Taesu had many things he was curious about, so he began asking one by one.
“How did Brad end up joining the team?”
“After Brad came back from Padum, he wandered around on his own for a while.”
“Pardon? Ah.”
When Taesu’s expression turned sheepish, Dr. Ozma went straight to the heart of the matter.
“To be honest, with Dr. Choi and you leaving, his affiliation was left up in the air.”
“Dr. Schmidt said he’d keep him with him.”
“That’s what I heard too, but one day, Dr. James brought Dr. Kim in. We don’t know the details either.”
“Is that so?”
It seemed something had happened.
Taesu showed a faint curiosity, but soon set it aside.
He could ask Brad Kim about the details later.
Since the reason he had come here was more important, the greetings stopped there.
“Ozma. Actually…”
“You came to see the patients, didn’t you?”
“That’s right.”
Taesu answered calmly.
Dr. Ozma was the same.
“It’s the natural order of things, so there’s no need to make a fuss. It’d be best to look at the charts first, wouldn’t it?”
“It’s not as if I need to see the charts.”
“Don’t come saying something else later. Follow me. The details of the surgeries are written there too.”
“If you insist, I won’t refuse.”
Taesu immediately followed Dr. Ozma.
Jeong Minsu and Brad Kim moved along behind them.
A short while later.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu were each holding a chart.
Rustle, rustle.
As they quickly scanned the contents with their eyes, their heads nodded on their own.
The surgeon in charge of the first patient had been Dr. Ozma.
It seemed this was why he had urged Taesu along.
Even now, Dr. Ozma stood in front of them with his nose proudly in the air.
“This surgery was quite difficult. If it hadn’t been me, it would have been a great struggle.”
“The surgical notes show just how hard it was for you, Ozma.”
“Exactly. On top of that, the assistant still hasn’t been tempered enough, so it was even harder.”
The assistant had been Brad Kim.
He was openly badmouthing him even though he was right beside them.
But it was not malicious criticism, more like a friendly scolding.
Brad Kim, too, scratched his head slightly and blushed.
In Padum City, he had been treated as a mid-level doctor, but on James’s surgical team, he was merely the clumsy youngest member.
That was how high the level of each member of James’s surgical team was.
Taesu knew that all too well, having experienced it up close.
Then, after reading through the chart to the end, Taesu was slightly surprised.
“It’s only been a few hours since the surgery ended, but the ventilator (artificial respirator) was already removed this morning.”
“There’s some bleeding inside the torn lung, but not enough to interfere with breathing or conversation.”
“Spontaneous respiration is much better.”
“That’s right. And… it should be about time for him to wake up. Or he may already be awake.”
Dr. Ozma said this while judging by the time on the wall clock.
Most surgeons did not wear wristwatches.
It was because they never knew when they might have to go into surgery.
That part was a little different from Taesu.
Aside from scheduled surgeries, Taesu always wore a wristwatch. When an emergency occurred, checking the time was extremely important.
Slide.
Taesu checked the time on his wristwatch, compared it with the chart, and asked.
“Isn’t the interval until he wakes up a little short?”
“For that patient, that much is appropriate.”
“Mm. With vital signs like these…”
Taesu immediately committed the vital signs and treatment details in the chart to memory.
If it was something worth referencing, he never left it out.
Seeing Taesu like that, Dr. Ozma waited without interrupting.
Soon, Taesu headed toward the first patient.
Naturally, he had already entered the name written on the chart into his mind.
“Royce Rubertra.”
Murmuring it softly, he approached the bed.
Before long, Taesu arrived in front of Royce’s bed.
The first thing he looked at was the ECG.
Beep, beep.
It was, of course, the same as the vital signs recorded in the chart. Looking toward the ECG was a reflexive habit.
After checking the vitals, Taesu looked at Royce.
“Mm.”
He was definitely handsome.
It would be believable if someone said he had gone up the mountain for a winter season photo shoot.
Even with tape applied here and there because of all his injuries, his looks stood out.
As he had estimated on the snowy mountain, his age was similar to Taesu’s.
So that was that.
Taesu had been watching Royce for a moment when—
Twitch.
“Mm…”
Royce’s eyelids trembled, and a faint groan escaped him.
Then he slowly opened his eyes and woke from sleep.
His gaze was hazy and unfocused. Since this was the third time he was waking up after a long surgery, it was normal for him to struggle.
At times like this, it was right to watch and wait rather than stimulate him.
A little more time passed.
Focus settled into Royce’s hazy eyes, and his gaze became clear.
“Ugh…”
Groaning, Royce moved his eyes this way and that.
His gaze brushed past Taesu without thought.
Then Royce flinched and this time looked straight at Taesu.
Only then did Taesu, who had been waiting, greet him.
“You’re awake. I’m Dr. Choi Taesu.”
“…”
“You must be surprised to see an unfamiliar Asian doctor.”
Taesu deliberately spoke in short sentences.
It was consideration for a patient who had just awakened.
But Royce’s reaction was strange.
His ears seemed to perk up, and his eyes gradually widened.
“You, you’re not…”
“Your voice is impressive too. But do you happen to remember me?”
Taesu asked carefully.
At the same time, Royce’s voice came.
“The torture officer?”
“Yes. I tortured… Pardon?”
Taesu, answering without thinking, asked back in shock.
At that moment, Royce looked as if he had made a mistake and corrected himself as he asked again.
“No, no, I misspoke. More importantly, are you the person who came to rescue me on that snowy mountain?”
“You really remember?”
“Are you really that person?”
The two exchanged only questions with startled faces.
As the conversation became tangled, Taesu was the first to change direction and answer.
“I was dispatched to the snowy mountain for an emergency response.”
“I heard about it. That you went through an incredible ordeal.”
“It was nothing.”
When Taesu answered awkwardly, Royce immediately offered his greeting.
“Thank you so much for saving me.”
“Not at all.”
“My body is like this, so—no, you already know that. Ugh.”
Seeing him try to exert himself, Taesu quickly stopped him.
“Stay still. Please stay still. It’s still too early.”
“Even so, I should get up and greet you properly.”
“Your words are more than enough.”
“Still, I’m sorry to speak to you while lying down like this.”
Slowly.
Royce closed his eyes and lowered his head deeply in place of a bow.
Because of the aftereffects of surgery, he was in a state where he could not move.
For him, that was the utmost courtesy he could show.
Taesu felt a deep warmth in his chest at that sincere greeting.
“This guy. He’s making me go soft.”
In truth, he had come with the mind to say harsh words and even curse him out.
Seeing Royce’s greeting, all those feelings vanished completely.
He was handsome, and even his character was good.
This must be why people said the world was unfair.
While Taesu was inwardly feeling the lingering impact of that deep emotion—
Slide.
Royce opened his eyes again, raised his head, and continued.
“It was so cold I thought I’d freeze solid.”
“Mm.”
“I couldn’t even tell how much it hurt, or where it hurt.”
“I imagine so.”
When Taesu showed understanding, Royce continued as well.
“I could hardly breathe, but I held on because I wanted to live. Still, my eyes kept closing.”
“My goodness.”
“That was when Dr. Choi found me.”
“That was fortunate.”
Taesu nodded heavily as he answered.
“This is it. This is the taste of it.”
As the patient acknowledged him, Taesu’s chest trembled even more.
Royce, too, recalled the memory more clearly and spoke.
“Yes. You came like that and poured water straight into my mouth.”
“That…”
“I thought I might suffocate, but thanks to that, I could come to my senses even more.”
Royce was certainly stating the facts.
But from Taesu’s position as the listener, something felt ambiguous.
“I see.”
“You poured it in without the slightest mercy.”
“At that time…”
“I’m sure that was what had to be done. Even so, it did quench my thirst a little.”
“That’s fortunate.”
Taesu felt somewhat unsettled.
However, Royce’s tone was so polite that he could not object.
Even during that, Royce’s recollection continued.
“And there is another decisive memory as well.”
“What kind of…”
“Suddenly, my side burned like fire.”
“That, uh…”
“That was when I knew. This is a knife wound, I thought.”
“A knife, a knife wound?”
“It really hurt. And I clearly thought it was a signal telling me not to lose consciousness.”
Royce vividly conveyed the events of that time from his own perspective.
But the way he expressed them was a little ambiguous.
“This isn’t exactly tearing into me, and it isn’t exactly praising me either.”
Depending on how one heard it, the nuance could make one feel very different.
The problem was the sincerity filling Royce’s face.
No matter how Taesu looked at him, the overflowing gratitude was enough to drive a person mad.
That made it awkward for Taesu, the one listening, to say anything.
“Mm. You may have felt it that way.”
“At that time, I also had this terribly arrogant thought.”
“What thought was that?”
Taesu asked cautiously.
Royce answered without hesitation.
“Surely he didn’t just stab me without anesthesia. There’s no way, I thought.”
“That, that is…”
“But strangely enough, after that, it felt like my senses disappeared. I don’t think I remember anything after that.”
Royce spoke with his brow deeply furrowed.
Even in this moment, he seemed to be repeatedly going over those thoughts.
But to Taesu’s eyes, it looked a little different.
“He’s blurted out everything, and now what? He doesn’t remember?”
It was absurd.
And his way of speaking was somehow unusual.
He was clearly and politely maintaining proper manners.
But the words he actually said were not merely direct; they were explicit.
On top of that, he was well-spoken.
He was truly some strange sort of person.
As Taesu was thinking that, he suddenly stepped on his own foot.
Press.
“Hm.”
The sharp sensation brought him fully to his senses.
If he let his guard down, he would be swept along without even getting a word in.
Giving him a smack was already out of the question.
Even so, he was not going to beautify his own mistake, which the patient remembered.
A fact was a fact.
Taesu clearly reminded himself of that point and apologized.
“There is something I must apologize for.”
“An apology is completely unnecessary.”
“No. What you remember is correct.”
When Taesu began, Royce looked at him in puzzlement.
“Correct?”
“In my urgency, I began emergency treatment for hemothorax without administering anesthesia. I’m sorry.”
Taesu stubbornly offered his apology and then bowed his head.
But it was unexpected.
Royce thought about it seriously, then refused.
“I will not accept that apology.”
“If it is not enough…”
“In any case, that happened because you were trying to save me in that situation, didn’t it?”
“That is correct.”
When Taesu answered, Royce said flatly.
“Even if such a thing happened, the result is that I am alive and speaking with you like this.”
“Yes.”
“Then I don’t think there’s any problem. I will not take issue with this matter in the future either.”
“Thank you.”
Taesu bowed his head again.
It was an act of gratitude toward someone who had clearly recognized the facts and understood them.