After finishing his farewell, Taesu slowly turned around.
Then he walked forward, looking only ahead.
Step, step.
Approaching the entrance like that, Taesu lifted the screen.
And just as he was about to leave—
He heard James calling him.
“Dr. Choi.”
“……”
“Can you keep taking those steps, even if this is the last step of your bond with me?”
He meant a crossroads.
The choice was being left to Taesu.
“……”
Taesu stood there blankly for a moment.
Then, before long, he lowered the screen and turned back toward James.
A faint smile formed on James’s face as they faced each other.
But then—
Rustle.
Out of nowhere, Taesu took out his wallet.
And from inside it, he pulled out his NGO ID card.
Tap.
He carefully placed it on the floor.
Then, from where he stood, Taesu bowed respectfully to James.
After calmly finishing the bow, Taesu spoke in a heavy voice.
“I will keep the grace you have shown me in my heart until the day I die.”
Those were his final words.
Swish.
Taesu stepped out beyond the screen.
The sun was blazing.
Taesu gazed at James’s medical tent for a moment.
“Thank you.”
He meant it sincerely.
With that muttered farewell, Taesu headed for his lodging.
He had no lingering attachment and no regrets.
If anything, he felt refreshed.
Once he did as his heart told him, his worries vanished as if they had never existed.
His father’s words really were the best.
Thirty minutes later.
Taesu came out alone through the front entrance of the NGO headquarters building.
The only thing different was that he now had a backpack slung over his shoulders.
Both sides of him felt empty.
He had not managed to meet Jeong Minsu or Kim Hyeokgwon in the end.
Instead, Taesu smiled.
“I hate forcing people to come.”
Just then, Brad Kim appeared from the other side.
He was carrying a large backpack.
“Brad, is that all right?”
“Medicine.”
“I packed some too, but… there’s quite a difference in size.”
“We don’t know what might happen. More importantly, is it just us going?”
When Brad Kim asked, Taesu shrugged.
“Probably. But shouldn’t we get a car?”
“They sell used cars in that town over there. We’ll just buy one.”
“They looked like a total rip-off.”
“This is when you let yourself get ripped off once.”
“That’s true enough. Let’s go.”
Taesu spoke energetically.
Then he walked side by side with Brad Kim toward the guard post, looking around.
Both Taesu and Brad Kim seemed to be thinking that this might be the last time they took in this sight.
They looked once more, then looked around again.
As if thinking, I was here, they smiled faintly.
They were growing farther from the NGO headquarters building like that when—
Screech.
A small ordinary truck stopped beside them.
The window rolled down, revealing Kim Hyeokgwon in sunglasses.
“Huh?”
“Mm?”
Taesu and Brad Kim stared in surprise.
Thud.
Kim Hyeokgwon rested his arm on the window frame and tossed out a casual line.
“Hey, get in.”
“If you were going to do that, you should’ve at least done it with a stylish car. A truck… It doesn’t really make for a cool scene.”
“When someone comes to pick up people who were going to walk all the way there, the proper order is to say thank you first.”
“We were going to buy a used car in the town up ahead.”
When Taesu grumbled back, Kim Hyeokgwon lowered his sunglasses and said,
“Then let’s buy a sports car.”
“If we take that up the mountain road, the undercarriage will be smashed to pieces.”
“We’re not even sure we’ll come back down, so let’s just push on up.”
“I’m telling you it’ll break down before we even get up there. I’ll ride in the back.”
Taesu answered roughly and headed toward the cargo bed with Brad Kim.
Thump!
Taesu and Brad Kim climbed in at once, only for their expressions to turn baffled.
It was because Jeong Minsu was lying there spread-eagled.
Swish.
Taesu stuck his head out of the cargo bed and shouted,
“Hyeokgwon, there’s a beggar riding in the cargo bed.”
“Leave him be. As long as you feed him, he’s easy to put to work.”
“Is he a servant? Then I guess it doesn’t matter… M-Minsu. You were awake?”
Taesu’s expression turned awkward because Jeong Minsu was staring at him with a sullen face.
Brad Kim sensed the mood and was already climbing down from the cargo bed to head for the passenger seat.
At that moment, Jeong Minsu’s chilling voice rang out.
“A beggar? A servant?”
“I said that because I didn’t know it was you.”
“You’d better watch yourself once we get up the mountain. I might drag you off and beat you for seven nights and eight days.”
“You’re free to imagine whatever you want… But are you going to be okay?”
“If you’re going, where can’t I go? No, I’m the one leading, and you’re the one following me.”
Jeong Minsu showed a strange sense of pride.
Taesu simply accepted it as such.
“Sure. Let’s say that’s how it is.”
“Hey, don’t just gloss over it.”
“I don’t want to. It’s annoying.”
Flop.
This time, Taesu lay down in the cargo bed.
At that instant, Jeong Minsu quickly lay down beside him and shoved him away.
“This is my spot.”
“You little…”
Taesu shifted slightly to the side, but there was plenty of room for both of them to lie down.
Just then, Brad Kim’s voice came from the front.
“Hyeokgwon is asking if you’re done fighting and whether we can leave.”
“Let’s go!”
“Okay!”
Vroom.
The small truck slowly began to move.
But had it gone even ten meters?
Screech!
The truck suddenly came to an abrupt stop.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu sprang up from the impact, their faces twisting in irritation.
“Why are we stopping?”
“What’s in front of us?”
Just then, a familiar English voice came from behind.
“Hey, stop yapping and take this first.”
“Huh? …Ozma!”
“There’s more here.”
Thud.
“Isaacson!”
That was not the only surprising thing.
From over there, medical staff were approaching, each carrying a cardboard box on their shoulder.
As they came up, they set the boxes on the cargo bed and said a word or two.
Thud.
“So stubborn.”
Thud.
“Well, that’s how kids are.”
Dr. Johnson, Dr. Benedict, Dr. Gallion, and others.
They were doctors who had laughed and cried with them through surgeries all this time.
And it was not just them.
“Are you really going to make your big sister work this hard?”
Thud.
“Casey!”
“I guess you can’t see me.”
“Ellen?”
Nurses appeared here and there as well, placing boxes onto the cargo bed.
As the front gradually became blocked, Dr. Quentin shouted loudly.
“Shouldn’t you be organizing the boxes first? Where did you drop your soul to be standing there all dazed?”
“Kkuti!”
“If you don’t hurry up and sort them, you might end up getting buried under the boxes on the way.”
“Ah, yes.”
Flustered, Taesu and Jeong Minsu came to their senses for the moment and began organizing the boxes.
They were all different sizes and weights.
Having experience fitting boxes together during each dispatch, they arranged them neatly here and there.
Among the doctors who brought boxes were Dr. Schmidt and Dr. Wallick as well.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu had to bend at the waist and hurry over to receive them.
“P-please give it here.”
“Just put it down.”
Taesu and Jeong Minsu were being careful, but the two were different.
“……”
“……”
They merely stared at them in silence, then turned around and returned to where they had been.
Jeong Minsu looked puzzled.
“They didn’t say a word.”
“Yeah.”
Taesu answered bitterly, having some idea why.
Then he continued organizing.
After they had more or less finished arranging everything—
Taesu turned around and flinched in surprise.
It was because James was standing there alone.
When their eyes met, James spoke coldly.
“How impudent…”
“……”
“Am I only worth that much, or are you only worth that much, Dr. Choi?”
“I’m the one who was lacking.”
Taesu answered with a bitter smile.
Then—
Whip!
Something fluttered through the air toward Taesu.
What he barely caught before it fell to the floor was his NGO ID card.
“Huh? James.”
“Do you think I lived in the wider world from the very beginning?”
It was a sudden question.
But Taesu sensed that it was an extension of their conversation from a moment ago and answered.
“Ah… no.”
“And I asked you, didn’t I? When did I say I would sever our bond?”
“What?”
“I said I asked. I asked whether you would still go even if that were the case, did I not?”
James explained again, even frowning as he did.
As Taesu thought back over that moment, he hesitated.
“I think I may have gotten a little too far ahead of myself…”
“You got very far ahead of yourself. I was going to let you go because I was so offended… But this is the first and last time. Don’t think I’ll ever look back again.”
“I’m sorry, James.”
“If you’re sorry, then appear before me again in good health.”
“Sir.”
Taesu gave him a wink and a smile.
Seeing that expression, James also smiled faintly.
Then he shouted,
“Mr. Kim, set off.”
“Thank you for taking care of us. We’ll be back!”
Honk!
After blaring the horn loudly, the truck set off again.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu waved at James as he watched them.
As they did, Jeong Minsu quietly asked,
“Did you throw down your ID card and say you were quitting?”
“Keep your wild imagination in check.”
“Then did you go, ‘You and I walk different paths,’ or something?”
“You little— I told you to keep it in check… Hey, wave.”
“Huh? Right.”
At Taesu’s reminder, Jeong Minsu quickly resumed waving the hand he had stopped.
James watched Taesu and Jeong Minsu bicker, a gentle smile on his face.
After the truck had disappeared into the distance—
“Heh. To think he really turned around.”
“I’m not sure how to apologize for this. It’s because I informed you for no reason.”
Swish.
Colonel Clark quietly appeared.
James looked at him and shook his head.
“No. Thanks to this, I learned clearly what Dr. Choi truly aims for.”
“To be honest, I’m worried first and foremost.”
“They chose this road and left on their own, so they will find their way back as well.”
“Yes. They will return safely.”
Colonel Clark also nodded, wishing them good fortune.
Meanwhile, James smiled to himself.
“To think they all volunteered.”
The medical staff had come to James first.
James had decided that if they were going to send them off, they might as well send them off well supplied, and that was how the boxes had been delivered.
In that short time, the closed-off NGO medical staff had opened their hearts.
Perhaps that was why James felt he could understand why the people of the mountain village welcomed them.
The truck drove and drove toward the Korean village.
They took turns driving and tried to recover from their fatigue as much as possible.
It was because, having set off so suddenly, they were not prepared at all.
In the meantime, the sun rose high into the sky and then leaned toward the west.
Around the time the sunset began.
The truck passed the seonangdang shrine.
Vroom.
But the boxes of medicine piled in the cargo bed had been reduced by half.
Since they had not yet arrived at the village, Taesu began counting them one by one.