Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 301

301. Grandmother and Granddaughter

“Guardian, are you sure you want to wait for the death pronouncement?”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m sorry. But it’ll only be a moment. Could you please wait just two minutes?”

Kim Gil-ja’s expression, which had shown no particular reaction until now, didn’t change dramatically, but there was a sense of urgency.

“Doctor, I know this is absurd, but I’m begging you.”

Tae-kyung’s gaze went to the clock on the emergency room wall.

The current time was 2:58 AM, so two minutes later it would be 3:00 AM.

He didn’t know why the grandmother wanted this all of a sudden, but he figured she must have a reason. Otherwise, asking to wait in the middle of a death pronouncement made no sense.

“…….”

Not even two hours, just two minutes. There was no reason not to wait such a short time.

Tae-kyung remained silent, and the others in the emergency room also fell silent. As if everyone had made a promise, not even patients calling for doctors or nurses could be heard during those short two minutes.

Even the drunken patient who had been constantly looking for medical staff was quiet.

After what felt like a longer two minutes than usual, when the clock pointed exactly to 3:00 AM, Tae-kyung began the death pronouncement again.

“At 3:00 AM on x month x day, 202x, the patient’s heart is no longer beating. Patient Go Chae-ryang is deceased.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much. Doctor. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

After the death pronouncement, Tae-kyung greeted the guardian and headed to the examination room.

The grandmother still showed no strong reaction. Conversely, some of the patients who saw this were secretly wiping away tears.

Afterward, an employee in charge of funeral arrangements at the hospital came and explained the funeral procedures to Kim Gil-ja.

Click-

“Ha!”

Tae-kyung entered the examination room and slumped into a chair. He felt all the strength draining from his body.

Whether it’s an accident, illness, or suicide, the deaths of patients are always regrettable.

Especially when young people pass away, the feeling sinks even deeper.

It felt like his body and mind were as heavy as a sponge full of water.

Even though it wasn’t his fault, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guardians and patients. Perhaps it was only natural as a doctor.

His head and heart were as congested as a blocked road.

Creak-

Wishing to wash away the stuffy feeling, Tae-kyung took out a cold drink from the refrigerator.

Tap- Tap-

But a small sound coming from the window caught his attention.

Tap-Tap- Tap-

The repetitive sound made him walk to the window, and he saw Kim Gil-ja outside. Leaning her small body against a corner bench, she looked very lonely.

The grandmother took out a lighter and repeatedly tried to light it, as if trying to light a cigarette.

Standing by the window, Tae-kyung watched her for a moment, then downed the ice-cold drink in one gulp, feeling a chill in his head, and left the examination room.

He grabbed a small blanket from the nurses’ station and headed outside.

Tap- Tap-

“You’ll catch a cold, Grandma.”

Worried that she might catch a cold in the cold dawn air, Tae-kyung covered the grandmother’s lap with the blanket he had brought.

“And you can’t smoke here. The hospital is a non-smoking area.”

“Thank you. Ah! This?”

Kim Gil-ja pointed to the cigarette and lighter she was holding.

“I wasn’t trying to light the cigarette to smoke, but I feel like my stuffy heart will be relieved if I do this. It’s been over 20 years since I quit smoking, but I still feel uneasy if I don’t have these in my bag sometimes.”

“I heard it’s really hard to quit smoking. That’s amazing.”

“It was hard when I quit. A little while ago, after hearing the explanation about the funeral, I came out of the hospital, and someone said to me.”

The grandmother held the cigarette and lighter tightly in her hand and continued.

“They said, ‘How can a person be so cold-hearted? She must not be the real grandmother,’ and whispered among themselves.”

“People don’t know, so don’t pay too much attention to them.”

“No, Doctor. That person is right. I’m not Chae-ryang’s grandmother. You saw it earlier. I didn’t even bat an eye in front of a dying child. What should I say… it’s an ambiguous relationship. It’s more accurate to say we’re not happy to see each other.”

The grandmother began to pour out her heart to Tae-kyung, something she had never told anyone in her life.

“Chae-ryang is not my granddaughter, but to be exact, she is the granddaughter of my husband’s mistress.”

“……!”

Tae-kyung flinched for a moment at the completely unexpected turn of events. He had guessed that there must be a story behind their awkward appearance and the lack of affection even at the end.

But he never imagined that the relationship between the two would be so incredible.

Even Tae-kyung, who had experienced all sorts of stories from patients while working at the hospital, couldn’t help but be surprised.

“Are you surprised?”

“Ah, yes.”

“You must be surprised. I’m sometimes surprised at myself. The man I married was not my husband but my enemy.”

Kim Gil-ja married a man arranged by her parents, as people did in those days.

Having no particular ideal type, the grandmother simply dreamed of having children and living happily with her husband, who was known to be diligent.

But unlike her humble wishes, her husband had a problem: his 바람기 [baramgi – womanizing ways or tendency to philander].

Three years after the marriage, she found out about her husband’s affair. It was hard to believe for the grandmother, who had trusted only her husband and come to his house.

The first time the affair was discovered, her husband begged for forgiveness.

After that, she told both parents, but as the old people did in the old days, they only told her to endure it.

She had a miscarriage early in the marriage and had no children after that, so she wondered if he was having an affair because of that. The grandmother thought it was her problem, so she thought she should endure it until then.

But as the days went by, her husband got worse.

Thinking that she couldn’t go on like this, she told her husband that she would die and asked for a divorce, but he knelt down and begged with his hands and feet.

That’s how her husband’s affair seemed to be fixed. But it wasn’t.

For several years, he had been deceiving the grandmother thoroughly.

If the affairs had been as light as a passing breeze, this time he had set up a home with a young woman.

When it was revealed that he was living a double life, the words her husband said still seemed to linger in her ears.

‘Hey! It’s all your fault. It’s because you can’t have children that I keep looking at other women.’

She wanted to kill him, but when he touched her Achilles’ heel, which was like her wound, the grandmother didn’t want to talk to her husband anymore.

From then on, her husband lived with the mistress as if to show off, and the grandmother turned a blind eye and closed her ears.

‘Hey! You’re so cold-hearted! Aren’t you getting a divorce?’

‘Brother, you’re amazing. You don’t like her, but what’s so good about living together? Get a divorce and live comfortably.’

Periodically, trash would come and demand a divorce, but each time she gritted her teeth and didn’t divorce.

That was the only revenge the grandmother could take.

‘Divorce! Who would I be doing a favor by getting a divorce? Live with the sound of a mistress and a 바람난 놈 [baramnan nom – cheater] for the rest of your life.’

The two stopped coming because of the grandmother’s firm attitude. As time passed and the mountains and rivers changed, her husband came to visit when she couldn’t even remember her husband’s face.

That too, with a young girl suffering from an illness. That was Go Chae-ryang.

“When I heard that my husband was sick, I was honestly a little pleased. I thought he was being punished for abandoning his 조강지처 [jogangjicheo – wife who has gone through thick and thin with him].”

There were frequent fights with the woman who could not live as a wife for the rest of her life, and the 상간녀 [sanggan-nyeo – mistress] left her husband with her daughter.

Still, she raised her daughter because she was her own flesh and blood, but the relationship between father and daughter was not good, and the daughter became a single mother and had a child. And after leaving home to live with another man, she closed her eyes due to alcoholism a few years later.

That’s how her husband came home with the 상간녀 [sanggan-nyeo – mistress]’s granddaughter.

At that time, Go Chae-ryang was a young elementary school student, but the grandmother could not give her affection to the child.

“Every time I saw her, I had a hard time thinking about the past. She looked a lot like her grandmother. So I just pretended not to know, as if she wasn’t there. All I could do was cook for her. But I couldn’t starve a child.”

Go Chae-ryang, who had reached puberty, once burst into anger at her grandmother, who was ignoring her, but the grandmother did not accept her.

Go Chae-ryang, who was born without receiving love or attention from her parents or anyone else, had severe depression, and after entering middle school, she repeatedly ran away from home and left home.

‘This is the emergency room. Are you a family member of Go Chae-ryang?’

‘This is oo emergency room. Your family member has been brought in.’

‘Are you Go Chae-ryang’s guardian? Please come to 0oo hospital as soon as possible.’

Then, when she occasionally received a call, it was always the hospital. Each time, all she did was pay the hospital bill and see her face once.

She would just think, ‘Yes. Life must be too hard. It must be painful,’ but she didn’t raise her voice and get angry, asking why she was doing this.

Go Chae-ryang never showed her inner feelings, asked for anything, or said anything to her grandmother.

The words ‘Let’s live’ that were occasionally written on the calendar that showed all 1 year and 12 months in the grandmother’s house were marked by the grandmother each time Go Chae-ryang made an extreme choice.

With such repeated hospital calls, she thought she would have a big accident someday, but she never knew that today would be the day.

“This is my story. Chae-ryang and I are both unlucky, right?”

“Both grandmother and granddaughter must have had a hard time.”

“Both she and I had difficult lives. My heart was so tattered that I couldn’t even look at her. I actually have depression. I didn’t even know it was depression. I just thought it was an internal illness. A few years ago, I had a test through a social worker in the neighborhood, and they said I had severe depression and asked how I had endured it.”

It was stranger to be fine after living such a life. The grandmother’s words that she had depression did not feel awkward at all.

“So I know how hard depression is. No matter what anyone says, I understand Chae-ryang. And I’m really sorry earlier.”

“Yes? What…….”

Tae-kyung asked with a puzzled expression at the sudden apology.

“When you were making the death pronouncement, I suddenly asked you to wait.”

“I was a little surprised, but it’s okay.”

“That’s… Chae-ryang hated the number 2 so much.”

One day, as usual, she was preparing a meal and doing housework when her granddaughter said something she had never asked before.

“The day her mother left her and the day she died were both the 2nd. So she hates the number 2 so much that she hates it so much.” Later, when I found out, it seemed like she said that because it was her mother’s anniversary.”

The grandmother said that she didn’t know why she did that when she made the death pronouncement earlier, but she suddenly remembered what her granddaughter had said. So she asked to wait for the death pronouncement, even though it was rude.

“She said she hated the number 2 so much, so I thought it would be good to send her away avoiding that time at least.”

“You did a good job.”

“Oh! I’ve been holding on to a busy teacher and saying all sorts of things. I’m old and I’m being 주책 [joo-chaek – meddling or nosy]. I’ll go now.”

After finishing the story, the grandmother got up from her seat and hurried to prepare to leave.

“I’m going home for a while because of the funeral. Doctor, thank you for listening to my story. I feel a little relieved because of you. Thank you for the blanket.”

The grandmother folded the blanket she had been covering her knees well, gave it to Tae-kyung, and left the hospital.

“You’re welcome.”

Tae-kyung continued to watch the grandmother’s back as she left the hospital.

Both the grandmother and Go Chae-ryang were unspeakably pitiful and heartbreaking.

He was only briefly hearing about the lives of the grandmother and granddaughter, but his heart was so heavy that he wondered how lonely and difficult the two had been.

And a little later, the grandmother had no idea that something surprising would happen at the funeral home.