Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 354

Fifth Vitality – Episode 355 (354/502)

355. One-Eyed

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“Got a good shot.”

Muttering to himself, he diligently photographed the hospital building with his phone camera. Satisfied with the result, he re-entered the hospital.

“Oh, Mr. Oh, hello.”

As he entered through the back door, a series of greetings reached Oh Chang-gyu, who was staring intently at one spot.

“……!”

He stopped reaching for his phone at the sound and turned around. The source of the cheerful greetings was Lee Chan-hee and Choi Mona, arriving for work together.

“Oh, Mr. Oh, hi.”

“Mr. Lee, Ms. Choi, hello.”

“Is there something interesting on the ceiling?”

Curious, Lee Chan-hee looked around the ceiling area that Oh Chang-gyu had been staring at.

“What are you staring at so intently?”

“Ah~ I was watching a butterfly. It was so fascinating.”

“A butterfly?”

“A butterfly? Mr. Oh, do you like butterflies?”

“Not particularly, but it was a tiger swallowtail. I heard tiger swallowtails bring good luck, so I was thinking of taking a picture to keep.”

“Really? Tiger swallowtails are a symbol of good luck? I didn’t know that.”

“It’s just a story I heard a long time ago.”

“But where’s the butterfly?”

At the mention of luck, Choi Mona also looked up at the ceiling, searching for the tiger swallowtail.

“Ah, well… it flew away through that open window up there when I tried to take a picture.”

“Too bad.”

“Mr. Oh? Anyway, how do you like it here?”

“What, what kind of question is that? How can I answer when you ask something so out of the blue?”

Choi Mona nudged Lee Chan-hee’s arm at his contextless question.

“You left out the subject.”

“Right. How do you like working at our hospital?”

“I’m very satisfied. Everyone helped me adjust, the staff are great, and above all, the director is such a wonderful and kind person, which makes it even better.”

“Well, our director is quite impressive. Working alongside him makes you respect him.”

“I feel the same way. Especially when he’s treating patients, it really makes my heart swell.”

“We have something in common, Mr. Oh. We even look alike… don’t you think, Ms. Choi?”

“Yeah. No.”

“Then am I better looking?”

“No, Mr. Oh is better looking.”

“Hey, I’m still your boyfr… Ugh!”

Lee Chan-hee, taking his girlfriend’s teasing seriously, was about to say ‘boyfriend’ when Choi Mona covered his mouth with her hand and then quickly removed it.

“Mr. Lee, sorry. There was a mosquito near your mouth…….”

“A mosquito?”

“Yeah. There are mosquitoes around.”

“We should catch them. But have there been mosquitoes lately?”

“Hello.”

Choi Mona didn’t respond to Lee Chan-hee’s words, instead greeting the staff at the reception desk.

“Ms. Choi, hello.”

“Hello.”

“Oh! Mr. Lee is here too.”

“Hello, Doctor.”

“Are you two coming to work together?”

Tae-kyung, emerging from the emergency room, asked the two people who were greeting each other. Immediately, the gazes of the staff near the reception desk turned to Lee Chan-hee and Choi Mona.

“I guess the director was right.”

“Come to think of it, did you two come together today?”

“Oh! Is that really the case?”

“No. It’s not like that. We just happened to meet at the bus stop in front.”

“The bus stop?”

“This is suspicious. If it was the bus stop, shouldn’t you have come through the front door instead of the back door?”

“……!”

“Oh! Look, over there!”

While Choi Mona was flustered by her slip of the tongue, Lee Chan-hee suddenly pointed towards the front door and spoke urgently.

“Look over there. A patient! A patient is here.”

“Oh, Mr. Lee. A patient?”

“Really. Look over there.”

“Oh! It’s really a patient.”

Everyone thought Lee Chan-hee was just trying to change the subject. But two men were seen walking quickly towards the hospital entrance.

One appeared to be a short, 60-year-old man, and the other was a relatively young man.

The 60-year-old man entered with one side of his face covered with a handkerchief, pressing the cloth against one of his eyes. The younger man had a bandage wrapped around his palm.

“I’ll go check it out.”

Tae-kyung approached them upon seeing them, and nurse Im Jeong-suk followed behind.

“Are you alright?”

“We’re here for treatment… is it possible right away?”

The young man said, supporting the 60-year-old man with one hand.

“Of course. It’s possible right away. Ms. Im?”

“Yes, I’ll help you with the registration.”

Nurse Im Jeong-suk quickly helped the two men register and then guided them to the treatment room connected to Tae-kyung’s office.

The staff, who had been chatting amiably, hurried to prepare for work at the arrival of the patients.

Lee Chan-hee and Choi Mona also went to the medical staff room to change into their work clothes and headed to the emergency room, while Tae-kyung went straight into the examination room.

“Sir, let me take a look.”

“No, not me.”

As Tae-kyung approached the 60-year-old patient, the man raised his other hand, not the one covering his eye, and waved it.

“Please see my friend first, doctor.”

“I think you should be treated first.”

“No. I won’t die from this. And since I’m old, I’m good at enduring things.”

“No, doctor, please see him first.”

This time, the young man, hearing this, asked the doctor to see the old man first, and the old man spoke again.

“You should go in quickly. What if another fight breaks out?”

“Is it likely to happen again?”

“You never know. Did you expect the last fight to happen?”

“That’s true.”

“Doctor? Please treat my friend first. We have our reasons. I beg you.”

At the elderly patient’s repeated and polite request, Tae-kyung approached the young man.

He planned to examine his hand first and then call for additional medical staff to treat the old man. But that wasn’t necessary.

“Just needs some disinfection.”

“Really? That’s good.”

The young man’s hand injury was relatively minor. He had come with a bandage on his hand, so Tae-kyung had been worried it might be a serious injury, but there was no need to worry.

It was bleeding, but it was just a scratch, not requiring stitches.

Since it wasn’t serious enough to call a junior doctor, Tae-kyung quickly treated the young man’s wound.

“All done.”

“Thank you. Doctor, I’ll go first then.”

After disinfecting his wound, the young man greeted the old man and left the examination room.

“Sir, may I take a look at your injury now?”

“Of course. Certainly.”

As Tae-kyung approached the old man, he could see blood on the towel.

Removing the handkerchief that had been covering his eye, he saw that there was more blood inside than he had thought, and it had already hardened.

“Oh dear! Your skin is torn.”

The man had suffered a laceration just below his eye.

It was clear at a glance that it was a wound caused by something sharp.

Judging from the blood that had hardened around his cheek and the wound itself, it had been some time since he had been injured.

“How did this happen?”

“I had a bit of an incident.”

Tae-kyung disinfected the area around the wound with cotton swabs that nurse Im Jeong-suk handed him and continued.

“It looks like you were stabbed by something sharp, am I right?”

“Yes, I didn’t see exactly what stabbed me, but it was sharp.”

“This must have been quite painful when it happened. Why didn’t you come right away?”

“That’s what I’m saying. Goodness gracious!”

The old man let out a hollow laugh with a somewhat dumbfounded expression and continued.

“A fight broke out at work, and I got stabbed while trying to stop it. The moment I got stabbed, I thought, ‘Oh! This isn’t good,’ but stopping the fight was more urgent, so I didn’t even feel the pain at the time. Then, after things calmed down, my colleagues were surprised and told me to go to the hospital right away, so I rushed here with that friend.”

“It must have been a bad fight. I’ll need to numb the area to stitch up the wound.”

“I knew I’d have to get stitches if I came to the hospital. Doctor, will the anesthesia shot hurt?”

“To be honest, it would be a lie to say it doesn’t hurt. The intensity of the pain varies from person to person, but it will sting a little.”

“Hahaha!”

The old man laughed heartily and continued.

“You’re honest. That’s right. It’s strange if a sharp needle going into a wound doesn’t hurt. Actually, I lied a little because that young friend was watching, and I couldn’t show that it hurt. Even when you get old, shots are scary.”

“Of course. I’ll try to make it as painless as possible. Okay! Here comes the shot.”

Tae-kyung held the anesthetic needle and began to numb the wound.

“Ah~~ Ah!”

“Just a little bit more… all done. Did it hurt?”

“Wow! It’s been a while since I got an anesthesia shot, so it hurt quite a bit.”

“You endured it well. Now, I’ll start stitching.”

“Yes, doctor, please stitch it up nicely.”

As nurse Im Jeong-suk covered the old man’s face with a green drape with a round hole, Tae-kyung immediately began stitching.

“Are you alright? Does it hurt?”

“Yes. Thanks to the anesthesia shot you gave me earlier, it doesn’t hurt at all.”

“Sir, if it had been stabbed a little deeper, your nerves could have been damaged. It’s fortunate that your eye wasn’t injured.”

“I was looking in the mirror, and I was terrified of what would have happened if my eye had been stabbed. I was worried I’d become one-eyed in my old age. By the way, doctor, are you a surgeon?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

“Your skill with the needle is amazing, both with the shot and the stitching. There’s a saying that surgeons play with thread, and you can tell their skill just by watching them stitch. I can’t see your stitching directly because it’s covered by the surgical drape, but the sensation I feel on my skin tells me that your skill is extraordinary.”

“You’re praising me too much for just stitching. Thank you. All done with the stitching.”

In the meantime, Tae-kyung finished stitching, and the old man got up from the examination bed.

“Oh my! You did an amazing job with the stitching.”

He looked in the mirror on the wall and continued with a satisfied expression.

“Do you do surgeries here too?”

“Yes, I do the surgeries that I can. Sir, are you perhaps a doctor?”

Tae-kyung had a feeling that the old man was a doctor, judging from the way he spoke.

Earlier, he had mentioned the names of medical supplies before the stitching began, and he naturally mixed in medical terminology, which made him seem like a medical professional.

“You have a good eye. Yes, I am a doctor.”

“I see.”

“Thank you for stitching me up so meticulously.”

One might say he was making a fuss over stitching up a laceration, but the old man could gauge Tae-kyung’s skill as a doctor by looking at the calluses on his hands and his stitching skills.

“But how did you injure your eye area, doctor? Was there perhaps a fight among the patients?”

Tae-kyung asked the old man after finishing up.

“It was a small fight among the inmates.”

“Pardon?”

“……!”

At the word ‘inmates,’ Tae-kyung, as well as nurse Im Jeong-suk, who was tidying up the medical supplies used for the stitching, were quite surprised.

“If they’re inmates…….”

“You’re thinking of the right place.”

“Then do you work at a prison? Are you a prison doctor?”

“Yes, I am a prison doctor.”

The old man said to the two with a benevolent expression.