But Beautiful

part 14

"Good morning, Jungkook," one of the receptionists chimed as soon as he entered, flashing her brightest smile. "Dr. Yoo is out until this afternoon, so Dr. Lim is going to check you in for the day."

Jungkook bowed, returning the greeting with a smile before his body tensed. He didn't feel good about being with Dr. Lim and he worried that the man would come between him and his work. As his mentor had explained, the doctor was just jealous of his progress with Taehyung, but jealousy had no place in healthcare, no place when it came to patient treatment. The receptionist explained that there was another physical therapist that he would be working with first thing, and then he had check-ins and note-keeping for the late morning before lunchtime. When he made his way through the halls, determined to spend the least amount of time with Dr. Lim as possible, he knocked on the door of his office twice before listening for a response. When he heard the other call for him to come in, he hesitantly stepped through the threshold of the doctor's office.

"Oh, Jungkook," the doctor mumbled, turning to his computer and clicking his mouse a few times. "I've checked you in, you know what to do now, right?"

"I have physical therapy this morning," Jungkook began. "If I need to administer pain relieving injections, should I call for you to approve before I proceed?"

"No, that's fine, I think you can do it yourself," the man replied, not tearing his gaze away from his computer screen. His demeanor was odd, almost on edge, and Jungkook found it rather refreshing to see a side of him that wasn't so laid back and easygoing. "Go on, now, get to work."

Jungkook bowed, leaving the office with a weird feeling over the way the doctor behaved, the curiosity nagging at the back of his mind throughout his morning routine.

He successfully treated two patients with steroid injections and pain reliever, both by himself and without incident. As ridiculous as it seemed to him at times that he needed to be accompanied during such treatments, he realized he wasn't yet a doctor despite being in his last year of residency. In less than a years' time he would be licensed to practice entirely unsupervised, even though at this point he had plenty of experience in injections. Being a student of physiatry – or any student working in healthcare to become a physician – was well-versed in administering shots. Being in the musculoskeletal discipline of medicine made him that much more experienced in the procedure.

When he entered Dr. Yoo's office, he meant to only retrieve his tablet in order to keep notes, but when he saw the doctor's computer was unlocked and open, he sat at the desk. Jungkook began roaming through the computer's folders to see if he could find and pull up any patient files. When he found them cataloged on the hard drive, he searched for Taehyung and pulled up his record. He didn't ask for permission to use the doctor's computer, nor did he have prior authorization to be looking into a patient's history, but he knew he had to learn what he could while he could. He took a deep breath, reminding himself that he knew it would be a tough read.

Taehyung, only five years old, was in a fatal car accident that caused the death of his parents, him being discovered unharmed in the back seat. The boy was sent to live with his maternal aunt, who had subjected him to emotional abuse and neglect before dropping all interaction with him and surrendering him to social services at seven years old. He was placed with foster parents, the both of them worn out and too impatient to deal with a traumatized child. Unable to stand the boy's night-terrors and excessive crying, they would often tie him up and tape his mouth shut, keeping him immobile and silent while they went about their lives. It lasted for a year, leaving him shut in a room alone for days before finally feeding him and letting him bathe. After a surprise wellness check found him malnourished and living in filth, he was taken back into custody. Nearly a year after, he was sent to live with a foster family that had two biological children. His caseworker seemed very optimistic about this placement, assuring Taehyung would have a great life with the couple and their other kids, but she couldn't have been more wrong. The couple were mean, picking on him for being small for his age and overly emotional, their older children participating in the bullying. Taehyung was ruthlessly berated and belittled, the file noting the theme of the dehumanizing actions being that he was unwanted, unloved, and insignificant. He was taken from their custody when he was found alone at a shopping mall, having been left behind by the family. After all of this, he was only twelve years old.