Finally, Gim Hyeokgwon had entered the sentry outpost.
It was the place where PKO sentry troops stayed, working in rotating shifts through the night.
It might have been the place where military discipline should have been at its highest.
But if not always, it certainly wasn't now.
The food and drinks Gim Hyeokgwon had prepared were piled high.
"Drink up, eat up. Let me know if you need more."
"It's tough to keep getting fed by Mr. Gim like this."
"What kind of hurtful talk is that between us? And here, take this for later when you go on patrol to another city, to wet your whistle."
Swish.
Gim Hyeokgwon’s hand secretly slipped into Senior Soldier Choe’s uniform pocket and back out.
Choe burst into a hearty laugh without even checking.
"Hehahaha. Raku is coming by early this morning for urgent business. Isn’t Raku practically family?"
"Please look after him well. Haha. Eat more. You, the youngest, eat a lot too."
With the magnanimity of a command sergeant major, Gim Hyeokgwon buttered up the soldiers.
Thus, Taesu, Jeong Min-su, and Gim Hyeokgwon each faithfully carried out their assigned tasks.
At dawn.
The medical camp was steeped in darkness.
Among the tents, there was one surgical tent with faint light seeping out.
It was James’s surgical tent.
Two soldiers on patrol walked past that surgical tent.
Swish.
The soldiers had definitely noticed the light inside the surgical tent.
"……."
Yet they passed by leisurely without even checking what was strange.
At the same time, surgical preparations were in full swing inside the tent.
The personnel were Taesu, Jeong Min-su, and Gim Hyeokgwon. And lastly, Jo Un-cheol.
Beep. Beep.
Jo Un-cheol manipulated the general anesthesia machine, seeming filled with new emotion.
"It’s been a while, so I’m a bit nervous?"
"That would be a problem. If you’re nervous, you can step out."
"You make it so I can’t even joke. Dr. Choe, I’ve worked really hard."
Jo Un-cheol’s voice was firm.
He had undoubtedly trained himself rigorously, having been lacking back in Padum.
Taesu smiled softly.
"I’m counting on you."
"If you say that, it takes the wind out of my sails. You’re supposed to accept words like that."
"Then I’ll watch to see if you do it properly."
"If you say that, I seem like a complete junior."
When Jo Un-cheol couldn’t be satisfied either way, Taesu looked at him with a deadpan expression.
"What do you want me to do?"
"That’s just what I’m saying. Huhu."
Jo Un-cheol laughed inanely.
He had apparently been teasing Taesu.
Taesu set aside his various thoughts for a moment and checked the time first.
He recalled the last message he had received from Raku.
"If he said he’d arrive in twenty minutes……"
"He arrived in front of the sentry post a short while ago."
"Didn’t he say he’d move them using a handcart instead of a vehicle?"
"Since it’s human-powered, there’s no noise. It’s something that must be done quietly, so of course it must be quiet."
Gim Hyeokgwon’s preparedness was truly extraordinary.
If the sentry post gate opened at this hour of dawn, things would get quite bothersome.
But if it was only the side door opening, they could pretend not to notice even if they saw.
What was certain was that they would arrive soon.
That time did not take very long.
It was when about five minutes had passed.
Taesu had come out to the surgical prep room to greet them.
Soon the partition opened, and Raku’s face appeared.
Rustle.
"Dr. Choe."
"You’ve found the right place."
"At this hour, here, thank you so very much."
"Please come in first."
When Taesu gestured casually, Raku started.
"@%^#$%."
Saying something to those behind him, he lifted the partition high.
Through the widened gap, a handcart and a local man who looked to be in his late twenties pushing it entered.
Lastly, Raku entered while neatly adjusting the partition.
Tap-tap.
Raku quickly approached the center and introduced the two parties.
"Dr. Choe, this man is Hanto, and the child is Nashu."
"Nice to meet you. Hanto, and……. Nashu is asleep."
Clack.
When Taesu extended his hand first, Hanto quickly grasped it with a hand he had roughly wiped on his clothes.
At that moment, Hanto’s hand trembling uncontrollably was vividly felt.
"@^#%%#$."
Raku was explaining something.
Taesu, separately from that, was looking into Hanto’s eyes.
He wanted to see for himself the nature of his desperation.
Because the eyes are the window to the soul.
The moment their gazes firmly met.
Taesu almost averted his eyes from Hanto without realizing it.
That desperate gaze seemed capable of piercing even steel.
‘So Raku was captivated by this look in his eyes.’
Taesu concluded so without hearing a single word of explanation.
It was because he felt he too could be drawn into Hanto’s desperate gaze.
And unexpectedly, he looked gentle.
He had an impression and a gaze completely unconnected to crime.
Wounds were visible here and there on his face.
They were clearly traces of having been beaten by the ranch owner named Basque.
Had he felt Taesu’s gaze?
Hanto averted his eyes for the first time and covered a wound on his face with his finger.
Swish.
It couldn’t be hidden.
However, the embarrassment he showed was certainly palpable.
"Raku, please tell him that after we operate on Nashu first, we’ll take a look at Hanto as well."
"Before interpreting, I’d like to ask one thing. I believe I was right, but what do you think, Dr. Choe?"
"Raku, you have a great eye for people. You thought highly of me, didn’t you?"
Wink.
Taesu responded, adding a light wink.
At that moment, Raku finally let go of the tension he had held all the way here.
"Hoooo. What a relief."
"First, please interpret. Nashu will go inside and prepare for surgery."
"Yes. @#$%#@……"
While Raku was interpreting.
At an impeccable moment, Gim Hyeokgwon came out.
"Can I take the kid?"
"Of course."
"Let’s finish the surgical explanation within five minutes. One minute for ultrasound, seven minutes for muscle relaxant. The remaining three minutes is Dr. Choe’s preparation time."
"The timing fits perfectly. Understood."
While Taesu answered, Gim Hyeokgwon carefully picked up Nashu and entered the operating room.
Gim Hyeokgwon’s shoulders shook slightly.
It seemed he could feel how serious the situation was now that he held Nashu directly.
Taesu had already roughly guessed as much from visual inspection.
As for that, he now had to talk with Hanto, the guardian.
Before long, Raku spoke to Taesu.
"I told them we’re preparing for surgery."
"Then please sit. Until Nashu is ready, I will explain what kind of surgery it will be."
When Taesu gestured first, Raku followed and interpreted.
"##^%#$%."
Indeed, having Raku had the advantage of reducing Gim Hyeokgwon’s workload.
That was not an issue to think deeply about.
Hanto was so restless he couldn’t keep his hands still.
Taesu began explaining to him in a calm voice.
"Normally, hepatosplenomegaly surgery is……"
Since he hadn’t yet seen the test results with his own eyes, most of it was a theoretical explanation.
What variables could occur when surgery began, and so on.
Various possibilities were left open, with explanations continuing accordingly.
Raku struggled a bit due to the medical terminology, but the interpretation still proceeded smoothly.
The five minutes passed quickly.
Taesu intuitively sensed that it was time to wrap up the explanation.
"Then……"
The very moment Taesu began to speak.
A low, forceful call from Jo Un-cheol came from the operating room.
"Dr. Choe, get in here quick!"
Taesu’s ears twitched.
Since it was spoken in Korean, Raku couldn’t understand either.
Taesu spoke as calmly as possible.
"One moment."
Swish.
He moved with a leisurely smile and a relaxed expression.
Yet he took long, rapid strides.
Thus Taesu entered the operating room.
At the same time, his expression changed from smiling to blank as he quickly approached Jo Un-cheol.
Scurry.
"What’s the matter?"
"We can’t operate on this child right now."
"……Can’t operate?"
"Severe symptoms of delayed hemorrhage are manifesting."
The instant he stated the reason.
Whoosh!
Taesu’s gaze immediately snapped to Nashu’s arm.
Jeong Min-su was pressing on it with a gauze pad.
And around it, traces of bleeding spreading here and there were visible.
The moment their eyes met, Jeong Min-su spoke, furrowing his brows.
"The liquid hemostatic agent isn’t absorbing either."
"It’s that diluted?"
Swish.
Taesu immediately approached Nashu closely.
Lowering his posture, he observed the flowing blood from as close as possible.
Usually blood gave a viscous impression.
But Nashu’s was clear.
It was such a diluted red color that it truly seemed clear.
Taesu’s gaze grew complicated.
"They said they ran tests at Jammu Hospital, so how did they draw blood, and did they not even give a single injection?"
"Taesu, injection marks over there."
Jeong Min-su indicated the direction with a tilt of his chin.
It was the side of a thin, slender hand.
Gim Hyeokgwon perceptively raised the hand.
There was a bruise the size of a five-hundred-won coin on the back of the hand, and an injection mark was clearly visible in the center.
At a glance, it was evident that stopping the bleeding must have been extremely difficult.
The moment Taesu realized that, his eyes flared with intensity.
"And they told him to bring surgery fees like this?"
"They’re trying to kill the kid!"
"Just taking his money? These bastards wouldn’t even do such dogshit acts in back alleys. You damned pieces of shit."
Jeong Min-su and Gim Hyeokgwon fumed with the same rage.
Then Jo Un-cheol called out to everyone.
"Everyone, hold on."
"What is it now?"
"We have to send a blood sample to the lab, don’t we?"
With a single sentence, Jo Un-cheol pointed out two problems.
One was that if they sent a request to the lab, a record would remain.
The second was that there was no plan for how to draw blood from a patient with delayed hemorrhage.
"……."
"……."
Everyone was at a loss, their eyes wandering.
He was likely a patient with at least a difficult-to-treat disease.
They were all seeing such a patient for the first time.
Not only Taesu, but everyone was filled with bewilderment.
"What should we do?"
"Damn it……"
They were completely at a loss.
In the midst of this, Gim Hyeokgwon called to Taesu.
"Dr. Choe, don’t you also need to explain the situation outside?"
"Right……. Just a moment."
"It’s all the same to me."
Gim Hyeokgwon shrugged.
Meanwhile, Taesu quickly asked Jo Un-cheol.
"Dr. Jo, if such a young child has delayed hemorrhage, isn’t the probability high that it’s hereditary?"
"That’s right. In most cases, the probability is high that it’s congenital."
"Do you have any suspected diseases?"
"Sorry, but there are probably hundreds of genetic diseases that cause similar symptoms."
Jo Un-cheol shook his head with a bitter expression.
It wasn’t that Taesu didn’t know this either.
He had made a just-in-case prediction, but it seemed difficult after all.
Even with Caprene’s knowledge, it wasn’t easy to get a grasp on it.
The reason was, as Jo Un-cheol said, the disease names were far too varied, and the identified symptoms too few.
Taesu asked Jeong Min-su again.
"Dr. Jeong, has the bleeding stopped?"
"It’s decreased, but not yet."
"How long has it been?"
"About six minutes. At this rate, I think it’ll stop within ten minutes."
Jeong Min-su’s expression as he predicted was not bright either.
Taesu felt the same.
"Ten minutes to close a needle hole."
"Taesu."
"I know. I’ll step out for a moment and come back."
Taesu met everyone’s gaze once and turned around.
And then, Taesu’s expression as he stepped outside was far too complicated.