Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 498

Fifth Vitality – Episode 499 (498/502)

499. Cloud Class, Six-Year-Old Yoo Seo-joon

“Just a minute!”

Having disconnected the call with his mother, Kim Mi-hye, Im Ma-joon reviewed the conversation, familiarizing himself with the information sent to his phone.

“So, I was a sickly kid since I was little, and that’s why I lived on medication. I was fine while taking the meds, but recently, I switched medications, and a side effect caused this accident while driving.”

The scenario Kim Mi-hye sent seemed quite thorough and perfect.

In truth, Im Ma-joon wasn’t greatly worried about this incident.

He had a very reliable mother and a strict but supportive father who ran a large corporation.

Even if his father hated and disapproved of him, he was still his son, so he believed he would help him avoid any serious trouble.

Moreover, he had a lawyer whose fees were so high that ordinary people couldn’t even dream of affording them, so he didn’t feel too burdened.

“Ha! Damn. But what if that woman really dies? That would feel a bit weird…….”

Im Ma-joon was a person with no basic sense of morality. Still, he seemed concerned about someone dying. But that feeling was fleeting.

“Ha! I can’t make any mistakes……. I’m nervous, so I crave drugs. Shit, seeing this, I’m definitely a hopeless case. Damn! Why am I so itchy?”

Getting up from his seat, Im Ma-joon’s body started to itch again because of the drugs.

He scratched his arms and legs vigorously, then, as if feeling a severe thirst, went to the vending machine across from him and pulled out an ion drink [sports drink containing electrolytes].

He gulped down the entire can of the drink in one go, crushed the can, and threw it on the floor.

Then, he took out the black box memory card [dashcam recording] from his jacket pocket.

“Should I just smash this with my foot and throw it away? Or should I flush it down the toilet…….”

Im Ma-joon was holding the memory card in his hand, talking to himself like a madman when it happened.

“Mister!”

A young boy suddenly popped out from a small space next to the vending machine and a large potted plant, raising his voice.

“Ah! You scared me. Shit!”

“Oh! You’re a bad person who uses bad words.”

The child, who looked like a kindergarten student, widened his big eyes at the swear word that came out of Im Ma-joon’s mouth, looking at him with a displeased expression.

Like the saying that pure children can see bad people, Im Ma-joon looked that way to this child.

The way he carelessly threw trash on the floor made him seem like a villain.

“Hey! Who are you!”

“Not ‘Hey!’ and not ‘you,’ either.”

The cute-looking child refuted Im Ma-joon’s words with a sharp look in his bright eyes.

“What is it!?”

“What is it!?”

“Are you gonna get in trouble?”

“Why? I’m not ‘Hey’ or ‘you,’ I’m Yoo Seo-joon, six years old, from Cloud Class at Sunshine Kindergarten. And why would I get in trouble when I didn’t do anything wrong?”

“What did you say?”

“The person who did wrong isn’t me, it’s you, mister.”

“What! Wrong?”

“You’ll get punished for doing bad things.”

As if he knew everything, the child spoke clearly to Im Ma-joon.

“Hey! What bad things did I do, you little brat? Ha! Itchy as hell.”

Im Ma-joon, taken aback by the words of a child who was only six years old, retorted to the child without acting like an adult. And even while arguing with the child, he continued to scratch various parts of his body.

“This!”

The child, who didn’t find Im Ma-joon’s scary glare intimidating at all, finally raised the drink can that had fallen on the floor, questioning him.

“You threw this on the ground a little while ago, didn’t you? Right?”

“So, you’re making a fuss because I threw away a drink?”

Im Ma-joon, who was at a critical crossroads of whether he would go to jail or not, found the child’s actions of making a fuss over mere trash laughable.

“Yes. You should throw trash in the trash can. And this is a hospital. It’s a place where sick people like my mom come, so it’s dirty if you throw trash around carelessly like this. Don’t you think so? My teacher said there are germs in the trash!”

“Ha! What a piece of garbage…….”

“Stars are in the sky. It’s not a piece of garbage. And you shouldn’t use such bad words, either?”

“Ah, man! This is unbelievable.”

“I’m also at a loss for words because of you, mister. Hurry up and throw this in the trash can.”

Whether he was strong-willed or just found Im Ma-joon ridiculous, the child stood his ground and said exactly what he wanted to say.

“Okay, I don’t have time to deal with a little kid right now. Watch closely, kid. Mister threw the drink in the trash can properly. Got it?”

Clang-

“No, you didn’t?”

Because Im Ma-joon threw the drink can while looking at the child, he didn’t throw it properly into the trash can, and it fell back onto the floor.

“It fell again…….”

Thud-

“Is it okay? Is it okay? Is it okay now?”

“Yes, please throw it in the trash can from the beginning next time. The Earth is hurting.”

“Geez! Talking about the Earth.”

Im Ma-joon shook his head in disbelief at the child’s bold words and actions, then turned away and headed to the emergency room.

“I don’t think he’s a nice mister.”

The child, who had been watching the scene intently, muttered to himself and then suddenly lowered his gaze to the floor.

“Oh! Mister!”

The child shouted, holding something small he had found on the floor, but Im Ma-joon had already turned the corner with quick steps.

“Isn’t this yours, mister?”

The child looked at what he was holding with curious eyes—it was the memory card from the accident vehicle.

A little while ago, when Im Ma-joon was about to throw away the drink can because he couldn’t resist the child’s persistence.

After the phone call, he had taken out the memory card and tried to put it back into his jacket pocket.

But the memory card didn’t fit in the pocket.

Im Ma-joon thought he had put it in, but it didn’t go into the pocket and slipped from the inside of his jacket, falling to the floor.

Thus, the memory card containing evidence of the accident scene and his drug use, which he thought was his lifeline, ended up in the hands of a young child.

“A piece? What is it?”

The child, who had been looking at the memory card, stuck the card deep into his pants pocket.

“Yoo Seo-joon!!”

As the child was about to go back into the space next to the vending machine, a young woman called out the child’s name from afar and ran over.

“Auntie!!!”

“Oh, you rascal!!!”

The woman hugged the child tightly, as if he were lovely, even while saying it with an exasperated expression.

“Who told you to come down here? Huh? Auntie was so surprised, I almost fainted. I was looking for you, thinking you had disappeared.”

“Auntie, does that mean I won?”

“What? Seo-joon!!”

Six-year-old kindergarten student Seo-joon was currently at Our Hospital because his mother was hospitalized for giving birth to his younger sibling.

His father, who had been with him, had to go on a business trip, so his aunt came to take care of him.

In the meantime, he insisted on seeing his mother, so they came to the hospital, and he insisted on staying with his mother today, so they were at the hospital until this hour.

Seo-joon, who had been sleeping next to his mother in a private room, woke up to go to the bathroom and was fully awake because he had taken a nap during the day.

He told his aunt that he would go back to sleep if she played tag with him just once.

So, his aunt played tag with him in the early morning, but Seo-joon, who was more serious about tag than anyone else, came down from the ward and hid here and there before hiding in this place.

“Yes, Seo-joon won. But how did you know to come here? Auntie was looking for you, thinking you had disappeared.”

“I came here with Dad last time. I thought Auntie wouldn’t be able to find me, so I took the elevator. Auntie, how did you find me?”

“How did I find you! How else? I went all over the hospital.”

The aunt was startled by her mischievous nephew.

“Seo-joon, you can’t wander around like this by yourself. Mom will scold Auntie.”

“I’m sorry. But Auntie, what’s a hit-and-run?”

“A hit-and-run?”

Seo-joon had heard and remembered everything Im Ma-joon had said when he was talking to his mother while hiding next to the vending machine.

“Yeah. A hit-and-run.”

“That’s bad. It’s when a car causes an accident and the person doesn’t take care of the injured person and just runs away.”

“I see. Then what does it mean to do drugs?”

Seo-joon remembered the words Im Ma-joon had said about doing drugs and asked his aunt.

“Drugs? What drugs?”

“I don’t know. He kept saying he did drugs?”

“Who?”

“The mister who was here earlier, the one with scary eyes, was talking on the phone and said that. That mister threw trash on the ground, and I told him off, and he got angry at me.”

“That’s why I told you not to wander around alone. How scary people are these days. You can’t wander around alone anymore.”

“Okay. I understand.”

Seo-joon, with Im Ma-joon’s memory card in his pocket, went back up to the hospital room with his aunt.

* * *

“Haa!”

Having finished talking with his in-laws in Japan, Oh Si-won sighed.

“Haa! Haa!”

The sigh he let out once continued endlessly several times.

Oh Si-won roughly shoved the phone he was holding into his pocket, closed his eyes tightly, wiped his face dry, and came out of the waiting room.

His determined expression was telling that he was now ready.

“Excuse me……?”

Oh Si-won, who came out of the waiting room, moved to the emergency room and spoke to a nurse.

“Is my sister-in-law okay?”

Oh Si-won first checked on Kyoko’s condition, who had collapsed.

He had to see his sister-in-law now because he couldn’t guarantee what would happen to him after seeing Kana in a little while.

“Yes, your sister-in-law is fine. Would you like to come this way?”

Oh Si-won followed the nurse to the bed where Kyoko was lying.

“She fainted earlier and was examined, but there’s nothing seriously wrong, and she collapsed from shock. She’s getting an IV [intravenous drip] now and will wake up soon, so don’t worry too much.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Looking at Kyoko, who was lying still with her eyes closed, Oh Si-won thought to himself that it was fortunate, really fortunate.

If Kyoko hadn’t collapsed, and if she had seen Kana’s appearance, he thought it would have been even more difficult.

Oh Si-won didn’t want his still young sister-in-law to receive that shock.

“Excuse me, the director…….”

Oh Si-won, who had been quietly looking at Kyoko, said to the nurse.

“Please wait a moment.”

Soon, Tae-kyung approached Oh Si-won.

“Director, I need to see our Kana……. I need to see Kana.”

As Tae-kyung approached, Oh Si-won said that he wanted to see Kana.

“Is the guardian okay?”

Tae-kyung knew best that he wasn’t okay, but he still deliberately asked that question.

Usually, patients who are not okay at times like this shed tears or show hesitation.

Then, he lets the guardian in after preparing his mind a little more.

No matter how much you prepare your mind, you will be shocked by the terrible reality when you face the patient.

It was Tae-kyung’s heart as a doctor to care for the guardian.

“I’m……. I’m okay. I’m really okay.”

“Please follow me.”

Tae-kyung headed to the treatment room where Kana was with Oh Si-won, who looked okay on the outside.