A does of salt • jjk + pjm

Chapter 3: under my skin

"Surprise!!" everyone yells in unison, some blowing their party horns.

Jimin looks around the staff lounge utterly confused. There are surgeons, his favorite nurses and hospital staff, and even some of the members of the Board of Directors... including his own father. And everyone is smiling at him like it's his birthday, except that it's not. There's a banner across the wall that says CONGRATULATIONS, cake and other delicious snacks on the table, and cups of Starbucks coffee in cup holders. Taehyung walks over to him with his huge boxy smile holding a plastic gold crown and places it on Jimin's head. Seokjin looks at Jimin proudly and then walks over to one of the tables and picks up a huge plaque.

Jimin had just gotten out of surgery and he was about to go get a coffee when one of the nurses told him someone needed to see him in the staff lounge.

"Huh?" Jimin says genuinely confused. "It's... not my birthday guys... what's going on?"

"YOUR ARTICLE JIMIN!!" Taehyung exclaims; he really is such a true best friend. He's so genuinely happy for Jimin.

Jimin freezes and his heart drops with excitement finally realizing what might be going on. "No... way..." Jimin says quietly afraid that he might be wrong.

"Dr. Park," Seokjin says walking towards him with a plaque. Everyone else steps back to make a clear pathway for the Chief of Surgery. "Congratulations. Your scholarly research article on cardiac changes associated with aortic stenosis being linked to the death and readmission following transcatheter aortic valve replacement, was accepted by the New England Journal of Medicine. It will not only be published in their journal for their special annual issue, several other journals will be picking it up as well because the NEJM has submitted it to the World Medical Association in which they've recommended everyone to publish. I've been receiving nothing but praise for your research on pre-TAVR. SMC is proud and honored to have you here still as our very own. And I, I'm so proud of you, Dr. Park. Thank you for your amazing work and research. I know you worked so hard on that research project," Seokjin says and hands Jimin the plaque. Everyone in the room claps and Jimin's jaw drops.

Jimin was still mad at Seokjin since a week ago, when he had been scolded right alongside Jungkook and then forced to attend the resident's teambuilding event. But right now, Jimin decides to put that anger on pause because he's about to cry from happiness right there in the lounge.

The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is one of the most prestigious and oldest continuously published medical journals in the world. It is an honor for any physician to get their work published by the NEJM. Not only that, the hospital benefits as well since their ranking would go up with the more published doctors they had. In addition, being published for the cover story in the annual issue came with a grant or in other words—a big, fat check for the hospital. Seokjin could finally get some of the fancy new equipment like the new 2018 MRI for his department that he's had his eyes on. Getting published in such a prestigious journal also put the hospital in the limelight for donors and investors to notice. Grants, grants, and more grants! No wonder some of the board members and Seokjin were full of big smiles!

"I'm..." Jimin says taking the plaque from Seokjin and bowing in front of everyone. He had researched and wrote his article for a whole year, practically living in the on-call room and the hospital's medical library and lab when he was off his shift. When he finally submitted it months ago, he forced himself to forget about it so he didn't drive himself crazy from anxiety. Jimin has been published many times already in the past in various scholarly medical journals but the NEMJ was a huge deal. "I'm.. just, thank you. So much everyone for the congrats and support. I don't know what to say. I can't believe this..."