Of course, Taesu was of the same opinion as well.
"The patient comes first, of course."
"I'm all ready. Oh my, Dr. Yun and Nurse Hwang, and Dr. Jeong Minsu and Nurse Lee have already started?"
"Let's hurry up and start too. I don't particularly like falling behind in treatment."
"I agree with that too. Hey, interpreter. Call the patient over here."
Nurse Chu Gangik was a man overflowing with energy; his voice was loud and spirited.
At that moment, Taesu and Jeong Minsu exchanged brief glances.
Without a word passing between them, they smiled lightly at each other.
A medical tent consisting only of Koreans.
It was the first time for that here.
But the start was a good one.
He harbored a small hope that good things would happen from now on.
Taesu's feeling was right.
The medical tent composed of Koreans was working together much better than expected.
The biggest reason was that Taesu, Jeong Minsu, and the newly arrived medical staff did not assert their vested privileges over one another.
As Yun Juseong had said himself, he was far from authoritarian.
Chu Gangik seemed to have grasped Taesu's style, and the speed and rhythm of his assistance had improved considerably.
Jeong Minsu and the other nurses also seemed to be getting past their period of mutual adjustment.
And so, peaceful treatment hours passed by.
It was when there was little time left before lunch.
Kim Hyeokgwon entered the medical tent.
"Oh ho, so there are new people here. You must be Koreans."
He showed interest, but that was all.
His wariness toward others knew no time or place.
Seen in that regard, it didn't feel as though he had come out of pure curiosity.
He seemed to have come to see with his own eyes how Taesu and Jeong Minsu were being treated.
Having gone through an incident like the one with Kuramoto, it seemed his wariness had only increased.
But there was definitely nothing for him to worry about.
Taesu appreciated the concern, but he wasn't someone who would let a prickly gaze linger forever.
So Taesu subtly urged Kim Hyeokgwon.
"Since you're here, help out a bit."
"Why?"
"Nurse Chu needs a break too."
"It's almost lunchtime."
Kim Hyeokgwon still tried to brush him off.
But Taesu had no intention of letting such a good opportunity slip by.
Nurse Chu Gangik might have had many years of experience, but to Taesu, Kim Hyeokgwon was still the best.
"I'm just asking you to interpret a few words, so don't be like that."
"Hmm. I don't know."
"It's not many people."
It was the moment Taesu gently urged him.
Kim Hyeokgwon's gaze was directed not at Taesu, but at the newly arrived Korean medical staff.
"What if they're the picky ones, not me?"
"Picky?"
"They might nitpick and start a quarrel. I hate being nagged too, but Dr. Choe isn't exactly easygoing either."
He had spoken indirectly, but Taesu clearly caught on to what Kim Hyeokgwon was worried about.
He leisurely revealed his own thoughts on the matter.
"They didn't seem like the type."
"I told you not to trust people easily, and here you go again."
"At the very least, they won't make an issue out of something absurd."
Taesu's voice contained more conviction.
Kim Hyeokgwon looked at Taesu disapprovingly.
Even so, he didn't drag it out any longer.
If he delayed, he might have to bear the brunt of Taesu's wrath.
That was a moment Kim Hyeokgwon wished to avoid as well.
Instead, he attached a condition.
"I'll only interpret."
"Of course."
As Taesu answered nonchalantly, Kim Hyeokgwon narrowed his eyes.
"Why does your easy agreement feel so suspicious?"
"That's up to you."
"Just stay ready for the treatment. I'll go to the waiting room."
Kim Hyeokgwon naturally left the medical tent and headed toward the waiting area.
In that brief gap, Nurse Chu Gangik approached and asked.
"He seems like quite a prickly person."
"He only looks that way; if you get to know him, he's a meticulous man."
"You'll see if you watch."
Perhaps because he had overheard all of Kim Hyeokgwon's words, Nurse Chu Gangik didn't look very pleased.
Taesu didn't mind much.
You only know a person after going through things with them.
Even if you tried hard to package the first impression nicely, it would only be a waste of breath.
Soon, Kim Hyeokgwon brought a patient.
It was a female patient in her mid-forties, holding her stomach.
"She says her stomach hurts on and off. Nothing particularly wrong with her eating, but right now……."
He rattled on.
He seemed to have spoken with her for a brief moment, for he began by explaining her symptoms.
His nursing experience didn't seem to have dulled, greatly reducing what Taesu needed to ask.
Taesu listened to him and first greeted the patient.
"Thank you for waiting. I'm Choe Taesu. Please sit over here. Your stomach……."
Taesu's manner of speaking had changed a bit as well.
It was a tone as if he were speaking directly to the patient.
Usually, he would proceed by speaking in English, asking the interpreter to convey it, and then adding to it.
Compared to that, the conversation was much more natural and quicker.
Moreover, since he wasn't an ordinary interpreter, even if Taesu spoke in medical terminology, he interpreted it on his own.
Kim Hyeokgwon had another advantage.
It was that he knew Taesu's treatment style all too well.
Words weren't even needed.
No, Taesu stretched his hand to the side while talking with the patient.
"Yes, with symptoms like that, reflux esophagitis is the most suspected. Then, the esophagus first."
Swoosh.
It was empty air. Yet, a speculum—a flat, wide medical instrument—approached as if by magic.
Taesu smiled thinly at that cold sensation.
He had said he would only interpret.
Yet his body was already in front of the medical cart.
"Here."
Clack.
"Then, patient, please say 'ah' and open your mouth for a moment…."
Taesu naturally accepted it and relayed the request to the patient.
Kim Hyeokgwon verbally interpreted those words and prepared the next treatment tool from the medical cart.
Meanwhile, a thought flashed through Taesu's mind as he examined the patient's esophagus.
*'This is why it has to be Hyeokgwon.'*
The treatment's progress speed was already different.
It was just that Taesu wasn't pressing him because he was refusing firmly.
Even now, Taesu still intended to pull Kim Hyeokgwon over here whenever there was a gap.
Only his inner thoughts were like that; outwardly, he continued the treatment calmly.
Kim Hyeokgwon assisted with an inscrutable expression.
"So……."
"Here."
"Yes. There are symptoms of reflux esophagitis as well, but more than that, the patient seems closer to having a gastric ulcer. Just a bit more carefully…."
Clack, clack.
Taesu continued the basic examination while talking with the patient, and Kim Hyeokgwon interpreted and handed him what was needed each time.
Not a single exchange of glances.
There weren't even any orders about what was needed.
They were things happening spontaneously.
They were the most fragmentary evidence of just how in sync the two were.
Thinking of that as natural was a privilege afforded only to Taesu and Kim Hyeokgwon.
Nurse Chu Gangik, who had been pushed back a step before he knew it, wore a bewildered expression.
"Wow, those two are interesting."
Just then, Yun Juseong approached, stood in the same pose, and watched as he spoke.
"They don't seem to talk to each other much."
"But they're handing things to each other on their own."
"So that must be Kim Hyeokgwon."
It seemed Yun Juseong had already heard of him.
Perhaps it was the same for Nurse Chu Gangik, as he nodded lightly.
"More or less."
"It seems like we'll only get to greet him around lunchtime."
"Probably. But what on earth do you have to go through to become like that?"
"Right? We don't mesh together that tightly either."
Yun Juseong also looked fascinated.
To him, Nurse Chu Gangik added what he had felt up close.
"Dr. Choe, I mean. His breadth of treatable medical fields is so wide it makes you wonder if he's really a resident."
"Hmm. They say he did independent medical volunteer work; I guess that was true."
"From the start, we were told not to underestimate him."
"Honestly, I thought, 'How great could he be?' I'm glad I didn't underestimate him."
Yun Juseong continued watching Taesu with a calm gaze.
Passing by the two of them, Nurse Lee Chorong spoke in a low voice.
"Brad Kim said it, didn't he? That you'd see beyond what you imagine."
"Aren't you surprised, Nurse Lee?"
"I am. But isn't it a bit embarrassing to just stand here envying them?"
"Hmm. I can't deny that."
"Let's hear the history about those two a little later, and since it's not mealtime yet, don't be too leisurely."
Nurse Lee Chorong spoke softly but sensibly, then went on her way.
At those words, Yun Juseong and Nurse Chu Gangik also turned back to their respective tasks.
Curiosity could be satisfied anytime.
Before that, it was only natural to treat even one more of the patients who had been waiting all this time.
A short while later.
Taesu's final morning patient consultation was finally over.
As Taesu drank a glass of water to catch his breath, his gaze turned to the side.
Jeong Minsu was treating the last patient.
Before anyone knew it, Kim Hyeokgwon had approached and volunteered to assist.
"Let's finish quickly and go eat."
Taesu heard Kim Hyeokgwon repeating what he had said a short while ago.
It was clearly something he said because he was happy to be treating patients together after a long time.
To those who didn't know him well, it would be easily mistaken for his usual brusque tone.
But if one looked closely into his inner self, there were many affectionate sides to him.
Now, even from the other medical tent, they no longer reacted so sensitively to matters on this side.
The biggest reason was likely that rumors about Kim Hyeokgwon had spread widely through Nurse Casey and Nurse Ellen.
"Hmm."
Taesu let out a light breath.
It wouldn't be long before they returned to the NGO headquarters.
At that time, there was a high possibility they would be moving among themselves rather than doing medical volunteer work.
Only a few days remained until that time.
He steeled himself to be steadfast without unnecessary impatience.
He was waiting for Jeong Minsu's final treatment to end like that.
Honk.
A sharp horn sound was heard from somewhere.
Taesu's gaze unconsciously turned that way.
A vehicle was visible in the distance. But it wasn't an NGO transport vehicle; it was a truck with quite a flashy design.
Those flashy patterns were strangely familiar.
Taesu soon realized who the owner of the vehicle was. Then, wearing a light smile, Taesu muttered in a low voice.
"They said his range of activity was all over Kashmir."
The owner of that flashy truck was definitely Raku.
Rajikumar.
He was a merchant they had briefly met in Makut Village, and the taste of the precious Max Coffee he had provided was still vividly fresh on the tip of Taesu's tongue.
Since he hadn't expected to meet him here, the joy felt even greater.
Hearing that sound, Nurse Chu Gangik, who was organizing the medical cart nearby, asked.
"Is that a truck belonging to someone you know?"
"Yes. It's someone I'm glad to see, but I didn't know he'd come here."
"But he seems to be in quite a hurry. Usually, when entering a city, one tends to reduce speed."
Only after Nurse Chu Gangik pointed it out did Taesu notice.
"Hmm?"
It was definitely strange.
They had come deep into the city, yet the approaching speed was extremely fast.
Vroom.
Dust was billowing greatly behind the truck, commensurate with that speed.
Such aggressive driving didn't match Raku's usual personality.
Now, certainty began to form.
Without making a fuss, Taesu spoke quietly.
"Just in case, please prepare the dressing supplies a bit more generously."
"Even if it's a false alarm, we can use them in the afternoon anyway, so it doesn't matter."
"I hope it's a false alarm too. Then."
Having requested this, Taesu came out in front of the medical tent.
Vroom.
The distance to the flashy truck had halved before anyone knew it.
It was a distance where he should be slowing down, but there was no sign of that.
Vroom, vroom.
Rather, it accelerated even more.
Now it wasn't just Taesu watching; a sharp voice was heard from the tent next door, Dr. Talon.
"What's that truck?"
"It's too fast."
"Is the driver dozing? Or drunk?"
"Huh? Uh-oh. Is it charging this way?"
The medical staff also gradually began to stir.