Taesu immediately hooked his pinky with hers and spoke firmly.
“I promise to help everyone become pretty and healthy.”
“Thank you.”
“Now then, shall I take a closer look at how you’re doing?”
“Yes.”
Smoothly.
Gang Songhui leaned her face in close, a smile on her lips.
There was not the slightest trace of wariness in her.
Taesu, pleased as well, examined her carefully and thoroughly.
At the same time.
Standing behind him, Kim Hyeokgwon muttered with a strange expression.
“That’s not the kind of promise you should make lightly.”
“I told you, Taesu can be surprisingly impulsive.”
“Doctor Choi isn’t the only one who should be worried, is he?”
At Kim Hyeokgwon’s question, Jeong Minsu reacted in confusion.
“Why? I didn’t make any promise.”
“Do you think Doctor Choi will run himself ragged all alone?”
At that question that struck right at the heart of it, Jeong Minsu flinched hard.
“No way. Surely not.”
“‘Surely not’ has gotten plenty of people killed.”
“Still, it won’t happen. Surely—wait, that bastard.”
As he mulled over the past, Jeong Minsu suddenly surged forward, about to run out.
Tap.
Kim Hyeokgwon quickly grabbed him and held him back.
“Doctor Jeong, hey now. Why are you raising your fists again?”
“He’s making that kind of promise just because he has a mouth to speak with.”
“It’s already done. We can’t tell him to cancel it now. We’ll just have to hope the dispatch wraps up smoothly without anything happening.”
Kim Hyeokgwon did his best to calm the Jeong Minsu he was holding back.
But even Kim Hyeokgwon, who had said that, was not at ease.
A promise with a child.
He had already experienced, in a painfully harsh way, just how heavy that could be.
‘What could possibly happen?’
He ended it by dismissing it lightly like that.
An hour later.
Taesu, Jeong Minsu, and Kim Hyeokgwon were each walking with a medical bag in hand.
There was nothing blocking their way.
All there was was a single large tree that stood out a little.
Its appearance, adorned in all sorts of colors, was unusual.
It was a seonangdang shrine.
As he passed by it, Taesu made a weighty wish in his heart.
‘We came here to treat people, so please don’t hate us for making a fuss.’
It was an absurd wish.
Taesu even broke into a faint smile.
A Korean tradition that had continued for hundreds of years was still being carried on here.
He did not think about whether it had any efficacy.
The heart came first, and it was the most important thing.
He only hoped that his light steps toward the village would continue.
After walking a little farther.
At last, the village that had been hidden behind a veil began to reveal itself.
Step.
The three men stopped at the entrance, their faces filling with fresh emotion.
“We finally made it.”
“So this is the village.”
“We went through hell to get here.”
Each of them voiced what they felt and slowly looked left and right.
There was no gate, no fence, nothing at all.
It was open, quite literally, from end to end.
Even so, it had taken them a full week after arriving here to stand in this place.
Taesu let out a brief exclamation.
“Whew. The scenery is incredible.”
Nod.
Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon lightly nodded in agreement.
The scenery was truly beautiful enough for all of them to feel the same way.
Two majestic mountains surrounded the village as if guarding it.
The mountaintops, as though winter had already arrived there, were covered with a white blanket.
The village had been built by clearing land along the mountain valley.
Houses stood here and there on terraced plots.
There was quite a bit of distance between one house and the next.
In the middle of the village, they could also see something like a resting platform.
Taesu gave his first impression of the village he had taken in with his eyes.
“It’s exactly like the photo Bread Kim showed us. It’s like some deep mountain village in Gangwon-do.”
“It really does feel that way.”
“Where is Gangwon-do?”
Only Kim Hyeokgwon tilted his head at the conversation between the two of them.
It was a trivial matter, so they did not bicker over this and that.
They were simply feeling the emotion of this moment, of having entered the village, even more strongly.
Meanwhile, the villagers were also watching their arrival.
That moment lasted only briefly.
They each scattered and returned to their own homes.
At the same time.
Taesu, Jeong Minsu, and Kim Hyeokgwon were clearly watching that sight as well.
“They’re going inside first.”
“I wonder why they’re running off in such a hurry.”
“It seems they were told to wait quietly.”
Each of them briefly shared their own guess.
Still, once the people’s gazes disappeared, they were able to look around a little more at ease.
The most astonishing thing was, as expected, the terraced structure.
The sloping paths, with their uneven inclines, must have been shaped one by one by hand, without heavy machinery.
Was there anything impossible for humans?
It made him think anew about the greatness of mankind.
Just as Taesu was observing the village so intently.
Tap, tap.
When Jeong Minsu lightly tapped him on the shoulder, Taesu immediately asked,
“What?”
“Look over there.”
Point.
Jeong Minsu stretched out his other hand and pointed to the slope connected to the right side of the village.
Taesu looked too, but there was nothing special there.
“What am I supposed to be looking at?”
“Not nearby. I mean the mountainside a little farther back over there. Aren’t there a lot of trees that look similar?”
“Ah, yeah. I see them.”
Right after Taesu answered.
Kim Hyeokgwon, who seemed to have seen them as well, answered first.
“Judging by their appearance, they seem to be date palm trees.”
“I thought so. But none of them are leaning.”
“Hmm. I really don’t see any.”
“Then are there more somewhere else?”
When Jeong Minsu showed doubt, this time Taesu answered by inference.
“They must have cut it down already.”
“Ah, right. Since another accident might happen, they’d have cut it right away.”
“It would have been better if they had cut it in advance.”
“Then we wouldn’t have had any reason to come here.”
Hearing Jeong Minsu’s answer, Taesu gave a bitter smile.
“True. I guess everything has its pros and cons.”
“I guess so.”
“That aside, look at the houses. They’re built in terraces, and they even have yards.”
When Taesu tossed out those words, Jeong Minsu immediately picked up where he left off.
“But there’s nothing there.”
“There really is nothing there.”
“It is honestly a little strange.”
Taesu and Jeong Minsu tilted their heads together.
Since both of them had been born and raised in rural areas far from the city, they were able to notice the oddity.
But Kim Hyeokgwon, who had grown up in a different environment, did not catch on.
“What do you mean there’s nothing?”
“Houses with yards usually raise livestock.”
“There’s livestock over there. Dogs wandering around.”
Point.
Kim Hyeokgwon pointed directly.
But that was not the sort of livestock Taesu meant.
“By livestock, I mean animals like cows, pigs, or sheep.”
“Ah, that livestock.”
“Usually, people build a shed and raise them, but there aren’t even any sheds at all.”
Jeong Minsu added quietly,
“Or they at least raise chickens or ducks.”
“They’re easy to raise, and they lay eggs.”
“And they also have the advantage of providing regular nutritional supplementation.”
The way they conversed in perfect rhythm was utterly natural.
That was how much the little things they had seen growing up in the countryside were proving helpful here.
Kim Hyeokgwon nodded as well.
But soon he asked with a curious expression.
“Now that you mention it, something really is missing. But you didn’t come here to study rural villages, did you?”
“We’re strictly looking at it from a medical perspective.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“It must have been difficult for them to get protein.”
Taesu immediately pinpointed the crux.
Kim Hyeokgwon was a little impressed by his keen eye.
“Oh, that’s true.”
“Even if there are edible crops that can substitute for it, I don’t see any right away.”
“I suppose not.”
“And…”
Based on what he could see, Taesu continued explaining the parts he had inferred.
They were by no means wasting time sightseeing around the village.
They were peering into the villagers’ living environment and searching for problems.
Soon, Kim Hyeokgwon pointed into the distance and asked,
“Then what is that?”
“What do you mean, that?”
“Can’t you see the stones piled up behind the yard?”
“Ah, over there.”
Taesu and Jeong Minsu soon spotted them too.
Only the houses adjacent to the mountain had stone walls built behind them.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu seemed puzzled as well, as if it was their first time seeing such a thing.
“Wild animals?”
“Then they should have surrounded the whole village.”
“The area’s too wide for that.”
“It is definitely a little unusual that they only blocked off that area.”
The two of them talked it over, but they could not find any answer.
After they had looked around the village once.
Taesu’s expression did not look refreshed.
“I thought everything would be resolved once we entered the village.”
“Strangely, we just have more questions.”
“Then we’ll have to put that aside for now.”
Taesu resolutely set down his complicated thoughts.
Once he did, only one thing remained.
Jeong Minsu noticed it too and emphasized,
“Right. Meeting the patients comes first.”
“In that sense. Together? Or separately?”
Taesu immediately made the suggestion.
Perhaps it was a question with an answer already decided.
But Jeong Minsu gave an unexpected answer.
“Separately.”
“Will you be all right?”
“At least we can communicate.”
Jeong Minsu gave his own reason.
It did not feel like he was dreaming of independence from Taesu.
It seemed he was thinking more about the fact that if they split into two groups, they could save that much time.
From Taesu’s perspective, there was nothing bad about it.
“Good. Fighting.”
“Ah… I can do this.”
Jeong Minsu forced out a voice that had nearly crawled back down his throat.
Seeing that, Kim Hyeokgwon immediately attached himself to Taesu.
“Mm, I’ll follow Doctor Choi.”
“Then let’s go. Minsu, good luck.”
Step.
Taesu gave a brief farewell and moved to the right with Kim Hyeokgwon.
Left alone in that instant, Jeong Minsu tensed his whole body.
“Whew. I can do it too. I can do it too.”
Grip.
He firmly grabbed the strap of the bag over his shoulder and moved in the opposite direction from Taesu.
Taesu and Kim Hyeokgwon, who had moved first, headed to a nearby house.
It was not far from the village entrance and was located on relatively flat terrain.
As they looked over its exterior, which had no particular distinguishing features, they knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
“We’re from the NGO medical team. Is anyone here?”
Taesu deliberately left out the word Korea.
It was wise not to mention it right away.
After a short wait, a voice came from inside.
“You know perfectly well I’m here, so why ask?”
It was a sharp voice filled with reproach.
Taesu paused and tried to guess who was inside.
“That sounds like the elder who was standing in the middle.”
“Ah, what a lousy start.”
“Still, he hasn’t told us to leave. Let’s go in.”
Creak.
Taesu opened the door at once and went inside.
Kim Hyeokgwon, on the other hand, hesitated slightly and looked back.
“Over that way… No. Who knows what that temper might do.”
That worried him more.
In the end, Kim Hyeokgwon lightly drew in a breath and went inside.
Taesu, who had arrived inside first, took in the structure at a glance.
It was a Western-style dwelling where people wore shoes indoors.
Some parts of the living environment gave off a Chinese feel.
He only looked around briefly.
When he looked to the other side, he saw a wooden bed.
And as expected, the elder who had always stood in the middle was sitting on its edge.
Even now, the elder was looking at him with a displeased expression.