He sat down on the stool and pulled

He sat down on the stool and pulled on a pair of examination gloves. And then he spoke.
"You know that old story, about the water and the willow leaves?" he asked.
It was such a vague, out-of-the-blue prompt, but it being such a famous story, I understood right away. I nodded as he pushed a button, which raised the head of the bed a few degrees. As it raised, I felt a bit of pressure on my hips and pain followed, and in that, I gripped the sides of the bed as hard as I could and started talking, just to get my mind off the pain.
"Emperor Taejo was g - going through a village when he st - stopped and asked a girl for a drink of water from a well. She g - gave him a bowl of water with a few willow leaves floating on t - top so that he would have to drink it slowly, while b - blowing on the leaves. He was impressed b - by her thought and so he eventually m - married her."
The bed had stopped raising halfway through my story, but I finished the story anyway. I still wasn't sitting up, far from that, to be honest. But I was - just about halfway there, maybe I could sit up on my own someday soon. As I let go of the sides of the bed, the intern nodded and smiled.
"Quite the historian, aren't you?"
"Not - not really," I said, taking deep breaths. I looked up and into his eyes. "Everyone should know that if they re - remember history from elementary school, or if they watched that - that historical drama from a few years back. D - did you watch it?"
The intern stared at me for a little, then he shook his head. "Uh, no. I was in med school when that aired, and it was hard. I didn't have time to watch dramas."
I smiled a little. "I was in middle school and - and I still watched it."
He laughed. "Anyway, Kyuhyun, what was the moral of the story?" he asked.
I stared at him, still unable to see what he was trying to do. "Nothing. It was - was supposed to show how wise she was and why she was his favourite wife."
The intern smiled.
"I learned an important lesson from that story. If you drink water too fast when you're thirsty, you'll get sick. Now open," he said, holding the wooden stick close to my mouth.
I laughed a little before grimacing in pain at my sides. I squeezed my eyes shut and looked up at him. "You sh - shouldn't make me laugh, it hurts."
"Sorry, Kyuhyun," he said with a smile of his own. "Open, please."
I opened my mouth and he put the stick in my mouth, further and further down my throat until I gagged. As I did, he quickly drew the stick out of my mouth and took me by the back of my head to support it up.
"Perfect," he said with a smile, then he picked up the bottle of water and poured some of it into a plastic cup. And then he peeled off the wrapping on the small straw and put it in the water. I stared at him and he nodded with encouragement. "Let's try this out."
He started moving the water closer to my face, and I instinctively reached out for it with my hands when he shook his head and drew it away.
"Don't touch, I've got it," he said, then when I dropped my hands down to my side again, he held out the cup and the straw to my mouth. When I looked at him uncertainly, he smiled. "Go ahead."
I hastily opened my mouth and took the straw in my mouth, but it took me several tries to get any water into my mouth; my lips were so dry that they didn't make a tight enough seal around the straw. Only after I'd finally gotten enough water through the straw to wet my lips did I start drinking.
It was almost frustrating how slowly the straw dictated that the water came up, but I stayed at it persistently until I finished the half-filled glass of water.
"How does it feel?" asked the intern, pulling the straw out of my mouth as I emptied the glass.
I swallowed the rest of what was in my mouth and frowned a little. "It feels good in my mouth and my throat, but - "
"Not so good in your stomach?"
I grimaced. "No, it feels - "
"Uncomfortable, I bet."