“When the nurse gets back with the porridge, you should eat a little, too,” the doctor says to Jihyun. “And then get back to your office. This is my patient, you gotta tend to yours, hohoho.” The doctor laughs at the end of each sentence.

Wait, did he call the doctor mother? Are they related? Are they a family of doctors?

“Yeoul? Is it okay if I just use your name?” The doctor asks me, laughing again. “You should’ve seen Jihyun when he brought you in. He was so upset. I don’t know how he manages to operate on his patients. Well, you aren’t too badly hurt, so think of this as an opportunity to get some rest. Let’s get you some decent food, too. You seem malnourished. In this day and age, you shouldn’t look like a war orphan! Since you are Jihyun’s ‘friend’ and ‘tutor,’ you are our VIP at this hospital, okay? Hohoho.”

“Mother! I think Yeoul needs some rest. You should go check on other patients. I’ll take off in a little bit.” The dentist uses a childish tone of voice to make his mother leave the room. “What do you think of my mother? Isn’t she beautiful?” he asks once she’s gone.

“Yes, she reminds me of Juliette Binoche,” I reply.

“What a compliment! Did you guys make an arrangement to compliment each other or something? My mom said you are incredibly beautiful, too. She even asked, ‘Don’t she and I look like one another?’ Haha.”

“You’re making stuff up to make me feel better.”

“Well, be careful. My mother seems to be taken with you. She has … unusual taste.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well … It’s difficult to explain. Never mind.”

The dentist asks me to call him by his first name, Jihyun, from now on. I don’t really understand why everyone is dead set on finding the correct term of address for me to use. He asks me not to call him Ajussi, a middle-aged man, even though he is an unmarried bachelor. He’d prefer for me to use his name. He tells me he needs to get going, so he’ll only be able to tell me the basics of how I got here, but that Eunyong and the café owner would be able to get into it with me. I think to myself, I see, he doesn’t want to talk about things that make him uncomfortable. He’ll make the girls deal with it.