Srrng. Srrng.
Their steps as they pushed the IV stands were all about the same.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu walked side by side right next to him.
Among them, Taesu opened his mouth at once, as if he couldn’t let even this moment slip by.
“When I first opened my eyes…”
And so the three of them moved along side by side.
The sight of them all in patient gowns, pushing IV stands, was incredibly unfamiliar.
Before long, the three of them stopped in front of a room.
But there had been a slight change in all of them.
Taesu’s face was flushed, almost rosy, and full of life.
On the other hand, Kim Hyeokgwon and Jeong Minsu had dark circles under their eyes.
—Small Conference Room.
Kim Hyeokgwon pointed at the nameplate with a limp hand and said,
“We’ve finally, finally arrived.”
“Wow, this bastard. How does he talk without resting for even a second?”
Jeong Minsu looked at Taesu.
His face was like he was looking at some strange animal.
Taesu himself, however, had even more strength in his voice.
“Let’s go in.”
“Take some of the force out of your throat.”
“Anyway, let’s go in.”
Rattle.
Taesu opened the door and went inside with a happy expression.
Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon desperately hoped there would be someone inside to take their place.
The three entered together.
The room was, quite literally, a conference room.
A large table and office equipment were set up inside.
And James and the surgical team members were seated there.
At the appearance of the three, everyone burst into laughter first.
“Puhahaha!”
“Hahaha, what is that!”
“Patient gowns and IV stands, oohahaha!”
They laughed and laughed until they were almost doubled over.
The three fully understood how they felt.
They themselves had laughed countless times when thinking about their current state.
While everyone was still roaring with laughter,
the three slowly approached James.
As soon as they arrived, they bowed their heads in greeting.
“You called for us?”
“I’m sorry for calling you all when you’re still recovering.”
“Not at all. But James, how did you know I’d be moving around today?”
Taesu slipped in a question.
But James returned not an answer, but another question.
“Is Dr. Hanks still sleeping?”
“Yes. He sleeps so much I wonder if it’s really all right for him to sleep like that.”
“I see. Sit down for now.”
James’s reply was concise and heavy.
At that subdued voice, the three exchanged glances.
Shake, shake.
None of them knew anything at all.
“…”
As they all remained silent, James instead asked,
“Do you have something to say?”
“No.”
Tap, tap.
Taesu answered immediately and lightly pushed the other two.
Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon also moved without saying anything more.
They were just looking for empty seats.
Their eyes met those of the surgical team members sitting around the table.
At some point, everyone had stopped laughing.
Even so, when their gazes met again, their faces were full of smiles.
The only ones present were Dr. Izakson, Dr. Ozma, Catherine, and Nurse Lumiere.
Dr. Maximilian and Dr. Jonathan were nowhere to be seen.
Before they even had time to wonder, Dr. Izakson raised a hand and greeted them lightly.
“Hey. You all look healthy.”
“What part of us, exactly?”
“The patient gowns… Pfft. I just said it because the patient gowns suit you.”
Dr. Izakson answered while forcibly holding back laughter.
But that smile was different from a moment ago.
At first, he had laughed heartily, but the smile he wore now held awkwardness.
It wasn’t only Dr. Izakson.
“Are you all feeling all right?”
“We were really worried when we heard the news. I’m sorry we couldn’t come see you.”
Nurse Lumiere and Catherine asked after them.
Their mood, too, was heavy.
At that moment, Taesu asked while gauging the atmosphere.
“It’s not like this because we’re patients, is it?”
“That has nothing to do with it.”
“Exactly. So why is the atmosphere like this?”
“…”
Taesu asked, but no answer came back.
The atmosphere inside the conference room remained heavily sunken.
In the midst of the silence,
“Huuuum.”
A long, drawn-out exhale could be heard.
Whip.
When he immediately turned his gaze, he saw James.
James, who had forcibly smoothed out his deeply troubled expression, looked at Taesu and asked,
“What kind of person was Dr. Hanks, as you saw him?”
“I’d have to have talked to him to answer that. We really haven’t had a conversation.”
“He only sleeps?”
“He sleeps nearly twenty hours a day. Every day since he was admitted until now.”
Taesu had grown tired just watching him.
But James understood that part.
“Yes. He must want to sleep.”
“I’m even more curious what kind of person Dr. Hanks is, for you to feel this pained over him, James.”
Taesu, too, spoke with an expression that had grown subdued.
Jeong Minsu only nodded to show his agreement.
Kim Hyeokgwon, on the other hand, unable to keep it in as was his nature, spoke bluntly.
“It’s fine to keep setting the mood, but let us know the reason.”
Kim Hyeokgwon’s tone was sharp, but no one reacted.
Everyone was used to the way he spoke, so no one paid it any mind.
James spoke with a heavy expression.
“It seems you were very curious.”
“I thought I’d be able to hear about it someday if I met you, James.”
“I see. Then first, Dr. Izakson will explain it briefly, so listen.”
The voice he let out was heavy as well.
That expression continued to grate on Taesu’s nerves.
Why on earth?
James had met countless patients over a long span of time.
He must also have experienced more heartbreaking stories hidden among them than could be counted.
The experience he had accumulated was immense.
With most stories, he could swallow his pity and transform it into a smile.
The heaviness such a man was showing made Taesu wonder just what kind of patient this was.
Soon, the beam projector cast light onto the white screen.
“Let’s talk while looking at this first.”
Swoosh.
Dr. Izakson moved his body, which had been blocking the screen, to the side.
Only then did a screen made up of various test results appear.
CT, MRI, ultrasound, and more.
The NGO headquarters building was, in the literal sense, a hospital.
All the latest diagnostic machines were prepared there. The screen was filled with specialized test results obtained using those machines.
The three were already looking at the screen.
Kim Hyeokgwon spoke first in a sullen voice.
“This is like making fun of someone who can’t read.”
He announced through his grumbling that he had absolutely no experience in the field of radiology.
But Taesu and Jeong Minsu were different.
Basic though it was, they had experience analyzing imaging studies.
Jeong Minsu pointed first at a white area in the scan.
“Is that, by any chance… the pancreas?”
“…”
“Below the stomach, close to the spleen, so I think that’s right… Why does it look like that?”
His expression, which had been calmly analyzing it, gradually filled with puzzlement.
But Taesu couldn’t give any answer.
His deeply sunken gaze was directed entirely at James.
The diagnosis on those test results was?
—Acute pancreatic cancer.
It was acute pancreatic cancer.
On top of that, notations such as T4, N2, and M1 were listed as well.
T4 meant the malignant tumor had invaded major arteries.
N2 meant it had metastasized to at least four lymph nodes.
Lastly, M1 meant distant metastasis. In other words, cancer cells had been found in places other than the pancreas and its surroundings.
Combining everything made it possible to gauge the stage of the cancer’s progression.
The current condition of that patient was?
Stage 4.
Stage 4—terminal pancreatic cancer.
Taesu recognized it at a glance when he saw the results.
Though it was Caprene’s memory, even though it was a surgical condition, it remained vividly in his mind.
That was because it was connected to James’s pain.
James Jr.
James’s son had died from that very acute pancreatic cancer.
Now he keenly understood why James’s mood had sunk.
With complicated feelings, Taesu looked at James with sorrowful eyes.
At that moment, Dr. Izakson began the briefing.
“You already know about the patient.”
“Then the person these imaging results belong to is…”
“Dr. Hanks. Himself.”
The moment those words were spoken,
Taesu sucked in a sharp breath.
“Hup!”
It wasn’t only Taesu’s reaction.
Jeong Minsu’s face was also filled with disbelief.
“W-what is this…”
“Even doctors aren’t invincible.”
Kim Hyeokgwon spat out bitter words with his brow deeply furrowed.
All three of them were shocked like that.
As if he had expected such a reaction, Dr. Izakson calmly continued the briefing.
About ten minutes passed.
Dr. Izakson’s briefing had ended a little while ago.
And drinks had been placed in front of the three.
Thud.
Taesu held the drink with both hands, his gaze filled with complicated emotions.
“…”
“…”
Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon also couldn’t easily say anything.
It felt as though the heaviness of James and the surgical team had been transferred to them.
Then the sound of a chair came.
Scrape.
When Taesu looked toward the sound, James was getting up.
Then James circled around the table and approached.
Step, step.
In the space filled with silence, only the sound of his footsteps could be heard.
James, who came between Taesu and Jeong Minsu, perched on the table.
Looking back and forth between Taesu and Jeong Minsu seated on either side, James spoke his first words.
“Are you shocked that a doctor didn’t know about his own condition until it reached that point?”
“To be honest, it’s not easy to understand.”
“Hoho. Because he’s a doctor, because he’s a doctor, he must know all about illness. Is that really so?”
The end of James’s voice trembled faintly.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu looked at him with somewhat complicated expressions.
“…”
“…”
When both of them remained silent, James opened his mouth again.
“Rather, there are more things we overlook because we’re doctors.”
“Is… that so?”
“Dr. Choi.”
At James’s call, Taesu flinched and answered.
“Yes. Dr. James.”
“If you felt abdominal pain right now, what would you do?”
“I’d check my vitals first.”
When Taesu gave the textbook answer, James nodded and asked again.
“You would. But what if there was a patient right in front of you?”
“…I’d brush it off as nothing serious.”
“What if that repeated?”
James asked in a weighty tone.
Everyone’s gaze focused on Taesu.
Taesu didn’t care about those gazes.
More than that, the greater problem was that even he didn’t like the answer he was about to give.
He couldn’t lie to James when it came to medicine.
For that reason alone, he honestly said what he would do.
“I’d take a painkiller.”
“That’s an overly honest answer.”
“Because that’s the truth.”
Because Taesu understood the meaning behind his own answer, the bitterness in his mouth was even stronger.
It seemed James felt the same way.
“Yes. That’s the truth. For me, and for the other doctors, nurses, and interpreters here as well.”
At those words, Kim Hyeokgwon flinched and glanced sideways.
“If an interpreter is sick, he can just go to a doctor.”
“What if an emergency surgery is right before your eyes?”
“Damn it. I’d probably steal one of the painkillers Dr. Choi was going to take.”
Kim Hyeokgwon answered bluntly, as if it were a pointless question.
But James smiled faintly.