Piiing!
He even shot him an icy glare.
There was a clear reason for Taesu’s sharp demeanor. Gim Hyeokgwon, having experienced it all this time, sensibly backed off.
“Ahem…… In any case, he says he wants to help.”
“He can’t. Tell him to look at his shoulder.”
“Shoulder? Ah, @%#…….”
Gim Hyeokgwon caught on at once and relayed the words to the heavily bearded patient.
On the patient’s shoulder, wrapped in a compression bandage, faint blood began to appear like tiny dots.
It was because he had moved too violently after the emergency treatment.
If he continued helping other patients, it would only get worse.
The heavily bearded patient saw it too, but he looked regretful. After Gim Hyeokgwon added a few more words, he nodded and rose from his seat.
Thud, thud.
The heavily bearded patient moved away.
Sensing something oddly solemn about him, Taesu immediately asked.
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him to leave his body alone and just run his mouth.”
“Mr. Hyeokgwon. Again……”
“This is just how I talk. I’m not taking this situation lightly. I’m just like this by nature.”
Gim Hyeokgwon glanced sideways at him.
But Taesu didn’t believe him.
When he was serious, he became more serious than anyone.
The immense pressure and stress were flooding in all at once, making him talk more than usual.
That was how passionately he was administering emergency treatment.
Taking that into account, Taesu accepted it for now.
“Understood. Let’s go see another patient.”
“But let me ask you one thing. That patient just now—did you really push him away because of his arm?”
“That was part of it, but it’s a little hard to do things my way when the patient is watching right next to me.”
“Ah, that way of yours.”
Gim Hyeokgwon’s face showed sudden understanding.
Taesu’s way?
One only had to watch.
The very next patient was the perfect case for showing it.
The next patient’s symptoms?
He was a patient Gim Hyeokgwon had dressed first.
His quick-witted action had reduced much of Taesu’s work.
His experience in Izambark was clearly working to their advantage in this situation.
But there was no time to be impressed.
The patient’s right leg was pointed in an impossible direction, as if it had been broken. The bone had torn through the flesh and protruded, making the sight even more horrific.
On top of that, it had been left untreated for over a day and had begun to fester.
The fortunate thing was that although the leg was badly swollen, the color of his toes wasn’t bad. That meant vascular complications had been narrowly avoided.
With cold eyes, Taesu gave an order.
“Put a gag in the patient’s mouth.”
“Don’t tell me?”
Sensing something ominous, Gim Hyeokgwon flinched and asked.
As if that hunch were correct, Taesu threw out only one sentence without any expression.
“We have no choice.”
“Brutal……”
“You think I’m doing this because I want to? We don’t have time.”
“Sigh. Being a real doctor is seriously not something a person should do. Hey. @#$@%.%……”
Grumbling for no reason, Gim Hyeokgwon interpreted the situation for the patient.
The patient, terrified, only nodded.
Unfortunately, there was no second-best option for him.
At that moment, Taesu picked up a syringe.
The injectable drug this time was bupivacaine.
It was the strongest among local anesthetics. It was also the greatest kindness Taesu could offer the patient.
The injection was administered immediately.
Poke, poke.
He pricked evenly around the broken leg.
The patient did not complain of pain from the needle.
“He’s less dramatic than the man just now.”
It was good enough that he didn’t have to struggle with him for nothing.
In any case, the preparations were complete.
The patient already had a gag in his mouth.
Now the real work began.
Without delay, Taesu placed his hands on the broken leg.
Tap.
“Uhp.”
The patient flinched, but perhaps because the pain was less than he had expected, his face changed to one of surprise.
It was exactly the expression of someone caught off guard.
Not missing that moment, Taesu immediately called for Gim Hyeokgwon.
“Mr. Hyeokgwon.”
“Hold on.”
Thud.
Gim Hyeokgwon laid the patient down and firmly pressed down on his shoulders.
Nod.
He gave the signal.
Meanwhile, the patient?
“Mmmp, mmmp, mmmp.”
Realizing something was wrong, his eyes shook wildly.
But it was already too late.
At that moment, Taesu gripped the broken leg and twisted it mercilessly.
Crack.
A horrifying sound rang out as bone and muscle were wrenched out of place.
At the same time.
The patient’s eyes opened so wide they seemed about to split.
“Kkuuaaaa!”
The patient spat out even the gag and screamed desperately.
The sound was so loud it filled the medical tent.
His face twisted just as violently, and fluids streamed from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
The other patients were so startled that they forgot their own pain and stared.
But Taesu paid no mind to those gazes.
He continued moving the leg of the patient writhing in terrible agony.
Crunch, crack.
The sound of flesh tearing and bones shifting out of alignment came several times. The more it did, the more the grotesquely protruding bone found its proper place and returned to where it belonged.
The patient?
Surprisingly, he was quiet.
No, he couldn’t speak.
“……”
Unable to endure the pain, he had rolled his eyes back and fainted.
Glance.
“Wise of you.”
Glancing sideways at the unconscious patient, Taesu murmured quietly. Even then, the rough emergency treatment continued in both his hands.
Bursting and squeezing out the pus, and so on.
He continued the most basic yet certain treatment.
This time, Gim Hyeokgwon stayed right beside him and assisted.
“Here, gauze.”
“Saline, please.”
“Here.”
“Next……”
Swish, swish.
Taesu and Gim Hyeokgwon continued the emergency treatment without stopping.
They were so focused that they didn’t even notice the surroundings had suddenly gone quiet.
And a short while later.
Taesu, having finished the emergency treatment, raised his head.
The patient’s leg was already secured firmly with a cast and compression bandage. It was the result of doing his best in a short amount of time.
At that moment, Gim Hyeokgwon tilted his head.
“It’s strangely quiet.”
“Quiet…… You’re right.”
“Why do I feel like the looks coming this way aren’t exactly friendly?”
A rotten smile hung on Gim Hyeokgwon’s face as he asked.
It seemed he already knew the reason.
Just as Gim Hyeokgwon said, the faces of the injured people watching them held both pain and fear.
It stung.
Taesu saw it too, but forced himself to speak calmly.
“From their perspective, I suppose that’s understandable.”
“They must be scared out of their wits.”
“More than the patients here, I’m worried about that doctor over there.”
Taesu’s gaze turned toward Jeong Minsu.
He was administering emergency treatment to patients.
But only to some of them, not all.
Even that was not going smoothly.
“W-wait a moment. No, just……”
He couldn’t properly control the patient and couldn’t even speak properly.
Taesu’s expression grew heavy as he watched.
“What do we do with him?”
The only person he could complain to was Gim Hyeokgwon.
Since the man was second to none when it came to sharp, incisive speech, he spoke bluntly as expected.
“He is a doctor, right?”
“I have nothing to say right now.”
“He didn’t forge his medical license, did he?”
“Probably.”
Taesu’s answering voice grew smaller and smaller.
Meanwhile, as Gim Hyeokgwon watched Jeong Minsu, the corners of his eyes rose higher and higher.
“Doctor Choe, did Doctor Jeong never see patients in Korea?”
“We’re both only residents now. I told you before, didn’t I?”
“Then why are things completely different over here and over there?”
“Maybe it’s a difference in experience?”
Taesu subtly asked back.
At that moment, Gim Hyeokgwon shot him a sideways glare.
“I know it sounds ridiculous coming from me, but does an illness hurt more or less depending on a doctor’s personality?”
“……”
“You know it’ll be a problem if he keeps going on like that, right?”
Gim Hyeokgwon snapped sharply.
It was true.
If a doctor hesitated, a patient’s life could be put in danger.
Even though the two were talking, they had not stopped working.
With their backs to each other, they were each examining patients.
Tap, rustle.
As an interpreter, all Gim Hyeokgwon could do was barely manage dressing wounds. He didn’t know how to do anything beyond that, and he couldn’t.
But it wasn’t something to dismiss as “only that.”
Gim Hyeokgwon’s help was a tremendous comfort to Taesu right now.
As for Jeong Minsu?
He was kindly adding more worries on top.
“That beautiful bastard.”
A clear and lovely sound(?) came out of his mouth on its own.
That was when emergency treatment of the patients was continuing.
Baaang.
A horn sounded from below the hill.
Soon, a military truck climbing the hill came into view.
It was a PKO truck.
Peacekeeping forces.
As the name implied, they mediated wars but did not interfere.
Unless they were touched, that was.
If they were touched?
The price paid would exceed anything imaginable.
Thanks to them, they served as a shield that allowed the NGO to continue its medical volunteer work with relative ease.
Setting up medical tents, transporting critical patients to the NGO camp, and so on.
They were the ones who crisscrossed this harsh battlefield, becoming the strength and feet of the medical staff.
Soon, the military truck stopped, and soldiers got out.
Thud, thud.
They were soldiers too, so they were equipped with individual combat gear.
When they saw the soldiers, the villagers near the medical tent were visibly tense.
They knew who they were, but fear and hostility toward soldiers had already taken deep root.
At least they were not Indian or Pakistani soldiers, so their reaction only went as far as tension.
The atmosphere around the medical tent began to change subtly.
Taesu knew it too, but there was nothing he could say.
At that moment, someone familiar approached.
It was Squad Leader Sam, whom he had formed a connection with in Izambark.
He gave Taesu a light salute and spoke quickly.
“We handed over all fifteen residents from this place safely to the NGO and returned.”
“You’ve worked hard.”
“Thank you. But those people still seem afraid of us.”
Squad Leader Sam’s expression darkened as he spoke.
Squad Leader Sam and his men had deliberately slung their rifles behind their backs. That alone showed great consideration for the residents.
Taesu knew that well, but a bitter smile appeared on his face.
A heart startled by a turtle would panic even at a pot lid.
Fully understanding how the villagers felt, Taesu slowly opened his mouth.
“They went through what happened yesterday. How could they not?”
“Those damned bastards. Ah, I heard one good piece of news from headquarters.”
At Squad Leader Sam’s sudden turn of words, Taesu tilted his head.
“What good news?”
“They say both sides contacted us first, saying they won’t fight around this area.”
“Why all of a sudden?”
“……”
Squad Leader Sam simply looked at him in silence.
Meeting that gaze, Taesu still couldn’t catch on.
At that moment, Gim Hyeokgwon’s voice came from behind him.
“What the hell is wrong with this man’s intuition? Sometimes he gets it before you even finish speaking, and other times he’s dense as a rock. There’s no middle ground with him.”
“What did I do?”
“You still don’t get it after this? Is there some illness that fits this? If there is, I feel like buying the medicine myself.”
Exasperation was mixed into Gim Hyeokgwon’s question.
Taesu was unbothered by his crooked tone.
More than that, it was more shocking to hear the world-class miser Gim Hyeokgwon say he would buy something for him.