Yu Sihyeok shoved Kim Dohyeon in the chest and opened the electronic chart on the operating room computer.
-Surgery time: 28 minutes
-Blood loss: 50 mL
-Current vital signs: stable
Seeing the data on the screen, he froze as if turned to ice.
An unbelievable surgery time and blood loss.
Yu Sihyeok’s gaze moved to the auxiliary monitor.
He played back the endoscopic footage.
Swift, precise hands stitching the suture line neatly in a Z-shape.
Even if he had done it himself, could he have managed it this well?
“What the…”
Yu Sihyeok barely managed to close his mouth, which had fallen open on its own.
“Who performed this?”
“It was Director Kang Taeho of Geumsan Clinic.”
The anger rapidly drained from Yu Sihyeok’s face. In its place, a low breath escaped his lips.
“Dr. Kim Dohyeon.”
“Yes, Chief.”
“Clip this surgery video and present it at tomorrow’s briefing. I think we need to learn from it.”
Kim Dohyeon’s eyes widened into circles.
***
A police officer came to Geumsan Clinic. Taeho rose from his seat and greeted him.
“It’s about the homeless man whose fingerprints you asked us to check at the police substation a few days ago. We’ve identified him.”
It was welcome news.
“You must be busy, but you came all the way here in person.”
“Not at all. If anyone’s busy, it’s you, Director. I was passing by anyway.”
The police officer who smiled shyly was Sergeant Lee Gyeongmo, thirty-nine years old.
He had stopped by again after being treated for rhinitis not long ago.
Taeho asked,
“What kind of person was he? Can his family be contacted?”
Sergeant Lee Gyeongmo took out his phone and began to read.
“His real name is Park Seongu. He’s fifty-seven years old.”
“And his family?”
“According to his resident registration, he has no family living with him, and there’s no emergency contact either. Looking at the Ministry of Welfare records, he applied for basic livelihood assistance seven years ago, but it seems he was deemed ineligible.”
“Is there no way to find out more about whether he has family?”
“No. According to the records, contact was lost after his family emigrated twelve years ago. It says he has a son and a daughter, but no contact information remains. Recently, Mr. Park Seongu himself failed to complete the proper administrative procedures, so his resident registration was processed as having an unknown residence. That’s why he couldn’t receive any support for hospital fees or welfare benefits.”
“I see.”
“Ah, and when I requested cooperation from the related agencies and looked into it, he used to have a business registration and ran a construction company.”
For a moment, Taeho couldn’t continue speaking. Box Man had once run a construction company—it was hard to believe, seeing him as he was now.
Taeho asked again,
“Still, now that his real name has been confirmed, won’t that open a path for him to receive some kind of institutional support?”
Sergeant Lee Gyeongmo smiled somewhat awkwardly.
“To be honest, the process won’t be easy. Still, since his status as a missing person or a person with unknown residence will now be lifted, you can consider the restoration of his resident registration a major first step.”
Taeho repeated the name “Park Seongu” several times in his mind.
“At least in our hospital, we should no longer call him by the nickname Box Man, but by his real name, Mr. Park Seongu. Though I am a little worried whether he’ll remember it properly.”
Sergeant Lee Gyeongmo nodded at Taeho’s words and wrapped things up.
“For future identity issues or debt counseling, it would be good to cooperate with the city hall’s welfare department. Of course, if you need any further help, please contact me anytime.”
“Thank you very much. It’s been a great help that you even found information on the related agencies.”
“Not at all. I’d seen Box Man pulling his handcart around a few times myself, but I never paid much attention. But you brought him in personally and even treated him, Director. It made me reflect on myself quite a lot.”
Sergeant Lee Gyeongmo smiled amiably.
“He’ll be starting rehabilitation soon, so I hope the administrative procedures go well and the patient can find even a slightly more stable life.”
“With you looking after him like this, Director, I’m sure it will work out. I’ll be going, then.”
“Yes. Take care.”
After greeting Taeho, Sergeant Lee Gyeongmo bowed once more toward the reception desk, then tilted his head.
“Are you looking for someone?”
“Ah, no. Well then, keep up the good work.”
Sergeant Lee Gyeongmo waved his hand and quickly slipped out the door.
***
Box Man, Park Seongu, was staring blankly out the window. The sunset was spreading between the layers of mountain ridges.
“Did you have dinner?”
Taeho asked as he entered the hospital room.
Park Seongu nodded.
“The police came and found your identity. They said your real name is Park Seongu.”
“Park Seong…u.”
Park Seongu murmured his own name unfamiliarity, as if he were hearing it for the first time in decades. He probably hadn’t been called by the name Park Seongu in a long time.
“Now that you’ve heard your real name, do any memories come back?”
Taeho carefully observed Park Seongu’s face.
Park Seongu scrunched up his face like a child about to cry and shook his head.
But Taeho noticed that his memories were surfacing.
It seemed Park Seongu wasn’t unable to remember; he simply didn’t want to remember the past.
After a long while, Park Seongu acknowledged himself.
“Park Seongu… That was my name.”
“Is there any chance we can contact your family?”
“I don’t have any family.”
It felt as though he had given up on everything.
Taeho hesitated for a moment, then slowly continued.
“I told you in advance that treatment wouldn’t be easy, but to properly remove the cadmium accumulated in your body, conventional drug therapy would take a long time and cost a great deal.”
At that, Park Seongu let out a sigh.
“What’s the point of getting treated? My body just hurts like it’s going to fall apart, so just give me painkillers. It’s time for me to die, so I might as well just die.”
His tone was as if he were passing judgment on himself.
Taeho spoke soothingly.
“Still, if you receive treatment, you can get much better. I heard you lived while working hard in Maegok-ri.”
“I thought, since I was still alive, I’d try to live by moving my body. But now I’m going to let it go. I don’t have the confidence to endure any longer.”
“When physical pain gets worse, one’s willpower is bound to break too. But you mustn’t let go of hope. I heard you even ran a construction company in the past.”
At the words construction company, Park Seongu flinched as if pricked by a needle.
Soon after, Park Seongu smiled bitterly and said,
“There was a time like that. Back then, I was doing quite well. My wife and children lived without lacking anything. Sending my wife and children to America and covering their living expenses and tuition wasn’t hard at all. Living as a wild-goose father was… well, fine back then.”
Taeho quietly listened to his story.
Once the memories of the past came to mind, Park Seongu poured out his story as if a floodgate had opened.
“But as the business slowly fell apart, everything began to go wrong. Living expenses, tuition—my family kept asking for money, and I started getting angrier and angrier with them. I hurt them a lot with harsh words too. In the end, it was no different from pushing my family away with my own hands. It’s already been over ten years since I divorced my wife and lost contact with my children.”
Park Seongu’s voice trembled.
“What’s the point of living longer with a body this ruined?”
“Even so, you shouldn’t give up.”
Taeho answered, looking at him in a calm tone.
At those words, Park Seongu hunched his shoulders.
“And… I don’t have any money.”
Taeho knew how heavily the burden of money was pressing down on Park Seongu. Itai-itai disease was nearly impossible to cure completely, and the cost of long-term treatment could grow to astronomical levels.
If it had been the old Taeho, he would have taken a step back, saying he understood and that he would respect the patient’s own decision, but…
-You may acquire 100 coins upon the patient’s complete recovery.
It was a full 100 coins.
Not only that, but if Taeho wanted to properly carry out the things he intended to do from now on, treating Park Seongu would be absolutely advantageous.
“Don’t think about the treatment costs for now. I’ll find a way. If you don’t give up and cooperate, Mr. Park, you can definitely get better than you are now.”
“…Don’t waste your energy on something useless.”
Park Seongu turned over in bed and closed his eyes.
Taeho had spoken firmly, but he knew very well that it wouldn’t be easy. Park Seongu’s kidneys, bones, and joints had already reached their limit.
He needed a treatment method different from those used until now—one that was certain and faster.
Above all, to cure an illness, the patient’s will was important, and right now Park Seongu had no desire to live.
‘This is difficult…’
But how many times in his life had things been difficult?
It was a problem he could solve one step at a time.
***
As soon as Taeho left the hospital room, he went into the consultation room and called Rema.
“Rema, summarize the fastest and most effective treatment methods for itai-itai disease currently available.”
-Analyzing…
-1. Classical EDTA/DMSA chelation → increased kidney burden, monthly drug cost 3.2 million won.
-2. Nano-liposomal EDTA intravenous injection → excretion rate 1.4×, monthly drug cost 16 million won.
-3. Ferritin-derived peptide (Ft-Deriv) synthesis → cadmium binding efficiency of 92% in laboratory standards, high production cost.
Taeho examined the three treatment methods Rema had recommended in detail. There were quite a few papers on treatment cases.
“Classical chelation has problems with both time and cost, and nano-liposomes are no good because there’s a high concern they’ll remain in fatty tissue. Ft-Deriv is also too expensive to maintain until complete recovery. Search again. It has to be cheap and fast. Those two conditions are the key.”
Following Taeho’s demand, Rema searched again and produced the results.
For a while, Taeho searched and read through countless papers to find a drug that could realistically be used for treatment and show effects quickly.
Then he found a method.
“Wait. This experiment code TX-19 is the TNF-alpha inhibiting protein Gihwan made at the Hexagen Research Institute, isn’t it? The one used to treat severe hidradenitis.”
-Correct.
-Possibility of applying TNF-alpha inhibiting protein: 52%
“It seems like the treatment speed would be incredibly fast, so why is the applicability only 52%?”
-Because of stability.
Taeho tapped his desk with his fingers and pondered for a moment.
“I suppose I’ll have to hear it directly from the person involved.”
When Gihwan came in, Taeho asked whether it was possible to treat itai-itai disease using the TNF-alpha inhibiting protein.
After thinking for a moment, Gihwan nodded.
“In theory, the TNF-alpha inhibiting protein should be sufficiently effective in the heavy metal detoxification process.”
It was welcome news.
“Are you certain?”
“But the process of separating the low-dose protein fragments still remains. If we can isolate only the low-dose protein fragments, there’s almost no toxicity.”
“Then the stability issue would be resolved.”
“If it succeeds, it’ll be incredible. The synthesis method is simple too, so with one fermenter, we can produce several hundred milligrams a week.”
If that happened, the production cost could also be dramatically lowered. It would produce the fast yet inexpensive treatment Taeho wanted.
“That’s good. How long will it take?”
“Well…”
Gihwan trailed off for a moment before speaking.
“There are major limitations with our current experimental environment. We need a laboratory on the level of the R&D center you mentioned last time.”
“So a temporary lab isn’t enough.”
Gihwan nodded heavily and added,
“To be honest, properly equipping it will require quite a bit of funding.”
“Don’t worry about money. I suppose we’ll have to hurry and start the remodeling work on the closed school.”
Taeho smiled brightly and patted Gihwan on the shoulder.
The stock he had invested in last time, the Gaia Healthcare inverse, had been cashed out at exactly double.
He had invested 1.3 billion won and turned it into 2.6 billion.
When he got an estimate for remodeling the closed school, it seemed that setting up the basic facilities first could be handled within 500 million won. After that, they could expand the scale depending on the situation.
Meanwhile, seeing Taeho show not the slightest concern about money, Gihwan was once again deeply impressed.
‘This man truly has no selfish desires. How fortunate I am to be able to serve someone like him up close.’
Feeling a prickling emotion at the tip of his nose, Gihwan bit his lip.
“Mr. Gihwan, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
“No, Director. I… I respect you. Khup.”
“Out of nowhere?”
Taeho laughed as if dumbfounded, then soon fell into thought.
Now that he had solved one problem, he had to solve another.