Chapter 1
It was the coldest day of the year.
It was a miserable night, so cold that even her hands felt numb inside the house, but Harin’s heart was warm.
“Grandma, I won’t be able to come next weekend. I have a shift.”
“Oh, right. You said you’d gotten a job. I keep forgetting, even after you’ve told me. An ambulance crew with 119, was it? You said you save people’s lives, right? Good for you, dear.”
The old woman’s wrinkled hand gently stroked the back of Harin’s hand.
For someone who had spent so much time alone, the elderly woman’s hand was surprisingly warm.
“Don’t get too lonely just because I’m not here. I’ll come visit again, just like today, whenever I have some free time.”
“Don’t worry about me. There’s the welfare center, and life is pretty comfortable these days. It’s all thanks to you, Harin.”
“It’s nothing, really. Make sure you take your medicine, okay? And don’t skip meals. You have to exercise, too!”
“Such a nag!”
Even the old woman’s scolding made Harin grateful.
When Harin had first started volunteering to care for elderly people living alone, this grandmother had spent all day lying in bed, suffering from depression.
“What’s the point? How much longer do I have to live anyway? It’s all pointless.”
“Even if you live for just one more day, that’s still a life. You’re alive, Grandma!”
“Everything’s such a bother. Just go away.”
Knowing that the grandmother who had once said such things was now attending a welfare center made Harin feel somewhat relieved.
After giving her one last tight hug, Harin stepped outside.
A freezing gust of wind immediately cut through the front of her coat.
“Ugh, what’s with all this ice? It must be fifteen degrees below zero.”
Even her lips, which had been grumbling, were on the verge of freezing.
She had just started down the stairs, thinking that the bus stop was practically a hundred miles away, when—
“Harin! I forgot to give you the scarf I brought back from the center!”
“Grandma? The ice is dangerous! Wait a moment!”
Harin saw the grandmother waving at her, a red scarf clutched in her hand.
And then, in the next instant, she disappeared from sight.
“Grandma? Where did you go? Huh? Grandma!”
Harin ran back up the stairs and clapped a hand over her mouth.
The grandmother was lying on the icy ground, clutching her chest.
“Grandma! Grandma, please wake up! Can you hear me?”
The grandmother had suffered from high blood pressure and hypoglycemia for some time.
It was certainly something that could happen to someone in her condition, but this was the first time Harin had ever seen someone collapse right in front of her—especially someone she knew.
“Sunbae! I need an ambulance at the Jehyeon-dong intersection immediately! Female patient, seventy-eight years old, unconscious, suspected fracture! Hurry!”
However, Harin quickly regained her composure.
After making the emergency call, she immediately took off her outer coat and tossed it aside.
She was still a rookie, and nothing particularly serious had happened at the Yongsung Station ambulance unit since she had joined.
As a result, she had never actually had to perform CPR on a patient herself.
And now, her first CPR patient was going to be this grandmother……
Harin was briefly lost in thought, but she quickly snapped out of it.
She had no time to think about anything else.
The patient in front of her came first.
“One, two, three, four, five…… thirty, breathe!”
She had to continue performing thirty chest compressions followed by rescue breaths until the ambulance arrived.
Five centimeters down to the heart.
She pressed the heel of her hand against the center of the grandmother’s chest and breathed air into her lungs.
It was a procedure she had practiced more than a thousand times.
“Please, Grandma. Please!”
Even as sweat poured down her face in the bitter cold, Harin didn’t care in the slightest.
“One, two, three, four, five…… thirty!”
She pressed down on the grandmother’s chest again and again, hoping that the warmth she blew into her mouth would reach deep inside her.
The red scarf, clutched tightly in the grandmother’s stiffened hand, made Harin’s heart ache.
“Wake up! Please wake up! You brought it for me! Hah, hah! You brought it because you wanted to wrap it around me!”
She deliberately raised her voice.
Hearing was said to be the last sense a person retained before losing consciousness. Harin desperately hoped that her cries would reach the grandmother.
At last, the sound of a siren approached.
“Harin!”
“Sunbae! The patient is still unconscious! We need a defibrillator!”
“Doesn’t she look like she’s regaining consciousness?”
At that moment, the grandmother’s eyes opened slightly, and she let out a cough.
Only then did the strength drain from Harin’s body, and she collapsed onto the ground.
“Ugh……”
“Grandma!”
The grandmother gazed weakly at Harin through her half-open eyes.
Her lips moved as though she wanted to say something, but Harin quickly stopped her.
“Please lie on your side for now. Raise one leg. Ah, I think it’s fractured.”
“Let’s get her onto the stretcher. Haah, I don’t know if we’ll find a hospital willing to take her.”
Harin’s senior, Jihoon, hurriedly helped transfer the patient into the ambulance.
He swallowed a sigh and took out his phone.
“There’s been an eight-car pileup involving express buses on the Hannam Bridge. It’s absolute chaos out there.”
“Do you think we’ll find a hospital with an available bed?”
“Just keep an eye on the patient for now. We’ll have to try everywhere.”
After leaving the grandmother in Harin’s care, Jihoon began making calls one after another.
Securing an available hospital bed through the emergency medical information network was one of the ambulance crew’s most important responsibilities.
The problem was that it wasn’t going to be easy on a day like today.
“This is the Yongsung Station ambulance unit. The patient has a GCS score of seven. Spontaneous breathing has returned. Can you accept her?”
“This is Yongsung Station. Elderly patient, conscious. Can you accept……”
“No, at least listen to what I’m saying before you answer! This is an emergency!”
One rejection after another came in.
Jihoon pressed a hand to his forehead and turned toward Harin.
“Still, it’s a huge relief that she regained consciousness on her own. You did a great job, Kang.”
“It’s nothing. Should I help make some calls, too?”
“No. At this point, only Daehan University Hospital is left. They’re impossible to deal with even on an ordinary day. This is driving me crazy.”
“……Daehan University Hospital?”
Harin’s hand, which had been checking the grandmother’s blood pressure, suddenly froze.
Daehan University Hospital.
Her precious hell, a place where love and hatred had always been intertwined.
But Jihoon was already on the phone, regardless of her feelings.
“Yes, I know. I understand, but…… Haah, I’m asking you for a favor. The nearby emergency rooms can’t take her because of the eight-car pileup.”
Jihoon finally hung up after pleading desperately.
Harin cautiously asked, “What did they say?”
“They said they couldn’t take her, but we’ll just have to show up anyway. We don’t have any other options now.”
Harin barely managed to collect her scattered thoughts and checked the grandmother’s condition.
Right.
This was a moment she had been prepared for ever since the day she decided to become an emergency medical technician.
She had always known that one day she might have to transport a patient to Daehan University Hospital, where her father, Kang Wonseok, served as the director.
She just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.
If Director Kang happened to see her, she might have to endure a furious outburst.
Ever since the day she ran away from home, he had threatened to erase her from the family register.
Then again, he might simply pretend not to know her.
Ah, there’s no way I’ll run into the hospital director at this hour anyway.
For now, she needed to focus on safely handing the patient over to Daehan University Hospital.
Harin’s expression hardened as she firmly held the grandmother’s hand.
Before she knew it, the ambulance was pulling into Daehan University Hospital.
“Excuse me, you can’t just show up here like this!”
“Female patient, seventy-three years old! Consciousness has returned! Suspected femoral fracture! Haah, please take her!”
“I’m telling you, we don’t have any beds!”
“But Daehan University Hospital has the largest emergency room, and besides, we don’t usually bring patients all the way here!”
“We only have the VVIP room available.”
The intern shoved his hands into his pockets and glanced at the patient.
“There’s only the VVIP room. Can you afford the cost?”
The words Are you discriminating against patients? nearly escaped Harin’s mouth.
She barely managed to hold them back and quickly looked around the emergency room.
As luck would have it, one patient was just about to be transferred to an inpatient ward.
Desperate, Harin bit down on her lip and stepped forward.
“It looks like a bed in that section of the emergency room is about to become available. Could you please take her?”
“What?”
The intern approached Harin with an incredulous expression.
“You must be a rookie.”
“Yes. I’m Kang Harin, a rookie emergency medical technician with the Yongsung Station ambulance unit.”
“We’re the ones who decide the TO, not outsiders. Do you understand what I’m saying, rookie?”
“I understand, but she’s an emergency patient. Is there anything more important than the patient herself?”
“Wow, you’re really something. No wonder you’re a rookie. Listen, do you think an empty bed is all that matters? Every single one of our orthopedic surgeons is in surgery right now.”
“Take her.”
A deep, heavy voice cut through the intern’s sarcastic remarks.
It was a familiar voice.
A man’s voice she had long forgotten, despite once knowing it so well.
As a tall shadow approached, the intern hurriedly pulled his hands out of his pockets.
“P-Professor.”
“Take the patient. Do you not understand what I’m telling you, intern?”
It was obvious he had heard their conversation.
The intern immediately sprang into action at lightning speed and began accepting the patient.
Jihoon finally let out a sigh of relief, rubbing his chest.
But Harin couldn’t do the same.
He should be in the United States. I heard he was working at Johns Hopkins. Why is he here……?
Her thoughts became hopelessly tangled.
And then the words that followed left her even more flustered.
“From now on, have the ambulance crews call Daehan University Hospital first. We’ll accept as many patients as we can.”
“Y-Yes?”
Jihoon and the intern’s eyes widened to the size of marbles.
Daehan University Hospital was the largest hospital in South Korea, and it was notorious for its arrogance.
That was why emergency patients were so often turned away, just as they had been today……
While Harin and Jihoon stood frozen in shock, the man gazed down at the intern as though asking whether he hadn’t heard him.
“I’ve already confirmed that there’s a bed available in the orthopedic ward. And I’ll handle the surgery myself, so don’t worry about that. Just take the patient.”
“Professor!”
“What are you doing standing there? Contact the guardian and start the examinations immediately!”
“Y-Yes! Understood!”
The intern, who had been more arrogant than anyone in the world just moments ago, quickly became humble and disappeared with the patient.
“Thank you so much! From now on, we’ll bring our patients to Daehan University Hospital first!”
Having finally understood what had happened, Jihoon bowed at a ninety-degree angle.
He then gestured to Harin, urging her to express her gratitude as well.
Harin instinctively bowed her head.
Just then, large footsteps approached her, one after another.
His tall figure, clad in a white coat, dominated her field of vision.
When she raised her head, she immediately saw his sharply defined jawline and distinct features.
The closer he stood, the more his overwhelming physique and presence made it difficult for her to breathe.
Then his low voice cut through her eardrums.
“It’s been a long time, Emergency Medical Technician Kang Harin.”
The man she had tried so hard to forget, yet could never bring herself to erase from her memory.
The dazzling first love of those hellish days.
Choi Jaehyuk.
