Taesu stood guard before the ECG as if he had turned to stone.
Beep-beep-beep.
The ECG was still telling them that the emergency was not over.
“……”
“……”
The Korean medical team filling Medical Tent 3 was silent.
They were not simply watching in silence.
Their eyes were wide open, and like rubber bands stretched taut, they could not let down their guard.
Just then, Briner, the head of the volunteer group, approached from behind Taesu.
“Dr. Choi.”
“Ah, Director. How did it go?”
“Hoo. Well……”
When his expression did not look good, Taesu narrowed his brow.
“They say it’ll be difficult?”
“I’d rather they had refused outright.”
“What do you mean?”
Taesu’s instincts sharpened.
As if in answer to that feeling, Director Briner relayed a very unpleasant result.
“First, they say they can open an operating room, but they insist that they perform the surgery themselves.”
“If they have that much pride, I suppose that means they have the skill as well.”
“You know the circumstances here.”
At that one sentence, Taesu’s expression darkened.
“Hmm. Is there more?”
“They’re demanding an enormous fee. Even just the ambulance dispatch cost……”
He deliberately lowered his voice.
When Taesu heard the amount, his brow furrowed sharply.
An exorbitant cost, and questionable skill?
“Those sons of bitches.”
He immediately understood why the medical system here had not become active.
The money to be paid was not the problem.
He could pay any amount.
But if they could not guarantee Lee Changgyu’s survival, then the situation inevitably changed.
After hearing that, Taesu let go of any lingering attachment.
“I understand. Thank you.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of help.”
“You’ve already done more than enough. But if there’s anything else we need, I’ll shamelessly ask you again.”
“Anytime. I’ll be waiting over there.”
Director Briner spoke politely and quietly stepped away.
Taesu’s expression grew heavy.
“What do we do?”
Transport had become impossible.
And now, it had become difficult to set up a temporary operating room at the school as well.
Patients had poured into the other medical tents, leaving the medical staff with no hands to spare.
Should he have made the operating room first instead?
That was only a thought.
With the emergency treatment proceeding so urgently, he had not had the leisure to worry about that far.
As those worries continued—
A familiar doctor and nurse quickly emerged from the hospital. Behind those two, several volunteers hurried over with them.
When Taesu saw the two people approaching at the front, his eyes widened.
“Dr. Oliver, Nurse Casey.”
Step.
Dr. Oliver, who arrived in an instant, asked at once.
“That’s the patient?”
“Yes. But the surgery……”
“We wrapped up the first surgery for now.”
At those words, Taesu was startled.
“You divided the surgery?”
“Then should we just leave that patient like this?”
“……”
Taesu fell silent for a moment.
As if that was what he had wanted, Dr. Oliver added,
“We’re taking him straight to the operating room.”
“Then I’ll also—”
“No.”
Flatly rejecting him, Dr. Oliver immediately moved toward Lee Changgyu with the volunteers.
Taesu could not simply stand by and watch.
Just as he was about to move that way—
Step.
Nurse Casey swiftly blocked his path and said,
“Dr. Schmidt said… if you can’t trust him, you should come in.”
“How could that be the case?”
“Then where is Dr. Choi assigned right now?”
Nurse Casey asked back in a low, steady voice.
At that moment, Taesu flinched.
“Medical Tent 3…… I’m the dedicated doctor here.”
“That’s clearly today’s schedule, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I’ll stay at my post.”
“Dr. Schmidt will be satisfied too, while he’s cleaning.”
At those words, Taesu was startled.
“He’s personally setting up the operating room?”
“We’re short on hands at the hospital too. Oliver, are you still not done?”
At Nurse Casey’s question, Dr. Oliver answered right away.
“Almost. But Dr. Jeong can’t take his hands off.”
“What do we do?”
“Mm. If the emergency treatment was done like this, it’s better to take him as he is. Then that’s fine.”
At the same time as Dr. Oliver’s words, the volunteers lifted the stretcher.
Abruptly.
Jeong Minsu had to get up along with it.
“Uh, uh, uh?”
“Dr. Jeong, we’re going like this.”
“What? Me too……”
Jeong Minsu was flustered, but it seemed Dr. Oliver did not hear him.
He immediately looked at the volunteers and gestured toward the hospital.
“Let’s go right away.”
“One, two, one, two.”
“Uh, uh, uh, uh.”
Step, step.
As the volunteers moved, Jeong Minsu walked along with them, bewildered.
Even so, his feet did not stop.
Behind them, Nurse Casey said to Taesu,
“You trust us, right, Dr. Choi?”
“What kind of nonsense is that? Of course I do.”
“Then that’s enough, isn’t it?”
Nurse Casey’s question was short and firm.
Taesu’s answer was the same.
“It is.”
“Then I’ll go…… Oh, right. Look at this and take some comfort for your body and mind.”
Rustle.
Nurse Casey handed over a sheet of paper almost as if pushing it into his hands, then turned away.
“Guardians.”
“Yes.”
“Hurry.”
“Understood.”
Gang Yeonghun and Kim Gwanghyeon, who had been standing some distance away, quickly followed Nurse Casey.
Deep gouges had been dug into the ground where they had been standing.
It seemed they had tormented the earth with the tips of their feet out of anxiety.
They must have been so anxious that the gouged-out earth was nearly a handspan deep.
That act of scraping up the hard-packed ground was exactly what the guardians felt right now.
Taesu held the paper, but his gaze was following them.
They had already moved far away.
Starting with Dr. Oliver, they disappeared one by one into the hospital.
‘Please, take good care of him.’
Taesu wished with the heart of a guardian watching over them.
A sudden emptiness settled over Medical Tent 3.
The emergency patient they had been fighting over by the second had vanished in an instant.
Perhaps because the thread of tension they had been gripping had snapped loose, everyone wore blank expressions.
Brad Kim, who seemed at least somewhat in his right mind, gestured to everyone.
“L-let’s sit down for now. Sit down.”
“I… suppose so.”
“Just for a moment.”
Thud, thud.
No sooner had the words ended than everyone’s legs gave out.
Their legs were even trembling faintly.
It was the aftereffect of all that tension releasing at once.
There was no need to look from afar to know what kind of tension they had been under.
The surroundings were a complete mess.
There was no place untouched by red blood.
And the patient who had caused it had suddenly left.
Because they had not been able to bring the situation to a complete end, the emptiness seemed even greater.
“Hooo.”
Everyone let out long breaths.
Then they were fully occupied with calming their trembling bodies.
Taesu was no different.
As the tension suddenly vanished, he felt a slight chill.
He could also feel a faint tremor in his hands and feet.
It was difficult even to remain standing.
Thump.
Taesu, who had roughly lowered himself to sit, looked broadly around him.
Only Medical Tent 3 was quiet.
The other tents were rushing about, caring for and treating the newly arrived patients.
They seemed short-handed.
He knew that.
And yet……
‘Just ten minutes.’
With an apologetic expression, Taesu silently asked for understanding.
For that much, at least, it was difficult to move right now.
The other medical tents also knew what had happened here.
Naturally, they did not ask for help.
‘What, are you saying they’re not human too?’
That was exactly what their faces seemed to say.
They knew all too well the aftermath left behind when a critical trauma emergency patient swept through.
That was why everyone took the silence of Medical Tent 3 as only natural.
The absence on that side could be borne by this side.
“Let’s move a little faster.”
“It’s emergency cases first, so let’s be thorough with triage.”
“Hang in there. This isn’t the time for us to collapse.”
Everyone encouraged and pushed one another as they cared for the new patients.
Taesu and the Korean medical team also sensed how things were going.
“……”
Of course, they did not force themselves to get up.
When resting, the answer was to rest properly.
The right answer was to recharge their strength sufficiently and then use even more energy to care for patients.
And so, they chose to rest, however briefly.
In the middle of that—
Rustle.
Only then did Taesu remember the existence of the paper in his hand.
Comfort for body and mind?
Just as he grew curious, Brad Kim lumbered over.
“Did you see what it says?”
“I’m about to.”
“Let’s look together. Ugh.”
Thud.
Seeing him plop down beside him, it seemed he had come over out of curiosity.
Taesu felt the same, so he soon unfolded the paper.
It appeared to be an excerpt from an English article.
As Taesu and Brad Kim read down with puzzled expressions, they both stopped.
“Huh?”
“Well, well.”
Both their expressions turned strange.
The title of the article alone was already stirring both their hearts.
—Rising Star of the Japanese Medical World, Dr. Kuramoto, Becomes Stardust and Scatters.
The contents drew their eyes even more.
—Dr. Kuramoto, who recently departed for overseas medical volunteer work, has returned home after suffering a serious hand injury. He expressed his intention to lodge a formal protest with the NGO regarding his injury. However……
Brad Kim suddenly read the rest aloud.
“The NGO announced that it would actively accept this and formally report the matter to the International Medical Association. However…… Haha. This bastard.”
“Brad.”
“Look at this. It says that after hearing the news, Dr. Kuramoto is not making any comments, citing treatment for his injury.”
At that, Jo Uncheol quickly approached.
“Is that news about that Kuramoto bastard?”
“Dr. Jo, you’ll definitely want to see this. Look here.”
Slide.
When Brad Kim lowered the paper, Jo Uncheol examined it, his eyes gleaming sharply.
The other Korean medical staff also watched this way.
“……”
“……”
They said nothing, but their ears were clearly turned in this direction.
They must already have heard about what had happened between Taesu and Dr. Kuramoto.
Perhaps that was why Jo Uncheol continued reading the contents of the paper.
“The NGO posted the reason behind Dr. Kuramoto’s injury on its homepage and sent an official document to the Japan Medical Association.”
“And because of that, the Japan Medical Association protested to Hirajuku University Hospital.”
“Hirajuku University Hospital stated, ‘We cannot work with someone who has forgotten the duty of a doctor,’ and expressed its intention to revoke his medical license soon.”
“It says they’re even considering permanent expulsion so he can never work as a doctor in Japan again. Serves him right.”
Brad Kim announced the end of the article’s contents.
Jo Uncheol stared hard at the paper for a long time.
“……”
There was a slight bitterness in his eyes.
Pity?
Sympathy?
It was no such emotion.
Because Taesu had spoken with him now and then, he could guess what Jo Uncheol was feeling.
So he asked,
“Not all of the power trips he pulled were revealed.”
“Right. They completely left out how he stole research results, manipulated clinical results, and sucked the people under him dry.”
“Are you disappointed?”
“To some extent, I expected it. If all of that Kuramoto bastard’s atrocities were exposed, a lot of doctors would be in trouble, so they must have handled it by cutting off the tail.”
Jo Uncheol forced a smile.
It showed that even this much had eased some of the anger in him.