“Minguri~ Wake up. Your pager kept on beeping, I think they need you at the hospital.”, Chaewon shook her girlfriend lightly trying to wake her up from her slumber. Although she didn’t want to wake her girlfriend who just worked 124 hours this week, she had no choice. She knew Minju loved her profession and Chaewon was sure that Minju loved every minute of that 124 hour shift. And her pager was beeping nonstop, so maybe it was something really important.

 

Minju slowly opened her eyes, she was greeted by her girlfriend’s morning face. “Good morning, gorgeous.” Minju leaned in to kiss Chaewon’s forehead. “Good morning, Doctor Kim. Your pager?”, Chaewon handed Minju her pager. 

 

The doctor smiled brightly at her girlfriend before looking at her pager. “Code blue.”, she whispered. “What did you say, baby?”, Minju looked at Chaewon one last time, a worried expression painted all across her face.

 

“I have to go, Chae. Code blue, they need me at the hospital.”, Minju said before hurriedly changing her clothes. “Bye, love. I love you! I’ll be home tonight.”, she kissed her girlfriend one last time before heading out to the hospital.

 

Running through the hallways, she went her way to the emergency room. “What do we got, Doctor Ahn?”, she asked her intern. “Uh, patient Kang Hyewon, entered the emergency room at 2:13PM with this paramedic’s hand inside her body. Said that she was shot while roleplaying World War II with her best friend.”

 

Wait, paramedic’s hand? “Paramedic, why do you have your hand inside my patient?”, Minju eyed the first aider. “I couldn’t stop the bleeding, Doc. I had to do something.”, the other reasoned out. “So, you decided to plug your hand inside my patient.”, Minju sighed frustratedly. “I had no choice! Her wound was too big for me to sew, there was bleeding inside. I could see it.”

 

“Well, we can’t remove your hand now or Kang Hyewon will bleed to death.”, Minju left the patient’s bed and the paramedic behind with Yujin following her. “Ahn, I want you to ask whoever her friend or family is about what happened.”

 

“I tried but she wouldn’t utter a word.”, Yujin said. “Well get her to utter words, Ahn. I’ve got rounds to do and we have to start that operation as soon as possible. We can’t do a CT nor an MRI because they won’t fit. So we have no choice but to hope for the best and do exploratory surgery. What is your name, paramedic?”

 

“My name’s Yuri.”, the paramedic sighed. “Okay, Yuri. You will be entering surgery with us. Ahn, page Jang and tell her to prepare both Kang and Yuri for surgery. I will be waiting in O.R 2.”

 

Yujin watched her resident’s back disappear before sighing multiple times. “Nako-chan, can you page Wonyoung for me and please tell her to prepare those two for surgery while I try and get something out of Choi.”, Yujin said to the nurse. “Sure thing, doc.”

“Miss? Miss Choi, you have to tell me what happened.”, Choi looked at Yujin with emptiness in her eyes. “Miss Choi, what happened when you were roleplaying World War II with your best friend?”, still no answer. “The frog’s gonna kill me.”

 

-

 

“Took you long enough, Jang.”, Minju spat at her intern. “I have been waiting for ages, do you want to kill the patient, huh?”

 

Jang hung her head low, “I apologize, Dr. Kim. I was at the other building.”. The resident scoffed. “What were you doing in the other building? You’re a surgical intern for god’s sake, Jang! This is your building and you do not leave this building unless I tell you so. Now get inside the OR, you’ll scrub in.”

 

-

 

“Nako! Help me make Miss Choi talk please. The surgery’s about to start and before it starts we should at least have knowledge of what happened.”, the intern whined as she looked at Choi in the eyes. “You’re on your own there, bud.”, the nurse said.

 

“C’mon, Nako-chan! Please-”

 

“I’ll talk.”, Yujin immediately turned her head towards Choi as she walked closer. “What happened?”

 

Choi breathed deeply as she looked at Yujin in the eyes. “Me and Hyewon were huge nerds, we wanted to roleplay World War II, which is why me and her are both wearing these uniforms.”, her voice cracked. “While roleplaying, we thought it was a good day to finally test the bazooka we hand made. So we did. We pulled the trigger of the bazooka, but it didn’t work and when Hyewon walked in front of it to check what went wrong, that was when it worked.”, Yena said shakingly. 

 

“You two made a bazooka?”, Yujin confusedly asked, why would they make a bazooka? Wait. “A BAZOOKA?!”, Yujin yelled, earning looks from different other doctors and patients. “Yes. Why?”, Yena asked in confusion. “DID IT HAVE AN EXIT WOUND?”, the intern walked closer to Yena. “Uh no? OH .”, Yena cursed out loud as she realized what the doctor meant. 

 

Yujin immediately ran from the ER to the OR, she just hopes that doctor Kim has not opened the body yet.

 

“Welcome to OR 2. We will be operating on Kang Hyewon who was shot accidentally while they were roleplaying World War II. Everybody, this is Yuri and her hand is inside the patient’s body. We have to slowly cut through Kang’s chest and remove Yuri’s hand to further inspect the injury and stop the bleeding. Let’s get started.”, Minju breathed in deeply. “Scalpel.”

 

“W-WAIT DOCTOR KIM DON’T!”, a very sweaty and panting Yujin came into view. “I am in the middle of an operation, Ahn. Do not disturb me until this operation is over.”, Minju took the scalpel from the scrub nurse. “D-don’t cut, doctor Kim! I need to talk to you please.”, the intern begged the resident. Minju placed the scalpel down as she walked towards Yujin with a very grim expression. “This has got to be something important, Ahn.”

 

Yujin went closer to the resident whispering while constantly looking back at the body on top of the operating table. Minju sighed knowingly as she went back to her position. “Everybody who does not have a critical role in this surgery, get out of the OR.”, the others looked at the resident in confusion. “Now.”

 

“Kang was shot by a bazooka. And she didn’t have an exit wound, so the explosive is still inside her body as we speak. Yuri, do not move. Without moving your hand, could you please tell me if you can feel something metallic and hard?”

 

Yuri with fear visible in her face nodded her head slowly. “A-at the tip of my index f-finger, I can feel s-something hard.”

 

“I’m afraid that is the explosive, Yuri. Stay still and remain calm, we will be with you along the way.”, she comforted Yuri. “Ahn, call 911 and tell them to have the specialized bomb team over. And Jang, page everybody code black.”

 

-

 

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

 

Pagers beeped continuously as the interns and the attending, awkwardly stood staring at their pagers. “Code black? What’s that? This is the first time I’ve heard about it.”, another surgical intern, Chaeyeon said. “Me too, what does it mean?”

 

The two interns both looked at the attending beside them. “Code black means you do not move until your resident instructs you to.”, the attending, Dr. Kwon, said as they waited for the elevator door to open. As the door opened, they were greeted with a messy lobby full of people evacuating and personnel in military uniforms. “Is this bad?”, Hitomi asked.

 

“Yes it is, Dr. Honda. Contact your resident at once.”

 

“Dr. Kim’s in surgery though?”

 

- 

 

“Dr. Kim, I am Miyawaki Sakura from the bomb team. The whole floor has evacuated as we speak and once we figure out the bomb placing, we are going to take the bomb out and you, Dr. Kim can proceed with the surgery. Jo Yuri, stay calm. Do not move the bomb nor your hand, this explosive was handmade so we cannot properly tell how big of an explosion it will be or if it will even explode. But, we cannot risk it so do not move.”, Sakura instructed them.

 

The paramedic sobbed. “Is this the end of the world? I-I’m still young, I shouldn’t even be here. I-I’m pulling my hand out, Dr. Kim please.”. Minju looked at the younger girl in panic. “No, Yuri. Do not remove your hand, we’re with you along the way, I promise.”, the paramedic calmed down as she heard what Minju said. “O-okay.”

 

“Yuri, why did you become a paramedic?”, the surgeon asked the girl to further distract her from fear. Yuri looked at the surgeon with something unexplainable in her eyes. “I wanted to save people. I knew I couldn’t become a full pledged doctor.”, Yuri laughed slightly. “So I opted for the easiest way to do so, be a first aider. However, here I am. With my pathetic being a sorry excuse for a paramedic.”

 

Minju looked at Yuri in the eye as she patted her shoulder. “You are a good paramedic, Yuri. Except for the fact that you shoved your hand inside my patient, you are the reason why she’s still alive right now and I will make sure to tell her once she wakes up recovered.”, the surgeon smiled at Yuri sincerely. “Wow.”, the two interns looked at their resident in awe. “Any problem, Jang? Ahn?”, Minju stared at the two with a scary look on her face. “N-nope! It’s just that, that was the first time we ever saw you smile like that. You are actually very pretty, Doctor Kim.”, Yujin blushed.

 

“Do I look like I care if I look beautiful right now, Ahn? I don’t. All I care about is saving my patient and Yuri, and I also care about not having my whooped by my soon to be wife. So if I were you, shut the hell up and focus on the patient.”, Minju said as she rolled her eyes at the intern. “Focus on the patient and off work focus on Jang. Looks like she was about to murder me earlier if I wasn’t her resident.”, the surgeon chuckled as Wonyoung felt her face heat up.

 

-

 

“BLUEPRINTS! WHERE ARE THE BLUEPRINTS?!”, the hospital’s chief of surgery, Dr. Lee yelled out. “Here, ma’am!”, Gaeun immediately grabbed the blueprints from the staff as she closely looked at the hospital structure near the OR 2. “!”

 

-

 

RING!

 

“Jang, please answer the phone.”, Minju instructed. Wonyoung carefully went up through the phone as she hurriedly put it against her ear. “Hello, this is OR 2.”

 

“Dr. Kim, this is Chief Lee speaking. Listen carefully. You CANNOT operate nor take out the bomb. Well at least not in that area. I am afraid that the hospital’s main oxygen line lies beneath where you’re standing right now.”

 

“The main oxygen line?”, Yuri breathed out shallowly. “If I’m correct, does it mean that if we take out the bomb right here and it explodes.”, she paused. “The whole hospital could get destroyed?”

 

Minju and Sakura looked at each other in worry. “You are correct, Yuri. However, we will do our best to prevent its explosion.”, Sakura turned to Minju. “We are moving, Dr. Kim.”. Minju slowly nodded at the expert. “Yuri, can you do it?”

 

“I-I can, Dr. Kim.”

 

“Good.”

 

Wonyoung and Yujin opened the doors, removing everything that could possibly block their way. “Slowly, slowly.”, Sakura said in a calm manner as they walked towards the elevator, being wary of even a single step or object that could make Yuri move her hand inside the body. It was long and unbearable for Yuri, but they were able to do it. She figured that it was one of the ways she could prove to herself that she was a good paramedic and a decent human being.

 

“Good job, Yuri. We are closer to saving this woman’s life.”, Sakura smiled at Yuri calmly as Yuri looked at her with relief present in her eyes. “In 3, Yuri. Could you slowly remove the bomb from the body but keep it level and as steady as possible.”

 

“I-in 3?”

 

“Yes, Yuri. In 3.”, Minju smiled. “Don’t worry, Yuri. Nothing’s going to happen.”

 

“Are you sure, doctor?”, Yuri asked Minju with tears in the corner of her eyes. “Yes I am, Yuri.”

 

Yuri looked at Minju one last time. “Okay. In 3.”

 

‘3. 2. 1.’

 

Yuri slowly removed the bomb from the body cavity, keeping it as level and steady as possible. Slowly but surely, they were getting closer towards success. Yuri finally gave Sakura the explosive. The bomb expert smiled at Yuri one last time. “You were great, Yuri. Thank you.”, before proceeding outside the OR and into the end of the hallways. 

 

Minju, Yujin and Wonyoung immediately went to work as they did their best to locate the bleeding and patch it all up. Yuri on the other hand, wanted to thank the experts for helping her get through it. Yuri went to the OR’s door peeking at the expert outside. There was Sakura, holding the explosive delicately in her hands walking continuously at the end of the hallway. Sakura stopped as she looked behind her and saw Yuri smiling at her with gratitude. The expert gave Yuri one last smile before the bomb exploded. 

 

-

 

“Chief Lee! Where is Minju?!”, Chaewon immediately stormed to the chief as she heard the news. “We do not know, Chaewon. The bomb- it exploded near their OR.”, Chaewon felt her tears flow down her cheeks. “No. It can’t be. I-I’ll check on her, chief please.”, Chaewon tried to walk away but was stopped by Gaeun’s arms. “Calm down, Chaewon.”

 

“Chief please! M-my girlfriend’s there. She could be alive, she could be d-dead. How can you expect me to calm down?”, Chaewon sobbed as she collapsed to the ground. “W-we’ll find her as soon as help comes, Chaewo-”

 

TING!

 

All eyes turned towards the elevator. Chaewon stood up, wiping her tears with her hand. ‘Please, let this be my love.’

 

The elevator door slowly opened and there she was. Leaning on the elevator wall with her blood stained scrubs. Chaewon felt her world spin as she ran towards the love of her life. “You scared me, !”, she cried in her girlfriend’s arms as Minju laughed at the older. “I wouldn’t leave you especially since I told you I’ll be home, Chaewon-ah.”, Minju cupped Chaewon's face as she wiped the tears that stained her cheeks. “Don’t cry, love. I’m safe now.”

 

Chaewon hugged her girlfriend once again. “Will this incident make you quit being a surgeon now?”, the two chuckled.

 

“Not a chance, love. Not a chance.”

 

THE END.