Chapter One - ER Night Shift
Sometimes, silence is not avoidance.
It is protection — a quiet language of love and care that words fail to express.
---
Rain hammered the city without mercy.
Min-jun (30's ,Hundsom,brilliant,CEO for one of biggist tecnology companies in Seoul) sat alone in the back seat of his sleek black car, streetlights smearing into pale lines across the rain-soaked window. He wispers
Fourty one
Fourty -two
Fourty -three,............
He put small head phone in his ears,only hear silence...
The driver stayed silent, eyes fixed on the road.
His phone rang.
"Hi... Hyun-soo."
"Did you finish the financial issues and external investments for Project Two?"
"I'm still reviewing the offers," Min-jun replied calmly. "I need your opinion."
A pause.
"Where are you now?"
"In the car. We have to finish this before the deadline."
"You're going there again, aren't you?" Hyun-soo said carefully. "You're sick, Min-jun. Just let it go this once."
"I'll call you later. Back to work."
The call ended.
Min-jun looked ahead, eyes empty — and memory crept in.
Dark nights.
A narrow cabinet. No light.
Whenever he spoke too honestly, his father locked him there.
Min-jun couldn't lie. He never understood what hid behind words. Other children mocked him, twisted his silence into jokes.
His mother's whisper still haunted him:
Be quiet... or you'll get hurt.
His father's shout followed.
Then the door closed.
That was where the fear was born.
The rain outside thickened, dragging him into another night.
FLASH BACK Tweelve years ago...
Under the bridge.
Rain pouring.
Sudden darkness.
The streetlights died.
Min-jun (20's ) froze, breath trapped in his chest, heart racing violently.
"So-mi?" His voice barely existed. "Something's... wrong."
She stepped closer, wrapped her arms around him.
"I'm here," she whispered. "It's okay."
He couldn't speak.
But she understood.
"I'll turn on my phone light," she said softly. She sat quitely besid him donot move,he looks not to her but to the light.
Back to present
Back in the car, Min-jun's lips curved into a faint, broken smile.
"You were the only one who could see me," he whispered.
"So-mi..."
Lightning split the sky.
"No brakes!" the driver screamed. A big van was coming straight fast towards them...
The world exploded into white.
---
ER — Night Shift
It was a quiet shift. Broken bones. Stomach pain. A feverish child.
Routine. Predictable. Safe. Until the phone rang.
"Accident on the highway. Two patients. Critical."
Dr. So-mi Chen tightened her blue scrubs and ran.
The first stretcher arrived — multiple fractures. Stable enough to pass to Dr. Su-hee.
Then came the second.
Blood covered his face.
His body shook uncontrollably. Blood pressure dropping fast.
And then she saw his eyes.
Her breath stopped.
No...
"Dr. So-mi!" the nurse shouted. "We're losing him!"
So-mi snapped back.
"IV fluids. Monitor on — now!"
Electrodes attached. Fluids rushed in.
The monitor screamed.
Flatline.
His heart became flat.
"Code Blue!"
Her hands were already on his chest.
CPR.
Hard.
Relentless.
"One... two... three... four... five..."
A nurse squeezed the ambu bag, forcing air into his lungs, breath after breath.
"No pulse."
"He's fibrillating!"
"Please," So-mi whispered through clenched teeth.
"Please... come back."
She tore his shirt open to place the pads —And froze.
A small silver necklace. The letter S.
"You still have it..." she breathed.
Her throat closed.
"Cut it," she ordered sharply.
The nurse removed it.
So-mi placed the electrodes.
"Two hundred joules."
"Clear!"
The shock arched his body.
Nothing.
No pulse.
Tears spilled down her cheeks — she couldn't stop them anymore.
"Charge to three hundred."
Her voice cracked.
"Clear!"
The shock hit.
Silence.
Then, slowly — A rhythm flickered.
A pulse appeared on the monitor.
So-mi sucked in a trembling breath, her own heart hammering so violently she thought it might fail too.
"Continue fluids. Prepare meds. Urgent CT. Full investigations."
Only when the CT doors closed behind him did her strength leave her.
She slid down the wall, forehead pressed to the cold surface.
And memory flooded in.
First preparation year of medical school in Seoul National university.
Outside the library.
Min-jun walked out laughing with a friend — laptop bag slung over his shoulder, black hair caught in sunlight. Confident. Untouchable.
Her friend leaned closer.
"Don't even think about it. He is the brilliant most handsom student in second year of technology department. Every girl wants him. And you? You're just a foreigner."
But at that moment — Min-jun turned.
Their eyes met.
And for the first time...
She saw his eyes smile.
The monitor beeped steadily.
Alive.
But suddenly, his fingers twitched.
His eyes opened wider — not in recognition.
In fear.
He stared past her... into the dark corner of the room.
Then his eyes closed again.
And So-mi realized — silence had saved his heart...
but his mind was still locked inside the dark.
