At that moment, Jeong Minsu flinched and asked.
“What, what happens then?”
“Hmm.”
“Why aren’t you answering?”
Jeong Minsu pressed for an answer.
His voice sounded quite anxious.
Taesu pointed that out directly.
“Answering is easy. But that’s the answer I found.”
“Th-then what about me?”
“You? You have to find it yourself.”
“…….”
Jeong Minsu silently stared at the sky.
Watching him, Taesu’s expression stiffened before he knew it. It was because he felt this answer would lead nowhere.
So Taesu sprang to his feet and spoke.
“Get up.”
“Huh?”
“I said get up.”
Swish.
He even grabbed him by the clothes and pulled him up.
At Taesu’s sudden action, Jeong Minsu stood with a bewildered face.
“Why?”
“Follow me.”
Swish.
Taesu led Jeong Minsu and immediately started walking.
The place they arrived at was the surgical tent.
Jeong Minsu, who had entered in a daze, blinked with trembling eyes.
“Wh-what is this place….”
“Wait. I’ll be right back.”
Without even listening to the answer, Taesu went right outside.
Jeong Minsu called out in a flustered voice.
“Hey, hey.”
“…….”
Taesu must have already moved far away, as no answer came.
Fortunately, that wait was brief.
Rustle.
The partition opened and Taesu came back in.
At the same time, seeing Jeong Minsu’s tearful face, Taesu made a blank expression.
“What are you?”
“Hey, how can you just leave like that?”
Now seeming relieved, Jeong Minsu shouted sharply.
With those words, Taesu guessed what had happened in the brief moment he was gone.
“At this point, it’s ‘microcardia,’ isn’t it?”
“Huh?”
“I mean a timid heart. Is your heart size even normal?”
When Taesu asked incredulously, Jeong Minsu glared at him.
“Stop talking nonsense, what is that?”
“A miracle cure for microcardia.”
“That, liquor?”
Jeong Minsu’s eyes went wide before he knew it.
What Taesu showed him was truly alcohol.
And not just any alcohol, but whiskey in a neat glass bottle.
Thunk.
Taesu held it out to Jeong Minsu and spoke.
“To be exact, it’s whiskey.”
“Where did this… no, why this?”
“I told you it’s medicine. A miracle cure that surgeons drink on the day a patient passes away.”
Before he knew it, Taesu’s voice had turned serious.
He wasn’t just saying this.
It was a method taught directly by Dr. James, and he had even received a box of gifts. This whiskey was one of those gifts.
Gulp.
Jeong Minsu accepted it for now but couldn’t easily believe it.
“Is this really medicine?”
“You’ll know if you drink it.”
“R-really?”
“Then have a good time with your medicine.”
Taesu coolly turned around.
Then the flustered Jeong Minsu immediately asked.
“Aren’t you drinking with me?”
“You have to drink alone for it to work better. See you.”
Swish, swish.
Taesu waved his hand over his head and went outside.
A short while later.
Taesu was sitting across from Gim Hyeokgwon at a table in the quarters tent.
Coffee sat in front of the two of them.
Gim Hyeokgwon, lifting a crude stainless steel cup, made a bitter smile.
“Coffee.”
“It’s iced coffee.”
“It’s coffee mixed with plain water. Iced coffee has ice in it.”
“If it’s not hot, it’s cold.”
At Taesu’s unique interpretation, Gim Hyeokgwon could only smile with a dumbfounded face.
Truthfully, getting ice here would have been too much to ask.
“You’re not wrong.”
It was then.
A crude sobbing sound was heard from the neighboring tent.
- Hoo-woong.
It was naturally Jeong Minsu’s voice.
Gim Hyeokgwon’s gaze turned that way.
He had expected him to bitterly complain about his weakness, but contrary to expectations, he felt sorry for him.
“His heart must be tearing apart.”
“I thought you’d have something to say.”
“I’m not that cold-blooded.”
“Ah, yes.”
Taesu answered indifferently.
At that moment, Gim Hyeokgwon’s eyes narrowed.
“Why do I sense dissatisfaction in your answer?”
“You punk. Cry quietly. We’re stuck drinking coffee without any liquor.”
Taesu spoke off-topic.
Originally, Taesu and Gim Hyeokgwon would have been drinking too.
They had even thought about having a drink.
But they couldn’t put it into practice in order to prepare for any possible emergency.
Then Gim Hyeokgwon, whose words had been cut off, openly aired his grievances.
“He’s taking it a little better. The one here was putting on quite the flashy drunken spectacle.”
“Huh? No, Hyeokgwon-ssi, back then….”
“Right. You were the only doctor there, yet you got so drunk that I was the only one anxious.”
“C-cough.”
Taesu let out a forced cough.
Not that Gim Hyeokgwon was the type to watch Taesu’s cues.
“I understand why you did it back then, but did you really have to completely lose control like that?”
“Can we stop talking about that now?”
“Stop what? I have so much to say….”
As Gim Hyeokgwon tried to keep talking, Taesu thrust out his cup like lightning.
“Here, cheers.”
“With coffee?”
“I’ll drink double later. My treat.”
Flash.
Taesu promised with resolute eyes.
Free booze?
Gim Hyeokgwon’s cynicism melted like snow, and he gently raised his cup.
“Cheers.”
“Ugh.”
“Do you have a complaint?”
“No. Let’s drink.”
Clink.
The two people who clinked their stainless steel cups drank their coffee as it was.
However, Taesu’s gaze was already directed toward the neighboring tent.
- Hoo-woong.
Faint sobbing sounds continued to be heard.
Taesu sent a heavy gaze and muttered inwardly.
*Yes. Vomit it all out like that.*
That was for the best.
It was a moment he too had experienced before.
A patient’s death.
It was a moment that would come to all doctors in the world, not just the two of them.
Then suddenly, Gim Hyeokgwon lifted his stainless steel cup and held it out toward the neighboring tent.
Then, as if clinking against Jeong Minsu’s liquor bottle, he spoke softly.
“Dr. Jeong, welcome to the field.”
At that moment, a sentence rang in Taesu’s head with a ding.
“Welcome to the field?”
“What is that nonsense?”
When Gim Hyeokgwon looked at him incredulously, Taesu shrugged his shoulders.
“It just popped into my head.”
“Keep the Konglish to a minimum. Though strangely, it rolls off the tongue.”
“Right? I feel like I’ll be using it a lot going forward.”
Clink.
The two people who had been bickering clinked their stainless steel cups once more.
And so, the first frenzied night at Sahad passed.
The next morning.
It was the first morning greeted at Sahad.
*Snore.*
Taesu was lying on the field cot, snoring away. Perhaps because he had overexerted himself yesterday, he couldn’t easily wake up even though the sun had risen.
How much time had passed like that?
*Sweep, sweep.*
An unidentifiable sound was heard outside the tent.
While that sound continued.
Flash.
Taesu, suddenly opening his eyes, sprang up.
His face was puffy from fatigue, and he couldn’t even open his eyes properly. Nevertheless, Taesu looked around with a blank face and mumbled.
“What is it?”
“Isn’t that the sound of sweeping?”
From beside him came Gim Hyeokgwon’s bewildered voice; he had been sleeping just as soundly as Taesu.
Swish.
When he turned his head, sure enough, Gim Hyeokgwon, his face equally puffy, was scratching his neck.
But the field cot between the two of them was empty.
Blinking his eyes, Taesu discovered it and paused.
“What about Minsu?”
“I fell asleep first though.”
“Excuse me.”
Swish.
Taesu threw off his blanket and quickly went outside.
Rustle.
The partition lifted, and Taesu came outside.
The first thing that caught his eye was Jeong Minsu holding a crude broom.
*Sweep, sweep.*
Jeong Minsu, who had been sweeping a few more times, discovered Taesu and stopped. Then with a haggard face, he waved his hand awkwardly.
“Morning?”
“…….”
As Taesu stared intently, Jeong Minsu watched his cue and cautiously added a question.
“D-did you sleep well?”
“Do you think someone’s personality changes overnight?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. But what are you doing since morning?”
At Taesu’s question, Jeong Minsu held up the broom he was holding.
“It seemed a bit dirty. It was dark yesterday, so I couldn’t clean properly after treatment ended.”
“Is this drunk cleaning? Don’t you get fined for that?”
“I’m sober.”
Jeong Minsu answered reflexively.
Taesu stared at such a Jeong Minsu.
*Already?*
If he had drunk an entire bottle of whiskey, it would be impossible to wake up at this hour.
Yet he didn’t seem to be lying.
That wasn’t the big issue.
The most important thing was whether there had been any change of heart.
When a person made a resolution, there was bound to be a clear change.
Then, as if having discovered something, Taesu slightly raised his eyebrows.
“Hmph. Is that so?”
“What. Why are you like that all of a sudden?”
“It’s nothing. It’s not like cleaning is the only morning exercise around.”
As Taesu glossed over it, Jeong Minsu nodded awkwardly.
“W-well, I guess.”
“Finish up moderately and come in. We have a lot to do today.”
Swish.
Taesu turned around and went back into the quarters tent.
As soon as he stepped inside, Gim Hyeokgwon approached with a frown.
“I gave him alcohol yesterday, but isn’t this a problem if he’s like this?”
“Did you see?”
“I lifted it slightly.”
He pointed at the partition.
Smiling lightly, Taesu passed by Gim Hyeokgwon and spoke.
“He’s cleaning hard outside, so let’s quickly get our meal ready too.”
“Dr. Choe. We don’t need a cleaning crew here right now.”
“There’s no need to worry.”
“Why? Because he woke up and is cleaning while preparing for treatment?”
Gim Hyeokgwon asked sharply.
However, Taesu lightly shook his head.
“No. Did you see the bandage on the back of that guy’s hand?”
“It looks like he got hurt.”
“No. It’s an IV mark.”
Taesu answered calmly. At the same time, Gim Hyeokgwon, who had been grumbling, paused.
“An IV? An intravenous injection? By himself? Why?”
“If you administer glucose, your blood alcohol concentration drops.”
“Again, again with the difficult words. No, I mean, then the alcohol wears off?”
Gim Hyeokgwon asked, piecing things together here and there.
That prediction was correct.
“As expected of someone who’s eaten… seasoned rice, no, antiseptic rice. You hit the nail on the head.”
“There’s a bite to your words, though.”
“Not at all. I’ll go prepare the meal then.”
Though Taesu’s words were grandiose, he headed toward where the MRE boxes were stacked.
Gim Hyeokgwon, praised, smiled subtly then flinched.
“Wait, you’re saying he stuck an intravenous injection in his own hand because he was drunk? Isn’t that a violation of medical law, or at that point, isn’t it practically self-harm?”
“It’s his own body; who’s going to say anything?”
“That’s one thing… no, that’s not it. Ugh, Dr. Jeong has quite the ruthless side too.”
Gim Hyeokgwon slightly shuddered.
But Taesu?
*If he doesn’t even have that much grit, we’re in trouble.*
Muttering inwardly, he smiled subtly.