First, Bread Kim listened to the sounds inside with his stethoscope.
His eyes gleaming, he quietly expressed his admiration with a bright face.
“Oh, gurgle, gurgle. Oh. Good. Sounds good.”
“Blood pressure is good. Pulse, too.”
Whoosh.
Letting the air out of the sphygmomanometer, Jeong Minsu called out brightly.
Both their gazes immediately turned to Taesu.
The thermometer needed a little more time.
Taesu’s expression, as he watched it intently, changed in real time.
“Oh, oh. Thirty-seven degrees.”
“Really?”
“Look. Here.”
Whip.
Taesu pulled out the thermometer and held it right in front of Bread Kim’s eyes.
Bread Kim and Jeong Minsu even pressed their heads together to look at the mark.
The moment they saw the number “37” the thermometer was pointing to exactly, they cried out in triumph.
A child’s body temperature was slightly higher than an adult’s.
In other words, it was normal.
“Waha. Hup.”
“Yeah. Oops, shh.”
The medical staff, whose voices had grown loud with joy, quickly shut their mouths.
Sarubia?
“……”
Fortunately, she did not wake, as if she had fallen deeply asleep.
The medical staff quickly read the room and slowly backed away.
Thud.
Only after putting some distance between themselves and her did they rejoice again.
“Now I can finally relax.”
“Everyone even stood night watch. You all worked hard.”
Clasp.
They even held one another’s hands as they encouraged each other.
Their gazes turned back to Sarubia.
“With that tiny body……”
“She fought for over eighteen hours.”
“Amazing. No, incredible.”
They looked at her again and again, smiling like uncles.
Their softly trembling eyes were filled with pride.
The intense joy of this moment only deepened the more they savored it.
Just then, Taesu’s gaze turned toward Karhaban.
He had been watching the doctors relax and rejoice.
But his expression was complicated.
It seemed he had felt their sincerity from that sight.
“……”
He looked and looked.
His expression changed in many ways, and his eyes reddened.
Then.
Drip.
Thick tears fell without a sound.
Taesu’s expression, facing him, settled solemnly.
Those tears.
For some reason, he felt a sense of relief from them.
“Hmm.”
Unable to understand, Taesu tilted his head with a small sound of wonder.
At that reaction, Bread Kim turned his head, then flinched.
“Why…… Hm?”
“Why is he suddenly doing that?”
Jeong Minsu also looked bewildered, unable to understand.
Just as everyone was wondering what those tears meant.
“@^@#%$#. Ahem. @#%$#@%.”
Karhaban spoke at length, even swallowing back his sobs.
Kim Hyeokgwon listened carefully, then calmly translated the complicated feelings contained in his words.
“He says he thought Sarubia was going to die too.”
“Ah, ah……”
“He says if something had happened to this child too, he would have had no reason left to live.”
At Kim Hyeokgwon’s interpretation, everyone nodded silently.
“That kind of thought isn’t unreasonable.”
“Honestly, it wouldn’t be easy to endure with an ordinary mentality.”
“It must be unimaginably horrific.”
They each voiced their guesses one by one.
Even then, Karhaban continued speaking, and Kim Hyeokgwon kept translating.
“@@@##@%……”
“Uh, also. He says he’s sorry for all his harsh words and actions.”
“#@%#^$%……”
“He says he didn’t mean it, and that he reflected a great deal all night on how he acted yesterday.”
Kim Hyeokgwon calmly conveyed the long speech.
Clasp.
Karhaban pressed his palms together beneath his chin, a respectful greeting, and bowed his head deeply.
Then, perhaps because the tension had left him, his shoulders trembled faintly.
Everyone watched him with gentle smiles.
It was then.
Whip.
Taesu moved and approached Karhaban first.
Once he was close, Taesu helped him up and met his eyes.
Karhaban’s eyes were moist, and Taesu’s face, facing him, was full of smiles.
Then Taesu spoke first.
“I’m sorry for getting angry without knowing anything.”
“@#$%#%…… Hm. He says he was more at fault.”
Kim Hyeokgwon relayed their words, listening alternately to both sides.
Thanks to that, Taesu and Karhaban held the conversation while looking directly into each other’s eyes.
“No. I misunderstood everything and got angry without asking.”
“%$#@%…… He says when he looks back on it, he was the one being unreasonable.”
“No. That was……”
Just as Taesu was about to apologize again, Kim Hyeokgwon cut in between them.
“Hold on. How long are you two going to keep apologizing?”
He openly vented the hardships of an interpreter.
Perhaps because that was conveyed in each of their languages, Taesu and Karhaban looked sheepish.
Grip.
Even so, their hands remained firmly clasped.
Still in that state, Taesu brought up something else.
“While we’re here, I’ll help Sarubia recover enough to run around.”
“$.@#$.@#…… He says he asks you to take care of the other villagers too.”
“I’ll treat every last person with all the sincerity I have.”
“#$#%@#$%…… He says thank you, and that not only he but everyone is grateful.”
The moment Kim Hyeokgwon finished speaking.
Squeeze.
Strength filled Karhaban’s hand.
And warmth flowed in the eyes facing Taesu.
Now, the sharpness from yesterday could no longer be found anywhere.
A short while later.
Everyone came out of Sarubia’s hospital room.
Karhaban’s calm smile still remained in their minds.
Perhaps because of that, their gazes were somewhat complicated.
“……”
They had clearly treated someone’s body.
The aftermath of that had become the driving force that embraced someone else’s emotional pain.
Once again, reverence for medicine surged within them.
“These hands are truly nothing special……”
“But at times like this, they make me proud.”
“The world of medicine really does seem mysterious.”
The doctors took turns murmuring heartfelt impressions.
But unexpectedly, Kim Hyeokgwon said nothing.
He was quietly looking at his own hands.
Sensing something, Taesu sidled up to him and asked in a low voice.
“Do they look different?”
“Doctor Choi. Do you know how people in the old days dealt with trees?”
“They chopped at them with an axe until they fell.”
“I think I understand a little how the tree must have felt.”
He only said something incomprehensible.
But Taesu understood and was smiling softly.
What Kim Hyeokgwon was saying now would probably be clearer if compared to a proverb.
There is no tree that will not fall after being struck ten times.
The expressions of gratitude people sent him were undoubtedly striking Kim Hyeokgwon’s cold heart.
Kim Hyeokgwon himself was feeling that.
That was what made Taesu happiest of all.
Was it because the start was good?
The steps of the medical staff as they left the sickroom were overflowing with energy.
They came out of the building like that.
Though it was early morning, patients were arriving one after another with help.
With a refreshed face, Taesu spoke vigorously.
“Let’s die—no, let’s save them.”
“Let’s go with fighting spirit.”
The medical staff, their entire bodies filled with determination, strode powerfully toward the patients.
Their movements were as solid as that fighting spirit.
Fortunately, there were no emergency patients like yesterday.
But they still could not let their guard down.
There were too many patients.
Far too many.
There were only four medical staff.
With that number, they had to handle examinations, treatment, and surgeries all at once.
They had no time to breathe.
Even so, not one of them complained.
With energetic faces, they dealt with the patients’ pain one by one.
In the middle of it, Taesu approached Bread Kim and said,
“Bread, surgery.”
“You should at least tell me the symptoms and the diagnosis.”
“It’s a hernia. I wrote the details here.”
Rustle.
Taesu held out a sheet of paper.
Writing clearly reduced communication errors more than speech.
Bread Kim looked it over, then fixed his eyes on Taesu and confirmed again.
“What is this? You want Hyeokgwon and me to go in by ourselves?”
“Yes.”
“You said it’s an enterocele (hernia), and hernial inflammation is suspected too. Then it’s a herniolaparotomy. How are the two of us supposed to operate?”
Even at Bread Kim’s voice, full of bewilderment, Taesu spoke confidently.
“If Minsu drops out now too, I’ll die.”
“Overcome it. You said we should have fighting spirit.”
“Yes. Bread, fighting.”
When his own words returned like a boomerang, Bread Kim deeply frowned.
“That bastard. Ugh.”
“Aja.”
“What do you mean, aja? Ah, this is going to kill me.”
Even with Taesu’s encouragement, Bread Kim headed for the building with his shoulders drooping.
The sound of him muttering complaints could be heard.
Taesu smiled deeply.
‘In the field, this much is basic.’
That included himself.
After muttering inwardly, Taesu immediately turned around and ran off in search of another patient.
That did not mean Bread Kim alone was pushed into the operating room.
Depending on the situation and symptoms, the members changed frequently.
This time, Bread Kim called for Taesu.
“Doctor Choi, surgery with me.”
“Understood. Hyeokgwon, let’s go. Minsu, good luck.”
Whip.
Taesu and Kim Hyeokgwon moved in an instant.
Left alone, Jeong Minsu was practically on the verge of tears.
“Excuse me. All of you, why are you doing this to me?”
No matter how much he shouted, reality did not change.
Yesterday, there had been Raku, but not today.
Jeong Minsu looked even more tearful as he was surrounded by people he could not communicate with.
Even so, his fighting spirit was still alive.
When cornered, humans found a way to adapt.
Jeong Minsu shouted as he overcame the difficulties together with the patients.
“Hey, this, hold it.”
“^#%$%@#.”
“I told you I can’t understand you. Just please hold this.”
He did not hesitate to plead for the sake of treatment.
That sight felt very much like Jeong Minsu.
Quite some time passed after that.
Late afternoon.
Another surgery.
They did not even know how many surgeries this made today.
But a solemn air flowed through the hands preparing for it.
Taesu, who entered last, reported the situation outside.
“I sent everyone back.”
“This is the last surgery today.”
When Bread Kim replied, Taesu stirred up their motivation.
“Let’s all keep our fighting spirit.”
“Right. Since it’s the last one.”
“Let’s not let our guard down.”
Kim Hyeokgwon and Jeong Minsu each added a word.
Since they were in harmony, the atmosphere in the operating room quickly settled.
Soon, Taesu looked at the patient lying on the operating table.
The patient’s face was all too familiar.
He was a patient with a feature impossible to forget.
That feature was that there was nothing below his right calf.
He was the patient who had tasted despair yesterday.
But today, his expression had grown much softer.
When his eyes met Taesu’s, he looked at him with a deep gaze.
“……”
It was clear that it meant he was ready to undergo the surgery.
Taesu met that gaze and spoke gently.
“We’ll begin the surgery soon.”
“@#^$%…… He says he’s in your hands.”
Kim Hyeokgwon’s interpretation came reflexively.
After that.
Slowly.
The patient closed his eyes first.