Level Up Doctor - Chapter 44

New Wind (2)

“Call. Call.”

“Choi Ki-seok. Choi Ki-seok. Choi Ki-seok.”

As Min Joo-hyuk set the tone, other teachers joined in.

Choi Ki-seok could barely resist wanting to hide in a mouse hole.

“Man. What are you doing? Can’t you get up quickly?”

“······yes.”

I answered in a dying voice and stood up.

The burden grew like snow as the bright eyes poured towards him.

“I can’t sing, but I’ll try my best.”

Choi Ki-seok lightly relaxed his neck and picked up the spoon microphone.

The only thing I can rely on right now is the one and only song I can sing called, ‘A Heavenly Meeting.’

“I arrived 5 minutes early. I imagined what kind of person she would be. I wish she was tall and pretty~”

Choi Ki-seok sang in a trembling voice.

When I try to sing a song that I can’t sing even when I’m in good health in front of other people, my voice is a mess.

The teachers who were listening to the song started giggling.

The more it happened, the more red Choi Ki-seok’s face became.

“That’s it.”

As Choi Ki-seok quickly sat down, the teachers applauded again.

It is literally applause for courtesy.

“good job.”

Ji-hye Yoon calmly praised Ki-seok Choi.

“Wow… I couldn’t sing it at all?”

“People wanted to hear your voice. If they wanted to hear a good song, they would have played it.”

“Then, as the second youngest, I will choose a song. Applause!”

match. match. match. match.

Min-hyuk Min led applause and sang a song.

He must have attended karaoke bars in his old days, and his singing skills were quite impressive. Some teachers even danced their shoulders to the trot of the group. When the song ended, there was proper applause.

“We’ve been greeted, but we can’t just sit still, can we?”

“It’s me, not us.”

Surprisingly, Yoon Ji-hye got up from her seat without leaving.

Soon, Jihye Yoon’s song began.

It is a ballad song that gained popularity as a past drama OST.

“I hope these tears will stop someday, I hope someday these clouds will clear and the warm sunlight will stop these tears…”

Jihye Yoon, who earned the nickname Ice Witch just two days after entering the cardiothoracic surgery department, sang a sad ballad.

The pitch was accurate and each lyric conveyed emotion.

The staff gaped at the unexpected singing ability. In addition, even other tables focused on Yoon Ji-hye’s song.

Her melodious voice resonated calmly throughout the restaurant.

match! match! match! match!

“Professor Yoon is cool.”

“Professor Yoon, you’re awesome.”

The staff unanimously praised Jihye Yoon.

Jihye Yoon immediately emerged as the star of the company dinner.

The atmosphere ripe with song continued.

“Hey. Go outside.”

Min-hyuk Min whispered to Ki-seok Choi.

“why?”

“Professor Yoon hasn’t been seen since a while ago.”

Ki-seok Choi answered that he understood and stood up.

After searching around the entrance to the restaurant, I headed to a remote alley where the bathroom was located.

Jihye Yoon was there.

Jihye Yoon was squatting against the wall, and a can of tuna was placed in front of her, and an abandoned dog was gorging on the tuna.

“Professor. What are you doing?”

“I was going to the bathroom and saw this puppy.”

Choi Ki-seok saw the smile on her lips for the first time. It was surprising that Yoon Ji-hye was also human and knew how to laugh.

“Hey.”

“······.”

“It’s really hard to be abandoned, isn’t it?”

Jihye Yoon muttered.

Choi Ki-seok could not give an easy answer because the words conveyed a certain story.

“Let’s go now.”

“yes.”

The two returned to the dinner venue together.

* * *

Two weeks have passed since the company dinner ended.

Since there was no surgery scheduled, Choi Ki-seok helped Kwon Ji-seok with treatment in the ward.

Time passed and it was already 10 am.

“I’ll go and come back.”

“Be sure to eat first place.”

“of course.”

Choi Ki-seok headed to the conference room on the second floor of the annex, supported by Kwon Ji-seok.

Today is the day of the plastic surgery center’s stomach suturing competition.

The number of participants in the competition is 50.

It will be determined who is the leader in suturing among the interns and who is the leader in suturing among the residents.

The winner will receive a prize of 2 million won, the runner-up will receive 1 million won, and the third place will receive 500,000 won.

Min-hyeok Min was originally supposed to participate, but something came up and he couldn’t attend.

When I entered the conference room, quite a few people had already taken their seats.

Some relaxed their hands by knitting.

“Kiseok.”

Jeong Seol-hwa pretended to know and Choi Ki-seok waved his hand happily.

“You came too.”

“Yes. Reggie’s teachers told me to go out there.”

“To work hard.”

Choi Ki-seok encouraged Jeong Seol-hwa and sat in the seat with the number 20 written on it. Five people can sit at one table, and numbers are assigned in advance.

“Are you confident?”

Nam Kang-jun, sitting across from me, smiled rottenly.

“Why do you need me to suture you? You can just do it.”

“As expected, I have no idea.”

Nam Kang-jun heard that there was a competition and worked hard to improve his suturing skills a week ago. I was confident that I would be able to lightly pressure Choi Ki-seok.

“So suturing is something you do without thinking.”

Choi Ki-seok answered calmly.

Soon, the heads of plastic surgery and other people in charge of supervising the competition came rushing into the conference room.

After a brief opening speech, the real competition began.

The preliminary round to determine the top six is a simple interrupted stitch.

The most basic technique is to sew the torn area one by one.

“The time limit is 5 minutes. We will give you points based on the number of sutures and how well they are tied. Start!”

The interns’ hand movements became faster as the host shouted.

Among them, Choi Ki-seok is the only one who is relaxed.

Ki-seok Choi leisurely unwrapped the suture and held the needle holder in his hand.

Geek.

The sound coming from the needle holder was cheerful.

‘Shall we run?’

After holding the needle part with the needle holder, it was placed on the suture model.

Even though it was a model, it had a lot of quality. So my desire to do things in moderation completely disappeared.

Ki-seok Choi’s eyes lit up and he sped up the suturing process.

‘Everyone is doing well.’

Plastic surgery resident Jeon Sang-hyeok muttered while looking at the table he was assigned to.

I guess I prepared for the competition, but my overall skills were good.

Even if you do simple interrupted suturing, which is the least difficult.

His gaze suddenly rested on Choi Ki-seok and Nam Kang-jun.

The skills of these two people at this table are unrivaled.

The other interns mostly had trouble tying the knot, but these two finished tying it with ease.

In particular, Choi Ki-seok showed ease in choosing a knot method.

‘shit!’

Nam Kang-jun sewed up about one-third of the model and glanced at Choi Ki-seok.

Choi Ki-seok looked like he had a few more stitches than him.

I got angry because I didn’t want to lose.

“stop!”

At Jeon Sang-hyuk’s shout, the interns took their hands off their tools.

Grading to follow.

Sanghyuk Jeon first looked at the number of knots and the spacing and uniformity between them.

Two of them had a lot of knots and the sutures were in a terrible state.

The other one was sutured meticulously, but the number of knots was small.

“Umm…”

Lastly, Jeon Sang-hyuk compared the models of Choi Ki-seok and Nam Kang-jun.

Choi Ki-seok had five more knots than Nam Kang-jun and was also ahead in accuracy.

“Choi Ki-seok, intern. Finals.”

“yes.”

Choi Ki-seok answered calmly.

There was no reason to lose to Nam Kang-Jun in the first place. What if I hurt my hand?

After a while, the finals for the intern section of the suture competition began.

Three interns were selected, including Ki-Seok Choi, Tae-Ho Cho, and Seol-Hwa Jeong.

“I guess there weren’t any talented people at your table?”

Cho Tae-ho provoked Choi Ki-seok.

“Seeing as Kangjun was there, it seems like that.”

“Just keep your mouth alive…”

Jo Tae-ho gritted his teeth.

The plan went awry when the uncle did not push Choi Ki-seok.

So, I wanted to win this competition and flatten Choi Ki-seok’s nose.

“The final round is an intermittent series of stitches. The winner is the person who makes the most stitches in three minutes.”

As the finalists sat down at the table, the host opened his mouth.

Simple continuous suture is the opposite suture method to simple interrupted suture.

If interrupted sutures sew the wound and tie a knot each time, continuous sutures tie a knot at the first suturing site and then tie another knot at the end of the suturing.

In other words, since the knots were only at the beginning and end, there was a risk of the suture coming loose or breaking in the middle.

“Kiseok. Fighting.”

“you also.”

Choi Ki-seok smiled and cheered with Jeong Seol-hwa.

“Okay then, let’s start the finals!”

The interns’ eyes lit up at the host’s shout.

Gigigigigeek.

Ki-Seok Choi tightened the suture needle with the needle holder and began suturing.

Honestly, there was no need to keep anyone in check.

I knew better than anyone else that it was Choi (Choi Ki-seok would win anyway).

It’s been one minute since the finals began.

“ah······.”

One of the interns let out a sigh of relief. Because the thread was not pulled tightly, it spread loosely.

In short, it is ruined.

Even if I came back now and sutured it again, I couldn’t chase after someone else.

This is the difference between simple interrupted suture and simple continuous suture.

Just one mistake leads to elimination.

‘You idiot.’

Jo Tae-ho glanced at the intern sitting next to him and muttered.

Dexterity must be innate.

You can improve your skills to a certain extent with effort, but there is a limit to that.

In the end, what matters is talent.

Jo Tae-ho thought that he, who had both talent and hard work, was the winner of the competition.

A short but intense time has passed.

“This is the end! Take your hands off me.”

At the host’s shout, the interns who made it to the finals put down the tools they were holding.

‘That bastard?’

Jo Tae-ho frowned when he saw Choi Ki-seok’s sutures.

I thought he would overwhelmingly take first place, but Choi Ki-seok also had quite a long suture area.

At first glance, you can’t tell the difference.

“how is it?”

“Did you both do a good job? The stitching area is even and the thread is reasonably tight.”

“Then we should pick one more piece.”

Jeon Sang-hyuk and the former doctor muttered as they took turns looking at the models of Choi Ki-seok and Jo Tae-ho.

“Then, we announce the final rankings. Intern Seolhwa Jeong came in third place, and there was a very narrow gap between second place and first place. Intern Kiseok Choi took first place.”

“yes?”

Jo Tae-ho asked back with a dumbfounded expression. I couldn’t believe I was pushed to second place.

“Why am I in second place?”

“Come and see.”

Cho Tae-ho belatedly compared Choi Ki-seok’s model with his own model.

Choi Ki-seok applied about three more stitches than that.

As the judge said, he lost by a narrow margin.

My stomach was boiling, but I couldn’t say anything.

Soon, the award ceremony began.

The winner of the intern division of the hospital’s first suturing competition was Choi Ki-seok, a thoracic surgeon.

The winner of the residency division was Daehyun Kim, a colorectal surgeon.

“What do you think? Don’t you think it would be fun if you two got together?”

Na Cheol-beom, head of plastic surgery, nodded at Choi Ki-seok and Kim Tae-hyun.

“Will it be a game? Anyway, I’m an intern and a resident.”

Plastic surgery chief Lee Tae-man expressed concern.

“You have to know what’s long and short to know.”

“Are you serious?”

“You didn’t get to see the intern part because you were busy taking the residency test. That’s his stuff.”

Na Cheol-beom looked at Choi Ki-seok and smiled.

“Hold up your tablet and let’s go to a special match.”

“All right.”

Lee Tae-man conveyed Na Cheol-beom’s intentions to the host.

“Now. Before the competition ends, we will hold a special match. The intern winner will face the resident winner. The winner of this match will receive a tablet PC.”

Choi Ki-seok and Kim Dae-hyeon looked puzzled at the host’s words.

This is because the official competition schedule has ended.

“You two should try it together. I think it’ll be fun.”

“Senior. Anyway, would I lose to an intern?”

Kim Dae-hyun laughed playfully at Lee Tae-man’s words.

“I think so too, but the manager seems to think differently. Intern, you have no complaints, right?”

“yes.”

Choi Ki-seok calmly sat at the table.

“Cheer up, Kiseok. You can do it.”

Jeong Seol-hwa stood behind Choi Ki-seok and massaged his shoulders.

It made me laugh because it felt like a coach relaxing a fighter’s shoulders before a boxing match.

As the special match was concluded, participants crowded around the table.

Now everyone’s eyes were focused on the two people’s hands.

“Special matches are made using the vertical mattress suture method. Knot tying method is scored based on the firmness of the free suture and the number of knots. Are you ready?”

“yes.”

Choi Ki-seok and Kim Dae-hyeon answered at the same time.

Before the special match began, Choi Ki-seok lifted the needle holder that he had been holding with his left hand so far with his right hand.

Now, shall we open the seal?