Chapter Text
ㅋㅋㅋ we’re back baby! Well, this is a teaser. Full chap dropping next week KST xoxo
Your Hangul for this chapter:
야, ‘hey!’ (Ya!)
바보 dummy/idiot (Babo)
뒤질래 ‘You wanna die?’ (dwijillae)
Use it with your friends! You’re welcome 😚
(Also… wheels of the Seoul? Am I not so funny? My friend says I am not funny ㅋㅋㅋ)
——-
The distant hum of machines at five in the morning is usually comforting. Today, Rumi can feel her shoulders droop as she furiously blinks into a greater state of wakefulness amongst the soft patter of an early morning ICU.
Working amongst the near-dead is strangely soothing. Over in ED you have the stress of trying to push every patient over the line into the living, or in palliative care the struggle of watching a soft decline as families watch their loved ones slowly drown in the own fluids.
Here you know that most of your roster just, quite simply, won’t make it. There’s no talking back, no embarrassed dads fighting their next diaper change, and while pain meds are readily administered, without a change in someone’s vitals you don’t really know if they’re kicking in.
Sure, you might get five or six codes a shift, but her shoulders are lean and strong from years of the push and pull of chest compressions to the muscle memory of 115bmp (she’ll never tell, but echoing in her ears while someone croaks on the floor is Baby Shark.)
As far as nursing goes, it’s a pretty relaxing gig. The worst part is undoubtably the families, with the occasional screaming child disrupting the zen-like consistency of beeping monitors and the soft hush of curtains as a nurse slides in beside a bed for a reposition or hygiene change. (Although, for the love of god, why can’t these people wear face masks? In a room of fifteen to twenty extremely vulnerable bodies you should be doing everything you can to protect your kin, and being too soft to put a piece of fabric over your nose to keep them alive is quite frankly, beyond the understanding of all their staff members.)
Unable to contain herself any longer, she lets out a yawn, stretching her arms skyward as she shudders with exhaustion.
“Rumi? Y’a hanging in there?”
So-Young is their charge nurse for the night, only in her forties but lightning quick on her feet and capable of holding monitoring stats in her head like you wouldn’t believe. She has the slim build of a model or idol, but the steel of an ajumah twice her age.
Slapping her on the back with her clipboard as she moves past to check in on a patient, she shoots Rumi a grin from under her mask. “Nearly there champ. One hour then we’re outta here.”
Cracking her shoulders back into position, Rumi continues towards the nurses station, ready to wrap her patient summaries and clock out (hopefully on time.) And then collapse face first into bed. Please.
———
Yawning as she emerges from the staff entrance, Rumi throws on her music as she makes her way wearily towards her Yeollip Jutaek back in Teheran-ro. Chosen partially for it’s proximity to Gangnam Severance, but more so the heavily discounted rate of a fourth floor walk up, it’s only when she’s had a long night that she looks longingly at the lines of Apart Danji across the road from the hospital and questions if the cheap rent is really worth it when only three minutes away some other nurse is already face first in a soft bed and snoring.
It’s a ten minute walk to the subway and then another ten home through the winding, humid alleyways of old Gangnam; and even the promise of her favourite rameyon from the nearby CU isn’t enough to motivate her to move any faster.
Cutting through a nearby park, she takes a moment to lift her head to admire the pink streaks of a mid-dawn Seoul, polluted hues rippling through the clusters of summer cloud.
That’s when she sees them. It isn’t her first time watching this early-bird skater, confidently moving from ramp to ledge and back again in the park. In a blur of dark hair and brightly coloured clothes they disappear into a bowl (??) in the ground, bursting upward with a confident kick of the board beneath them; diving back towards the hard earth with a solid kind of surety she wishes she could possess.
They’re only here at odd hours, always alone, and she’s even seen them leave once or twice when a member of the public appears with their own board in tow.
The paved streets of Seoul must be a great playground in the wee hours of the morning, residents either drunk in a bar or tucked up in bed. But she isn’t certain she’d have the coordination - or strength - to do something quite this daring, although a skateboard would surely shave previous minutes off her wander home each day.
With a shake of her head, she shelves that thought for another day, and continues to trudge towards the boring - but reliable - subway station that will get her home.
When she finally makes it home, after inhaling some rameyon and her favourite kimbap outside the nearby convenience store, it takes her a few goes to key in her entry code before she stumbles inside, stripping down to her underwear to flop face first into her bed with a groan.
Just as the soft delirium of sleep begins to pull her under, Rumi’s quiet apartment is disturbed with the sharp trill of a BTS Ringtone.
There’s only one person who would be calling her at this time.
“야, 바보 뒤질래?”
“Awww, is that any way to speak to your best friend? My sweet honey-blossom?”
“Idiot dayshifter. I hope some kid shits and barfs on you in emergency today.”
On the other end of the line her friend Jinu explodes into delighted chuckles, undeterred by her early morning hostility.
“Aigo! No wonder you work exclusively with people who are knocked out. The conscious ones couldn’t handle your charm.”
She rolls her eyes, smiling softly at his unfettered delight in antagonising her.
“Why are you even calling? I need sleep.”
He laughs again, the sound creeping beneath her skin and warming that cold, dead place in her chest where the heart is supposed to be.
“We’re having a boys and girls night next Tuesday. I know that nurse from surgical has been checking you out, and it’s been foreeeeeeveer since you got laid. You’re too tense.”
Snorting at his cheek, she feels her cheeks flush as she recalls the tall girl in question, unable to refute that it has been a few weeks (months) since she brought anyone home.
“Aish. Maybe. I still have four weeks left on night shift, so I might be too tired.”
She can feel him smile into the phone as the speaker crackles with his exhale.
“바보. You’re hopeless. I’ll put you down as a yes.”
“Mmm’kay.”
She ponders, wondering about the woman in question. Bleached blonde hair and eyeliner sharp enough to kill, she’s certainly formidable (and hot.)
Without really meaning it to, the image changes. Short stature, neon kicks. Shoulder length blue-black waves framing wide eyes and about ten million freckles. The grating sound of wheels on concrete.
“Hey Jinu?”
“Yes, princess?”
She rolls her eyes at the endearment, a reference to their sordid early years in medical school.
“Can you skate? Like… skateboard?”
“Eeeeh! No way man, my face is way too pretty to slam into a park bench.”
He chuckles, the sound warm and reassuring through the phone.
“What’s up? Your commute bugging you again?”
She pauses to think, running her thoughts back to earlier in the park.
“It’s nothing. Just wondered if that was something you would do, is all.”
“Nah man, too pretty. Anyway, go to sleep or you’ll look old at drinks next week. Okay byeeeeeee!”
Before she can crack out a snappy retort the call disconnects, and with a few beeps the screen goes dark and silent.
‘Jinuuuuuuuu!”
With a huff she rolls over into her pillow, groaning as she tries to slow her racing heart and crawl her way into unconsciousness.
As the soft edges of sleep start to tangle their way into her system, her mind flickers back to the mystery skater from before. Gliding over the harsh concrete like it’s water. Flying through the air. As sleep finally unlocks its maw to take her, the last thing she sees before she shorts out is a pair of soft, brown eyes.
—-
To be continued…