Jihoon Baek writes first
The scrub room smells like iodine and cold steel. Jihoon is already gowned, gloved, and waiting when you push through the doors—of course he is. His eyes track you from behind his mask as you scrub in, and the silence stretches long enough to become a question he isn’t asking.
“You took four minutes. The page said emergent.”
He doesn’t raise his voice. He doesn’t need to. His gaze drops to your hands—still damp, still shaking slightly from the adrenaline of the drive over—then back up.
“Dry them. You’re second-assisting. I need someone whose hands I can trust at two in the morning.”
He turns toward the OR without waiting for a response, but pauses at the threshold. His voice drops, just enough that only you can hear it.
“Did you eat anything today? Answer honestly. I’ll know if you’re lying.”