A few hours earlier...

The clock had just struck eleven o'clock in the morning, and it was finally Kiko's downtime. She only had an hour before she had to start her afternoon pre-round.

Kiko let out a long, deep sigh and stretched her arms—it had been a long and awful morning.

The surgery clerkship had really lived up to its ill-famed reputation. It was the most dreaded rotation by medical students. Not only because it was physically demanding—due to the long, grueling hours that they had to put in—but also because of the audacious, dog-tired, and overworked surgical residents, who were notorious for venting their frustration on medical students. They considered these students to be the lowest in the hierarchy, whom they could just aim their spectacular tantrums at.

This morning, Kiko was scheduled to shadow a chief resident infamous for being obnoxious toward medical students.

They were in a morning meeting discussing anticipated patients for the day, one of whom was a forty-five-year-old victim of a road traffic accident. The patient required operative surgical intervention for an abdominal laceration, and the chief resident picked Kiko out of the group to present the patient's case.

"So, I was thinking about 30mg Toradol for this lady..." she concluded after citing the patient information she had learned during her pre-round earlier.

The chief resident threw her a sour look. "Thirty!? For a little old lady like that!? Do you want to kill her!? Make it 15mg!"

In this kind of situation, most medical students would just shut their mouths and obey the resident. First, because their medical knowledge and experience really couldn't be compared to those of a resident. Second, because there was an unspoken rule among the hospital staff, which implied that a lowly medical student must not argue with a resident—especially this one, lest they wanted to be roasted.

But of course, Kiko wouldn't be Kiko if she didn't stubbornly counter. "Well, I wouldn't call her a little old lady, Dr. Gao. She's forty-five and doesn't have an acute kidney injury. In fact, her charts show a well-functioning kidney. So, that's how I came up with the 30mg."

The chief resident's face instantly reddened. No one had ever challenged him in front of a group of his subordinates. "Don't argue with me, you snot-nosed little bitch! Do you think you know more than me? I've been doing this since you started wearing tampons!" he shouted as he pointed a finger to Kiko's face.

Kiko simmered in anger and was about to rebuke when another resident intercepted, "Dr. Gao, Dr. Li needs us to scrub into his surgery in an hour. Let's wrap this up quickly."

Dr. Lawrence Gao was still glowering at Kiko, ready to tear her to pieces. But after hearing his fellow resident's words, he released his anger on the nearest chair. He kicked it, yelling, "Let's go then!" and turned around to leave for their morning round. The rest of the group followed.

Throughout the morning round, Dr. Gao kept nitpicking Kiko in front of the patients. She tried her best to ignore it. No, she wasn't afraid to lock horns with the nasty resident-chief or not—but not in front of the patients. So, she decided to just put up with it.

As soon as her morning round ended, her pager buzzed, announcing the first trauma of the day. She quickly headed to the trauma bay to assist the team. A few minutes later, the emergency medical technicians emerged through the door, carrying a patient with several stab wounds on a stretcher.

In a moment of confusion, a nurse handed Kiko an endotracheal tube for the general anesthesia procedure. She was supposed to pass it to the anesthesiologist, but after having an awful morning, Kiko couldn't think clearly.

She had done an airway simulator workshop in her anesthesia rotation before. So, instead of handing the tube to the anesthesiologist, Kiko walked toward the patient, as if ready to perform the intubation herself. The anesthesiologist immediately snatched the tube from her, yelling, "What are you doing!? Out of my way!"

He pushed her aside, and she ended up being reprimanded by the head nurse.

Happy that her downtime had finally come, she headed to the hospital's cafeteria, holding the thermos filled with Amah Ning's beef noodle soup. She poured herself a cup of mineral water from the water dispenser and sat down at an unoccupied table. The aroma of the beef noodle soup greeted her as soon as she opened the thermos. It eased her heart's pain slightly.

While eating her soup, she held her phone in one hand, browsing an internet forum for the global medical community. One section was dedicated to medical students, so they could share their clinical rotation experience. She logged in with her username, ClassyButCussALittle, created a thread titled "Surgery rotation is a nightmare!" and posted her grievances about her morning.

After just a few minutes, several replies came in—all of which were from other medical students from all over the world.

[ob1_kenobi - Medical Student. Location: United States

Preach! My surgery rotation was also awful. Nobody was pleasant or even semi-respectful except for this one pretty nurse anesthetist. She helped me keep my unhappiness at bay.]

[DesperateEnuf - Medical Student. Location: France

I had an interest in general surgery, but after my rotation, I have none...]

[peter_pan - Medical Student. Location: Neverland

Nasty residents are pretty much everywhere in the world. Hang in there, OP [1], the rest of the rotations will be like a breeze after this one.

@ob1_kenobi, so did you ask her out?]

There were more replies, which were all of a similar nature, and Kiko started to feel a bit comforted after reading them. She smiled and was about to put her phone away when another reply came in.

[DocStudMuffin - Senior Resident. Location: Hong Kong

Classic self-entitled kid. You thought you could handle an anesthetic procedure just because you've done an airway simulator workshop? You do not understand what problems you can run into when dealing with an airway. It's risky even in controlled situations, much more with a trauma patient. You deserved to be reprimanded. Don't mess with the airway.]

Kiko's jaw dropped. What on earth had she just read?

Could her day get any worse?

She felt so wronged! After receiving a real earful from the head nurse and was forced to eat humble pie in front of everyone, must she receive another one from a random stranger online? One whose nickname was Doctor Stud Muffin at that? How ridiculous!

Furthermore, the forum section was meant for medical students to share their experiences. Were they supposed to share only fluffy stories? Was there no safe place for poor medical students to rant anymore?

She typed a reply furiously.

[@DocStudMuffin I should clarify. I did NOT intend to perform the intubation myself. It was at a moment of chaos. I KNOW I should have handed it to the anesthesiologist. I admit I was wrong, and I accept the scolding. But to assume I'm one self-entitled kid, just from the horrible morning experience that I just had and shared here, you must be one of those depressed and unhappy residents, whose purpose in your pathetic life was just to be an asshole to med students!

And 'Stud Muffin'? HA! Better change your name to 'Half-baked Bitter Muffin,' or do everyone a favor and find yourself a nice cupcake. That's the only way you'll get sprinkles of sugar on you!]

She hit Send and let out a smug smile.

Thirty minutes had passed. She quickly finished her soup to go back for her afternoon pre-round when she heard someone call her name.

♡──── ❝ Author's Note ❞ ────♡

[1] Original Poster.

This one's written from Kiko's perspective. I know some readers got annoyed with Kiko when she interrupted Violet and Adam's conversation at Netherby's, but I swear, she's a nice girl 🙂

Also, a little announcement:

I'm changing my update schedule to Tuesday & Friday 5 pm CET/GMT+1/UTC+1 starting from next week. So, yep, the next update will be this coming Tuesday! 😊

It would mean a lot to me if you could share your thoughts about this chapter in the comment section below. And please consider voting if you liked it.

Thank you so much for reading!

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