Seokjin stood there in stunned silence for several seconds before he finally responded. Unfortunately, his response wasn't the one I wanted, but it was the one I probably should have expected.
"No."
"Excuse me!?!?" I shrieked.
"You heard me, Y/N. I am not going anywhere."
"Fine, then I guess that I will leave. Goodnight, Dr. Kim. I will see you on Monday."
I quickly gathered my personal belongings, and made my way to the office door. As I attempted to walk out, Seokjin spoke. "How do you expect things to get better if you just leave without talking to me? I can't fix anything if I don't know what the problem is."
I spun around, absolutely livid. "Seriously, Seokjin? You question literally every decision I make. It's like being an intern all over again, and it's frustrating as hell. Dr. Park and I had almost identical procedures last week, and we both made the same decisions. You spent the next day pouring over my files double checking everything, yet you never questioned his choices."
Seokjin stood there for a moment, almost looking sad. "I think I should tell you about Dr. Im Nayeon."
Curiosity had me moving to sit at my desk. I had heard the name before, but I had never heard anything about her. No one was willing to talk about her and what happened during her time at the hospital.
"I'm listening."
Seokjin sighed. "I had been her for around a year when Nayeon started working here, and from the moment I met her I was in awe. She was beautiful, smart, and funny, but as time went on others started to notice certain things. She would show up late or randomly disappear. Others noticed, but I brushed it off as exhaustion and the stress of being a new surgeon."
"What happened?"
"The disappearances became more and more frequent, and she became more and more unreliable. I finally confronted her and told her that if things didn't get better then I would go to our bosses and report it. I had been covering for her, but I was over it. She assured me that she would do better, and she did. At least that's what I thought. In reality, she just got better at hiding. Two months later she was suspended when she made a critical mistake during surgery. Thankfully the other surgeon caught her mistake, but if he hadn't, her patient would have died on the operating table."
The office was silent for several minutes as I waited for him to continue.
"She was killed in a car accident later that day. The autopsy revealed that she had been on oxycodone at the time of the crash. We eventually learned that she had gotten hooked on them several years prior after she was injured playing sports at university. She had been disappearing in order to get more pills, and eventually resorted to stealing slips from other doctors prescription pads in order to write prescriptions for patients that didn't exist."
I sat there quietly, attempting to process everything he had just told me. Before I could say anything in response, Seokjin spoke again.
"Y/N, I'm sorry that I have been treating you the way I have. I honestly didn't realize what I was doing."
"Before I accept your apology I need you to answer a couple of questions for me."
Seokjin did not reply, only nodding his head in acknowledgement."
"Am I the first female surgeon you have worked with since Dr. Im?"
"Yes."
I paused for a moment, I had been expecting that to be his answer. After a moment I looked him in the eyes and asked the question I really wanted to know the answer to.
"Do you blame yourself?