Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 368

369. Yoo Hyuk-jin’s Fifth Vital

“Inmate Yoo Hyuk-jin, who should be in the ward, has suddenly disappeared. Doctor Oh, or should I say Oh Chang-gyu? Where is Yoo Hyuk-jin right now?”

“Yes?!”

Listening to Tae-kyung’s words, Oh Chang-gyu swallowed hard, trying his best to maintain a calm expression as if nothing was wrong.

Then, with eyes that seemed to know nothing, he began to speak.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t quite understand what you’re saying, Director… I don’t know why you’re asking me about a missing inmate patient.”

“You don’t know? How should I make you understand? You gave coffee to the correctional officers today, right? You even bought coffee for the hospital staff so that others wouldn’t suspect anything. And it wasn’t just coffee; you added a large amount of sleeping pills to the coffee of two correctional officers and the administration office staff.”

“……”

“Oh Chang-gyu, you secretly took sleeping pills and painkillers from the pharmacy and put them in the coffee.”

“Director, I think there’s some misunderstanding. I never took anything from the pharmacy…”

“A misunderstanding? Is this still a misunderstanding?”

Tae-kyung held out his phone screen, showing a recorded CCTV video.

“……!”

Oh Chang-gyu’s face showed surprise as he looked at the phone.

The screen clearly showed him taking medicine from the pharmacy and putting it in the coffee.

“You’re wondering why you were filmed even though you turned the pharmacy camera in a different direction, like the other CCTVs, right?”

As Tae-kyung said, he had definitely turned the pharmacy CCTV in a different direction. He was dumbfounded as to how the video was taken.

“The CCTV that Oh Chang-gyu turned was a broken one.”

“……!”

The original CCTV in the pharmacy was old and frequently broke down, and the administration office staff informed Team Leader Choi about it.

Tae-kyung, after being informed by Team Leader Choi, ordered a replacement, which happened just recently.

While replacing the old CCTV with a new one, the company recommended a new product.

Unlike the camera that looked like a CCTV, the new product was small and didn’t look like a security camera.

Also, it was installed inside the ceiling light where the pharmacy was more visible than the existing spot, so no one could have known.

The reason why the existing camera wasn’t removed after installing the new security camera was because of Team Leader Choi.

Someone kept throwing cigarette butts near the back door parking lot entrance, so he was going to put it there.

Of course, Oh Chang-gyu, who didn’t know this fact, ended up changing the direction of the broken CCTV.

He now realized that the strange atmosphere in the hospital was because of Yoo Hyuk-jin and himself.

He also realized that Nurse Lim Jeong-suk’s words about a mentally ill person causing trouble around the emergency room were all lies.

“I know that Oh Chang-gyu came to our hospital to help Yoo Hyuk-jin. And I also know that Yoo Hyuk-jin is inside the hospital right now.”

“……!”

Oh Chang-gyu lowered his head with a surprised look, avoiding eye contact with Tae-kyung.

“I’m sorry, Director.”

He squeezed his eyes shut as he apologized.

He didn’t have any bad feelings towards anyone in the hospital.

He knew that everyone was a good person after working for a little over a month. But that was a separate issue.

He was the one who volunteered to join this operation. He didn’t even pretend to listen to Yoo Hyuk-jin’s plea that it was absolutely not allowed and asked to be involved.

No matter how good a person Tae-kyung was, he couldn’t reveal where Yoo Hyuk-jin was hiding.

Since he was involved in the operation, he couldn’t go back to his old life, so even if he was taken to the police right now, he couldn’t open his mouth.

“Oh Chang-gyu!”

“As you said, Director, I helped Yoo Hyuk-jin. I even got a job at this hospital on purpose. Everyone was nice to me, and I’m sorry to the director and the staff. But I can’t tell you where my brother is. From the director’s point of view, he may seem like a bad inmate trying to escape, but to me, he seems like a pitiful and unfortunate person. That brother is a poor man. He has something he must do. That’s why I have to help him.”

“Doctor Oh, listen to me carefully. This is a hospital. You said earlier that you don’t have any bad feelings towards the other people in the hospital, right? Then the patients and staff in the hospital shouldn’t be harmed or endangered by Yoo Hyuk-jin and Doctor Oh.”

“No one in the hospital will be in danger. I can promise you that.”

Those words were all sincere.

Oh Chang-gyu and Yoo Hyuk-jin didn’t want anyone to get hurt. All they wanted was just one person.

“I understand what you mean. But you know that what you’re saying isn’t credible in this situation. And you just said that Yoo Hyuk-jin has something to do outside, right?”

“…Yes. That’s right. He has something he must do.”

“I heard that Yoo Hyuk-jin is a model prisoner in prison. He has never caused any trouble during his long time in prison. I think there must be a reason why such a person did this. I’ll help you with that.”

“Yes? You’ll help me? What does that mean…”

“It means that if Doctor Oh helps me, I’ll help both of you. So, persuade Yoo Hyuk-jin to come out of hiding. His waist was operated on, and he hasn’t recovered well yet, and it’s too much for him to endure with painkillers. And Doctor Oh may not know this, but the extent of the injury is quite severe, so the pain will be considerable.”

Oh Chang-gyu’s mind was complicated, but he couldn’t tell where Yoo Hyuk-jin was.

“Director, no matter what you say, I can’t do that.”

“Then there’s no choice. He’s in the vent on the second floor stairs right now, isn’t he?”

“……!”

Oh Chang-gyu couldn’t help but be surprised by the unexpected words. It was the most surprised expression he had shown so far.

He had expected that the pharmacy and giving sleeping pills to the correctional officers and administration office staff would be discovered, so he was surprised, but not very embarrassed.

However, unless Yoo Hyuk-jin came out of the vent on his own or he told him, there was no way he would be discovered, so he couldn’t understand how Tae-kyung found out.

“Th-that’s…”

“I know that Yoo Hyuk-jin is in the vent, and I’ve even confirmed it, so don’t even think about lying.”

Tae-kyung had learned that Yoo Hyuk-jin was in the vent just a moment ago.

After finishing the conversation with the correctional officers and asking the nurses at the station to take good care of the patients, Tae-kyung headed to the stairs to go down to the first floor.

He used the central staircase when he came up, but he naturally walked to another staircase while looking at the patients’ rooms.

But as he was walking quickly, something caught his ankle.

It was the fifth vital that only Doctor Kim Tae-kyung could feel [a heightened sense allowing him to detect illness].

The smell of someone being sick.

He could tell that the smell was coming from the vent on the side wall just before going down the stairs.

‘He’s in here!’

Tae-kyung intuitively knew that Yoo Hyuk-jin was in the vent.

Dada Dada-

He deliberately made noise as if he was going down again to avoid suspicion. And he moved very carefully and put his face close to the vent, and a strong ammonia smell vibrated at the tip of his nose.

In fact, the most questionable thing when Yoo Hyuk-jin first came to the emergency room was his fifth vital.

If he had surgery on his spine, he should have had a high-level smell, but Yoo Hyuk-jin didn’t feel as much of a fifth vital as he was in pain.

It was just a slightly stronger smell than when ordinary people without serious illnesses feel unwell.

But since the smell might not always be there, Tae-kyung listened to his patient’s words and treated him.

‘It seems a little thicker?’

The ammonia smell from inside the vent was stronger than before. He wondered if there was a change in his condition.

Tae-kyung, who knew that Yoo Hyuk-jin was in the vent, was going to persuade Oh Chang-gyu with this fact. So, he lured him to the examination room through Nurse Lim Jeong-suk.

“Doctor Oh!”

“Ha! Don’t keep asking me. You don’t know anything, Director. My brother didn’t do anything wrong. He was unfairly treated because he had nothing.”

Oh Chang-gyu grabbed his head with both hands as if he was in pain and poured out words he hadn’t even been asked.

“Killing someone? That bastard deserved to die.”

Tae-kyung briefly thought about whether Yoo Hyuk-jin was unfairly serving his sentence. But the words just now made it clear that he was a murderer who killed someone.

If so, he wondered what he was being unfairly treated for.

“Life is precious to everyone, so there is no one in this world who deserves to die.”

“What you’re saying isn’t wrong, Director. But there are bastards who deserve to die. Those bastards are those kinds of guys. Those guys should suffer in hell even after they die.”

“If Yoo Hyuk-jin was really treated unfairly, I’ll help you. Instead, Doctor Oh, you have to help Yoo Hyuk-jin get out naturally.”

“……”

“Doctor Oh! Decide now whether you both get dragged to the police or do as I say. And there’s a high possibility that there’s a problem with Yoo Hyuk-jin’s current condition.”

“There’s a problem with my brother’s body? How do you know that, Director?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

Tae-kyung had no intention of forcibly pulling Yoo Hyuk-jin out. That was the last resort.

Because he wasn’t sure what kind of objects he had in his possession.

Above all, he was a person who planned to escape, and if he had the purpose of harming someone, there was a high possibility that he had dangerous objects in his possession.

He thought it would be better not to stimulate him by forcibly pulling him out. So, he decided to persuade Oh Chang-gyu.

Of course, if Oh Chang-gyu didn’t want to help in the end, the only way was to evacuate the patients in the ward and inform the police of this fact and get help.

“Doctor Oh, what are you going to do?”

“Haa!”

Oh Chang-gyu sighed instead of answering. He felt suffocated as to where things went wrong.

He wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen the text message, but since he saw Yoo Hyuk-jin’s text message saying there was a problem, he knew that Tae-kyung’s words were true.

If there was something wrong with his body, he couldn’t keep him in the vent.

He just needed Yoo Hyuk-jin to get out of the hospital, but the work that was going well was twisted in an instant.

“Instead, please grant me one favor. Then I’ll persuade my brother to come out of the vent.”

“What’s your favor?”

“More than that, is it certain that you said you would help me earlier? You didn’t just say that, did you?”

“I didn’t just say that. I’m willing to help if Yoo Hyuk-jin needs help and it’s a reasonable thing to do.”

“I’ll trust you, Director. And my favor is to get my brother to the po…”