Chapter Text
Taehyung smiled brightly as the camera flashed, his ID card coming out of the machine mere seconds later. "Here you go, Dr. Kim." The woman smiled at him as she handed over his new badge. "I wish my ID photo looked this good."
The male giggled as he looked down at his photo. "My first day as a real doctor!" He exclaimed. "Am I dreaming?"
The female doctor chuckled. "I was in your shoes last year. Believe me, med school was nothing compared to this. Your three years of residency will be the toughest, most amazing years of your life! But this first year as an intern will be the craziest of all."
"I'm ready for it." Taehyung said. "I've been dreaming of working at Riverside for years. Ever since I learned that Min Yoongi was here. His research basically inspired me to even apply to med school!" Taehyung cleared his throat to calm himself down. "Any words of advice?"
"Make friends." The doctor said. "With your fellow interns, your senior residents, even your patients. Friends will get you through anything." She turned to leave but stopped. "Oh, and try not to annoy the attendings. You do not want to get on your boss' bad side."
"Noted." Taehyung said, still smiling away.
+
Taehyung passed through the waiting room on the way to orientation when he heard gasps. He turned just in time to see a woman collapse out of her seat. Other patients in the room crowded around her until Taehyung stepped forward. "Everybody, step back!" He instructed. "I'm a doctor!"
He knelt next to the woman as another doctor rushed in and checked her pulse. "Pulse is weak. She's unresponsive." The doctor stated, eyes falling on Taehyung. "You. Rookie, come on." Taehyung stood up as the doctor lifted the woman into his arms and set her on a nearby gurney. "What was she in for? Did she fill out a form yet?"
"No, she'd just walked in." One of the nurses informed him.
"If we don't figure out what's wrong with her fast, she's gonna die right here." The doctor turned back to Taehyung. "Rookie, check her BP."
Taehyung quickly wrapped a blood pressure cuff around the woman's arm and pumped the bulb. "It's plummeting. She's hypotensive. We've gotta get fluids in her."
As the nurse started an IV, Taehyung noticed a bruise rapidly forming on the woman's elbow. The woman suddenly groaned, clutching at Taehyung's hand. When he looked down at it, he noticed that her fingertips were turning blue. "Doctor, look at this bruise." Taehyung said. "It wasn't here a moment ago.
"You're sure?" The doctor asked, peering at the injury himself.
"Yes, I'm sure."
"That's the elbow she landed on when she fell." The doctor stated. "A bruise forming that fast would suggest that this woman is a hemophiliac. Good catch." He then gestured to her fingertips. "See her fingertips? Low oxygen saturation in her blood. Take a closer listen to her lungs."
Taehyung quickly slipped his stethoscope in his ears and ran the resonator over her ribs. "I can't hear anything on her left side and her right lung is struggling. She's going to suffocate." Taehyung could feel panic starting to rise inside him, but the older doctor seemed to remain calm and collected.
"Nurse, we've got a code blue." He took a bag mask from the nurse and placed it over the woman's mouth, gently pumping air into her lungs.
"What do we do, Doctor?" Taehyung asked. "What's wrong with her?"
"You know this, Rookie." The doctor stated. "Just take everything you know and put it together."
Taehyung took a deep breath and called on everything he learned while in medical school to help him determine what was going on with the woman. Hemophilia, low blood oxygen, no lung expansion on one side. Finally, it hit him. "It's a hemothorax." Taehyung stated.
"Precisely." The doctor nodded. "A blood vessel ruptured and is filling her pleural cavity-"
"-blocking her lung from expanding!" Taehyung finished. "That's why she can't breathe! But we can't repair the blood vessel here!"
"We'll have to do an emergency thoracotomy to drain the cavity instead." The doctor determined before calling for the nurse.
The nurse hurried over, handing Taehyung a chest tube and a scalpel. The doctor lifted the woman's shirt to expose the side of her rib cage. "We need a local anesthetic-"
"We're outta time!" The doctor cut Taehyung off. "Do it now or this woman's life is on you!"
Taehyung took a deep breath and moved the tip of the scalpel toward the woman's skin. "Incision at the fifth intercostal space…" Taehyung whispered to himself. "Anterior…to the mid axillary line." Taehyung's hand trembled slightly from the nerves hitting him.
The doctor reached over to still his hand. "You can do this."
Taehyung took one more deep breath to calm himself, steadying his hand long enough to make a perfect incision in the space between the woman's ribs. He then picked up the chest tube and, with the other doctor's help, inserted it through the incision, blood draining out of her chest within seconds. With a gasp, the woman began to breathe again.
"We…we did it!" Taehyung exclaimed, letting out a small laugh of disbelief.
The other doctor turned to the nurses. "She's stable. Get her into surgery, she's gonna make it." The nurses wheeled the gurney away as the onlookers began to applaud.
"Doctor…" Taehyung said breathlessly. "That was absolutely amazing!"
"You're right." The doctor agreed, only for Taehyung's smile to fall at his next words. "It's pretty amazing you didn't get her killed."
Taehyung's eyebrows furrowed. "Wait, what?"
"Your examination was slow and superficial. Your scalpel technique, amateur at best."
"Amateur?" Taehyung asked in offense. Yes, he was fresh out of school, but he still didn't feel it was right for the doctor to talk down to him like that. "Who the hell do you think you are?"
The doctor straightened up as he stared at Taehyung. "Last time I checked, I was an attending, and you were an intern, Doctor…" He took hold of Taehyung's lanyard to peer at his badge. "Kim." He tossed Taehyung's ID back to his chest before walking off.
"What an asshole." Taehyung muttered to himself, glaring at the doctor's back. Beside him, a couple of nurses made heart eyes at the doctor.
"Yeah, and I’m completely in love with him."
"Don't worry about it." The male nurse who'd assisted them patted him on the back. "Dr. Min is like that to everybody."
Taehyung's eyes widened. "Did you just say Dr. Min? As in Dr. Min Yoongi?"
The nurse nodded. "Yeah. I take it you're a fan?"
"He's only my medical hero and greatest inspiration!" Taehyung exclaimed, still unable to believe that man was the Min Yoongi. "I've read all his research!"
"On the bright side, you'll get plenty more chances to impress him."
Taehyung looked down at those words, noticing that his scrubs were stained from the thoracotomy. "I'm here for five minutes and I'm already a mess. I can't show up to orientation like this!"
The nurse shrugged. "Don’t sweat it. You can change in the locker room. I'll show you the way."
+
As Taehyung searched for his assigned locker number, he came face to face with a gorgeous man with the best ass he had ever seen in just his underwear. "Holy shit, you're hot."
The man looked up at him in shock. Taehyung opened his mouth to apologize and explain that sometimes he forgot to use a filter when the man spoke. "Really? Nobody's ever told me that before."
Now Taehyung was shocked. "Seriously? But you're so…" As the male's face quirked into a smile, Taehyung realized he was being sarcastic. "And you're joking."
"You catch on quick." The male sent him a quick wink as another half-naked muscular guy at a nearby locker laughed.
"Go easy on him, Jimin." The male said as he leaned against the lockers. "It's the first day for all of us."
"Hey, I can be friendly…" Jimin said. "As long as you stay out of my way."
The taller male turned back to Taehyung. "You're awful quiet. Hope Jimin isn't scaring you off already."
Jimin snorted. "If you're scared by me, a career in medicine probably wasn't the best choice."
Taehyung shrugged. "I don't scare easy."
"Good." The still unnamed male said. "Neither do I." He held out his hand for Taehyung to shake, giving him a playful wink. "Jeon Jungkook, aka your new favorite surgical intern. Pleasure's all mine."
"Ignore the meathead." Jimin rolled his eyes. "He's a scalpel jockey."
Taehyung chuckled before introducing himself. "Kim Taehyung. Internal medicine."
"Guess you're with me then." Jimin smiled at him. "C'mon, we're gonna be late." Jimin pulled on his standard blue scrubs as Taehyung stripped out of his stained ones, putting on a fresh pair. "Let's go, I don't wanna miss anything good." He turned around to see that Jungkook was still half naked. "God, Jungkook, do you ever put clothes on?"
Jungkook shrugged. "If you got it, flaunt it."
+
The three of them arrived in the main atrium where the rest of the new interns had already gathered in front of a statuesque woman. "…because as of today, you are no longer just students. You are doctors."
"Who is that?" Taehyung whispered to Jimin.
Jimin gave him an incredulous look. "Seriously? Did you learn medicine in the woods or something?"
Jungkook nudged Jimin before answering Taehyung's question. "That's Kim Minsun. The hospital's new Chief." Taehyung hummed as he observed the woman. "She's a total badass. World famous head of neurosurgery before she got promoted." Jungkook turned to Jimin with a smug look. "Guess she's just a scalpel jockey too, Jimin?"
"She's the exception that proves the rule." Jimin retorted with a fake sweet smile.
"More will be demanded of you than you've ever experienced." Kim Minsun continued. "Some of you will buckle under the pressure. Some of you will quit. But some…some of you will thrive."
"Wow, she's inspiring." Taehyung commented. "I feel like I can do anything."
Jimin quickly shushed him. "I'm trying to listen."
Taehyung turned back to the chief. "You've been entrusted with a sacred duty: the care and wellbeing of every man, woman, and child who enters this hospital. Are you ready?"
The interns burst into applause as she finished her speech. Taehyung looked around and shared excited smiles with his new colleagues, meeting another male's eyes. When Taehyung gave him a smile, he didn't smile back, and that was when he realized he was the only intern not clapping.
"You'll be introduced to your senior residents tomorrow." Dr. Kim Minsun announced. "But for now, you'll be partnering up for your first patients. Your assignments are posted on the board. Good luck, doctors!"
"Later, meathead." Jimin saluted Jungkook. "Have fun."
Jungkook playfully blew him a kiss. "Try not to miss me too much!" Jungkook shot Taehyung a smile as he jogged over to the other surgical interns.
Taehyung and Jimin made their way to the board to check their assignments, the former stifling a yawn. "How are you tired already?" Jimin asked. "You're 60 seconds into a 14-hour shift."
"I didn't get a lot of sleep last night." Taehyung admitted. "The 'room' I rented when I moved to Seoul turned out to be just a closet under a very busy staircase." The space in front of the board cleared, so Taehyung stepped forward to scan the list for his name. "Looks like I'm partnering with…another Dr. Kim."
"Is it Chief of Medicine Dr. Kim?" Another intern asked in shock.
"No," Taehyung turned to see the intern who hadn't been clapping behind him. "It's medical intern Kim Seokjin."
The shocked intern's eyes widened even more. "Are you related to Kim Minsun?"
Seokjin rolled his eyes. "Kim is the most popular surname in Korea…but yes. She's my aunt."
"Great." Jimin groaned. "Now we have to compete with pedigree."
Seokjin glared at him, and the other interns who were now gawking at him. "Let's just get it out of the way. Yes, I could get you a meeting with her, but I won't. And I won't tell her how you think she's 'the greatest surgeon of her generation' either."
A wheelchair bound intern smiled up at Seokjin. "I mean…she actually is though."
"Dr. Kim is really your aunt?" Taehyung asked his partner for the day. "That must be difficult."
Seokjin's eyes widened in surprise. "It's…" His face hardened into another glare. "Did anyone ask you what you thought?" Seokjin shook his head. "What do you say we go check on our patients? If you're done with the pleasantries, that is."
Taehyung furrowed his eyebrows. "Those were the pleasantries?" Seokjin ignored him as he moved to head to their assigned rooms, leaving Taehyung to hurry after him.