In the meantime, Taesu’s strange feeling was gradually turning into certainty.
And now he could make out the driver’s face, tiny as it was.
It was him, all right.
“Raku.”
The gaudy truck, decorated in his own unique style, was the answer.
But his expression was not good.
There were two more men riding beside him, and their faces were stiff as well.
Something was wrong.
The moment he sensed it, Taesu threw both hands high into the air.
It was to make himself known.
“Here.”
If it was Raku, he would surely understand that sign.
The thought had barely crossed his mind.
Vroooom.
Far from slowing down, the flamboyant truck accelerated instead.
At that threatening sight, the other medical staff’s expressions hardened in an instant.
“That truck—what the hell is that bastard doing?”
“Get people out of the way.”
“What kind of psycho is that?”
“Hurry, stop— Too late, move!”
Crash, clatter.
In the blink of an eye, the medical tents were thrown into chaos.
But Taesu did not budge, both hands still raised high.
The gaudy truck showed no sign of stopping either.
It was a short distance of less than twenty meters.
In the blink of an eye, the truck could have run Taesu down. No—judging by the speed at which it was coming, it would have done more than enough.
And then it happened.
Screeeech.
The gaudy truck braked and swerved sharply at the same time.
The turn was so violent that one wheel lifted off the ground before dropping back down.
Thunk.
As if he didn’t care about the impact, Raku stuck his head out the window and shouted at Taesu.
“Dr. Choi, the person beside me is badly hurt!”
“Then you should have turned the other way.”
“I said it was urgent!”
Raku flinched, as if realizing his mistake, but soon shouted even louder.
As Taesu had seen in Makut Village, Raku had the nerves to not so much as blink at most wounds.
If someone like him was this shaken?
Taesu’s eyes narrowed.
“I’ll check the patient first.”
Tap tap tap.
No sooner had Taesu spoken than his body was already moving around the front of the truck.
But there were two people who had moved a step ahead of him.
Whoosh, whoosh.
He knew them even from behind.
They were Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon.
They must have sensed the emergency from the atmosphere.
With no time to be impressed, Taesu followed closely behind them.
Just as the wide-open passenger door came into Taesu’s view, Jeong Minsu’s agitated voice rang out from beyond it.
“This kid… It’s a kid.”
“What the hell is this now?”
Kim Hyeokgwon’s irritated voice immediately followed.
It seemed the situation was indeed grave.
But right after that, someone’s startled voice could be heard.
“Are you Koreans?”
“You’re Korean too? What is this, Korean residents’ association day or something?”
Kim Hyeokgwon’s irritation turned instantly into bewilderment.
Taesu felt the same, but there was no time to dwell on that.
Whoosh.
He quickly approached the inside of the open passenger seat.
In the truck’s passenger seat, which rose up to waist height, two men were sitting, and Jeong Minsu had climbed in, squeezed awkwardly between the dashboard and the seats.
In front of them, Kim Hyeokgwon was hastily opening the medical bag, and Taesu moved close beside him.
Only then did Taesu see the patient.
He was collapsed across the legs of the men, who looked middle-aged.
By Korean standards, would he be about middle school age?
He was a boy who had only just left childhood behind.
For an instant, Taesu’s gaze turned to Jeong Minsu.
“Minsu.”
“Shh. Auscultating.”
Whoosh.
Jeong Minsu waved his hand broadly and focused on listening with the stethoscope.
His response was swift.
But Taesu was not relaxed enough to wait blankly until he gave the results.
“Hyeokgwon, the automatic blood pressure monitor.”
“I found it, but where am I supposed to climb up and strap this on?”
“Give it here.”
Snatch.
No sooner had Taesu spoken than he plucked the automatic blood pressure monitor from his hand.
Then he immediately held it out to the middle-aged man trapped in the passenger seat and explained how to use it.
“I’m Choi Taesu. Introductions later. For now, put this on the child’s wrist like a watch and press the middle button. Hurry.”
“R-right.”
“This child… What’s his name?”
Taesu pressed the question so abruptly it seemed to come out of nowhere.
In truth, until now he had always had to go through an interpreter, which took time and softened his words.
Taesu’s attitude toward emergency patients was always the same.
Faced with his intense gaze, the middle-aged man flinched and answered.
“Changgyu. Lee Changgyu. The name he uses here is…”
“That can wait. Hurry.”
“Right. Mr. Kim, hurry.”
The middle-aged man who answered passed the automatic blood pressure monitor to the side and urged him on.
The automatic blood pressure monitor was extremely simple to use.
Just as Taesu had explained, all one had to do was put it on like a watch and press the button once.
It only required a short wait.
Even that time felt precious to Taesu, so he glanced at Jeong Minsu.
Buzz.
“…”
Jeong Minsu’s eyes as he auscultated were, in a word, murderous.
Asking now would only get in the way.
At that moment, Jeong Minsu’s face twisted and an irritable voice burst out.
“I think several ribs are fractured.”
“How many?”
“How would I know that?”
“…”
Taesu fell silent.
Arguing pointlessly with Jeong Minsu while he was sharpened to the extreme was not wise right now.
As if aware of his own state, Jeong Minsu changed the subject and called for Kim Hyeokgwon.
“Hyeokgwon, cardiotonic first. Raku, get down and bring a stretcher.”
“A cardiotonic? Got it.”
“A stretcher, right. We’ll need a stretcher.”
Whoosh.
At Jeong Minsu’s orders, Kim Hyeokgwon and Raku each moved into action.
He said nothing separately to Taesu.
Taesu was inwardly impressed by Jeong Minsu’s current bearing.
He was still somewhat sharp, but the way he proceeded one step at a time without making a fuss was striking.
“You little…”
At this point, he could certainly be described as quite capable.
That did not mean Taesu intended to leave everything entirely to Jeong Minsu.
Taesu quickly found someone to question as well.
It was the middle-aged man he had just asked for help.
“Excuse me, but you don’t seem to be… travelers.”
Taesu carefully guessed from their clothing.
Their clothes were that similar to those of the locals, and they bore the stains of daily life.
As if his guess was correct, the middle-aged man looked at Taesu and answered heavily.
“That’s right. We settled here…”
“I’m truly sorry, but please hold on.”
“Yes?”
“Changgyu’s condition isn’t good, so I’d like to put the details off until later.”
When Taesu made the priorities clear, the middle-aged man accepted it too.
“R-right. In any case, you said you’re Dr. Choi.”
“Yes. I’m Choi Taesu.”
“I’m Kang Yeonghun, and this is Kim Gwanghyeon.”
They exchanged only introductions for now.
It was the bare minimum exchange of information needed to continue the conversation smoothly.
Taesu was watching the middle-aged man who had introduced himself as Kang Yeonghun.
It was unexpected that he looked not mixed-race, but purely East Asian.
But that was all.
There was a more important and urgent problem to solve.
Taesu quickly asked for the history of the injury.
“What happened to Changgyu?”
“We were gathering wood in the mountains when we heard a thud and ran over…”
When his trailing words remained unclear, Taesu urged him on.
“Was he pinned under a tree?”
“No. No, he wasn’t. He was lying at the bottom of a slope. He wasn’t pinned or anything like that.”
The moment Kang Yeonghun answered—
Beep.
At the sound from the machine, Kim Gwanghyeon, who looked somewhat simple-minded, looked back and forth between Taesu and Jeong Minsu, at a loss.
“Um, well…”
“What are the numbers?”
When Taesu quickly asked, Kim Gwanghyeon fussily lowered his gaze and read off the numbers on the automatic blood pressure monitor. But it was his first time seeing one.
“Uh. I don’t know how I’m supposed to read this.”
“Just read the numbers from the top down.”
“94…”
Those numbers were in the order of systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, and pulse.
Taesu knew that perfectly well, so he was able to enter them into his mind immediately. But as he focused on listening to the numbers, Taesu’s expression grew more and more crumpled.
In short, it was extremely serious.
“Minsu.”
“I heard too. But there’s no external bleeding.”
“Then it’s internal bleeding… Is it the effect of the rib fractures after all?”
“There’s a high possibility.”
“In any case, what did it sound like inside?”
It was a question about what he had heard.
Jeong Minsu knew that as well, so the answer came at once.
“There was so much noise I could barely find the heart sounds. I know it’s internal bleeding too, but I wasn’t sure where, so I was looking.”
“Find it later. Hyeokgwon, first—”
Just as Taesu was about to speak—
Suddenly.
Kim Hyeokgwon, quick on the uptake, held out the syringe he had prepared in advance to Jeong Minsu.
“Hemostatics and antibiotics first. Those are definitely necessary, right?”
“As expected.”
“Don’t say weird things. What else do you need?”
“Vitamin K, electrolytes, and magnesium.”
“Wait.”
Kim Hyeokgwon’s voice was sharp.
His urging gaze was full of force. Perhaps because his start in medicine had been with emergency patients, he was definitely strong in moments like this.
The same was true of Taesu and Jeong Minsu.
Jeong Minsu quickly administered the injectables handed to him in order.
Push.
At the same time, he shouted out to Taesu the injuries he had identified.
“Right arm, right leg fractured.”
“Then it sounds like he landed on his right side.”
“What’s the point of figuring that out right now? Bring the splint and stretcher first.”
When Jeong Minsu shouted, Taesu barked even louder.
“You think I don’t know that? They’re coming over there.”
“Do I look like I have time to see that?”
“Then just focus on what you’re doing.”
Grrr.
They were practically at each other’s throats.
Normally, they were all jokes.
But during an emergency, it would not be an exaggeration to say they seemed less like friends and more like enemies.
Unaccustomed to such a sight, Kang Yeonghun and Kim Gwanghyeon could only watch from between them.
“…”
“…”
They remained silent, while Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon continued preparing medication.
But Taesu’s brow was furrowed.
His eyes had the air of someone drawing something.
He was reconstructing the accident scene he had heard about from different sources inside his head.
“Here… Then this way… Tch.”
Retracing that moment was not a pleasant thing.
But it was the most effective way to guess what problems might have occurred inside that fragile body.
Just as Taesu was using even his imagination to infer the hidden symptoms—
Shuffle, shuffle.
The sound of several footsteps approached from behind.
Among them, someone announced their arrival in an urgent voice.
“Dr. Choi, we brought the splints and stretcher.”
It was Yun Juseong’s voice.
Whoosh.
When Taesu turned his head, he saw Yun Juseong, Chu Gangik, Hwang Jisu, Lee Chorong, and Raku, who had brought them, standing there together.
All of their eyes were firm and resolute.
Most of all, Yun Juseong was waiting without putting himself forward.
When their eyes met, Yun Juseong spoke briefly.
“You were the one who saw him first. For now, think only about the patient.”
At some point, his polite speech had dropped into casual language.
But because of the situation, it felt natural instead.
Even in his tone, there was a firm standard of what came first.