Just then, Nurse Casey slipped aside.
Swish.
Only then could he see Kim Hyeokgwon and Jeong Minsu.
Jeong Minsu was still asleep, with Nurse Ellen watching over him.
Flutter, flutter.
When their eyes met, Taesu and Nurse Ellen lightly waved at each other.
Having roughly grasped the situation, Taesu sat back up.
“Hup.”
“You should stay lying down a little longer.”
“If I’m awake, I should move.”
“I told you not to overdo it.”
Even at Nurse Casey’s threat, Taesu answered with a smile.
“Everyone’s busy. It doesn’t feel right for me to be the only one lying around.”
“If you’re told to lie down, then lie down.”
Nurse Casey’s voice gradually rose.
Seeing Taesu looking stable seemed to have eased her worries, and she was returning to her usual self.
Just then, Nurse Ellen called for Nurse Casey.
“Casey, it’s time.”
“I know that too, but it’s because of this stubborn doctor.”
“Still, hurry and go. You’ll be late for surgery.”
“That won’t do. Then please take care of him.”
After answering, Nurse Casey immediately moved to leave.
From the conversation, it seemed Nurse Casey had been watching over him, and Nurse Ellen had come to take over.
Scrape.
Nurse Casey rose from her seat and said one thing to Taesu.
“Listen to Ellen, and don’t get up.”
“You said you were out of time.”
“I’m going. I am, but don’t make me worry.”
“I’ll do my best so you can feel at ease, Casey.”
Taesu answered readily.
Only then did Nurse Casey move with a satisfied expression.
Tap-tap-tap.
The moment she left the medical tent, Taesu climbed down from the bed as naturally as could be.
Thud.
“Hmm. Not bad.”
For a moment, his legs trembled, but strength soon returned to them.
Just as the satisfied Taesu was about to move, Nurse Ellen’s sharp voice rang out.
“You said you weren’t getting down.”
“I never said that.”
“You just said it to Casey. I remember everything.”
Nurse Ellen took a hard line.
Even so, Taesu’s expression was full of ease.
“I said I’d do my best so she could feel at ease.”
“That means the same thing.”
“No, it doesn’t. If I’m a patient, then I should be somewhere my dedicated nurse can always keep an eye on me.”
Taesu spoke with plenty of shameless charm.
As Nurse Ellen chewed over the meaning, she tilted her head.
“What does that mean?”
“It means he’s going to follow Doctor Oliver into surgery.”
Kim Hyeokgwon immediately got to the heart of it.
Taesu was glad there was less for him to say.
“Bingo.”
“Don’t say anything ridiculous. If you drag me in too, it won’t be funny.”
“Please rest well.”
“Of course I should. When I was Doctor Choi’s age, I used to run around all day too. I can’t do that now.”
The notoriously tough Kim Hyeokgwon let out a complaint.
Right now, even his allowance didn’t seem to be on his mind.
That was how unwilling he was to end his current rest.
Taesu had no intention of disturbing that either.
“Rest a little more. Ellen, please take care of him.”
Step. Step.
Taesu confidently made his request and headed straight out of the medical tent.
Watching him, Ellen shook her head.
Knowing Taesu wouldn’t listen to her anyway, she didn’t waste her energy for nothing.
After coming out of the surgical tent, Taesu first took a broad look around.
White medical canopies and medical tents filled the area in every direction.
Seeing that, Taesu was startled.
“Wow.”
He couldn’t immediately gauge just how large the main unit was.
And in the center, an NGO flag had been raised high.
With that single flag, southern Malnoi had become NGO territory.
It was an inviolable zone, so no one would be able to act recklessly here.
Taesu’s gaze searched for Casey.
He spotted her again by her familiar figure from behind.
She quickly entered one of the medical tents.
That seemed to be the operating room where Doctor Oliver would be performing surgery.
“Shall I go?”
Taesu immediately headed that way.
Step, step.
For all his resolve, his pace was not fast.
His physical condition still wasn’t good enough for him to run.
He knew that better than anyone.
Even so, the reason he had come out like this was for the patients now filling his sight.
He could easily glimpse inside the medical canopies, which were open on all sides.
Inside, there were familiar faces everywhere.
Most were patients Taesu had met face-to-face and examined for the first time.
That didn’t mean all of them were.
It seemed to be about half.
“Still, their expressions have improved a bit… I can’t really say that.”
Taesu had to turn aside the words he was muttering.
Many patients had been freed from pain.
But there was no bright or hopeful look to be found.
Above all, evening was approaching.
The patients were in a situation where they would be spending the night outside, not in warm homes.
Telling them to rejoice just because their physical pain had been erased was absurd.
Around the depressed people were volunteers.
The volunteers tended to and cared for the patients, offering sincere comfort.
Thanks to that, at least the atmosphere in the medical canopies was not boiling over with anger.
After taking it all in, Taesu’s expression hardened.
As expected, this was no time to lie comfortably and rest.
Step, step.
His steps toward Doctor Oliver’s surgical tent grew even faster.
A short while later.
The situation unfolded in the exact opposite direction of Taesu’s determination.
The flap of Doctor Oliver’s surgical tent was open.
From inside came Casey’s sharp scolding.
“Hurry up and get out. Don’t even come near.”
At the same time.
Step, step.
Taesu came out of the tent, walking backward.
He even held out both hands, flustered.
“All right. I said all right.”
At a glance, he had clearly been driven out.
No, he had been turned away at the door.
Taesu was bewildered as well, since he hadn’t expected this situation.
Just then, Doctor Oliver poked out only his face and spoke in a whisper.
“It won’t do you any good to try anywhere else.”
“Isn’t Doctor Schmidt being too harsh on me?”
“I told you, it’s Doctor James’s order.”
“Still, Doctor Schmidt should stand in front and shield me.”
Taesu poured out his grievance, but Doctor Oliver looked dumbfounded.
“If he did that, even Doctor Schmidt would get chewed out.”
“You said you were friends. Friends shouldn’t be like this.”
“Friends don’t matter in front of Doctor James. So quietly go back.”
Swish.
Doctor Oliver lowered the flap, forcibly ending the conversation.
The more accurate reason was that he couldn’t withstand Nurse Casey’s glare from behind him.
With a sulky face, Taesu said one thing to the closed medical tent.
“Doctor Oliver, please proceed with the surgery at full speed.”
It was a voice of encouragement that did not match his expression at all.
If it was James’s order, then within the NGO, it was law.
Knowing that, he couldn’t blame Doctor Oliver for feeling hurt.
But Taesu was not the sort of person to give up so easily.
“If we’re talking patient shares, I come first.”
He brazenly used his history of first examinations as his argument.
Then he immediately walked toward another surgical tent.
But the response was the same everywhere.
“Surgery? No.”
“Doctor Benedict, it’s me, Doctor Choi.”
“I know. I heard you did an incredible job on emergency treatment for the aortic aneurysm patient. You worked hard. Then bye.”
Swish.
The flap closed heartlessly.
Taesu quickly let go of lingering attachment and pushed forward out of sheer stubbornness.
Then the next one.
Of course, it was the same.
“Doctor Choi? No.”
“Kuti. What about our samba? What about soul?”
“No, no. Samba and soul are important, but not as important as Doctor James’s order.”
“Kuti.”
Swish.
Taesu called out plaintively, but the flap came down just the same.
By this point, Taesu also grew fierce.
“How petty.”
If surgery was out, all he had to do was switch routes.
He immediately turned his steps in search of internal medicine.
But it was no different there either.
Shuffle.
Taesu backed out of the ward tent.
Doctor Galleon, who had pushed Taesu out like that, refused him with a firm expression.
“Doctor Choi, you’re banned from entering.”
“Galleon, I’m just saying I’ll watch and write charts. It’s nothing big.”
“My neck is on the line for that nothing big. Stop wandering and go back.”
Swish.
This time too, the flap came down mercilessly.
Turning away, Taesu’s shoulders drooped on both sides.
“Seriously, everyone’s being too much.”
As he grumbled, Taesu paused.
There was no point blaming them.
He just had to settle it directly with James, the one who had given the order.
Taesu walked straight toward a medical tent with a slightly unusual shape.
Before long, Taesu arrived at that unusual medical tent.
To be exact, it was a break room.
It was meant for medical staff who had finished surgery to pull themselves together.
Medical staff were people too, and sometimes they wanted to rest briefly out of sight.
Taesu had only heard about the break tent; this was his first time seeing it.
But he had no time to dwell on that.
Rustle.
He immediately opened the flap and went inside.
The interior looked exactly suited to the words “break tent.”
There were several tables, and on one side were camp beds where one could briefly close their eyes.
Food and drinks had also been prepared in a decent assortment.
Several members of the medical staff were there.
By now, quite a few of them were acquainted with Taesu.
They all looked pleased to see him.
But they couldn’t express it aloud.
Slide.
They merely raised their hands in brief greeting.
The moment Taesu stepped inside, he sensed the subdued atmosphere.
That was because Doctor James, Doctor Schmidt, and Doctor Wallick were seated at a table near the corner.
None of them were the type to flaunt their authority.
However, the mere fact that these giants were gathered together overwhelmed the atmosphere of the break tent.
Taesu paid no mind to that atmosphere.
Step, step.
Walking boldly straight toward them, Taesu greeted them first.
“I’ve come to greet you now that I’m conscious.”
Bow.
Taesu bowed his head politely.
James looked at him calmly, then spoke.
“Your complexion is much better.”
“Yes. I rested well.”
“I don’t think you came just to say hello. Sit down and talk.”
James readily offered the remaining seat.
After lightly bowing his head to Doctor Schmidt and Doctor Wallick, Taesu sat down.
Thud.
Then he asked James to confirm.
“By any chance, did you forbid me from entering the operating room?”
“Including those two, all of you.”
“If it’s because you’re worried about my health, I’m fine. No, I’m this full of energy.”
Flex.
Taesu raised his arm and emphasized his biceps.
Unlike the forceful way he had approached, he protested with gentle words and demeanor.
It was right then.
Suddenly, a small smile appeared on Doctor Wallick’s cold face.
Then he held out his hand to Doctor Schmidt and said one thing.
Slide.
“Ha-ha. See?”
“Tch.”
Tap.
Doctor Schmidt frowned and placed something in that hand.