Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 386

387. The Taxi Driver and the Passenger

Clang-

“Thank you again, Director.”

Tae-kyung, having finished the treatment, supported an elderly man with slightly impaired mobility as he exited the examination room.

“I’m the one who’s grateful. But why did you come alone today?”

“My grandson is busy dating these days. He used to grumble about not having a girlfriend in college, but now he has one. His face is beaming.”

“You must be pleased.”

“Of course. It reminds me of when my wife and I were dating, and it’s just nice to see.”

“Still, wasn’t it difficult coming alone?”

“It’s not hard. It’s close to home, and I get to soak up the sun while walking. People and plants need sunlight to be healthy, you know.”

“That’s right, Elder.”

“Director, you’re busy, so go back in.”

“I’ll escort you to the front.”

“No, I don’t have anything to do. Don’t bother and get back to work.”

When Tae-kyung tried to escort him to the main gate, the old man waved his hand, finished paying his medical bill, and left the hospital alone.

“You don’t know why Grandpa Hooni is trying to go alone, do you?”

Nurse Lim Jung-sook, who was with him, asked Tae-kyung.

“Is there a reason?”

“If the director escorts him and the other elders see it, they get jealous, and the director gets tired.”

“Really? Oh, come on.”

“It’s true. Some of the elders who come to our hospital are also in the same senior center and are close friends, but if the director is only kind to one, the others get very upset.”

“I didn’t know that. When you look at them, the elders are quite cute.”

“They say you become like a child when you get old.”

“I think that’s true. There are no more outpatients scheduled yet, right?”

“No, there aren’t.”

“Then I’ll look at some data. Call me when a patient arrives.”

“Yes.”

“Director.”

As Tae-kyung was about to enter the examination room, Team Leader Choi, who came out of the office, called out to him.

“Yes, Team Leader.”

“The company sent over the bulletin board design proposal, and I wanted you to take a look.”

“Okay.”

The A4 paper that Team Leader Choi handed over was a new design proposal for the old panel providing hospital information on one wall of the waiting room.

“These days, the trend in hospital interiors is a light brown color with a natural wood grain.”

“Okay. That looks good. Let’s proceed with this. Team Leader, please coordinate well so that the cost doesn’t go too high.”

“We decided to proceed with the initial estimate, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“……!”

“Director?”

“Ah, yes. Do that.”

Tae-kyung, who was talking to Team Leader Choi and moving, suddenly narrowed his brow.

‘What is it?’

The moment he spotted a book dropped under a chair in the waiting room and went to pick it up, he felt the Fifth Vital [a heightened sense used to detect illness].

‘Something’s wrong…….’

Something was really strange. It was a bit different from the usual Vital patterns he was used to.

Usually, the Fifth Vital that Tae-kyung felt was when the smell came directly from a sick person.

If the Fifth Vital is felt, it means that there must be a patient emitting the smell there. That’s how it’s been most of the time.

Because of that, Tae-kyung could follow the smell to the patient without anyone telling him, whether it was in the emergency room or outside, if there was a critical patient nearby.

But now, the smell was coming from the waiting room, where there were no patients, and only from a specific location.

Moreover, it wasn’t the 1st or 2nd stage, which indicates mild symptoms, but the 4th stage, formalin smell [indicating a serious illness]. Judging by the smell alone, the person emitting this smell was not in good health.

‘Can this happen?’

But what was really strange was this part. The intensity of the formalin smell was too weak.

Usually, the 4th stage formalin smell is strong, so it couldn’t be this mild.

And for the smell intensity to weaken, it had to weaken step by step, like the 3rd stage, 2nd stage, but this was the first time he felt such a weak smell while maintaining the 4th stage formalin smell.

The smell was so faint that it was hard to even know which direction it had moved.

“…….”

Tae-kyung stood there like a stone statue, lost in thought.

‘The ward?’

For a moment, he thought a patient from the ward had come down and gone up, but that didn’t make sense. If it was a patient in the ward, the smell would be strong, and he wouldn’t have missed it.

‘What kind of case is this? This is unsettling…….’

Tae-kyung remembered the patients he had treated today, from the emergency room to the outpatient clinic, in order, and wondered if there was any connection.

‘This is frustrating.’

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling.

The reason Tae-kyung was so concerned was that the Fifth Vital was the 4th stage formalin.

If it’s the 4th stage, it’s a disease like cancer or something equivalent, so a quick response was needed. Besides, it wasn’t a smell he smelled while walking down the street, but a smell coming from the hospital.

He was worried because he thought it was someone who needed help.

Something flashed through his mind as he pondered.

-Director, the outpatient appointment has been canceled.

A message from the receptionist in the examination room a little while ago about a canceled outpatient appointment came to mind.

‘That’s right! Could it be related to that patient?’

Tae-kyung headed straight to the reception desk.

“Do you remember who was sitting in that seat?”

Tae-kyung, unable to bear the frustration, asked the receptionists, hoping against hope, before going to the security office to check the CCTV [Closed-Circuit Television, a video surveillance system].

“Sister, do you remember the person who sat in that seat?”

“Ah! That person.”

Unlike what he thought, that they wouldn’t know, the staff knew.

“You know, the person who came in a hurry earlier, registered to see a doctor, and then just left.”

“Oh, that’s right! It was a woman I saw for the first time, and she said her leg was uncomfortable, so she was going to see a doctor, but then she apologized and just left.”

If it was a busy time for patients or if there were many people in the waiting room, they wouldn’t have remembered, but since there were only only a few outpatients, the staff could remember without difficulty.

“She had an anxious look on her face.”

“You said that person said their leg hurt?”

“Yes, Director.”

‘Leg? Leg, you say?’

Tae-kyung tried to think of what kind of disease in the leg could go up to the 4th stage, but there were so many that it wasn’t easy.

“Do you have that person’s name or contact information?”

“Since the outpatient appointment was canceled, the patient information in the computer has been deleted, and what was written on the paper……. Just a moment.”

The receptionist rummaged through the papers in the box inside the desk and looked for the woman’s number.

“I put it in to be shredded, but thankfully it’s still here.”

“Director, why do you need the patient’s phone number?”

“Is someone you know supposed to come?”

He was wondering if it would seem strange to ask for the phone number of an outpatient who had canceled, but fortunately, another employee sitting next to him gave an excuse.

“Yes, my mother said someone she knew was supposed to come, but she just left, so I was wondering if it was that person.”

“Someone you know.”

“Ah, yes.”

Tae-kyung, who had made up an appropriate excuse, took out his cell phone and called the number on the paper. But an unexpected answer came back from the phone.

-The number you have dialed is not in service. Please check the number and try again.

‘A non-existent number? What is it?’

He didn’t think the number would come out as non-existent, even if they didn’t answer the phone.

There was no way to confirm now whether the woman had written the number wrong or had deliberately written it wrong.

In case she was a patient who had come to our hospital before, he checked the CCTV in the management office, but it was a face he had never seen before.

Tae-kyung put aside his uneasy feelings and went back to the reception desk to ask the staff.

“About that patient who said her leg was uncomfortable earlier.”

“Yes, Director.”

“If that patient comes again, please let me know then.”

“Okay.”

The formalin smell was no longer left in the seat where the woman had sat.

‘I hope nothing happened to that person…….’

Tae-kyung tilted his head, hoping that something was wrong with the Fifth Vital.

* * *

At an apartment complex-

A middle-aged man who came out of the complex stopped a taxi with a vacant sign on the roadside and quickly got in.

“Are you operating a taxi?”

“Of course. Welcome. Where can I take you, sir?”

“Please go to the OO Bridge.”

“Okay.”

The man in the taxi looked silently out the window and whispered to himself.

“Damn it! The weather is so nice.”

With his mouth sticking out as big as a fist, he kept looking out the window and clicked on today’s fortune on his phone.

“A new beginning. Difficulties so great that you wonder if such a thing could happen are resolved all at once. Meet three benefactors to solve problems, ease your frustrated mind, and make new resolutions. If you don’t abandon unnecessary stubbornness, you may continue to fall, so you must be able to listen to others. Also, don’t keep lingering on things that don’t work out, and let go of the past like a river. If there has been anything painful, it will disappear starting today.”

The man who read his fortune scoffed and denied it.

“Why is it that it never gets anything right? I mean, if I’ve been watching it without fail for a year, it should get something right, but it’s like this every time.”

“I used to watch those things often, but you should watch them for fun once in a while; otherwise, you’ll just get upset.”

“The driver is right.”

“I don’t know much, but if you have something bad going on, please cheer up. As you live in the world, there are cloudy days, and there are days when it rains and thunders, right? No matter how bad the weather is, just like sunny days come, even if you’re upset now because of something bad, good days will come soon.”

“Gee, the driver speaks so well. The driver’s words resonate more than today’s fortune.”

“Thank you for seeing it positively.”

“I heard that taxi drivers don’t have much to laugh about while working because the job is hard, but the driver has a very good personality.”

The middle-aged man asked the driver, who had been responding kindly and smiling since he got in the taxi.

“No, I’m smiling to avoid stress. Really, taxi driving means sitting for a long time, and there are a lot of strange customers. It’s really hard.”

“Of course. It’s hard.”

“But if I keep getting annoyed and complaining, I’m the only one who gets stressed, so I started changing my mind and smiling. So, they say you can’t spit on a smiling face, and even strange customers become docile later on, and it’s easier to work.”

“Have you been working as a driver for a long time?”

“No. I’ll be filling 5 years soon. I used to work as a fire truck driver at the fire station, but I retired and am doing this to earn pocket money for my grandchildren.”

“The driver has a great mindset and is amazing. I’ve lived my whole life as an unremarkable office worker.”

“No, why is an office worker unremarkable? How cool is it for men to wear ties and shirts? There is nothing unremarkable in this world.”

“That’s true. Is that a family photo?”

The man asked, looking at the photo attached to the driver’s seat.

“Yes. When I’m having a hard time at work, it gives me strength when I see it. My wife is a really good person, even though she nags a bit. My children have grown up well, and my grandchildren make me full just by looking at them. Haha!”

“You look happy. My wife also suffered because she met a bad husband, but she’s a very kind person. So are my kids, and I’ve lived because of my family.”

“They say it’s a blessing to meet a good family. You and I are blessed people.”

“Well, that’s right.”

The man answering the driver’s words somehow didn’t look bright.

“We’re at the OO Bridge now. Should I drop you off on the crosswalk after passing the bridge?”

“No. I’m sorry, but please drop me off in front of there.”

“Pardon? In front of there?”

The driver asked again, surprised by the man’s request to be dropped off in the middle of the bridge.

“Yes.”

“Yes, I understand.”

The OO Bridge had public restrooms in the middle of the bridge for pedestrians and drivers. Sometimes, urgent customers would get off in front of the restroom, so the driver thought that was the case.

Click-

“I was able to have a pleasant conversation thanks to the driver.”

“You’re welcome. I’m the one who’s grateful. Have a good day, sir.”

“Thank you. Take care.”

A moment later, the man got out of the bridge, paid in cash, and left a strange greeting without taking the 1,700 won in change.

The middle-aged man who got out of the taxi walked a little along the pedestrian road of the bridge, passing the restroom, and stopped.

Then, after looking left and right, he leaned his head slightly over the bridge and was watching intently, and that was the moment.

The middle-aged man suddenly began to put his right leg on the railing.

“Hey! Sir!!”

Just then, the taxi driver, who was about to start the car, saw the scene and quickly ran over and called out to the man.

“I had a bad feeling, and I wondered if that was it……. Sir! Is that why you came to the bridge?”