Taesu saw it as he was about to put on his surgical gloves.
Sparks flew in his eyes.
“Jeong Min-su, snap out of it.”
“No, hey. Taesu. I, I……”
“Am I a specialist?”
Taesu shouted first.
Jeong Min-su flinched violently, as if that was not what he had expected to hear.
“That patient…… It’s the abdomen, isn’t it?”
“Damn it. You and I are the only doctors here. Where are you planning to find a surgical specialist? Huh?”
“W-why don’t we send him to the NGO like before? Okay?”
“Are those eyes just for decoration? Can’t you see this?”
Whoosh.
He pointed at the ECG screen.
It was still filled with wildly jumping graphs and numbers.
Anyone looking at it would have concluded that transporting the patient in that condition was impossible.
Jeong Min-su knew that perfectly well, but he remained rooted to the spot.
“I, I……”
“If we send him, he’ll die.”
“Even so……”
The end of his sentence was indistinct.
He was so crushed beneath conflict and fear that he could not even raise his head.
For an instant, Jeong Min-su overlapped with the guardian Taesu had just met.
Jeong Min-su, hemming and hawing.
The desperate guardian.
A cold blue light flashed in Taesu’s eyes.
Even the interpreter was running around desperately trying to save a life. Yet the doctor, Jeong Min-su, was shrinking back in fear.
There had never been such a complete mess.
A situation like this?
There was no moment in which Taesu could tolerate it.
Whoosh.
He swiftly thrust one foot to the side.
The edge of his foot struck Jeong Min-su squarely in the ribs.
Thud.
“Cough, ugh.”
Caught off guard, Jeong Min-su clutched his side and writhed in pain.
At that moment, Taesu’s cold voice rang out ominously.
“Get out.”
“Tae—ugh.”
“Take off your gown right now and disappear from in front of me. I said get out.”
“……”
Jeong Min-su’s groan faded away.
That was when it happened.
Taesu raised one hand.
A deep red bruise showed beneath the wrist of the arm wearing the surgical glove.
“This is how the guardian feels. This is how a mother feels.”
“Gasp.”
“And you’re saying you can’t do it because you never learned, because you’re afraid? If your own child were lying here, could you still say that?”
“No, that’s……”
When Jeong Min-su faltered, Taesu drove the point home.
“Think about it for the rest of your life.”
Swish.
Taesu turned away, so coldly that a chill seemed to hang in the air.
Jeong Min-su?
He erased him from his mind.
The medical staff here consisted entirely of Taesu and Kim Hyeok-gwon.
Clack.
It was exactly as Taesu stepped toward the operating table that Kim Hyeok-gwon held out a syringe with impeccable timing.
“Here’s the morphine. I’ve prepared a cardiac stimulant too.”
“……”
Thud, jab.
The moment Taesu took them, he stabbed his thigh and pushed in the morphine.
There was no time to find a vein. He administered the cardiac stimulant into his thigh in the same way.
Clatter.
The empty syringe fell to the floor.
He did not even look at it.
Both eyes remained fixed on the ECG.
Was there…… a response?
Beep-beep, beep-beep.
To be honest, the patient had improved only slightly.
It was faint, but the difference was unmistakable.
Then he had to remove the blood filling the abdomen first.
“Proceeding with a laparotomy.”
At that exact moment, the cart arrived beside him.
Rattle.
“I’m here.”
“Scalpel.”
“Disinfect…… No. Here’s the scalpel.”
Clatter.
Kim Hyeok-gwon changed his words mid-sentence and hurriedly found the scalpel, handing it over.
That was what Taesu’s expression looked like.
Anyone who provoked him now would not come out unscathed.
Kim Hyeok-gwon followed without a single complaint at a moment like this.
Clack.
Taesu immediately gripped the scalpel.
‘We’re going straight in.’
His eyes flashed.
Taesu plunged the scalpel mercilessly into the patient’s swollen abdomen.
At the same time—
“Gasp.”
From beside him came the sound of Jeong Min-su sucking in a startled breath.
He hesitated.
Taesu’s hand faltered for an instant.
But it soon began moving again.
The moment the scalpel split open the abdomen—
Fwoosh!
A fountain of blood erupted from inside the opened abdomen.
Without even a chance to dodge, it splashed over Taesu and Kim Hyeok-gwon.
“……”
“Tch.”
The two instinctively turned their faces away.
But only for a moment.
Taesu’s head returned to its original position in the blink of an eye. The only difference was that he was drenched in blood, and his eyes shook violently.
It was because of the amount of blood that had just burst out.
‘All that blood had pooled inside him?’
Intraperitoneal bleeding.
It was called bleeding within the abdominal cavity.
But even medical terms had their limits.
This was far beyond the level of ordinary internal bleeding.
Taesu’s eyes could not easily return to normal.
That was when—
“Taesu, h-hurry, the bleeding.”
It was Jeong Min-su’s voice, trembling uncontrollably.
Taesu could see him standing on the opposite side.
An assistant.
For the first time in all the surgeries Taesu had performed, that position had been filled.
But the trembling voice grated on his nerves.
“……”
Sideways glance.
Taesu raised only his eyes and looked at Jeong Min-su.
His brow immediately furrowed.
Jeong Min-su looked wretched, to put it simply.
Tremble, tremble.
His shoulders were shaking violently.
Tears ran from his eyes, mucus from his nose.
His eyes had lost all direction, and even his fingertips were trembling.
“Uhhhhh. Ugh.”
Unintelligible sobs accompanied him.
And yet he remained in that spot.
He was confronting head-on his fear of surgery—and his own reality.
But Taesu’s gaze did not immediately soften.
Courage forced out through sheer will.
An inexperienced shaman playing at medicine.
Perfect for getting someone killed.
So instead of ordering Jeong Min-su, Taesu gave an order to Kim Hyeok-gwon.
“Hyeok-gwon, the blood bags.”
“Blood type……”
“One drop each in the test solution.”
“Okay. Damn, there’s blood everywhere.”
Scrape, scrape.
As the blood pooled, Kim Hyeok-gwon grumbled irritably while collecting it in an empty syringe.
In the meantime, Taesu picked up the container of powdered hemostatic agent.
At the same time, he hooked a retractor into the split skin and pulled it apart.
Once space opened up, he overturned the powder directly onto the wound, pouring it all over the affected area.
Fwoosh.
Whether the powder flew through the air like dust or not—
Taesu was already switching to another surgical instrument.
But he had only one hand available.
His other hand was fixed in place, holding the wound open.
Not enough hands?
Beep-beep.
The ECG kept urging him on.
Taesu was using a Mixter, but he reached into the wound in search of the source of the bleeding.
That was when—
“I connected the IV.”
Jeong Min-su’s voice came from the opposite side.
Taesu glanced over at once.
Jeong Min-su was still trembling all over. Even so, he had connected the IV to the patient’s wrist and hung it above the patient’s head.
Taesu understood.
This was the best Jeong Min-su could do right now.
Their eyes met.
Jeong Min-su squeezed his eyes shut and stammered.
“I, I…… Damn it, I—”
“Damn it, what can you see with your eyes closed?”
“Huh? Ah, uh.”
Jeong Min-su awkwardly opened his eyes.
As if he had been waiting for that moment, Taesu immediately held out the retractor in his hand.
“Take this. Hurry.”
“Uh, okay.”
Snatch.
Jeong Min-su accepted it almost reflexively.
And Taesu?
He drove him forward without giving him time to think.
“Pull!”
“Huh?”
“What are you doing, holding a bouquet?”
“I’ll pull. I said I’ll pull.”
Thud.
Jeong Min-su quickly applied force and pulled.
That was not the end of it.
Swish, swish.
Taesu rapidly scattered gauze, then handed over a surgical instrument and issued an order.
“Min-su, clear away the clotted blood.”
“The retractor……”
“Are you going to let one hand sit idle?”
“Go.”
Jeong Min-su answered solemnly.
The timing was strange, but it was an answer to Taesu’s earlier order.
Snatch, snatch.
Using the towel clamp, he moved the gauze and scooped away the clumps of powdered hemostatic agent that had become stuck together with the blood.
“Here. And here too.”
He was too busy scooping away the powder with blazing eyes.
Before he knew it, the trembling in his hands had subsided.
With Taesu driving him relentlessly, he seemed too busy keeping up to remember anything else.
Taesu knew that and pressed him harder.
Jeong Min-su was timid, but also simple-minded.
When he focused on one thing, his field of vision narrowed sharply, leaving him unable to look around.
In other words, he had to be ‘squeezed dry.’
Even a dry rag would yield water if wrung hard enough.
But Taesu was not doing this solely for Jeong Min-su.
The patient’s condition was truly critical.
Taesu himself was in a situation where he had to squeeze every last bit out of himself.
His surgical instrument had already entered the abdominal cavity.
“Stop the bleeding first.”
He had to control it, no matter what.
He had only inserted his hand for a moment, but it came out covered in blood.
The powdered hemostatic agent was useless as well.
The bleeding was that severe.
He could not see anything, making it impossible to proceed.
Taesu’s heart grew desperate.
More than anything, he needed another pair of hands.
“Hyeok-gwon.”
“I’m coming.”
Clack.
Apparently having found a blood bag matching the patient’s type, Kim Hyeok-gwon hung it on the IV stand.
And then—
“Uh…… damn it.”
He started to say something to Jeong Min-su, then turned toward Taesu instead.
They were in the middle of emergency surgery.
It was right to restrain himself from saying anything unnecessary.
Even so, his eyes spoke clearly.
It was obvious that Kim Hyeok-gwon was far from satisfied with Jeong Min-su’s performance.
Kim Hyeok-gwon reached Taesu’s side in one bound.
Taesu gave an order as quickly as he had waited for him.
“Saline. Just pour it in.”
“Thirty seconds!”
That was the preparation time.
Far too long.
Taesu immediately narrowed it down.
“Ten seconds.”
“You’re insane.”
“Your allowance!”
“Damn it, ten seconds—gaaah!”
Whoosh, whoosh.
A scream burst from Kim Hyeok-gwon as both hands pushed themselves to their limit.
His pay was always Kim Hyeok-gwon’s weakness.
Taesu’s provocation worked, and saline soon poured out in a refreshing stream.
Splash.
“Eight seconds.”
“Rest for two seconds, then start again.”
“Ghk.”
Kim Hyeok-gwon swallowed even his cry of pain.
That was how intently he, too, focused on the emergency surgery.
In the meantime, Taesu scattered gauze wherever his hand could reach.
“Min-su, clear it away.”
“Okay.”
Swish, scrape.
Jeong Min-su cleared away the diluted blood along with the foreign matter.
Taesu was already adding his own hands to the work.
“Hngh. Suction.”
Scrape, scrape.
He moved at exactly twice Jeong Min-su’s speed.
Who was faster or slower did not matter.
They simply repeated the same actions, moving once more and then again.