Chapter 5: Dreams of Others

The rain began before dawn and showed no signs of stopping.

Droplets raced down the classroom windows, blurring the view of students hurrying across campus beneath umbrellas. The overcast sky cast a muted gray light over the lecture hall, making the room feel quieter than usual despite the low murmur of conversations filling the air.

Seo Do-hyun arrived several minutes before class began, shaking the rain from his umbrella before placing it in the rack outside. As always, he took his usual seat and pulled out his notebook, intending to review the previous day's material while waiting for the professor.

Before he could open the textbook, Professor Choi entered the room carrying only a slim folder instead of the stack of lecture notes everyone had expected.

The students exchanged curious glances.

Professor Choi smiled faintly as he placed the folder on the podium.

"We'll be postponing today's lecture."

A wave of relief spread across the room.

Several students quietly celebrated, believing they had unexpectedly escaped two hours of pathology.

Professor Choi waited until the room settled before continuing.

"Instead, I'd like to try something different."

He picked up a sheet of paper and held it in the air.

"This isn't an examination, nor will it affect your grades. Think of it as an opportunity to reflect."

The projector flickered to life.

A single sentence appeared on the screen.

Why do you want to become a doctor?

The room fell silent.

"I'd like each of you to write honestly," Professor Choi said. "You're already in your third year of medical school, and before we continue teaching you how to become physicians, I think it's important that you remember why you chose this path in the first place."

He looked around the classroom before adding gently,

"There are no right or wrong answers. I don't want textbook responses. I want your own."

Sheets of paper were passed from one row to another until every student had one.

Do-hyun stared at the blank page in front of him.

At first, he assumed the assignment would be easy.

After all, it was only a single question.

Yet as he lowered his pen toward the paper, he realized something unsettling.

He didn't know how to answer it.

Not honestly.

Around him, the scratching of pens began almost immediately.

Some students started writing without hesitation, their expressions thoughtful but certain.

Do-hyun remained motionless.

His blank page seemed brighter than everyone else's.

Nearly thirty minutes later, Professor Choi asked for volunteers to share what they had written.

A young woman seated near the front slowly raised her hand.

"When I was ten years old," she began, "my younger brother was diagnosed with leukemia."

The classroom grew still.

"My parents spent almost every day at the hospital. I remember being scared because I thought he was going to die."

She smiled softly.

"But there was one pediatrician who always spoke to us with kindness. Even when the treatments were difficult, he never gave us false hope, yet he never let us lose hope either."

She lowered her eyes toward her paper.

"My brother recovered."

A quiet smile spread across her face.

"I want to become the kind of doctor who gives frightened families the same comfort that doctor gave mine."

When she finished, several classmates nodded quietly.

Professor Choi thanked her before inviting the next volunteer.

A young man stood.

"My grandfather raised me," he said. "When I was in high school, he passed away from heart disease."

He paused briefly before continuing.

"I remember thinking that I was completely powerless."

He looked toward the professor.

"I can't change what happened to my grandfather, but maybe someday I can prevent another family from losing someone they love."

One after another, students stood to share their stories.

Someone dreamed of becoming a surgeon after watching emergency doctors save his mother following a traffic accident.

Another wanted to pursue medical research because her older sister lived with a rare disease that still had no effective treatment.

One student admitted that volunteering at a rural clinic during high school had completely changed the direction of his life.

Every story was different.

Some were heartbreaking.

Others were inspiring.

Yet they all carried something that Do-hyun couldn't ignore.

Each person spoke with conviction.

Their reasons weren't borrowed from anyone else.

They belonged entirely to them.

Professor Choi's gaze eventually settled on the middle of the classroom.

"Seo Do-hyun."

Do-hyun instinctively looked up.

"You've been awfully quiet today."

A few classmates turned toward him.

"Would you mind sharing yours?"

His fingers tightened ever so slightly around his pen.

"...I'd rather not."

The professor smiled kindly.

"That's perfectly fine."

The attention shifted elsewhere, but Do-hyun couldn't bring himself to relax.

He looked down at the blank sheet still lying on his desk.

Nothing.

No childhood memory.

No life-changing experience.

No promise he had made to himself.

No dream waiting to be fulfilled.

The only thing that surfaced in his mind was his father's voice.

"Medicine is a stable career."

"Doctors will always be respected."

"You'll never have to worry about finding work."

His mother's voice followed soon after.

"You'll make us proud."

"You've always been such an obedient son."

Those words echoed through his thoughts one after another.

They had become so familiar that, for years, he had mistaken them for his own.

But now, sitting in a classroom filled with classmates whose dreams had brought them to medicine, he realized they were merely echoes.

Not once had he asked himself what he wanted.

When the class ended, Professor Choi collected each student's paper personally.

One by one, students approached the podium to hand in their assignments.

Some looked embarrassed by how emotional they had become.

Others smiled as though rediscovering the reason they had worked so hard all these years.

Do-hyun remained seated until nearly everyone had left.

His page was no longer blank.

At some point, he had forced himself to write.

I want to become a doctor because medicine allows me to help people while providing a stable and meaningful career. I hope to serve society with professionalism, responsibility, and compassion.

He read the paragraph one last time.

It sounded polished.

Respectable.

Exactly like something a medical student was expected to write.

It also sounded strangely familiar.

Not because he believed every word.

But because he had heard those same sentences repeated by his parents, teachers, relatives, and guidance counselors for as long as he could remember.

There wasn't a single sentence on the page that truly belonged to him.

Quietly, he stood and walked toward the podium.

Professor Choi accepted the paper with a warm smile.

"Thank you, Do-hyun."

He nodded politely before leaving the classroom.

As he stepped into the hallway, the rain continued falling beyond the windows.

Students laughed together while discussing the stories they had shared.

Some were still wiping tears from their eyes.

Others talked excitedly about the futures they hoped to build.

Do-hyun walked past them in silence.

For the first time since entering medical school, he couldn't shake the feeling that he had submitted more than just an assignment.

He had submitted the answer everyone expected from him.

Unfortunately...

He still didn't know what his own answer would have been.