Emergency Instinct - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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2 months ago.

Hanyeong Hospital EM (Emergency Medicine) Department.

Last night had been particularly cruel to Ji-an, a 2nd-year EM resident.

“Hong Ji-an. Go wash up.”

Min Kyung-seok, who entered the department office, handed Ji-an a café mocha topped with whipped cream while looking at her with pitying eyes.

Kyung-seok was called the ER (Emergency Room) ghost.

He was a 3rd-year EM fellow and also Ji-an’s senior from university.

“I washed my hair three days ago.”

Ji-an spoke mechanically without taking her eyes off the monitor.

The sweet aroma stimulated her nose, but she didn’t have the energy to pick it up.

She wanted to finish organizing the charts quickly and get some sleep, even if just for a moment.

Three critical patients had come in during the early morning hours.

There had apparently been a gang fight near the hospital.

The patient Ji-an was assigned had elaborate dragon tattoos on both arms.

Since he was unconscious due to hemorrhagic shock from abdominal trauma, she had prepared the operating room in advance, controlled the bleeding, and performed an emergency CT scan.

But by the time GS (General Surgery) arrived, the golden hour had already passed.

The patient’s heart had stopped, and Ji-an had to helplessly pronounce him dead.

Death pronouncements always weighed heavily on her heart.

The police investigators who came after being contacted and the gang members who filled the emergency room with their menacing presence made it even more suffocating.

But there was no time to be swept up in emotions.

Soon a TA (traffic accident) patient came in as an emergency, and she had to run again.

She had no idea how she managed to make it through to morning.

When on earth would they get more staff?

Please, she wished for nothing more than many EM resident applicants next year.

Ji-an, who was handling an extremely brutal schedule, weakly tapped the keyboard with bloodshot eyes.

“Stop and go home.”

Was she hearing things due to sleep deprivation?

“You’re supposed to be off today anyway. I’ll organize the remaining charts, so go get some sleep. Don’t even come near the ER until tomorrow. I won’t call you either.”

The dream-like words came again.

Ji-an lifted her heavy head and properly looked at Kyung-seok for the first time.

“Geez, you look just like a zombie. You’re scary enough to appear in nightmares.”

Kyung-seok stepped back with a horrified expression.

Was it that bad?

“Here, take this too.”

Thud, Kyung-seok casually handed Ji-an a department store shopping bag.

Inside was chocolate wrapped in luxury packaging.

“What’s this?”

“A birthday present.”

Birthday?

Ji-an looked down at the date written on the chart.

December 10th.

It was Ji-an’s birthday, when her mother would make seaweed soup for her every year as if it were natural.

She felt her insides warming up, but Ji-an deliberately looked away.

“That chocolate is expensive. It’s also a bribe to keep you from running away, so eat it all and come to work tomorrow looking like a human being.”

Kyung-seok pushed Ji-an aside and sat down at the computer in her place. But when Ji-an didn’t move readily, Kyung-seok asked curiously.

“Why? Don’t want to go home? Would you rather just work?”

“No. Thank you, senior!”

Ji-an, who had been dazed for a moment, bowed her head at the unexpected gift and ran out of the department office. There was no time to wallow in sentimentality just because it was her birthday.

It was her first time leaving work in a whopping 72 hours.

It was wise to disappear before an emergency situation arose and she got caught up in it.

Since she preferred stairs over elevators for just a floor or two, she ran up to the changing room on the floor above with superhuman strength. She put the chocolate gift in her locker and threw off her doctor’s coat.

When she put on her padding and came out of the hospital, winter’s cold penetrated her entire body.

It felt refreshing rather than cold.

She couldn’t remember when she’d last breathed fresh air.

Even though her body felt heavy like waterlogged cotton, her mood felt like it could fly away.

Drowsiness was creeping in, but Ji-an headed to Dongsan Hospital where her mother was, instead of the resident dormitory. She thought it was fortunate that she could see her mother’s face on her birthday.

Beep! Beep!

It was just when she had come out to the road in front of the hospital.

She was heading toward the subway station when a car horn honked right next to her.

No way…

Ji-an turned around with a sense of foreboding.

As if it had been waiting, the rear window of a black sedan rolled down.

“Perfect timing, looks like you’re getting off work. Get in.”

Park Soon-ja, Ji-an’s grandmother, gestured as if it were natural.

Ah, this is really awful. Why today of all days.

Her feet seemed glued to the sidewalk, unable to move.

Ji-an knew better than anyone that her grandmother hadn’t come all this way to celebrate a birthday she didn’t even know about.

20 years ago, Ji-an’s father had died in a traffic accident.

Her grandmother, who had only made her daughter-in-law’s life miserable, blamed her son’s accident on her daughter-in-law, Ji-an’s mother, and poured out malicious accusations.

‘You vicious woman who killed my son!’

‘You vulgar woman with no class!’

‘If you want to live with the child, leave empty-handed. If you take even a single coin from my house, you’ll never see the child again!’

The truly vicious one wasn’t her mother, but her violent grandmother who only cared about money.

In the end, her grandmother kicked her mother out penniless.

Ji-an still vividly remembered her mother’s tears as she held her young daughter and cried sorrowfully, saying she was sorry.

Her mother worked hard at a restaurant to make a living with her young daughter.

Her once-soft hands quickly became ruined, and she grew weaker day by day.

While putting pain relief patches on her mother’s back, Ji-an gritted her teeth and studied.

When she got into medical school on a scholarship, her mother was as happy as if she had gained the whole world.

After graduating from medical school, Ji-an lived as a 24-hour emergency room standby. Though it was hard, she received a fairly generous salary. She thought she could finally take comfortable care of her mother.

But that sense of reward and happiness ended a year ago.

Her mother, who had only suffered hardships, suddenly collapsed from a brain hemorrhage.

They performed emergency surgery, but her mother didn’t regain consciousness. She fell into a coma.

Since the possibility of recovery was high, early treatment was more important than anything.

Ji-an used everything she had to try every possible treatment.

Fortunately, there was improvement for a few months.

Her living brainstem showed responses, and her mother was able to breathe spontaneously after removing the oxygen respirator. Sensation gradually returned, and there were occasional physical responses.

But that was as far as it went.

Even with expensive brain stimulation therapy, her mother didn’t improve any further.

Eventually, the attending professor recommended stopping treatment and transferring to a nursing hospital.

Further brain stimulation was meaningless.

He said physical therapy to prevent the body from stiffening was the best option for maintaining life.

The doctor’s recommendation sounded like a death sentence telling Ji-an to give up on her mother.

She couldn’t accept it.

However, her loans had already exceeded their limit, and she couldn’t continue staying in the university hospital bed. Even Hanyeong Hospital where she worked wouldn’t accept her mother and recommended an affiliated nursing hospital.

In the end, Ji-an had to resort to her last option and kneel before her grandmother, who was the director of Dongsan Hospital.

‘Grandmother! I’m not just asking you to help me. I will definitely pay you back. I can’t give up on my mother like this. Please just make one spot for my mother at Dongsan Hospital. Please let her continue receiving treatment.’

‘What more treatment is there for a vegetative patient? How shameless.’

‘My mother will definitely wake up! I’ll do anything, so please help me.’

‘In that case, instead of accepting your mother at Dongsan Hospital, you must unconditionally cooperate with Hong Family affairs from now on.’

Dongsan Hospital was a hospital established by her late grandfather.

Following grandfather, Father had been the hospital director until his passing, and Grandmother, as the chairwoman, wielded tremendous power as the manager.

Grandmother had kicked out Ji-an and Mother, cutting off all connections not only to Dongsan Hospital but to everything related to the family.

But now she was bringing up the family and demanding cooperation—Ji-an felt fearful about what exactly she was trying to demand.

However, there was no other way.

To maintain Mother’s treatment immediately, she had to accept.

So a month ago, she moved Mother to Dongsan Hospital.

As Ji-an had hoped, Mother could receive the expensive brain treatment she had been getting at the university hospital.

In return, Grandmother began forcibly dragging Ji-an to matchmaking meetings as if it were a natural obligation.

She never could have imagined it. That the work for the Hong Family would be a forced marriage.

Grandmother was desperately trying to use marriage connections to secure massive investments for Dongsan Hospital.

The investment money wasn’t even being used solely for the hospital.

Grandmother simply arranged Ji-an’s matchmaking meetings while dealing with various companies for her own honor, then engaged in personal activities afterward.

It was absurd and infuriating. However, since she had to maintain Mother’s treatment, she couldn’t refuse the matchmaking meetings even though she didn’t want them.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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