Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 492

Five Vital Signs – Episode 493 (492/502)

493. Arrived at the University Hospital

“Excuse me, did you say an ambulance just now?”

Osiwon asked the karaoke owner with anxious eyes.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Do you know where it is?”

Kyoko, standing next to Osiwon, also looked anxious, her anxiety mirroring his.

“Our karaoke is on the street. I just came out and saw it. If you go down that way, under the crosswalk, near a transformer, it looks like it stopped there.”

“Crosswalk, you mean…?”

Osiwon’s lips trembled as he spoke, reacting to the karaoke owner’s words.

“Are you talking about the crosswalk near the convenience store alley?”

“Yes, that’s right. It went that way.”

“……!”

Osiwon’s pupils dilated, and he nearly lost his balance.

The crosswalk near the convenience store… that was where he’d dropped Kana off.

It had to be.

The anxiety and worry he’d been suppressing surged, morphing into raw fear.

“Ha!”

“Brother-in-law!”

Kyoko, seeing Osiwon stumble, asked with alarm, “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. Let’s go outside, Kyoko.”

“…Yes.”

Sensing something was terribly wrong from Osiwon’s expression and reaction, Kyoko quickly followed him out of the convenience store.

Osiwon, once outside, broke into a run, his speed increasing with each step. Kyoko ran after him, wordlessly.

‘Please!’

Please! Please!

Osiwon repeated the word like a mantra as he ran.

His heart pounded harder with every stride.

The sound hammered in his ears like tinnitus [ringing in the ears], and his fingertips trembled uncontrollably.

It can’t be. It can’t be.

Osiwon couldn’t form any other thoughts, only Kana’s face filled his mind.

Kyoko felt the same.

She could only picture her sister, Kana.

The image of her leaving the house that morning replayed in her mind, and her mouth felt like cotton.

The two, running frantically, crossed the crosswalk as the light turned green, and arrived where the ambulance was parked.

“Excuse me? The patient?”

The paramedics, who had arrived moments before, were assessing the situation and checking Kana’s condition.

“Kana!!!”

“Sister!!”

Osiwon and Kyoko rounded the ambulance and rushed toward the scene, shouting in unison as if rehearsed.

The sight of Kana collapsed was a brutal shock to both of them.

They never imagined their beloved girlfriend, their beloved sister, in such a state.

They had clung to the belief that she would be fine, that nothing bad would happen, making the reality even more devastating.

“Kana!! What happened? Huh!”

“Sister! What’s wrong with my sister?”

Both were beside themselves. It was only natural.

Who could remain calm when a family member suffered such a terrible fate? Their feelings defied description.

Osiwon and Kyoko were blinded by panic. They could only see Kana lying motionless.

They both tried to reach her.

“You can’t do this.”

A paramedic, not the one examining Kana, stopped them.

“Kana!! Let me go.”

It was difficult for the paramedic to restrain Osiwon, who was beyond reason, so the middle-aged man who had reported the incident stepped in to help.

“Sister!!”

Kyoko was also comforted and held back by the man’s wife.

“Are you the guardian?”

The paramedic who was holding them back tried to bring Osiwon back to his senses and calm him down.

“Please, let me go.”

“Sir! Calm down. It’s difficult to help the patient if you do this. The guardian needs to calm down and cooperate.”

“Haa! I understand. I’ll calm down. So, please… let me go now.”

Osiwon, his eyes fixed on Kana, fought to regain control by gritting his teeth.

“I’m okay now.”

“Are you the guardian of this patient?”

“Yes, she’s my wife. I’m her husband, and this is her younger sister. What happened to her?”

“We haven’t been here long either. We just arrived after receiving a report. Our paramedics are examining the patient now, so please wait a little longer.”

With the paramedic’s words, all of Osiwon and Kyoko’s frayed nerves focused entirely on Kana.

“She is currently unconscious.”

The paramedic examining Kana announced. He checked for consciousness and then examined her pupils with a medical flashlight.

When the light shone into her eyes, Kana’s pupils did not react.

After that, the paramedics secured Kana’s body with splints, moved her onto a mobile bed, and prepared to transport her to the hospital.

“Thank you for your help.”

“Thank you so much.”

Osiwon and Kyoko, still reeling and with hearts pounding, mustered their courage and thanked the middle-aged couple who had reported the incident.

“Don’t worry too much. Your wife will be okay.”

“Student, don’t cry, okay?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Guardians, please get in quickly. The patient’s condition is not good, so we need to leave for the hospital immediately.”

At the paramedic’s urging, the two grabbed Kana’s bag and belongings and hurried into the ambulance, leaving the scene.

“Oh my! What should we do…”

The middle-aged couple watched the ambulance speed away, siren wailing, and felt a pang of sorrow.

-Woof woof

“Yes, Yebbi, I’m sorry. Did you wait a long time? She was a very young woman; I hope everything is okay. Honey, do you think she’ll be okay?”

The woman said to her husband, untying the leash of her dog tied to a roadside tree.

“She has to be okay. This is really weighing on my heart.”

“I know… I saw them earlier, they were a couple, and the husband’s face looked like the world had collapsed.”

“Of course. How can he be okay when the person he loves is hurt? When I see things like this, I think human life is so fragile.”

“Who doesn’t? Do you remember when we got married and lived in a commercial house [a building with shops on the ground floor and residences above] for the first time, the landlord was a very healthy person, but he passed away overnight.”

“Of course, I remember. He was very kind to us, but he suddenly passed away, and it was a shock back then.”

“By the way, why was that young woman lying alone on the street?”

The wife, walking with her husband and reminiscing about the past, wondered about Kana’s condition, trying to understand why she was alone on the street.

“Honey, maybe pickpockets or some thugs tried to steal her money and hurt her?”

“People like thugs?”

“Yeah. If you watch the news, there are guys who sometimes target people who are drunk or walking alone late at night.”

“Well… I don’t think she was hurt by a thug or a beating.”

The husband tilted his head at his wife’s words and continued.

“Looking at it, it’s not a beating, but it looks like that…”

“What do you mean it looks like that?”

“You know how I had a traffic accident on the way back from a business trip last year, and I came in the early morning because of the road congestion.”

“I know.”

“At that time, I saw someone hit by a car, and it looked just like that time.”

“So, you mean it was a traffic accident?”

“No, I’m not an expert, so I’m not sure, but it’s similar…”

“Oh my!”

The two, who had been talking and walking along the road, suddenly stopped as if they had seen a ghost.

-Woof -Woof

“What on earth is going on?”

“Honey?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Before their eyes, as if conjured from thin air, was a car that had been in a traffic accident. To be exact, it was the luxury sedan that Immajun had crashed into the roadside tree.

The couple had been walking along the road and stumbled upon the scene of the accident.

“Honey! I think you’re right.”

The woman was convinced that Kana’s accident, as her husband had suggested, was a traffic accident.

“Don’t you think so?”

“Just looking at it, this driver must have been drinking and driving under the influence?”

“Really?”

“I think so.”

“But why was she lying there instead of here?”

“This driver ran away.”

“Hit and run!? What kind of guy is this? He’s a bad guy. Honey, shouldn’t we report this to the police?”

“We have to report it. This guy must have hit a motorcycle too?”

The husband, looking around, noticed a motorcycle lying on its side at the intersection.

“See that motorcycle over there? Looking at this, it’s definitely because he was drinking and speeding in the early morning and caused an accident.”

“Oh my! What a jerk. These guys must be punished.”

The wife, along with her husband, became indignant and pressed the 112 [South Korean emergency number] call button on her cell phone.

-Yes. This is 112 situation room.

“Thank you for your hard work. I’m calling to report a traffic accident.”

-Did you cause the traffic accident, sir?

“No. It’s not me, but it looks like someone caused a traffic accident and ran away. He hit a roadside tree, but the driver is nowhere to be seen, and the motorcycle is lying on the street! And! A young woman was badly injured and taken away by 119 [South Korean emergency medical services].”

-First, please tell us your location, and we will dispatch.

“Yes, here is…”

Thanks to the couple who came out for a walk in the early morning, Kana was taken to the ambulance, and Immajun’s incident was reported to the police.

After a while, a police car arrived at the scene, lights flashing.

“Are you the person who reported the traffic accident?”

Two police officers got out of the car and approached the couple.

“Yes, that’s right. My wife reported it.”

“I did it. Police officer. Look here.”

The woman guided the police to Immajun’s wrecked car and was very animated.

“The car is so messed up like this. And you see that intersection over there? There’s a motorcycle over there too. And my husband and I reported a young woman lying on the road down there to the ambulance, but it seems like this driver caused the accident.”

“This! The speed must have been considerable?”

“I guess so. First, I’ll go to the motorcycle and take a look.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

The junior police officer went to the scene of Lee Jungbon’s accident, and the senior police officer asked the couple where Kana had been taken and searched the area.

“Sir? Where did you say the woman was lying earlier?”

“Go down a little further. Follow me.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Kana, in the ambulance, was on her way to a nearby university hospital.

“Thank you for your hard work. This is OO paramedic. TA (traffic accident) patient. The patient’s current condition… Yes, I understand. I’ll go right away.”

“What happened, paramedic?”

“There is OO University Hospital nearby, so it seems like we can go there.”

Osiwon and Kyoko, desperate to reach the hospital as quickly as possible, felt their insides burning as they watched Kana lying unconscious.

After a few minutes, the ambulance arrived at the university hospital.