For that reason, Taesu erased blood transfusion packs from his mind completely.
At that moment, the feeling of being trapped behind a fence disappeared.
His restricted thoughts had broken through their framework and found freedom.
Yet all freedom came with responsibility.
The freedom he had gained by giving up on transfusion meant he had to find another responsible idea to replace it.
That was daunting.
“Think, think…”
Taesu muttered the words inwardly countless times.
In the meantime, his feet led him to the operating table.
It was the moment he arrived at the table.
Click.
He placed the radio on the medical cart and began disinfecting his hands again.
It was a reflexive action, while his mind was wholly occupied with coming up with an idea for the kidney surgery.
Seeing Taesu like that, Jeong Min-su, who was squeezing the IV bag, furrowed his brow sharply.
“How are you planning to perform the surgery?”
“Then what, I’m supposed to just give up and stand here doing nothing?”
“This is driving me crazy.”
“You think I’m not? If it’s going to turn into a bloodbath anyway, we could remove the kidney and… Wait a second.”
The words Taesu had uttered himself struck a nerve.
Jeong Min-su, who had focused on the same thought, opened his eyes wide.
“You’re not thinking… Don’t even think about it. Absolutely not. No way!”
“What?”
“You’re thinking about renal autotransplantation, aren’t you? James said that was impossible!”
Jeong Min-su did not merely raise his voice—he shouted at the top of his lungs.
His reaction was not an overreaction.
Autotransplantation was essentially the same as an organ transplant.
It was not a procedure that could be performed in this dismal environment with limited surgical instruments.
In truth, there was no need to think that far.
With Taesu and Jeong Min-su’s current abilities, it was a high-level surgical method they could not even dream of.
Taesu hardened his expression as he looked at the enraged Jeong Min-su.
“Do you think I have that little common sense?”
“What you’re saying certainly sounds that way.”
“We need to adapt the idea. Add the method we use all the time. Then it might be possible.”
Taesu spoke calmly, but his eyes flashed fiercely.
Jeong Min-su, however, had no idea what he was talking about.
“What are you suggesting we do?”
“What if we clamp the renal artery and renal vein, then create a bridge?”
“Th-then…”
Jeong Min-su stammered for a moment.
Taesu said one thing to him.
“Almost all the dextrose and saline have gone in.”
“Huh? Oh. You’re right.”
“Replace only the dextrose, and put on your gloves.”
“Right, right. We should.”
When Jeong Min-su’s reply lacked conviction, Taesu raised an eyebrow.
“Can’t you hear me?”
“That’s not it. Clamp the blood vessels and create a bridge… Is that even possible?”
“I don’t know.”
The moment Taesu answered, Jeong Min-su’s eyes shook violently.
“You don’t know? What kind of useless answer is that!”
“Then what do you want me to do? We have no blood for a transfusion, the surgical environment is limited, and there are only two of us.”
“I don’t have another option either. Still, something a little more stable…”
“Doctor Jeong.”
Taesu cut him off, and Jeong Min-su immediately responded.
“Say it.”
“Even just looking at his vitals, the kidney’s in bad shape. Are you still going to put it off?”
“What if it’s some other abnormality?”
Jeong Min-su voiced his doubts in a faintly trembling voice.
His shoulders had already begun to hunch.
The pressure of being unable to handle it himself was turning into fear.
Seeing that, Taesu exploded in anger.
“You bastard. Do you want to live like a pathetic loser again?”
“Gasp!”
“How long is that dead-and-buried Jeong Min-su from the past going to keep coming back to life?”
Taesu lashed out coldly.
Jeong Min-su’s eyes shook at the stinging reprimand.
“I… again?”
“Yes. Again!”
“Damn it.”
Thud.
Jeong Min-su lowered his head and blamed himself.
Taesu did not even want to see him like that.
“If you’re going to curl up and shrink away, get out. Just get the hell out.”
“…Yeah. Maybe that would be best.”
Strange words spilled from Jeong Min-su’s mouth after a long pause.
Taesu’s face twisted sharply at the sound.
“You really…”
“That method seems like it’ll at least cause less bleeding.”
“What?”
For a moment, Taesu doubted his ears.
Then Jeong Min-su slowly raised his head.
He looked entirely different from the cringing figure he had been moments earlier.
He seemed appropriately arrogant, with his nose held just a little higher.
More than anything, there was strength in his eyes.
“If we resolve it as quickly as possible with your treatment speed, then add my suturing speed, it’s not an entirely terrible plan.”
“You… what are you?”
“What do you mean, what am I? I’m Doctor Jeong Min-su, living for today and forgetting yesterday.”
Wink.
He even gave Taesu a strange wink.
Taesu had told him to throw away his timidity, and he had gone and put on greasy confidence instead.
Looking at this completely ill-suited version of Jeong Min-su, Taesu delivered a ruthless assessment.
“What a goddamn circus.”
“You said there’s no time.”
“We wasted a whole minute because of you.”
“I’ll make it up with my suturing. Get ready first.”
Jeong Min-su gave the order in a vigorous voice.
He also changed into a fresh pair of surgical gloves.
Snap!
Even the way he snapped the gloves into place was full of force.
Taesu did not want to understand Jeong Min-su’s extreme transformation.
Still, it was better than watching him shrink into himself.
‘The guy has no middle ground.’
Stretch. Stretch.
Taesu expressed his feelings by pulling his surgical gloves on with force.
Whatever the process, they now had everything they needed to resume the operation.
There was no reason to delay any longer, nor did they intend to.
Taesu immediately directed the scalpel, fitted with a No. 10 blade, toward the factory manager’s back.
At the same time, he urged Jeong Min-su on.
“What are you doing? The scalpel’s going in!”
“I’m watching too!”
“If your body’s slow, at least make your hands faster!”
“You should talk before you start. Is your mouth just for show?”
Taesu and Jeong Min-su’s voices flew back and forth, sharp and fierce.
It was nothing more than a verbal argument.
Their eyes were fixed on the back, and soon their surgical instruments began to move.
The scalpel made a short incision across the right side of the back, followed by deft movements to suppress the bleeding.
Swish, swish. Snip, snip.
The two men moved with agility.
Strangely enough, they became faster when they snarled at each other.
It was the rebellious energy brought on by their provocative conversation.
Whatever other people might be like, these two had the peculiar trait of becoming more efficient when they provoked each other.
For that reason, Taesu and Jeong Min-su continued to rile each other up.
Perhaps thanks to that, they soon reached the point of installing the Balfour retractor.
Click, click.
After adjusting the Balfour retractor a little farther, Jeong Min-su opened his mouth gruffly.
“Installation complete. But are you sure this is enough?”
“If we can see and get the instruments in, what more do you want?”
“You idiot. We’ve opened it to barely the size of a palm. You’re saying we’ll operate through an opening this size?”
Jeong Min-su’s provocative tone could easily be taken as a challenge.
He was openly displaying his prickly nature.
But he was not just saying it for the sake of saying it.
The opening was only half as wide as the area they normally operated through.
Their skill could not suddenly double.
Unfamiliar changes were bound to cause trouble.
That was what Jeong Min-su feared.
Taesu’s answer, on the other hand, was firm.
“If we can see and get the instruments in, that’s enough. What more do you want?”
“Half the kidney is hidden behind the ribs.”
“We have to proceed like this anyway.”
“How exactly are you planning to operate?”
Jeong Min-su’s eyes blazed.
He was not merely irritated. The space was objectively far too narrow.
Taesu, however, did not waver.
“How long are you planning to operate with the whole thing opened up like a gate?”
“Don’t you think suddenly shrinking it down to a mouse hole is more of a problem?”
“What about the bleeding?”
Taesu asked in a single sentence.
Only then did Jeong Min-su’s expression change as if he had realized something.
“At this size, we might be able to buy twice as much time for the transfusion. No, three times as much.”
“Waste not, want not.”
“Here in a foreign land, of all places, you’re holding an anabada campaign with blood.”
Jeong Min-su found the situation absurd.
Taesu did not respond to every remark, instead focusing harder on the surgery.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you looking for the kidney?”
“I’m looking for it!”
“Is the kidney over there? You need to come this way!”
“We need to make room before we can pull the kidney down even a little!”
Swish. Swish, swish.
Judging only by the exchange of words, they sounded ready to grab each other by the collar.
In reality, the two men had their heads together as they searched for the right kidney.
Their conversation was so heated because the surgical space was extremely narrow.
They both knew that, but there was no way to widen it any further, so their voices kept rising.
They were still searching for the kidney when Taesu’s eyes suddenly flashed.
He quickly pointed out each of Jeong Min-su’s surgical instruments and issued precise orders.
“Switch the positions of the spatula and the Senn retractor.”
“Like this?”
“Support the lower side with the spatula. The Senn retractor goes there—push that part to the side!”
When Taesu roughly berated him, Jeong Min-su snapped back in irritation.
“I told you to speak clearly!”
“This is called having a sense for it. And hold that firmly. Don’t fidget!”
“If I just leave it there, it’ll slide sideways!”
“You call yourself a doctor when you don’t even know how to use the instruments properly?”
Taesu mocked him mercilessly.
The provocation made Jeong Min-su bristle even more.
“I’m doing it properly. Look—I’m doing it properly!”
“You’re finally becoming useful.”
“What did you just say, you bastard?”
“…Forget it. I found it. But this… Tsk!”
Taesu grumbled bitterly and clicked his tongue.
The kidney had finally been located inside the operative field.
But there was not even a trace of satisfaction at having found it.
The kidney was in far worse condition than they had expected.
Jeong Min-su was also shocked.
“It looks like it’s one and a half times the average size.”
“With this much blood and waste matter built up inside it, there’s no way it could be beating properly.”
“The ureter is relatively thin.”
“So that’s what was causing the low urine output.”
Even after identifying another cause of the abnormal symptoms, Taesu’s expression remained heavy.
In the meantime, Jeong Min-su moved his face from side to side. He was changing the angle of his headlamp to examine the kidney from various positions.
Swish, swish.
The narrow surgical space limited even that.
Still, he seemed to have found something and called out to Taesu.
“Taesu, here.”
“…Damn it.”
“I’m seriously about to start swearing.”
Jeong Min-su did his best to hold back and soften his words.
The expressions on both men’s faces were that grim.
At the bottom of the severely swollen kidney, they could see a blackened area of necrosis.
In the middle of the necrotic tissue, the marks left by a grenade fragment burrowing into it remained unmistakable.
In the end, everything the two men had feared had become reality.
At that moment, Taesu suddenly reached out with his empty hand and grasped the swollen kidney.
Clack.
“Hmm.”
“What? What is it?”
“Checking the temperature… The outside is cold, but the inside feels somewhat hot.”
“What kind of bizarre, supernatural symptom is that supposed to be?”
The constant occurrence of irregular situations had left Jeong Min-su unable to keep his head straight.
Taesu was no different.
“We’re going to have to study up on kidneys.”
“Sounds like today’s going to be exhausting.”
“This emergency surgery is probably going to leave us exhausted.”
When Taesu responded, Jeong Min-su glanced at him and asked,
“We’ll think about that later. So are you going to push ahead with your plan now?”
“First, keep the spatula and Senn retractor fixed in place like this, and make the bridge. I’ll be gone for a moment.”
Whoosh.
As soon as he gave the order, Taesu headed toward the deployment bag.