At times like this, helping meant letting Brad Kim finish what he had to say as quickly as possible.
So everyone simply watched him.
Taesu spoke for the group and informed him of the situation.
“We’re all seated.”
“Good. First, as you all probably expected, I went to the village where Changgyu lives.”
“It seemed like quite a long distance.”
When Taesu responded, Brad Kim took out his phone and answered.
“That’s right. From here, it took a little over three hours one way.”
“The time…”
“When they brought Changgyu here, they must have driven slowly to minimize the shock.”
Brad Kim added the explanation.
Only then did everyone nod.
So that Brad Kim’s attention would not be scattered, Taesu continued the conversation.
“But how did you suddenly end up going there?”
“When I got to the hospital, everyone told me to go see Dr. Schmidt.”
“It sounds like he’d called for you in advance.”
“That’s right. So I went to see him, and he said communication with the guardians wasn’t going smoothly.”
At that, Taesu tilted his head.
“Mr. Kang Yeonghun spoke some English.”
“It wasn’t exactly fluent.”
“Ah, I see.”
“In any case, once we gathered and talked, there were matters that felt awkward for just us to debate among ourselves.”
When Brad Kim said that, everyone nodded.
“That happens sometimes.”
“Things like lifestyle patterns aren’t something anyone but family would know well.”
They gave brief replies of agreement.
Brad Kim also nodded and continued.
“So I told them it would be best if I went, and then I left.”
“Ah, I see.”
“And since I was going anyway, we decided I should tell his mother directly and bring her with me.”
“But…”
Taesu glanced over Brad Kim’s shoulder.
Raku’s car was parked there.
Raku was nowhere to be seen, perhaps having gone to eat, and Kang Yeonghun seemed to have gone into the hospital.
They were the only ones who had arrived with him.
Taesu looked back at Brad Kim and asked.
“Did she not come, or was she unable to come?”
“That… Let’s talk as we look.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than—
Ding, ding.
Various cellphone sounds rang out from a small basket.
They had collected them there because they couldn’t answer calls one by one during clinic hours.
Rustle.
Everyone quickly found and grabbed their own phone.
Several photos had been sent.
Once everyone had their phones in hand, Brad Kim said,
“Look at the first photo that was sent.”
Swipe, swipe.
They all operated their phones at once.
Then brief comments were exchanged about the photo that appeared on the screen.
“It looks like the village is in the mountains.”
“The houses seem to be built with a mixture of earth and stone.”
“There appear to be roughly fifty households.”
“At that size, it would be around a hundred people.”
Everyone spoke mainly about the first photo.
But among them, there was always someone looking at a different photo.
It was often someone with a personality that paid no attention to those around him.
Here, naturally, that person was Kim Hyeokgwon.
“Why are there so many patients?”
“Patients?”
“Look from the third photo onward.”
“The third?”
Swipe, swipe.
The expressions of everyone who flipped through at once hardened in an instant.
It looked like the photos had been taken that morning.
They showed the villagers beginning their day.
But just as Kim Hyeokgwon had said, patients could be seen here and there.
“This person’s shoulder…”
“This child’s face…”
“Huh? Look at the person in the back over there. Their back…”
“No, why do all their faces look so yellow?”
Yun Juseong asked, his brow deeply furrowed.
Brad Kim was the only one who had gone there, but he could not give a clear answer.
“I thought it was strange too, but I don’t know why.”
“No, I wasn’t blaming you, Dr. Kim.”
“I know. But the people in these photos aren’t all of the patients.”
“There are more?”
Yun Juseong’s expression changed abruptly to shock.
He was not the only one startled.
The same expression had appeared on everyone’s face.
But only for a moment.
Patients.
They were the kind of people who would even forgo sleep over that single word.
They immediately began their own analysis.
“One in three is a patient…”
“He said that’s not all of them.”
“Then I think we should calculate it as two out of three.”
Other opinions quickly followed.
“The yellowish complexion is almost universal.”
“It looks like the affected areas were washed, but I don’t think even disinfectant was applied.”
“There are also people wrapped round and round in cloth or clothing.”
“How could they end up in such a state?”
Sighs of pity could be heard.
They were clearly analyzing the photos, yet strangely, the conclusion they reached was disbelief.
“How can there be so many sick people?”
“These aren’t edited, are they?”
“No matter how good phone cameras have gotten, this would be impossible.”
The situation was so serious that even absurd remarks were exchanged.
At that moment, Brad Kim drew their attention.
“Ahem.”
“…”
Everyone looked at him with hardened eyes.
Under their gazes, Brad Kim continued.
“Judging from the photos, most of them are patients with acquired conditions.”
“Are there congenital cases as well?”
“There are.”
The moment his heavy answer came, Taesu asked with a look that said he had suspected as much.
“They’ve never received medical benefits?”
“I didn’t have time to ask in that much detail.”
“Understood.”
Taesu wanted to ask more, but he stopped for the time being.
Logically, it was right to let Brad Kim quickly finish what he wanted to say and rest.
Brad Kim sensed his consideration and hurried the conversation along as well.
“Changgyu’s mother was so wary of outsiders that I couldn’t even get a proper look at her face.”
“Brad, anyone would be startled if a stranger suddenly barged into their home.”
“Mr. Kim. Do you think I don’t even have that much common sense?”
When Brad Kim glared at him, Kim Hyeokgwon shrugged.
“It was just how you said it.”
“Mr. Yeonghun went in first and explained. I clearly heard crying from outside the house too.”
“And she was still wary?”
“I couldn’t take a single step inside the house.”
Brad Kim’s expression turned bitter.
On the other hand, Taesu’s face and everyone else’s were filled with complexity.
Then Taesu remembered something.
“Was it that Changgyu’s mother was ill in both body and mind?”
“Ah, Mr. Yeonghun did say that.”
“Even so, her child was badly injured.”
Honestly, he found himself tilting his head.
Brad Kim added one more thing.
“In the morning, we barely received permission to enter the village.”
“Permission?”
“They’re extremely wary of outsiders.”
Brad Kim spoke with a grave expression.
At that moment, Jo Uncheol, who had been closely examining the photos the whole time, opened his mouth.
“Most of them seem to be Korean.”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“And yet they’re wary?”
Jo Uncheol’s eyes wavered with confusion.
Then Nurse Chu Gangik added another suspicion.
“A Korean village in Kashmir—has anyone ever heard of that?”
“No.”
“The fact that they settled deep in the mountains is a bit strange too.”
The suspicions kept growing.
Just as the conversation reached that point,
Taesu began by organizing his thoughts.
There were many people talking, so they kept drifting away from the core issue.
If they continued talking like this, they wouldn’t reach a conclusion even if they stayed up all night.
That would be troublesome.
What was most important right now?
The patients, of course.
Why they were there could be dealt with later.
They had to first discuss how to handle them.
Flash.
Taesu’s thoughts quickly fell into order.
Then he asked Brad Kim in a weighty voice.
“Wouldn’t it be best to bring these people here?”
“Other than Kang Yeonghun and Kim Gwanghyeon, I couldn’t even get a proper word in with anyone.”
“Even when speaking in Korean?”
“Yes. I even heard them speaking Korean to one another. So I asked them in Korean, but they pretended not to hear.”
At Brad Kim’s words, everyone’s expressions turned strange.
“What is that?”
“They deliberately pretended not to hear?”
“What kind of reaction would you call that?”
Perhaps because there were so many people, many voices rose again.
Taesu cut away the unnecessary and dug straight into the key point.
“Then did you hear anything separately from Mr. Yeonghun?”
“He didn’t give me a clear answer either.”
“Hmm.”
“I’m full of questions too.”
Brad Kim’s expression was serious.
Now they all shared in that seriousness.
But as for the reaction the villagers had shown, they could only tilt their heads.
“I have no idea what’s going on.”
“To think you couldn’t even talk to them.”
The answerless conversation continued.
Then Taesu, who had been deep in thought, said to Brad Kim,
“Brad, get some sleep first.”
“To be honest, my vision is starting to blur now.”
“Exactly. I’ll meet Mr. Yeonghun.”
“He’ll be tired.”
“I won’t provoke him too much. I’ll go first.”
Scrape.
Taesu asked for their understanding and rose from his seat.
Then he immediately turned and headed toward the hospital.
Tap.
He heard someone approaching from beside him.
He thought it would be Jeong Minsu or Kim Hyeokgwon.
But contrary to his expectation, it was Yun Juseong.
He spoke first.
“I’ll go with you. It keeps bothering me.”
“It doesn’t seem like an ordinary matter.”
“Koreans living in a country where tourists’ access is frequently restricted, and in a mountain valley at that.”
“Nothing fits neatly.”
At Taesu’s reply, Yun Juseong nodded heavily.
“That’s why we’re on our way.”
“We have to be careful not to provoke him too much.”
Taesu refrained from further conversation at that point.
His mind was filled with the medical record he had seen yesterday.
“The country wasn’t written down.”
On top of that, Korean, English, and Chinese characters had been mixed together.
Lastly, Kang Yeonghun’s words slowly surfaced in his mind.
He is not from here.
He is someone who does not exist in China either.
It was nothing but mysteries.
He wanted to sweep away all the fog filled with riddles.
Just as Taesu was about to enter the hospital,
he heard the voices of Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon from behind.
“Raku.”
“You’ve been through a lot.”
At the familiar voices, Taesu glanced back.
The two were greeting Raku.
Since the distance was not that great, Raku’s voice could be heard as well.
“It’s nothing.”
“Hey, Raku. You’re only going to rack up losses.”
“If I make one round of the PKO and NGOs, this much won’t even count as a loss.”
“Oh-ho, is this your plan to deliberately put our consciences in debt?”
When Kim Hyeokgwon asked in a voice that said he had caught on, Raku answered just as smoothly.
“Turning a blind eye to tricks like that is business courtesy.”
“Tell that to Dr. Choi, not me.”
“He looks busy.”
“You played a part in that. We should go eat.”
Kim Hyeokgwon amiably volunteered to guide him.
At first, he had been wary, but now he was even looking after him.
Yun Juseong must have heard as well, because he said to Taesu,
“For a businessman, he has a decent mindset.”
“He says money can only be earned when there are people around.”
“Different words from ours, but pretty similar, isn’t it?”
“You’ll like him even more once you meet him in person. Let’s go in.”
Taesu immediately opened the hospital door and entered with Yun Juseong.