FLATLINE| JK

six

"Bong Soon—I had no idea. Why didn't you tell me that's why you hated Dr. Jeon so much?" Taehyung asks quietly. My throat hurt from talking, and crying a little, having told him everything.

"Well, how was I going to lead with that? 'Hi, I'm Bong Soon, former prostitute! By the way, I slept with Dr. Jeon! Thought you should know!'" I say sarcastically, slumping back against the wall of the stairwell. We're currently hiding from the pressures of our job, talking about my past, and trying to avoid the ever present reminder that this is only our first day on the job and things are already so hard.

"You're right." Taehyung sighs. "That's a hard thing to casually slip into conversation." He admits, and I nod, dragging my palms down my face. "But you know I don't think any less of you, right?" He asks hopefully. This relieves a little bit of the suffocating weight pressing down on my chest. The constant fear of being judged for who I was makes me so insecure and secretive, but I should have known Taehyung wouldn't be one to judge. Everything about his open minded, carefree demeanor should have suggested that to me.

"Of course. Thank you. For not letting it change anything." I stammer awkwardly, and he manages a small chuckle, reaching over to ruffle my hair. His smile doesn't reach his eyes, and then everything before he saw me talking to Dr. Jeon comes rushing back. His surgery, the erratic beeping of the heart monitor, Dr. Jeon's harsh, hostile words. "God, enough about me. How are you?" I ask, rather nonspecifically, but Taehyung understands me never the less.

"Fine." He says, but he's an awful liar. I give him a pointed look, and he drops the act. "Okay, not really. I kind of feel like shit about myself. Just awful. Wondering if this is worth it. I mean, Bong Soon, this is only our first day and this is harder than anything I've ever done, in all the ways I didn't expect. I knew surgery would be difficult, and that there'd be people in our intern group that I'd hate, but I never thought our resident would have a personal vendetta against us." He says, practically deflating like a balloon against the wall. "I just don't know if all that's worth learning here. Like, what if I just transfer hospitals?"

"Tae, Seoul National University Hospital is the best hospital in the country. You can't give that up. No matter what Dr. Jeon says, you got into the program. You're meant to be here." I remind him, but he shakes his head.

"That shit he said in there—god, it fucked with my head. I'm ranked eleven in a ginormous group full of ones. I nearly killed that girl because I doubted myself!" He exclaims.

"You can't use that to qualify your surgical ability, Tae. If Dr. Jeon hadn't messed with you, you would have finished the surgery perfectly. He's only doing it to be an asshole." I reassure him, and he nods, but he still doesn't look very convinced.

"I don't know how you're the one that's so optimistic in this situation. You could literally file for sexual assault. That dickhead could be out of here in seconds." He says, and I nod, knowing full and well the power I unwillingly hold.

"I can't let him win. I went through medical school with something to prove, and this is my chance. I don't want to be the person that got Dr. Jeon, one of the greatest surgeons of our generation, fired. Even though he definitely deserves it. I'm just gonna prove it to him, too. I didn't prove everyone who said I'd never amount to anything wrong just to lose to the same person who encouraged me to do this in the first place." I explain, and Taehyung hums.

"Weird logic. Very weird logic. You do realize that he literally harassed you, right? Like, he really did just skip the consent and kiss your neck like some fucking vampire—sorry, I make weird analogies when I'm sleep deprived. The point is that the HR department would lose their minds." He rambles, earning a tiny giggle out of me, but then I realize he does have a point. Dr. Jeon has no right to touch me like that, to degrade me. I should feel violated and infuriated and yearning for some type of vengeance.

But then I picture his dark eyes filled with warmth instead of their typical frigidity, the gentle smile on his swollen pink lips, his strong, muscular arms wrapped around me, holding me. I remember him believing in me when no one else did, and as trivial and most likely meaningless as the words were, I repeated them like a mantra in my head throughout medical school. There's no way Mr. Jeon isn't somewhere inside Dr. Jeon. Someone doesn't just stop being kind, and empathetic, and considerate. They just don't.

But again, Taehyung is right. I can't let him treat me like this.

"The next time he does something, I'll report him. I promise. But I just—it's dumb, but part of me hopes that this is all just an act to intimidate us into submission." I explain, and Taehyung sighs, nodding.

"Trust me, so do I. It would be much more comforting to know that Dr. Jeon hates my guts for show, and not that he actually hates my guts." Taehyung deadpans, and I chuckle, leaning against his shoulder. He's warm, and comfortable, and I feel safe from the brutalities of surgical internship for a moment. Safe enough to the point that my eyes begin to slowly shut, and before I know it, I'm dead asleep on Kim Taehyung's shoulder in the hospital stairwell.

this is sort of a filler but more next chapter yayyyy