Within a few minutes, Bak Suhyeok reached the patient’s side. His whole body was covered in dirt from the climb down, and blood was running from scratches on his arms and neck where branches had scraped him, but he focused entirely on examining the patient’s condition.
Taeho sensed that the look in Bak Suhyeok’s eyes had changed.
Something was changing.
Perhaps there was hope that he could return to the way he had once been.
Taeho decided to give Bak Suhyeok a chance.
“Professor, I’ve been keeping pressure on the bleeding site.”
“Good job, Taeho.”
“I’ll push from this side, so please pull the patient’s leg, Professor.”
“Slowly… Let’s move him just a little more slowly.”
The two of them began to extract the patient from between the rocks as carefully as possible.
“Uuugh…”
The patient groaned and grimaced. Cold sweat had beaded across his forehead.
“Ah. It hurts. My leg… ugh!”
Each time his leg moved even slightly, the patient’s face turned pale. He panted for breath, gritting his teeth.
At last, the patient’s leg came safely free from the crevice. Fortunately, there was no additional damage.
“Hoo, hoo… Is it out? Is it really out?”
The patient asked weakly, closing his eyes.
“Taeho, now we need to elevate his leg above his heart. We have to stop the shock symptoms from worsening. Sir, if you can hear me, answer me. Where does it hurt the most?”
“My right… my right thigh hurts so much. It feels like the bone’s been shattered.”
The patient’s voice was growing weaker.
“It’s hard to breathe. I’m dizzy… I think I’m going to throw up.”
“That’s a normal reaction. You’re showing signs of shock right now. You need to hang in there a little longer.”
When Bak Suhyeok explained calmly, the patient barely managed to nod.
“Doctors… Are you really doctors? I’m not going to die, am I?”
Desperation filled the patient’s eyes.
“That absolutely won’t happen. We’ll stay with you until the end.”
Bak Suhyeok gently held the patient’s hand and reassured him.
“Thank you. Truly… thank you so much.”
The patient spoke with tears in his eyes.
Taeho felt as though he was seeing the old Bak Suhyeok again.
The most humane doctor at Seyoung Hospital.
A professor with outstanding skills, but even more famous for being warm to his patients.
The Bak Suhyeok that Taeho had admired most.
“Taeho, keep checking his pulse. Let’s not let our guard down until he stabilizes.”
“Yes, Professor.”
The patient’s condition was gradually stabilizing. His pulse was slowly returning to the normal range, and his consciousness was becoming clearer.
The patient looked back and forth between the two of them and said,
“Thank you so much. If it weren’t for you two…”
“It’s thanks to the doctor here, who worked so hard for you. He’s a physician of the highest caliber.”
Taeho smiled as he looked at Bak Suhyeok.
The patient blinked and bowed his head several times to Bak Suhyeok.
Bak Suhyeok suddenly looked down at his own hands, now covered in wounds.
‘With these hands… I can save people again.’
He had forgotten it for so long.
The overwhelming emotion of saving a patient.
The pride of having protected a life.
His chest grew hot.
Before he knew it, his eyes were damp.
From afar came the whistle of the mountain rescue team. Members in orange rescue uniforms were climbing the steep slope with professional equipment on their backs.
Bak Suhyeok took the patient’s wrist once more and checked his pulse. It was weak, but beating steadily.
“Hang in there just a little longer. You’ll be able to receive proper treatment at the hospital soon.”
“This is 119 Rescue! Where is the patient?”
As soon as the team arrived, they began taking out a spinal board, a stretcher, and emergency treatment equipment.
“What is the patient’s condition?”
The rescue captain asked as he approached Bak Suhyeok.
“Suspected right femur fracture, early traumatic shock. We prevented deterioration with pressure on the bleeding site and leg elevation, but urgent hospital transfer is necessary.”
“You handled the treatment perfectly. Are you medical personnel?”
“Professor at Seyoung Hospital…”
Bak Suhyeok answered reflexively, then hesitated.
“We’re both doctors. This is Dr. Bak Suhyeok.”
Taeho answered in place of Bak Suhyeok, who could not bring himself to speak.
“I thought so.”
The rescue workers skillfully secured the patient to the spinal board and established an IV line.
“Doctor, would you be able to go down with us? It would be helpful if you could monitor the patient’s condition during transport as well.”
“Understood. I’ll go with you.”
The moment Bak Suhyeok answered the rescue captain—
Clap, clap, clap, clap!
Applause suddenly rang out.
It was the hikers who had been watching from above the cliff.
“Wow! You were amazing!”
“Doctor, you were so cool!”
“He survived because of you two.”
“Wow, you really were doctors. I’m seeing something I’d only expect in a movie happen right in front of me.”
“When you first climbed down the cliff, I was so shocked. It must have been dangerous.”
Bak Suhyeok’s face slowly turned red. Flustered, he scratched the back of his neck with one hand and lowered his head slightly.
“Oh, I only did what was natural.”
“That wasn’t just natural! How easy is it to step forward for a patient in such a dangerous situation?”
“You’re a real doctor! The absolute best!”
An older woman shouted, raising both thumbs.
Though his face was flushed, Bak Suhyeok’s expression held a brightness Taeho had not seen in a long time.
Taeho smiled as he watched him.
‘That expression. It’s really been so long.’
“Now, we’ll begin moving.”
At the rescue captain’s signal, six rescuers lifted the stretcher. Bak Suhyeok walked alongside the patient, checking his pulse as he matched their pace.
“Doctor, thank you so much.”
The patient said in a weak voice.
“Don’t mention it. We’ll get you safely to the hospital.”
Bak Suhyeok answered with confidence. The man who had looked like he was going to die on the way up here was now completely gone. He was descending as an entirely different person from the one who had climbed up.
Even as they descended, the hikers continued to call out words of encouragement.
“Get down safely!”
“Hang in there, patient!”
“Thank you for your hard work, rescuers!”
“Now that’s a true doctor, a true doctor!”
Receiving their cheers, Bak Suhyeok carefully made his way down the mountain, one step at a time. For the first time in a long while, he felt the weight that had been pressing down on his chest grow lighter.
***
Late that afternoon, the two men were sitting in a dakbaeksuk restaurant at the foot of the mountain. Before the steaming hot whole chicken soup, Bak Suhyeok felt genuine hunger for the first time in a long while.
“It’s been so long since I sat down and had a meal with you like this, Professor.”
“It has. You worked hard today, Taeho.”
Bak Suhyeok tore off a large chicken leg and placed it in front of Taeho, then took one for himself. There was vitality in his face for the first time in a long while.
For a while, the two focused on eating. The tender, thoroughly boiled chicken seemed to melt away in their mouths. The glutinous rice porridge, saturated with chicken broth, disappeared bowl by bowl in an instant with crisp fresh kimchi on top.
Once his hunger had subsided somewhat, Taeho carefully opened his mouth.
“Professor, you were truly amazing today. I felt as if I were seeing the professor I used to admire again.”
Bak Suhyeok silently swallowed a mouthful of hot broth. Complex emotions passed across his face.
“Taeho, the truth is, I was originally a laid-back person. Ever since I was young, I liked doing everything slowly, at an easy pace. But once I became a doctor, I couldn’t do that. From the moment I entered medical school until I became a professor, I lived as if I were always being chased. Forcing myself in ways that didn’t suit my personality, I kept running and running so I wouldn’t fall behind.”
Bak Suhyeok let out a deep sigh and continued.
“No matter how much I ran, it felt like an endless tunnel. Then burnout came, and on top of that, my wife left me.”
Taeho listened silently and nodded.
“The night of the divorce, I drank a lot. It felt like the life I’d believed was perfect had collapsed overnight. For the first time, I felt like a loser. And then I really did become one…”
Bak Suhyeok laughed self-deprecatingly.
The next morning, on his way to the hospital, he crashed into a utility pole. It was because he had barely managed to avoid hitting a stroller and the child’s mother at the same time. At the police station, they tested his blood alcohol level. He had thought the alcohol had worn off, but it was high enough for a license suspension.
More than anything, the fact that he had nearly killed two people was the greatest shock to Bak Suhyeok.
He submitted his resignation to the hospital, and from then on, began shutting himself away at home.
“It was easier to just give up. I didn’t have to try anymore, didn’t have to be responsible for anything, didn’t have to fail.”
Bak Suhyeok slowly raised his head and looked at Taeho.
Taeho remembered that time as well. When Taeho had been framed as the person responsible for the medical accident, if Bak Suhyeok had stayed in his position, Taeho might not have had to shoulder the blame to such an extent. Back then, Taeho had regretted Bak Suhyeok’s absence.
“But today… Strangely enough, my heart was pounding. That feeling I’d forgotten for far too long—the feeling of truly being alive. That I can still save people with these hands…”
He looked down at his two hands, his voice trembling. Because of the emotion welling up from deep in his chest, he could not continue speaking.
Taeho put down his chopsticks and carefully opened his mouth.
“Professor.”
“Mm?”
“How would you feel about starting over with me at Geumsan Clinic?”
Bak Suhyeok looked at Taeho in surprise at the unexpected proposal.
“Geumsan Clinic is a small rural clinic, but it’s a warm place. There are no political issues or complicated conflicts like at a university hospital. It’s a place where you can truly practice medicine purely for the sake of your patients.”
Taeho continued sincerely.
“That heart you originally had, Professor—the heart that genuinely cared for patients. At Geumsan Clinic, you’ll be able to make full use of it. Just like you treated that patient today.”
For a while, Bak Suhyeok said nothing and only stirred the broth slowly. Many emotions tangled together in his heart. His eyes reddened again.
After a long time spent agonizing, he finally opened his mouth with difficulty.
“Taeho.”
“Yes, Professor.”
“I don’t know if I can really start over.”
“Your ability and experience have never disappeared, Professor. If anything, I believe what you’ve gone through now will become an even greater strength. Geumsan Clinic and I truly need you.”
Bak Suhyeok drew in a deep breath. Then, slowly but firmly, he nodded.
“All right. Let’s do it.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Let’s try living as a doctor once more.”
A passion he had forgotten for so long began to revive in Bak Suhyeok’s eyes.
Taeho smiled brightly and said,
“Professor, thank you so much. I don’t know how happy the patients at Geumsan Clinic will be.”
Bak Suhyeok looked at Taeho with a warm smile.
“But Taeho.”
“Yes, Professor.”
“This dakbaeksuk we had today. It’s really delicious. I can’t remember the last time I ate something this good.”
Bak Suhyeok spoke with a heartfelt laugh.
“I was surprised too. This place is a hidden gem.”
The two of them laughed brightly for the first time in a long while, savoring the moment.
When they finished their meal and stepped outside, the night had already grown pitch-black.
“Professor. Starting tomorrow, it’s truly a new beginning.”
Taeho said, looking up at the night sky.
Bak Suhyeok also lifted his head and gazed at the sky. It was a night sky he had not looked at in a very long time.
“Professor, to me, you were always like that moon.”
“Hm? You couldn’t say things like that before, but you’ve improved a lot, Gang Taeho.”
Bak Suhyeok laughed heartily, in high spirits.
“Then I’ll see you soon at Geumsan Clinic.”
When Taeho bowed his head in farewell, Bak Suhyeok lightly patted his shoulder.
“Thank you.”
That night, Taeho’s heart raced the entire way back to Geumsan-ri.
He had thought it would be difficult, but things had unexpectedly gone well, and he had managed to recruit Professor Bak Suhyeok.
Now he only needed to focus on Samcheok Medical Center.