“Hey, are you all right? Wake up.”
Taeho called out loudly, but the hermit showed no sign of opening his eyes.
Taeho carefully straightened the man’s posture.
“Nurse, the house call bag!”
While Park Geumja went to retrieve the house call bag from the SUV’s trunk, Taeho tapped the frame of his glasses.
-Body temperature 35.9 degrees, pulse unstable at over 110 beats per minute. Blood pressure estimated below 80/50. He is in hypovolemic shock.
Even at a glance, the dehydration and malnutrition looked severe.
“Director. Here.”
Park Geumja brought the house call bag and opened it.
Inside were basic medications for emergency treatment, injection sets, a portable blood pressure monitor, and an emergency IV set. Taeho always carried a certain amount of equipment with him in preparation for emergencies.
“For now, the patient’s condition looks critical. We need to secure an IV line with 0.9% normal saline.”
The hermit’s forearm was so thin that the bones showed through. His veins were hard to find, making it difficult to insert the needle.
“It’s hard to secure a vein. Nurse Park, let’s try with a 22-gauge cannula.”
“Yes, here it is.”
Park Geumja moved with practiced skill. She opened the rear door of the SUV wide, unfolded and set up the collapsible IV stand she carried with her, then hung the saline bag.
Taeho slowly inserted the needle into the hermit’s arm. After three attempts, he finally secured the IV line.
“Good. Set the infusion rate to maximum. The first 500cc needs to go in quickly. The patient is in hypovolemic shock.”
“Understood. What about medication?”
“For now, we need to replenish his blood volume with fluids first. If we suddenly give glucose to a malnourished patient, there’s a risk of refeeding syndrome. We need to transport him to the hospital quickly.”
Taeho checked his blood pressure again through Rema.
His blood pressure was still unstable, and his oxygen saturation was low at 92%.
The hermit’s breathing grew rough; after a few dry coughs, his head soon drooped forward.
His life did not seem to be in immediate danger, but if he did not receive proper treatment, there was a high risk of organ damage or cardiac abnormalities.
Rema’s voice sounded.
-High probability of electrolyte imbalance, hypoproteinemia, and mineral deficiency caused by malnutrition.
“To think someone could starve like this in this day and age! How on earth was he living out here?”
Taeho looked around. There was no sign of any residence or people nearby. Only large trees, bushes, and low rocks.
After checking that the fluids were going in, Taeho said,
“Nurse Park, half the IV has gone in. We should move the patient to the car and keep the fluids running as we head to the hospital. Please get a blanket from the trunk and cover him.”
“Yes, understood. I’ll prepare to transport the patient.”
The two carefully moved the man into the back seat of the car, doing their best not to jostle him.
The hermit’s consciousness was still hazy, but every now and then, he sent Taeho a plaintive look. It seemed as though he had something to say.
“It’ll take about twenty minutes to the hospital. We need to get there as quickly as possible so you can receive comprehensive tests and treatment.”
“Ja… jang…”
The hermit parted his dry lips, but Taeho could not make out what he was saying.
-Current pulse has slightly decreased to 105 beats per minute. Blood pressure has risen slightly to 85/55, but he remains hypotensive.
‘At least the fluids have improved his condition a little. But we still can’t relax.’
Taeho got into the driver’s seat of the SUV.
Park Geumja sat in the back seat, continuously monitoring the patient’s vital signs and checking the IV infusion.
“Oh my, if we’d just passed him by, this could have been terrible. This man is really lucky. Once we get to the hospital, we should start with electrolyte and blood tests, right?”
“Yes. His electrolytes, blood sugar, and body temperature could all suddenly become dangerous, so we need to check them. Ah, and since there should be people waiting for us today, please contact them and tell them the house calls have been postponed until tomorrow.”
“Yes, understood.”
Taeho turned the car around.
While keeping an eye on the patient, Park Geumja made the calls. When she explained that an emergency patient had come up, the people on the other end naturally accepted it.
The SUV began descending the winding mountain road again. Taeho occasionally checked the patient’s condition through the rearview mirror, driving more carefully than usual, but as quickly as he could.
***
Geumsan Clinic inpatient room.
The man who had been called a hermit struggled to open his eyes.
Checking his heartbeat once more, Taeho asked,
“How are you feeling?”
“Am I… dead?”
The hermit spoke hazily, his gaze fixed on the ceiling. For a long while, his lips moved soundlessly. It seemed as though there was something he wanted to say, but in the end, he seemed to hold it back.
“You’re perfectly alive right now. Since when have you been starving?”
“…”
“When was the last time you ate anything?”
“…”
Taeho did not press him any further. From what he had learned through Rema, the hermit’s digestive tract, from stomach to large intestine, was completely empty. It seemed he had eaten nothing for at least forty-eight hours.
Park Geumja had a great deal of information she needed to ask the patient.
“Sir, what is your name? Where do you live? Do you have a guardian we can contact?”
There were far too many answers they needed to hear, but the hermit kept his mouth firmly shut.
Taeho shook his head at Park Geumja.
“Stabilizing him comes first right now. Let’s leave him be.”
“But if we’re going to bill him for the hospital fees…”
“Just leave him be. I’ll take responsibility.”
“Director, you’re really too kind…”
Park Geumja sniffled as if moved and left the room.
But Taeho’s mind was on something else.
-Coin charge rate: 15%
Treating one person for free had charged the coins by 1%. But after saving an emergency patient collapsed on the roadside, it had risen by a full 10% all at once.
‘A few pennies isn’t the issue right now.’
What Taeho was wondering was why it had been 10%. He remembered the time he had saved Jo Eokbae when he collapsed at the hospital.
‘It wasn’t like this back then. What’s different?’
***
The next day, the hermit finally managed to regain his senses.
His eyes, which had been staring into empty space from the bed, suddenly began darting around as if searching for something.
Thin rice gruel and porridge prepared by the hospital sat beside him, but he did not so much as glance at them.
In an earnest voice, the hermit asked,
“Ja, jajang… Do you have jajangmyeon?”
“Not yet.”
With his long-grown hair, bushy beard, and gaunt body, the hermit spent the entire day crying out for jajangmyeon.
“Please, could you order me some jajangmyeon?”
Even in the evening, he looked at Park Geumja with pleading eyes.
Park Geumja answered with an awkward expression.
“If you suddenly eat food like that, it could upset your stomach. Your stomach is weak right now, so it’ll be hard for you to handle that kind of food right away.”
“I can’t have it? H-hic…”
He looked as if he had lost the whole world.
Watching a grown man sob like a child because he could not eat jajangmyeon, Park Geumja could not hide her bewilderment.
‘Is he really a crazy person after all? He looks like someone who’d live off digging up wild ginseng in the mountains…’
***
The next evening, a sudden cry rang through the corridor of Geumsan Clinic.
“Jajangmyeon!”
With his long hair streaming behind him, the hermit ran off. Park Geumja hurried after him and grabbed his arm.
“No, I told you, this is where we store medicine!”
Whether or not he heard Park Geumja, the hermit pointed at the display cabinet and said,
“That thing in the plastic bag… Isn’t that jajang powder?”
With a troubled expression, Park Geumja held onto him and said,
“No, it isn’t. That’s medicine. If you eat it, you’ll die. And you can’t make such a commotion here. When the director comes out, I’ll talk to him about it, so please calm down.”
“Ahh, I want to eat jajangmyeon.”
His face was full of desperation.
“Your stomach is still weak, so if you suddenly eat something stimulating, you could get sick. I’ll bring you more porridge instead.”
“I don’t want porridge. I said I want jajangmyeon.”
The hermit spoke stubbornly. Park Geumja tried to persuade him as though soothing a child, but the hermit simply would not listen.
Just then, Taeho stepped into the corridor. As soon as the hermit saw him, he flinched and stopped in his tracks. Strangely enough, whenever Taeho appeared, he suddenly became well-behaved. Perhaps he was afraid of young, large-built men like Taeho.
Taeho grasped the situation at a glance. He approached the hermit.
The hermit flinched, craned his neck, and avoided Taeho’s eyes.
“Do you want jajangmyeon that badly?”
“…Yes.”
His voice was barely audible.
Taeho nodded, then gave Park Geumja an instruction.
“Nurse Park, please call a Chinese restaurant and order him jajangmyeon.”
“What? Will the patient be all right?”
“Looking at his current condition, I think he’ll be fine. I’ll watch him, so please order it.”
“Yes. Understood.”
Taeho called out to the hermit, who was trying to shuffle after Park Geumja.
“But there’s a condition. You must eat it slowly, little by little.”
The hermit grinned and replied,
“Yes. I’ll eat it slowly.”
***
The hermit sat in his seat and quietly waited for the jajangmyeon. And when the jajangmyeon arrived, he tore off the plastic wrap in an instant, gripped his chopsticks like a warrior, and tried to stuff it into his mouth ravenously. But he could not get even one bite in.
Taeho, who was sitting across from him, had caught the hand holding the chopsticks.
“You promised you’d eat slowly, didn’t you?”
“Sss—yes. Slowly…”
Reading Taeho’s mood, the hermit slowed down. Like an obedient child, he put a few strands of jajangmyeon into his mouth at a time and chewed thoroughly. Just how badly had he wanted to eat it? Every so often, he lifted the bowl of jajangmyeon to smell it, put a little into his mouth to savor the taste, and even teared up.
Park Geumja and the nursing assistants watching through the window were dumbfounded, yet they could not hold back their laughter. The sight of the hermit turning into an obedient puppy whenever he was in front of Taeho was too amusing.
Nursing assistant Park Yeonji suddenly said,
“Unni, but what if that man is dangerous? Why would a perfectly healthy young man endure being alone in the mountains until he nearly starved to death? What if he’s a criminal? Like a serial killer or a spy.”
Nursing assistant Park Yeonjeong also wore a worried expression.
“Right. Earlier, when I was changing his IV, he asked if it was a PN admixture solution, and I was shocked. How would an ordinary person know that term? What if that man is only pretending to be a fool?”
Park Geumja also nodded with a serious face. She, too, had already realized that the hermit was an extremely suspicious person.
She recalled what had happened that morning.
The hermit had stared intently at the monitor beside his bed, then furrowed his brow. He had asked Park Geumja this:
“Did you adjust the presets? If the settings are wrong on this, the blood pressure measurement deviation could become quite severe.”
For a moment, Park Geumja was startled.
‘Who on earth is this man, to know something like that?’
When Park Geumja looked at him in surprise, the hermit scratched his head and quickly averted his gaze.
“Ah, I just said that without thinking… I’m sorry.”
“Have you studied in this field, by any chance?”
The hermit gave no answer.
Feeling uneasy, Park Geumja relayed this to Taeho.
“Director, that man is strange. He seems like he’s hiding something.”
“Don’t worry too much about his identity.”
Taeho did not seem particularly concerned.
At that moment, Park Geumja’s sharp intuition kicked in.
“Director. You know something about that man, don’t you?”
Instead of answering, Taeho grinned.
Park Geumja was the type who could not stand being curious, so she grew even more impatient.
“What is that man’s identity? Please tell me too.”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”