Facing that startled expression, Taesu instead smiled broadly.
“If we’re going to eat, we should eat properly.”
“Properly?”
“Let’s set the mood a little.”
Wink.
Taesu even gave him a wink like that.
A little while later.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu were chopping all sorts of vegetables.
“Hup.”
“Come on!”
Tadadadang.
Perhaps because the two of them had gotten competitive, they picked up even more speed.
Seeing that, Kim Hyeokgwon’s face turned absurd.
“Of course they’re surgeons. Their knife work is killer.”
But that praise was short-lived.
Kim Hyeokgwon’s expression gradually grew strange.
At last, he even shouted.
“Oh, come on. You gentlemen, if you julienne everything, is that still a stew?”
“Hup.”
“Stop showing off your knife skills and do as I tell you.”
When Kim Hyeokgwon stepped in, Taesu and Jeong Minsu flinched to a halt.
“You know how to make doenjang-jjigae?”
“I spent ten years at a Korean company. Do you think I’ve never had doenjang-jjigae?”
“You’ve eaten it, sure.”
Taesu and Jeong Minsu immediately backed down.
In truth, both of them were hopeless at cooking.
Kim Hyeokgwon, who had come over before they knew it, took charge at once and began nagging.
“Dissolve the doenjang in the water first. Doenjang has to be boiled for a long time.”
“Doctor Jeong, why are you dicing the mushrooms… No, how do you even cut them like that?”
“You people with nothing but mouths. Try to remember what you’ve eaten and do it.”
Kim Hyeokgwon’s nagging grew more and more intense.
Perhaps because he was usually the one being nagged at during every surgery, it even felt like he was venting all that stress on this occasion.
What was surprising was that the doenjang-jjigae under Kim Hyeokgwon’s direction was actually starting to look plausible.
Bubble, bubble.
The deep, earthy aroma of homemade doenjang spread beyond the area around the tent and far into the distance.
An hour later.
The three of them were sitting around a broad rock.
On top of the rock sat the pot of doenjang-jjigae, full of its rich aroma.
Around it were store-bought kimchi, seasoned seaweed, and cans of tuna.
All of it had been sent by Park Seongmin.
Everyone looked around and expressed their surprise.
“We did prepare it, but…”
“It’s a proper meal.”
It was Kashmir, and on top of that, the front yard of a village that wasn’t even marked on the map. For such an exotic place, it was truly an excellent Korean meal.
This was no time for that.
With his stomach in an uproar, Taesu spoke at once.
“Thank you for the meal.”
Those words were the signal.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
The three men’s spoons headed for the doenjang-jjigae at the same time.
It was the moment when they would fill their mouths with the taste of that rich, earthy aroma.
They scooped up a big spoonful and put it in their mouths.
At the same time—
“Hup.”
“Mmph.”
“Huh.”
Flustered sounds came simultaneously from the three men’s closed mouths.
What was this taste?
Taesu quietly defined it.
“It feels like doenjang-jjigae sold at an Indian curry restaurant.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have put in the black pepper, nutmeg, and sansho powder?”
“What? Why would those go in?”
“No? If not, then not. Why are you raising your voice?”
Kim Hyeokgwon looked at him shamelessly.
Only then did Taesu understand this taste.
He had talked so big.
In the end, it seemed Kim Hyeokgwon didn’t know either.
Taesu had no intention of blaming him for it.
“Forget it, just eat.”
“Yeah, let’s just eat. Ah.”
They forced themselves to scoop up another spoonful.
But.
“Khhup.”
“Hup.”
“Khh. Gulp.”
They ate it.
They truly forced it down while thinking of home.
They were in the middle of eating with such courage(?) when it happened.
At that moment, Taesu and Kim Hyeokgwon’s gazes turned to one place at the same time.
Rustle.
“……”
“……”
Jeong Minsu blinked, not understanding, and asked.
“Why are you suddenly acting like that?”
Even so, the two of them did not respond.
After listening quietly for a moment, Taesu said in a low voice.
“Looks like they left.”
“They’re not stray cats.”
“They must have been curious.”
“True. The smell of doenjang must be filling the whole mountain.”
A brief conversation only the two of them understood passed between them.
After mulling it over silently, Jeong Minsu asked in a low voice.
“The villagers?”
“Looks like it.”
“I guess they’re interested.”
“Who knows. Anyway, let’s continue eating.”
Taesu urged them without paying it any more mind.
Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon also moved their spoons again.
Their hands moved exactly the same as before they had stopped.
There wasn’t the slightest tremor.
Having built up the inner skill of reading the room in all sorts of situations, this much didn’t bother them at all.
The exotic taste of the doenjang-jjigae was far more troubling.
After the eventful meal ended.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu were cleaning up.
They were almost finished.
Kim Hyeokgwon, who had gone to check on Lee Changgyu, happened to approach.
But his expression was not good.
As soon as he arrived, Kim Hyeokgwon grumbled out of nowhere.
“Honestly, I don’t know why children and adults alike are so willful.”
Taesu and Jeong Minsu, who had listened carefully, each said something.
“Looks like he pulled out the IV and tried to escape.”
“He probably already pulled it out. He must’ve gone, ‘Yes!’ and tried to get up, all happy.”
“Then the pain came back.”
“He did lie down again, but he couldn’t even press the call bell and must have been going crazy.”
The two of them spoke in turns with absolute certainty.
Kim Hyeokgwon, who had been listening quietly, looked amazed and asked.
“Did you install a surveillance camera somewhere?”
“We know without looking.”
“How?”
Kim Hyeokgwon could not understand.
Then Jeong Minsu, while putting away the dishes he had finished washing, said indifferently.
“If you go to a hospital, patients like that are everywhere.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Then they yell things like the IV was loose and came out on its own, or that they were dying from pain and why did we only come now.”
When Jeong Minsu finished speaking, this time Taesu added.
“From our standpoint, even if it feels unfair, there are many times we just let it go.”
“So you expected Changgyu would do that too.”
“Yes.”
“Then shouldn’t we have just kept him nearby? If he does that again, it’ll cause problems with his recovery.”
When Kim Hyeokgwon asked in puzzlement, Taesu answered calmly.
“He won’t do it anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Because it hurts. He experienced with his whole body that just because it doesn’t hurt right now doesn’t mean he’s really better… Help me clean up.”
Clatter.
After answering indifferently, Taesu lent a hand with Jeong Minsu’s tidying.
It looked natural, but Kim Hyeokgwon was dumbfounded.
“Should I call this neglect, or should I call it standing by and watching?”
“……”
“You gentlemen would practically play dead if it were for a patient… Aren’t you being too indifferent?”
Just as Kim Hyeokgwon pointed out their indifference.
Slide.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu looked at him at the same time and each said a word.
“Clinging to someone twenty-four hours a day isn’t treatment.”
“And if it were dangerous, we wouldn’t have set up the ward tent so far away.”
At their united answer, Kim Hyeokgwon flinched for no reason.
“But that doesn’t mean you should gang up on me like that, does it?”
“We never did. We’re just saying you can relax.”
Clatter, clatter.
After answering, Taesu and Jeong Minsu continued putting away the dishes.
On the other hand, Kim Hyeokgwon, who quietly looked back over the current situation, felt somewhat bewildered.
“I don’t know anymore. Let’s clean up together.”
Clatter.
In the end, Kim Hyeokgwon also stopped worrying and joined in the cleanup.
After the cleanup was finished, they gathered around the table and sat down.
As if it were tea time, a cup of tea had been placed in front of each of them.
It was called tea time, but each of them had opened a notebook and was studying areas where they were lacking.
“……”
“……”
It was leisurely.
It was so quiet it was almost desolate.
Rustle.
The only sound to be heard was the turning of paper.
That was how little anyone was fretting.
A little more time passed.
Rustle.
A faint sound came from the undergrowth.
It was the sound made when the wind blew.
But Kim Hyeokgwon’s ear twitched.
Slide.
He slowly lowered his notebook and looked somewhere.
“……”
Just as his gaze grew even heavier.
Rustle.
The sound came again.
This time, Taesu reacted.
He flinched, then quickly lifted his head and stared at one place.
“Hmm.”
He let out a low murmur, as if he had noticed something.
Hearing it, Kim Hyeokgwon spoke first.
“Looks like they want to settle this quickly.”
“That’s better for us too.”
“So what shall we do?”
“When guests have come, offering them tea is only proper, isn’t it?”
“We should hear their thoughts too.”
Kim Hyeokgwon did not easily leave his seat.
Only then did Jeong Minsu seem to catch on.
“They came again?”
“I think they’re the same people as before.”
“Why?”
“We’ll have to ask.”
Slide.
After answering, Taesu rose from his seat.
Step, step.
After walking a little forward, he called out toward the undergrowth ahead.
“Since you’ve come all this way, shouldn’t you at least have a cup of tea?”
“……”
No sound came from the undergrowth.
If no one was there, it was only natural that no answer came back.
But then.
Rustle.
The undergrowth bent to the side, and three people appeared.
All of them were old men.
Strangely, their clothing was slightly different from that of the locals.
The design gave off a stronger impression of modernized hanbok.
All three had faces close to seventy.
The moment he saw them, Kim Hyeokgwon quietly said one thing.
“At a glance, they look like stubborn old coots.”
“They do give off a rather obstinate impression.”
“That phrase about not bleeding a single drop even if you stab them—this is the kind of face it’s used for.”
Kim Hyeokgwon did not hesitate to express his displeasure.
Taesu wasn’t very different.
Still, he placated Kim Hyeokgwon first.
“At least they gave us time to digest.”
“Hmph. For all we know, they just missed their timing to come out.”
“There’s no need for us to be harsh too.”
“They look harsher than we are.”
“Hyeokgwon. Offering a cup of earthy tea is a virtue.”
Taesu spoke as if coaxing him.
Then Kim Hyeokgwon no longer held out and moved.
“Fine. I’ll prepare some earthy tea.”
“I-I’ll go with you.”
Jeong Minsu, who had been wavering, quickly followed after him.
Taesu was suddenly left alone.
Even so, he was not the type to obediently wait around as Kim Hyeokgwon had advised.
Step, step.
He walked toward the old men.
The distance more or less closed.
When they had reached a suitable distance and Taesu was about to greet them.
“I am…”
The moment he began to speak.
The old man standing in the middle, with age spots and fierce eyes, abruptly shouted.
“What in the world are you trying to take from us now, crawling all the way into these mountains?”
At the same time as that shout, Kim Hyeokgwon’s bitter voice came from afar.
“What the…”
“……”
Slide.
Taesu stretched a hand in that direction and stopped him from speaking.