A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 311

Chapter 60: Scheme (1)

Jun-hoo, who introduced himself as a neurosurgery resident, was persistently asking for a consultation.

Seo-yeon suddenly felt a throbbing in her temples.

She rubbed her temples in circles with her index fingers.

She thought that doctors usually wouldn’t want to treat people outside of the hospital.

Like how chefs eat haphazardly at home.

Besides, Ho-seop, at least in Seo-yeon’s eyes, didn’t seem to be seriously ill.

He had only momentarily lost his balance and staggered; he hadn’t lost consciousness and collapsed.

So, Seo-yeon couldn’t understand Jun-hoo’s proactive attitude at all.

“Are you really a doctor? Are you perhaps pretending to be a doctor to sell nutritional supplements or get us to sign up for some insurance?”

Seo-yeon gave him a suspicious look.

Jun-hoo, as if he had been waiting for this, took out his hospital ID from his wallet and handed it over.

He carried his hospital ID even on weekdays in preparation for such misunderstandings.

“Let’s see.”

Seo-yeon alternately checked the photo on Jun-hoo’s ID and Jun-hoo’s face.

She also checked to see if the ID was crudely forged.

Seo-yeon nodded, acknowledging Jun-hoo’s identity.

“It seems like you are a doctor. But why are you doing this?”

“I have a… condition where I can’t just pass by someone who’s sick.”

“Our Ho-seop is healthy, I tell you!”

“He might be, or he might not be. If he’s not, that’s a relief. If he is, then I’ll have taken up your valuable time, so I’ll buy you dessert.”

“Then, as promised, please finish in three minutes.”

Seo-yeon’s voice was prim.

“Hyung [older brother or male friend], I’m really not sick. I just feel a little dizzy sometimes.”

“Dizzy?”

Jun-hoo narrowed his eyes and asked again.

“Yes. Sometimes. No, a little more often these days.”

“Ho-seop said he was dizzy, so we went to a local clinic a while ago.”

Seo-yeon sighed and joined the conversation.

She wanted to complain a little about this.

“Please tell me more.”

“I was going to. One day, Ho-seop said the sky was spinning, so I thought he was just joking.”

“…….”

“But after that, he often complained of dizziness and fell over.”

“Yes. I fell with a thud.”

“So, I went to a local clinic, and at first, they said it seemed like anemia. But then they did a blood test, and it wasn’t anemia.”

Seo-yeon felt more and more frustrated as she spoke.

Ho-seop being sick was a problem.

Managing sick Ho-seop was also a problem.

And the fact that both of those things were interfering with her work was a problem.

“What did you do next?”

“The second clinic I went to said that Ho-seop might have a psychological problem and recommended psychological counseling. So, I’ve booked an appointment at a psychological counseling center.”

“I see. That’s enough to grasp what I need.”

“I didn’t tell you much, though?”

“I have a specific disease I suspect.”

Jun-hoo’s attitude was still confident.

This was a cafe, and there were no proper tools to examine Ho-seop.

Yet, Jun-hoo had a look of conviction in his eyes.

Seo-yeon couldn’t fathom the basis of that unknown confidence.

“Our Ho-seop has such soft hair! He must have gotten his hair from his mom.”

Jun-hoo said, placing his hand on the crown of Ho-seop’s head.

“Hehe. Thank you.”

“I wish Hyung had hair as soft as Ho-seop’s. Hyung’s hair is stiff.”

“Mom said that eating a lot of vegetables makes your hair better.”

“Really? Was it because Hyung didn’t eat vegetables?”

He said he was going to examine him.

Jun-hoo just placed his hand on Ho-seop’s head and made silly small talk.

Because of that, Seo-yeon’s trust in Jun-hoo hit rock bottom.

Did he forge his ID after all?

“Ho-seop’s mother.”

After finishing his small talk, Jun-hoo came to Seo-yeon and whispered.

“Why are you whispering all of a sudden?”

“What I’m about to say is something the child shouldn’t know in advance.”

Jun-hoo’s voice was quite solemn.

Seo-yeon straightened her back without realizing it.

A mother’s instinct was sending a warning signal.

Meanwhile, Ho-seop was tilting his head and looking at Seo-yeon and Jun-hoo.

“There’s a pediatric brain disease called ‘Arnold-Chiari malformation’.”

“That sounds like a serious name.”

“It can become serious if treatment isn’t received when symptoms appear.”

So that Seo-yeon could understand easily,

Jun-hoo explained about Arnold-Chiari malformation.

Seeing medical and anatomical terms, Jun-hoo seemed to be a real doctor after all.

“Cancel the psychological counseling center appointment and make a neurosurgery appointment right away. If Ho-seop’s condition worsens, come to the emergency room immediately.”

“Ah. Yes.”

Seo-yeon’s voice trembled faintly.

Jun-hoo’s diagnosis was a bolt from the blue.

She thought Ho-seop was suffering from anemia of unknown cause or struggling because of an unstable psychological state, but she heard a completely unexpected answer.

“Hyung. What are you talking about with Mom?”

Ho-seop asked, whining as if he thought he was being excluded.

“Hyung was interrupting Ho-seop and Mom’s conversation. So, I asked what Ho-seop likes. I’m going to buy him something delicious.”

“Cake. Cheese cake. Cheecake!”

“Okay. Hyung will buy you a cheese cake.”

Jun-hoo smiled and answered.

After Jun-hoo left for the checkout,

A staff member came to the table and left a slice of cheese cake.

Ho-seop looked at Seo-yeon, then started eating the cake with a fork.

Seo-yeon checked her phone and, surprisingly, Jun-hoo really kept his promise.

He finished the consultation in three minutes.

Calming her surprised heart, Seo-yeon searched for Arnold-Chiari malformation in the phone search bar.

-Problem with balance.

-Dizziness.

-Abnormal gait.

Among the searched symptoms, there were as many as three symptoms that Ho-seop had.

Seo-yeon continued to scroll through her phone with her finger, but she had to stop at one passage.

‘No, but does this make sense?’

There was content that made her doubt her eyes.

It was the part that MRI is used to diagnose Arnold-Chiari malformation.

But that’s right.

Jun-hoo didn’t use MRI while diagnosing Ho-seop.

Because there wouldn’t be a cafe on Earth that has an MRI [Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine].

The only action Jun-hoo took for the diagnosis was briefly placing his hand on the crown of Ho-seop’s head.

It was impossible for a hand to replace an MRI.

But he didn’t seem to be lying.

Arnold-Chiari malformation actually existed, and it was a disease that fit Ho-seop perfectly right now.

Seo-yeon completely dismissed her suspicion of Jun-hoo. And after finding out the reservation number for Shinwon University Hospital, she made a call.

And when she looked up, Jun-hoo, who had been sitting across the street, was gone.

It felt like she was possessed by a ghost.

* * *

“What did you talk about with the child’s mother?”

Ah-young asked Jun-hoo as they were leaving the cafe.

“I told her the truth, that the child has Arnold-Chiari malformation.”

“Huh? Is that possible with just a medical interview? Don’t you need to take a CT [Computed Tomography] or MRI?”

“Is this hand just any ordinary hand?”

Jun-hoo spread his palm wide and held it out to Ah-young.

What he unfolded to Ho-seop was ‘Internal Energy Brain Angiography’.

“I use the principles of Qigong [a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for health, spirituality, and martial-arts training]. After making the internal energy pass through the skull, it was an examination that only Jun-hoo could do in the world, meticulously scanning the structure and blood vessels of the brain with that internal energy.”

The examination time was 20 seconds.

The time it took to get the results was enough in 10 seconds.

Through ‘Internal Energy Brain Angiography’, Jun-hoo confirmed that the location of Ho-seop’s cerebellum was abnormally small.

Because the reverberation of internal energy spreading from that location was extremely narrow.

“Wow! It’s really like having superpowers.”

While the wind was rushing in due to the slope, causing Ah-young’s hair to flutter like a flag, Ah-young made an amazing expression when he explained the examination method in detail.

“I think it’s a scam even if I think about it. But it’s not something I got for free. I worked really hard to learn this when I was an intern.”

“Of course, you would have. There’s no such thing as a free lunch in the world. Our Jun-hoo did well, you’re amazing.”

Ah-young said playfully, patting Jun-hoo’s butt.

Jun-hoo didn’t feel bad, so he kept quiet.

“But what will happen to that child in the future?”

“The foramen magnum [the large opening in the occipital bone of the cranium] isn’t that narrow. There won’t be a problem if he gets surgery on time.”

“That’s a relief. Meeting you, Jun-hoo, is a stroke of good luck.”

After coming down all the stairs on the hill,

Ah-young stared at Jun-hoo’s profile for a while.

Suddenly, Jun-hoo’s handsome appearance,

Even the abilities Jun-hoo had seemed unrealistic.

“But Jun-hoo.”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Can’t you relax even when you’re resting? Do you know that your eyes have been darting left and right a lot since earlier?”

“Ah… It’s a habit….”

A bitter smile hung on Jun-hoo’s lips.

The scattered gaze was an occupational disease he had acquired in the Murim [a world of martial arts].

Because he didn’t know who would attack him, when, or where.

“But the reason I was able to catch Ho-seop when he was about to fall was all thanks to this gaze.”

“Why?”

“Because I sensed the danger without even realizing it and jumped out.”

“It’s kind of cool and sad at the same time.”

“I know it’s cool, but what’s sad about it?”

Jun-hoo shrugged at the mismatched combination of words.

Ah-young was sometimes this emotional.

“It’s like a blessing and a curse that you can’t take your eyes off other people. If it’s like now, you can save more people, but you, Jun-hoo, can’t rest comfortably for even a moment.”

“I have to think that way now.”

Jun-hoo said, looking down at Sung-ho’s bracelet.

The plating of the bracelet was sparsely peeled off because he had been wearing it for so long.

Jun-hoo couldn’t have been happy about the fact that he couldn’t let go of the tension even for a moment.

But what was even more unpleasant than that was not being able to see and turn away from people suffering in front of him.

“Still, promise me that you’ll only look at me while we’re on a date.”

“What are you saying? You were so focused on the bread until just now that you didn’t even care about me.”

“You idiot. Just pretend you didn’t see that.”

“How can I pretend I didn’t see that? I almost became jealous of Sunsimdang bread [a famous bakery in Daejeon]?”

Jun-hoo laughed while bickering with Ah-young.

Ah-young still didn’t seem to know that every moment with Ah-young was the best rest for Jun-hoo.

* * *

That day at 4:20 PM,

Jun-hoo and Ah-young, who had a pleasant time in the Mural Village, returned to Daejeon Station.

Jun-hoo bowed his head to Ah-young and said.

“I’m sorry. I should have focused on the date, but I squeezed in another schedule.”

“It’s okay. It’s important. I have a heart as wide as the ocean, so I can understand everything.”

“…….”

“I can accept it even if my boyfriend is jealous of bread.”

“Ah-young. You’re subtly resentful, aren’t you?”

“No. Not at all~? You must be mistaken, Jun-hoo.”

Jun-hoo and Ah-young, who were joking around, decided to meet again in front of the station in an hour.

In the meantime, Ah-young said she would look around a nearby park.

Jun-hoo, who parted ways with Ah-young, found a cafe located in front of Exit 3.

The cafe, named Coffee Good, had only three tables that were close together.

The seats were all empty, and the employee at the counter was fiddling with his phone.

As Jun-hoo went inside, the savory smell of coffee beans stimulated the tip of his nose, as if they were roasting coffee beans.

“I have a companion, so can I order a drink after my companion arrives?”

“Yes. Go ahead.”

After getting the employee’s understanding, Jun-hoo sat by the window.

While organizing his thoughts while looking outside,

Ding-dong!

A young man with a sharp chin entered the cafe with the sound of the doorbell.

Jun-hoo suddenly checked the time, and it was exactly 4:30.

He couldn’t calculate the time down to the second, but somehow, even if he calculated it to the second, it wouldn’t have deviated more than one to two seconds from 4:30.

“Are you Seo Jun-hoo?”

The young man approached Jun-hoo and asked.

Jun-hoo nodded and gestured to the chair with his hand.