Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 451

452. Sand Grain

Stepping outside, Mona Choi passed the reception desk and instinctively headed for the central staircase, but then stopped abruptly, retracting her foot.

“……!”

A strange unease washed over her. The feeling was so unsettling, it felt like the back of her head was being tugged.

“……Are you alright?”

The receptionist called out to Mona Choi, who had suddenly stopped on the stairs.

“Ms. Choi!”

“Oh, yes. Were you calling me?”

“Are you okay?”

“Ah! Something suddenly came to mind.”

Mona Choi, answering the receptionist, turned fully to face the waiting room.

People sat on chairs, waiting for their turn; others read the hospital posters on the wall.

Among them, her eyes were drawn to a girl sitting on a chair.

A familiar profile. It was Lee Seol-rae, a high school student from OO Girls’ High School who had been coming to the hospital frequently lately.

Mona Choi, after standing blankly on the stairs for a moment, continued up to the ward and did her work.

She checked on the patients who had called and also looked in on the patient Tae-kyung had mentioned. Then, as she came back down to the first floor and headed towards the reception desk, Lee Chan-hee approached her from the cafeteria.

“Are you coming from the ward?”

“Yeah. Are you done eating?”

“Yeah. I was so hungry I ate two bowls and I think I overate. Is there any digestive medicine in the medical office?”

“It’s in the first drawer of my desk. Dr. Lee, what would you do if you had a patient you were a little concerned about?”

“Why? Do you have a patient you’re concerned about?”

“Well, a little?”

At the detailed answer to his casual question, Mona Choi pondered for a moment before speaking.

“It started as a medical concern, but it feels like it’s becoming a personal one.”

“Really? Then, what’s there to worry about?”

“Huh!?”

“Looking at your face, Ms. Choi, it seems like you’re already very concerned. Go to her as much as you’re concerned.”

It wasn’t for nothing that he was her boyfriend. Lee Chan-hee knew Mona Choi very well.

“You never hesitate when approaching patients. That’s what we learned from you, so isn’t it natural for you to be thinking this way?”

That was right.

Reaching out to patients first and communicating with them. That was one of the things she had learned from Tae-kyung.

Come to think of it, when she first treated that student, Mona Choi had the same thought as Lee Chan-hee.

“You’re right. Thanks.”

“You’re thanking me for everything.”

With those words of thanks, Mona Choi patted Lee Chan-hee’s shoulder and headed to the reception desk.

“Ma’am?”

“Yes, Ms. Choi.”

“Did you check in that student in the school uniform over there?”

“Yes, I did. That student has been coming often lately.”

“Did she say what kind of treatment she’s here for?”

“No. She just said she came to get a wound treated.”

Listening to the receptionist’s words, Mona Choi thought, ‘It was wound treatment last time too.’

“Did she say she’s seeing an outpatient doctor?”

“It’s always the same. She says she wants to see someone as soon as possible.”

“Ma’am, I’ll take that student and see her.”

Mona Choi felt a strange curiosity towards the child who had come to the hospital again so soon after getting a wound treated at the hospital.

“Yes, go ahead.”

Mona Choi, who had been watching Seol-rae’s back, approached the child and pretended to know her.

“Hello!”

At the bright greeting, Seol-rae, who was sitting on a chair in the waiting room holding a transparent acrylic box in her hand, raised her head with a dry expression.

“I see you often. Your name is Seol-rae, right? Are you here to see a doctor?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go.”

“Pardon?”

At the words to go see a doctor, Seol-rae didn’t answer and just stared at Mona Choi while still sitting in her chair.

‘That’s strange.’

Maybe it was just her imagination, but Mona Choi felt a different vibe from the child today than usual.

She seemed more curt and a bit prickly, and she looked somehow annoyed and tired.

“Aren’t you here to see a doctor?”

Mona Choi asked Seol-rae again, but instead of an answer, a question came back.

“I am here to see a doctor. But are you going to see me, ma’am?”

“Yes. I was going to. Why?”

“There are many other patients here…….”

At Mona Choi’s answer, Seol-rae shook her head from side to side.

* * *

“Honey, I’m home.”

Lee Jae-cheon came home after work and looked for his wife, Kim Ha-seon.

“You’re home? Are you hungry?”

“No. The pollack stew was so good at lunch that I overate, so I should skip dinner.”

“You should eat in moderation. Do you want some digestive medicine?”

“It’s not that bad. Did you drop Sun-woo off at his studio apartment okay?”

“Of course. I packed some side dishes and dropped him off.”

Kim Ha-seon ran a beauty salon in the neighborhood.

Today was a rare day off, so she had dropped off her son, who was living near his university, and was doing housework.

“Good job. Is Seol-rae at her academy [private tutoring or after-school learning center]?”

“It’s not time for her to come yet. Oh! That’s great.”

Seeing Kim Ha-seon suddenly clap her hands and rejoice, her husband, Lee Jae-cheon, looked at her with a puzzled expression.

“I’m going to clean Seol-rae’s room.”

Because Seol-rae extremely disliked anyone entering her room, Kim Ha-seon rarely had the chance to clean it thoroughly.

Usually, she would come home after work and prepare dinner, and then Seol-rae would come home soon after, so it wasn’t easy to clean.

That’s why, since it was her day off and there was still time before Seol-rae came home, today was the perfect day to clean.

“You can clean anytime.”

“You don’t know? Seol-rae hates it when someone goes into her room without permission.”

“She hates it? She shouldn’t do that when her mom is cleaning for her. Ah!”

Kim Ha-seon lightly hit her husband’s shoulder, and Lee Jae-cheon made a painful gesture and laughed.

“Anyway, fathers are so clueless. Right now, Seol-rae is sensitive and can be like that. So it’s better to be careful.”

“I know. I do…….”

“You know what?”

Lee Jae-cheon, who had been hesitant, continued to speak at his wife’s urging.

“Sun-woo isn’t like that, but Seol-rae is too much, so I feel sorry to you.”

“I thought it was something. You have a lot to be sorry about. Sun-woo has more peace of mind than Seol-rae.”

“What does that mean?”

“Sun-woo is a college student, and Seol-rae is still a student preparing for college entrance exams, so she has a lot to worry about. Sun-woo was also very sensitive at that time.”

“Really? Sun-woo was?”

Lee Jae-cheon had only seen his stepson Sun-woo as being mature and reliable, so he couldn’t believe his wife’s words.

“Of course. They’re all similar. And honey, I think so. Remarriage is something we did to live well together, but our opinions were more important, not the children’s opinions. So even if Seol-rae is sensitive to me, I hope you don’t take my side for no reason.”

Kim Ha-seon was a wise and kind-hearted woman.

She knew her husband’s feelings for her. But more than anything, she wanted to get along well with Seol-rae, so understanding Seol-rae was the priority right now.

“Everyone accepts and gets close differently. Frankly, if I were in Seol-rae’s shoes, I would have been worse.”

“Gosh! Anyone would think Seol-rae is your daughter.”

“Oh my! Look at this man. Seol-rae is my daughter.”

“Haha! That’s right. I really did a hundred times better marrying you. Honey, come here.”

“No way! Go take off your clothes and wash up.”

Kim Ha-seon playfully poked her husband’s side and went into Seol-rae’s room.

“The books are on the right side of the desk, the sweatpants are under the bed……. And the socks are in front of the closet.”

Before cleaning, Kim Ha-seon didn’t forget where Seol-rae had left her belongings and clothes.

That way, she could put them back in their original places after cleaning.

If the location of the items or clothes changed, Seol-rae would notice right away, so it was better to be careful.

“Then let’s get started.”

Kim Ha-seon, who had quietly turned on her favorite music on her phone, started cleaning happily.

She lifted the objects on the floor and first ran the vacuum cleaner enthusiastically.

Whee-ing-!

The powerful sound of the vacuum cleaner continued, and she wiped the floor thoroughly with a wet mop.

The mop that had been moving from side to side stopped, and Kim Ha-seon bent down near the desk and looked closely at the floor.

The grains of sand that she had seen when she turned on the vacuum cleaner were also near the desk, and she could see that they were sparsely scattered towards the window.

“What? Sand. Did she get it during gym class?”

It was the first time sand had come out of Seol-rae’s room, so she was puzzled for a moment, but she didn’t think much of it and finished cleaning.

“Cleaning done! It’s so refreshing and clean.”

It was already a clean room, but she felt good after cleaning the room thoroughly. A smile spread across Kim Ha-seon’s face.

“Should I empty it?”

Kim Ha-seon, who was about to leave after moving the objects and clothes that had been moved for cleaning back to their original places, felt a sense of hesitation.

It was because of the trash can on the inside of the desk.

She hesitated for a moment because she thought Seol-rae would know right away that she had entered the room if she emptied it.

She usually emptied the trash can herself, so she wondered if it would be okay.

‘Auntie! Did you empty the trash can? I told you not to clean my room, didn’t I?’

Seol-rae’s cute face, with her eyes wide open and showing her dislike, was vivid in her mind, but Kim Ha-seon eventually decided to empty the trash can.

It was because she didn’t feel comfortable leaving only trash in the trash can after cleaning it so cleanly.

“Didn’t she empty the trash can this time? There’s a lot of trash.”

Kim Ha-seon, who had brought a bag and was transferring the trash, found something lumpy stuck to the inside of the trash can.

Tak- Tak-

Even after putting the mouth of the trash can in the bag and tapping it, it didn’t come out, so she ended up taking off what was stuck with her hand.

“……!”

But Kim Ha-seon’s expression was a bit strange.

“What is this?”

The clumped trash looked like a large bandage used for wounds, and more than anything, there was something red on it.

“This…….”

Kim Ha-seon could tell that it was blood without having to look closely.

“No, why is this here?”

The fact that a bandage came out of Seol-rae’s room meant that Seol-rae had used it.

Kim Ha-seon recalled her daughter’s appearance yesterday and today.

She had never seen a bandage attached to a visible place, so she wondered if she had attached it to a place covered by her clothes.

She felt something was wrong.

No matter how she thought about it, she had never seen a bandage of this size, so Kim Ha-seon dumped all the bags she had moved the trash into on the floor.

Among the tissues, sticky notes, and hair, she could find a small crumpled piece of paper.

Our Hospital 02-XXX-XXXX

Yeoul-dong, XX-gu, Seoul.

As expected, the paper was a hospital receipt with the address and phone number at the bottom.

“Our Hospital?”

It was a hospital not far from home.

Kim Ha-seon’s head was filled with complicated thoughts.

Come to think of it, the grains of sand she saw on the floor while cleaning were also strange.

It seemed like something was happening to Seol-rae.

Kim Ha-seon stopped as she was about to take out the cell phone in her pocket to call her daughter.

Nothing was certain yet, and even if she called and asked, Seol-rae didn’t seem like she would tell her.

Something needed to be confirmed.

After putting the trash she had spilled on the floor back into the bag and checking the hospital name on the hospital receipt, she searched with her cell phone.

Kim Ha-seon, who remembered going to the hospital for treatment once before, checked the hours and called the hospital.

-This is Our Hospital.

“Thank you for your hard work. Are you still seeing patients now?”

-Yes. We also have an emergency room, and our hospital is open 24 hours a day.

“Yes. Thank you.”

After hanging up the phone, Kim Ha-seon opened each of Seol-rae’s desk drawers and left the room with a serious expression.