Taesu did not delay before asking the heavy question.
“I looked at the medical records… Forgive me for asking, but there was no nationality listed.”
“Is that important?”
“Not particularly.”
“Then why are you asking?”
Thorns had somehow sprouted in Gang Yeonghun’s words again.
Taesu had more or less expected this reaction, so he spoke without minding it.
“To be honest, Kashmir was the first place I met Koreans.”
“Hmph. Koreans, you say. Does speaking Korean make someone Korean?”
“That’s… hard to say outright.”
“If you’re asking because of nationality, then let’s just say we’re Chinese. Though we don’t exist there either.”
The last words were far too faint.
It was a mutter Taesu, who was in the middle of the conversation, barely managed to catch.
But it was not something he could let pass.
“What do you mean, you don’t exist?”
“You said it wasn’t important, yet you’re digging awfully deep.”
“That’s…”
“I’ve been thinking well of you because you told us about Changgyu’s condition.”
A sharp sting.
Gang Yeonghun’s gaze was fierce.
Taesu instinctively realized that anything he said from here on would only count against him.
The man was already as sensitive as he could possibly be.
The best course was to avoid provoking guardians waiting for the results of surgery.
Taesu admitted he had chosen the wrong moment.
“I’m sorry. I said something unnecessary.”
“Hmmm.”
“I’ll excuse myself first. I think it would be better if I weren’t here.”
“Still, I’m grateful you came to see us.”
Gang Yeonghun forced himself to answer.
That was enough.
Taesu bowed his head lightly in farewell and rose.
Gang Yeonghun and Kim Gwanghyeon’s gazes immediately turned to the incandescent light above the operating room.
They were waiting desperately for that light to go out.
Watching them, Taesu slowly stepped back.
Only after putting some distance between them did he turn around and walk away.
Step, step.
As Taesu began walking, Kim Hyeokgwon, who had been watching, drew close and said,
“They aren’t Korean, they came from China, but they don’t exist there either… That’s really puzzling.”
“You heard?”
“My lip-reading is fairly useful.”
Kim Hyeokgwon answered with a shrug.
Taesu had already known that much. He had been feeling stifled, and he was even glad to have someone to exchange thoughts with.
“They’re not ethnic Koreans from China. Their pronunciation was definitely Korean-style.”
“Their intonation was a little different, though.”
“I think it’s because several dialects are mixed together.”
“Then what? Are you saying people from all over the country gathered in some specific place?”
Kim Hyeokgwon pieced it together in his own way, then found it absurd himself.
But Taesu’s expression changed subtly.
“Hmm. It’s not impossible.”
“You’re saying that’s possible?”
“Mm, no. Geographically and time-wise, the difference is too great.”
Because Taesu alone was turning it over in his head, Kim Hyeokgwon grew frustrated.
“What in the world are you talking about?”
“I’ll tell you after this is over.”
When Taesu drew the line, Kim Hyeokgwon frowned deeply.
“How many things have you already postponed? We’ll be up all night at this rate.”
“If staying up all night will solve it, then that’s what we’ll have to do.”
“You said sleeping makes you healthy.”
“If you’re sick, seeing a doctor makes you healthy. Like the people who came to us outside.”
Step, step.
Taesu quickened his pace toward the medical tent.
Perhaps because he had not yet faced a patient, his mind was still complicated.
The points Kim Hyeokgwon had organized floated chaotically through his head.
‘If this were Shanghai, maybe, but it makes no sense.’
Shake, shake.
In the end, he shook his head and scattered the thoughts in his mind.
There were more reasons than one might expect for leaving one’s country.
They could have been involved in a crime, or they could have had unavoidable circumstances.
It was more likely to assume that direction instead.
That, too, was something to think about once things quieted down a little.
Erasing his needless conjectures, Taesu hurried his steps toward the medical tent.
A little while later.
After leaving the hospital, Taesu headed toward Medical Tent 3.
At that moment, Kim Hyeokgwon, who had been walking beside him, said,
“Then I’ll be on my way too.”
“Hyeokgwon, wait a moment.”
“What now?”
“The atmosphere around the tent seems a little strange.”
Taesu’s eyes narrowed as he looked toward the medical tent.
That guess came from the somehow bustling figures of the medical staff.
Kim Hyeokgwon seemed to have seen it too, for he casually shifted one step to the side.
Slide.
“At times like this, the atmosphere usually means…”
“Let’s go.”
Clack.
Taesu immediately snatched Kim Hyeokgwon’s hand and pulled him along. His grip was so strong that Kim Hyeokgwon quickly tried to shake him off, but he did not budge.
At this rate, he would be dragged along helplessly.
Not wanting to be roped in, Kim Hyeokgwon strongly showed his refusal.
“Let go of me… Hey, what do you think you’re doing… Can’t you hear me?”
“……”
As expected, there was no answer.
It seemed Taesu’s instincts were sending such a strong signal that they had shut his ears.
Soon, Taesu and Kim Hyeokgwon arrived at the medical tent.
And that vague instinct?
Unfortunately, it was right.
Another emergency patient had arrived at Medical Tent 3.
The medical staff were already in an uproar.
Beep-beep-beep-beep.
The sound of the ECG was painfully sharp.
Jo Uncheol’s voice was no less fierce.
“Control the bleeding. Hurry.”
At his urging, Bread Kim snapped back angrily.
“You think I’m not stopping it because I don’t want to?”
“Dr. Kim, over here.”
“What do you expect me to do if Dr. Yun calls me now?”
“Then who else am I supposed to call?”
Yun Juseong’s voice was urgent as well.
Jeong Minsu, Chu Gangik, Lee Chorong, and Nurse Hwang Jisu also looked frantic.
Taesu’s gaze went straight to the patient.
The moment he took in the wound, Taesu frowned without realizing it.
Because the injury was all too familiar.
At that moment, Jeong Minsu must have seen Taesu, because he informed him of the patient’s condition in a short, heavy sentence.
“It’s another case similar to Changgyu.”
“What?”
“The age, even the wounds, are similar.”
No wonder the staff’s positions and the direction of emergency treatment felt familiar.
Another patient like that.
It was an unbelievable coincidence among coincidences.
When Taesu thought of that blood-drying time he had just experienced being repeated, emotion surged up first.
That feeling leapt out as words.
“Why the hell are these bastards climbing trees and causing this mess?”
“Dr. Choi, transfusion first, hurry.”
Jo Uncheol pressed Taesu.
At a glance, the only place available for transfusion was near the ankle.
Was this déjà vu?
It was truly similar to everything with Lee Changgyu.
There was no time to think.
Tap.
“Hyeokgwon.”
Taesu reflexively shouted, thrusting both hands forward.
It was an absurdly sudden action.
But Kim Hyeokgwon reacted to that call and gesture.
Splash.
As soon as Taesu arrived, Kim Hyeokgwon approached as if by magic and poured disinfectant over both his hands.
“This is why I didn’t want to come.”
“But you’re already here.”
“What?”
“IV set first. Hurry.”
Taesu urged him without preamble.
Kim Hyeokgwon glared fiercely at Taesu as he hurried. Yet without fumbling, he immediately found the IV set and handed it over.
“Here.”
“Disinfect the top of the foot.”
“I said I know.”
Snap, snap.
Because Kim Hyeokgwon had been thrown into the situation out of nowhere, his reactions were sharp.
Even so, he did everything that had to be done.
Taesu knew that side of his personality, so his expression did not change in the slightest.
He quickly connected the IV to the top of the patient’s foot, which Kim Hyeokgwon had cleaned thoroughly.
As he searched for the vein, he sensed it.
‘Better than Changgyu.’
The firm vein on the top of the foot was proof enough.
Squeeze, squeeze.
Taesu immediately began squeezing the blood pack with both hands.
Humans were creatures of progress.
The medical staff did not repeat the exact same mistakes from the case that had hit them hard.
On the contrary, because it was a similar case, their response became even faster and more concise.
“It’s a liver rupture, just as expected.”
“We can’t see the rupture point clearly because of the bleeding.”
“Clavicle fracture and subclavian vein rupture.”
“Changgyu is in surgery right now, so why is there another Changgyu in front of us?”
The medical staff’s bewilderment filled their voices.
Still, their hands did not stop.
At that moment, Nurse Hwang Jisu approached Taesu nimbly and called out.
“Hyeokgwon, this.”
“Why are you giving the blood pack to me?”
“Just take it for now. Hurry.”
Thump.
Nurse Hwang Jisu practically shoved it into Kim Hyeokgwon’s arms.
Her gaze had already turned to Taesu.
She immediately began a brief briefing.
“His name is Shanmeheum, age fourteen. The accident happened an hour ago in the forest on the outskirts of Padum. They say he fell from a tree over ten meters high.”
“Why on earth did he climb up there?”
“It seems he found wild tree honey. His father ran over and told us, and they brought him here by car. His mother fainted as soon as they arrived and she saw the child’s wounds.”
Tap.
Nurse Hwang Jisu lightly jerked her chin toward somewhere.
Taesu’s gaze turned in that direction.
They seemed to be Shanmeheum’s family.
A middle-aged man who appeared to be his father sat collapsed as if he had aged ten years in an instant.
Beside him, a doctor and nurse had gone to the unconscious mother.
Other children could be seen as well.
There was no need to mention the worry in their eyes.
But beside the boys, there were large baskets.
Taesu looked back at Nurse Hwang Jisu and asked,
“What are those baskets?”
“They’re tools for gathering wild tree honey.”
“Is it the family business?”
“I think so. The father always climbs up, but it seems Shanmeheum secretly climbed another tree because he wanted to try it himself.”
At Nurse Hwang Jisu’s words, Taesu felt dizzy.
“There’s a limit to recklessness. He must have known it was dangerous.”
“His eldest sister seems to be getting married soon. That child wailing over there. He probably wanted to do something for his sister’s wedding.”
He understood.
As the old saying went, no grave was without its story.
Having heard that, he could not simply say Shanmeheum had been reckless.
Taesu knew roughly because he had talked with the residents here.
They said that the wild tree honey sometimes discovered brought in a large profit.
He had also heard rumors that it was so difficult to find and so dangerous to harvest that even young men avoided it.
He could tell just by looking at Shanmeheum’s clothes, as well as his family’s.
They were not well off either.
That may have been why Shanmeheum had grown even greedier.
He understood the feeling, but the result was this.
“Damn it. Shit.”
He vented his pity as irritation instead.
If something bad happened to Shanmeheum now, his family would be tormented by guilt for the rest of their lives.
With that scene spread so clearly before his eyes, he could not remain calm.
Then Nurse Hwang Jisu glanced around and offered one more thing.
“It seems Shanmeheum’s mother was in such poor health that she couldn’t move at all. That seems to have left even more regret in her.”
“What’s wrong with the mother now?”
“From the symptoms relayed so far, it seems severe overwork worsened to the point that her body is attacking itself.”
“Autoimmune rejection? This is insane.”
A sigh burst out of Taesu on its own.
How badly must she have pushed her body for it to reach a state where self-healing was impossible?
It was hard even to imagine how deeply Shanmeheum’s accident must have torn into his mother’s heart under such circumstances.
But then, at that moment.
Kim Hyeokgwon’s irritated reproach suddenly reached his ears.
“Tch. You think those damn kids will appreciate it if you raise them like that?”
“……”
“Why are you looking at me like that? Did I say something wrong?”
Kim Hyeokgwon raised the level of his criticism.
But it was a level that had far exceeded what Taesu could tolerate.
“That’s too harsh.”
“Look at Shanmeheum. If he really understood how much his mother suffered, he wouldn’t have treated his body so recklessly.”
“Why are you doing this?”
Taesu asked with a heavy gaze.