1.10

“Ah, isn’t that Dr. Gu Junmo?”  

The automatic glass door slid open, and Junmo entered. Park Sujin, who had been reviewing a chart, approached him and extended her hand. It had been three years since they last saw each other. She had only heard that he had returned to Korea and resumed work, but she never imagined they’d meet like this.  

Back when they worked together in the emergency center, Sujin often wondered when this man, with his relentless personality and perfectionist tendencies, would leave. But now, encountering him in such an unexpected place, she felt a strange sense of nostalgia.  

“Why aren’t you in the emergency room? What brings you here?”  

Junmo briefly shook her hand before letting it go and replied, 

“Ah… things turned out this way. But more importantly…”  

Sujin took a moment to look him over. From head to toe, he seemed like a completely different person.  

“What brings you here, Dr. Gu?”  

“I’m here for a visit.”  

“A visit?”  

“Can I take a look at Gu Junhyung’s chart?”  

“What? Oh… sure.”  

Sujin, puzzled, glanced at him before extending her arm over the station counter. A nurse, who had been standing idly by, stared blankly for a moment before handing over the chart after Sujin gestured with her fingers.  

“What’s your relationship with Gu Junhyung…?”  

Curious about the connection, Sujin asked as she handed him the chart.  

“He’s my brother.”  

Sujin’s eyes widened in disbelief. It was hard to process.  

Three years ago, she and Gu Junmo had worked together in the emergency center, where their professional relationship had been intense, to say the least. Despite their occasional clashes, the bond they shared as colleagues was solid. They didn’t need to meet in private to feel that connection.  

Junmo, seemingly unaware of Sujin’s astonishment, furrowed his brows as he carefully reviewed the chart.  

“They preserved and removed the ossicles without making an incision.”  

“Oh, yes. The adhesion was severe, but fortunately, there was no tympanic membrane perforation. And luckily, there were no lesions either.”  

Sujin, now back to her professional demeanor, gave him a concise report.  

“I just reviewed the temporal bone CT on my way here. May I go in?”  

Handing the chart back to Sujin, Junmo gestured toward the inpatient ward.  

“Yes, of course.”  

As soon as Junmo disappeared into the ward, the nurse who had been sitting nearby widened her eyes and asked, 

“Who was that?”  

“Hm?”  

“That man just now.”  

“You’ve been working here for three years, right?”  

“Yes.” 

“Then it makes sense you wouldn’t know. We worked together in the emergency center. He doesn’t seem like a doctor, does he?”  

The nurse, her ears turning red, nodded in agreement.  

“You probably haven’t seen him in scrubs. He’s unbelievably intense.”  

“Really?”  

“Yes. In the operating room, he’s someone you’d rather not encounter.”  

Sujin spoke as if joking, but her tone carried a hint of truth. She narrowed her eyes as she stared down the empty hallway.  

Gu Junhyung was quietest when he was first brought to the ward after his surgery. But as soon as he regained consciousness, he became unbearably troublesome. He constantly complained about minor symptoms, whining as if he couldn’t tolerate even the slightest discomfort.  

It was easier to deal with elementary school patients.  

But seriously—how could a patient as unruly as Gu Junhyung be Dr. Gu Junmo’s brother? How could two people be so utterly different?  

Sujin sighed deeply, her shoulders rising and falling, and shook her head in disbelief.  

Even hearing it directly, it was hard to believe.  

***

“Miss? Miss, I don’t even have the strength to talk anymore. Please, just give me some water. Don’t just wipe my lips with gauze—please, I’m begging you!”  

Junhyung’s voice rang out the moment Junmo stepped into the hospital room. His tone was beyond pleading, bordering on desperate.  

Junmo couldn’t help but chuckle quietly.  

What caught his attention were the flowers and fruit baskets sent in lieu of visits. There were so many of them that an entire shelf had been taken up.  

As he took a few steps forward, his view cleared. Junhyung lay weakly on the bed, grumbling, while a caregiver moistened his lips with water-soaked gauze. The caregiver’s calm expression and professional demeanor were impressive.  

“You’re here?”  

Junhyung, lying on the bed, greeted Junmo in a feeble voice.  

Junmo carefully examined the IVs hanging on the stand before taking off his jacket and draping it over a chair. He pulled the chair closer to the bed and sat down.  

“How are you feeling?”  

“…Cold.”  

“It’s the anesthesia. You’ll feel better soon. Are you doing your breathing exercises properly?”  

“Why does everyone keep telling me to do breathing exercises when I’ve had ear surgery?”  

Junhyung’s suppressed irritation seemed to erupt the moment he saw Junmo.  

“Because you were under general anesthesia.”  

“Then why… what does that have to do with anything?”  

“When you undergo general anesthesia, you lose the ability to breathe on your own. Since a machine was doing the breathing for you during surgery, your lungs probably shrank. Normally, they should stay inflated like a balloon, but if they remain deflated, it can cause issues.”  

“What? Hey! Speak up! I can’t hear you properly. Your voice sounds muffled. Are you sure this surgery was done right?”  

Junhyung grumbled but still inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, repeating the process. Watching his brother, Junmo chuckled softly. He thought to himself how fortunate it was that this was family—if Junhyung had been his patient, he would have been a nightmare to handle.  

“They’ve packed your ear with gauze. It’d be strange if you could hear properly.”  

“I swear, I’m never coming back to a hospital again.”  

Junhyung closed his eyelids weakly, voicing his complaints.  

Hospitals were places you wouldn’t visit if you could avoid it, after all. Junmo kept these thoughts to himself and simply observed his brother.  

“They told me to fast before the surgery, so I did. Now they’re saying I can’t even drink water. Can’t you see how dry my lips are?”  

Leaning back in his chair, Junmo glanced at his watch. Calculating the time that had passed since the surgery, he turned to the caregiver and said it should be fine to give Junhyung some lukewarm water.  

“You’ll need to wait another 30 minutes.” 

The caregiver replied firmly while adjusting the humidifier. Her voice was calm and unwavering.  

Hearing this, Junhyung suddenly let out a sarcastic laugh.  

“Miss, Miss? He says it’s fine. Don’t you know who he is? He’s a doctor—a doctor—at this hospital.”  

Junhyung was about to say more, but Junmo stopped him.  

“Go to the station and check with the nurse in charge. That will give you the most accurate answer.”  

“I’ll go ask.” 

The caregiver said before leaving.  

Junhyung watched her retreating figure with narrowed eyes and muttered, 

“Might as well die than live like this.”

“Brother.”  

Not wanting to hear any more complaints, Junmo interrupted.  

“Yeah?”  

“You can’t handle even the slightest discomfort, can you? You’re not a kid…”  

“Hey, why don’t you try having surgery?”  

“I perform surgeries every day.”  

“Oh, you little… Are you seriously joking with me while your brother is lying here after surgery? I mean, you should try being the one lying on the operating table, not the one holding the scalpel, scissors, or needle.”  

Junmo let out a small laugh, amused by his brother’s frustration.  

“Don’t get worked up. Stress isn’t good for your surgical site.”  

“I should replace her right now. Shouldn’t a caregiver prioritize the patient? At the very least, she should be a bit flexible. But no, she’s completely clueless… It’s so frustrating.”  

“She seems well-trained and professional. What’s there to complain about?”  

“Fine, I’ll admit it. Leeseo went through interviews to find this caregiver, so I’m sure she’s competent. But couldn’t she just help me out a little? Leeseo always disappears when I need her the most. Even when she came early this morning, she just ignored me no matter how much I called her…”  

Junhyung suddenly stopped mid-sentence.  

A heavy silence settled over the room as he closed his mouth.  

Leeseo came early this morning?  

Junmo felt his expression harden, growing colder by the second.  

The VIP ward wasn’t a place where just anyone could enter freely. It wasn’t somewhere people could come and go as they pleased, regardless of the time.  

The system itself was stricter than that of a regular ward. In short, it provided top-tier medical care while also ensuring privacy through a separate layout.  

From the underground parking lot to the ward, there was a private elevator, but without an access card, it couldn’t be used. Even if someone managed to reach the elevator, they would still encounter security guards at the ward entrance. Protecting the patient’s privacy was their primary duty.  

This was precisely why high-profile political and business figures insisted on using these expensive VIP wards.  

“Leeseo… came here?”  

After a long pause, Junmo finally spoke. His voice was low and heavy, colder than it had been moments ago.  

“Oh, right. You haven’t seen Leeseo yet, have you?”  

“Why did Yoon Leeseo come to your hospital room in the middle of the night?”  

“Wow, you’re really intense right now. I’m a patient. As a doctor, you shouldn’t be treating a patient like this… Oh, Miss! Water!”  

Junhyung welcomed the caregiver entering the room as if she were his savior.  

“The nurse said it’s okay to give him water now. She also confirmed that you’re a doctor.”  

The caregiver prepared a tray and a cup of water, glancing apologetically at Junmo.  

“You’re doing the right thing, Miss. As you can see, I’m not his attending physician.”  

The caregiver approached with a tray in hand and offered Junhyung a half-filled cup of water. Junhyung, wearing a sour expression, struggled to lift his upper body and took just two sips before setting the cup back down.  

Junmo, holding back a laugh, watched Junhyung avert his gaze. Though a fire burned inside him, Junmo decided to let it go and stood up. The desire to interrogate his brother had vanished.  

“You’re leaving?”  

Startled by Junmo’s sudden movement, Junhyung asked with a bewildered look.  

“You need to rest too. Can I take one of the fruit baskets on the shelf in the private room?”  

“Oh, yeah. Sure. Take it. Take all of them if you want.”  

Junhyung, feeling both uneasy and oddly relieved by his brother’s abrupt change in demeanor, blurted out whatever came to mind.  

Throwing a polite “thank you for your hard work” to the caregiver, Junmo grabbed the largest fruit basket and exited the hospital room.  

Even if Junhyung wasn’t saying what he was hiding, Junmo wasn’t someone who couldn’t figure it out. He just needed to ask Park Sujin.  

To confirm whether Yoon Leeseo had come by.  

If he played his cards right, he might even uncover why Yoon Leeseo had shown up in the middle of the night.  

Junmo didn’t need to bribe Park Sujin with a fruit basket. He already had plenty of leverage.  

The leverage of being the patient’s brother, and the leverage of being a colleague from the emergency center who had shared life-or-death moments with her.