That gaze was sharp.
When he was cool-headed and rational, there were not many who could evade his eyes.
And now those piercing eyes were fixed on Taesu.
Meanwhile, Taesu felt like he was dying.
His heart shrank, and his knees went weak.
‘Please, please.’
Inwardly, he prayed that Squad Leader Sam would give an affirmative answer.
And if not?
After that, he would have nothing left to insist on.
Taesu’s vision began to grow darker and darker.
Then Squad Leader Sam’s answer reached his ears.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I think the song I was humming to myself must have slipped out.”
“Is that true?”
“I believe so. Is something the matter?”
Through the rearview mirror, Squad Leader Sam’s puzzled eyes were reflected.
He seemed to have no idea what was going on.
Vroooom.
Inside the jeep, the engine noise was ringing deafeningly.
Since Taesu and James had not been speaking loudly, their conversation seemed to have been buried under the engine noise.
James seemed to acknowledge that point as well, and answered mildly.
“No. If you drive for a long time, that can happen. If you’re tired, we can rest for a bit before going on.”
“No, sir. I’ll stay focused and drive properly. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. Keep up the good work.”
James gently encouraged Squad Leader Sam.
At the same time, the suspicion in his eyes toward Taesu softened considerably.
Taesu was freed from the pressure that had been weighing down both his shoulders.
At that moment, Taesu silently clenched his fist.
Tight.
‘Nice.’
He cried out in triumph inwardly.
Had Caprene helped him?
The thought was so absurd that even that crossed his mind.
It did not matter.
What was certain was that when a person sincerely wished and pleaded, the heavens would not abandon them.
He revisited a deep realization in the strangest place.
Then James spoke calmly.
“It seems I misunderstood. For that, I apologize.”
“No, sir. It was nothing.”
“Hmm. No. Now that I’m actually trying to bring up that story, I think I became sensitive without realizing it. Let me catch my breath for a moment.”
Whirr.
James lowered the window and cooled his face in the rushing wind.
Taesu, who had been secretly rejoicing, looked at James’s profile.
His eyes, directed toward the distance, were filled with a hazy sorrow.
Taesu’s joy faded away in an instant.
The death of a child.
It had happened more than ten years ago.
But a parent’s clock had stopped on that day, in that moment.
Was it because of Caprene’s memories?
Taesu could empathize, even if only a little, with James’s heart being torn apart.
Throb.
For an instant, his heart ached.
Some time passed, but in the end, James did not bring up that story.
Instead, he asked about the people around Taesu.
“Mr. Kim seems to have an interesting personality.”
“When it comes to money, he never says or listens to nonsense.”
“So were there any amusing incidents?”
James asked again.
It seemed he wanted to lighten his own heavy heart, even if only a little.
Taesu agreed with that as well.
So he began telling the anecdotes that came to mind.
“He’s crazy about money, but he’s weak to affection. Once…”
“That really is a unique personality.”
“That’s why I don’t think too badly of Mr. Kim…”
“If that line is clear, there’s no reason to see him badly. Then what kind of personality does Doctor Jeong have?”
James continued to lead the conversation.
He had probably asked lightly, but this time Taesu gave a bitter smile.
Because his connection with Jeong Minsu was by no means light.
“Minsu? With that guy, actually…”
“Hmm. I see.”
“Because of that incident, I left Seoul and went to a place called Dongseong Medical Center in Gongju…”
For the first time, Taesu explained in detail the reason and process by which he had come to Kashmir.
James was now listening to him completely.
And so, the interior of the jeep, which had briefly been filled with tension, regained its warm and friendly mood.
Then Taesu and James spent time getting to know each other even more deeply.
The road back to the NGO camp was long and longer still.
When they had headed to Makut, they had left in the afternoon and only arrived the next morning.
The road back was the same.
They had left in the morning, but it was dawn by the time they passed through the entrance of the NGO camp.
Now the sun was beginning to rise.
A new morning was dawning, but for someone, a long, long day was still continuing.
Vroooom.
From far off, military trucks were driving in a line.
At their head, a small jeep was guiding the way for those large trucks.
Soon, the jeep and trucks stopped deep inside the camp, where tarps and tents stood in rows.
At the same time, soldiers poured out from the cargo beds of the trucks.
Clang.
Everyone was busy opening the cargo beds and unloading goods.
Even that time was brief.
Vroom.
The jeep and trucks, emptied of cargo, sped away as if they were in some great hurry.
In the place where the trucks had just been parked, only Taesu, James, and their group were left standing forlornly.
With a swollen face and hollow eyes, Taesu checked on the others.
“Brad, are you all right?”
“Ugh, uuugh. Oof. My back.”
His groan was the answer.
Taesu immediately sought out the next person.
“What about you, Hyeokgwon?”
“Tell Doctor Kim this. I’m the older one. Every bone in my body aches.”
An even more explicit groan came back.
Taesu smiled bitterly and sought out the last person.
“Minsu, what about you?”
“I hurt.”
“I told you to ride in the jeep with us, but you said no.”
“That’s a bit…”
Jeong Minsu swallowed a groan and glanced furtively at James.
James was smiling faintly.
Seeing that Kim Hyeokgwon had somehow come up beside him, it seemed he had translated the bickering between friends.
Perhaps because of that, James looked straight at Jeong Minsu and asked.
“Was it very hard?”
“Gasp. N-no, sir. That’s not what I meant. I was just joking with Doctor Choi. Really, it was a joke.”
“Still, it couldn’t have been comfortable.”
“Well… Ahem.”
Jeong Minsu swallowed his answer. He could have glossed over it with something pleasant to hear.
But he could not say something he did not mean.
His unnecessarily honest personality was laid bare.
James smiled gently.
“It’s better to see you being honest.”
“Yes. Th-thank you.”
“Heh. Doctor Choi.”
When James called him, Taesu quickly answered.
“Yes, Doctor James.”
“Everyone must be tired. First, go in and rest…”
James tried to wrap up the schedule.
It was then.
“Doctor James.”
A high-pitched voice broke the stillness of dawn.
When they looked that way, Nurse Catherine was quickly approaching.
Tap-tap-tap.
It was not a situation in which they could express gladness.
The blood soaked into her surgical gown drew everyone’s attention sharply.
“Mm?”
“Huh?”
Everyone’s expressions hardened in an instant.
There was no need to see or hear more.
It was an emergency.
Just as everyone’s eyes flashed, Nurse Catherine’s voice rang out once more.
“Doctor, help.”
“Help?”
James’s eyes flashed sharply.
At the same time—
Dadadak.
With James in the lead, Taesu and everyone else closed the distance to Nurse Catherine.
Soon, they met in the middle.
Nurse Catherine quickly caught her breath and swiftly reported the situation.
“Spine fracture. A patient with the first through third lumbar vertebrae fractured.”
“And?”
“Neurolepsis. It seems the broken bone fragments are touching the nerves. The patient complained of paraplegia.”
Nurse Catherine’s reporting voice was like a machine.
James, taking it all into his head, had likewise lost all expression.
“Anything else?”
“Bone fragments have lodged in the spleen, causing a spleen hematoma. It was left too long, so it’s grown too large.”
“What’s the biggest problem?”
“Everyone’s exhausted from overwork and completely drained. We were just about to request support when we heard the trucks and came out to check.”
Nurse Catherine rapidly finished her answer.
James looked around at everyone with deep eyes and asked.
“You’re tired?”
“We’re perfectly fine.”
Taesu, Jeong Minsu, and Brad Kim shouted in one voice.
The quiet medical camp seemed to ring with the sound.
Just then, the bright morning sunlight rose fully, driving away the darkness completely.
Perhaps because of the effect of the light, the doctors’ haggard faces, hardened with resolve, appeared strong.
Seeming satisfied with that sight, James said to Nurse Catherine.
“Prepare everything, please.”
“Yes.”
“Ah, you need a nurse too, don’t you?”
The moment James asked, Nurse Catherine nodded vigorously.
“Absolutely. We only managed to secure one.”
“Take him.”
Slide.
James gestured toward Kim Hyeokgwon with his chin. At the same time, Nurse Catherine’s eyes sparkled, and she immediately approached him and grabbed his hand.
Grab.
“Hurry, let’s go.”
“Wh-what is this? Hey.”
“Why are you looking at me? We need to go in and see the patient.”
At the sudden situation, Kim Hyeokgwon spoke in a tone so flustered he seemed out of his mind.
“I’m not a nurse.”
“I know, Mr. Kim.”
“What? How do you know me?”
“Explanations later. Let’s go first. Hurry.”
“Huh? Huuuh?”
Tug, tug.
Nurse Catherine was not merely proactive; she dragged Kim Hyeokgwon along fiercely.
That was how much James’s words were law to her.
Kim Hyeokgwon, on the other hand, had been standing still and suddenly found himself struck by frost.
At the moment he was being dragged away, Kim Hyeokgwon and James’s eyes met.
“Grr.”
With his face twisted up, he looked ready to say something at any moment.
At that moment, James spoke to Kim Hyeokgwon first.
Using the form of address they had settled on during the trip, he spoke casually.
“I’ll pay you a surgery allowance.”
“That old man, you think money is all I—”
“It won’t be disappointing.”
“Everything can be arranged.”
Before anyone knew it, Kim Hyeokgwon’s two eyes had transformed into dollar signs.
His attitude had also changed one hundred and eighty degrees.
Tap.
Kim Hyeokgwon quickly rushed ahead and, in reverse, began leading Nurse Catherine.
“That’s the familiar tent over there, right? Let’s hurry.”
“Uh, huh?”
“What are you doing? What use is anyone this slow? The patient’s going to stop breathing. Hurry. Come on, quickly.”
“What is with this man—oh.”
Tap-tap-tap.
Nurse Catherine’s last words could not even be heard.
That was how quickly and roughly Kim Hyeokgwon led her into the surgical tent.
James also headed toward the surgical tent after them.
But unexpectedly, his walking pace was slow.
Unable to wait, Taesu was about to run to the surgical tent first.
At that moment, James spoke in a voice tinged with amusement.
“Mr. Kim really is easy to handle. Simple is good.”
“Doctor James.”
“You’re wondering why I’m so relaxed?”
When he asked first, Taesu instinctively answered.
“Yes.”
“Because Catherine came toward me.”
“Yes?”
Not only Taesu, but Jeong Minsu and Brad Kim as well did not understand.
As if he had expected the doctors’ reaction, James continued.
“If she could come all the way here and explain the situation, it means it still isn’t the worst.”
“Catherine said it was urgent.”
“When did she say it was urgent?”
“She clearly said help…”
Taesu trailed off, no longer certain.