Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 364

365. Why Are the Lights Off?

“Thank you for taking such good care of me, but I apologize to both of you. Please understand my situation.”

After bowing to the guards, who were still half-asleep, Prisoner 1137 muttered to himself and calmly left the room.

Screech-

He quietly opened the door and walked down the silent hospital ward hallway.

Halfway down, a patient emerged from another room and passed by, but the patient only saw him as a guard.

Also, because of the room’s location, the nurses at the station didn’t see him leaving.

As he walked to the end of the hallway, Prisoner 1137 stopped by the wall before turning the corner to go down the stairs.

He turned back around and peeked his face out from the corner, surveying the ward hallway. It was quiet, likely because of the early morning hour.

Confirming that no one was around, Prisoner 1137 then stood by the stairs and glanced down.

There, he saw Oh Chang-gyu.

“……!”

Prisoner 1137 and Oh Chang-gyu stared at each other in silence for a brief moment.

It had been a long time since the two had seen each other’s faces. Both had expressions that showed they had much to say and hear.

Their faces were full of untold stories, but they knew that neither of them could speak right now, so they had no choice but to remain silent.

“I’m going.”

Prisoner 1137 gave a thumbs up and pointed behind the wall he was standing behind, mouthing the words. Oh Chang-gyu responded in kind, nodding his head.

“Be careful.”

After exchanging these unheard words, Prisoner 1137 took out a box cutter and moved close to the wall.

There, he found the old ventilation duct entrance that Oh Chang-gyu and Eui-jin had been looking at yesterday.

Our hospital was an old building, so there were several ventilation ducts inside.

The ventilation duct that was no longer in use was connected to the outside.

Oh Chang-gyu, who had told Eui-jin, who was about to inform the facilities department about the loose ventilation duct entrance, that he would tell them himself, had of course not informed the facilities department. This was so that Prisoner 1137 could escape.

Prisoner 1137 slowly used the box cutter to loosen the screws on the ventilation duct entrance.

Thanks to Oh Chang-gyu’s prior work, the screws, which were already half-loosened, came off very easily.

Clatter-

The last screw fell to the floor and rolled away, and Prisoner 1137 lowered the rather heavy entrance to the ground. Then, he took off his clothes, shoes, and hat, except for his underwear.

“Hoo!”

As if preparing himself, Prisoner 1137 took a long breath and looked into the dark ventilation duct.

He planned to go out into the world through this ventilation duct today.

The beating he had suffered from his cellmates in prison, and the attempt to re-operate on his spine, which had been surgically repaired a long time ago due to an accident, were all part of his plan to get out through the hospital.

“Hoo!”

After taking another short breath, he grabbed the inside of the ventilation duct with both hands, applied force, and began to enter.

It was difficult for a healthy adult man to enter, but it was possible for Prisoner 1137, who was shorter and thinner than average.

As he entered the ventilation duct, Oh Chang-gyu came up the stairs.

Then, he took out the box cutter, cell phone, and painkillers from the clothes Prisoner 1137 had been wearing and pushed them inside one by one with a little force.

Tap- Tap-

Soon after, a series of short sounds, as if tapping on the ventilation duct with a finger, echoed. It was a signal that he had received all the items.

Tap- Tap-

Oh Chang-gyu also tapped the inside briefly with his finger to send a signal, then put the clothes that had fallen on the floor into the shopping bag he had brought.

After restoring the ventilation duct entrance to its original state, he went down the stairs without a care.

* * *

Emergency Room-

“Choi, the patient in bed 9 has used up all the saline.”

“Okay, I’m coming.”

Rustle-

“……!”

Choi Mona, who was opening the bed curtain, was momentarily startled to see a patient standing there with soaking wet hair, dripping water.

“Why did you get up, patient?”

“Ah, well, my child said he needed to urinate. I was just about to go to the bathroom.”

The man, whose hair and face were still wet, had been secretly eating late-night snacks at home and doing the dishes before coming to the emergency room.

-Please repeat the title and singer.

The oblivious artificial intelligence speaker reacted to the man’s humming along to the delicious ramen he had secretly eaten in the early morning while on a diet.

The embarrassed husband tried to turn off the power quickly, worried that his wife would wake up, but he fell over.

A problem arose here: as he fell, the scouring pad with detergent on it went into his eye.

More people than you might think come to the emergency room with foreign substances in their eyes.

There have been cases where shampoo, conditioner, and even car washer fluid got into their eyes, and there have also been cases where industrial adhesives got in.

The man who came to the emergency room lay on the bed and continued to wash and wash his eyes with saline solution using a thin hose.

This was because he had to remove as much of the detergent that had entered his eye as possible.

At first, it stung terribly, but after the saline solution flowed into his eyes for a while, his eyes felt more comfortable than before.

“Are you feeling a little better?”

“Yes, doctor.”

“If this person can walk to the bathroom, it seems like it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“Just a moment. Let me take a look.”

Choi Mona carefully examined the man’s eyes.

“It’s definitely better than before. But you must go to the ophthalmologist tomorrow.”

“Yes, I’m going to go right away in the morning. Can I go home now?”

“Yes, you can pay and leave.”

“Thank you.”

“Tsk! You almost got into big trouble.”

“You suffered because of me in the early morning for no reason. I’m sorry.”

“You’re the one who suffered. So don’t eat late-night snacks anymore. You really need to lose weight.”

“Okay. I’ll really cut out late-night snacks and exercise hard.”

Choi Mona, leaving behind the affectionate conversation of the young couple, turned her head to the side at a strange noise as she headed to the station [nurse’s station].

“Ha! Uh! Eh!”

Lee Chan-hee, who was looking at a tablet PC at the station, was making strange interjections.

“What’s that noise?”

Choi Mona, who had come back from seeing the patient, asked as she moved to the computer.

“Gae Mona~ I’m going crazy because of this.”

Lee Chan-hee, holding the tablet he was looking at up to his face, shook his head.

“Data?”

“Yeah. Data. The problematic data!”

What Lee Chan-hee was looking at was data related to liver transplants.

These days, Lee Chan-hee and Choi Mona were studying liver transplants whenever they had a chance.

To be exact, they were diligently looking at the data and various papers that Tae-kyung gave them.

Because it was a surgery that was also called the flower of surgery [a complex and highly skilled procedure], both of them were prepared that studying would not be easy. Besides, Tae-kyung was their teacher, so in a way, preparation was natural.

But this was not the amount that Lee Chan-hee used to do when he was doing homework.

It was difficult, there was a lot of it, and Tae-kyung’s sharp questions that popped up in the middle were no joke.

It was like being a student before an exam.

So these days, even when there was time to sit down for a while, he had to have a tablet with him to feel at ease.

“Choi, you saw the data and papers too, right?”

“I saw them. It was difficult, wasn’t it?”

“That’s what I’m saying. Is it really LT (Liver Transplantation)? Still, I have to work hard for the sake of the patient…….”

“Why? Is it not coming into your head?”

“Yeah. It’s especially worse today.”

“Then don’t force yourself to look at it and stop for today. It won’t come into your head if you keep holding on to it like that. Clear your head and look at it again later.”

“I want to, but if I can’t answer the teacher’s questions, I have to write it out by hand, and that’s absolutely terrible.”

“So what if you do? Just think of it as studying while writing.”

“Oh! Looking at the way you’re talking, it looks like Gae Mona couldn’t answer and wrote it out by hand.”

“No! I’ve never not been able to answer.”

Choi Mona answered with a cynical expression without batting an eye.

“That’s right, that’s my girlfriend Gae Mona. Awesome. So awesome.”

Lee Chan-hee frowned and muttered to himself, then turned his head to the tablet.

“Please inform Dr. Jung of the CT results for bed 7.”

“Yes, Director. Ah! And Grandma Jung Ki-ok in room 201 called again. What should we do?”

Nurse Im Jung-sook said with an embarrassed smile as she entered the station to Tae-kyung.

“When did she call?”

“It hasn’t been long since she called.”

“I’m okay now, so I’ll go up and come back.”

The patient named Jung Ki-ok was in her 70s and had been hospitalized for diverticulitis of the colon a while ago.

Diverticulitis is, simply put, an inflammation of the diverticula, which are pouches that protrude like balloons outside the colon.

It is important to carefully examine it because it is sometimes mistaken for appendicitis due to lower abdominal pain.

Surgery is required if the symptoms are severe, but otherwise, medication is used.

Fortunately, the patient, whose symptoms were not severe, was hospitalized and receiving medication, and was gradually improving. But the problem was that this grandmother had considerable health anxiety.

As a result, she was very sensitive to even the smallest things and called the medical staff frequently.

In addition, she did not listen to what the nurses said and had to ask the doctor directly to be satisfied. As a result, she sometimes called even in the early morning.

Fortunately, she listened to the medical staff like a lamb.

“This is already the second time today, excluding rounds. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. It’s because the patient has health anxiety.”

“Even the guardian apologized last time, saying that the teachers were suffering because of his mother’s health anxiety.”

“It helps to give patients with health anxiety a sense of trust, so it’s good to listen to them if you’re not busy. Then I’ll go and come back.”

“Excuse me, Doctor?”

Lee Chan-hee, who was listening to Tae-kyung and Nurse Im Jung-sook’s conversation, called out to Tae-kyung, who was turning around.

“Why?”

“I’ll go to that patient.”

“Lee will go?”

“Yes. You must have been busy with the emergency surgery earlier, so you should rest a little at times like this. And if Grandma Jung Ki-ok is fully awake, she talks a lot. Then it will be even harder for you.”

“Dr. Lee is thinking a lot about the director.”

“Of course. I’m our teacher’s sunflower. Just as a sunflower grows by looking at the sun, I, Lee Chan-hee, grow by looking at the teacher. Haha!”

“Something’s weird?”

“It’s not weird. It’s a junior’s heart.”

“Okay. Go and come back.”

“Yes, Teacher.”

As soon as permission was granted, Lee Chan-hee quickly got up and tried to leave the emergency room.

“Wait! Dr. Lee?”

But the steps that had barely gone 2 meters stopped at Tae-kyung’s call.

“Yes, Teacher.”

“Come here. It’s better for me to go. Dr. Lee, stay here.”

“Yes?”

Tae-kyung saw the tablet that Lee Chan-hee was looking at and saw through his junior’s thoughts of trying to avoid questions by going to the ward.

“I’ll go and come back, so stay here.”

“You just told me to go. But why…….”

“Why? You thought I wouldn’t know you were running away because I was going to ask questions?”

“……!”

“Oh my, look at Dr. Lee’s expression. It must be true.”

As Nurse Im Jung-sook said, Lee Chan-hee had an expression that showed he had been hit right on the mark.

“I’ll ask you questions after I go to the ward, so sit down and watch what you were watching. If you get it wrong, it’s double homework today.”

“No, well……. Teacher? It’s not like that. You’re misunderstanding.”

Lee Chan-hee called out desperately at the word double, but Tae-kyung headed to the ward without looking back.

Swish-

Tae-kyung, who came up to the ward, went to the room where the patient who had called was, but immediately came out again. And headed to the nurse at the station.

“Is patient Jung Ki-ok asleep?”

“Ah, yes. Director. I forgot to contact Dr. Soo again. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“She listened to what I said today. She asked me to take her blood pressure once, and then she said she was sleepy and was going to sleep, so I went back to check on her and she was really snoring and sleeping soundly.”

“It seems like the patient’s mind has become a little more comfortable. There’s nothing else special, right?”

“No, Director.”

“Okay. Thank you for your hard work.”

Tae-kyung, who had moved away from the station, went to the room where Prisoner 1137 was, since he had come up to the ward anyway.

He wanted to see if they were okay, knowing that the two guards were taking turns napping.

As he came to the front of the room, Tae-kyung flinched as he tried to look inside through the rectangular transparent window in the door.

“……!”

This was because the lights inside the room were completely off. Unlike other rooms, this room had not turned off the sleep lights because of the prisoner.

“Why are the lights off today?”

Moreover, one of the two people had to be awake, but it was strange that the lights were off.