Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 468

469. The Real Bastard

The real source of the smell was Gu Dae-chun, one of the three gangsters in the treatment room.

Moments earlier, Tae-kyung had asked all the gangsters to leave the treatment room for Lee Deuk-hyun’s examination.

Gu Dae-chun resisted, reacting aggressively. Kim Min-kyo, another gangster, restrained him and escorted him outside.

From that moment, Tae-kyung had been frozen, dumbfounded, until Kim Min-kyo and the medical staff repeatedly called him.

Everyone assumed Tae-kyung was surprised by the situation itself, but that wasn’t the complete truth.

The real reason for Tae-kyung’s surprise was different.

The origin of the fifth vital sign [a fictional sense Tae-kyung possesses that allows him to detect illness through smell], which emitted a deathly, vicious odor, was Gu Dae-chun.

Usually, recognizing the fifth vital sign allows you to pinpoint the source of the smell, but this time it was different.

It was difficult to distinguish the source.

The odor was so potent, and likely amplified by the confined space of the treatment room, making it hard to determine its origin as usual.

Lee Deuk-hyun, who arrived at the hospital with bloody stools, seemed the most likely source, but he wasn’t.

As soon as Gu Dae-chun opened the treatment room door and left, it was as if the fifth vital sign’s odor molecules visibly followed him.

The level 5 odors that had filled the treatment room, threatening to explode, didn’t dissipate as quickly as usual, as if draining into a sewer.

The toxic smell lingered, but its intensity had changed.

When Gu Dae-chun left, the intensity decreased significantly. The remaining smell in the treatment room belonged to Gu Dae-chun, not Kim Min-kyo or the other gangsters.

“Ha!”

Tae-kyung let out a short, incredulous laugh. It was his first time experiencing something like this, leaving him somewhat bewildered.

Lee Deuk-hyun, who was nervous, thinking he was about to die, actually had a mild condition.

On the other hand, Gu Dae-chun, who had plotted to eliminate Lee Deuk-hyun and seize control of the organization, was terminally ill with little time left.

After finishing Lee Deuk-hyun’s chart, Tae-kyung received a call from Detective Kim, had a brief conversation, and headed to the emergency room.

“Doctor?”

As he headed to the station, Lee Chan-hee approached him.

“I spoke with Detective Kim. He said he’s on his way and shouldn’t be long. He’ll call your cell phone when he arrives.”

“Okay, thanks for your hard work.”

“How is Lee Deuk-hyun doing?”

“It’s not a major illness; it’s ischemic colitis [inflammation and injury of the colon].”

“Really? He had bloody stools, and he’s old and looked so weak, I was worried something bad was going on, but that’s a relief.”

“Yeah. Lee Deuk-hyun is lucky, but another patient isn’t so lucky…”

“Pardon me?!”

Tae-kyung trailed off quietly. Lee Chan-hee, who was listening, asked, but Tae-kyung didn’t answer.

“Never mind. Lee, you stay here with Choi. Call me if there’s an emergency.”

“Understood. But where are you going, Doctor? Are you going up to the ward?”

“No. I’m going to check out the waiting room.”

“The waiting room…”

After a moment’s thought, Lee Chan-hee spoke again, sounding surprised.

“You don’t mean that waiting room with Gu Dae-chun and the gangsters, do you?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

“No, why are you going there?”

“That’s right. Don’t go there. Those people are dangerous.”

Choi Mona, who had returned after seeing a patient, overheard their conversation and stopped Tae-kyung.

“Choi is right. Detective Kim said that guy is really scary. The police will be here soon, so it’s best to leave it to them.”

“I’ll just go in for a moment and come out, so don’t worry too much.”

Tae-kyung left the emergency room, leaving the two worried.

Lee Chan-hee and Choi Mona both warned him not to go, saying it was dangerous.

Tae-kyung knew very well that the people in the waiting room were scary. They were gangsters, so how could they not be?

In particular, he knew that Gu Dae-chun was especially volatile.

Earlier, while talking to Detective Kim in the examination room, Tae-kyung had heard a story.

‘Director, are you okay? Have those guys been harassing patients or causing a disturbance?’

‘No, there haven’t been any problems yet. I’ve separated Lee Deuk-hyun and put them in the waiting room.’

‘Good job. You did a really good job. Director, Gu Dae-chun is a very dangerous person. He has trouble controlling his anger and acts like being a gangster is some kind of badge of honor, so please be careful, all of you, including the medical staff. If possible, don’t provoke him and don’t get close to him.’

Detective Kim was worried about the medical staff and patients and repeatedly urged them to be careful. The story about Gu Dae-chun that followed was somewhat shocking.

In areas where the Hongdom faction operates, Gu Dae-chun and his gang members are involved in prostitution and illegal private loans [usury].

They particularly targeted women who came to Korea from foreign countries to earn money.

With a broker as an intermediary, they arranged methods for the women to come to Korea, and then Gu Dae-chun and his gang members took control of them.

They lied about the potential for earning a lot of money and had them sign exploitative contracts.

They even forced the women into overseas prostitution, and he went to prison for that.

After his release, it seemed like he had stopped those activities, but tips came in from other sources, and detectives were watching him.

When incidents or accidents occur, people learn about them through the media. But not all incidents and accidents are reported.

Detective Kim implied there was more to tell about Gu Dae-chun but held back, only telling him to be careful.

Someone had said something earlier.

‘Why are bad guys never sick or unhealthy? Shouldn’t a guy like that be sick and struggling?’

It was something an employee said while they were distracted by Gu Dae-chun.

It was said out of anger because he was raising his voice in the hospital, not cooperating with the medical staff, and acting as he pleased, but it turned out to be true.

A person who constantly does bad things had fallen into a truly bad situation.

And he didn’t seem to know it at all; only Tae-kyung knew.

In the past, several medical staff members had gathered in the medical office and talked about this.

‘If a truly heinous criminal broke into the hospital and we found out this person was sick, would we treat them then?’

It was something the anesthesiologist Lee Dong-hoon said.

The day before, he had seen on the news that a criminal who had killed someone while intoxicated with drugs had broken into a hospital after being injured.

In a life-threatening situation, other medical staff refused to treat him, and an elderly doctor treated him instead and died.

‘That’s difficult, isn’t it?’

‘Honestly, I’m too scared to do it.’

‘I don’t think I would do it for such a bad person.’

‘That’s right. Doctors are people too. It’s scary to treat someone who’s wielding a knife.’

Most of the medical staff said they couldn’t do it. Doctors are people too, so it’s understandable that they’d be scared in that situation.

‘What would you do, Doctor?’

‘Why are you asking that? What kind of person is Kim Tae-kyung? He would have treated a heinous criminal even if they were holding a gun.’

Lee Dong-hoon answered instead of Tae-kyung, as if it were obvious. Tae-kyung laughed it off without saying anything else.

He laughed it off without thinking much about it at the time, but now, looking at himself heading to the waiting room, he thought Lee Dong-hoon’s answer was accurate.

In fact, Gu Dae-chun didn’t come to the hospital as a patient; he was a bad guy who came to potentially kill someone.

Not only that, but he was also a person who readily committed other bad deeds.

To some, Gu Dae-chun would be human trash, and perhaps there were people who wanted him to die.

Moreover, he was terminally ill with not much time left to live.

Tae-kyung was now going to him to check if he had any pain or if there was anything wrong with his body.

The reason was simple: because he is a doctor.

He could smell the smell of pain, the smell of Gu Dae-chun that only he could smell, and he couldn’t ignore it.

There is a passage in the Hippocratic Oath [an oath historically taken by doctors] that doctors swear.

I will fulfill my duty to them regardless of the patient’s religion, nationality, ethnicity, party, or social status.

In short, it means that a doctor will treat a patient as a doctor, no matter who the patient is.

In front of a doctor, bad people and good people are just patients, so he must treat them the same, which is Tae-kyung’s belief as a doctor.

Because he is a person who saves lives, he knows how precious human life is, even more so.

Of course, he knows in his head that Gu Dae-chun is a bad person, but he thought that the judgment of the crimes he committed was up to the police and the law, not himself.

“Director?”

Chief Choi, Jang Deuk-chil, and Oh Chang-gyu, who were guarding the front of the waiting room, called out to Tae-kyung as he approached.

“What brings you here?”

“I have something to tell them.”

“Gangsters…”

Chief Choi, who had raised his voice without realizing it, covered his mouth and spoke again quietly.

“No, what do you have to say to those gangsters?”

“The chief is right. You saw them making a fuss in the treatment room earlier. Don’t go in there; who knows what those guys will do. Just don’t go in.”

“I feel the same way as you two.”

All three of them tried to stop him from going inside, but Tae-kyung said he would be okay and wouldn’t be long.

There were only gang members in the waiting room.

Before guiding them to the waiting room, the existing patient guardians had been moved to another location.

“……!”

Tae-kyung hesitated for a moment as he entered the waiting room.

He was facing the toxic smell that had been scattering in the hallway.

It was a smell that he couldn’t easily get used to, even though he had smelled it so much in the treatment room.

“Why is the director here…?”

Kim Min-kyo, who saw Tae-kyung entering the waiting room, got up from his seat and approached him with a surprised expression.

According to the original plan, the medical staff wasn’t supposed to enter until the detectives arrived, so he couldn’t help but be surprised.

“Is something wrong?”

Kim Min-kyo, who had come closer, spoke quietly, asking if something had gone wrong with their plan.

“No. It’s nothing like that. I just came to say something.”

“Oh! What’s this? The director has come all the way here?”

Gu Dae-chun, who had been talking to a gang member, got up from his seat when he saw Tae-kyung.

“I was very curious about how our big brother [term of respect for a senior member] is doing, and you came at just the right time.”

“Lee Deuk-hyun is about to undergo his final examination, and the results will be available tomorrow morning or afternoon.”

All the tests were over, but he deliberately said that some tests were still left.

He didn’t tell the truth because the gangsters might go after Lee Deuk-hyun if he said the tests were over.

“Once all the tests are completed, he will be moved to the ward.”

“Damn it! Anyway, working at the hospital or anywhere else is so slow. So when will the test be over?”

Gu Dae-chun asked with a tone of annoyance that there were still tests left.

“Please wait a little. It won’t take that long.”

“I’ve been waiting quietly until now, so please hurry up. Director, I’m asking you. Huh?”

Tae-kyung didn’t say anything for a moment and stared at Gu Dae-chun. Then he spoke again.

“Hey, Director? Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Gu Dae-chun?”

Tae-kyung, who had been staring at him intently, opened his mouth.

“Do you have any pain anywhere?”