk, he had learned just how dangerous pedestrian accidents could be.

Thud, thud, thud.

The two of them burst through the hospital’s front entrance, dashing through the lobby.

“The hell?! Why are they running inside the hospital?!”

“Are they crazy?!”

Since neither of them was wearing a doctor’s coat, the patients and their guardians in the lobby voiced their complaints loudly.

But neither Kang-hyuk nor Jaewon paid them any attention.

They sprinted straight to the emergency room.

“Hah… hah….”

Jaewon was gasping for air the moment he stopped in front of the door.

He was not in good shape.

Meanwhile, Kang-hyuk looked completely fine—as if he had floated here instead of running.

“Slave, work out more. You’re panting after just five minutes?”

“Ugh…”

Jaewon wanted to say something back, but if he opened his mouth now, food would probably come out instead of words.

Beep!

In the meantime, Kang-hyuk swiped his ID and pushed open the emergency room door.

Jaewon silently followed behind him.

“How can I help y—oh, Professor Baek.”

A nurse approached, momentarily startled by Kang-hyuk’s casual clothes, before bowing.

Then, she led them to the treatment room.

The floor between the entrance and the treatment area was completely covered in blood.

“Too red.”

Which meant this was fresh blood.

It wasn’t pooled from an old injury.

In other words, the patient was still actively bleeding out.

Rustle.

With a firm expression, Kang-hyuk pulled back the curtain of the treatment area.

Immediately, the overwhelming stench of blood hit them.

“Ugh.”

Jaewon, who had barely been holding himself together, turned away.

He had seen a lot over the years, but this… this was different.

“When did they arrive?”

Kang-hyuk’s voice was calm but sharp.

The ER resident quickly answered.

“It’s been five minutes. We contacted you as soon as they arrived.”

“Hm.”

For five minutes, there wasn’t much done for the patient.

The only thing in place was two IV lines.

The patient wasn’t even intubated—they were still using a manual resuscitator to force air in.

“How did this happen? What hit them?”

Kang-hyuk looked at the completely shattered upper arm, swollen beyond recognition.

If the force was this strong, the head and neck were likely badly damaged as well.

“Um… they were a guardian of a hospital patient. They were jaywalking in front of the hospital and got hit by a van.”

“…Shit.”

Jaewon groaned.

They had just run through that area.

The accident had happened right where they had been.

Kang-hyuk remembered something.

The van parked on the roadside—the bloodstains near it.

“Damn it.”

And the height of the van’s bumper?

It was too low to hit the upper arm.

“So it must’ve hit their thigh first, throwing them forward.”

Then he remembered the cracked windshield.

There was only one part of the body that could break a windshield like that.

The head.

Naturally, Kang-hyuk’s gaze dropped to the patient’s head.

Gush.

Blood poured from the side of their skull.

This wasn’t just a scalp laceration.

The skull was shattered.

The vessels inside had ruptured completely.

Beep.

The monitor began blaring warning alarms.

The blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate were all crashing.

And then—

Flatline.

All vital signs dropped to zero.

It had taken less than a minute.

“Professor…”

Jaewon barely whispered as he stared at the monitor.

Kang-hyuk didn’t respond.

Instead, he just shook his head.

Then, with a heavy expression, he checked his watch.

“Lee Myung-sook. Time of death, January 2nd, 19:11.”

His voice, delivering the death pronouncement, was incredibly somber.

No one dared to speak.

In the heavy silence, Kang-hyuk slowly pulled a white sheet over the patient’s face.

And, in a voice only he could hear, he muttered—

“Yeah… Until trauma surgery is fully established, I should probably never leave the hospital again.”

Of course, even if he had been here, the patient would have died.

No doctor, no matter how skilled, could escape death itself.

But the fact that his first patient death happened on the one night he went out to eat?

That was unbearable.

And just as he was lost in self-reproach, a voice broke the silence.

“Incoming! Fall patient!”

Another dying person had arrived.

Kang-hyuk forced down his emotions.

He turned to Jaewon, who was already looking toward the paramedics.

“Slave, let’s go.”

“Yes, Professor.”