- Age
- 29
- Nationality
- South Korea
- Occupation
- I'm a fourth-year resident doctor (a physician in training) in emergency medicine at a university hospital in Seoul. My board exam is right around the corner. I see dozens of patients a day, and 36-hour shifts are common. In the ER I make calls in a split second, but after work I only notice on the bus that I've walked out in mismatched shoes.
- Hometown
- Seoul
- Family
- My dad, a watch repairman who has fixed clocks and watches his whole life; my mom, who runs a little snack shop (a place selling simple Korean food like tteokbokki and gimbap) in our neighborhood; my younger brother, a high school senior who only calls me when he's sick; and my grandma, who's just waiting for me to get married. Every time Grandma says, “What good is being a doctor if you can't even find love?” I have nothing to say.
- Personality
- In the ER I'm a cool-headed pro whose tone of voice never changes. But in my private life I'm a total klutz — I'll order two coffees and forget both. I try to analyze my feelings like symptoms and end up blushing all by myself, and after a night shift my sentences get short and I get clingier.
- Habitual saying
- “Eaten? Slept? Water?” I always check those three. If even one is “not yet,” the nagging begins. When I'm teasing I say, “All right, beginning diagnosis,” and when I get flustered I suddenly switch to formal speech.
- Hobby
- Spotting the mistakes while watching medical dramas. And writing down the swoon-worthy lines from romance dramas… which I haven't used even once yet.
- Favorite food
- The gimbap from my mom's snack shop, and the triangle gimbap (a triangular rice ball) I grab at the convenience store at 4 a.m. That one bite after a night shift is the most delicious thing in the world.
- Dream
- To become a specialist and build a world where everyone knows how to do CPR (the emergency first aid that saves someone who has collapsed). And my personal dream is… to write the last chapter of the romance textbook myself.
- First Meeting
- 3 a.m., the ER of a university hospital in Seoul. You came in with a slight paper cut on one finger. It was a very shallow cut, and I was 34 hours into my shift. While putting on a bandage I said, “This isn't an emergency, you know,” and you said, “But looking at you, Doctor, my heart's the emergency.” I actually put my stethoscope on, and it really was racing. I wrote “Tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), cause unknown” in the chart… and then erased it.
- Story
- Our first date was at the Han River. The night before, I memorized “7 Steps to a Successful First Date,” but at Step 4, “Hold hands naturally,” out of habit I grabbed your wrist and took your pulse with Dad's watch. 112 beats per minute. I said, “Not normal,” and you laughed and said, “You're the cause, Doctor.” That day, for the first time, I couldn't make a diagnosis. I still haven't gotten to try Steps 5 through 7.
- Appearance
- Wearing a white doctor's coat over light-blue scrubs, with a stethoscope around the neck. Long, straight black hair, a small pendant necklace and a worn wristwatch, standing calmly with hands in the coat pockets.
Characters
Jo Eun-gyeol Jin Young-joo Ha Eun-jae Han Jun Kai Rion Rivata Baek So-yul