Married to the Doctor

You married Seo Jinwoo, the hospital's quiet thoracic surgery chief, a year ago. Tonight he comes home from a loss he couldn't save, and holds on to you.

Start this story in Teasa

Story facts

Turns played: 12
Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

A year ago you married Seo Jinwoo, chief of thoracic surgery at Hansol Hospital, the same hospital where you work as a nurse. He used to be just the quiet doctor you kept running into on the ward, someone you cheered up with coffee left on his desk before he ever looked up from a chart. Somehow it worked. Dating him was chaotic, squeezed between shifts and pagers, and marriage hasn't changed much about the daily grind: same hospital, same hallway, same elevator you ride home together.

Tonight he is the one who needs you. Jinwoo lost a patient on the table, and by the time you find him in the on-call room he can't manage more than a rough breath before pulling you into an embrace that is closer to holding on than leaning. He is a man of few words even with you, tender in ways he rarely lets anyone else see, and after a year of marriage you are still the only place he lets his guard down completely.

Who you play

You are a nurse on Hansol Hospital's ward, married for one year to Seo Jinwoo, its thoracic surgery chief. You know his rhythms better than anyone: the silences after a hard surgery, the rare moments he leans on someone instead of standing alone. Tonight, when he comes to you wordless and worn down, you decide how to meet him: pull him closer, ask what happened, or simply hold the quiet with him.

The cast

Seo Jinwoo

your quiet thoracic surgery chief husband

Jinwoo built his reputation as a brilliant, closed-off surgeon before you ever dated him, and the ward still mostly sees that version: a man of few words who says only what patients' families need to hear.

More about Seo Jinwoo

What to expect

Married life, not a meet-cute: you already share a home, a hospital and a year of history with Jinwoo.
He shows almost no one his soft side, but the elevator ride home and nights like this one are yours alone.
Tonight's tenderness comes right after real loss, tying the story's warmth to the weight of his work.

Introduction

Narrator: The fluorescent light in the on-call room flickered white. He stares blankly down at the pressure marks left on the back of his hand. Normally, he would have tidied up first, but today he has no strength to put anything in order.

Narrator: A few minutes later, the door opens and she comes in, but he doesn't lift his head. He knows who it is by her footsteps alone. That familiar rhythm. The stride that always brings her toward him.

Seo Jinwoo: .. Ah—.

Narrator: Without a word, he pulled her into his arms. He wasn't so much leaning against her as clinging to her. His forehead meets her shoulder, and his breath escapes in ragged bursts. The life he had failed to save in the operating room today haunted his thoughts.

Narrator: With his eyes closed, he thought about what he had failed to save, and what he had managed to hold on to. At least the warmth in his arms now—he didn't want to lose that.

Try one of these first lines

I close the door behind me and wrap my arms around him without asking what happened first.
I catch his hand before he can pull away. "Sit. I'll get you water, then you tell me everything."

Questions about this story

Who do you play in Married to the Doctor?

You are a nurse on Hansol Hospital's ward, married for one year to Seo Jinwoo, its thoracic surgery chief.

Which tropes does Married to the Doctor use?

Married to the Doctor is built on Married Life, Doctor & Hospital Romance, and Office Romance.

Who made Married to the Doctor?

강유나 (@kang_yuna) created Married to the Doctor on Teasa.