It’s Okay to Sleep Over
Na-young felt like her heart might give out if she continued looking at him, so she lowered her gaze and replied.
“This is supposed to be the last of the three chances. We work together at the hospital every day anyway—how can this really be the last one?”
“If just seeing you at the hospital is enough, then what’s the difference between you and Yoon Ina?”
Professor Choi Tae-hyuk mentioned Yoon Ina’s name at that moment, and Na-young’s dream immediately came to mind again.
Her chest tightened as if someone had blocked her airway.
Looking down at her flushed face, Tae-hyuk turned and walked out from the beach.
When he set her down on the ground, her body wobbled for a moment.
Na-young tightly clutched his arm to avoid falling.
His voice fell over her head.
“If you don’t summon the last bit of courage, then I’ll have no way either.”
Na-young looked up and raised her eyes to his face.
Professor Choi Tae-hyuk had an expression she had never seen before.
Sadness seemed to drip from his face straight into her vision.
“Even if I really like you, there’s nothing I can do.”
Her heart raced hearing that it wasn’t just physical desire, but true affection. Yet hearing that their relationship couldn’t progress because of her defensive nature made her chest ache.
The real problem wasn’t the hospital.
Since that incident, she had been shrinking inside, unable to trust or open herself to others, feeling trapped in her own well. She hated seeing herself like that.
“First, let’s eat something.”
Professor Choi Tae-hyuk said lightly, walking toward the restaurant.
Na-young followed him, watching his back as he walked.
Being by the seaside, they went to a restaurant for grilled clams.
The table was piled high with clams alone, making it hard to decide what to eat first.
The clams sizzled on the fire, making her mouth water just by looking at them.
Tae-hyuk placed a piece of scallop, cut to a bite-sized portion, onto her plate and encouraged her.
“Try it.”
Before tasting the scallop, Na-young looked at his face.
“Why aren’t you eating first today?”
From her perspective, his eating style was wild. Aggressive, fast, and he ate a lot.
“I wanted to see you enjoy it.”
Being with Professor Choi Tae-hyuk by the Gangwon-do sea felt completely different from seeing him at the hospital.
It was more romantic. Heart-fluttering.
She carefully placed the hot scallop into her mouth.
“Is it good?”
She nodded honestly at his question.
“Now you eat, Professor.”
Seeing him smile happily as he picked up chopsticks made her smile as well.
But when he reached for the ramen instead of the clams, Na-young immediately grabbed his chopsticks.
Tae-hyuk looked at her as if she had committed a foul.
“Eat clams, not ramen.”
“I usually eat ramen first at a grilled clam restaurant.”
Na-young really didn’t like that he loved ramen so much.
If she were in charge, she would have made him skip ramen entirely.
As that thought crossed her mind, she looked at Professor Choi Tae-hyuk with wide eyes in surprise.
Misinterpreting her reaction, Tae-hyuk thought he might not get to eat ramen today and began explaining at length why it was essential to eat ramen at a clam restaurant.
Na-young couldn’t get a word in.
She had just realized that for the first time, she was thinking about the progress of their relationship.
Time by the sea passed much slower than in the city.
She listened to the waves coming and going countless times but never felt bored.
The sunset progressed slowly.
As the sun sank into the sea and the sky filled with purple and red hues, the natural beauty overwhelmed everything else.
Still, Na-young couldn’t help but say one thing.
“Is there any meaning in coming to the East Sea to see the sunset instead of the sunrise?”
“Then shall we see the sunrise tomorrow too?”
Professor Choi Tae-hyuk said “sleep over” just as casually as he had about eating ramen at the clam restaurant.
“I absolutely have to be at the hospital at that time, Professor.”
When she spoke politely as a resident reporting to her professor, saying it was impossible, Tae-hyuk didn’t insist further.
“Then let’s head back to Seoul.”
The moment he suggested returning to Seoul first, Na-young felt like she still had something left unsaid to him.
“Professor… I…”
As she started to speak, Tae-hyuk stopped and looked back.
But when their eyes met, words didn’t come easily.
Drawing out that last courage was something only she could do, yet it was also something she dared not attempt at that moment.
“If you have nothing to say, then let’s go.”
Na-young wondered why he was so cool and composed now.
Usually, he would have pressed her until she gave a proper answer.
Could it be that, in his mind, the three chances were already over?
He had brought her into this relationship first, yet it seemed he alone had resolved it.
Feeling conflicted, Na-young followed Professor Choi Tae-hyuk.
The sea, now past sunset, was covered by the dark night.
On the drive back to Seoul, Na-young kept her mouth tightly shut, saying nothing.
Professor Choi Tae-hyuk also refrained from speaking and focused on driving.
Getting back to Seoul as soon as possible was most important now.
“If you’re tired, sleep. I’ll wake you when we arrive in Seoul.”
“No, it’s fine.”
Na-young responded, staring at the dark night in Gangwon-do.
Before reaching Seoul, if she could say something, there would still be a chance.
The chance had been something Professor Choi Tae-hyuk asked for—but now, she was the one seeking it.
She glanced at his profile while he drove.
It was like a sculptor’s masterpiece, chiseled with pursuit of perfection.
Yet his personality was rough and unrestrained compared to that orderly appearance.
There were many moments when she couldn’t handle him.
Still, if she couldn’t stop liking him, perhaps it meant she needed to change to match the feelings in her heart.
“Something’s wrong.”
Hearing him mutter, Na-young looked ahead.
The road was jammed with cars.
In Seoul, that would be normal, but on the Gangwon-do highway, it was unusual.
“Could it be an accident up ahead?”
Given the traffic jam in Gangwon-do, it was likely due to a road accident.
Professor Choi Tae-hyuk turned on the radio, tuning until the traffic broadcast came on.
“A four-car collision occurred on the Yangyang Highway in Gangwon-do, causing severe traffic congestion…”
Tae-hyuk’s expression grew serious upon hearing the news.
A bus accident meant there would be a flood of injured patients.
“This falls under Sokcho’s jurisdiction.”
“Excuse me?”
In Korea, medical resources were concentrated in Seoul, creating serious disparities between regions.
Sokcho’s area had the second-highest mortality rate in the country.
That meant there were far too few doctors to treat patients from such a major accident.
Without hesitation, Tae-hyuk gave Na-young instructions.
“Find the nearest advanced hospital using the navigation. Let’s go there.”
Although they were supposed to return to Seoul, Na-young couldn’t stop Tae-hyuk from deciding to go to a hospital in Gangwon-do without consultation.
She was a doctor too, after all.
Na-young quickly searched for the hospital that would receive the accident victims.
When they arrived, the emergency room was in chaos with patients from the four-car collision.
Even at a major university hospital, such a crash would paralyze the ER—so in Gangwon-do, it was even more challenging.
Tae-hyuk had called ahead, informing the ER that he was a surgeon from Hangang University Hospital, so he immediately sought out the ER chief.
“This is Choi Tae-hyuk from Hangang University Hospital, whom you spoke to on the phone.”
Seeing him, the ER specialist greeted him warmly.
“Ah! Glad to see you. We have a patient with urgent intra-abdominal bleeding, but all our surgeons are busy. Can you operate?”
Normally, procedures were needed to hand over a patient to an external doctor, but in this emergency, there was no time to argue.
Saving the patient came first.
Before heading to the operating room, Tae-hyuk also instructed her.
“You handle the ER patients. I’ll go operate.”
Na-young nodded.
She quickly approached a nurse to get her doctor’s coat.
Watching patient after patient from the accident come into the ER, time flew until midnight.
After finishing the surgery on the patient with intra-abdominal bleeding, as well as assisting with another patient whose condition deteriorated rapidly, Tae-hyuk finally returned to the ER to find her.
Na-young had just finished suturing a patient’s leg laceration.
“The urgent fires are out. Let’s head back to Seoul now.”
Na-young nodded and removed her latex gloves.
After a brief exchange with the ER staff, they stepped outside into the night. A white moon hung above them.
Tae-hyuk stretched, gathering his energy.
“To drive back to Seoul, I’ll need to muster my strength again.”
It was already past midnight; they’d arrive around 3 a.m.
Na-young felt uneasy making someone who had been in the OR for five straight hours drive back to Seoul.
Finding a substitute driver at this hour in Gangwon-do wasn’t easy either.
“Are we going to your place tonight?”
“Of course. You said you had to be at the hospital for sunrise tomorrow. I’ll make sure of it.”
Tae-hyuk showed determination to drive all the way to Seoul.
All she had to do was quietly get into the passenger seat, yet her feet wouldn’t move.
She bit her lip and then spoke softly.
“…It’s okay if I sleep over.”
Tae-hyuk paused mid-motion as he loosened his arms to drive, staring at her.
Na-young was looking the other way, so he couldn’t see her face.
“What did you just say?”
Tae-hyuk leaned toward her face and asked.
Na-young turned even further away.
“Huh? Didn’t you just say you’d sleep over?”
His raised tone suggested it wasn’t a misunderstanding.
