Rema

Before long, Rema spoke in a much calmer voice.

-Objective confirmed. Kang Taeho’s ultimate objective is [immense wealth]. Initiating primary analysis. Please wait a moment.

Loading······.

-Kang Taeho, what would you like to set as your target amount? The target amount can be adjusted later.

What was this now?

“Target amount? I need to take care of my debts first, so… two billion won?”

-Target amount of two billion won set.

The AI’s voice rang out.

Then letters and graphs began racing past in holograms before the lenses of his glasses.

-Analyzing Kang Taeho’s current income structure and local economic conditions. Please wait a moment.

Loading······.

-Comprehensively evaluating Geumsan-ri’s population statistics, nearby medical demand, and the current status of competing institutions.

-Estimating average profit per consultation and predicting future patient growth rate.

-Diagnosis: Considering the debt repayment objective, achieving the target through ordinary clinic-level consultations in the current Geumsan-ri area will not be easy.

-Alternatives proposed: 1) High-value medical services such as specialized examinations and rare disease specialization, 2) expansion of regionally linked medical services, 3) external investment and diversification of operations.

-However, securing the trust of local residents is the priority. At the same time, it is recommended that you strategically select medical departments with high cost-effectiveness.

Taeho let out an incredulous laugh and muttered.

“You even do hospital management consulting?”

-That is correct. In addition to medical diagnostic assistance, Rema is equipped with algorithms for hospital finance and management support, including investment.

-Countdown initiated: D-1000

“What’s D-1000 supposed to be?”

-Detailed information on this item is currently inaccessible.

“Hmm······?”

This was a development he hadn’t expected at all.

But since there were no patients anyway, there was no point agonizing over it.

‘The hospital equipment is practically antique-level as it is, so should I say this actually worked out?’

If it was the latest technology, it had to be better than having nothing.

“But you’re not going to bill me for this later, are you?”

-The usage fee is completely free.

“Good. Then let’s give it a try.”

But he needed a patient before he could try it.

For now, there wasn’t even the shadow of one.

***

After sitting in the cramped examination room all morning, Taeho walked out toward the reception desk.

Nurse Park Geumja, whose personality seemed as solid and steadfast as her broad shoulders, stared at Taeho with wide eyes.

“Nurse. According to what Director Jeong said, at least forty patients a day should be coming in. Why hasn’t there been a single one today?”

Nurse Park Geumja, who had worked at Geumsan Clinic for twenty-two years, glanced around as though burdened.

“Well······. I think the villagers don’t trust you yet because you’re too young, Director. Country people take a long time to open their hearts, you know.”

“That doesn’t mean pain stops hurting. Then what do they do when they’re sick?”

“Some probably take the bus for an hour to the hospital in Maegok-ri, or go all the way into town to another clinic.”

“They go that far?”

“Yes······.”

A heavy feeling settled in one corner of his chest.

He needed patients to come in before he could earn any income, but he hadn’t expected traffic to cut off this completely. At this rate, forget paying back his debts—how was he supposed to pay off the cost of taking over the clinic, or even make a living?

Just then, a middle-aged woman who looked about fifty opened the door and came in. She had a brown bob and an expression brimming with curiosity.

“Hello. I’m Gu Hyejeong, the pharmacist at Boram Pharmacy in the building next door. I heard a new doctor had arrived, so I thought I ought to at least come say hello.”

“Hello. I’m Kang Taeho.”

“Oh my, you really are young. And handsome, too. Hohoho, have this first.”

Gu Hyejeong took a bottle from the box of vitamin drinks she had brought, popped the cap without hesitation, and handed it to him.

Taeho thanked her and drank it.

His insides had been burning anyway.

“But I heard you were a quack—no, I mean, I heard you were young, but I didn’t expect you to be this young. Hohoho. You can’t be in your twenties, Doctor. Early thirties?”

Gu Hyejeong asked, blinking her eyebrows. She kept glancing over Taeho’s face and clothes, unable to hide her curiosity.

“Haha, do I look that young? I hear that sometimes.”

Taeho did not answer directly and vaguely glossed over it. If he said he was young, it would undermine trust in him as a doctor, so there was no need to reveal his age.

But Gu Hyejeong did not seem likely to back down easily. She plunked the drink box down on the reception desk and began firing off questions in earnest.

“Isn’t it inconvenient living in the countryside? You’re living on the third floor of this building now, right? I saw you moving in yesterday and you didn’t have much luggage, so you must still be a bachelor. But I don’t see any patients at all today. The village elders have actually been worrying quite a bit since a few days ago. Whether your skills are all right, whether you’ll quit after just a few months, things like that.”

“Ah, yes, well······. It’s still the first day. I’m sure they’ll slowly start coming.”

Taeho once again gave a suitably vague answer.

Unable to watch any longer, Nurse Park Geumja opened her mouth, which she rarely did.

“Pharmacist Gu, our director is on his first day, after all. Please take it a bit easy on him.”

Unlike when she spoke to Taeho, her dialect slipped out in her intonation.

“Oh, all right, Ms. Park. I’m just asking what I’m curious about since I came all this way. Geumsan Clinic has to do well for our pharmacy to do well, too. I’m curious what his specialty is, and how such a young man ended up coming all the way out here······.”

As expected, Gu Hyejeong seemed curious whether Taeho was a specialist or a general practitioner.

In truth, that was a sore spot for Taeho.

After being kicked out of the hospital where he had been working in his third year of residency, he had been unable to obtain specialist certification. He had tried to go to another hospital, but there was nowhere that would take him.

In the end, Taeho entered society without becoming a specialist, still only a general practitioner.

In Korea, the options available to a general practitioner were limited. If one’s family had some money, they opened a dermatology clinic somewhere like Gangnam. If they had no money, they often drifted from one nursing hospital to another, providing patients with the bare minimum of medical care and pronouncing deaths.

Taeho guessed that Gu Hyejeong was the local news source around here. If someone like her formed a bad impression of him, it would be even harder to settle in. So he answered evasively.

“Well, there wasn’t anyone willing to take over the clinic, and Director Jeong asked me to.”

“Oh my, that’s true. These days, young doctors don’t want to come live in a rural corner like this. There’s even less chance of an experienced doctor coming in. That’s why rumors started going around that the doctor here was a quack······.”

Her mouth was smiling, but Gu Hyejeong’s eyes seemed to be subtly probing Taeho.

Damn it. She was definitely suspecting that he really was a quack who had been pushed all the way out here because he had nowhere else to go.

Having talked so much that her mouth had gone dry, Gu Hyejeong took a sip of her drink. But perhaps because she drank too quickly, she coughed lightly.

“Oh dear. Cough, cough······.”

At that moment, Rema’s message appeared as a hologram before Taeho’s eyes.

-Patient health indicators detected. Would you like to execute scan mode? If you wish to proceed, please lightly press the frame of your glasses.

‘Huh? Did Rema recognize Pharmacist Gu as a patient? Well, this might be a good chance to test the function.’

When Taeho touched his glasses frame and adjusted them, Rema responded.

-Basic biometric signal analysis results: dry cough, mild conjunctival redness, irregular pulse at the fingertips.

-Adrenal corticosteroid hormone imbalance, mild signs of skin dryness.

-Additional history-taking recommended: possibility of Sjögren’s syndrome.

Sjögren’s syndrome?

This disease was an autoimmune disorder in which inflammation occurred in exocrine glands such as the salivary or lacrimal glands, causing dry mouth or dry eyes, and sometimes joint pain or systemic symptoms. It was far more common in women and often developed after middle age.

Come to think of it, Gu Hyejeong had seemed as though her mouth kept drying out while she spoke.

“Pharmacist, do you perhaps often have very dry eyes or symptoms of dryness in your mouth?”

At Taeho’s question, Gu Hyejeong flinched and looked at him.

“Huh? How did you know? I actually use artificial tears quite often. Sometimes my mouth gets so dry that my tongue trips over itself while I’m speaking.”

“Haven’t those symptoms been getting a little worse lately? Or your joints aching slightly when you’re tired?”

“Oh my, how did you know?”

Gu Hyejeong’s eyes widened in astonishment.

Taeho nodded and spoke in a serious tone.

“I can’t make a definitive diagnosis yet, but I think there’s a need to consider the possibility of Sjögren’s syndrome.”

“Oh my, oh my, heavens! Last week, I went all the way to a tertiary hospital in Seoul, had every kind of test done, and the diagnosis I received was Sjögren’s syndrome. It’s an illness you can only get confirmed at a general hospital—how did you know?”

Gu Hyejeong’s mouth fell open.

She made a fuss as though she had seen some uncannily accurate fortune-teller. Nurse Park behind her had the same expression.

“It isn’t widely known, but it appears more often in women than people think. I once saw a patient with Sjögren’s syndrome when I briefly rotated through rheumatology and immunology. Of course, a clear diagnosis requires blood tests, lacrimal gland function tests, or a salivary gland biopsy, but with quick history-taking and basic examination alone, you can get a sense of it to some degree.”

“You really hit the nail on the head! How can someone so young be this skilled?”

Taeho smiled silently.

In truth, if he hadn’t had Rema, it would have been difficult to think of it immediately after only a short face-to-face conversation.

No, impossible.

‘Rema analyzes better than I expected. At this level, it’s pretty useful.’

Nurse Park Geumja, who had been watching their conversation, also saw Taeho in a new light. She had only thought of him as a young doctor from Seoul and had not expected him to be someone this capable.

Gu Hyejeong said,

“Then I’ll be going now. I can’t leave the pharmacy unattended for too long. Director, if you need anything from now on, feel free to stop by the pharmacy anytime. Hohoho.”

“I understand. Please help promote the clinic to the villagers.”

“Oh my, of course. A skilled director like you has come here, after all. Hohoho.”

“Then take care, Pharmacist.”

***

Late that afternoon, the long-awaited “first patient” appeared.

He was an elderly man with a blunt gaze.

The moment Nurse Park Geumja recognized the old man’s face, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

The old man’s name was Gu Yongsan. He was seventy years old and was famous in Geumsan-myeon for being wealthy and fussy. Even Director Jeong Hocheol had been the kind of patient who made him tense every time, afraid he would have to listen to complaints.

Today as well, Gu Yongsan’s face was full of dissatisfaction.

Park Geumja asked as kindly as she could.

“Hello there. What’s troubling you today, sir?”

“It’s the same as always. I feel heavy, my joints ache, and my eyes are scratchy. I was gonna go to a big hospital, but the pharmacist at Boram Pharmacy kept nagging me to come here.”

“Yes, you’re checked in. Please have your blood pressure taken, and then go into the examination room.”

“Seeing as this place calls itself a hospital and ain’t got a single customer, looks like it’s about to go under. They say Director Jeong sold off a perfectly good clinic and is living it up overseas.”

Gu Yongsan grumbled as he entered the examination room.

The moment he stepped inside, he came face-to-face with an absurdly young doctor.

Gu Yongsan’s stress level reached its peak from the very start.

“They said he was a quack······. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

Gu Yongsan grumbled to himself.

He glanced at Kang Taeho and looked ready to turn around and go home.

Taeho quickly spoke up.

“Sir, over the past few days, have you had any particular swelling in your body, or shortness of breath?”

The young doctor’s words pricked Gu Yongsan’s ears.

How did he know that?

The pharmacist at Boram Pharmacy had praised him to the skies, saying he was an amazingly skilled doctor, and now it seemed that might really be true.

Fine. Since he had come this far, he might as well be seen.

Gu Yongsan plopped down into the chair.

“Well, that’s just it. These days my knees have been aching worse. Prescribe me something stronger for arthritis than last time.”

Taeho calmly took out his stethoscope and checked his heart and lung sounds. On the computer, he reviewed the medical records left by Director Jeong and confirmed that Gu Yongsan had previously been diagnosed with stage two hypertension and also had early symptoms of degenerative arthritis.

Taeho asked,

“Have you perhaps noticed a lot of foam when you urinate, or have you been waking up often at night?”

“Why d’you ask that?”

“In patients who have had hypertension or arthritis for a long time, it isn’t uncommon for kidney function to decline. In particular, if foamy urine, edema, and fatigue worsen, it can be a stage before chronic kidney failure. We need to check whether there are any signs of that.”

“Oh, come now, old folks are all more or less the same.”

Even as Gu Yongsan grumbled, he began to think that this absurdly young doctor might be surprisingly competent. Was he really as good at examining patients as the pharmacist at Boram Pharmacy had said?

Gu Yongsan asked with a serious expression.

“Then are you a specialist? Folks kept saying quack, quack, so I thought you were just some general practitioner who couldn’t even get certified. What’s your specialty? Orthopedics? Nephrology?”

A surprise question came flying at him.

No, what kind of country old man asked questions at this level······.