It was just as he pulled back the operating room screen.
Raku’s face was right there, close up.
Seeing Taesu, Raku flinched and quickly stepped back.
“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop……”
“It’s only natural to be curious about what’s going on. But it must have been difficult to understand.”
“You were speaking in Korean, so I didn’t hear a thing.”
Raku spoke frankly, his face bitter.
Taesu had already turned his gaze away.
Because Hanto’s anxiety was showing in a far stronger, darker reaction.
Tremble, tremble.
His clasped hands were shaking like an aspen leaf.
His eyes were not merely unfocused; they were growing clouded.
Taesu found the sight a little strange.
“Mr. Hanto knows something, doesn’t he?”
“I don’t think that’s it. He’s been like that ever since Doctor Choi suddenly said he was going in.”
“You have no idea why?”
When Taesu asked, Raku answered with a bitter expression.
“After his wife went into the delivery room to give birth to Nashu…… when he saw her again, she had already gone cold, he says.”
“Damn.”
“Apparently, even then, the doctor reassured him and said there was nothing to worry about.”
“And then things must have suddenly gotten busy.”
When Taesu inferred and asked, Raku nodded.
“Yes. He says that’s what happened. No one told him anything at all.”
“They didn’t even tell him the cause of death?”
“Doctor Choi. I don’t know what it’s like in Korea, but here, even when unjust things happen everywhere, there are many cases where it’s difficult to even protest.”
Raku’s eyes as he said that were terribly sad.
Taesu bit his lip slightly.
‘This is exactly why medicine needs to be transparent.’
If that was not upheld, there was nothing Taesu could do about it.
That referred to the circumstances of that hospital.
This place was different.
It was an NGO, and this was a patient Taesu had personally received.
Transparent medical care was the most basic of basics.
Thud.
Taesu sat back down and looked at Hanto as he spoke.
“First of all, surgery has become difficult right now.”
“#!%^#@$%.”
Raku translated beside him at once.
At the same time, Hanto’s eyes went wide.
That was not all.
Crash!
Hanto moved violently, and a loud noise rang out.
Then Hanto dropped to his knees on the floor, bent forward, and begged.
“@#%#@$%.”
“……He says please, not that, just save her.”
Raku translated heavily.
Taesu flinched, the situation having unfolded before he could stop him.
Then he quickly said to Raku,
“Tell him we will, so please listen to what I have to say first. And tell him I have questions to ask as well.”
“@@$#%.”
“Tell him we have no intention of leaving her like this, and that everyone here is worried about Nashu.”
“#%@#%.”
Raku translated Taesu’s words and helped Hanto up.
When Hanto raised his head, his face was a mess.
Tears and snot had run down it, and dust from the floor was mixed in.
From Hanto’s appearance, there was no trace of concern for himself at all.
Rub, rub.
Even now, he was begging Taesu desperately with both hands clasped.
“#%#$.”
“@#$%#.”
Even when Raku tried to stop him and lowered his hands, it was no use.
He quickly clasped both hands again and begged, over and over.
The agony tearing through him came across with painful clarity.
In the end, Taesu moved.
Swoosh.
Taesu rose from his seat, went around the table, and approached Hanto.
Then he wrapped both hands around Hanto’s pleading hands and met his eyes.
“Nashu will be different.”
That was the best thing Taesu could say right now.
Since he did not know what illness it was, he could not rashly promise that he would save her.
But it was a promise that, whatever happened, he would do his utmost so Hanto could accept it.
There was no certainty in Taesu’s comfort.
That much was clear.
But his sincerity was in it.
“@%$#%.”
Beside him, Raku added something more.
It felt as if he was repeating a similar nuance.
He seemed to be persuading him.
The two men’s efforts apparently were not in vain.
Hanto’s fear eased a little.
“@#%$$#%.”
Some words flowed from his mouth.
Raku immediately looked at Taesu and translated.
“He says he’s sorry for showing such an ugly sight.”
“I think it was understandable. First, let’s wipe your face.”
Wipe, wipe.
Taesu wiped his face with a towel provided in the surgical waiting room.
Looking at Hanto, now much cleaner, Taesu slowly began his questions.
“I’m sorry to stir up a festering wound, but do you not know why your wife passed away?”
“#@%#@$%. ……He says he has no idea.”
“Then has Nashu ever been injured badly enough to bleed until now?”
“#%#$%. ……No. He says she fell last autumn too, scraped her knee, and bled.”
At that answer, Taesu’s expression grew even heavier.
‘Then it seems congenital, and a progressive disease that gradually worsens.’
Stacking his thoughts neatly in his head, he continued with the next question.
“Did the hospital, by any chance……”
“@$%#$%.”
“Then when did the bleeding start taking longer to stop……”
“@#$%#$%.”
Taesu held both of Hanto’s hands firmly as he asked questions and listened to the answers.
Perhaps because of Taesu’s actions, Hanto answered diligently even as his lips trembled.
It may have been an unfamiliar situation for Hanto.
But for Taesu, it was only natural.
After enough conversation had passed that way,
Taesu finally let go of Hanto’s hands and comforted him.
“Thank you for answering.”
“@%#$……. He asks what happens now.”
“There is nothing we can do immediately.”
“##$%#$.”
When Raku translated, Hanto reeled violently as if he had been struck on the back of the head.
Before he could react, Taesu added,
“Instead, we plan to borrow the hands of other people.”
“@#^%#$%……. If you’d said that just a little later, Hanto would have caused another scene.”
Raku told Taesu about Hanto’s reactions as they changed in real time.
Taesu saw it too, so he spoke in a low voice.
“For now, let’s go in and see Nashu’s face first. I think that will reassure you more.”
“He asks if that’s all right.”
“If it weren’t, I wouldn’t have said it. Shall we go in?”
Srrk.
Taesu rose first and invited him.
Hanto staggered to his feet, and Raku held him firmly as they moved together.
Taesu led the two of them inside.
As if everyone had already known they would come in, there was no disturbance.
At the center of that utterly natural situation was Kim Hyeokgwon.
Taesu had acted comfortably because Kim Hyeokgwon was there as well.
Beep, beep.
The sound of the ECG echoed through the operating room.
When Hanto saw Nashu lying on the operating table, he quickly approached and took her hand.
“%#$%#.”
He pressed Nashu’s hand to his forehead and murmured for a long while.
Behind him, Raku was slowly rubbing Hanto’s back.
The medical staff had gathered around Jo Uncheol.
Everyone’s gazes toward Hanto and Nashu were filled with pity.
Kim Hyeokgwon spoke to Taesu first.
“I roughly understand from translating only the parts I heard.”
“I don’t know what hospital in Jammu it was, but those bastards are real trash.”
“Doctor Jeong. I don’t know what it’s like in Korea, but in this part of the world, things like that happen commonly.”
“Isn’t that wrong?”
Jeong Minsu’s voice sank coldly.
Seeing that he looked ready to get worked up at any moment, Taesu raised a hand to stop him.
“Enough. Why are you taking that out on Hyeokgwon?”
“I wasn’t trying to…… Mr. Hyeokgwon. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I’m pissed off too, so how much worse must it be for all of you?”
Kim Hyeokgwon waved his hand and let it slide.
The atmosphere had sunk considerably.
Right now, it would be the same no matter who spoke.
Taesu paid it no mind and turned to Jeong Minsu again.
“The bleeding stopped properly, right?”
“For now. The problem is, it looks like it’ll burst open with a pop if we touch it.”
“Then we’ll avoid irritation…… Dr. Jo, there shouldn’t be a need for more medication, right?”
At Taesu’s question, Jo Uncheol answered with a heavy face.
“We should be grateful that we administered a certain amount along with the anesthesia.”
“That really is fortunate.”
“But what are we going to do now? That’s what matters.”
Jo Uncheol’s expression was bitter.
He had boasted loudly that he would show them, but now that they were struggling even with hemostasis, he seemed embarrassed.
But no one thought of that as Jo Uncheol’s responsibility.
Taesu did not dwell on it either and brought up what he had been thinking.
“I don’t think it will be feasible to send her to the laboratory.”
“Of course not.”
“So I plan to bring someone trustworthy here.”
“A trustworthy doctor. Who?”
“I sent a text, but there’s no reply yet.”
At Taesu’s words, everyone turned to look at him loudly enough to be heard.
Whoosh!
“A text?”
“To whom?”
“When?”
Everyone asked a question at once.
When they lowered their gazes, a cell phone really was in Taesu’s hand.
Taesu lightly raised the phone and said,
“Dr. Sandro.”
“From the Vanessa case in Padum……”
As Jeong Minsu tried to explain at length, Jo Uncheol cut him off.
“Dr. Quentin’s friend.”
“Ah, yes. That’s him.”
“He’s a specialist in laboratory medicine. But is he here?”
At Jo Uncheol’s question, Taesu nodded.
“Yes. I met Kkuti during the day.”
“They said they always travel together. But you said there was no reply.”
“Not yet. I’ll wait a little longer, and if there’s no answer, I’ll call.”
As Taesu said that, he checked his phone once more.
As expected, no reply had arrived yet.
Squeeze.
Strength entered the hand gripping the phone.
Honestly, calling would be far faster. However, in this case, even Taesu could not think lightly of dragging another doctor into it.
He had summarized the situation in a message and sent it.
It was a time when he would be fast asleep.
But doctors and nurses were extremely sensitive to the sound of their phones.
They reacted more sharply to the sound of a single text than to thunder.
Dr. Sandro had surely seen the message.
And he would undoubtedly need enough time to think.
Taesu could not rush him recklessly.
About ten minutes passed like that.
There was no change in the operating room.
And there was still no word at all from Dr. Sandro.
The expressions of the medical staff, who had been focused on the phone, grew heavier and heavier.
At that moment, Kim Hyeokgwon said a word.
“Isn’t this guy just knocked out asleep?”
“Do you think so?”
“If there’s been no answer by now, isn’t there a good chance of it?”
“That’s true.”
Taesu answered bitterly.
Even if Dr. Sandro had refused, he could not resent him.
More importantly, the problem began now.
Jeong Minsu opened his mouth about that.
“If it comes to this, isn’t it awkward to keep wasting time here?”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“We should check the location of the nearest medical volunteer team and……”
Jeong Minsu was speaking with a serious face when—
“Samba, samba.”
A faint voice slipped in between them.