Chapter 51

Episode 51 Poster Presentation (4)

Professor Cheon Eun-jeong stared at me blankly for a moment before snapping out of it and quickly turning on her Tablet PC.

“You said you just sent the mail?”

“Yes, I just sent it.”

Professor Cheon opened her Mailbox with a skillful hand movement.

[Emergency Medicine R1 Han Hyeonjae] Submitting the abstract draft for the Fall Academic Conference.

The mail with that title was floating at the very top.

Ah, I forgot to change the attachment file name.

To think it was 'HanHyeonjaeHyeonjaeFinalFinalRealFinalReallyFinal.docs'.

Anyway, Professor Cheon lightly ignored the file name I had poured my soul into. She looked back and forth between the mail title and my face several times, as if she couldn't believe the fact that I had created and submitted an abstract in such a short period of time.

“You, come over here.”

Professor Cheon led me toward a relatively quiet spot in the corner of the Station.

However, there is no such thing as a quiet place in the Emergency Room.

That is the absolute truth.

It was only relatively quiet; it was still right in the middle of a hallway where countless doctors, nurses, patients, and guardians were passing by. In the first place, due to the structure of the Emergency Room, the Station is right in the center, so even if we call this a quiet place...

Just like that, I completely became a spectacle for the entire Emergency Room.

Haha, everyone. Look at me, all of you. I'm standing awkwardly right in the middle of the Emergency Room in a hoodie on my day off!

Professor Cheon pulled up the attached Word file on her tablet screen. And then, the longest, most suffocating paper review of my Doctor's Life started.

Damn it.

It’s suffocating.

Ugh, save me.

Please do something about this awkward air.

I stood beside Professor Cheon awkwardly, looking like a criminal. I really don't know what to do. I can't sit, but I can't stand far away either. In the end, the posture I chose was the most awkward, modest posture in the world. I guess you could say I chose the path of a Confucian boy. Standing quietly next to the professor in just a hoodie with my hands behind my back... No, not behind my back, in front of me? Anyway, it was so nerve-wracking to be doing this with my two hands gathered modestly in front of me.

I tried my best to become an invisible human. However, the sight of a 1st Year Resident showing up in a hoodie on his day off, standing frozen next to an Emergency Medicine professor, was a giant attention magnet in itself. Even the guardians and passing patients glanced at me before walking away.

Their eyes stabbed my cheeks like a dagger.

Their expressions clearly read:

'That young doctor must have caused some kind of accident.'

'He looks like he's getting chewed out like a dog by the professor. Tsk tsk.'

It felt exactly like that.

'I am not a perpetrator who caused a medical accident. I am not being scolded right now. We are just checking homework...'

Unfortunately, the scream inside my heart did not reach anyone.

Professor Cheon paid no attention to my inner thoughts and was focusing on the screen. Professor Cheon's brow narrowed slightly. Her finger scrolling down paused.

“Huh?”

A low sigh leaked out of Professor Cheon's mouth.

My shoulders flinched. Did she already find a typo? Or is she just dumbfounded because the content is a complete mess?

Professor Cheon rested her chin on her hand and began scanning the screen again. From top to bottom, then from bottom to top.

“Hmm...”

Professor Cheon muttered as she pointed to a sentence on the screen with her finger.

Time flowed. 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes.

Cold sweat trickled down my spine. When will this hellish time end?

Finally, she lifted her head from the tablet. And she looked at me.

“Hyeonjae.”

“Yes, Professor.”

“Well...”

Professor Cheon chose her words for a moment.

“Actually, I thought you wouldn't be able to write it properly, so I was going to help you look over it during lunch.”

“Pardon?”

“I mean... generally, even low-year residents need to experience academic conferences. Putting a Poster Presentation on your resume is a good line to have. So usually, when I give this kind of assignment, I throw it out with the mindset of 'just go bump into it.' Then, of course, they'll bring back a total mess. Then I modify it again and show them, 'See, this is how you write a paper,' teaching them... I was thinking of that kind of educational picture.”

“Yes, Professor.”

“The thing is, you see...”

“Yes.”

Professor Cheon started talking with a deep sigh.

“Uh, to be completely honest, regarding the English expressions... there are no parts to modify.”

“Pardon?”

“There are none. At all. There are no grammatical errors, the word choice seems better than mine, and the sentence structure... sounds like a native speaker.”

Professor Cheon asked me with a look that genuinely showed she couldn't understand.

“Did you happen to study abroad? Or did you live overseas when you were young?”

“No, I am purely domestic-bred. A native Korean. Kimchi soup probably flows through me instead of blood.”

“Hmm...”

Professor Cheon looked back and forth between the tablet screen and my face once again. I just stood there with an awkward smile.

'Whew, ghosts are the best.'

“Anyway.”

Professor Cheon swept her hair back with a deep sigh.

“We need to set this as the standard when 1st and 2nd Year residents write their first case reports or papers.”

...Excuse me? The standard?

“You know your junior Jihun, right? Kim Jihun.”

“Yes, I know him.”

“What he wrote last time, oh dear... sigh, let's not even talk about it. Even though he held onto it for over a month, his writing level was truly... I wonder if I should call this typical for a 1st Year... really...”

Professor Cheon couldn't continue her words and clicked her tongue.

“No, actually, Jihun is the normal one... He is the average, the result of an utterly ordinary 1st Year resident, but haaa...”

Professor Cheon's gaze turned back to me.

“Yes?”

“No, no. I'm not saying you're abnormal. It means it's excellent.”

Professor Cheon tried to manage the situation and shift this awkward atmosphere.

“Anyway... ah! I just thought of a good idea. In the future, when other kids write English manuscripts, I should show them yours as a sample! Saying, 'Look, your junior Teacher Han Hyeonjae wrote it like this!'”

Pardon?? Mine??

It was horrifying. Even now, I'm drawing all sorts of attention within the doctor's office as 'the crazy bastard preparing for a Double Board', 'the guy who cuts bellies', and 'the guy who pulls teeth'. But now, she wants to add the title of 'the annoying junior who even writes papers well'? Is she saying she wants to make me public enemy number one and bury me?

“Haha, it's a joke, a joke.”

Seeing my face turn pale white, Professor Cheon laughed cheerfully.

“Anyway, you really wrote it well... hmm...”

I asked cautiously.

“Then what happens to me?”

“Huh? What about it?”

“That... uh... this. The abstract.”

“Ah, the abstract?”

Professor Cheon replied with a very bright expression.

“Ah, that? What do you call it, the IRB exemption application was also completely processed through the computer system this morning...”

Pardon? That quickly?

My pupils underwent an earthquake once again.

IRB.

That bureaucratic mountain of notoriety, where writing one wrong document gets it rejected for weeks, was handled with just a few flicks of the professor's fingers?

“Yeah. Why?”

As expected. The professor is the best.

'No, wait, this person is the one who made me do this in the first place, so why am I thinking she's the best? Is she giving the disease and then the medicine?'

What is this, that thing where a victim identifies with the criminal... something like Stockholm syndrome. I tried my best to suppress my confused emotions.

“Anyway, we are submitting it like this?”

“Pardon?”

“We are submitting it like this. I'm saying I'm pressing the submit button.”

“Yes?”

I asked back like an idiot.

“Are you... uh... not going to do any proofreading or, like, revisions?”

“There's nothing to touch?”

She had an expression that truly meant there was not a single thing to revise.

“If I touch it more, it'll just become redundant. It's perfect as it is. Now, go back home and off-work. I'm sorry for holding you back on your day off.”

“Ah... yes.”

“It will probably pass without fail. They might send an official mail from the academic society later, so make sure to check your spam mailbox too.”

“Yes, Professor. Thank you.”

“Sure~ See you next time~”

Professor Cheon waved her hand and disappeared with light steps, as if humming a tune. I blankly stared at the hallway where Professor Cheon had vanished.

It was finished. At least, everything regarding the process up to the abstract submission was finished. In just one day. Is this crazy?

I muttered with empty eyes.

'I didn't even go to work. What do you mean off-work...'

With a hollow laugh, I turned on the Gallery. An abstract whose data was collected in just a day, and was completed in less than 30 minutes, got confirmed by the professor on the very first try. Even if it is just a Poster Presentation!

=========

Title: Gallery folks, the professor says I can just submit it right now without any proofreading

Writer: Korean Slave 1

Yeah, she said to just submit it.

Latte is Mine: Isn't that obvious?

Cardiology Ghost: Why are you making such a fuss over something like that. We put our heads together to look over it for you, so if that kind of quality didn't come out, that would be stranger.

Mes of the God: Who would dare put a red pen to a sentence I reviewed?

Why is this bastard, Mes of the God, so annoying every time I see him.

Hippocrates' Descendant: Do not be filled with joy and sorrow over an utterly natural result, O living one. The path of a scholar is long and rugged.

Ugh, they're all so annoying. These damn ghost bastards.

Even so, it was finished. Stepping out of the hospital automatic door, I took a deep breath of the fresh air.

Mmm, so this is what fresh air feels like. It feels kind of like leaving school early back in my school days. Anyway, it was a hellish 24 hours. After suffering this much, I should give myself a reward.

I walked past the bus stop and headed toward the main street. And then, I waved my hand at a taxi.

'Today, I'm taking a taxi on the way back too! Kuhaha! What a tremendous overspending!'

What does it matter if my salary gets cut a bit.