Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 201

201. Moonlight Chase

“I wonder if I’m running too fast. I hope Doctor Choi can keep up?”

Jang Deuk-chil, usually confident in his stamina, muttered to himself as he ran out of the hospital’s main gate.

“Doctor Choi, am I too fast? Don’t overdo it…!”

Jang Deuk-chil slowed slightly, turning his head, worried Choi Mona might not keep up with his rapid pace.

“Ah! You scared me!”

Contrary to his worries, he was surprised to see Choi Mona chasing right behind him at a crazy speed.

“Don’t worry. I’m keeping up just fine.”

“Doctor Choi, you run incredibly fast! How are you so good at running?”

“My father always said that physical strength is national power, so he made me run around the playground since I was young. I’m confident in my running.”

“Wow! You really are good at running.”

“But Officer Jang, haven’t you seen the homeless man?”

“I was patrolling the parking lot and then at the main gate, but I don’t think I saw him. But he seemed fine when he came into the hospital earlier. Is there a problem?”

Jang Deuk-chil, who had come out without knowing the exact reason why they were looking for the homeless man, only understood the urgency after hearing Tae-kyung’s words.

“Doctor Tae-kyung looked very serious earlier. Did he run away after scamming us out of money?”

“That’s part of it, but currently, that patient is practically a ticking time bomb, so Doctor Tae-kyung told me to find him quickly.”

“A, a ticking time bomb? Then we need to find him quickly. Doctor Choi, should we go to that taxi stand over there?”

“No. I’m sure he didn’t go there.”

Choi Mona replied with an almost certain expression.

“How do you know that?”

“I don’t think someone who ran away because they didn’t have money would take a taxi. It’s the time when basic fares and surcharges are added. I don’t think he has that kind of money.”

“When I see you guys, all the doctors in our hospital are so smart. I just carry my head around as decoration. You guys are definitely different.”

“No. Officer Jang, I think it would be better to start with that street stall over there.”

“That’s a good idea.”

Choi Mona remembered the homeless man saying he’d been drinking and vomiting during the day.

She figured someone who liked alcohol so much that he drank it during the day, even when unwell, would definitely be drinking on a night like this.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes, welcome. Are you two together?”

The street stall owner greeted them with a bright smile as the two entered the tent.

“Sit anywhere you like.”

“That’s not it…”

“Excuse me, but can I ask you something?”

Jang Deuk-chil hesitated, seeing the owner so happy to see customers, but Choi Mona suddenly stepped forward.

“We’re looking for someone. A man in his early 50s, wearing a khaki-colored outfit and red sneakers. Has anyone like that been here?”

“No. I haven’t seen anyone like that.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“Goodbye.”

“Officer Jang, we should go into all the other street stalls and ask at the bars, and then go towards the convenience store line.”

“Okay, let’s do that.”

The two checked the street stalls and neighborhood pubs next to each other and decided to head towards where Tae-kyung and Lee Chan-hee were.

At that moment, Tae-kyung’s team was also desperately searching for the homeless man.

“Hah! Haa… D, Doctor!”

Lee Chan-hee approached Tae-kyung, who had come out of the convenience store, with ragged breaths.

He usually avoided exercise, but he felt like his chest was about to explode from following Tae-kyung, who was running like crazy from the hospital parking lot.

“What! Lee Chan-hee, why are you so slow!”

“No… I’m not s, slow… Haa! It’s just… Haa! That you’re fast.”

Lee Chan-hee was amazed at how someone who only ate, slept, and operated at the hospital could maintain such stamina.

“Haa! I feel like I can finally breathe. No, Doctor, why is your stamina so good?”

“That’s because I exercise.”

“Yes? How can you exercise at the hospital?”

“If you’re determined, you can exercise even on the streets. That’s not important right now. Stop talking nonsense and follow me quickly.”

Ding-dong-

“Welcome.”

“Thank you for your hard work. I wanted to ask you something. A man in his early 50s, wearing…”

Tae-kyung went into the next convenience store and described the homeless man’s appearance, as Lee Chan-hee had instructed, and asked the employee.

“Has he been here?”

“No. I changed shifts 30 minutes ago, and I haven’t seen anyone like that.”

“Okay, thank you for your hard work.”

“Another miss. Doctor, isn’t this like looking for Kim Seo-bang in Seoul [a Korean idiom for looking for a needle in a haystack]?”

“We still have to find him. He probably didn’t go far.”

“Ugh! Where did this guy go!”

Lee Chan-hee puffed and followed Tae-kyung, diligently searching for the homeless man.

The two went back and forth between convenience stores, 24-hour rice soup restaurants, and small shops in the food street, truly working hard to find the homeless man.

‘It’ll be hard to find him if he’s drunk and sleeping somewhere…’

Tae-kyung searched the surroundings thoroughly, hoping the homeless man hadn’t drunk yet. He repeatedly went into and out of convenience stores whenever he saw one.

There were so many convenience stores that he checked every one of them, located at regular intervals in every alley.

‘Damn it! I can’t even smell a faint scent.’

There was definitely a strong Stage 3 scent left on the hospital bed. If the patient had passed by, there would have been a lingering scent, but it wasn’t felt here either.

‘Is this not the way? Or has he already gone somewhere else? I need to find him quickly…’

Even if it was the same scent, the intensity felt different at each stage, and currently, the homeless man had a scent pattern that could easily go to Stage 4. That’s why Tae-kyung wanted to find him as soon as possible.

After searching the surrounding area for about 10 minutes, the two faced a fork in the road.

“Lee Chan-hee?”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“I’ll turn right, and you turn left and meet me on the road where we merge again.”

“Yes, I understand.”

They each went into the fork in the road and looked around, but unfortunately, the homeless man was not seen.

“He’s not there?”

“No. Doctor, he’s not there.”

“Damn it! This is the last place…!”

Before returning to the hospital, Tae-kyung was looking at the last alley with a heavy heart when it happened.

‘A scent!’

The fifth vital [Tae-kyung’s ability to sense a person’s vital signs through smell] he had been looking for was felt in the last alley. He was sure that the homeless man was nearby.

‘It’s here! He’s definitely here.’

Tae-kyung turned his head and checked the surroundings. There were only two convenience stores in this last alley.

“Doctor, what’s wrong?”

Lee Chan-hee asked as Tae-kyung’s expression suddenly changed seriously in the street light.

“Lee Chan-hee!”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“Let’s do this. I’ll check the convenience store on this side. Chan-hee, do you see that street light over there?”

Tae-kyung pointed to the street light that could be seen on the opposite side.

“Yes.”

“Go to the convenience store over there. The homeless man is probably in this area.”

“Yes? How do you know that?”

“No time. Just find him quickly!”

“Ah, yes. I understand.”

Tae-kyung went into one of the last two remaining convenience stores, and Lee Chan-hee also slowly ran towards the other convenience store.

‘This is really the last place…’

Just as he was about to open the convenience store door with a frustrated heart.

“…!”

With a familiar appearance, a man was coming out of the convenience store with a pack of soju [Korean distilled rice liquor] in his hand.

‘He’s really here. I found him!’

The man who came out of the convenience store and passed in front of him was the homeless man from before. Lee Chan-hee was filled with inner joy, as if he had met a lost brother.

He didn’t make a fuss to catch him but calmly approached and spoke to him.

“Excuse me!”

“What?”

The homeless man, who hadn’t recognized Lee Chan-hee yet, replied gruffly, and Lee Chan-hee naturally grabbed his sleeve and called out.

“Patient!”

“Oh! Crap.”

The homeless man, who recognized Lee Chan-hee calling him with a smiling face, quickly shook off the grabbed sleeve and started running.

“No, patient? Doctor, he’s here! The patient is running away.”

Tae-kyung, who was coming out of the convenience store, also saw the two people and started chasing after hearing Lee Chan-hee’s loud shout.

“Patient! Stop for a moment. Why are you running? Huh?”

“Ugh! Do you really not know why I’m running? You’re chasing me for money.”

The homeless man thought it was because of the hospital bill and ran away with all his might.

“It’s not because of money. Please! Stop. You’re incredibly fast.”

“Forget it!”

“It’s because of your body.”

There were cases where criminals were caught by throwing things from behind or tripping them, but that couldn’t be done now.

The opponent was a pseudoaneurysm patient, so no physical force could be applied. Currently, the only option was to persuade him or run faster and overtake the patient to stop him.

“Haa! Haa… How can someone your age run so well? I won’t take your money.”

“Don’t lie! I don’t trust doctors!”

Just as Lee Chan-hee was breathing heavily and the distance between him and the homeless man was getting farther, Tae-kyung, who was following behind, overtook him and ran towards the man at a fast speed.

“Patient!”

As the distance between him and the man narrowed, the fifth vital [Tae-kyung’s ability to sense a person’s vital signs through smell] was clearly rushing in.

‘As expected!’

As expected, the Stage 3 scent he had felt at the hospital had intensified.

The foul smell of feces that strongly stimulated his sense of smell made the homeless man’s musty smell nothing to Tae-kyung.

“Oh, oh! I told you not to chase me.”

The homeless man, surprised by Tae-kyung’s rapid approach, panicked and unknowingly entered between buildings. But unfortunately, that place was a dead end.

With nowhere else to run, he had no choice but to stop running.

“Haa… How much money is it… Ugh! I’m out of breath.”

The homeless man, who had suddenly sprinted, said with a gasp, as if he was out of breath.

“Haa! I deliberately went in because the building looked shabby and easy to deal with… Haa! Do you really not have enough money to chase someone like this? Haa! You’re really tough doctors. Oh! I’m going to die.”

“It’s not that, you’re really going to die!”

Lee Chan-hee, who had been chasing after him, raised his voice at the homeless man, who was talking recklessly without knowing the medical staff’s feelings.

“Die? Why would I die?”

“Haa! I’m out of breath… You said you had bloody stools earlier.”

“No, does someone die just because they pooped blood?”

“It’s not that. The reason why you had bloody stools is probably because a blood vessel burst inside, that’s why.”

“Hey! Just because I’m a homeless man living on the streets doesn’t mean you can treat me like an idiot. You’re trying to take me to get money. And if a blood vessel bursts inside your stomach, does it come out as bloody stools? Doctor, you underestimated me too much.”

“Excuse me, patient?”

Tae-kyung, who had been catching his breath for a moment, approached the patient.

“Oh my! Oh, this person is on television.”

The homeless man recognized Tae-kyung and was surprised, and his tone became a little softer than when he was talking to Lee Chan-hee.

“Oh, you’re a famous doctor.”

“Do you know me?”

“Of course. You were on a famous show recently and won a lot of prize money.”

“You know me well. I have some money because of the prize money. So I didn’t chase you for money. As Doctor Lee here said, your current condition is not good, so the hospital doctors came out this night to save you.”

“Oh! You really found him.”

“I’m glad we found him.”

Choi Mona and Jang Deuk-chil, who had been contacted and came, also arrived at the scene just in time, along with the sound of footsteps echoing in the alley.

“See, do you see these two people too? The four of us have been running around every alley near the hospital to find you.”

“It’s not because of money?”

“No. Did you have surgery at a big hospital and pay the hospital bill? You didn’t, right?”

“Yes!? Ah, yes, yes…”

He hesitated for a moment, then quickly continued, as if he had remembered something.

“Because I’m homeless, they checked and said something about the local government and didn’t take it.”

“Our hospital is the same. We don’t take money from patients.”

“So you’re saying that the doctors ran around this night to save someone like me?”

“That’s right.”

He was a homeless man who wouldn’t be strange if he died on the streets.

He was literally a bottom-of-the-barrel life that no one cared about, but the man’s eyes, which had been full of suspicion, seemed to soften a little at the words that the great doctors had been looking for him.

“Patient, let’s go to the hospital with me first, get a checkup, and if there’s nothing wrong, you can go back. If there’s a problem, get treatment. Okay?”

“If there’s nothing wrong, you won’t catch me even if I tell you to.”

“Okay. I’ll do that.”

The man, who had become much gentler, was sandwiched between Tae-kyung and Jang Deuk-chil and walked quietly to the hospital with his arms crossed.

“I’m glad we found the patient.”

“Tch! You didn’t even listen when I said that…”

Lee Chan-hee walked behind with Choi Mona, expressing his disappointment.

“Maybe you didn’t feel as trustworthy as Doctor Tae-kyung.”

“Maybe? That could be. By the way, what’s that in your hand?”

Lee Chan-hee pointed to the bag in Choi Mona’s hand, which he hadn’t seen before.

“Oh, this? It’s money.”

“Money! Wow! Hey, how can you have so much money?”

Lee Chan-hee’s eyes widened when he saw the bundle of 50,000 won bills in the bag.

“I was going to persuade the patient with money if persuasion didn’t work. I heard that homeless people like money and alcohol the most.”

Choi Mona, who thought she had to save the person first, found money at the convenience store. But in her haste, she pressed the wrong button and withdrew a considerable amount.

“But why do you have so much money?”

“I just put it in the bank because I have no use for it.”

“Hey, Doctor Choi? No. Mona? Ms. Mona, do you want to go out with me?”

“I’ll kill you.”

“Hey! I’m kidding. I don’t like you either.”

Lee Chan-hee immediately backed down when he saw Choi Mona’s savage reaction to his joke.

After that, Tae-kyung and his party, who had finished the chase in the middle of the night, arrived at the hospital and decided to take another CT scan of the homeless man.

“Patient, as I said before, we’re going to take a CT scan, and this time we’re going to use contrast dye. Got it?”

“Yeah, sure! Do it.”

The results of the man, who had quickly finished the scan, came out shortly after.

“Doctor, the CT results are out.”

Tae-kyung’s eyes began to focus on the monitor.