# Chapter 97
### 3-5
Mo Eunje opened his eyes at the announcement that they would soon arrive at Busan Station and looked around. The train was gradually slowing down. It had been a very long time since he’d dreamed of his childhood. Back then, as now, he had no intention of letting go of Tae Igyeol’s firmly held hand. Just imagining losing him—not letting go, but losing him—made him feel he wouldn’t be able to endure the sense of loss, futility, and emptiness. Going further, it would mean losing one meaning of his life.
It was around 6:30 PM when he got off the train. He figured he could go to the hospital and head home together with his parents when they finished work. Mo Eunje hailed a taxi and headed to MH Plastic Surgery & Dermatology.
Though he’d heard about the infamous reputation of Busan taxis, he hadn’t felt it at all when he came to Busan with Tae Igyeol last time. But now, the rough driving made him nauseous. When he got out in front of the hospital, he was on the verge of being sick from motion sickness. After repeatedly taking deep breaths, he entered the hospital when he felt a bit better.
“I’m sorry, but we’ve finished accepting patients for today. Are you here for the dermatology department? Would you like to make an appointment?”
An employee at the reception and payment desk asked in a friendly voice. It was a face he hadn’t seen last time he came. It seemed they had hired more staff since then.
“I’m the director’s son. Have the directors left for the day?”
“Oh, hello! Dr. Han Seola from plastic surgery is still in the operating room, and Dr. Mo Yeongwoo from dermatology has finished his consultations and is currently in his office. Would you like me to call him?”
“No. I’ll go in myself. Thank you.”
It was almost 7 PM, but since he didn’t know when Han Seola would finish her surgery, he went to the director’s office, planning to wait with Mo Yeongwoo. He knocked with the back of his hand, and Mo Yeongwoo’s voice came from inside. He slightly opened the door and peeked his face through.
“Oh? Eunje. How did you come without contacting us?”
“I just suddenly wanted to see Dad, that’s all.”
Mo Yeongwoo showed his delight with a surprised face. Mo Eunje went in, closed the door, and sat in the patient’s chair facing Mo Yeongwoo. Mo Yeongwoo’s gaze quickly scanned Mo Eunje as if searching for something.
“It’ll be a while before your mom finishes. Should I give you a laser treatment or something?”
“Why? Has my skin gotten worse?”
As Mo Eunje sheepishly ran his hand down his cheek, Mo Yeongwoo picked up a medical magnifying glass and seriously checked his skin condition. Ban Hajun had envied him, saying it would be really nice to have a dermatologist dad. When they were at the Seoul hospital, Mo Yeongwoo had introduced Ban Hajun, who took great care with his skin, and gave him appropriate treatments at a 50% discount each time. In fact, when his parents said they were moving to Busan, Ban Hajun was more disappointed than Mo Eunje. However, Mo Eunje himself had never benefited from his dad’s dermatology treatments because his natural skin was so good.
“Before, your skin was like a peeled egg, taking after your mom, even without any treatments, but in less than two months, it’s become dry. Your elasticity has also decreased a lot. Let’s brighten the overall tone and add some moisture.”
Thinking that when he had briefly stopped by home yesterday, Tae Igyeol’s skin also looked rough, Mo Eunje thought he should ask his dad to check Tae Igyeol’s skin next time.
“Please prepare laser toning, 600 shots of Thermage, and Treasure injection in Room 1.”
Mo Yeongwoo said this while pressing a button on the wired phone on his desk, and Mo Eunje, who was about to receive treatment unexpectedly, was flustered.
“You’re really going to do it? Won’t it hurt?”
“We’ll apply numbing cream, so it’ll be fine. If we were just doing laser toning, we could do it without applying anything, but Thermage is a high-frequency laser—”
“Wait! If you need to apply numbing cream, it means it’s painful. I don’t want to do it.”
Even though he was a dermatologist’s son, he had never tried these things, so he was scared. He might have a rough idea about treatments that people commonly receive from what he had seen and heard, but he knew nothing about the pain or intensity of discomfort during the procedures.
But if they needed to apply numbing cream on the face, which is more delicate than other parts of the body, the treatment would clearly be extremely painful. He thought, “I can live with my natural appearance,” and had no intention of enduring pain just to brighten his skin tone and improve elasticity. Mo Yeongwoo was dumbfounded by Mo Eunje’s reaction.
“People are desperate to get these treatments, but why don’t you want them when I’m offering them to you?”
“Because it hurts. I don’t want to do painful things.”
“If you apply numbing cream, it doesn’t hurt at all.”
“Dad, you always say things don’t hurt even when they do. How many times have I been fooled? Even when we went to that health pressure point path, you said it wouldn’t hurt at all, but I thought I was going to die from pain as soon as I stepped on it. I still remember that.”
Though he couldn’t remember the exact time, there was a time in his early twenties when they went to a place like an arboretum. In that arboretum-like place, there was a so-called “health pressure point path” where you had to take off your shoes and walk barefoot on a path covered with pebbles. It was a path that Tae Igyeol walked on without any problem, but Mo Eunje couldn’t even take two steps because of the pain in his soles that felt like someone was pressing hard on a bruise or like his feet were about to be torn off.
He had figured that adults enjoy things that are supposedly good for health. But he found it amazing that Tae Igyeol, who was the same age as him, could endure the pain in his soles. So, after getting off the pressure point path, he had a reasonable suspicion that Tae Igyeol’s soles might be covered with cement, and he had squatted down, grabbed Tae Igyeol’s ankle, and pressed his soles with his fingers to check. He got kicked for it, though.
“You’re just being dramatic. How can that hurt? It’s refreshing. Igyeol walked just fine.”
“Anyway, I don’t like painful things. If you need to apply numbing cream, I won’t do it.”
Just as he was firmly expressing his refusal, there was a knock and the office door opened.
“Director, Room 1 is ready, and I’ll apply the numbing cream to your son first.”
“He says Thermage is painful, so he won’t do it. We’ll come straight to Room 1.”
Mo Eunje followed Mo Yeongwoo to the laser room only after receiving four reassurances that laser toning and Treasure injections wouldn’t hurt at all, even without applying numbing cream. When he lay on the treatment bed, a wave of nervousness suddenly came over him, even though it wasn’t a big deal.
“We’ll do the Treasure injection first, then the laser toning.”
“Okay. Dad, I’m nervous, so you really need to make sure it doesn’t hurt.”
“Goodness. I wonder who you take after, being so afraid and dramatic. Ms. Kim, please give him a stuffed toy.”
The woman called Ms. Kim smiled faintly and placed a bear-faced cushion doll on Mo Eunje’s chest. As he hugged the soft and cuddly doll, his mind miraculously calmed down.
The treatment began, and the Treasure injection, which supposedly added moisture to the skin, wasn’t too painful. He did feel something touching his skin, but it would be fair to say he hardly felt any pain. However, the laser toning was stinging and burning, and if he hadn’t been tightly clutching the doll with both hands, he might have grabbed his dad by the collar. The bear-faced cushion prevented him from unintentionally becoming an unfilial son.
“I knew this would happen. How can you say it doesn’t hurt?”
“How can that possibly hurt… Ms. Kim, please do the vitamin whitening treatment and Cryocell afterwards.”
“Yes. Please follow me. We’ll go to the treatment room.”
Mo Eunje lay on the treatment bed and comfortably slept for 40 minutes afterward. He dozed off feeling something gentle on his face, and when they put a cool mask that felt like mud on his face for skin soothing, he fell completely asleep. Because he had been in a state of tension recently and had lost a lot of sleep, whether on the train or in the treatment room, his body was focusing all its energy on replenishing the lack of sleep, regardless of his will.
After all the treatments were finished, he received final care and left the treatment room. Even though he had only slept for about 40 minutes, perhaps because he had slept comfortably without tension, it was the best quality sleep he had recently, and his mind was clear when he woke up.
“Oh…”
On his way to the director’s office, he looked at a mirror hanging in the corridor and saw that his previously dry skin had been filled with moisture and certainly looked better, like before. Seeing how his face had subtly brightened, it seemed the laser toning was effective too. That must be why Ban Hajun consistently got dermatology treatments. Though now he was doing home care while watching Han Seola and Mo Yeongwoo’s MiTube videos.
“Oh my, Eunje. You really came?”
“See, what did I tell you? I said Eunje came and was snoring in the treatment room.”
Mo Yeongwoo had finished preparing to leave, wearing casual clothes after taking off his gown, while Han Seola was still in surgical attire, having just come out of the operating room. But before greeting his mother, there was a matter that needed to be confirmed first.
“Did I really snore while sleeping? Did I really snore?”
“It was so loud it reached my office, and I thought it was thunder.”
“Just very softly, like a purring sound. You must have been tired.”
The opinions of his dad and the woman called Ms. Kim were opposite. In such cases, it was good for mental health to comfortably believe others’ words. He glared slightly at his dad and then gave a public smile towards Ms. Kim.
“I’m sorry. I haven’t been sleeping well lately due to sleep disorder. If I disturbed you, you could have woken me up…”
“Not at all. We had finished consultations, so no one was there. It’s fine.”
“Ms. Kim, you should go home too. The surgery went well, so let’s leave 15 minutes early today.”
Han Seola suggested. Looking at the wall clock, it was 8:15 PM. Only then did Mo Eunje notice the consultation hours sign placed next to the reception and payment desk. Just like when they practiced in Seoul, it was written that they had night consultations until 8:30 PM only on Thursdays. He had once asked why they had night consultations on Thursday, which is before the weekend, rather than Friday, and he was told that many office workers who receive dermatology treatments that show obvious signs or double eyelid surgery on Thursday take a day off on Friday.
Han Seola, who had gone into the plastic surgery director’s office, quickly changed her clothes, finished preparing to leave, and came out. As they left the hospital together, they discussed dinner options.
“I’m fine with anything except raw fish.”
“What’s with you? I thought you said you absolutely had to eat raw fish first in Busan. You like raw fish, don’t you?”
“I like all delicious foods. I want to eat something different and delicious from what I ate last time I was here.”
Otherwise, he felt like his mind would be preoccupied with thoughts of eating the same food with Tae Igyeol throughout the meal. So this time, he planned to avoid not only the raw fish he had eaten on the day he came to Busan but also the soup rice, wheat noodles, and raw ribs he had eaten on the day he returned home.
