Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 452

453. The Wound Looks Strange

Seol-rae tilted her head, looking puzzled at Choi Mona’s response.

“Does me being here with other patients have anything to do with you treating me?”

“It’s just that it feels like you’re always the one treating me whenever I come. I was wondering if you treat other patients at all.”

“I was wondering what you were going to say… I do treat other patients. But I keep treating you because you’re a patient I’ve been seeing regularly. Do you want to see another doctor?”

“No. It’s not really that.”

Seol-rae had briefly considered seeing another doctor, to be honest. But she decided to just get treated because it was a hassle.

Choi Mona led Seol-rae into the emergency room and got her settled on an empty bed.

“How’s your arm? Did you put on the bandage I gave you?”

“Yes.”

“Let me see your arm. What’s wrong today?”

At Choi Mona’s question, Seol-rae put the transparent box she was holding into her backpack’s front pocket and took off her school uniform jacket. Then, she rolled up the sleeve of her short-sleeved shirt a little to show the wound she had been treated for.

But Choi Mona, who was watching Seol-rae’s actions right in front of her, instantly narrowed her brows.

“……!”

New wounds had appeared below the previously treated wound, and those wounds looked strange.

On one arm, there were two cuts that looked like they had been made by something sharp, and on the other arm, there was a burn mark.

‘Why do the wounds look like this?’

The child’s wounds were enough to irritate Choi Mona’s nerves.

She hoped it was just a needless worry, but she couldn’t help but have strange thoughts.

As someone who sees and treats various wounds, there was only one thought that came to mind when seeing such wounds on a student wearing a school uniform.

“……”

“Huh! What did you say just now?”

Choi Mona was staring so intently at the wounds that she didn’t even hear what Seol-rae was saying.

“I’m here to treat the wounds on this arm and this arm.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Choi Mona hid her complicated expression as much as possible and treated her as usual.

“And my stomach feels a bit weird.”

“What? Your stomach? Where on your stomach? Does it hurt?”

Even while talking, Choi Mona was looking at the wounds, but at the mention of stomach pain, she raised her head, looked straight at Seol-rae, and asked.

“It doesn’t hurt, but… it feels kind of bloated and stuffy.”

“Can you lie down straight for a moment?”

As soon as Seol-rae lay down on the bed, Choi Mona carefully examined her abdomen, dividing it into the upper and lower parts of the left and right sides.

“Does it hurt when I press here?”

“No.”

“How about here?”

“It’s okay.”

Similar questions followed, but the answers weren’t much different. It was the same when she bent her knees.

None of the areas in her abdomen hurt enough to be a major concern.

“It’s not appendicitis or anything like that. Do you, by any chance, have regular bowel movements these days?”

“Actually, I haven’t been able to go for a few days.”

Seol-rae, who had been hesitating to say it, finally admitted that her bowel movements weren’t regular.

She had never been like this before, but she thought it might be because she had been under a lot of stress lately.

“We’re going to do some tests today. Basic X-rays and blood tests, is that okay?”

“Yes. That’s fine.”

“Seol-rae, how did you get these wounds on your arm?”

“I got cut.”

“Where?”

“Getting off the bus.”

It was a wound made by Ira-mi’s group, not the bus, but she didn’t tell the truth.

She didn’t want to tell the hospital doctor in detail about the situations she was currently in. She was just annoyed and bothered by everything.

Yet, the reason Seol-rae diligently visited the hospital whenever something like this happened was because she didn’t want the wound to get worse.

She thought it was best to come to the hospital quickly because she could end up making the wound worse if she foolishly didn’t get treatment.

“The bus?”

“Yes, there were a lot of people, and someone pushed me as I was getting off, and I scraped against the station pillar. I think I got cut then.”

“Really? Then, what about this?”

Choi Mona asked, pointing to the burn mark.

“That’s because candle wax dripped on me. We were using candles in an experiment at school.”

Seol-rae’s answers, which came out smoothly without hesitation, all seemed plausible.

“Really? That must have hurt a lot. I’ll go get some supplies for the treatment, so go get the X-ray and blood test. The nurse here will help you with the instructions.”

“Yes.”

There was no need to go get the supplies needed for the treatment. That’s because the nurses working in the emergency room would take care of getting the necessary supplies.

Choi Mona didn’t go to get the supplies.

After telling the nurse not to bring the supplies to bed 13 yet and asking for the tests, she left the emergency room.

The reason she came out in a hurry was to go to Tae-kyung.

“Nurse Soo, where is the director? Did he go into the OR [Operating Room] by any chance?”

“No. The director is in the ICU [Intensive Care Unit]. Should I call him if it’s urgent?”

“No. It’s okay. I’ll go see him.”

Choi Mona walked down the hallway leading to the ICU past the reception desk, and she saw Tae-kyung coming from the opposite side.

“Doctor?”

Choi Mona hurried over.

“Oh, Doctor Choi?”

“Are you busy right now?”

“No, why? Is it an emergency?”

“It’s not an emergency, but there’s something… There’s a patient I’d like you to see.”

“What kind of patient is it?”

“It’s a high school student who came in with cuts and burns on her arm and constipation. But this student’s wound looks a bit strange.”

“Strange? What’s strange about it?”

“There’s a suspicious part…”

While walking to the emergency room, Choi Mona shared her thoughts with Tae-kyung about Seol-rae.

“The cut seems a bit odd, so I’d like you to take a look at it.”

“Okay, let’s go see together.”

When Tae-kyung arrived at the emergency room, he headed to the bed where Seol-rae was with Choi Mona.

Clatter-

“Hello, are you Seol-rae?”

“……!”

Seol-rae seemed a little embarrassed when Choi Mona, who said she was going to get treatment supplies, appeared with Tae-kyung.

She had seen Tae-kyung while going to the hospital, but she had never been treated by him.

“This doctor is the director of our hospital.”

“Ah, yes. Hello.”

“Nice to meet you. You seem embarrassed that I came suddenly. I came to take a look at your wound. Can I take a look?”

“……Yes.”

“You said you got cut getting off the bus?”

“Yes.”

“Oh dear! That must have hurt a lot. I think we need to stitch this up a bit?”

One of the two symmetrical wounds on her arm needed stitches.

“Stitches?”

“Yes. The end of the wound is a bit deep, so we need to stitch it up a few times. If we leave it like this, it will keep opening up and won’t heal well.”

“Do you use anesthesia?”

“Of course. We can’t do it without anesthesia.”

“Okay.”

Seol-rae, who was slightly surprised by the news that she needed stitches, decided to get them done as if there was no other way.

“I’ll take a picture of the wound for a moment.”

“Why the picture?”

“In the case of such deep wounds, we take pictures for the patient’s record. Of course, your face won’t be in it, just the wound.”

It was a plausible excuse for taking pictures for record purposes, but it wasn’t true.

Choi Mona, who was next to her, didn’t know exactly why she was taking pictures, but she just thought that there must be a clear reason for what Tae-kyung was doing and stayed still.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, well…”

Click-

“Then. Wait a moment. I’ll prepare and stitch it up for you. Do you have any questions?”

“Will the director do the stitching?”

“Would you like me to do it?”

“Well…”

Seol-rae, who didn’t even know Choi Mona’s name until now, quickly looked at the name tag on her gown to check her name.

“I was hoping Doctor Choi Mona would do it.”

“Doctor Choi was originally going to do it. Isn’t that right, Doctor Choi?”

“Yes, Director.”

Clatter-

Tae-kyung told Seol-rae to wait a moment and headed to the station with Choi Mona.

“Doctor?”

As soon as she sat down in the station chair, Choi Mona called Tae-kyung with a look that said she had a lot to say.

“Doctor Choi, this is definitely from a cigarette burn.”

Tae-kyung showed the wound on Seol-rae that he had taken with his phone on the screen.

“So, this is what you call a cigarette burn?”

“Yes. We usually call it a cigarette burn.”

The wound that Seol-rae said was from candle wax was indeed a cigarette burn, as the two had expected.

“And you said the cut was strange, right?”

“Yes.”

What stimulated Choi Mona’s nerves more than the wound caused by the cigarette was the cut.

The wounds that were symmetrically aligned on one arm with a 3-4cm gap were even more suspicious.

“It’s not accurate, and it may be just my feeling, but the two wounds are a bit different.”

“How do they seem different?”

“That’s the feeling, no, the direction…”

Honestly, Choi Mona didn’t really know either.

What to say, the feeling was different when she looked at the wound, but she was frustrated because she couldn’t explain it clearly.

“I’m sorry. Doctor. I can’t explain it well.”

“Doctor Choi, there’s nothing to be sorry about. You’re right.”

“Yes!?”

“You’re right. The direction is different.”

Choi Mona still didn’t understand exactly what Tae-kyung was saying.

“Don’t you know?”

“No. I don’t know.”

“You’re right not to know. It’s not easy to figure this out. Look here. The direction I’m talking about is the direction the force was applied.”

The two wounds on Lee Seol-rae’s arm that were side by side.

At first glance, the wounds didn’t seem very different, but if you looked closely, there were differences.

The wound that needed to be stitched was larger at the head of the wound, that is, the upper part of the wound, and the wound that didn’t need to be stitched was larger at the bottom.

In both wounds, it was as if the wound was getting bigger and then smaller as it went down.

“Look! If you look at the wound, the opposite side is bigger.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“What do you think this means?”

“……”

“Doctor Lee?”

Tae-kyung suddenly called out to Lee Chan-hee, who was passing by.

“Are you busy?”

“No. I’m okay right now.”

“Hold out your hand.”

“My hand?”

Tae-kyung grabbed Lee Chan-hee’s hand, which he was awkwardly holding out, and made him stretch it out.

“Okay! Look here.”

Tae-kyung took out a pen from his gown. Then, he raised the hand holding the pen into the air and instantly plunged it down on Lee Chan-hee’s arm. To be exact, he took the action of scraping down the inside of his wrist and elbow.

“Doctor, I was so surprised I thought you were really going to stab me.”

Lee Chan-hee, who was startled, flinched, but the two didn’t care at all.

“Doctor Lee, thank you for your hard work. Go do your work.”

“Yes? Ah. Yes.”

Lee Chan-hee was curious about the conversation between the two, but it wasn’t an atmosphere to ask, so he left the seat discreetly.

“When you make a wound on your arm with something sharp like just now, where do you think more force will be applied?”

“Where the pen tip first came down.”

“That’s right. Then the answer is all out.”

Tae-kyung pointed to Lee Seol-rae’s wound in the phone photo with a nod.

“Do you know now?”

“Isn’t it that the people who made the wounds are different?”

“That’s right. One was made by someone else, and the weak wound that doesn’t need stitches overall, if my prediction is correct, was made by Lee Seol-rae herself.”

“Herself?”

Choi Mona’s first suspicion when seeing the high school girl who came to the hospital often these days was school violence.

Today, that suspicion was confirmed, but the thought that she would make wounds on her own body was unexpected.

“It’s self-harm.”