Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 496

497. Plane Ticket

With heavy steps, Tae-kyung left the CT room and headed to where Kana’s guardians were waiting.

“Hello.”

As Tae-kyung greeted and entered the waiting room, Oh Shi-won and Kyoko jumped up from their seats and looked at him.

“I am Kim Tae-kyung, the director of this hospital.”

Tae-kyung looked at the two of them alternately and greeted them in a warm tone.

“Are you Ms. Fujiwara Kana’s guardians?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

“Excuse me, what is your relationship to the patient?”

“I am her fiancé, and this is her younger sister.”

“So, you two are not married yet?”

“We are not married yet, but we have registered our marriage [meaning they’ve legally declared their intent to marry, but the ceremony hasn’t occurred].”

“Yes, then as her legal guardian, I will explain the patient’s condition to you.”

“Is our Kana okay?”

“The patient’s condition was not good from the time she first came to our hospital. She has multiple fractures and severe bleeding due to a traffic accident, and she has had several cardiac arrests because of it.”

“Ha! Sister…….”

“Sister-in-law!”

“Brother-in-law. I’m okay. Please continue with the explanation.”

Kyoko flinched for a moment as if surprised, but she quickly regained her composure.

“Are you really okay?”

“Yes, I’m really okay.”

Tae-kyung asked again, but Kyoko’s desire to hear the explanation was strong.

After that, the explanation continued.

The legal guardian has the right to know exactly the situation the patient is in.

No matter how urgent the patient’s situation, the explanation should not be exaggerated or omitted.

Everything must be explained as it is. That was the job of the medical staff.

“In the case of Fujiwara Kana, she is literally still breathing. However, she will have another cardiac arrest, and it will be difficult for her then. She is still breathing, but her brain is being pushed out by the pressure. And her organs are being pushed by bleeding near her heart and in her abdominal cavity.”

Tae-kyung’s detailed explanation continued.

He delivered the information slowly and carefully, considering the guardians’ feelings. However, he conveyed the information as it was without distortion.

The reason was to allow the guardians to make sound rational judgments.

Currently, Kana’s lungs have holes and are shrunken.

The best outcome for the patient was a vegetative state, but even that seemed impossible now.

Most of all, what was unfortunate was that the impact was so great when she was first hit by the car that it was already beyond anything that could be done.

The two people who listened to Tae-kyung’s calm and clear explanation felt like the sky was falling.

“Ha! Ve, ve……. Vegetative state! Haa!”

Oh Shi-won, who faced the reality Kana was in, was so dumbfounded that he lost his words.

Kyoko, who was still young, could not understand and accept this situation and fainted.

“Aaaagh!! Ah!!! What about my sister!! Ah……!”

“Oh my! Guardian!”

Kyoko, who was surprised and fainted from hyperventilation, was quickly given first aid by Tae-kyung and moved to the emergency room.

She fainted because she was shocked to hear about her sister, but just in case, basic tests were performed.

The tests were conducted quickly, and the results came out shortly after.

“Are the results out?”

“Yes, Director.”

“There’s nothing unusual. She must have been very surprised because of her sister, so please take good care of her when she wakes up.”

“Yes, I understand.”

After checking Kyoko’s condition, Tae-kyung visited the waiting room again.

He was worried about Oh Shi-won, who was still in the waiting room.

When Tae-kyung entered the waiting room, Oh Shi-won was standing in the same spot as before, without moving an inch.

He looked better than expected on the outside.

Until this point, Tae-kyung thought that he was trying not to lose his mind because of Kyoko’s fainting.

“Guardian?”

Tae-kyung approached carefully and called Oh Shi-won.

“Um, Director, I’m sorry, but can I be excused for a moment?”

“Of course. Certainly.”

Oh Shi-won seemed to know exactly why Tae-kyung had come back and what he was going to say.

But he couldn’t hear those words right now. There was still work to be done.

Oh Shi-won knew that Tae-kyung had come to show him exactly Kana’s condition, but he couldn’t face it.

He wanted to see her as soon as possible, but there was something he had to do first.

Oh Shi-won, who had been standing there since earlier, picked up his cell phone and went to the website to book a plane ticket.

After finding out the fastest plane ticket from Japan to Korea, he urgently booked the best seat on the best airline. And then he quickly made a phone call somewhere.

It was a call to Kana’s parents, who lived in Japan.

* * *

Japan-

In a house in a neighborhood full of luxury mansions.

Rrrrrrrrrr

In the early morning hours when even the starlight in the night sky was fast asleep, a cell phone suddenly began to ring in a room where silence had settled.

The couple, who had been fast asleep, did not seem to hear the cell phone ringing on the bedside table, and did not move.

Rrrrrrrrrr

The phone call, once started, did not stop and rang and rang as if expressing urgency.

“Ugh!”

After several persistent rings, the middle-aged couple who had fallen into a deep sleep woke up.

“Honey, isn’t that the phone ringing?”

“I know, I suddenly heard the phone ringing and thought it was a dream, but it’s real.”

“What’s going on at this early hour? Could it be the kids?”

“Answer it quickly.”

The only reason the quiet cell phone would suddenly ring at this early hour was because of their two daughters living in Korea.

The two got out of bed and turned on the light, and the wife answered the phone.

“Hello? Kana? Kyoko?”

The wife, who had not even checked the caller ID, answered the phone and called out her daughters’ names in turn. But even when she called their names, no answer came back from beyond the phone.

-…….

The wife then checked the phone screen and realized that the person calling was not her daughters but her son-in-law, Oh Shi-won.

“Shi-won?”

“Is it Shi-won?” The husband reacted to his wife’s words and asked her.

“Yes, it’s Shi-won. What’s going on at this hour?”

-Mother.

Oh Shi-won and Kana, who had been dating for a long time, were close to each other’s parents, and since they could each speak Korean and Japanese, there was no problem communicating with their parents.

“What’s going on so late?”

-Mother…….

Oh Shi-won on the phone kept uttering the word ‘Mother’ but could not speak easily.

To be honest, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

He had no idea how to explain this reality to Kana’s parents across the sea.

“Shi-won, is something wrong with you? What’s wrong?”

Kana’s mother began to feel strange as she heard the slightly shaking breath.

In fact, she had been feeling a little uneasy since earlier.

The fact that the caller was not her daughters but her son-in-law’s phone call itself felt a little strange.

The first thought that crossed her mind was that something had happened to Kana.

The strongest mother’s instinct in the world felt that something had happened to her daughter before she even heard the story.

-Mother! Ha! Kana…….

“Yes, it’s okay. It’s okay, so calm down and speak slowly.”

Kana’s mother, who had a warm heart, comforted and soothed Oh Shi-won in this situation.

Even though she was guessing in her heart what kind of scary words would come out of her son-in-law’s mouth, she felt sorry for Oh Shi-won, who had to call at this hour across the sea.

“Shi-won?”

-Mother. Ka, Kana……. Kana is hurt.

The moment she heard those words, Kana’s mother closed her eyes tightly.

A little while ago, she wanted her feeling to be wrong, but when she heard that her daughter was hurt, all sorts of thoughts rushed in like a tide.

Where was she hurt, how badly was she hurt, how did it happen.

Several questions in her head, chasing each other’s tails, wanted to go out of her mouth first as if they were fighting, but still, because she was a mother, she had to ask this question first.

“Is Kana okay?”

-Heu……!

“Shi-won? Calm down and tell me.”

-She had a traffic accident. She was on her way home after breaking up with me when she had a traffic accident, and I think she was hit by a hit-and-run car. Mother, Kana……. Kana is in a lot of pain right now.”

Thud-

Kana’s mother, who was listening to Oh Shi-won’s story, eventually dropped the cell phone she was holding and collapsed to the floor.

-Ha!

“……!”

“Honey? Are you okay?”

When a person is too surprised and embarrassed, they are bound to be speechless.

Instead of his wife, who was so surprised that she could only open her mouth and sit down as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have seen, Kana’s father, who was next to her, took over the phone.

“Shi-won? What happened to Kana?”

-That’s…….

Kana’s father, who did not yet know the details, heard all the news from his son-in-law.

“……!”

As expected, Kana’s father also hesitated for a moment at the sound of his heart breaking. But soon he regained his composure.

“So, which hospital is she in now?”

-She’s in a place called Seoul Woori Hospital. Father, I’ve booked the fastest flight. Please come in carefully with Mother.”

Oh Shi-won, who had not yet lost his mind, sent the flight time and airline information he had booked before calling on his cell phone and hung up.

“Honey…….”

“…….”

“We need to prepare. We need to go see Kana.”

“Aaaagh!!!!”

As soon as he hung up the phone, the mother faced reality and burst into tears at her husband’s one word to prepare.

“Kana! My daughter……. What should I do with my poor daughter! Honey!! What should I do with our daughter!!”

“Honey, it’s hard, but we have to cheer up. Huh? Let’s go see our Kana before it’s too late.”

The husband barely comforted his wife, whose world had collapsed, and began to prepare to go to Korea.

* * *

Woori Hospital Emergency Room-

“Teacher, what happened to that patient?”

“Who? Bed number 3? The basic tests are over, and Teacher Lee saw her.”

The sound of nurses talking could be heard between the emergency room beds.

“No. The one who was brought in by 119 [Korean emergency services number] in an emergency earlier…….”

“Ah! That Japanese person?”

“Yes.”

“When I saw her earlier, she had several arrests [cardiac arrests]. Her heart was barely back with CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation], but honestly, it seems difficult.”

“Ah! Really? Oh my, what should I do.”

The nurse, who had briefly stopped by the emergency room, felt sorry as she heard the news about Kana.

“I also responded when Teacher Jung saw her for an obstetrics and gynecology examination, so I feel bad.”

“Why not? I saw her husband and younger sister passing by earlier, and I felt sorry too.”

“No, but that patient had a traffic accident, right?”

“Yes. I heard that it was a hit-and-run.”

“A hit-and-run?”

“Yes, I heard the teachers talking about it earlier, so I thought that might be the case.”

“That’s right! Patient Lee Jung-bon, whom the director operated on, also had a TA [traffic accident], right?”

“That’s right.”

“Could it be that the two are related?”

“What!? Hey, no way! If that’s true, we really shouldn’t let that guy go.”