Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 371

372. Porridge

“I don’t care what happens to me anymore. Report me to the police.”

“I wasn’t talking about Yoo Hyuk-jin… You’ve got the wrong number.”

“……?”

“If Yoo Hyuk-jin keeps refusing treatment, Oh Chang-gyu will be dragged away by the police. Do you really not care?”

“……!”

Everyone, including Yoo Hyuk-jin and Oh Chang-gyu, whose name was mentioned, looked surprised at Tae-kyung’s unexpected words.

“I think everyone is surprised by what I said, but I’m not joking. So, Yoo Hyuk-jin, you choose whether to receive treatment or just watch Oh, the teacher, being dragged away by the police.”

Oh Chang-gyu, who turned his head with a surprised expression, could feel that Tae-kyung’s words were sincere.

“I…….”

“I will get treatment!”

Just as Oh Chang-gyu was about to say that he didn’t care, Yoo Hyuk-jin expressed his intention to receive treatment.

“Are you serious about what you just said?”

“Yes, I will get treatment.”

“You thought well.”

Yoo Hyuk-jin and Oh Chang-gyu.

I didn’t know what kind of relationship the two had and what kind of story they were exactly entangled in. However, if they were close enough to share even the most secret escape plan, I could tell that they cared about each other and were quite close.

So, I emphasized treatment by mentioning Oh Chang-gyu, and fortunately, Tae-kyung’s expectations were correct.

“Mr. Oh, thank you for your hard work. Go downstairs and take care of your work. I will take good care of Yoo Hyuk-jin.”

“Ah, yes… I understand.”

Oh Chang-gyu, stunned, bowed and left the hospital room.

“You, are you serious about getting treatment?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, you thought well. The director is paying so much attention to you, so you should get treatment and recover quickly.”

The prison officers were as happy as if it were their own business at Yoo Hyuk-jin’s decision.

“You really thought well. Can I take a look at your injured hand now?”

When Tae-kyung, who was sitting in a chair in front of the bed, said this, Yoo Hyuk-jin held out his cut hand.

“As I said before, the wound is not deep. I will suture [stitch] it right away. Can you lie down for a moment?”

At Tae-kyung’s words, Yoo Hyuk-jin lay quietly on the bed without saying a word.

I disinfected the cut wound and immediately took out a syringe.

“I’m going to anesthetize you now, so it may sting a little.”

“Director, will it hurt a lot?”

The senior prison officer asked instead of Yoo Hyuk-jin, who was the person involved.

“It doesn’t hurt a lot, it just stings enough to bear.”

“Really? Did you hear that? The director said it won’t hurt much, so just bear with it.”

“I’m going to anesthetize you.”

The needle went into the area around the cut wound several times, but Yoo Hyuk-jin didn’t react at all, surprisingly.

Even someone who is good at enduring pain would flinch at least once, but he didn’t even blink an eye. He just stared at the ceiling of the hospital room with empty eyes.

“Now I will suture it.”

Only the sound of sutures broke the silence in the quiet hospital room. After finishing all the sutures, Tae-kyung was about to speak to Yoo Hyuk-jin when it happened.

“……!”

Yoo Hyuk-jin’s arm, which had been motionless until now, moved slightly, and soon his shoulders were shaking.

“Hoo!”

And soon, the sound of crying that he had been holding back with all his might began to fill the hospital room.

“Heuk!”

The crying was not tears that were squeezed out, but tears that came out involuntarily after gritting his teeth and holding back again and again.

“Hey, hey! What’s wrong with you?”

“Doctor. Was the suture done well?”

“Yes, the anesthesia was done well, and the suture was done well.”

“A grown man is crying.”

The prison officers who had been watching Yoo Hyuk-jin for a long time were quite embarrassed by his appearance, which they had never seen before, and tried to soothe him, but it was useless.

“Heuk!”

The prison officers didn’t know why Yoo Hyuk-jin was suddenly crying, but Tae-kyung seemed to know.

When a person’s earnest wish collapses, they are overwhelmed with frustration. And that frustration sometimes takes away all hope and even breaks the will to live, just like Yoo Hyuk-jin’s appearance now.

“Heueuk!”

His appearance of crying like a child was full of despair, and there was no will to live in his eyes.

“Calm down a bit. What’s really wrong with you?”

“Euhuk! Pr, pri…son officer?”

Yoo Hyuk-jin, who had been crying like that, called out to the prison officer and pleaded again.

“Please kill me. I don’t want to live. So please… Euhuk! Please let me die.”

“This guy is real! How can you say such nonsense in front of the doctor who treated you? Die! Uh! Stop talking about dying!”

“Heuk!”

While the prison officer was trying to soothe and scold him, Tae-kyung didn’t say anything and waited for him to calm down.

When emotions are heightened, it is not easy to calm down, no matter how much you try to soothe them. In this case, it is more helpful to just wait.

Tae-kyung approached Yoo Hyuk-jin, who had calmed down to some extent and closed his mouth again.

“Are you okay now? You don’t have any energy if you keep crying like that when you haven’t eaten anything.”

“…….”

“Yoo Hyuk-jin, I will help you. I will help you.”

“Can you really help me?”

Yoo Hyuk-jin, who had been swallowing his silence, turned his head from staring at the ceiling and said.

“Yes, I will help you.”

“Then please help me die. I don’t want to live.”

“Yoo Hyuk-jin!”

The senior prison officer, who couldn’t stand it any longer, shouted, but he didn’t flinch.

“I’m sorry. Director.”

“It’s okay. It’s not a problem for the prison officer to be sorry about.”

“What I said about helping Yoo Hyuk-jin is not out of pity or empty words. I sincerely intend to help unless it’s dangerous or someone gets hurt. But I can’t help someone who wants to die. So, if you want to take my hand, change your mind and tell me then. Then I will really help you.”

“Keu Keuk!”

As soon as Tae-kyung finished speaking, Yoo Hyuk-jin, who had been crying, showed a smirk. To be exact, it was closer to a cynical laugh than a smile.

“I don’t believe the words of someone as successful and rich as you, even if a knife is held to my throat. So don’t waste your effort and take care of other patients who want to live.”

“We’ll see if it’s a waste of effort or not.”

Leaving Yoo Hyuk-jin, who refused help, Tae-kyung received a call and headed to the emergency room.

Even when walking down the hallway and working in the emergency room, there was a word that kept lingering in my head except for the moment when I was treating the patient.

‘I want to die.’

It was the words that Yoo Hyuk-jin had poured out as if screaming a little while ago. The desperate cry kept ringing in my ears like tinnitus [ringing in the ears].

When I first came to the emergency room from the prison, Yoo Hyuk-jin’s eyes were combative even though he had been assaulted.

But from the moment he was dragged out of the ventilation shaft, the vitality in his eyes disappeared like the eyes of a dead fish.

It looked like the eyes of someone who was really facing death.

It wasn’t just because Tae-kyung paid attention to each and every patient who came to the hospital and had a wide range of meddling in patients’ affairs.

If a complete stranger on the street says ‘I want to die,’ almost everyone will worry, ‘What’s wrong?’ and one or two of them will approach the person and try to help.

If you have this kind of heart for strangers, how much more would a doctor who is struggling to save people in a hospital have?

Tae-kyung was a doctor.

He was a meddling doctor who treated sick people, saved patients who had gone to the brink of death, and looked into not only the pain of the body but also the wounded hearts of patients.

Whether it was in the past or now, he didn’t care about anything when it came to patients, so he couldn’t ignore a patient who was openly screaming that he would die.

While Tae-kyung was seeing patients in the emergency room, he approached Oh Chang-gyu.

“Mr. Oh?”

“Yes, Director.”

“Can I see you for a moment?”

Oh Chang-gyu, who was at the emergency room station, followed Tae-kyung into the doctor’s office.

“Sit down.”

“Ah, yes…….”

“Were you busy because the patients were crowded?”

“No. It’s okay.”

“I’m sorry to call you while you’re resting. I called you because I have something to ask Mr. Oh.”

“Yes, please tell me.”

“Yoo Hyuk-jin, I mean?”

“Um… Director, I’m really sorry, but if you’re going to ask about my brother’s work, I don’t think I can answer.”

Oh Chang-gyu preemptively spoke with a troubled expression before even hearing Tae-kyung’s words.

“I’m not the person involved, so just bringing it up could hurt my brother.”

“That’s not what I was going to ask. What I was going to ask is whether helping Yoo Hyuk-jin is a bad thing or against the law. I promised Mr. Oh that I would help Yoo Hyuk-jin, but I need to make sure of this before I help him so that I can feel comfortable too, right?”

Even if I decided to help Yoo Hyuk-jin, I couldn’t help him with anything illegal, so I needed to check.

“Ah……. Yes. I understand what you mean. It probably isn’t.”

“Probably?”

Tae-kyung asked back at the ambiguous answer.

“Director. The truth is, I don’t know exactly what my brother is trying to do.”

“……?”

I couldn’t understand what this meant.

It wasn’t something that Oh Chang-gyu, who was close enough to help him escape, would say while calling him brother.

“You’re embarrassed, right? But it’s true. I only helped my brother escape in the first place, and I don’t know what happened after that. I just know that it’s related to someone involved in the previous incident, but he didn’t tell me the details from the beginning.”

“Then how can Mr. Oh be sure that it’s not against the law without knowing for sure?”

“Th, that’s… Director, if you find out about that incident, you’ll be able to understand what I mean. It’s true.”

Oh Chang-gyu, who had been wearing a sorry expression until now, stopped talking with a firm expression.

“Okay. I understand.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of much help.”

“It was helpful enough. Don’t get up, just sit there.”

Tae-kyung, who stopped Oh Chang-gyu from getting up, got up from his seat and handed over a bag that was on another desk.

“Mr. Oh?”

“Yes, Director.”

“You haven’t had dinner, have you? People who work can’t work if they don’t eat. I’m quite sensitive to our employees eating. Eat slowly and come out.”

Tae-kyung pointed to the bag he had handed over and left the doctor’s office. He knew that Oh Chang-gyu hadn’t had dinner yet, so he ordered some food that he could eat easily.

After Tae-kyung went out, the hand that was opening the contents of the bag stopped for a moment.

“……!”

This was because it contained porridge that still had warmth in it.

The fact that he had enteritis [inflammation of the small intestine] was not true, but he felt sorry and embarrassed for Tae-kyung’s kindness in ordering porridge.

Clang-

“Director!”

Oh Chang-gyu quickly left the doctor’s office and called out to Tae-kyung, who was going up to the ward.

“Why? Do you have anything else to say?”

“I wanted to apologize.”

“I remember you saying that enough already…….”

“It’s not that, I don’t have enteritis. I didn’t want to keep lying when you even ordered porridge for me.”

“Ah, I don’t know what else. I know that Mr. Oh doesn’t have enteritis.”

“……Yes?”

“You said you had enteritis to help Yoo Hyuk-jin, right?”

“Then why porridge…….”

“You haven’t eaten properly all day and your head must be complicated right now, so I ordered porridge because I was worried you might get indigestion if you ate a regular meal. Porridge doesn’t taste good when it’s cold. Go and eat it quickly and work hard again.”

Oh Chang-gyu, who was stunned by the unexpected words, couldn’t leave the spot for a while.

In the meantime, Tae-kyung, who visited the hospital room again, decided to persuade Yoo Hyuk-jin in a slightly different way.