Fire.

Looking at the name tag of the doctor nearby, he was, as expected, in emergency medicine.

Perfect timing.

Taesu had no room for shame right now.

So he went straight over and asked for his understanding first.

“Excuse me, Dr. Telon. May I trouble you for a moment?”

“Huh? Ah…… Ahem. Dr. Choi. What is it?”

“I was wondering if you know anything about a condition where the split runs from the upper lip to the palate.”

At Taesu’s blunt question, Dr. Telon’s face turned incredulous.

But only for a moment.

Swish.

Dr. Telon quickly glanced toward Medical Tent 3, then asked Taesu.

“That young patient?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And you’re saying you don’t know the diagnosis, so you’ve left the patient waiting and are going around asking people like this?”

His question was cold.

But Taesu, whether he understood that coldness or not, shamelessly asked back with a bright expression.

“Then should I send the patient to you?”

“Can’t you see I’m busy right now?”

He rebuked him right to his face.

His conversation with Dr. Quentin must have played a decisive role.

The more he did, the more glibly Taesu answered.

“You seemed far too busy, so I thought I’d just ask for some advice.”

“Ha. Good grief.”

“I know it’s a dental condition, but I can’t get a sense of its emergency priority, so I came to ask for advice.”

“Forget advice. Just send the patient to dentistry.”

His tone said it was beyond frustrating, that it was pathetic.

Even so, the smile did not leave Taesu’s face.

His liver?

His gallbladder?

He must have dropped them somewhere.

No words sounded provocative to Taesu’s ears right now.

Perhaps because of that, even in the face of the other man’s chilly reaction, he responded gently and politely.

“Who would be free right now, wherever they are?”

“Whew. Glad you know that.”

“Exactly. Honestly, it would be easy for me to send the patient to dentistry. But then that patient will be waiting without knowing when they’ll be seen, won’t they?”

Taesu began persuading him by combining the current situation of the clinic with the patient’s circumstances.

Perhaps thinking there was some logic to that, Dr. Telon narrowed his eyes slightly and asked.

“Hm. So?”

“Please just tell me the diagnosis and how urgent it is.”

“You want me to tell you.”

“I want the patient to wait without anxiety, and I want to reduce the confusion the other doctors may feel.”

Taesu asked calmly and politely.

“……”

Dr. Telon stared intently at Taesu.

Then, as if something had occurred to him, he pointed to the chart in Taesu’s hand and said.

“I’ll only say this once.”

“Yes. I’m ready.”

“That condition is called bilateral cleft lip and palate. The pain isn’t severe right away, but eating is difficult, and……”

On and on.

Dr. Telon’s curt explanation began.

His tone sounded slightly annoyed.

But what was surprising was that he explained it in far more detail than expected.

On the other hand, Taesu was frantic.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Before he knew it, it had become an English dictation session.

Surprisingly, the dictation went smoothly.

Soon, Dr. Telon’s explanation came to an end.

“……That’s what it is. Satisfied now?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Did you write it down properly?”

Dr. Telon asked brusquely, still wearing a prickly expression.

Taesu turned the chart around entirely and showed it to him.

“Here.”

“Mm, you wrote it down neatly. But you’re not going to send it like this, are you?”

“I’ll summarize it briefly before sending it.”

“Do as you like.”

“Then I’ll stop bothering you and return to my post. Thank you for the advice.”

Bow.

Taesu bowed deeply and turned around.

Meanwhile, Dr. Telon, who had been watching Taesu walk away, muttered to himself.

“What was I rambling on about all by myself?”

He thought of himself as taciturn.

And yet he had talked alone until the chart turned black with writing.

He had confirmed it with his own eyes, so there was no denying it.

As Dr. Telon mulled over why he had done that, he suddenly gave a bitter smile.

“That guy—no, that doctor—is interesting.”

Even after being scolded to his face like that, he had managed to get that much out of him.

He knew very well that it would be difficult without considerable grit.

Then he began, in his own way, to wonder whether it was really right to view Taesu and Jeong Minsu so negatively.

A little while later.

Taesu wrote up a new chart and transferred the patient to dentistry. Fortunately, it was not a dental condition that required emergency treatment.

Now it was time to organize the paper on which he had written the advice he had sought earlier.

The moment it entered his sight, Taesu paused for a moment.

“……”

Then, with a calm face, he read through Dr. Telon’s advice again.

The sentences written in English were packed closely together.

There was a reason his dictation skill was unexpectedly good.

It went back to his days in the main course at Chungseondae Medical School. Back then, one of their assignments had been to copy medical textbooks by hand.

At most, the volume exceeded a thousand pages.

Copying that by hand, spelling and all, was not something that could be done simply by staying up all night.

Nor could they do it carelessly, because it was an assignment from a full professor.

Professor Lee Jeongmin.

He was so merciless toward students that he was called the Tiger Professor.

‘I cursed him a lot behind his back back then.’

Whenever the students gathered, they were busy cursing Professor Lee Jeongmin.

But he had never dreamed that the resentment from back then would shine like this here.

In fact, the reason he could converse fluently in English was the same.

Professor Lee Jeongmin held a seminar every week under the pretext of checking their progress on the assignment.

While preparing for that, they had been forced to memorize the original English text until they knew it by heart.

The cries of complaint about how harsh it was had never stopped.

There were even many classmates who took leaves of absence.

Only Taesu, Do Seongmin, and a few of their classmates had cursed behind his back while doggedly seeing it through.

He could not deny that it had become the foundation that allowed him to live abroad smoothly now.

They said there was truly nothing bad about learning something.

‘When I go back to Korea, I’ll definitely repay this debt. Tenfold—no, a hundredfold.’

With a guilt-stricken conscience, he made that firm and intense vow.

That was not the only resolve he formed.

He realized one more thing.

If you try, it can be done.

Nothing is impossible.

Even now, he had learned about a disease and symptoms he had known absolutely nothing about. What had happened during that process was no longer in his head.

The result in his hand was what mattered.

“Right, right.”

Other illnesses would be the same.

If he didn’t know, he could ask, and he could learn.

Then it would work.

That was all Taesu knew.

After that, another patient whose diagnosis he did not know came to him, as Caprene’s medical knowledge was limited.

Taesu had no fear.

He spoke frankly to the patient from the start.

“It’s an illness I don’t know very well, so may I go ask another doctor for advice?”

“Uh, Dr. Choi……”

“Pike, please translate that as it is.”

Taesu requested politely.

Pike, the interpreter, instead wore an awkward expression as he spoke with the patient.

“#$%^(&&&.”

“#$*#$%.^”

Fortunately, the patient gave permission.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

After asking for understanding, Taesu immediately rose from his seat and headed to another tent.

He had not come looking for anyone in particular.

The moment he arrived, he blindly approached the nearest doctor and asked.

“Dr. Moretz. Excuse me for a moment.”

“Oh my. Dr. Choi?”

“I’m asking because I don’t know much, but by any chance……”

While fully maintaining his manners, Taesu quickly asked the main point.

Dr. Moretz, with her long golden hair, looked surprised and full of bewilderment.

Even so, she did not push away Taesu, who was honest and polite.

“That condition is called nasal septal deviation……”

“So because of a cartilage problem, the nose……”

“Yes. Patients like that generally……”

Dr. Moretz, too, did not simply say the name of the disease, but smoothly explained the symptoms as well.

After writing it all down, Taesu clasped her hand firmly and expressed his gratitude.

“Dr. Moretz, thanks to you, I think this will be resolved quickly. Thank you very much.”

“No, not at all. I didn’t do anything. But your hand, my hand—”

“I’m sorry. I was just too grateful. Then, excuse me.”

Likewise, Taesu bowed politely and returned to his place.

Soon, a nurse sidled up beside Dr. Moretz and teased her.

“Why has your face gone red?”

“Mine? Ah, no it hasn’t.”

“But Dr. Choi, you know. Seeing him up close, don’t you think he has a bit of a rough charm?”

The nurse asked mischievously, lifting her eyebrows dramatically.

The more she did, the more Dr. Moretz turned her gaze away and dodged the question.

“I only know that I was surprised because he suddenly appeared.”

“That’s not it. Everyone knows people don’t look at him very favorably, but it’s not easy to approach so boldly like that anyway. I think it’s a little cool.”

“Well……”

Dr. Moretz gave a vague reply and stopped there.

But before she knew it, her gaze was following Taesu as he moved farther away.

In that way, although it was only very fragmentary, the gazes directed toward Taesu began to change little by little.

Taesu’s actions did not stop after only a few times.

As the saying went, anything improved with practice, and he grew less and less hesitant about going to other doctors.

And he even became more brazen.

“Dr. Christopher. Do you have a moment?”

“Dr. Statham. Excuse me for a moment.”

“Dr. Hassan, please give me just one minute.”

“Dr. Natalie, are you going to get coffee? I’ll make it for you. So on the way……”

There were even times when he chased after them to ask.

It did not matter who the other person was.

To put it excessively, it would not be strange to say he approached them recklessly.

The doctors’ reactions toward such a Taesu also varied.

“Ah, Dr. Choi. I told you I’m busy.”

“I don’t know that either. Ask somewhere else.”

“I’m right now…… Ah, Dr. Angelina over there knows. That doctor over there.”

“All right. Stop following me around. I said I’ll tell you.”

There were many cases where they pushed him away and refused. Even then, if he followed them around, they eventually gave up and told him, or introduced him to another doctor.

There were even cases like this.

“Doctor……”

“All right. What are the symptoms? Just tell me.”

They had given up entirely and accepted it.

That went on past morning and continued into the afternoon.

It was possible because there were no emergency patients where every second counted.

No, it would be more accurate to say that was why Taesu had been given this opportunity.

The patients did not doubt or dislike Taesu for doing that either.

He was far slower than the other doctors.

But he investigated thoroughly and let them know for certain.

Taesu’s initiative was so remarkable that it put to shame the fact that this was free medical volunteer work.

Even without hearing about it from others, they could see it with their own eyes.

So no matter how long it took, the patients waited until Taesu returned.

Some of the patients waiting even changed their order, saying they wanted to be examined by Taesu.

Compared to the countless patients, it was a drop in the bucket.

But the fact that even one person recognized his sincerity was an incredible thing.

But Taesu was not the only one doing that.

There was Jeong Minsu.

The only rival Jeong Minsu considered as such was Taesu.

He was not generous enough to watch with a smile while Taesu grew all by himself.

Naturally, Jeong Minsu also took action.

“Dr. Telon, I’m here.”

“Augh, these doctors, seriously. Isn’t this too much?”

“I am very, very sorry. But what can I do when I truly don’t know? Please tell me.”

Jeong Minsu also pleaded with a sincere and earnest face.

Because he had a round, gentle impression, he felt a little softer than Taesu.

But Dr. Telon’s position was different.

Since it seemed like they would not listen no matter what he said, he let his heart drop and gestured.

“Whew. So what is it? Hurry up and say it. I’m busy too.”

“Thank you. So……”

Once permission was granted, Jeong Minsu leisurely lifted the chart and explained the symptoms he had identified.

There was a little composure in his manner.