Kim Hyeokgwon was smiling faintly at that unique air of Taesu’s.
‘This is it.’
There had been plenty of chances for him to leave.
If he really wanted to look, it wasn’t as if there were no places for him to work.
In truth, there were many jobs that were far safer and more comfortable.
Yet there was a reason he had stayed by Taesu’s side until now.
First, he liked Taesu’s consistency—the stubborn resolve he showed in always thinking of the patient.
The charisma with which he took command of the operating room like this was captivating.
And lastly, he wanted to see where the end of the path stubborn Taesu walked would lead.
Taesu was in the middle of forgetting everything else and devoting himself solely to the surgery.
Out of nowhere, Jeong Minsu called to him sharply.
“Hey, Taesu.”
“……”
“Man, can’t you hear me?”
Jeong Minsu pressed him twice.
At that moment, Taesu’s focused eyes loosened slightly.
It was a sign that his concentration had been disrupted.
However, Taesu did not let go of the tension directed toward the operative field and answered only with his mouth.
“What?”
“Don’t shake it. The needle keeps going off.”
“It’s shaking?”
Puzzled, Taesu finally turned his head slightly.
Beside him, Jeong Minsu, with loupes perched on his nose, glared at him sharply and answered.
“Look here. It’s trembling even now.”
“I stopped.”
“Then why is it trembling…? That’s strange.”
Jeong Minsu also realized something was wrong.
This couldn’t be a meaningless reaction.
‘Tsk.’
Sensing that, Taesu had no choice but to take his hands off the operative field.
The high degree of concentration he had felt for the first time in a while had already scattered.
It was bitter, since such chances did not come often. But he did not show even the slightest trace of being upset or blaming Jeong Minsu.
In surgery, getting ahead on your own wasn’t the answer.
Rhythm was more important.
Knowing that, Taesu set his regret aside.
Then, shifting his gaze, Taesu looked at the spot where Jeong Minsu had been doing the vascular bridge.
Only then did he sense that Jeong Minsu’s intense reaction had not been excessive.
Tremble.
The muscles around the blood vessel were quivering faintly.
It was a movement as if they had received an electric shock. The vessel, too, was showing an abnormal reaction, appearing and disappearing.
But it seemed that side was not the only problem.
From the opposite side, where he had been assisting, Kim Hyeokgwon’s voice rang out full of bewilderment.
“What is this? It’s trembling all the way over here too.”
“What?”
Whoosh.
Taesu’s gaze quickly returned to his original position. The thigh muscle he had just been operating on was also trembling faintly before he knew it.
It was by no means an ordinary reaction.
The problem was that Taesu had been in the middle of excising necrotic muscle.
Even the parts that had not been completely excised were being affected.
Seeing that, Taesu’s expression turned serious.
This was no ordinary reaction.
The flow of the surgery kept getting interrupted.
Unexpected variables were popping up from every direction, constantly obstructing their progress.
‘Hoo.’
Taesu let out a bitter breath inwardly.
Jeong Minsu, however, was different.
Perhaps exhausted by the situation that only kept getting more tangled, he burst out in irritation.
“Damn it, please just let us do the surgery.”
It was impossible to know who he was angry at.
What was clear was that proceeding with the surgery like this would be difficult.
Was it really impossible?
Taesu had thought that overturning the dominant outcome—the probability of amputation—would not be easy.
But he had not expected such a variety of situations to unfold to this extent.
A thought like this even occurred to him.
Perhaps it was their own greed.
Perhaps these situations were only making things harder on the patient.
That thought itself was negative.
With unexpected variables continuing one after another, it was difficult to stay positive.
Even so, Taesu turned his negative mind positive once more.
Elder Wang’s earlier advice played a big part in that.
And long ago, he had once said that he had removed the word “give up” from his dictionary.
He couldn’t raise both hands and surrender now.
There had to be a clear cause behind the patient’s abnormal state as well.
If they found it, they would be able to get through this situation without issue.
With that belief, he mustered his strength.
‘What is it?’
Taesu began retracing the cause of the faint tremors.
Even during that time, the trembling in the patient’s body grew stronger and stronger.
Shiver, shiver.
It looked as if the patient were cold.
Kim Hyeokgwon, making his own prediction, asked whether that was really the case.
“Could this be because the temperature in here is low?”
“……”
“Doctor Choi.”
Kim Hyeokgwon called him sharply.
Still, when Taesu, lost in thought, did not respond, Jeong Minsu also shouted sharply.
“Hey, Choi Taesu.”
“……”
“Damn it, I’ll do something……”
Jeong Minsu suddenly tried to step forward.
He was trying to decisively shake off his bad habit of relying on Taesu every time something like this happened.
The attempt itself was good.
But it was still too early for Jeong Minsu.
Just as Jeong Minsu was about to move, Taesu opened his mouth.
“Minsu, don’t move.”
“You bastard, you’re the one standing there in a daze.”
“I was doing something called thinking.”
“What thinking? No, how long are you going to just keep thinking?”
Jeong Minsu raised his voice and demanded.
At that moment, Taesu’s gaze turned toward Jeong Minsu.
Whoosh.
At Taesu’s deep, heavy gaze, Jeong Minsu flinched noticeably.
“Wh-what?”
“……”
“That… that’s not what I meant……”
Jeong Minsu’s voice grew smaller and smaller.
That was strange.
The gaze Taesu sent him was not threatening at all. Rather, it was only too calm, heavy, and deeply settled.
Even so, Jeong Minsu could not meet it to the end.
Kim Hyeokgwon, who had experienced that first, muttered quietly.
“It’s been a really long time since I saw that heart-dropping look.”
That was how completely Taesu’s quiet gaze overwhelmed the entire atmosphere of the operating room.
Even in the meantime, the patient’s trembling was growing worse.
Beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep.
The sound of the ECG changed as well.
But it was not a problem caused by bleeding.
It was even less likely to be arrhythmia.
Even so, the blood pressure was fluctuating wildly. Anyone could tell it was an unusual change not easily seen.
Time was too short to simply watch and think.
However, Taesu did not rush and gave an order in a weighty voice.
“Jeong Minsu, check the urine output. And Hyeokgwon, please see if the IV is blocked.”
Rustle.
As if drawn by Taesu’s voice, Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon moved.
And soon, Jeong Minsu’s report came first.
“Urine’s coming out fine. Really pouring out, a ton of it—so much that I’m wondering if it’s okay for this much to come out.”
“The IV is going in without any blockage. If that’s the case, isn’t this an even bigger problem?”
Kim Hyeokgwon added the question in a voice gone cold.
It was then.
Snap.
Taesu stretched out a hand, postponing his answer for a moment.
His gaze was fixed on the ECG.
‘There’s no problem, but there is a problem?’
As he turned that over inwardly, Taesu’s gaze shifted to the side.
There was a clock there.
Before he knew it, more than six hours had passed since the surgery began.
The moment he realized that, Taesu froze.
“Damn it.”
“Why, what is it…? Hup.”
Jeong Minsu, who had been asking urgently, sucked in a breath. That was how heavily Taesu’s gaze had sunk.
Taesu paid no mind to Jeong Minsu’s commotion and quickly ordered.
“Minsu, add anesthetic and sedative. Hurry.”
“Huh?”
“The surgery time.”
Snap.
Taesu pointed at the clock.
The surgery time.
That was the problem.
Originally, the surgery had been expected to take about five hours.
The dosages for the anesthetic and sedative had also been calculated based on that surgery time.
Ordinarily, anesthesia was administered so that it would last about two hours longer than the surgery time.
But because the operative site had worsened, the scheduled time had become meaningless.
Amid the unexpected situations erupting from all sides, they had forgotten that they needed to add more anesthetic.
The moment Jeong Minsu checked the surgery time at Taesu’s warning, he was startled.
“Oh, shit. Wait, I’ll prepare it.”
“I’ll help too.”
Kim Hyeokgwon quickly called out and tried to move with him.
Taesu stopped him.
“Hyeokgwon, stand by.”
“……”
“Minsu, the anesthetic dose is……”
Taesu swiftly calculated and called out the dosage.
Jeong Minsu, who had been preparing the injection in accordance with his words, paused and looked at him.
“With that dosage, it only extends it by three hours.”
“I know.”
“You’re saying you’ll finish it within that?”
“Can’t you?”
Taesu provoked him in a low voice.
At that, Jeong Minsu frowned and objected.
“What are you trying to do by provoking me right now?”
“I’m not provoking you. I’m giving an order.”
“Hm?”
“We finish this surgery within the next three hours. And administer the anesthetic first, quickly. Otherwise, he could wake up.”
When Taesu reminded him again, Jeong Minsu realized his mistake.
“Damn it. Hurry, come on, hurry.”
Clatter, thud.
Perhaps because his mind had grown urgent, Jeong Minsu’s hands kept slipping.
Even so, he soon steadied his movements and administered the additional anesthetic and sedative.
“Administration complete.”
“Stand by.”
Taesu did not let go of the tension easily.
Compared to that tension, the patient gradually began to stabilize.
But that was only for a moment.
Beep-beep-beep.
The ECG rang harshly again.
He had feared it might be the case, and it was.
The timing for adding anesthetic had been appropriate, but it seemed to have little connection to the patient’s trembling.
Taesu’s eyes sank coldly.
‘What on earth is it?’
He rapidly broadened the scope of his thoughts.
Meanwhile, the puzzled Jeong Minsu looked at the patient again and was startled.
“What the hell? We added anesthetic, so why… why is he still trembling?”
“A different cause?”
“What is it, then?”
Jeong Minsu shouted.
That was how violently the patient’s trembling was growing.
Beep-beep-beep.
The ECG, too, had turned sharp as the fluctuations in blood pressure grew severe.
It seemed only natural to get angry and panic.
Even so, not a single expression on Taesu’s face changed.
Jeong Minsu was truly on the verge of exploding with frustration.
He fiercely blamed himself for having no ideas of his own to offer.
Thud, thud.
“Think. Hurry up and think of something, you stupid head.”
“……”
Taesu thought in silence.
The two men’s reactions were starkly opposed.
Taesu, whom one might have thought quick-tempered, had grown terribly cold, while Jeong Minsu, whom one might have thought timid, was reacting like fire.
Perhaps these appearances were their truest natures.
In that calm state, Taesu was now searching through Caprene’s memories.
There were unexpectedly many cases involving a patient trembling during surgery. But that did not mean every case could be applied.
Among them, he had to find the one that matched the current situation most closely.
As he recalled several cases, one similar case came to mind.
‘This is it.’
He had found it.
Taesu immediately told Jeong Minsu, who was blaming himself in front of the IV, how to respond.
“Minsu, magnesium.”
“Huh?”
“Hypocalcemia.”
Only after Taesu shouted did Jeong Minsu’s eyes flash.
“R-right. Excessive urine output, you idiot.”
“Stop tormenting that poor head of yours and move your hands and feet first.”
“You—damn it.”
Unable to protest against a comment that hit the mark, Jeong Minsu hurriedly moved his hands.