Her voice became faint, leaving Yu Jin completely numb. She had always been a cheerful and optimistic girl, showing absolutely no sign of being scared by the approaching mortality. She had always been wearing a mask of being happy to show to the world, hiding away the unspoken fear that was wandering in her mind. Not only was she strong, she also inspired Yu Jin to be strong like her, to live a meaningful life, to smile more and to believe in himself more. But perhaps, she might be crying even more often than Yu Jin smiled thanks to her. He would probably want to thank the soju as but for it, Eun Chae might not have revealed herself so openly like she was doing now and he might never be able to discover the weaker, more vulnerable side of her personality.

"Hey, answer me? What would you say?" She nudged his arm. "I am...really...terrified of death, you know?" Her voice began to be shaky again.

"You don't need to be terrified," Yu Jin turned around and stroked her hair, "I'll be here with you. You have a doctor beside you so don't be afraid."

"Mm hmm," she meekly said and nodded her head, "Hey Yu Jin..."

"Yeah?"

"Can you...hug me please?"

Yu Jin was a bit flustered. He had definitely never been this close to a girl, not even his own sister. But he still agreed with her in the end as there was just no reason to say "No" to such a request. If a dying girl just wanted a hug from him, then wouldn't it be too mean of him if he gave her a "No"? He looped his arms around her body and held her tight. Her head was placed on his chest while his chin was touching her hair. They were so close together that he could feel her chest rising and falling, her heartbeat and her every single breath.

"You like hugging, don't you?" He asked.

"Yeah. I like hugging people, and being hugged too. By that I can at least feel someone's warmth. I have never experienced that when I was in the orphanage."

So this was what she was craving for, just the feeling of people's warmth. Yu Jin wondered how harsh her childhood really was that she ended up like this, seeking cosiness from a seemingly reserved and cold boy like him.

The two friends lied close together, hugging each other tight and feeling the warmth of the other. Yu Jin planned to let go of Eun Chae once she had fallen asleep. But he himself entered his slumber even before he could really realise and they remained in that posture for the whole night.

The sun finally rose, waking up Eun Chae. Opening her eyes and realising that she had been sleeping in Yu Jin's arms, she was absolutely confused. She had forgotten most of the things that had happened the previous night and could not decipher why Yu Jin was hugging her.

"What the heck?" She quickly sat up gaped at Yu Jin with her face turning crimson. "Hey Yu Jin, wake up!" She gently shook his body.

"Huh?" Yu Jin sleepily yawned and opened his eyes, "Oh, hi Eun Chae."

"Were you...hugging me for...the whole night?" She peered at him in puzzlement.

"What?" Yu Jin tried to recall what was going on last night. "Oh damn," he muttered and his face began to blush, "I...I'm sorry...I was...just..."

"Never mind, I...have no problem with that so...don't worry," she gave him a coy smile, "By the way, I was drunk last night, right?"

"Yeah," Yu Jin nodded his head.

"Holy crap," she rubbed her eyes and then buried her face in her hands. It took her a while to regain control of herself after taking a deep breath, "Did I...talk about anything inappropriate with you...I mean...was I talking nonsense?"

"No...I guess."

"Really? I didn't, right?"

"You didn't," Yu Jin shook his head.

"That's a relief. But, even if I did then...can you just forget it?"

Yu Jin hummed in agreement and prepared himself to do all the hygiene stuff, and so did Eun Chae. They took turns to go to the bathroom and then packed up to leave the camping site. That day was Saturday, and it was already nine in the morning when they arrived at the train station, so the cabin was not too crowded. They could easily find two seats next to one another and sat down. Yu Jin was still very tired, so Eun Chae lent him a shoulder to lean on. He slept beside her for the whole journey while the memories about that wonderful night were stirring up his mind, showing up in his dream.

******

The stargazing night also marked the start of Yu Jin's last unoccupied week in Seoul. It was the last week that he could enjoy before the cutthroat internship period at Yulje hospital. From that on, his schedule would become more hectic than he could ever imagine, filled with both his part-time job and his internship. But that did not really bother him too much, he was aware how fierce it would be and was mentally prepared for that. Instead of thinking about it as a torturing experience, he would rather interpret it as a chance to have an early taste of what a doctor's life should be like. Yu Jin was going to work in the emergency room, not really his ideal department but to him, being accepted was already too good to be true.

Finally, that day had come, a Sunday on which the weather could not be any nicer. Yu Jin's duty was in the morning, which meant he had to wake up at about six o'clock for preparation. That was probably the most terrible time that he could imagine being assigned right now. However, he was fine with it. At least, it was not the night shift by which many resident doctors were agonised.

He arrived at the hospital at around nearly seven in the morning and walked straight to the emergency room. On his way, he, of course, did not forget to look around and observe things which were happening at the busy hospital. The place was packed with people. There were doctors striding around in their white blouses. There were nurses hastily running around, carrying something which were seemingly surgical tools with them. And there were also patients moving around the corridor. Some of them were using a wheelchair, while some others were able to walk, but had to carry the IV bags with them. The hospital was so big that Yu Jin could not even find the way to the emergency room. Seeing him trying to look at the signs with a confused expression, a girl, wearing white blouse, suddenly approached him.

"Hi, you need some help?" She queried.

"Ah...yeah...can you tell me where the ER is please?"

"Oh, the ER. I'm going there now, so follow me," she beckoned him and gave him a breezy smile.

"Thanks a lot," he shyly said, nodding his head and following her.

They talked with each other a bit more on the way to the ER and Yu Jin found out that she was an SNU ex-student who was working as a resident, or to be more exact, a first-year resident. She was also new to the hospital, just like him. However, unlike him, she had way more experience and had been taken in by the hospital in March, which was a few months ago.

Right at the moment they arrived at the ER, the first thing they encountered was a group of emergency doctors swiftly moving a patient along the corridor. "Excuse me!" One of them shouted while pushing the stretcher through so Yu Jin and the girl he had just met took a step back to give way for them. Yu Jin noticed the patient who seemed to be a middle-aged man. He was in the attire of a construction builder. The man, lying unconsciously on the stretcher with blood gushing out of his neck, was injured by a piece of metal. There were many red patches seen on the white mattress of the stretcher. About five physicians were running alongside the stretcher, hurrying to move him to his assigned bed. In cases such as this one, in order to save the patient's life, every second mattered. That was one of the most scary and disgusting scenes that Yu Jin had ever seen. Both of the newcomers were feeling really bad for the patient. It appeared that his injury was very severe. He had been watching doctor dramas more than anyone else he knew and thus, could have a general idea how an ER would look like. But it seemed that movies were no match to the real life experience. His eyes followed the stretcher as it was going away, filled with confusion and trepidation while he was gritting his teeth. 

"Are you scared?" The girl inquired. She seemed to notice the abnormal expression on his face.

"Well...a bit...I've never seen that much blood, to be honest."

"Yeah, it's a lot of blood. I think the sharp metal bar injured his neck artery," she sighed and shook her head, "It's hard to say whether he will survive or not."

"Hmmm," Yu Jin mindlessly nodded his head while his eyes were stilling following that group of physicians.

"You should get used to it. I used to work as an EMT in my pre-med years. At first, I was also scared, but things will be better once you have worked for long enough. If you're scared of blood, then you won't be able to work here."

"Yeah, I'll try my best. By the way, what does EMT stand for?"

"Emergency medical technician, you don't know that?"

"No, I don't, but it sounds cool, I guess."

"Oh yeah, you're a pre-uni intern, sorry I forgot that. It's basically similar to an emergency doctor, but I worked on the ambulance instead, not in the ER. There are many different set-ups that an EMT can work in, you can research more about that if you want," the friendly girl enthusiastically explained to him about the job of an EMT. From her demeanour, it seemed that she really loved her work.

"Ah thanks, it helps a lot. By the way, if I get into SNU, should I take EMT as my CCA?"

"It's not a school CCA, you need to register EMT training courses at institutions outside the school...hmmm...if you're willing to spend a lot of time on practising medicine-related skills then I'd say yes. But if you suck at time management like me, then don't. Otherwise you will end up sleeping three hours per day like me," she said and laughed.

"I see, thanks for telling me," he shyly smiled.

When they were talking, a guy suddenly came and intervened. He was wearing a doctor blouse.

"Hi Chae Won," the newcomer said.

"Hi Dr. Jeon," she grinned.

"Who's with you here, is he one of the new interns?"

"Yes, he is. Come on, introduce yourself," she looked at Yu Jin and gave him an encouraging smile.

"Hello doctor, I'm Han Yu Jin, graduated from Busan High. I come here for the internship," he said and bowed his head.

"Hi Yu Jin, nice to see you! I'm Jeon Jung Kook, a fellow. I was assigned to show you around the hospital today. But let's wait for one more guy before we proceed, OK?"

"Yes, doctor," Yu Jin said.

Right after that, there was another guy running into the room.

"Excuse me, where's doctor Jeon Jung Kook please?" He nervously asked the woman at the information counter.

"I'm here," Jung Kook waved his hand at him while the new guy was running towards the three people who had previously come.

"Hello, I'm Yang Jung Won from SFS Red Cross. I come here for first aid training. I'm really sorry for being late, doctor," he bowed his head.

"Wow, another pre-uni guy", he surprisedly said, "It's fine! We haven't started anyway. Now, since all are here, I'll begin showing you around. Let's go, shall we?", Jung Kook said while looking at his watch.

"Doctor, may I go with you guys?" Chae Won excitedly inquired.

"No, you may not," Jung Kook peered at her, "You know that Ji Eun needs you to help her out, right?"

"OK, fine!" She grumbled.

After a while, once the hospital tour was finished, Jung Kook brought two new interns to the canteen.

"Here's the hospital cafeteria, Yulje cafe. If you guys wanna eat anything here, then you can ask me to help you buy it if you want. I'm a fellow here so I have a ten percent discount," he said and winked his eyes.

"Thank you, doctor," they said in unison.

"By the way, is anyone hungry now?"

"No doctor, it's only about nine now, I'm still full," Jung Won said with a small smile.

"Then I guess that's it for today, now go back to the ER, I think Ji Eun should be there now. She's going to instruct you on what to do," Jung Kook said and made a gesture to tell the interns to follow him back to the ER.

There, another doctor, this time a female one, Lee Ji Eun, was the one who gave the interns instructions on what to do and what not to do in a wide variety of emergency cases. Yu Jin was carefully noting everything down. Meanwhile, Jung Won seemed to be only listening. Maybe he had known most of the things mentioned already. Because both of them were pre-university interns, there were many restrictions and cautions to bear in mind. But most importantly, for now, they would not be allowed to do anything to the patients until further notice from their supervisors. All he and Jung Won could do was just to observe the way doctors and nurses worked. It was a bit disappointing for Yu Jin as he wondered what was the point of being an intern in the ER if he could not even touch the patients. However, he was also aware of the reason why the hospital needed this regulation. He had not even been in medical school yet and was apparently not ready. The crucial thing for him now was to study and remember all the theories, before he could think about how to apply them. That was how Yu Jin's first day of internship went, and he was eager to discover how the next days would be...

Thank you very much for making it this far! If you enjoy reading my story and are excited to find out what is going to happen next, don't forget to click the star to vote for me as well as recommend my story to your friends. You votes really motivate me a lot^^