Taesu quickly turned off the walkie-talkie.
‘Are they advertising it?’
He was seated in a public and important place.
Knowing that, Taesu’s face twisted harshly at his careless colleagues’ conversation.
At that moment, Taesu felt the gazes fixed on him.
Swoosh.
When he turned his head, sure enough, everyone was staring at him with stiff faces.
“……”
“H-ha ha. The radio must have picked up some interference from somewhere. I’m sorry.”
Taesu, trying to force his way through it, quickly apologized under the even sharper stares.
As if that apology were not the issue, there was no change in their gazes.
Among them, Elder Wang asked in a sunken voice.
“Are you saying the food we eat every day really was the problem?”
“As far as we have determined so far, yes.”
“You had better be able to take responsibility for those words. Answer carefully.”
Elder Wang warned him coldly.
After all, depending on the situation, they might not be able to eat the food they had stored up over several months.
Winter was right around the corner.
No, it had already arrived.
Late autumn had deepened so much that it could be called early winter.
It was impossible to find replacement ingredients now.
Everyone glared, waiting for Taesu’s answer.
Their eyes were sharp enough to feel cold.
Taesu felt like a herbivore thrown into a cage of wild beasts.
To them, this was a matter of survival.
The pressure was so great it felt as though his shoulders were being crushed.
But Taesu did not shrink back in the slightest.
‘Now that it’s come to this.’
Avoiding it would not solve anything.
Taesu faced them and answered calmly.
“The possibility is high, but it isn’t certain.”
“Didn’t you lot just say as much with that strange device of yours?”
Elder Wang burst out in anger.
No one tried to stop him.
That was how serious the situation was.
Taesu did not get swept up in it. He steadied himself and answered.
“That is what we said, however.”
“You had better speak clearly.”
“We also wouldn’t be certain without any basis.”
At Taesu’s answer, Elder Wang pressured him with wide, glaring eyes.
“What basis!”
“We have blood samples from all of you.”
“So what?”
“We will proceed with the tests however we can and inform you of the results.”
After answering, Taesu did not avert his gaze until the very end.
He had spoken through tremendous pressure.
His spirit deserved praise.
However, no one seemed inclined to give it.
The atmosphere on the platform had already become winter—no, a cold wave had arrived.
Gang Yeonghun asked with forced politeness.
“If the results come back positive, what are we supposed to do?”
“Then you will have to change your diet, no matter what.”
“How are we supposed to change it right away?”
“Hmm. I’m at a loss about that part too.”
When Taesu spoke bitterly, Gang Yeonghun pressed him with a heavy gaze.
“Dr. Choi. That is not something you can say so easily.”
“I don’t want to say it easily either.”
“But……”
“More than anything, we are currently in the same position as all of you.”
Taesu mentioned their isolation.
At that moment, Gang Yeonghun’s expression hardened even further.
“You said you have to go to the NGO headquarters to conduct the blood tests.”
“If there is truly no other way, I’ll break through and go, even if I have to.”
Taesu showed his grim resolve.
Seeing that look in his eyes, everyone pressed their mouths shut and fell into their own thoughts.
That time was brief.
Elder Wang spoke.
“Let’s get up. There’s no point in sharpening our nerves at one another over a problem with no immediate answer.”
“Yes, elder.”
Everyone rose from their seats without complaint.
All of their expressions had sunk terribly heavily.
It was because they were all leaning toward the thought that Taesu’s guess was right.
But they did not admit it to the end.
If they admitted it, it was obvious that the livelihood of everyone here would become uncertain.
On a cold winter day, no one wanted to even imagine their stomachs boiling with hunger as well.
Like that, the villagers left one by one.
Before long, Taesu was left alone on the platform.
Was Taesu’s heart at ease?
He wanted to overturn everything right away and say all of his guesses were wrong.
Because he had seen the reality of this place, he wished for it all the more.
“Please, let it be a warm winter.”
Murmuring quietly, Taesu grasped the teacup he had received a little while ago.
The teacup that had once been warm had gone cold before he knew it.
“……”
Taesu’s gaze lowered as he looked at it.
Thirty minutes later.
Taesu was sitting in front of the military radio inside the storage shed.
—Crackle. ……That is the situation.
“Understood. Then I’ll contact you again. Ending transmission.”
Click.
After turning off the military radio, Taesu’s eyes had sunk deeply.
“So there’s no way after all?”
While making his regular report, he had inquired about vehicle support.
It did not sit well with him to be making such a request after barely a day had passed.
Still, survival came before pride, so he asked.
Headquarters’ answer was the same.
‘Support unavailable.’
He wondered if he had been pointlessly stubborn.
But only for a moment.
After thinking about something briefly, Taesu slowly rose from his seat and went outside the storage shed.
The sky was filled with darkness.
He was on his way toward the surgery tent, lighting the path with his headlamp.
Perhaps they had spotted Taesu first, because familiar voices reached him.
“How did it go?”
“What did they say?”
They were the voices of Kim Hyeokgwon and Jeong Minsu.
When he turned his gaze, the two were sitting across from each other at the table in front of the lodging tent with a candle lit between them.
Taesu immediately changed direction, sat down beside Jeong Minsu, and asked.
“Why are you outside?”
“Huinam is in a deep sleep. Judging by the atmosphere, I think he’ll sleep soundly until morning.”
“More importantly, it’s nice that the NGO relief supplies include all sorts of things.”
Taesu answered with a forced smile.
As if he had read that awkward expression, Jeong Minsu asked in a heavy voice.
“Is the situation bad?”
“It seems the front line keeps expanding.”
“Looks like they’re really clashing hard.”
Jeong Minsu furrowed his brow deeply.
Taesu added one more thing.
“They said travel restrictions are in place and a red alert has been issued designating it as a no-travel country.”
“Damn. Then that means they’ve gone right up to the brink of all-out war.”
“Apparently not yet. It seems both sides are trying to avoid the worst while shaking each other up with guerrilla tactics.”
Taesu relayed what he had heard over the radio.
Hearing that, Kim Hyeokgwon looked dumbfounded.
“Anyway, what lunatic would come traveling in the middle of a war?”
“There shouldn’t be anyone like that, but apparently there are.”
“In any case, it sounds like neither the NGO nor the PKO can move.”
“Yes. That’s what they said.”
“Was there any news about Raku?”
Kim Hyeokgwon’s question.
From the perspective of the three of them right now, it was the matter of greatest interest.
Taesu nodded and answered.
“They said Raku asked them to tell us he would meet the delivery deadline as much as possible.”
“What delivery deadline in a situation like this? Is that man in his right mind?”
“……”
Taesu stared at him silently.
It was because he was so different from how he had flown into a rage yesterday.
Kim Hyeokgwon also understood the meaning contained in that gaze.
However, his expression did not change in the slightest.
“I didn’t mean he should be prepared to die like a dog.”
“I also asked them to tell him to move carefully according to the situation.”
“Then why are you staring at me like that?”
Perhaps feeling embarrassed, Kim Hyeokgwon quietly lifted his teacup.
At that moment, Jeong Minsu, as if he had prepared it without anyone noticing, placed a cup of warm tea in front of Taesu and said,
“Drink. It’s the kind of time when you need something warm going in once in a while.”
“You’re right. It’s getting colder day by day.”
Swoosh.
Taesu only wrapped his hands around the warm cup and did not drink.
Kim Hyeokgwon and Jeong Minsu were the same.
“……”
“……”
Cold air filled the space around the table, but none of them could easily speak.
That silence continued for a short while.
Taesu was the first to break it and speak.
“The most important thing right now is surgery.”
“Tha…… huh?”
Jeong Minsu’s voice twisted for a moment.
Kim Hyeokgwon also looked at him with a heavy expression.
It was because the problems before them and what Taesu had said were quite different.
Still, Taesu pushed through with his opinion.
“Surgery is the most important thing.”
“Mm.”
“We have to observe Huinam’s recovery progress regularly as well, and there are also patients waiting for surgery.”
“……”
The two listened quietly.
Their expressions seemed to say that Taesu was not wrong, but that they could not easily agree.
Sensing that, Taesu expressed his opinion in a little more detail.
“We can’t test the blood samples right away, and we can’t obtain food either, can we?”
“That’s true.”
“That means it’s right for us to focus on our purpose from where we are.”
Taesu’s words paused briefly.
At that moment, Jeong Minsu said with a dark expression,
“Yeah. You’re right.”
“For now, we can also hold out with our own food.”
“But what happens when our food runs out?”
That seemed to be what Jeong Minsu was worried about.
Taesu answered plainly.
“We’ll have to eat the food here.”
“You’re going to tell people whose livers are already bad to eat that again?”
“Do we have proof that cooking oil is truly that bad?”
Taesu asked flatly.
At that, Jeong Minsu’s expression turned incredulous.
“Taesu, what are you saying at this point?”
“I’m asking if there’s proof.”
“Overconsumption of cooking oil is bad……”
Just as Jeong Minsu was about to speak.
Kim Hyeokgwon calmly cut in.
“Dr. Jeong. The idea that overconsumption of cooking oil is bad for health is still only our assumption.”
“Mr. Hyeokgwon. That’s……”
“Whether cooking oil truly affects the liver—”