Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 470

Fifth Vital Sign – Episode 471 (470/502)

471. A Second Life

“Team Leader, just a moment!”

Detective Kim, who had come out to the parking lot, called out to the team leader who was managing the officers as they boarded the van.

“Oh! Detective Kim.”

“The hospital director would like to speak with Gu Dae-chun for a moment. Would that be alright?”

“The hospital director?”

“Yes.”

The team leader, wondering what a doctor would have to say to a gangster and attempted murderer, glanced at Tae-kyung.

“Director, isn’t today the first time you’ve seen Gu Dae-chun?”

“That’s right. I saw him for the first time in the emergency room today.”

“Then what do you need to talk about…?”

“I apologize for interrupting your important work, but as a doctor, I can’t just ignore this. I’ll be brief.”

The Gwangsu Unit [a special investigation unit] team leader had heard about Tae-kyung from Detective Kim on the way to the hospital.

He heard that he was not only skilled as a doctor but also had a good personality and was a true doctor who cared about his patients.

Maybe it was because he had heard such things, but he definitely seemed different.

Moreover, his handsome appearance and deep, resonant voice seemed to inspire trust.

Above all, thanks to Tae-kyung, they had caught the troublesome Gu Dae-chun easily, so he thought this much was okay.

“Senior?”

Detective Kim called out to the team leader, who was staring intently at Tae-kyung, as if urging him.

“Alright, alright. I was going to tell you to go ahead and talk anyway. Go ahead. But, because it’s dangerous, you can’t talk alone; you have to talk here.”

“Of course. It’s not a strange story that requires us to talk separately, and it’s fine if the detectives are here.”

“Detective Go, bring Gu Dae-chun here for a moment.”

A moment later, Gu Dae-chun, who had been in the van, was brought out by two detectives holding his arms.

“What is this, putting me in the car and taking me out?”

“Quiet, the doctor has something to say, so shut your mouth and listen.”

“Gu Dae-chun?”

“What! Why do you keep wanting to see me since earlier? Ack!”

“This bastard, how dare you speak informally to the doctor.”

The team leader slapped the back of Gu Dae-chun’s head and glared at him.

“Speak respectfully.”

“Okay, so stop hitting me and talk. What do you want to say?”

“Gu Dae-chun, don’t take my words lightly and listen carefully. If you feel even a little uncomfortable or unwell in the future, tell the detective and make sure to go to the hospital. Got it?”

Tae-kyung spoke with a serious look and tone, hoping that the dying man in front of him would listen to his words. However, Gu Dae-chun remained indifferent.

In the end, Gu Dae-chun ignored Tae-kyung’s words and boarded the van with the detectives.

After that, the team leader thanked Tae-kyung for his cooperation in catching the gangsters and left the hospital parking lot.

A terrible smell, the smell of a rotting corpse signaling the imminent approach of death.

The fifth vital sign, stage 5, which assaulted the nose even in the open parking lot, followed the van carrying Gu Dae-chun.

One month, two months? Or even more?

Tae-kyung also didn’t know how much longer that man had to live.

As a doctor, he told him to get treatment and even told him to go to the hospital if he was sick, but Gu Dae-chun didn’t listen at all.

Perhaps Gu Dae-chun would die without knowing his illness.

He was clearly a bad person who did bad things to people, but Tae-kyung couldn’t help but feel sorry for the man who didn’t even know he was dying.

Perhaps he was being punished for tormenting people.

“Director?”

Detective Kim called out to Tae-kyung, who had been staring at the place where the van had left for a long time.

“Are you feeling sick?”

“…?”

Detective Kim added an explanation, seeing Tae-kyung’s puzzled expression.

“You looked so serious earlier in the waiting room and even now. Gu Dae-chun looks fine on the outside, but I was wondering if he’s in bad shape.”

“It’s a doctor’s intuition.”

Tae-kyung didn’t tell the truth.

He wondered who would believe him if he said he smelled the scent of pain and the scent of death, which could happen at any moment.

“Ah, intuition!”

“Did I speak too ambiguously?”

“No. I understand what you meant by that. How should I say this? I have something like that too.”

“Intuition?”

“Yes, when I go to catch criminals, sometimes I just look at their faces and feel, ‘Ah, that guy is the criminal.’ That’s a police officer’s intuition.”

“Really? What about me?”

“Let’s see. Our director is definitely destined, no matter how you look at it.”

“What’s that?”

“What else could it be? Of course, it means you’re a doctor who heals patients. You just have ‘I’m a doctor’ written all over your face.”

Tae-kyung burst into laughter at Detective Kim’s words and went back into the hospital.

The two had a cup of coffee and continued their conversation briefly before Detective Kim got up from his seat.

“Thank you for your hard work today.”

“It’s nothing. By the way, Director, you haven’t forgotten the promise you made with me back then, have you?”

“Promise?”

“Oh, come on! I’ll be disappointed if you do that. I’m talking about you agreeing to give a lecture at school for my nephew.”

“I know. I was just pretending not to know.”

“You don’t look like it, but you’re quite the prankster when you look closely. I’ll be going now. I’ll be on my way.”

“Drive safely.”

After Detective Kim left the hospital, Tae-kyung headed to Lee Deuk-hyun, who had moved to the ward.

Creak-

“Are you feeling better?”

Lee Deuk-hyun, who had been watching the news in the hospital room, quickly turned off the TV and raised himself up in bed.

“I’m fine. Maybe it’s because of the sedative, but I feel refreshed even though I didn’t sleep much.”

“The detective said he’ll be coming tomorrow to ask a few questions about Gu Dae-chun.”

He told him that the police would be coming tomorrow because Lee Deuk-hyun’s responses might not be clear due to the sedative.

“Yes, I received the text message from the detective.”

“The endoscopy results showed ischemic colitis [inflammation and injury of the colon]. There was severe inflammation in the colon, which caused the bloody stools. We took a small piece from the swollen area for a detailed examination, but you don’t have to worry too much about the results.”

“Yes, Director. Thank you. Thank you so much. You and the hospital staff saved my life.”

“No, I didn’t do much.”

“What are you talking about? If it weren’t for you, Director, I wouldn’t be here like this.”

It was truly unbelievable that an ordinary person could speak so firmly to a gangster.

In that respect, he was very grateful.

“Thank you for the excellent treatment as well. I feel like I’ve been brought back from the dead today. I’m going to live diligently, thinking of it as a second life.”

“You’re still undergoing treatment, so I’ll receive that gratitude when you’re discharged. And I hesitate to say this, but as you said, I hope you’ll live a good life as an ordinary person, doing good deeds, instead of being a bad person in your second life.”

“Of course. Of course. Director, from now on, I’m going to live the rest of my life doing social service, helping the powerless and the unfortunate.”

There’s a saying that you can’t fix a person. That means it’s hard to change someone’s fundamental nature.

No one knows whether Lee Deuk-hyun, who used to be a gangster, will live serving others as he just said.

He might, or he might not.

However, he stopped Gu Dae-chun from committing bad deeds after his release, and Tae-kyung believes that the desperate look in his eyes in the treatment room, wanting to live, was his true feelings.

So Tae-kyung sincerely cheered for Lee Deuk-hyun to live a better life than in the past.

“If your family comes and you have any questions, please let me know anytime.”

“Yes, Director, thank you.”

“Then, I’ll see you during rounds tomorrow.”

The gangster incident, in which someone could have lost their life, was successfully concluded without anyone getting hurt.

A doctor is someone who works on the boundary between life and death. Tae-kyung felt that fact more strongly today.

“No problems?”

“No, Director.”

Tae-kyung spoke with the nurse at the ward station and went down to the emergency room to see patients, as always.

* * *

At an apartment-

A woman who parked a white sedan in the ground parking lot turned off the engine and turned her head to the back seat.

In the back seat were twin sons who were lovely enough to cherish, but who didn’t listen to her at all.

“My beloved sons, you have to turn off what you’re watching. What did Mom say you have to do when you go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house?”

“……”

“Yoo Jun-hyun! Yoo Jun-hyuk!”

“……”

When Mom said their names with their surnames, it meant she was not in a good mood. But the two sons didn’t answer.

The saying ‘hateful seven years old’ rings true. I don’t know who started it, but it was exactly right.

The seven-year-old twin sons had never easily listened to anything.

“Are you two going to be like this?”

“Ah! Mom!”

“Ah! Mom!”

Eventually, Mom took the tablet PCs that the twins were watching and turned them off.

Then the twins simultaneously whined and called out to Mom with the same expression.

“Why did you turn it off suddenly?”

“It would have been over in a little bit, Mom, that’s too much.”

“Mom is sad when you say that. Mom told you to turn it off earlier, and you didn’t answer when I called your names and were just watching the video. Is Mom being too much?”

“No. Jun-hyun is being too much.”

“No, Jun-hyuk was being too much.”

“I’m not?”

“I’m not either?”

The twins, who were born one minute apart, were each other’s best friends and most hated friends.

When they were getting along, they were full of love for each other, but once they were playing around and someone got upset, they would bicker and fight worse than strangers.

“Okay, stop it, both of you. I think Mom is going to get angry if you keep doing that, are you going to continue?”

“No.”

“No.”

“What did Mom say you have to do when you go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house?”

“Don’t play around like you do at home.”

“Don’t run around and make noise for the people downstairs.”

“Last one.”

“Listen to Grandma and Grandpa well.”

“Okay, good job. Can you promise Mom?”

“Of course.”

“Just trust us.”

Mom burst out laughing as she watched the twins simultaneously raise their thumbs and give a thumbs up.

“Okay, Mom trusts our sons. Shall we pack our bags and go up?”

“Yes.”

The twins went up to their maternal grandparents’ house with their mother.

“Grandma!! Jun-hyun is here.”

“Grandpa!! Jun-hyuk is here too.”

“Oh my! My puppies.”

“Welcome, our puppies.”

The faces of the grandparents blossomed with smiles when they saw the twins arrive at the house.

“Jun-hyun and Jun-hyuk look more handsome and cooler than when we saw them last week.”

The maternal grandmother stroked each of their cheeks and showed her affection.

“No, Grandma. You’re wrong. I’m not Jun-hyun. I’m Jun-hyuk.”

“I’m Jun-hyun.”

The twins laughed and corrected their maternal grandmother.

“Grandma was wrong. Sorry.”

The mischievous and rambunctious seven-year-old Jun-hyun and Jun-hyuk were identical twins with the same eyes, nose, and mouth. They had the same height, weight, and even voices.

Moreover, they had the same hairstyles, wore the same clothes and socks, and even played with the same toys.

They always wanted to do everything the same, so it was sometimes difficult to distinguish them.

They sometimes played pranks on people, tricking them with pranks that only twins could do.

“Grandma is still confused about our puppies.”

“Grandpa too.”

“Mom, Dad. It’s okay. My husband and I get confused sometimes too.”

“Hey, isn’t your train time getting late? You should go.”

“Don’t give the kids too many snacks, and don’t bother making side dishes, just give them what you have. Don’t overdo it, both of you.”

“We’ll take care of it, don’t worry.”

The mother, who was going on a business trip, came to her parents’ house to leave the children. Her husband had gone to work early, and there was no suitable place to leave the children.

“Sorry for leaving them so suddenly, Mom.”

“What are you sorry for? It’s no trouble to look after our grandchildren. Anyway, your husband [Yoo Seo-bang] is bringing them over in the evening. It’s no big deal to be with them for a day.”

“Okay, you’re going to be late. Go quickly.”

“I’ll go now. I’ll call you. Jun-hyun, Jun-hyuk. Listen to Grandma and Grandpa well.”

“Yes, have a good trip.”

The mother left the house, hoping that her mischievous two sons would behave well and not cause any trouble.