Dr. Shin Seonhan: The Doctor Who Sees The Future [EN]: Chapter 226

#Extra Story 8. Boy Geun-uk (4)

“So?”

“Hehe…….”

“You just got beat up?”

“Yes.”

“Aigo [expression of frustration or exasperation], you rascal! So that’s why you came back with such a black eye?!”

Jang Palbong was dumbfounded.

Geun-uk’s face was bruised.

Fortunately, the fight didn’t escalate thanks to the teacher’s intervention, but he couldn’t avoid getting hit a few times.

Even then, Geun-uk held back his temper and didn’t throw a punch.

It was solely to keep his promise with Jang Palbong.

“I did well, right?”

“Do well, you rascal! The sound of your parents’ hearts breaking is reaching even here!”

“Tch, I held back for nothing.”

“I told you not to hit, but did I tell you to get beat up?”

“If I had known this would happen, I would have hit back…….”

Geun-uk pouted and muttered.

Even if his body has grown, he is still a child when he acts like that.

Jang Palbong chuckled as if he found the sight cute, then put his hands behind his back, looked at the distant mountains, and said.

“Descend the mountain.”

“Yes?”

“Class dismissed!”

“Ah, Master! I’m just kidding, just kidding! I really only got beat up!”

“I have nothing more to teach you, you rascal!”

Heh heh heh.

Jang Palbong laughed like a Taoist [a follower of Taoism, a Chinese philosophy and religion].

Then, he suddenly asked an irrelevant question.

“What do you think you’ve learned during this time?”

“Yes? Well, how to exercise…….”

“No.”

Jang Palbong shook his head and said in a serious voice.

“Setting rules and consistently keeping promises with oneself.”

“……!”

“You’ve gained the strength necessary to live, not just to exercise. Heh heh heh.”

“Master…….”

“If you’re the kind of guy who remembers a promise made two years ago even while getting beat up until you get a black eye, you’ll do well no matter what you do in the future, you rascal.”

It felt like he was talking about farewell.

Geun-uk’s eyes welled up with tears.

The sunset was casting its glow over the public gymnasium.

Suddenly, he realizes. Jang Palbong’s physique has become smaller than when he first saw him.

No…… maybe it’s that he has grown.

“I’m closing the hospital next month. It’s time for me to retire too. Heh heh heh.”

Jang Palbong continued.

He said he was closing the hospital and moving to the neighborhood where his children live.

Geun-uk was surprised, understood, but was also sad on the other hand.

They had built up affection over that time, but now they were suddenly parting ways?

“Then, we won’t see each other?”

“You rascal, haven’t you seen enough of me all this time? I’ll give you my phone number, so give me a call once in a while.”

“Keueung…….”

“Therefore, starting today, it’s a special class. Listen carefully.”

Geun-uk’s eyes widened.

Special class? What is he going to teach him for the last time?

The lessons that followed from Jang Palbong were, in some ways, similar to the usual topics.

Bones, muscles, nerves—

However, the detailed contents were quite different.

Geun-uk absorbed the new knowledge with a determined expression.

* * *

One month later.

Iron Middle School Gymnasium.

Tension is in the air here.

Geun-uk vs. Jungdeok.

The two are glaring at each other again, engaging in a war of nerves.

“What brings you here?”

“No matter how much I think about it, it’s unfair that I was the only one who got beat up.”

“Okay, shall we finish what we couldn’t finish last time? There’s no one here to interfere.”

Iron Middle School used to have a ssireum [Korean wrestling] team.

It has now been abolished, but the ssireum wrestling ring still remains.

The two entered the ssireum wrestling ring.

It was like—

A small colosseum.

A 1-on-1 duel!

There is no more blood-boiling event than this in middle school.

Students who heard the rumors were gathering at the gymnasium.

They had to finish quickly before the teacher intervened.

“The one who declares surrender loses, right?”

“Yes. Promise.”

“What?”

“If I win, apologize for bullying me all this time. You have to apologize to the other kids too, not just me.”

“Ha.”

Yuk Jungdeok snorted.

What confidence is this?

It was absurd to ask for a 1-on-1 fight, but it’s getting more and more absurd.

There are occasionally guys who don’t know their place like this.

Furthermore, that look in his eyes.

The eyes that are full of confidence and looking straight at him are unpleasant.

“This bastard, I’ve been putting up with you!”

Tuwoong!

The two collided.

Geun-uk gritted his teeth at the dizzying impact.

Difference in weight class!

No matter how much he had trained, Yuk Jungdeok was still Yuk Jungdeok.

He was more than a hand taller than him, and he weighed almost 20kg more.

“Did you think you could win? Did you think you could win just because a narrow-shouldered guy exercised a little?”

Kwack!

Yuk Jungdeok’s arm wrapped around Kim Geun-uk’s neck.

It was his signature headlock, which he had used to bully countless children.

When he experienced it directly, the pressure was so severe that his knees buckled.

“No matter how much you exercise, you can’t beat me, you bastard! If you were born weak, just live your whole life looking at others!”

“Keok……!”

Geun-uk became dazed.

When the carotid artery is pressed, oxygen to the brain is momentarily blocked.

He quickly put his hand next to his neck to secure space, but he couldn’t shake off Yuk Jungdeok’s thick forearm.

His legs gave way, and sand entered his mouth.

Is he going to lose like this? Is the difference in weight class unavoidable after all?

But at that moment.

Jang Palbong’s stern voice flashed through his mind.

—I’m teaching you not to get beat up from now on, so listen carefully!

Jang Palbong’s last lesson was about the of the human body.

—The human body inevitably has many weak points. For example, the ulnar nerve passes through the elbow. People who are stimulated here will have tingling fingers and will not be able to use their strength as they please.

Peoeok!

Geun-uk struck Jungdeok’s elbow.

The moment the opponent flinched, he barely escaped the headlock.

He was still being crushed by the opponent’s weight, but this time it was Geun-uk’s turn to counterattack.

This time, the principle of strength that he had faithfully learned for two years came to mind.

—The largest muscles in our body are the pectoralis major muscle in the chest, the latissimus dorsi in the back, and the quadriceps femoris muscle in the thigh. This is where a man’s strength comes from!

The next moment.

Exclamations burst from the mouths of the watching students.

Geun-uk lifted Jungdeok.

How on earth?

Geun-uk let out a scream and threw Yuk Jungdeok to the ground.

Sand soared into the sky.

Jungdeok, who had fallen due to Geun-uk’s strength, struggled to get up from the floor.

But Geun-uk was already pressuring Jungdeok in a grounding position.

Sparks flew from his eyes.

—Shall I explain the xyphoid process of the sternum, called the solar plexus?

There is a protruding bone about the size of a finger at the very bottom of the sternum, and the shape of the protrusion is different for each person.

And around this area, branches of the phrenic nerve, which controls the diaphragm, pass by, and when this area is stimulated, the movement of the diaphragm momentarily stops.

The diaphragm is a place that must move when we breathe.

So, a person who feels stimulation here will not be able to breathe for a moment and will even feel the fear of death.

Don’t hit it carelessly. It’s one of the most fatal vital points in the human body!

I’m just telling you not to get beat up…… Heh heh heh.

Kkuuuk.

Geun-uk began to press the xyphoid process bone on Yuk Jungdeok’s sternum with his hand.

Yuk Jungdeok’s mind went blank for a moment, and he stopped all movement and thought.

Being subdued?

Me?

It’s something he’s never experienced in his life.

He has always been overwhelmingly larger than his peers, so he is immune to this situation.

“Should I do more?”

“Heok, heeok…….”

“More?”

When he actually experienced it himself, not being able to breathe was a tremendous fear.

“……N, no! I lost, I lost! I lost!”

Yuk Jungdeok shouted urgently, terrified.

Only then did Geun-uk release his strength and slump down next to him.

His legs were trembling as if he had used all his strength for the rest of his life.

And—

One beat late, the children come running with cheers.

“Waaaaa!”

“Geun-uk won!”

“Hey, everyone! Kim Geun-uk beat Yuk Jungdeok!”

Everyone cheered.

The children who had been suffering from Yuk Jungdeok’s bullying were as happy as if they had won.

Moreover, Kim Geun-uk, who was once ridiculed as having narrow shoulders!

The meaning of this fact was great.

It was like—

A revolution.

A counterattack.

It was a spark of hope for all the weaklings!

After that, Kim Geun-uk became a new legend of Iron Middle School, talked about in everyone’s mouths…….

* * *

“Hey, you’re lying.”

“Kekeke.”

“Teacher Geun-uk, haven’t you been watching too many bully webtoons [Korean digital comics]? You’re telling such nonsense.”

“No, I’m serious! If you go to Iron Middle School, my story is still passed down as a legend?!”

The health club’s dinner.

The people who were listening to Geun-uk’s story grabbed their stomachs and laughed.

Originally, memories are created by mixing some truth and exaggeration.

The female doctor laughed for a while, then wiped away her tears and asked.

“Ah, Teacher Geun-uk, you’re so funny. Anyway, you’re saying that you started walking the path of an athlete after receiving the teachings of a hidden master, right?”

“That’s right.”

“So, what happened next?”

“After that, well…….”

Nothing much.

Geun-uk became a high school student.

Just in time, his parents’ workplace changed, and they moved to Gyeonggi Province.

He could no longer see Teacher Jang Palbong, whom he once called master.

Naturally, contact was lost.

Even when he occasionally searched with a search engine, he could not find a hospital with the same name.

“……Well, anyway, you’re saying that you were inspired by that person at that time, and that’s how Teacher Geun-uk was born! And you also had a dream about the job of a doctor.”

“That’s right.”

“But why didn’t you go to orthopedics?”

“Me?”

“You said that the doctor you admired when you were young was an orthopedic surgeon. Teacher Geun-uk, you have a good physique, and you’re strong. You seem like someone who was born for OS (Orthopedic Surgery)!”

Then the people sitting next to him agreed in unison.

“That’s right?”

“Orthopedic Kim Geun-uk! It would have suited you so well.”

“Of course, there are quite a few things to do in pediatrics, but not as much as in orthopedics.”

“It’s a pity the more I think about it. You should have come to our department!”

Geun-uk scratched his cheek.

The reason for choosing pediatrics?

It was a very minor trigger.

Two years ago, during his internship.

A young patient who stamped his hand with when he was in a terrible slump.

……But it’s somehow embarrassing to talk about that memory.

So, Geun-uk shrugged his shoulders and answered simply.

“I like pediatrics. There are only men in OS.”

“…….”

Everyone was speechless.

On the one hand, it’s also an atmosphere of understanding.

Orthopedics is a typical male-dominated department.

To what extent?

The proportion of female residents nationwide is less than 3 percent.

This is probably because there are many things that require strength due to the nature of the job.

Lifting, cutting, tightening…….

It’s no coincidence that orthopedic surgeons call themselves ‘carpenters’.

Of course, it is a popular department because it has a bright career outlook, but some people avoid the unique atmosphere of male dominance.

“Well, that’s true.”

“The atmosphere there is a bit…….”

“Wow, OS is upset to hear that!”

“It’s not wrong to say that there are only men, is it? How close we are to each other, you know? If you don’t know, just stay still!”

For a while, the sound of laughter and chatter continued noisily.

Meanwhile, Geun-uk looked out the window at the darkening twilight.

Talking about old stories after a long time brought back memories.

He murmured in his heart towards a distant place beyond the mountains.

‘Master…… No, Teacher Jang Palbong.’

Are you doing well?

Are you healthy?

The boy who owed you a debt back then has become a doctor like you. Of course, I didn’t go to orthopedics…….

Well, still.

Like you did to me, I want to become a doctor who will remain in the memories of young patients for a long time.

Like a sturdy old tree that provides a large shade to little children in the summer.

—Part 1 Extra Story: Boy Geun-uk 完

*Thanks to Shin Dong-hyeop, an orthopedic surgeon who helped with the writing.

*The fight described in this episode is mixed with exaggeration and fiction, so never imitate it!