It was almost like a walk down memory lane for Sungjae as he made his way towards the lecture halls to find Joy. Feelings of warm nostalgia swelled up within him as he remembered his time at the university from being a student to teaching as a professor, a fond look sneaking its way onto his face as he walked down the stone path. Around him, a few students saw him and bowed politely, causing Sungjae to return the gesture awkwardly before he looked at his attire. Was it so obvious that he wasn't a student that they felt compelled to bow to him just in case to avoid being rude?
Or was he more sensitive to the gap between himself and the students because of the chairman's offer?
Sungjae shook off the question as he entered the School of Medicine's main building and headed towards the lecture halls before he realized one flaw in his search for Joy. How was he supposed to find her amid all these lecture halls? Yeri hadn't given him the lecture hall number and he wasn't about to go and peek through the windows of the doors to find her.
Sungjae was about to make his way back towards the receptionist area near the entrance before he saw a student walking out of a lecture hall and a familiar voice trailing faintly after them. He inched closer to the lecture hall and opened the door as gingerly as he could before he slipped inside.
The lecture hall was filled with students sitting in curved, staggered rows looking down at Joy who was pacing on her raised stage in front of two massive screens. Heads had turned towards his direction at the sound of his entrance, a clear indication that the students were nearing the limits of their attention span. Feeling slightly conspicuous, Sungjae slid into an empty seat smoothly and began to listen to Joy.
--
Joy raised her pointer and clicked once, turning over to the next slide.
"So today is going to mark the end of our first unit," she announced in ringing tones to her audience. "By now, I expect you to have a basic understanding of what medical ethics is and its continued importance within the realm of medical practice. You will have a quiz next week, yes, an actual quiz," Joy stated with a small smirk on her face as the students tittered slightly, "on what we covered in these last few months. If you have any questions, you can look online on the course website or ask your teaching assistants during your tutorials."
She clicked once more to skip to her final slide.
"Any questions?"
Joy scanned the audience as her students mumbled their general dissent, watching it ripple through the lecture hall before she spotted one student that raised their hand.
"Yes?"
The student lowered her hand hesitantly and opened and closed her mouth several times before she finally found the courage to speak.
"I saw in the news that the former surgical department director was going to be convicted for crimes related to medical ethics," the student whispered. The grim silence had fallen over the lecture hall as every student was giving Joy and the student their full, undivided attention, all traces of their previous lethargy forgotten.
But to their surprise, Joy had a smile on her face, almost seemingly laughing at a joke that no one else had heard except for her.
"I was wondering if anyone was going to ask about that," Joy finally confessed, her voice echoing throughout the room. "It is true that the previous surgical department director was going to be convicted for those crimes. It is true that the public may not see Yeoreum in as positive a light as they did before. However, does anyone have any ideas on how we can regain the public's favour?"
Joy started to walk around her stage again as she watched her students attempt to answer her question. Several of them raised their hands, offering answers related to successful surgeries or more research, but it wasn't until the original student that asked the question raised her hand again that Joy found a suitable answer.
"By becoming good doctors."
Joy nodded approvingly towards the student. "By becoming good doctors," she said musingly. "But even good is subjective. What does it mean to be a good doctor? Being confident in one's skills? To be able to save as many people as you can?" Joy shook her head. "Let me tell you what I think it personally means to be called a good doctor.
"When you stand and put on your white coats for the first time as doctors, you and your cohort will be required to pledge an oath. Your cohort may choose to create their own or to use the Hippocratic or Declaration of Geneva. Whatever you may choose, each oath shares common features that will define your professional responsibility as doctors."
Joy raised a finger. "Number one: the needs of the patients and public come over our own. This is a visible display of our altruism and empathy." Joy raised another finger. "Secondly, we are going to share our knowledge with each other. From your professors in med school to your future colleagues, you are going to embark on a lifelong cycle of teaching and learning. What you are learning now can be considered cutting edge but ten years from now, you may be learning an entirely new system. Some of you may even find yourself teaching on this very stage in the future.
"Remember, the Greek origin of the word 'doctor' doesn't mean practitioner of medicine. It means 'teacher.'"
--
"... it means 'teacher.'"
Sitting high in the seats, Sungjae felt Joy's words resonate with him as he watched her literally embody the Greek meaning of the word as she navigated through the student's loaded question.
Joy had no doubt prepared for this question extensively. After all, according to what she had told him, she had witnessed Yeri order Director Cha to be taken away from the hospital grounds. She had probably spent hours, no, days preparing for this exact moment.
And yet, she hadn't shied away from it. Instead, she took advantage of the situation and used it to help shape the mindset of her charges.
Sungjae's mouth twitched. Once more, he wondered if he was being overly sensitive to the Greek meaning as he continued to listen to Joy passionately encourage her students to stand strong amidst all the temptations that were bound to try and ensnare them.
--
"... your patients will trust you with their most vulnerable moments, their most precious secrets because you have earned that responsibility," Joy told them in a strong tone. "It has nothing to do with your own personal achievements or the MD that you will attach to your name. It all starts with good relationships, good communication with your fellow human beings. Don't try to get to know someone just because you believe that they will be able to benefit you in the future but get to know them because you value them."
Joy paused for a moment to let her words sink in the audience. She looked left and right, up and down, and spotted a familiar figure sitting in the back. She gave him a little wave and a smile, letting him know he had been caught before she returned to her students.
"If there is anything that you can take away from my time on this soapbox, let it be a reminder to build strong principles. No matter where you end up, stand by those principles. For the sake of your patients, family, friends, and the public, make sure that you keep those principles close to you.
"And don't forget the money," Joy joked, eliciting laughter from her students as she clapped her hands twice to signal the end of the lesson. "You'll make more than enough money to not have to worry about your finances."
--
The auditorium slowly began to come to life as the students around Sungjae began to gather their belongings before slowly shuffling towards the exit. Below, several older-looking students, presumably Joy's team of teaching assistants, had gathered around her, listening dutifully to her before they bowed and dispersed into the throng of leaving students.
The buzz in the lecture hall slowly died out as the students emptied out of the room. Sungjae waited as Joy collected several stray sheets of paper that had been left behind on the table in front of her podium before she slipped them into a protector sheet and slipped it into her bag. Joy finally looked at him and with a casual grin on her face, she called out, "Are you going to come to me, or do I have to come to you?"
Sungjae looked over his shoulder nonchalantly. "But I'm so close to the exit," he whined playfully, causing Joy to laugh.
"Alright, you big baby," she chided him as she slung her bag on a shoulder and made her way up towards Sungjae, whose smile was growing larger with every step that she took. He tilted his head to look up at the now looming figure of Joy standing in front of him, his smile now full-blown.
"Hi," he greeted her cheerfully as if they hadn't just been apart for the last few months.
Joy rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips. "Is that all you can say to me?" she asked him.
Sungjae stood up slowly, closing the distance between him and Joy as Joy lifted her head to maintain eye contact with him, a taunting look on her face as she waited for Sungjae to make his next move.
"I missed you," he murmured softly, taking Joy by surprise as Sungjae pulled her for a hug, his arms drawing Joy in strongly, pressing her against his body as Joy wrapped her own arms around Sungjae, her palms flat on his back as she reached up on her tiptoes to rest her chin on Sungjae's shoulder.
"I missed you too."
--
"Did you know?"
Joy looked curiously over at Sungjae as they walked out into the stone pathway towards the hospital campus.
"I guess not," Sungjae said as he observed her reaction. He looked around them furtively before he leaned in and whispered in Joy's ear, "The chairman offered me an adjunct professorship."
Joy's eyes went wide. "An adjunct—" she managed to blurt out before Sungjae clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Too loud," he hissed before he pulled his hand away.
"An adjunct professorship?" Joy asked in quieter tones. "I didn't even know that Yeoreum offered adjunct positions."
"There may be one or two at the smaller campuses," Sungjae divulged as he started to walk again, "but they're rarely seen at the main campus."
"I mean, you were a professor here before," Joy mused as she caught up to Sungjae. "I guess the chairman really wants you to come back to Yeoreum."
Sungjae shrugged as he looked around. "Or he's trying to find someone to be the stopgap for Eunwoo's absence."
"Ah." Joy flinched slightly at the mention of Eunwoo's name.
"Sorry," Sungjae quickly apologized. "I wasn't trying to speak ill of him."
Joy shook her head. "That's alright. I hadn't realized that it was a problem."
Sungjae hummed his assent before he put his hands in his pockets awkwardly. "Have you seen him since he left the hospital?"
"No, the last time I saw him was at his father's funeral," Joy answered in a slightly strangled tone. "It wasn't long, but I felt that I should go there and support my friend more than pay my respects to the former director."
"How was he?"
Joy's face scrunched up in thought. "He seemed like... he was taking in the situation as best as he could."
Sungjae glanced over at Joy, watching her reaction. "Did you know that he was going to leave Yeoreum?"
Joy nodded slowly. "He mentioned that he received an offer to go into private practice recently. He thought that after what his father did, it would be best for him to leave Yeoreum and be a doctor outside of the Network."
"I can understand his feelings somewhat," Sungjae sighed reluctantly. How ironic that the only person that could be able to sympathize with him was no longer at the hospital.
But Joy once again surprised him as she shrewdly asked him, "Is that the reason why you haven't decided to take the position yet? Because you feel like you could be doing something more outside of Yeoreum?"
Sungjae pursed his lips as he reached forward to open the door and waited for Joy to enter first before he answered. "Something like that," he admitted. "After two years of working as a Fallen Doctor, I'm not sure if I have the temperament to be an academic doctor again."
Joy laughed again as she listened to Sungjae's excuse. She looked over at Sungjae who seemed slightly wounded by her reaction. Feeling brave in front of all of the bystanders near them, Joy reached out and clenched Sungjae's cheeks in one of her hands, forcing him to look at her.
"Yook Sungjae, you have been helping me for the past three months with my research," Joy told him before she squeezed harder to quiet him as Sungjae tried to make a comment about it being his research originally. She rolled her eyes playfully at a now-pouting Sungjae. "You were also the one who taught Hyunjoo and I how to control our innate synchronization- will you let me finish already?" she said, annoyed by Sungjae's second attempt to interrupt her. Sungjae nodded petulantly and Joy realized her vice-grip on his cheeks and instead placed a gentle hand on one of them.
"From the moment I met you, you have always been a teacher. Every time we worked together, you would teach me a new aspect of synchronization that I never understood," she said softly as Sungjae looked into her eyes like a lost puppy. "You have a gift, Sungjae, and it would be unfair for you to hide it away and keep it for yourself. I'm not saying that Yeoreum is the only place for you to use those gifts, but it wouldn't hurt for you to rediscover yourself here. Alright?"
Sungjae reached up and grasped Joy's hand gently as he continued to stare into her eyes wistfully. "You're very persuasive," he said with a lopsided grin on his face. "No wonder I listen to you."
"If only that were true," Joy teased him as she followed him. "Where are we going?"
"To the cafeteria."
Joy was so shocked that she found herself coming to another halt. "Why? Did you know that I was hungry?"
Sungjae smiled as he beckoned for her to follow him. "Of course."
"How?"
Sungjae's smile grew larger as Joy drew closer to him. "Because I am too."
At his confession, a smile also bloomed on Joy's face as she walked by his side towards the cafeteria. As they approached the room, they saw a crowd of nurses reacting to a scene on one of the televisions. Their high-pitched squeals and gasps piqued Joy and Sungjae's curiosity enough to cut through the crowd and take a look at what the commotion was all about.
And then they saw what had gotten the nurses all worked up.
Eunwoo.
On the television.
One of the nurses noticed Joy and instantly asked her about her thoughts on how cool Eunwoo looked, but Sungjae ignored them, instead focusing on the person that Eunwoo was walking behind.
Sungjae had seen him before. As a patient.
He was a former patient of his.
But he wasn't just any patient.
He was the current president of a powerful business conglomerate that had both overworld and underworld connections. Despite the man's advanced age, Sungjae could still see the authority that the man wielded as he looked at the long procession that followed him.
And within that crowd, he finally spotted her flanked by a muscular figure with a soft layer of fuzz on his head. Her lithe figure and almost vampiric features contrasted against his features and made her stand out instantly.
Moonbyul.
And as if she knew Sungjae was watching, Moonbyul looked directly into the camera and smiled.
--
Ha. You thought we were going to end this story without Moonbyul? Has anyone noticed that every time Moonbyul shows up, she's usually heralding the end of an act?
Yeah, Act 4 is going to be short. It's going to be super condensed, taking advantage of the time skip, as we see in this chapter (cough, I've made them flirt, how cute), but also... There's really no point in dragging things out.
But Act 4 isn't going to be THAT short. Think double digits still.
In case any of you were interested in Joy's speech, it was inspired by a variety of medical school commencement speeches, specifically (and in no particular order) Dr Ezekiel J. Emanuel at Medical College of Wisconsin's 2018 Commencement, Dr Huda Y. Zoghbi at University of Massachusetts Medical School's 2018 Commencement, Dr Jordan J. Cohen at Zucker School of Medicine's 2019 Commencement, and Dr George E. Thibault at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine's 2018 Commencement.
As always, thank you for reading, voting, commenting, and supporting this story!