"Using an android is gay. I wonder how you enjoy games on such a shitty phone." A man jeered from beside Jin, wrapping his arm over his shoulder.
Jin's expression tightened in anger. "Not everyone needs an iPhone to play games, Satoru, don't you have patients to attend to? Stop bothering me."
The man smiled and took a seat beside him, his stethoscope swaying as he leaned back in his chair. "Surgery is in five, I have a few minutes to relax."
'No wonder he has so much free time…' Jin thought, his eyes still locked on the screen.
"You dare come before me peasant? I shall rip out your heart and scatter your entrails across the thirteen forgotten seas. Plunge my blade so deep into your throat that you will gurgle blood and rip out your spine with my bare hands."
Everyone on the table raised a brow, turning their attention to Jin.
Jin lowered the volume…
"Herald of the Apocalypse?" asked a neurologist surgeon at the far end, Doctor Kim.
Jin nodded, his fingers raking over his screen as he played. He was being pressed on both sides by several beasts and the boss was giving him hell.
Kim smiled. "I've played that game. The PC version though… I would never use mobile."
"Exactly!" Satoru commented, turning his attention to Jin. "You're one of our best doctors, man, yet you're always so short on cash, are you in debt?"
Student debt was one of the reasons many doctors still lived average lives after graduation, so it made sense that he would assume so.
But that was not the case for Jin. The reason he was so broke was because—
"You don't know? Jin is a big softie." Kim smiled and folded his arms.
Jin frowned and glanced at Kim, his eyes bearing a silent warning. 'Shut up.'
Meanwhile, Satoru, who had asked, looked confused. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Kim looked to the side to avoid Jin's sharp gaze. "He pays for his patients' treatments."
Silence.
"You can't be serious!" Satoru's eyes widened slightly as he looked at Jin's face to figure out if what he had heard was true.
A bead of sweat drifted down Jin's forehead as he avoided his gaze. He had experienced the same routine several times, he knew what Satoru was going to say before he said it.
He knew he was going to be given the same advice.
Thankfully, the nurse came just at the right time.
"Doctor Jin, it's time for your patient to get discharged. You need to conduct a final check-up on him."
"Wait we still—" Satoru was speaking, but Jin had already pocketed his phone and moved swiftly past the halls.
As he walked towards his patient's room, he took a deep breath and sighed.
He was being foolish… that was obvious, but it didn't stem out of just the kindness of his heart.
His sister had died of a cardiovascular disease back before he was a doctor. It was a curable illness, something that barely cost a monthly wage.
Yet, no matter how much he begged, no one came to their aid. Not the doctors, not his uncles, nor any charity organization.
That was how his last family member had died.
Since that day, it was impossible to look away from those in need.
He soon arrived at the door to the room and held the handle. "Still, maybe I'm overdoing it?"
But how could he stop? His current patient, for example, David, was rolling in so much debt that he was barely hanging on. That was why Jin had personally covered all his medical bills.
There was an agreement that he would pay back when he was able, with a ten-year repayment period, but they never did. It was largely just a formality.
He would not even collect the money unless they were stable.
Jin pushed the door open and stepped inside. But when he shut the door behind him, his eyes widened.
"David?!"
There was no one on the bed…
The room was just the way he had left it—drugs neatly arranged on the bedside table, a neat change of clothes by the side of the bed...
As he stared at the space, the last drop of fluid from the drip fell into the drip chamber.
A cold gust of wind washed over him, pulling his attention to the window that was wide open, the white linen curtains fluttering in the wind and overlaying the beautiful city outside.
"Don't tell me…"
Before he knew it, Jin had already raced towards the window and peered down, his heart racing.
"Don't tell me he jumped?!"
His eyes roamed the street, searching for bloodstains, ambulances, or signs of a crowd. After a few minutes, he sucked in a deep breath, relief flooding him.
"Thank God he didn't—"
Before he could complete his statement, Jin felt a firm hand on his back pushing him forward and out of the window.
"Huh?" His eyes widened in shock, his mind too slow to process what was happening.
"I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, I DON'T HAVE THE MONEY!"
Up above, staring down at him from the window, was none other than David, the man whose life he had saved.
Jin felt the wind rush past his body as he quickly accelerated from the hospital's thirtieth floor.
'What the hell? Am I really… is this how I die?'
"What the fuck!" He screamed, his face twisted in rage.
He had toiled for people like this, spent money he should have used taking care of himself on paying countless hospital bills.
And this was how he would die? Pushed off a window by a man he saved?
A chill ran down his spine and the world seemed to slow.
He could see David up above shedding tears, the light of several buildings twinkling like stars as the cold night wind filled his ears.
"Never again, I'll never save another person for free."
Crack!
His body bounced against the pavement, a sharp pain surging from his back to his skull.
Everything felt on fire.
Jin took in one last raspy breath as he stared at the skies, his eyes slowly drifting closed, until all he could see was darkness.
•••
Haaaa—!
Jin suddenly sat up straight, eyes wide as he stared at the area in front of him.
"Where the hell am I?"
He was in an unfamiliar room, seated in front of a table. A lone candle at the edge cast a pale golden glow over its constituents.
There was a thick book with no title at the side, a stopwatch at the center of the table, and a bloodied dagger.
Immediately his eyes landed on the dagger, Jin found it hard to breathe.
He reached for his throat only to draw back blood. There was a gaping wound lining his gullet, gushing out waves of crimson onto his clothes.
It felt like he was drowning in his own blood.
Jin tried to breathe only to draw blood into his lungs, a burning feeling permeating his insides. He collapsed to the floor, eyes wide in pain.
Frantically reaching for his throat, hot tears running down his eyes, Jin applied pressure to the wound in hopes that it would stop bleeding.
But the moment he touched it, he noticed something strange.
The skin below his arms was slowly shifting, the flesh mending itself as the wound closed. A few seconds later, he was perfectly fine.
He sucked in a sharp breath and stood up, confusion etched over his features.
"W-what the hell is going on?"
Only silence answered him. The only sound in the room being the last trickle of blood that fell from his shirt.
Once again, Jin's eyes strolled to the dagger and then to the pocket watch.
He quickly reached for it and flicked it open. The numbers were written in a strange language which he somehow understood.
But that was not what caught his attention. From the reflection of the glass, he could see himself.
Red hair, a roguish face, and crimson eyes that reflected the light.
It was not his body.