Tyler’s eyes darted frantically left and right before he quickly caught on and answered.
“R-right. I think that’s true.”
“Then let’s quietly wait our turn.”
“I’m fine. I’m really fine.”
Drip.
When Tyler’s expression shifted violently, blood began flowing from his forehead again.
Tyler quickly wiped it away and waved his hand.
“Haha. It’s nothing. It’s just sweat.”
“What did you say?”
“Gasp, I’m sorry.”
Tyler flinched and apologized.
Just then, Jeong Minsu took some gauze from his cargo pocket and held it out.
“Press this on it, and it should stop the bleeding.”
“Yes, yes. Of course. Don’t worry about me, and… go see that, that person first…”
“Thank you for understanding.”
Tap, tap.
Jeong Minsu lightly patted Tyler on the shoulder and stood up.
From there, Jeong Minsu went back into the tent.
“I’m not late, am I?”
“You were even checking the time in the middle of all that?”
“That’s what comes first.”
Thud.
Jeong Minsu set down the duffel bag and found an alcohol swab.
At that moment, Taesu spoke with a displeased look on his face.
“Did you really have to knock him out to feel satisfied?”
“I did it because of you.”
“Why are you dragging me into this?”
“Never mind. It’s time. Let’s hurry and start.”
Jeong Minsu busily changed the subject.
Finding that behavior far too strange, Taesu instead stopped his hands and asked.
“What about me?”
“I’ll disinfect your hands first.”
“Jeong Minsu.”
Taesu called his name in a low voice.
He didn’t want to do this.
But considering Kim Hyeokgwon earlier as well, something felt off.
Taesu didn’t waste time blindly.
Beep, beep.
He kept pressing the automatic blood pressure monitor to check the vitals.
With the transfusion and medication, the vitals had improved somewhat.
At the very least, there was time to hear an answer.
Jeong Minsu, realizing as much from Taesu’s actions, had no choice but to answer.
“He said it was strange that the kid stopped crying when you held her.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“He asked if maybe you’d secretly caused some kind of trouble here.”
“What?”
Taesu doubted his own ears.
Jeong Minsu glanced at Taesu and tossed it off as if it were no big deal.
“You know, the kind of tone European guys often use when they’re picking a fight.”
“……”
“I told you, don’t worry about it… Now, let’s hurry and start.”
“……”
Taesu’s expression had hardened before he knew it.
Even if it had been said in anger, this was far too severe an insult.
“So that’s what he said.”
Tremble.
His shoulders quivered faintly, then suddenly stopped.
All at once, Taesu’s eyes flashed fiercely, and he tried to rise.
Flash.
At that moment, Kim Hyeokgwon’s voice blocked him.
“Stop.”
Thud.
He even placed a hand on Taesu’s shoulder and pressed him back down.
Only after feeling that touch did Taesu withdraw his cold gaze and let out a long breath.
“Phew.”
Jeong Minsu grumbled with a bitter expression.
“That’s why I said I’d tell you later.”
“Let’s deal with the emergency first. And later, hand that bastard over to me.”
“You planning to kill him outright?”
“That’s one option.”
Grit.
Taesu even ground his teeth.
If treatment was stopped midway, someone could be upset.
He could understand that a hundred times over, a thousand times over.
Even so, insulting someone’s character was unacceptable.
For now, the emergency patient in front of him came first, so he suppressed his anger.
Taesu coated his hands with disinfectant and quickly put on surgical gloves.
It was clear he was focused on emergency treatment.
Only then did Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon relax and continue preparing.
Just then, Taesu, who had been rubbing his hands roughly, spoke quietly to Jeong Minsu.
“Thanks.”
“Would you have held back if you were me?”
“I would’ve half-killed him.”
“That’s why I settled it with my own hands first. I didn’t want to increase the number of emergency patients.”
Jeong Minsu let the words slip.
Stung, Taesu quickly shifted the mood.
“Is this the time to be talking?”
“Bullshit.”
“So, are you ready?”
Taesu abruptly pulled the atmosphere taut.
Now was truly the moment to begin emergency treatment.
Twenty seconds had passed beyond the expected start time.
It was time to not just make up for that, but to save a life.
Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon sensed that as well and nodded heavily.
Nod.
Taesu’s voice rang out immediately.
“Hyeokgwon. Pull it out.”
“Whew. Here goes. One, two… three.”
Rrrip.
Kim Hyeokgwon slowly pulled out the brick first.
The awful sound of already clotted blood and bits of tissue tearing away followed.
Gush, gush.
The accumulated internal bleeding poured out as well.
As expected, the brick he pulled out was not an intact rectangular block.
It had been shattered diagonally in a chaotic way.
“It really broke in the most goddamn awful way.”
Kim Hyeokgwon grimaced deeply and grumbled.
It was also a voice that had already guessed where the brick had originally come from.
Just as he had expected, this brick had come from that bus stop.
It was clear it had been sharply broken by the explosion, gained momentum, and become a weapon.
But that was something to deal with later.
Once the brick was removed, the affected area appeared before their eyes.
Now it was Taesu and Jeong Minsu’s turn, as they had been waiting.
Swish, swish.
The surgical tools rushed straight to the wound in an instant, and sharp voices crossed.
“Minsu, gauze.”
“Saline first.”
“I’m spraying it.”
“Me too.”
Ssshh. Pat, patter.
As if making their orders to each other meaningless, saline and gauze appeared at the same timing.
And each of them used long-nose forceps and a needle holder.
Slide, scrape.
They moved the surgical tools fluidly, washing with saline and clearing away the bleeding with gauze.
That was the first step, and at the next timing, Kim Hyeokgwon joined in.
“Saline first.”
“Over here.”
“Going there. And gauze too.”
Kim Hyeokgwon sprayed saline while scattering gauze at the same time.
His skill as a surgical assistant was undeniably superb.
Because they trusted him, Taesu and Jeong Minsu could focus even more solely on the wound.
In field emergency treatment, bleeding was always the greatest difficulty.
They had already cleared away the bleeding several times, but the bleeding point still hadn’t been found.
“Where the hell is it?”
“What do you want me to do?”
Taesu and Jeong Minsu’s irritation exploded at the same time.
It was the same for Kim Hyeokgwon.
“Try finding it properly.”
Squeeze, squeeze.
At some point, he had moved over to the IV and was squeezing the blood pack and glucose.
That was how serious the bleeding was.
It would have been nice if they could at least catch one major vessel, but they couldn’t see it.
They were aware of nothing around them, concentrating every nerve solely on the wound.
It was just as they were moving their hands with such caution.
Jeong Minsu suddenly shouted.
“Taesu, stop.”
“Did you find it?”
Taesu, who had stopped reflexively, asked.
“……”
Jeong Minsu gave no answer.
Taesu, too, did not press him right now and quietly waited.
Tick, tick.
It felt as though the sound of a nonexistent second hand was needlessly scratching at their ears.
As he counted nearly ten seconds in his head like that…
It felt as though the bleeding had lessened a little.
“Mm?”
“Huh?”
They sensed it at the same time, but neither spoke rashly.
Had he read that subtle shift in the air?
Kim Hyeokgwon had already pressed the automatic blood pressure monitor repeatedly to confirm it several times.
Beep, beep, beep…
After checking ten times over about a minute, Kim Hyeokgwon recited the average values.
“The average pulse is… and the first and last were…”
As an added bonus, he even told them the changes in the numbers from the first reading to the tenth.
He had memorized it all in his head in that short time.
That kind of sight no longer surprised them.
Instead, there was other surprising—no, good—news.
Taesu mentioned it.
“We did catch it, didn’t we?”
“We definitely caught one big one. There’s still some left, though.”
“If we keep going like this, we should be able to catch it all.”
Taesu’s expression brightened.
Jeong Minsu seemed to be regaining energy as well.
The atmosphere inside the tent grew hot with the feeling that something was finally working out.
But then it happened.
Squad Leader Sam’s rough voice came through the in-ear.
—Beep. Doctor Choi, emergency.
At that sound, Taesu, Jeong Minsu, and even Kim Hyeokgwon flinched.
“Another emergency?”
“In this situation?”
“Damn it. Are they kidding?”
They snapped in irritation, but their expressions had already grown serious.
They had asked him to look for other patients, but they had not wanted an emergency patient.
They couldn’t blame Squad Leader Sam for that.
But of all times, the call had come now.
There was no sense of commotion outside the tent.
It seemed it wasn’t nearby.
Then Squad Leader Sam’s voice came through urgently once more.
—Beep. The patient we found is currently trapped under the bus.
Everyone’s eyes widened.
“And they’re only finding them now?”
“What the hell is going on?”
“At this point, it really feels like everything’s gone off the rails.”
Bitter words slipped out on their own.
As they grumbled, Squad Leader Sam’s voice came through yet again.
—Beep. One of you needs to come this way. We have to hurry.
For an instant, despair appeared on Taesu and Jeong Minsu’s faces.
“In the middle of this…”
“You want us to split up?”
There were only three medical personnel.
The patient whose emergency treatment had just begun.
The patient who had been pinned under the bus for a long time.
And there was no guarantee there weren’t other patients besides them.
When they calculated it, embracing everyone was impossible in itself.
But they had to do it.
Because they knew how precious human life was, they could not be the first to raise both hands in surrender.
Still, it was true that they were at a loss.
With an expression full of sincerity, Taesu spat out one cold phrase.
“Goddamn it.”
The curse came out on its own.
Cursing like that changed nothing.
Only by moving would change begin.
Taesu quickly assessed the situation and told Jeong Minsu.
“I’ll go.”
“Take the morphine from my cargo pocket.”
Snap.
Jeong Minsu stretched out one leg, not caring about his uncomfortable position.
Just as Taesu was about to move, Kim Hyeokgwon had already arrived beside Jeong Minsu.
“It’s in here?”
“There, yes… That’s it.”
Rustle.
Kim Hyeokgwon rummaged through the cargo pocket and pulled out a distinctive syringe.
After checking it once, Kim Hyeokgwon immediately tossed it to Taesu.
“Doctor Choi. Here.”
Whoosh, smack.
Taesu caught it and was about to spring up and run.
“Then I’ll g—”
“Stop. You’re going to go barehanded with just that?”
“Ugh… When are we supposed to disinfect all this?”
Taesu, stopping unsteadily, pointed at the scattered surgical tools and protested.
Kim Hyeokgwon held out the duffel bag he had been carrying.
“Take mine. I stuffed all kinds of things in it.”
“Understood. Then…”
“What nagging were you about to start again?”
“Come on, come on, we can do this.”
Tatata.
Taesu gave them a powerful cheer, hurried out of the tent, and ran toward the bus.