Chapter 7.1 – Returning Home
After arriving at the treatment room, she had to wait for a while.
Since it was vacation season, both scheduled patients and walk-in patients were backed up. While her husband went out to take a call from his company, she searched for ‘Gong Ji-cheol Dental Clinic’.
Though she had come here through her husband’s introduction, she wanted to check the reviews herself. Surprisingly, the wisdom tooth extraction reviews all exuded warmth.
The reason was that the dentist named Gong Ji-cheol was an incredible heartthrob.
His face was supposedly a carbon copy of the currently popular actor Moon Jin-hyeok, and his voice resembled actor Gong Yoo. With such a doctor being kind and skilled, everyone’s reviews said that even 10 points out of 5 wouldn’t be enough.
Feeling somewhat relieved, she sent a text to Eun-hee.
A reply text flew back in less than 5 seconds. She said she was about to enter an urgent synopsis meeting and asked her to definitely share a real-life review of Dr. Gong Ji-cheol.
“Patient Go Ah-jin. Shall we go take X-rays?”
She followed the nurse to take X-rays and waited for the results.
A while later, the heartthrob doctor as described in the reviews came in and explained the results. Her husband still hadn’t come by then.
“Oh my. They’ve already grown quite a bit. I think you can rest well after we extract them cleanly today.”
At the doctor’s words, her eyes shook greatly.
“When on earth… did they grow so much?”
“Well. You must have had slight headaches, but you might have passed them off without knowing. Still, there are many people who can’t bear the pain from the moment they emerge, so it’s fortunate that you didn’t know.”
She nodded her head but wasn’t entirely convinced. It was annoying that they had grown without her knowing.
“But why are they called wisdom teeth?”
She expected a somewhat different answer from the internet, but the heartthrob doctor’s response was 99.9% identical.
“Ah. Well, these teeth usually emerge around the early twenties, which is when people come to know love. After wisdom tooth extraction, it hurts, and that’s supposedly similar to the pain of first love, so that’s how they got their name.”
“I see….”
She pretended to understand, but inwardly shook her head.
Incomparably to the pain of wisdom teeth, the pain of unrequited love was greater. The proof was that she had only looked at her husband without even knowing her wisdom teeth were emerging.
If first love was something done while accurately recognizing the target, her husband was her first love. This love she had been carrying on for a full 3 years showed no signs of ending.
Wisdom teeth could be extracted and would heal over time, but there was nothing about love that could be controlled at will.
“Patient, don’t worry too much. It will all pass quickly.”
The doctor and nurse took turns offering comfort. She nodded her head meaninglessly a couple of times and looked toward the door.
Before the local anesthesia began, she wanted to see her husband. Perhaps work had gotten busy and he had returned to the company. She lowered her expectations and nodded to the doctor who had finished preparing to administer the anesthetic injection.
“Now, then, you’ll sleep for just a moment and we’ll wake you up.”
The motion bed she was lying on gradually adjusted its angle and she ended up in an upside-down hanging position. As she felt blood rushing to her head and clasped her hands tightly together, it happened.
“Is it anesthesia time now?”
Her husband was standing at her bedside. Her heart raced at her husband’s face seen upside down. She realized he was such a handsome man that even viewed from below, there was nothing to find fault with.
“Oh, Jin-wook-hyung! Are you acquainted with the patient?”
The heartthrob doctor greeted him familiarly. Seeing her husband nod, it seemed to be true.
“She’s my wife.”
“Oh, I see. Wow! This is really amazing. I heard the news that you were getting married when I went overseas for training. As expected, you’d have to be at your level to catch such a beautiful woman.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course. Oh, Sister-in-law, it’s okay to call you that, right? You’re having wisdom tooth extraction today, so your husband isn’t busy, maybe he can wait a bit.”
The heartthrob doctor introduced himself as the younger brother of her husband’s high school classmate. It was fascinating how he chattered away well even next to her husband who gave short answers, so she watched the two of them.
“Ah, actually.”
Then she waved her hand at the doctor’s words, saying there was no need to go that far since he was a busy person.
“I will.”
However, her husband said definitively that he would do so.
“You’re busy though.”
“I’m the president.”
“Because of me… is that okay?”
“When you’re in pain, where would I go. Don’t worry about the company.”
It was almost lunch time. He must be hungry by now, but her husband showed no such signs and stroked her cheek once.
Her heart raced wildly. It was her husband’s touch, but this was the first time she had been prioritized over company work.
“Sister-in-law, you need to be anesthetized now.”
“Um… can I say one more thing to my husband?”
As she spoke while glancing at the sharply gleaming needle, the doctor smiled and told her to go ahead.
She clasped her hands together on her stomach and took a deep breath. She could feel her husband’s gaze looking down at her lips.
“I, I love you very much.”
Perhaps because it was right before surgery, great courage welled up. She wouldn’t be able to speak well for several days, and she thought if not now, when would she be able to say it.
“I know. Me too.”
Her husband held her hand tightly.
“Wow! You two must have a really good relationship. It makes me want to get married quickly too.”
The heartthrob doctor let out an exclamation and immediately administered the injection.
The area where the needle went in started to sting, then her cheek became numb. Soon her tongue tip hardened and the sensation itself disappeared.
Her husband’s face watching over her gradually became blurry. She could feel at ease until the familiar form that she could draw even with her eyes closed became a dot and disappeared.
***
The extraction was finished. With the anesthesia not fully worn off, she had gauze in her mouth and received several precautions.
Looking in the hand mirror, as expected, there was one steamed dumpling.
She should have brought a mask, she regretted, but it was already too late. As she went out covering one cheek with her hand as much as possible, her husband was there.
The surgery had ended successfully, and after hearing the nurse say to contact them if there were any problems, they finished the payment. Even after getting on the elevator, she was only focused on covering her cheek.
“Why are you covering your face?”
Since she couldn’t speak, she opened her phone’s notepad. After tapping the keypad to type, she showed it to her husband.
[Because it’s swollen.]
“So what if it’s swollen.”
[It’s all puffed up like a steamed dumpling.]
“So what about that.”
This is really frustrating.
Since she had gauze in her mouth, she couldn’t say what she wanted to say right away. As she lost her fighting spirit, her husband reached out and touched her cheek.
“Put your hand down.”
At his irrefutable gaze, she slightly lowered her hand, and her husband, who had been watching continuously, said one thing.
“Cute.”
Cute?!
She was shocked because she couldn’t believe those words came from her husband.
[Don’t tease me.]
She barely held back from spitting out the gauze and diligently tapped the keypad.
“Why. You’re cute sometimes.”
[This is the first time I’ve heard that today. The word cute.]
“Do I necessarily have to say that in words?”
‘If you don’t say such things in words, how would one know?’
She was the same age as her husband’s younger sibling who was 4 years younger. If he thought of her as young, he might see her as cute, but he had never even shown such signs.
Of course, if she had actually heard such words in front of her, she herself would have been desperate to dig a tunnel and crawl into it.
[Thank you for complimenting me.]
“It’s just the truth.”
Her ears were probably red by now too. Her husband’s words, spoken without a trace of laughter, were so lethal.
“I think I need to go into the company, so go home first.”
Even though she said she could just take a taxi, her husband called his company driver. After putting her in the back seat, he naturally sat in the seat next to her.
[Shouldn’t you be getting to work?]
Her fingers moved busily.
She felt a bit sorry for continuing to hold back someone who needed to go to the company. And it didn’t seem like her imagination that her husband had been looking at her cheek and smiling since earlier.
“You look much better now that you’ve lost a bit of weight.”
[Even if you say that, I think I look worse now.]
“Trust my words. You’re prettier now.”
Even the word pretty came out. She was hearing all the words she had wanted to hear from her husband concentrated in one day.
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I want to be a psychologist, and this couple made me realize that I definitely shouldn’t specialize in couples therapy. I might be able to tolerate one person acting childish, but two at once is too much for me.