Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 256

256. I Don’t Want to Get Married.

Medical Staff Room –

“Euijin, what is this?”

“What is it?”

Taekyung, who was in the examination room, was having a late-night snack with Euijin in the medical staff room.

“This, this long white thing, I mean.”

“Ah~ that’s called ‘Bunmoja’ [a type of Korean noodle made from potato starch]. These days, it’s often added to Tteokbokki [spicy stir-fried rice cakes] as an ingredient… Senior, your reaction is so funny. Is this your first time eating it?”

“I just thought it was a long rice cake. What’s the point of eating this?”

“The texture is interesting, isn’t it? You could say it’s chewy?”

“Maybe my taste is old-fashioned, but I still think rice cake and fish cake are the best.”

Taekyung frowned and rinsed his mouth with fish cake broth.

“I think this is the first time I’ve seen you being picky about food, Senior.”

“I know. I usually don’t have any prejudice against food, but I’m not sure about this one.”

“I guess so. Oh! How is Shin Jiae doing?”

“Choi checked on her while doing rounds in the ward earlier, and he said she seems okay, judging by her expression.”

“I’m glad she’s doing okay.”

“She seemed cheerful when I talked to her earlier, too.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Well… but I don’t know if I should call it a relief.”

“Why? Did something else happen?”

“No, it’s not that, but honestly, what you see on the outside might be okay, but I don’t know if the inside is okay.”

“Sigh! That’s true. She’s experienced something that other people might never experience in their entire lives. I can’t imagine how she must feel. How about recommending a consultation?”

“With the Department of Psychiatry?”

“Yes. I think it would be helpful.”

“She said she’s planning to see a psychiatrist after she’s discharged. She definitely seems to have the will to overcome this situation on her own.”

“That’s amazing.”

“Why?”

Taekyung asked Euijin, who was staring blankly into the distance instead of eating the fish cake skewer.

“…?”

“What are you thinking about that you’re holding the fish cake and spacing out?”

“Ah, it’s just that seeing Shin Jiae today strangely reminded me of something from the past.”

“Something from the past?”

“Yes. Senior, you were wondering why I didn’t continue with OBGY (Obstetrics and Gynecology), right?”

“That’s right.”

He was curious.

She clearly had talent, passion, and wasn’t forced to choose OBGY by others.

Rather than just wanting to become a doctor, Euijin’s goal from the beginning was to become an obstetrician-gynecologist.

He was naturally curious as to why someone like that would turn away from the OBGY she loved so much.

He had previously suggested to Euijin that he would support her if she wanted to seriously pursue OBGY.

He suggested starting slowly, seeing patients only once or twice a week and gradually increasing the number.

At that time, Euijin’s answer was, ‘I’ll think about it.’

The atmosphere at the time seemed to suggest that there was some kind of story behind it, but Taekyung couldn’t bring himself to ask easily.

But he didn’t expect Euijin to suddenly bring it up.

“It happened when I was abroad.”

“You mean when you went for volunteer work?”

“Yes, that’s right. Senior, do you know the country of OO?”

“I know it. You went that far? It must have been tough there since it’s such a remote area…”

“I was very… young.”

“Huh? Who?”

“That child. When I first arrived in OO, I used to go around to each house to provide medical care. Many people couldn’t come because they didn’t have cars.”

Euijin began to tell a story she had never told before.

After becoming an OBGY specialist and working, she left for the medical volunteer work she had always dreamed of.

“When I first said I was going to that country, everyone around me tried to stop me.”

“Because it’s hard. Medical volunteer work itself is hard enough, but it’s even harder in remote areas.”

“That’s right. So everyone told me I was overdoing it from the start and to go to another country, but I didn’t want to.”

Her family and even senior colleagues who had already gone on medical volunteer work all tried to stop her, but Euijin didn’t give up on her decision to go to a remote area.

Since it was the first and last medical volunteer work in her life, she wanted to go to a place where medical care didn’t reach.

The country she arrived in was completely different from what she had learned in theory, seen in videos, and heard about before coming for volunteer work.

It was literally a different dimension.

Things like electricity, water, and buildings, which were taken for granted, were not taken for granted, and it was a remote area without even basic civilization.

It was as if she had traveled back in time in a time machine.

There, they built houses using mud, cow dung, and trees obtained from nature.

People also obtained everything from nature, including games, food, and clothing.

The colleagues who went with her were overwhelmed for a while seeing the reality in front of them, but Euijin exuded passion instead of being overwhelmed.

The terrible smell, all kinds of bugs, everything was more exciting and enjoyable than painful and difficult.

“Everyone else was having a hard time, but I liked the local food and it tasted good.”

“Really? Then you’re almost at the level of a local?”

“That’s right. Everyone told me that a lot. I met a girl while going around the villages providing medical care.”

Unlike the other children, she was unusually friendly.

Other children were wary and cautious of foreigners they were seeing for the first time, who had different skin colors and spoke different languages, but she wasn’t like that.

The girl’s name was Natimi, and she had sparkling sunshine and large eyes that shone like jewels on her dark skin.

Even when other people and children were reluctant to approach, she would take the lead and approach first.

Euijin, who became friends with Natimi, would occasionally ask the child, who was frowning and struggling, if she was okay and examine her. But she couldn’t help but be surprised when she learned the reason why the young child was struggling.

It was because of a ritual called female genital mutilation [FGM, a traditional practice involving the cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia], which damaged the important parts of a girl’s body.

Furthermore, the things used to perform the ritual, such as stones or broken glass, were not sterilized, so there was a high risk of infection.

In some quarters, it was even described as a ritual of death.

It was an unspeakable great pain given to young children regardless of their will.

Because of this, even urinating was often painful.

Euijin was so surprised when she first learned about this that she was speechless.

Only then did she begin to see the reality of what kind of country she had come to.

“Not only children but also adults suffered from that.”

“That’s right. It’s something that people like us can’t even imagine.”

“Since it had already happened, there was nothing I could do. All I could do was give her medicine and check more often to see if it had gotten worse.”

If it had been in Korea, where all the facilities were perfect, she could have provided definite treatment, but she couldn’t do it locally. So Euijin paid more attention to the child and shared more of her heart.

The two were different in age, but they were like friends.

They couldn’t communicate perfectly because the languages were different, but that didn’t cause any major inconvenience. Their hearts were connected.

Natimi followed Euijin like an older sister or family member.

Whenever she had time, she would teach Natimi and the children how to fold origami, which she had learned before coming for volunteer work, and they would have a good time.

She wanted to make the children happy even a little bit since there weren’t even common computers or toys.

The treatment here was not easy, so the time she spent with the children was precious to Euijin as well.

There were mothers who lost their children while giving birth, and conversely, there were mothers who lost their lives while giving birth.

There were also patients suffering from gynecological diseases, and light illnesses that would have been easily treated in Korea threatened lives here.

As she interacted with various patients, meaningful days passed, and a year passed.

One day, like any other day, Euijin found it strange that Natimi hadn’t come to origami class.

“She always came early and would do the origami I was going to make today with me first, and she would help me like a class leader in the class.”

“You were worried because a friend you cared about and were close to didn’t show up.”

“Yes. That’s exactly how I felt. Senior, you know how after a little while after becoming a doctor, the distance between the patient and the doctor is maintained appropriately without me even realizing it.”

“That’s right. In the beginning, each patient feels like family, and I feel like if I do even one more thing, they’ll somehow live. I used to feel that way.”

“That’s right.”

If you pass the national exam and receive a medical license from the Minister of Health and Welfare, you become a real doctor. And that’s when you start an internship, which is full of fear and passion.

It was a time when you made a lot of mistakes and wanted to run away countless times, but your heart for the patient was always overflowing.

However, that passion for patients becomes more businesslike and mechanical as you gain experience as a doctor and encounter more patients.

Of course, not all doctors are like that, but many doctors feel the same way.

If you give too much of your heart, it’s not easy to treat patients, and above all, doctors are also human.

It was really hard to deal with the emotions when a patient you cared about and paid attention to passed away.

As a result, that appropriate distance with the patient is created like a formula. But that child was a bit of an exception.

‘I like you, Sister.’

Natimi, whom she met in a place that wasn’t a sterile hospital, was enough to make Euijin a passionate doctor like she was in those days.

It had already been a long time since the appropriate distance she had always maintained had collapsed.

“Worried, I went to her house after class, and the child was crying with her eyes swollen this much.”

“Was the child sick?”

“No.”

The interpreter who went with her told her that Natimi was getting married. Euijin was shocked when she heard that. It was like being hit in the head with a hammer.

“Don’t tell me…”

“You’re thinking of the right thing, Senior. Do you know what child marriage is?”

“I know it.”

Child marriage is when a young child who is not old enough to marry gets married early, and it still happens in some countries.

“I felt so bad seeing the child crying and asking for help.”

She tried to persuade the child’s mother, but Natimi’s mother was also someone who had married through child marriage.

The mother wanted to help, but the situation didn’t allow it.

They were rather displeased with Euijin’s attitude, an outsider, calling it their culture.

“I really wanted to help the child who was begging me to save her. So, after discussing it with Natimi’s mother, I brought the child to the accommodation.”

It wasn’t easy to persuade her, but Natimi’s mother also understood the child’s heart and didn’t want her to live like herself.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly. But the next day at dawn, Natimi’s father came to the accommodation with his friends.

“He was really angry. He broke my room window and caused a ruckus, giving me a scare, and forcibly took the child away without giving me a chance to stop him.”

“He’s saying he’ll do whatever he wants because it’s his child. Those countries still lack awareness of human rights and things like that.”

“That’s right. I heard from the interpreter later that the father said that. Why are you interfering in my family affairs? He said he would kill me if I interfered one more time.”

She was even threatened, but Euijin wasn’t very scared.

Rather than thinking that she might be harmed, she wanted to protect the child.

But unlike her thoughts, reality was not easy. She went to Natimi’s house again, but she couldn’t see the child.

The child’s father was standing guard with the people around him, completely blocking access.

‘Father, please think again. She’s still a child. Please, I beg you.’

‘I’m going to marry off my child, so what are you doing making such a fuss? Are you my family? Stop it if you don’t want to die.’

She went every morning and evening, but they threatened Euijin by waving burning branches and throwing animal blood and feces.

Still, she couldn’t stop.

It was because she remembered Natimi’s face, crying and begging with her eyes red.

The next day, she was planning to go to the child’s house after finishing her treatment.

But early in the morning, Natimi visited the hospital. And she wasn’t alone.

“Don’t tell me the child came with her father?”