It was surely an unprecedented incident in the NGO.
On top of that, Dr. Isaacson had even publicly declared that he was the youngest member of James’s surgical team.
It seemed that rumor had spread throughout the NGO camp during the Makut dispatch.
For a moment, Taesu’s face prickled with embarrassment.
Scratch.
“I suppose not everyone will look at us that way.”
“Th-the stares, ahem. They are a little burdensome.”
Taesu and Jeong Minsu looked awkward.
Kim Hyeokgwon, however, did not so much as flinch.
“If they’re going to look, tell them to pay for it.”
“Haha. We’ll make a fortune.”
Brad Kim, being somewhat known in the NGO camp at least, was taking it in stride.
As that embarrassing stretch of time passed by,
Taesu’s head filled with the thought of whether they ought to get up and leave.
Then, just then—
Rustle.
The gazes of the medical staff turned elsewhere.
Freed from their stares for an instant, Taesu looked in that direction.
He saw a group of medical staff approaching them.
The moment he spotted them, Taesu immediately sprang up from his seat, waved his hand, and called out.
“Ozma, Isaacson, hey!”
Just as Taesu’s booming voice had called, they were James’s surgical team.
Among them, who had been looking around at the sudden call, Nurse Lumiere raised a hand in return.
With her shimmering blond hair and tall, slender figure, she stood out at once.
Starting with Nurse Lumiere, everyone began looking their way and approaching.
Just as the distance between them narrowed,
the back of Taesu’s head oddly began to prickle.
Sharper gazes than before seemed to stab into his body.
“Ah. Did I make a mistake?”
“I’d say that was a mistake.”
When Brad Kim quietly offered his advice, Taesu gave an embarrassed smile.
“Was it?”
“You were already drawing attention because of that thing just now, and then you went and advertised it openly.”
“Ahem.”
“And you called them by name. The members of Dr. James’s surgical team. Those eminent people.”
“Ah, you’re right.”
Taesu reflected deeply for a moment.
But it was far too late.
Then Kim Hyeokgwon asked with a curious expression.
“Just how amazing are they?”
“There probably aren’t even thirty people here who could address them so casually.”
It was a very figurative expression, but Kim Hyeokgwon understood it without difficulty. And perhaps because he did not know the circumstances here, his face changed to one of considerable surprise.
“They’re that high and mighty?”
“Their standing is high.”
“Watching them operate, they did seem pretty impressive.”
Kim Hyeokgwon’s impression went only that far.
Taesu, on the other hand, felt his face sting from the overly concentrated gazes around him.
“Damn, I feel like I stirred things up for no reason.”
“And when you add in that ruffian incident from before.”
“Ruffian? I was… Sigh. That’s just an excuse.”
“From their point of view, it’s not even worth hearing as an excuse.”
Brad Kim answered with a bland smile.
Just as Taesu was looking troubled,
Dr. Ozma and the others came bustling over.
They naturally sat down on the empty benches to either side and greeted them warmly.
“Hey, Choi, did you get some sleep?”
“Why are you up already? There shouldn’t have been any calls.”
“Have you eaten?”
One after another.
Every greeting they gave was perfectly natural.
Taesu, Jeong Minsu, and Brad Kim, however, answered awkwardly.
“I did sleep a little.”
“That’s right. We did sleep a little.”
“We just finished eating.”
As those uneasy answers followed one after another,
Dr. Isaacson’s eyes immediately narrowed. Then, noticing the sharp gazes aimed this way, he promptly swept his eyes around the surroundings.
Swish, swish.
“……”
In an instant, the gazes scattered in all directions, and silence settled in.
Dr. Isaacson had pushed back their interest with only his eyes.
That much was possible for him even on his own.
As soon as the matter was resolved, Dr. Isaacson looked at Taesu.
There was no sharp or stinging light in his eyes anywhere.
They were filled only with softness and warmth.
“It’s more comfortable now, isn’t it?”
“I’m sorry. I should have addressed you properly.”
“Dr. Choi, I told you before. Everyone gets disappointed when you do that.”
Dr. Isaacson’s voice sank slightly.
Dr. Jonathan, beside him with a mischievous face, was the same.
“We call you Dr. Choi because your name doesn’t sit easily on our tongues. That’s a very different matter.”
“That’s right. Dr. Choi, no—‘Tweh-su.’”
Nurse Catherine flared up and called Taesu by name.
At that sound, Kim Hyeokgwon clutched his stomach and burst into laughter.
“Puhahaha. Tweh-su? Haha, Tweh-su?”
“Mr. Kim.”
“Ah, ah, sorry. There was a reason they call you Dr. Choi.”
Kim Hyeokgwon answered, even wiping away a faint tear from laughing so hard.
As an interpreter, he knew well that the pronunciation systems they had learned and acquired were different.
Even so, it seemed the pronunciation was definitely funny.
Jeong Minsu and Brad Kim had their heads bowed deeply.
Shake, shake.
“Khhm.”
“Kheup. Hm.”
Seeing even their suppressed shoulder movements, it was clear they were holding back laughter.
Taesu had heard the pronunciation a few times before, so he was relatively calm.
“Still, I think I should be more careful outside.”
To Taesu, who expressed his intention to restrain himself, Dr. Ozma flatly refused with a serious expression.
“Don’t.”
“……”
“If anyone asks what Dr. Choi is, answer like this: ‘I am their friend.’”
Dr. Ozma gave him that firm support.
The feeling struck Taesu’s heart powerfully.
Friend.
Of course, it was a good meaning.
It could be seen as the highest goodwill.
But it was a little different from being acknowledged as a doctor.
For a moment, Taesu’s mind filled with complicated thoughts.
And it was not only Taesu.
Jeong Minsu and Brad Kim’s laughter had vanished before they knew it, and they were wearing heavy expressions.
Because the surgery they had participated in as helpers filled their minds.
Compared to them?
They could not easily put the word doctor in their mouths for themselves.
Seen from that perspective, perhaps the expression “friend” was more appropriate.
As the atmosphere turned rapidly awkward, Dr. Ozma was the one who looked flustered.
“Why did it suddenly turn into Greenland?”
“No. It’s nothing.”
“Dr. Choi, it doesn’t look like nothing. If the expression ‘friend’ offends you…”
Dr. Ozma hurriedly tried to find words to correct himself.
Just then,
Swoosh.
Dr. Isaacson lightly raised a hand to stop him.
It meant that was not the problem.
Then he stared intently at Taesu and the doctors and asked in a low voice.
“Something is going on. What is it?”
“Pardon? Ahem. It’s nothing.”
“If you want to see just how sharp an anesthesiologist’s eye can be, by all means.”
Dr. Isaacson tried to press him in a voice full of certainty.
He was the type to do what he said he would do.
Knowing that well, Taesu opened his mouth with a bitter expression.
“I just feel so shabby.”
“Mm.”
“It doesn’t matter if the others here look at me badly.”
Taesu drew the line there.
But that line instead gave Dr. Isaacson a hint.
Dr. Isaacson’s eyebrows rose sharply, and he immediately asked,
“Then it has to do with the surgery this morning?”
“That’s right.”
Taesu answered obediently.
At that moment, Brad Kim slipped in cautiously, gauging the mood.
“By any chance, did the professor say anything about us?”
“Only that we should let you rest well.”
“Ah, I see.”
Slump.
Brad Kim’s shoulders drooped even lower.
Jeong Minsu could not even speak.
He only looked at the ground and tapped the tips of his shoes together.
But in contrast, a meaningful smile appeared on Dr. Isaacson’s face.
“So that’s why you’re like this.”
“Isaacson, don’t keep it to yourself.”
“During the surgery, there were big and small mistakes, and when we raised the final pitch at the end, everyone observed it. It looked like a lot of thoughts were passing through their minds then.”
Dr. Isaacson answered Dr. Ozma’s question.
At that, everyone flinched.
Taesu especially opened his eyes wide and asked Dr. Isaacson,
“You saw that in the middle of all that?”
“I told you. An anesthesiologist’s gaze covers the entire operating room.”
“Is… is that so.”
Taesu answered awkwardly.
But perhaps because that itself was not smooth, Dr. Ozma immediately cut in.
“Dr. Choi, what were you thinking?”
“I’m sure each of us had different reasons. But for me…”
Just as Taesu was about to bring up the main point,
Ring.
At the sound of a cell phone ringing, Dr. Ozma quickly raised his hand.
“Wait a moment. Hm? It’s the professor. …Yes. Professor, it’s me.”
Dr. Ozma turned only his head slightly and took the call.
It seemed to be a call from Dr. James.
So everyone waited quietly to hear what was going on.
At that moment, Dr. Ozma’s voice on the call could be faintly heard.
“Yes? Ah, we happen to be together… Yes, yes. Understood.”
Dr. Ozma politely lowered his cell phone and looked at Taesu.
“Dr. Choi, you know where the professor’s treatment tent is, right?”
“Of course.”
“He says to come.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Alone. He didn’t say why he’s calling you.”
Dr. Ozma answered calmly.
In that instant, Brad Kim and Jeong Minsu’s gazes turned to Taesu.
It seemed that because each had something weighing on his conscience, their hearts had dropped.
Taesu first reassured them, who were filled with anxiety.
“He probably just wants to have a cup of tea.”
“But just in case…”
“Minsu, don’t pointlessly make yourself worry more.”
“Okay.”
He answered, but he did not seem particularly reassured.
Dr. Isaacson stepped in to ease that awkward atmosphere.
“We’ll talk with them here, so Dr. Choi, hurry along.”
“I’ll leave them in your hands.”
“What do you mean, leave them in our hands?”
“Then.”
Slide.
Taesu rose from his seat, bowed, and moved away.
As Taesu was getting farther from the bench,
Kim Hyeokgwon quietly stood and said,
“It’s not as if I should butt into a conversation among medical staff— Huh?”
Grab.
Feeling something strange, he lowered his gaze and saw that his hand had been caught.
The one holding Kim Hyeokgwon’s hand was Nurse Catherine.
She asked with a strangely suggestive look in her eyes,
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Why me again?”
“Are you asking why we’re holding on to someone who knows nothing at all about a nurse’s work?”
“I told you, I’m not a nurse.”
Kim Hyeokgwon shouted in protest.
But Nurse Catherine was firm.
“A nurse who doesn’t even know the basics working alongside our youngest doctor?”
“Our pride won’t allow that.”
Even Nurse Lumiere joined in.
But Kim Hyeokgwon also had something to say.
“Why do you keep calling me a nurse? You called me Mr. Kim.”
“Then shall we call you Nurse Kim?”
At Nurse Catherine’s deliberate question, Kim Hyeokgwon felt stifled.
“What is with this one-track mind? Wow, this is driving me crazy.”
“Don’t go crazy. Sit down and take out paper and a pen. Lumiere and I will kindly teach you.”
Sparkle, sparkle.
Nurse Catherine’s eyes were full of a sense of duty.
Nurse Lumiere was the same.
Before he knew it, Nurse Catherine and Nurse Lumiere had taken up positions on either side of Kim Hyeokgwon, with him in the center.
Trapped with no way to move, Kim Hyeokgwon finally clutched at his hair.
At a time like this, there was only one person he could resent.
“Where did Dr. Choi go? You damned doctor bastard.”