Kim Hyeok-gwon’s rough, gruff way of speaking was nothing new to Taesu.
Even so, this was the first time it had sounded sharp enough to grate on his ears.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that something had gotten twisted.
That was why he asked.
That had been Taesu’s intention, but Kim Hyeok-gwon’s reaction was even more bristling than he had expected.
“What’s the problem with just calling a fact a fact?”
“You’ve been acting strange since today. No, since Changgyu arrived.”
“I’m just like this normally.”
Kim Hyeok-gwon offered the most convenient excuse for avoiding responsibility.
But Taesu’s instincts were sharper than he imagined.
“You said it at the hotel, didn’t you? That there was no one who would care about you, Hyeok-gwon.”
“You remember something I said in passing for a pretty long time.”
“Then how is your mother, Hyeok-gwon?”
Taesu’s question came completely out of the blue.
Yet in that instant, Kim Hyeok-gwon’s eyes shook violently.
“……”
He did not answer.
His silence continued for a long while.
Taesu, on the other hand, had no intention of focusing solely on his conversation with Kim Hyeok-gwon.
The priority was always the emergency patient.
That was why, even in the midst of all this, his hands never stopped squeezing the blood bag.
Squeeze, squeeze.
The gaze of Taesu, who had been squeezing it continuously, suddenly flashed.
‘What about that method?’
Taesu immediately turned his eyes and asked Bread Kim,
“Have you found the ruptured area of the liver?”
“No. This really is a case similar to Changgyu’s.”
“Exactly the same?”
“It can’t be completely identical. Shanmeheum didn’t travel for a long time, so at least it isn’t the worst-case scenario. But at this rate, there’s no end to it.”
Bread Kim answered in a deliberately calm voice.
Even with an emergency patient, he knew that rushing blindly was not always the answer.
Taesu’s gaze turned toward the ECG.
Bread Kim’s judgment was definitely correct.
It was less severe than Lee Changgyu’s case, but the overall progression was similar.
‘Then?’
There was no other way.
Whoosh.
Taesu quickly turned his head, and Jeong Minsu filled his vision.
Without giving it any thought, he issued an order.
“Minsu, let’s do that one more time.”
“Do what, you bastard?”
Jeong Minsu flew into a fit of anger unlike anything before.
Taesu actually welcomed the reaction.
“You get the feeling, don’t you?”
“Ah, I don’t know. I said I don’t know.”
“Good reaction. Then, Doctor Yun, prepare it one more time.”
At Taesu’s order, Yun Juseong’s eyes flashed.
“Again?”
“That’s the surest way.”
“All right. We’ve done it once already, so I can prepare it right away.”
Yun Juseong answered energetically.
Having successfully stabilized Lee Changgyu’s vitals before, he seemed to expect the same result this time.
And it wasn’t only Yun Juseong.
Chu Gangik and Nurse Yi Chorong also reacted immediately.
“Nurse Yi, the retractor.”
“I’m ready. What about you, Nurse Chu?”
“I’ve got it in place.”
“Pull.”
Crack.
As the wound in the abdomen widened, blood immediately poured out.
Next was Bread Kim’s turn.
“The bleeding’s definitely a little less than Changgyu’s. Isn’t that right, Dr. Jeong?”
“Why are you looking at me?”
“Then I’ll do it myself. Hurry up and prepare.”
Swish, swish.
From the very beginning, Bread Kim scooped out the blood pooled inside the abdomen with his hands.
Everyone proceeded with the treatment in perfect order.
Everyone except one person.
Jeong Minsu was the only one who couldn’t join in.
“No. It can’t be. It can’t be…….”
“The second time is easier.”
“You—why are you doing this to me?”
Jeong Minsu even let out a groan.
But it was already too late.
Yun Juseong held out a basin soaked so thoroughly with liquid hemostatic that it was sloshing over the edges.
“Dr. Jeong, it’s ready.”
“Dr. Jeong, we’re good here too.”
Bread Kim immediately echoed him.
Just like that, the entire situation drove Jeong Minsu toward one place.
It was the second round of ‘gauze packing with bare hands.’
Jeong Minsu hesitated unexpectedly.
The sensation of holding Lee Changgyu’s liver still seemed to linger in his hands.
“I, I……”
“Jeong Minsu, let’s save the kid first and think later.”
“You’re the worst.”
“I know.”
Taesu answered in his usual mild manner.
At that moment, Jeong Minsu looked at the patient.
Had he overlapped with Lee Changgyu?
Strength slowly entered his wavering eyes.
“Whew. Doctor Yun.”
“Here.”
Plop.
Gauze dripping with liquid hemostatic was placed in both his hands.
Jeong Minsu bit down hard on his slightly trembling lips. Then, as if throwing himself into the fray, he thrust both hands into the wound.
Gloop.
“Ughhh……”
As Jeong Minsu’s face twisted, Bread Kim immediately encouraged him.
“You can do it. You’ve already done it before.”
“Damn it. Ahh.”
“You’re doing this to save someone’s life. What can’t you do? Steel yourself.”
“Hnnng, hnnng…… huff.”
Jeong Minsu suddenly stopped his breathing, which had been growing rough.
It happened at the same time.
Beep-beep-beep, beep-beep.
The ECG’s rhythm improved slightly.
Jo Uncheol, who had been anxiously watching the ECG, quickly turned around and announced the change.
“We’ve controlled the liver bleeding for now.”
At those words, all the medical staff breathed a sigh of relief.
“As expected, it’s Dr. Jeong. He did it again.”
“That’s right. Well done, Dr. Jeong. You did really well.”
“Whew. It would have been truly terrible without you, Dr. Jeong.”
The senior doctors and nurses all praised Jeong Minsu.
Perhaps embarrassed by their reactions, Jeong Minsu’s expression turned dazed and awkward.
Then Taesu called out to him as if he had been waiting for this moment.
“Minsu.”
“Wh-why?”
“……”
Taesu raised his thumb.
Everything he wanted to say was contained in that one gesture.
He had truly done well.
Jeong Minsu’s decision and courage just now were more than worthy of applause.
‘You bastard, you really can do it.’
If he only learned how to erase his own fear, Taesu could ask for nothing more.
Jeong Minsu, meanwhile, also seemed to be gradually realizing what had happened.
He looked down at his own hands inside the wound.
‘Only I can do this?’
Strictly speaking, it was a procedure anyone could perform.
Jeong Minsu knew that too.
But here, at this very moment, everyone had looked to him.
It was the first time he had experienced anything like it.
The feeling of carrying everyone’s expectations.
The sense of responsibility that came from holding the patient’s vitals in his own hands.
Everything about it was new and astonishing.
And then, a feeling he had never known before began to stir inside him: confidence.
At that moment, he remembered the advice James had given him through Taesu.
- You are the only one.
He was beginning to understand more clearly why James had said those words.
Meanwhile, Taesu’s gaze turned back toward the ECG.
‘If we factor in the blood bags…….’
Then his eyes met Jo Uncheol’s.
A deep look passed between them.
Taesu subtly glanced toward somewhere first.
Jo Uncheol?
Nod.
He answered with a movement of his head.
And then—
Perhaps because they understood each other, they spoke at the same time.
“Fifteen minutes.”
“Fifteen minutes.”
As expected, they had been thinking the same thing.
Taesu and Jo Uncheol raised the corners of their mouths in identical smiles.
But it was a signal known only to the two of them.
Bread Kim, who had been watching them with puzzlement, immediately asked,
“Time until he stabilizes?”
“No.”
“No?”
Bread Kim flinched.
The other medical staff reacted the same way.
Then Taesu’s eyes flashed with determination as he spoke.
“Time to set up an operating room.”
“An operating room?”
“Yes. Let’s open the emergency operating room one more time.”
Taesu’s resolute voice reached everyone.
Bread Kim was the first to react.
“We’re going to operate?”
“There’s no doctor available, is there? They’re all in surgery.”
“……Then we have to do it.”
Bread Kim abruptly stood up.
“All right. I’ll find the volunteer team leader, request support, and get started right away.”
“Wait a moment. What are you two talking about?”
“Doctor Yun doesn’t know. No, none of you do, so get up. I’ll explain on the way.”
“Where are we going all of a sudden?”
“To build an operating room.”
Bread Kim spat out only the conclusion first.
At that moment, the newly arrived medical staff, who had been confused, stopped short.
Build an operating room?
The first reaction would naturally be to say it was impossible.
But after spending half a day with these people, they found themselves thinking it might actually be possible.
Perform surgery in an operating room they had assembled themselves?
A thrill ran through them.
“Whoa. I just heard something incredible.”
“I’ve got goosebumps.”
“This is exciting even for me.”
Bread Kim smiled broadly at their reactions.
“It gets even more exciting once you try it. Let’s hurry.”
Patter, patter.
Bread Kim quickly turned and ran toward the school.
Yun Juseong, followed closely by Chu Gangik and Nurse Yi Chorong, ran after him.
Soon, they spotted a large number of people moving around near the school.
In the meantime, Taesu looked toward Kim Hyeok-gwon.
He was still standing there, unable to move, like a stone monument.
Taesu was cold toward him.
If someone was of no help to the patient, Taesu showed no mercy, whoever they were.
“Hyeok-gwon, please take care of the cleanup afterward.”
“Yeah. It’s me.”
It was an utterly bizarre answer.
But Taesu’s eyes had already narrowed.
“Please explain exactly what you mean.”
“Changgyu—and Shanmeheum too—are me from the past.”
“What about them is you?”
Taesu demanded a clear answer.
It might have been a cruel demand to make of the shaken Kim Hyeok-gwon.
But precisely because he was shaken, Taesu wanted a more definite answer.
Then Kim Hyeok-gwon let out a sigh so deep that his chest seemed to cave in.
“Phew, you damned bastards. Why the hell do you have to show up one after another?”
“You can’t blame the kids for that.”
“If you want me to spin the whole story here, then go ahead and set up a place for me.”
Even at this moment, Kim Hyeok-gwon put on a bold front.
That made things difficult for Taesu.
“Pass.”
“Even I can see there’s no time to set up a place.”
“So what’s your conclusion?”
Taesu asked bluntly.
Kim Hyeok-gwon knew all too well what answer he wanted.
“If this bastard—or rather, if Shanmeheum—is me as a child…… then I suppose saving him with my own hands would feel pretty damn good.”
“It’ll feel amazing.”
“Then there’s no reason not to do it.”
Kim Hyeok-gwon answered with a bitter smile.
His words sounded casual, as if he were merely letting them slip, but the sincerity within them was unmistakable.
Yet that wasn’t enough for Taesu.
“Nothing changes if you just stand there.”
“I was already planning to move. Setting up an operating room requires an expert’s touch.”
“And yet you’re still here?”
When Taesu asked flatly, Kim Hyeok-gwon shook his head from side to side.
“People have something called reaction speed.”
“Two more seconds have passed while you were talking.”
“Whew. I’m going.”
Kim Hyeok-gwon passed the urging Taesu.
Then, as he prepared to run, he glanced back at Shanmeheum.
“Hang in there, you bastard. You’re not alone.”
After muttering those words, Kim Hyeok-gwon ran toward the school.