𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟲
_________
Nobody could guess exactly how beyond excited Hoseok was for the third year of med school.
This was the year when clinical training officially started. Gone were the long hours of lectures and lab work, it was all about the hospital now. He was beginning to feel like a real doctor.
Hoseok still remembered his first month in the wards. It was all so new and unfamiliar. He had gotten lost in the endless confusing buildings and floors more times than he could count, and despite being six months into clinical training, he still had no idea where everything was. It felt like navigating a maze.
Patients would often stop him and ask for directions, considering he was wearing a lab coat. He would blink and feel his face burn in embarrassment, having no idea what to tell them. Mostly, he'd just direct them to someone else. On the rare occasion that he knew where they wanted to go, he'd tell them. And then feel powerful for the next ten minutes.
In the last six months, Hoseok had mentally sketched out a few of the many, many hospital buildings he had to work in. And once he had his footing, he began to branch out, finding quieter rooms and clinics where interesting things would happen. This was what the third year of medical school was all about. There were no books to guide him anymore, he had to find his own way.
"You'll be spending six hours a day in these halls," The house officer, a young doctor who looked less than enthusiastic about teaching medical students, said to his group on the first day. "Make yourself useful. Look around, go into wards, talk to patients, take detailed histories. If you're feeling brave, start practicing blood withdrawal, how to take samples, how to perform simple tests. The labs in the basement are open for all med students. If you practice enough, we'll even let you draw blood from patients. But until then, practice on dummies, and each other."
So that's exactly what Hoseok did. He went to the Outpatient Department, he went to the labs, he spent hours in the A&E building. Hoseok took blood samples, gave tetanus shots, watched doctors perform ascitic taps and lumbar punctures. It was all so fascinating. Most doctors were amused when he'd walk up to them, shiny white coat, wide-doe-eyes, small notebook and pen in hand.
"This is all going to get really boring in a few weeks, kid." A doctor in scrubs muttered while performing a Double Lumen procedure. He'd seen a few double lumens before, but this one was by far going the smoothest. He could tell this womanwas skilled. He snuck a glance at the hospital card pinned to her breast pocket. Eunha Bo.
"Then I'll just learn as much as I can while it's still interesting." Hoseok replied, not being able to take his eyes off his gloved hands as they worked expertly. She grunted in reply.
When the procedure was done, he wandered off again, in search of something else he could watch or partake in. His watch told him that he still had a couple of hours before he had to catch his bus home, so he exited Acute Medical Unit and looked around the massive expanse of corridor outside.
Considering how well things were going today, he felt adventurous, so he decided to try a small corridor branching from the main one. The noises of the A&E faded away as he walked farther, blinking at the white door in front of him. He looked at the sign above it.
Minor OT.
Hoseok had absolutely no clue what that meant, but he was about to find out.
