Bak Huinam's eyes blazed to life immediately.
"That's right. I nailed it!"
"I adore him so fervently, but it seems Teacher Choe has very high standards."
"What's wrong with this nurse here? Teacher Choe was a bit harsh."
"That's right. It was a bit harsh."
Nurse I Chorong finished changing the IV bag and continued the friendly banter.
Meanwhile, Bak Huinam grew serious.
On top of that, the uncle's signature boasting exploded forth.
"Don't worry. Teacher Choe can't even twitch if it's my word."
"Really?"
"Of course. I'm the kind of person who scolded Teacher Choe through the night just the other day."
"Wow, you must be an amazing person."
"Ahem. It's only because I'm lying down like this. Those who know, know."
Bak Huinam treated his boasts as established fact and even put on airs.
As Nurse I Chorong good-naturedly went along with the mood, he seemed to get even more excited.
But from Taesu's standpoint, he couldn't watch anymore.
"Stop it, you two."
"Hoho."
Nurse I Chorong showed a smile.
In contrast, perhaps because of what he'd said earlier, Bak Huinam thumped his chest loudly.
"Can Teacher Choe speak to me like that? Then he's useless!"
"Yes. I was wrong."
"Yeah. Since you've admitted you're wrong, I'll... let it slide. You should have done so from the start."
Bak Huinam's voice gradually trailed off, perhaps because even he found his own loud boasting embarrassing.
Taesu didn't dislike that reaction of his.
It was because such loud banter couldn't be exchanged unless they truly considered each other close.
Taesu saved Bak Huinam's face and asked,
"Mister, may I step out and talk with Nurse I Chorong for a moment?"
"If you're going to speak ill of me, do it here."
"It's not like that."
"Then do as you like."
"Excuse me for a moment."
Taesu asked for brief understanding and headed outside the hospital room.
Nurse I Chorong followed behind him, waving her hand at Bak Huinam.
The two stood in the hallway in turn.
Clack.
It was the moment the door closed.
Taesu's indifferent expression bloomed brightly, as if by a lie.
"Nurse, have you been well? Everyone is here, right?"
"I should be the one asking. I heard the news, but still, what is this? It breaks my heart."
"I'm fully healed."
"Your complexion does look good, but are you really okay now?"
Nurse I Chorong took meticulous care of Taesu.
As they did, the two of them held hands.
Even though they were aware of it, neither showed any reaction.
They were on such familiar terms with each other.
Holding her hand just as it was, Taesu asked Nurse I Chorong another question.
"Where is everyone?"
"They're probably waiting at Dr. Schmidt's medical tent."
"Then you're the only one who came here?"
"Yes, they said they needed medical staff to interpret Korean, so I ended up coming. But that person over there, could he be..."
Nurse I Chorong lowered her voice and asked quietly.
The Korean medical staff all knew of the Korean village's existence.
However, they didn't know the deep internal circumstances.
Taesu answered, reminding her of that.
"Yes. He's someone who came from the Korean village to receive a checkup."
"I knew it. The moment I saw the Korean-style name on the chart, I got chills all over."
"You must have been really surprised."
"Yes. And the other patient's name hospitalized in the same room was familiar, so I got chills twice over."
Nurse I Chorong glanced sideways.
Taesu answered with an awkward smile.
"Actually, I'm currently undercover as a patient."
"Huh?"
"You can think of it as examining medical quality and service reform from a patient's perspective."
Taesu drew out his words, but it wouldn't fool Nurse I Chorong.
"Your passion for personally experiencing things from a patient's perspective is truly admirable."
"Thank you for the compliment."
"But undercover employment? Is the helicopter medical team pay that bad?"
Taesu spoke in surprise at her question.
"Oh! You know about that too."
"I learned about that back in Malnoi already."
"We had to rush out on a call back then, so we left without saying goodbye."
"I heard everything then."
Nurse I Chorong understood amicably.
In that gap, Taesu revealed his curiosity.
"How have you all been?"
"We finished our volunteer medical service in Malnoi, stopped by the village where we were originally based, and came here today."
"So that's why you hadn't heard the news."
"Let's stop our talk here. We have time anytime."
Nurse I Chorong considerately cut the conversation short.
Because she even knew the geographical characteristics of the Korean village.
Knowing that he didn't have much time to spend with Bak Huinam, she had brought it up first.
Taesu gave the hand of Nurse I Chorong, which he was still holding, a light squeeze and said,
"Let's have a gathering among the Korean medical staff soon."
"Teacher Yun and Nurse Chu will absolutely love it."
"The others should like it too. Then I'll see you then, and I'll excuse myself first."
Having asked for her understanding, Taesu finally let go of her hand.
Lightly.
Nurse I Chorong showed a light wave with a smiling face.
Taesu waved back and re-entered the hospital room.
They had to push aside their joy for a moment, but they didn't mind since they could meet anytime.
It was the moment Taesu entered the room.
Bak Huinam, who had been lying in the hospital bed, was slyly checking his reaction before quickly turning his head away.
The reason for such behavior was obvious.
Taesu approached Bak Huinam and spoke in a low voice.
"What are you being so cautious about?"
"Huh? Uhh... I was a bit harsh just now, right? I guess I got a bit carried away."
"It's natural to get excited when you have someone to converse with in Korean here."
As Taesu showed understanding, Bak Huinam also relaxed slightly.
"Right, I wasn't too much, was I?"
"Not at all. And between us, that's nothing."
"Right, right. Between us, I'd never feel slighted by something like that."
"Even so, I don't think you should just go around pairing people up recklessly."
Taesu applied the brakes just as things were going well.
Bak Huinam, who had let his guard down, flinched and looked awkward.
"Well, is that such a bad thing?"
"You should consider our position too."
"But are you really not interested?"
Bak Huinam's busybody DNA seemed to be wriggling again.
Taesu gave a clear answer on that matter.
"She is a comrade-in-arms and a fellow fighter."
"A lot of things start out that way."
"Where exactly?"
"From what the elders say, that's how it was back in the day. They say everyone started as comrades and built their nests."
Bak Huinam babbled on.
Perhaps watching for reactions, he didn't even realize what he was talking about right now.
It seemed his nerves about watching his mouth had decreased since coming outside the village.
Taesu didn't get needlessly sensitive either and countered amicably.
"We're not birds, what do you mean build nests."
"My grandparents met that way too. In those turbulent times, kids who were all more or less alike gathered from here and there... Ahem. Never mind."
Bak Huinam, who had been talking intoxicated by his own excitement, suddenly cut off his words.
He clamped his mouth shut, but his pupils trembled slightly.
Taesu clearly saw and heard but pretended not to.
"Don't say such things and get some rest. I'll take a nap too."
"Let's do that, these examinations tire a person out."
Swish.
Bak Huinam turned his head the other way and even pulled up his blanket.
Taesu also lay down on his own hospital bed.
The hospital room was dyed in silence in an instant.
"......."
"......."
An inexplicable sense of unfamiliarity seemed to be felt.
It seemed Bak Huinam was blaming himself.
On the other hand, Taesu's expression hadn't changed.
Yet inwardly, he was chewing over the content Bak Huinam had let slip just now.
'They gathered from here and there, and they were all children.'
He stored that content in one corner of his mind.
That memory space was filled with information about the Korean village.
He was recording every single word someone let slip without missing any.
Taesu's investigation wasn't over yet.
Doubting them was now impossible.
Having seen the evidence that Elder Wang had deliberately leaked, doubting them was even more absurd.
Nevertheless, continuing to gather information was 'chiseling the foundation stone' for the future.
Without forgetting the resolve he had secretly made, Taesu was silently continuing.
That evening.
The scattered group gathered in one place again.
Among them, Jo Jeongmin's expression was blooming radiantly.
Swish.
He showed off the cash proudly and said to Taesu,
"This is all the money from the sales."
"That's substantial."
"I told you, didn't I? That I could sell them all. Haha!"
Jo Jeongmin's shoulders were so squared with pride they looked ready to fly off.
Bak Huinam gave Jo Jeongmin two thumbs up.
"Our Teacher Jo is amazing. Are you a born merchant?"
"Honestly, I was sorry that sales had been sluggish, but this time I think I can return with my head held high."
"You can hold your head high enough. Wow, that's really a lot of money."
Bak Huinam gazed at the sales money and repeated his admiration.
He showed no greed toward the money from selling the farming tools that the villagers had suffered to make together.
But Bak Huinam was human too.
With money right before his eyes, his heart seemed a bit unsettled.
Swish.
Bak Huinam, who had deliberately turned his gaze, froze.
It was because of the snacks and drinks piled high on the table. There were also sausages and processed foods that could be eaten conveniently.
He was in a position without a penny of pocket money to his name.
In the Korean village, where they lived cut off from the outside world, money hadn't been necessary.
But coming back out into the world, circumstances had changed.
His wife Gim Jeongsun and children weighed on his mind, and he put on an awkward expression.
Taesu was watching Bak Huinam from his own hospital bed.
He could read Bak Huinam's current feelings exactly from his expression.
So it weighed on his mind.
"Don't worry about useless things."
He couldn't say it directly and muttered it like a whisper.
Then Gim Hyeokgwon approached Taesu closely and whispered quietly,
"Doctor Choe, you need to be careful with your pockets."
"Why all of a sudden?"
"Well, apparently a thief broke into the PKO External Cooperation Department during the day."
Taesu froze at the words that sounded familiar.
"Is that so?"
"They say the thief only swiped the cash and ran. But it was a strange thief."
"How so?"
"They left behind a hoe and a shovel. Quite fascinating, isn't it? And Jeongmin-ssi, who sold those things, seems to know nothing about it."
Poke, poke.
Gim Hyeokgwon secretly poked Taesu in the side.
A meaningful smile was the bonus.
Taesu was now even fearful.
"Where on earth do you hear such information?"
"It all comes to me naturally."
"There's no way the External Cooperation Department staff would have said it."
"If word of that gets into Watch Uncle's ears, he'll have a fit."
Gim Hyeokgwon answered with an expression full of certainty.
But as expected, he didn't reveal the source of the information.
Taesu was bewildered, but chose to correct it with proper information while he was at it.
"It wasn't theft, it was a fundraising activity."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I even gave out promotional gifts in return for the donations."
Taesu answered very shamelessly.
Gim Hyeokgwon didn't believe Taesu's words.
"Where do you fabricate information like that?"
"All of it will go over there."
"Then fundraising activity is the accurate information."
Gim Hyeokgwon understood immediately and accepted it amicably.
His perceptiveness in inferring Taesu's thoughts and plans from just a few words was artistry.
But in all affairs of the world, where there is yang, there is also yin.
It was the moment the conversation with the sharp-witted Gim Hyeokgwon ended.