Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 433

434. A Silence Devoid of People or Patients

After listening to the man, the woman lowered her voice and gestured for him to raise the car window.

“Huh?”

“Just raise the window. Please.”

As the woman urged him, the car window slid up, muffling their conversation from the outside.

“Why did you do that?”

“What do you mean, ‘why’? Are you crazy? We don’t know who those people are, especially out here on a forest road at this hour. Why would you even consider helping them?”

The woman clearly didn’t trust Taekyung and Lee Jaehyun, whom they had met on the remote island.

“Haven’t you seen the news? There are dangerous people out there. What if we give them a ride and they try to hurt us?”

“Really?”

“Of course! The world is a scary place. Ah! Oh my!”

Knock knock-

The woman, who had been speaking heatedly, jumped at the sudden knock on the car window and urged the man even more frantically.

“Honey, start the car! Hurry!”

“We’re not dangerous. We really had an accident.”

“Hey!”

Vroom-

Taekyung and Lee Jaehyun called out urgently, but the car had already started and was speeding away.

Even understanding their fear, they couldn’t help but feel abandoned.

“Damn it! That was a low thing to do.”

Lee Jaehyun kicked a small stone, watching the car disappear with resentment.

“What if we can’t flag down another car?”

“Then we’ll have to run and find someone.”

It wasn’t a joke; he was serious.

If they waited much longer without finding help, they were prepared to run until they found someone.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes…

Regardless of their growing frustration, time continued to tick by.

Fifteen minutes passed after the second car had left them stranded.

“Hey, Jaehyun. Car’s coming.”

Headlights appeared in the distance, growing brighter as a car approached.

“Help us!”

“Over here!”

Even before the car got closer, they shouted as loudly as they could, waving their cell phones, the small lights cutting through the darkness.

“Help us!”

“Someone’s hurt!”

The car approached.

They shouted, putting every ounce of strength into their voices, like the cry of a [roe deer: a small Eurasian deer] they’d heard earlier. But unfortunately, the car sped past them.

“Ha!”

The waving hand dropped, and a frustrated sigh escaped into the night air. At that moment…

Screech-

The car that had passed them braked suddenly, stopping abruptly.

“Taekyung.”

Taekyung and Lee Jaehyun exchanged a look, then ran towards the third car without a word.

The car, stopped about ten meters away, was a larger SUV than the one they’d been in.

Before Taekyung could even knock, the driver’s side window slid down.

“What’s wrong?”

In the driver’s seat was a man in his thirties, and in the passenger seat, a woman of similar age held a dog.

“I’m sorry, but…”

Taekyung, his face etched with desperation, repeated the word ‘please’ in his mind.

“I’m really sorry to bother you, but we had an accident and we need help.”

“We’re not dangerous. We were driving when we had an accident, and the driver lost consciousness,” Lee Jaehyun added quickly, worried they’d be misunderstood and left behind again.

“An accident?”

“But where’s the car…?”

The woman holding the dog looked puzzled.

“After the accident, the car spun off the road and down the slope, crashing into a tree. It’s down there.”

“We tried calling the hospital, but we couldn’t get through. We’ve been trying to flag down passing cars. It’s a lot to ask, but please, can you help us?”

“What should we do, honey?”

The man, looking at Taekyung and Lee Jaehyun’s desperate faces, seemed hesitant, not entirely convinced but not completely disbelieving either.

“Why don’t you go take a look?” the man said awkwardly, still cautious. The woman in the passenger seat nodded.

“Yes, that would be best. Can I get out and check?”

“Of course.”

“Lock the door behind me.”

“Okay.”

The young couple had planned a month-long stay on Heorak Island and had been there for a week.

They had finished car camping at a campsite on the island and were on their way back to their accommodation when they saw Taekyung and Lee Jaehyun waving lights and stopped.

Clunk-

The man got out of the car, keeping a slight distance, and followed them.

“Here! This way.”

“What is it? Did you stop a car? Did someone come?” Park Junseok, who had heard the car stop, asked as he saw the two men approaching.

“Yeah, I stopped a car.”

“Good, that’s a relief.”

“The driver is unconscious.”

“…!”

The man saw Lee Junhyuk being helped down by Taekyung and realized they were telling the truth.

“Oh my gosh! It’s real.”

“I’m sorry, but please help us get him to the hospital. Please.”

“Of course. Just wait a moment.”

The man, now willing to help after seeing Lee Junhyuk’s condition, ran back up the slope and knocked on the locked car door.

Knock- knock-

“Honey, Sumi, open the door.”

“What happened? Was there really an accident?”

“Yeah, the driver lost consciousness and collapsed. We can’t reach the hospital by phone, so we need to take him there.”

“Okay, of course. I’ll clear out the back.”

The woman quickly got out of the car and put her dog in a cage.

“Minky, go in for a moment.”

“Excuse me, do you have anything we can use to move the patient?”

Taekyung approached the couple as they cleared out the car.

“Honey! We have that sleeping bag.”

“Yes, we have a foldable sleeping bag. Would that work?”

“Yes, that would be great.”

“It’s this…”

“That’s perfect.”

The sleeping bag had metal pieces on both ends and support underneath.

It wasn’t as good as an ambulance stretcher, but it was the best they could hope for in the situation.

Taekyung assembled the sleeping bag on the ground and went down to Lee Junhyuk with the man.

“Let’s move the president onto this.”

“Where did you get this?”

“We were car camping, so we had it with us.”

“Oh, really? Thank you.”

“Hold his legs steady.”

Taekyung released Lee Junhyuk’s seatbelt and prepared to move him.

“Be especially careful with his head.”

“Honey, wait a moment! This!”

Just as they were about to lift Lee Junhyuk, the man’s wife came running down, waving something.

“I brought this too.”

The woman held a dog bed, made of a material that was neither too soft nor too hard.

“I heard you have to be careful with the head when moving traffic accident patients, so I brought it.”

“You know a lot.”

“Honey, these people are doctors.”

The man had overheard earlier that the three were doctors.

“Oh my, really! Are you really doctors?”

“Yes, we are.”

“That’s wonderful! This place is quite remote, even for the island. It’s fortunate that you doctors are here.”

“Honey, open the car door.”

“Okay, I got it.”

The woman opened the back door, and the four carefully loaded Lee Junhyuk into the car, lying in the sleeping bag.

Fortunately, the car was larger than a regular car, and the couple had made the back seat spacious for car camping, so there was enough room.

“It’s a bit cramped because of the sleeping bag, so you three might be uncomfortable.”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

The three squeezed into the remaining space, and the car started.

Every time the car bumped on the unpaved road, they carefully held onto Lee Junhyuk to minimize any shaking.

“It’s a relief we caught a car so quickly.”

“I know. I didn’t think we would.”

Park Junseok and Lee Jaehyun were relieved they were on their way to the hospital.

Taekyung, however, remained tense, staring intently at Lee Junhyuk’s face.

‘Damn it! The smell…’

Lee Junhyuk’s fifth vital sign [sense of smell, in this context referring to the unusual odor Taekyung detects] had become stronger.

He wanted to believe the confined space was amplifying the smell, but it was definitely intensifying.

‘Dad! Dad!’

‘Jisang.’

In that moment, the faces of Lee Junhyuk and his son Jisang, calling each other’s names affectionately, flashed in Taekyung’s mind.

A young man with a bright future.

Taekyung felt a pang of sadness, remembering how happy Lee Junhyuk had been living on the island with his wife and children.

“You’re going to the hospital on that hill, right?”

As they drove, the man spoke to the three.

“Isn’t there only one hospital on Heorak Island?”

“That’s right.”

“But the doctors and nurses there are a bit rude…!”

The woman in the passenger seat trailed off, realizing the three in the back were doctors.

“I’m sorry. You’re all doctors, but I misspoke.”

“It’s okay. Not all doctors and nurses are kind. It’s alright.”

“My wife and I came to Heorak Island for a month-long stay, and we had to go to the hospital urgently last week. Even though it’s a hospital on an island, the way they treat patients is a bit… lacking,” the man added, bothered by his wife’s comment.

“My husband is right. There were hardly any patients, and it was obvious they weren’t busy, but they kept us waiting for a long time.”

“You could say the overall response was a bit unfriendly.”

With the couple’s less-than-stellar review of the hospital, the car arrived.

The hospital was the only one on Heorak Island, a public medical center.

The exterior suggested it was quite old.

Being on an island, it was smaller than city hospitals, a modest, two-story building.

“We’ll be going now.”

As they took Lee Junhyuk out of the car, the couple said goodbye.

“You should take the sleeping bag. Wait, I’ll get it for you.”

“No, it’s okay.”

“Please don’t.”

At Lee Jaehyun’s words, the couple waved their hands, refusing.