A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 144

Wielding Martial Arts as a Surgeon – Episode 144

Chapter 26: Frontal Breakthrough (4)

Thoracic Surgery On-Call Room.

“I was wrong, Ah-young. I was a dirty and cheap bastard. I’m sorry for hitting on you, and I’m sorry for tormenting you.”

“…….”

“My heart was as small as a bean. I really…… shouldn’t have done that to you. I’m reflecting on it now.”

Jun-shik’s confession lasted for a full five minutes.

Jun-shik’s tongue seemed looser than usual today.

He was usually a man who wouldn’t utter more than a word in a commanding tone.

Ah-young listened to Jun-shik with her arms crossed.

She didn’t think the words he had said so far were sincere.

He was probably just spouting words to get out of the situation now that he was cornered.

But it was true that she felt a sense of satisfaction.

She never knew Jun-shik could be so pathetic.

“I guess you’re scared of me going to neurosurgery, aren’t you? Senior.”

“Of course. Where else would I find a resident who works as well and is as diligent as you, Ah-young?”

“Then why did you make my life so miserable all this time?”

Ah-young asked with a sharp look in her eyes.

“Well, there’s the fact that you didn’t accept my advances. And I was trying to establish some discipline.”

“…….”

“There are many reasons, but anyway, it’s all my fault. I have nothing to say even if I had ten mouths.”

“I didn’t expect you to treat me well. I just wanted you to observe the bare minimum of common sense.”

“I’m really sorry for being a lousy senior.”

Jun-shik clasped his hands together and begged for forgiveness.

Ah-young laid out what she wanted from Jun-shik.

Normal on-call duty.

Not passing Jun-shik’s work onto Ah-young.

Not nitpicking with ridiculous excuses, and so on.

To not miss the opportunity that Jun-hoo had given her.

To control Jun-shik.

Ah-young confidently said everything she wanted to say.

It was time for her to muster her own courage.

“I’ll only watch you for one month. If you don’t keep your promise, I’m going to neurosurgery. I won’t look back.”

“Ugh. Those are obvious things, so of course, I have to keep them. Don’t mention going to neurosurgery anymore, okay? Huh?”

“I’ll see how you do.”

Creak.

Just then, the door to the on-call room opened.

Baek Jong-oh, a third-year resident, came inside.

“What are you two doing?”

“I was just telling Senior Jun-shik that I would go to neurosurgery if he kept bothering me,” Ah-young said directly.

It wasn’t Ah-young’s usual way of speaking, but somehow, she felt that Jun-hoo would have said something like this if he were here.

“You pathetic bastard. I knew something was up with the way you’ve been acting lately.”

Jong-oh frowned and approached Jun-shik.

He lightly smacked the back of Jun-shik’s head.

Thwack!

“Ouch! Senior. That hurts!”

Jun-shik clutched the back of his head.

Jong-oh hit the back of Jun-shik’s head several more times.

Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.

“If you did something to deserve it, you should get hit. What else would make Ah-young say something like that?”

“I was already begging for forgiveness.”

“That’s something to be proud of. If anyone’s leaving, it should be you, not Ah-young, you punk.”

Jong-oh continued, huffing and puffing.

“You still can’t do a thoracentesis [a procedure to remove fluid from the space between the lungs and the chest wall] or chest tube insertion properly at your level, can you? Ah-young does them perfectly.”

Jong-oh was taking Ah-young’s side without even thinking about it.

That was because Ah-young was actually diligent and good at her job.

It was just that Jun-hoo was too overwhelming.

Ah-young was also proud of her skills.

There wasn’t anything she couldn’t do among the first-year procedures.

“Ah-young.”

“Yes, Senior.”

“I’m the one who’s sorry. I haven’t been able to pay attention to you. I was already thinking of saying something to Jun-shik because he’s been so mean lately, but I didn’t know it was this bad.”

“It’s not your fault, Senior Jong-oh.”

“Oh, your heart is as soft as silk. Tell me right away if you have any difficulties in the future. Got it?”

“Yes, Senior.”

“Jun-shik, you come with me to the conference room. Let’s get some mental education.”

“Ah…… Ah…… It hurts!”

Jong-oh grabbed Jun-shik’s ear, who was cowering, and left the on-call room.

Only then did peace return to the on-call room.

Sitting at her desk, Ah-young let out a sigh of relief.

Thanks to Jun-hoo’s help.

She was able to escape hell safely.

If she hadn’t met Jun-hoo in the lounge.

If Jun-hoo hadn’t used his wit.

Ah-young would still be dragged around by Jun-shik.

Thank you, Jun-hoo.

I feel like I can finally breathe.

Ah-young put her hand in the pocket of her doctor’s gown. She fiddled with the accessory attached to her cell phone.

A rabbit doll accessory that Jun-hoo had given her as a birthday present during medical school.

* * *

From the window where the curtains were drawn, the dim light of dawn was pouring in.

Jun-hoo’s profile was shining brightly in the faint light.

Jun-hoo, who was on duty, was focused on practicing his internal energy tumor removal surgery.

With his hand on the skull model.

He was channeling internal energy into the brain model inside the skull model.

And he was struggling to remove the chocolate crumbs located inside the brain model.

The internal energy tumor removal surgery was not easy.

Sharpening internal energy as sharp as a scalpel.

Accurately removing only the chocolate crumbs with the internal energy scalpel.

It was beyond his ability.

Because of that, Jun-hoo suffered throughout the training.

But he couldn’t give up just because it was difficult.

Brain tumor surgery.

And brain tumor patients who cannot be treated with gamma knife surgery.

The only place those patients could rely on was internal energy tumor removal surgery.

Internal energy tumor removal surgery was something only Jun-hoo could do, so Jun-hoo had to do it.

I have a long way to go.

I’m going to have a hard time learning this treatment.

Jun-hoo shook his head from side to side, taking his hand off the skull model.

Disassembling and examining the model.

It was a failure again this time.

The chocolate crumbs were intact.

Instead, there was a 0.5-millimeter wide and 0.5-millimeter deep wound near the frontal lobe of the brain model.

He had damaged the brain again.

If it were a real battle…… the result would have been a disaster.

Using the failed experience as a stepping stone, Jun-hoo practiced internal energy tumor removal surgery again.

Until his internal energy was completely empty in his dantian [energy center in the body, according to traditional Chinese medicine].

His skills didn’t improve at all, but Jun-hoo didn’t get impatient.

He wasn’t disappointed either.

He didn’t feel any self-loathing.

Those who have consistently worked hard at something will know.

That skill improvement is never a graph with an upward trend.

Rather, skill improvement was similar to the act of pouring water into a jar.

In the beginning, no matter how much water you poured into the jar, it didn’t show.

But at some point.

As the jar filled with water, even a single drop of water would cause the water in the jar to overflow.

In other words, the point at which the water overflows in the jar is the point at which skills improve.

Jun-hoo was also just pouring water into the jar without any countermeasures, but he believed that the time when the water overflows would definitely come.

Maybe that’s why.

I ended up succeeding because I didn’t know when to give up.

……Jun-hoo liked that saying.

It was thanks to his experience in the Murim [martial arts world] that he learned that even things that don’t work out can work out if you do them, and that in the end, life is something you end up living through.

One hour before the morning conference.

Jun-hoo took a nutritional supplement and performed meditative breathing.

Natural energy entered with the inhale.

Tainted energy escaped with the exhale, and natural energy circulated through the body (the act of internal energy circulating through the meridians of the whole body).

Internal energy was restored to some extent.

The nutritional supplement spread evenly throughout his body.

The heavy body became lighter, and his concentration became sharp again.

Jun-hoo, who had been sitting cross-legged on the floor of the on-call room, opened his eyes.

He got up and dusted off his gown.

Stretching coolly, Jun-hoo stared at the calendar hanging on the wall.

Today was a rare day off.

Even though it was a day off, there was a mountain of things to do.

* * *

“As expected, the air outside the hospital is different. Mmm…… refreshing.”

Eun-ha said after leaving the hospital lobby.

Eun-ha also had a day off, so she left the ward with Jun-hoo.

The current time is 9 a.m.

The hospital was crowded with staff coming to work and patients visiting for treatment.

Each of them was heading somewhere busily.

A lively scene.

Patients in the neurosurgery ward, who had injured their brains, spines, or nerves, could not walk as energetically as the people in front of them.

Jun-hoo realized that walking straight was a blessing after majoring in neurosurgery.

“Eun-ha, you still look like a college student?”

Jun-hoo said, looking at Eun-ha.

Eun-ha in casual clothes looked much younger.

She looked like a freshman who had just entered college.

“I’ve always been told that I look young. It’s not always a good thing, though.”

“That’s true. It’s better for medical professionals to look a little older.”

Patients tend to look at the doctor’s face before the doctor’s skills…….

There were quite a few patients who thought that if a doctor looked too young, they would seem to have less experience and seniority.

“But you look young too, Senior. Have you ever been ignored because of your appearance?”

“Not yet.”

Jun-hoo shrugged his shoulders.

Even though he looked young, he had never been ignored by patients or guardians because his work was so clean.

However, if he becomes an outpatient professor in the future.

He was planning to slightly touch up his appearance with reverse aging technique.

Thanks to martial arts, Jun-hoo was capable of self-plastic surgery(?).

“Eun-ha, what are your plans? You should have fun on your day off.”

“I want to have fun, but. My friends’ schedules don’t match.”

Eun-ha continued with a tearful face.

“So, what about your schedule today, Senior? If you’re okay with it, would you like to go see a movie with me?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

“Why? Do you dislike me? Are you uncomfortable? Or do you have a date?”

Jun-hoo chuckled at Eun-ha’s machine-gun-like questions.

“I have prior engagements in the morning and afternoon. I have to see people I haven’t been able to see for a while.”

“That’s too bad.”

“There will be another time. Instead, would you like to have breakfast together?”

“Yes. I’d love to!”

Jun-hoo and Eun-ha found a Korean rice soup restaurant near the hospital.

For the first time in a while, they had a proper meal instead of convenience store instant food.

After parting ways with Eun-ha, Jun-hoo boarded the Line 2 subway.

Thanks to the fact that the rush hour was slightly over.

The subway was relatively spacious.

He was able to occupy some space in front, behind, left, and right.

While heading to his destination.

Jun-hoo searched for articles about Mak Jam.

The cheeky product that had been teasing consumers by saying that it only had 15 calories even if they ate a whole container.

[Mak Jam embroiled in controversy. All relevant products removed from the market.]

[Consumers are angry. Large-scale class action lawsuit predicted. Now we’re going to go wild too.]

There were no good articles about Mak Jam for the company.

The company argued that the product’s sugar content was not that high through its own experiments, but no one listened to the company.

They had already become lying shepherds [a reference to the fable “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”].

I should have apologized when I was told to do so nicely instead of being stubborn.

They always make things bigger by sticking their feet in the mud.

As public opinion was strong, the company would surely be plagued by lawsuits and go bankrupt in the future.

It was satisfying and like sprinkling sesame salt on a wound [a Korean expression for gloating over someone’s misfortune].

After reviewing the articles, Jun-hoo also reviewed his NewTube channel.

300,000 subscribers.

Average video views of 100,000.

Even though only 1-2 videos were uploaded per week, the channel had firmly established itself.

With this scale, it would be able to have quite an impact on people in the future.

Exposing corruption in the medical community.

Delivering medical information.

Fundraising for patients with rare diseases, etc.

No matter what anyone said, NewTube was Jun-hoo’s reliable base.

[The next station is Gangnam, Gangnam. The doors will open…….]

Just then, the broadcast announcement came on.

Jun-hoo came out of the subway and through the ticket gate.

Gangnam, which he had visited again after nearly 10 years, did not seem as glamorous as it used to be.

Unlike in high school, he had experienced many places in the meantime.

Jun-hoo, who was walking among the crowd, stopped in front of a building.

It was a stylish eight-story building.

The building was shining like a jewel, reflecting the morning sunlight.

[Sae-ro Korean Medicine Clinic]

Jun-hoo’s gaze lingered on a sign on the building.

He had finally arrived.

At the first destination of the day.