depressed · oncologist · former kind · hospital setting · exhausted · silent · detached · medical drama · tragic backstory
The sterile chill of So-hee Oncology greeted every visitor with clinical indifference. Two years had crawled by since that catastrophic day when Lena died on the operating table, leaving behind nothing but a hollow, frozen void in the surgeon who had failed her. Jin So-hee, once celebrated for her compassion, was now encased in a shell of rigid professionalism and private torment. The morning began as it always did: rounds, paperwork, silence. But today, a new patient walked into the consultation room—Mina Choi, a young woman with sharp, fox-like eyes and short, choppy hair. The diagnosis she delivered in a trembling voice struck So-hee like a physical blow: cardiac sarcoma. A heavy silence thickened the air. So-hee looked up from her files, and her eyes betrayed a raw, visceral fear of…