James raised his eyebrows, impressed.
“Mm. Mm. You must be very grateful.”
“Extremely.”
“We’ll have to hold counseling sessions from time to time.”
Slurp.
James, apparently truly pleased with it, took several more sips.
Taesu quietly watched him.
Before long, James set down his teacup.
Clack.
As if he had been waiting for that moment, Taesu brought up another subject.
“How did the patients’ surgeries go?”
“Didn’t I tell you yet?”
“You said you would do them here.”
“Ah, that’s right. The surgeries ended in the morning. Both of them, at almost the same time.”
“So they were major surgeries that lasted over twelve hours.”
More than surprise, a heavy weight lay over Taesu’s expression as he answered.
Seeing that, James asked casually.
“You expected as much, didn’t you?”
“Yes. In the first patient’s case, it was a traumatic diaphragmatic hernia. On top of that, the fractured ribs had pierced through the diaphragm and stabbed into the stomach.”
“And?”
“The head of the pancreas had also ruptured in part, the liver had been pushed up into the thoracic cavity, and it had taken a great deal of impact as well, so it was fairly badly ruptured.”
Taesu listed the symptoms he had identified during the emergency surgery one by one.
As if he still felt it was not enough, James urged him on.
“That can’t be the end.”
“I was also quite worried about the fact that prolonged hypothermia and hemorrhage had severely lowered the body’s functions.”
“Heh heh.”
When James suddenly laughed, Taesu, looking awkward, quickly began reviewing his words.
“Did I, did I miss something…”
“Mm. No. That’s not why I’m laughing, so don’t make wild guesses.”
“Then why?”
When Taesu asked cautiously, James said with a gentle smile.
“First of all, the surgery ended well.”
“That’s a relief.”
“The reason I laughed just now is because I remembered the first day I met you, Doctor Choi.”
At James’s words, Taesu grew sheepish.
“Pardon? Ah… That was the first case I officially operated on, wasn’t it?”
“How should I put it? It felt like you had the procedure mapped out in your head, but couldn’t bring it out through your hands.”
“Yes. That’s right. You only saw me for a moment back then, but you remember.”
Taesu answered awkwardly, as if embarrassed.
James’s expression remained nothing but gentle.
“At most, that was only last summer.”
“Ahem. That’s true.”
“And now that same Doctor Choi is performing emergency surgery inside a helicopter.”
As James pointed it out step by step, Taesu looked puzzled but answered first.
“That is true.”
“That is an extraordinary thing. A tremendous advancement.”
“Isn’t it because I’ve had so many unusual experiences?”
Taesu asked tentatively, but James shook his head.
“Experience alone can’t make that happen.”
“I worked hard…”
“Everyone works hard.”
James cut him off firmly.
At that, Taesu had nothing to say.
The best he could do was put on an awkward expression and joke his way through it.
“Th-then what could it be? Haha.”
“I’m curious about that too. It makes me wonder if perhaps you’re hiding something, Doctor Choi.”
“I told you everything before. Hiding something? Of course not.”
Taesu, who had inwardly flinched, quickly waved his hands in denial.
But viewed objectively, James’s point was correct.
Taesu was showing a phenomenal rate of improvement.
There was certainly a part of it that came from his own effort.
However, the most decisive reason was, as expected, Caprene’s knowledge.
Since he could not speak of that, it was only natural that James could not understand Taesu’s astonishing pace of growth.
And then, at that moment.
Sssss.
The atmosphere suddenly settled heavily.
It was James, whose smile had vanished, who gave off that air.
“Hm?”
Just as Taesu found it strange, James opened his mouth and asked in a low voice.
“I’d like to know the truth now.”
“The truth?”
“You and Caprene… There’s something I don’t know, isn’t there?”
Flash.
James’s eyes gleamed sharply.
It was not a question filled with suspicion, but one filled with certainty.
Facing it head-on, Taesu’s insides were thrown into chaos.
“Did he really notice?”
Taesu’s gaze wavered slightly.
Now that it had come to this, he felt he would have to say what he had been hiding.
Even if James did not believe him, the truth was the truth.
Taesu steeled his resolve and opened his mouth.
“Yes. There is.”
“I knew it.”
“Doctor Caprene and I…”
Just as Taesu began to reveal the truth, James suddenly asked.
“When on earth did you meet him?”
“Pardon?”
“That was the first time Caprene ever visited Korea. I remember that for certain.”
“Ah, yes.”
“Then where in the world did you meet him before that?”
James pressed him, even putting strength into his eyes.
He was firmly convinced that they had met before the accident.
Meanwhile, Taesu let go of the tension that had been pulled taut.
“I thought it was something else.”
A bitter smile formed on its own.
It seemed most people truly could not easily think of “memory transfer.”
Taesu himself had not been much different.
He could believe it because it was something he had experienced, but if he had heard it from someone else, he would have treated it as nonsense.
In any case, James was making a mistaken guess.
Taesu played along and answered.
“We didn’t meet. We exchanged emails a few times.”
“Emails? How?”
“His email address was written in the acknowledgments section of his book.”
That was true.
Caprene had put his own email address in every book he wrote.
It was clearly written that anyone could contact him at any time if they wanted to share opinions or had something to consult about.
There was also a postscript saying he could not guarantee when he would reply.
Taesu judged that, for now, it was an answer James could rationally understand.
Fortunately, James also seemed to understand.
“Mm. I know that much.”
“I said I was aiming to become a TS specialist and asked him for advice.”
“And he replied?”
“You have no idea how surprised I was. To be honest, I didn’t expect much.”
When Taesu spoke plausibly, James put aside his doubts and accepted it.
“I see. I’m a little surprised myself that he replied by email.”
“We exchanged emails a few times like that.”
“I see.”
“I have the cases he sent me for reference organized somewhere. One moment.”
Taesu took out his phone and searched through his notes.
Since the lie had already begun, he could not stop.
With James’s personality, he would not ask to see the emails.
That was because foreign cultures tended to respect personal privacy to a sensitive degree.
In truth, there were no emails to show James.
But if he could not present decisive evidence, James’s doubts were highly likely to resurface.
Taesu did not want that.
He wanted to uproot them completely with this opportunity.
Only then would conversations like this not come up again later.
With that intention, Taesu found the notes he had organized at Dongseong Medical Center and showed them to him.
Slide.
“Here. But Korean and English are mixed together.”
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s see…”
James examined the notes carefully.
They included not only thoracic surgery, but also content related to general surgery.
It was the same method he had used on Ha Seokjun, the chief of surgery at Dongseong Medical Center.
The notes contained that many varied symptoms and disease names related to surgery.
Would it work on James too?
While pretending otherwise, Taesu was subtly watching his reaction.
It was a moment that pricked his conscience, so he could not remain calm on the inside.
Soon, James returned the phone and asked.
“He sent you these kinds of things?”
“That’s right.”
“Hm.”
James lightly stroked his chin and seemed to ponder something.
Taesu no longer had any room left to be nervous.
“Please, just let this pass.”
What was the point of picking at it now?
Those words rose all the way to his throat, but he could not bring himself to say them.
Yet James was strangely persistent today.
Taesu had no choice but to remain tense, guarding against any slip of the tongue.
About a minute passed.
James nodded heavily.
“So that’s why he suddenly said he would attend the seminar in Korea.”
“I don’t think he came to see me.”
“There’s that much evidence. You can’t exactly deny it.”
“I really knew nothing about it. I didn’t even recognize him on the mountain.”
Taesu could answer that part with certainty.
At Taesu’s firm reaction, James leisurely changed course.
“Then he must have intended to quietly visit you after the seminar. He always liked surprise events like that.”
“W-was that so?”
“It’s just my guess. But you must be wondering why I’m digging up the past now. Aren’t you?”
James asked the exact question that Taesu had wanted answered.
Taesu’s face brightened, and he quickly replied.
“Yes. I’m seriously, extremely, terribly curious.”
“Because your current skill level, Doctor Choi, has already leapt far beyond the resident stage.”
James spoke firmly, his gaze intense.
Taesu was deeply surprised by that evaluation.
But what puzzled him even more was why James was connecting completely different topics.
“Why would that…”
“Even if we generously calculate it, the time you’ve spent here is only around eight months, isn’t it?”
James even specified the period as he asked.
Taesu remembered it as being roughly the same.
“That should be right.”
“Anyone would be curious about how you achieved such remarkable growth in such a short period.”
“Tell them to get worked to the bone like hell.”
Taesu joked in an attempt to change the mood.
But James’s expression remained serious.
“If we also take into account your young age, Doctor Choi, you’re someone whose future is truly worth looking forward to.”
“Someone like me? You know why I’m here.”
“How long do you intend to cling to the ankle of a past that has already flowed away?”
James sharply pointed out and asked.
By this point, Taesu also felt that there was something behind this.
He set aside the jokes and banter for a moment.
Then, with a calm expression, he asked James in return.
“What is this about?”
“The speed of your growth is surprising. But that is all.”
“Well, that’s…”
“But what if you were to add your own unique color on top of that?”
James asked, his gaze deep.
A unique color?
Those words had to be a hint.
Taesu retraced the conversation they had had so far.
Then he asked about the thought that suddenly flashed through his mind.
“Are you perhaps talking about the helicopter?”
“It seems you weren’t entirely oblivious.”
“To tell you the truth, when I was dispatched to Sahad…”
Taesu calmly revealed the dream he had had at that time.
After hearing him out, James lightly stroked his chin with a subtle expression.
“Should I call it déjà vu?”
“It was completely different from the dream.”
“But something similar actually happened, didn’t it?”
“Yes. It was absurd to realize that the crazy doctor I saw in the dream was actually me.”
“Haha. A crazy doctor, you say. That’s not true. It’s not as though there are no doctors in the world who can rappel.”
At James’s words, Taesu nodded.
“Yes. There’s a medical team like that in Korea too.”
“Is that so?”
“I personally respect the head of that center very much.”
Taesu subtly brought up Professor I Gukjong.
There was not a single doctor in South Korea who did not know that name.
It was not as if he had dreamed of helicopters while looking at him.
But the fact that there was a somewhat fascinating point in common made Taesu feel good.