Chapter Four.

Jeong-won enters the Emergency Room and, the minute he walked in, Gyeo-ul approaches him to brief him of the case. The child, a TA patient, has a pan-peritonitis from bowel perforation and needed surgery immediately.

"Did you give him a painkiller?" he asks the resident as he examines the boy.

"Yes," she answers.

The child wriggles in pain when he touched him.

Despite being a pediatric surgeon for years, he is still not used to seeing kids crying out in pain. He sometimes wishes he didn't specialize on pediatrics; it will be easier for him to treat patients when his a little less empathic. He admits that he pushes himself too hard. He has to learn that he can only save so much and that is enough.

But he has always been too passionate. Whenever someone needs help, he lends them his hand. When someone needs an ear, he listens. His arms stretch over to those who requires it, whoever asks receives him. His life, including his worldly possessions, is dispensable and temporary; he is ready to give them up easily for anyone.

The thing about Jung-wan is that he can bottle up his feelings and never speak about it. He wants to be alone, but he can't be alone. So what Jeong-won did is he offered to be his roommate just so Jung-wan won't wallow on his desire for isolation. With Song-hwa, he just has to be there; whether it be carrying her packages for her or simply passing her a tissue, she always needs an extra hand. Seok-hyeong is a very solitary person, but whenever he asks for them to drink or eat, Jeong-won never says no; he knows that despite Seok-hyeong being completely fine on his own, there are times when he likes to be with people. And Jeong-won will see to it that he's available whenever that happens. That leaves Ik-jun. Ik-jun likes to be needed and he's very reliable. Despite that, Ik-jun doesn't show people when his angry or sad; everything needs to be coated with a smile on his face. Every once in a while, however, he needs to let off some steam by dancing in clubs or drinking; Jeong-won finds that it's his task to make sure that he doesn't go overboard and that he is still able to go home to his son, U-ju.

Everyone always needs something, Jeong-won finds his way to help everybody whether they are conscious about it or not, but there's someone who is fine without him. There is a person who has never asked for anything from him. And it irritates him a little bit.

"He looks just like him, right?" Gyeo-ul says, reading his mind. "I was surprised, too, so I thought that maybe they're twins?"

The parent from yesterday interjects, "Yes, they are." The father has no visible trauma from the accident except for the bandage on top of his right eyebrow.

"I need to check something, can you leave us for a moment?" Jeong-won asks. The parent refuses at first, but after explaining, he walks over to the nurses' station.

Upon inspection, Jeong-won finds that the child is covered in bruises, but what's weird is their colors vary; some are yellow, some are vivid, some are starting to fade. Jeong-won's blood boils as his suspicions turn out to be correct. He has already thought of it yesterday when the father came in. "What kind of a sick bastard does this?" he angrily exclaims. He notices a shocked Gyeo-ul staring at him. "Dr. Jang. Call the police."

Dr. Bong seconds him. "It's child abuse, isn't it?"

"I think so. These aren't bruises from a car accident." He continues on with his explanations, but he notices that Gyeo-ul still hasn't picked up her phone. "Why haven't you called the police yet?"

She merely looks at him before shifting her eyes towards another direction. He glances towards where she's looking at and he sees the father quietly sneaking away. Seeing that the exits is covered by arriving patients, he runs the other way.

Jeong-won doesn't know how to respond; he is trained to provide services to those injured, but he has no idea onvwhat to do when it comes to dealing with dangerous people. Dr. Bong is stuck in place like him, unsure of what to do. But in the corner of his eyes, he sees Gyeo-ul – she removes her shoes and takes off her stethoscope. In a flash, she bolts after the abuser without second thoughts.

"Wait!" Dr. Bong yells after her, but she's already gone.

Jeong-won's heart pounds loud again. He remembers the time she removed the maggots from the homeless person's leg – he knows that she's capable of setting aside herself for her patients – but the thing is, she shouldn't put herself in danger for them; there's a line on how far she should be willing to go for them. Chasing after the father is beyond that.

She shouldn't have ran after him. Her job is to treat patients. Jeong-won blames himself a little bit; if he acted sooner, he would've been the one chasing the father as it should be. When it comes to surgeries, she's very detail-oriented, but she can be reckless like this.

Jeong-won doesn't know whether to be mad at her for being rash and going beyond her limits or admire her for her correct and quick instincts. Again and again, whenever she shows a side of herself to him, he finds himself surprised. And whether he bothers to admit it or not, he is beginning to have a certain fondness for her.

After the surgery, Jeong-won spoke to most of her professors.

"Will you let Dr. Jang assist me with my patients for a while?" Jeong-won requests with a kind smile on his face.

The most senior among the GS speaks first. "Since you were here, you've never really required any help." He looks at his colleagues who are nodding in agreement. "Sure, you can have her for a month, Professor Ahn."

Jeong-won sighs in relief. Gyeo-ul doesn't need anything from him – she doesn't ask him to be in his surgeries, she doesn't make him buy her dinner, she doesn't consult him about her patients – but she needs someone to look after her for once.

I will look after her, Jeong-won thinks to himself. After today, knowing her lack of boundaries and lack of self-interest, I will make sure that she never does this again, not on my watch.

With her at his side, he guarantees that she will be safe; in his arms, she will be safe.

Author's Note: I know that the last part didn't happen in the series, but I realized that ever since the abuser accident, Ahn Jeong-won and Jang Gyeo-ul have been working together a lot. And it's mentioned in episode 8 (during the scene where her superiors met regarding the drug addict) that Gyeo-ul has been in Jeong-won's department for a month.