“After the examination, the on-duty doctor contacted the surgery department head. After checking the chart, they sent him straight to the operating room. They’re on their way to the hospital now, so the guardian will also move upstairs.”
The nurse was wearing ordinary sneakers, but moved swiftly as if there were wheels attached to the floor. Seonwoo followed with footsteps that were more than fast, almost impatient, and asked.
“Is it very serious?”
“They judged that emergency surgery was necessary because the broken bone is stimulating nerves. It’s not a critical situation, so you don’t need to worry too much.”
Since the medical staff directly told him not to worry, a sense of relief should have passed by, if only fleetingly. But Seonwoo’s expression wasn’t like that. Rather, his expression hardened as if he had heard bad news.
“……He swims. What about aftereffects?”
“Is he by any chance an athlete?”
“Probably not, I think.”
“It’s just a hobby, right? Then there won’t be any major problems in daily life. Of course, he’ll have to consistently do rehabilitation……”
“……”
Hearing those words, his head felt distant. It was a feeling where his mind remained in the place he had passed while only his body moved forward. The place Seonwoo was led to like an empty shell was the hospital’s 5th floor.
There was no separate waiting room. Seonwoo sat in a chair in front of the operating room entrance. The nurse said something to him, but there was no reaction. Seonwoo’s gaze was fixed on the operating room door.
At some point, the nurse who had been beside him disappeared, and in front of the operating room—no, throughout the entire 5th-floor elevator hallway—there was no one except Seonwoo.
The weight the space gave couldn’t be easily ignored. Seonwoo felt like he had suddenly been dropped into a space detached from reality. It was natural since only his body had been moved first from the hectic urgency just before to sudden stillness. Now it was time for his mind to catch up to that gap.
But far from catching up to the gap, Seonwoo was floundering in the rapid change. Even if someone beside him spoke to him, he wouldn’t hear it. Even if they held up a mirror showing him what kind of screw-loose face he was making now, Seonwoo wouldn’t come to his senses.
That’s when it happened. The elevator sound was heard, and from far away, a middle-aged man came running frantically. In casual clothes and with one side of his hair flattened as if pressed by a pillow, he looked like someone who had just woken up.
Seonwoo thought he might be someone’s guardian, but the man passed the waiting area where Seonwoo was sitting and headed to the operating room. And with urgent hand gestures, he opened the operating room door and entered inside. Through a brief gap, beyond the door was visible. It was a place where a bright hallway extended long, not a surgical space. The end of the hallway was structured to continue to the left, so nothing more could be seen.
Seonwoo vaguely guessed that the man who had just passed was the surgery department head. The person who would treat Taejeong had arrived. When his thoughts reached that point, it felt like his blocked airways opened up a little.
When he had the leisure to catch his breath, his body’s condition began to enter his eyes. His scraped palm stung, and his sole felt similar. On top of that, his knee was tingling. It was a natural result since he had escaped using such a crude method.
But a pain greater than all those injuries combined was felt in his right hand. Seonwoo endured the pain by pressing down firmly with his left hand on the subtle convulsions.
Like the nurse at the previous emergency room had judged, Seonwoo was also in a state that needed treatment. But Seonwoo didn’t budge from the chair. He just repeatedly rubbed and massaged his trembling hand.
Then suddenly Seonwoo recalled the fact that he hadn’t paid the taxi fare. He didn’t have a wallet or phone to begin with, so he didn’t even have the means to pay.
Could he find the driver who disappeared silently after helping move Taejeong into the emergency room? His biological father beat his child like a beast, but a stranger whose name he didn’t even know bestowed kindness without compensation and disappeared.
“……”
In a different sense from when he was in a state of tension just before, his chest felt stuffy. He had no choice but to consciously take deep breaths and turn his consciousness elsewhere.
There was no clock nearby. He couldn’t tell how much time had passed since Taejeong entered the operating room. But before he knew it, both his hair and clothes had dried. The clothes had dried while still on, clinging to Seonwoo’s body. He had gotten wet enough to soak even his underwear in the rain, so his whole body felt uncomfortable, but Seonwoo didn’t even go to the bathroom once.
It was after a long while. The operating room door that seemed like it would be closed forever opened. Seonwoo stood up as if jumping from his chair. But he soon stopped in place.
What came out of the operating room wasn’t the bed with Taejeong lying on it, but the middle-aged man who had run urgently down the hallway. Seeing that he was wearing a teal uniform and even a thin cap, he was indeed a doctor.
Then the doctor raised one arm and gestured as if to come here. It wasn’t the attitude a doctor would normally have toward a guardian. But Seonwoo immediately moved his feet. Whatever it was, he needed to know Taejeong’s condition.
“Are you Taejeong’s friend? What’s your name?”
On the fleshy doctor’s face, the marks pressed by the mask remained clearly. From the mouth inside that square mark, Taejeong’s name came out naturally.
“Why aren’t you answering? You’re the one who brought him to our hospital, right?”
Seonwoo looked straight into the doctor’s eyes with an expressionless face and then asked.
“Do you know who the patient is?”
“Of course I know. He’s the society chairman’s son.”
“……”
“No, so what’s your name? Are you really his friend?”
Seonwoo, who kept his mouth quietly shut, didn’t even blink. Understanding the situation was priority to see if the imagination that came to his mind was correct. But Seonwoo cast all of that aside and asked about Taejeong’s condition first.
“The surgery went properly, right? There’s no problem?”
“Taejeong’s friend. I’m asking for the third time now, what’s your name?”
“……”
When Seonwoo didn’t answer, the doctor irritably took off his cap. One side of his hair was still pressed flat.
“Ah, forget it. He’s going to the society chairman’s hospital anyway. I don’t have anything more to ask.”
“He’s not recovering here? You’re sending him somewhere else?”
Within their conversation, Seonwoo’s voice kept changing as if going up a level. The voice that was calm at first was now shooting out as if attacking irritably.
“Of course. Plus, the environment there is much better than here. If you’re Taejeong’s friend, you know what his father does, right? It’s fine, so you should hurry home too, student. With this rain pouring down, how would your parents feel if you don’t come home?”
“……”
“This is something I’m saying because you’re like a child to me. It’s good to cherish friendship between friends, but the most important thing is filial duty first……”
“You can’t send him.”
Seonwoo emphasized those words again and added a precise expression.
“You can’t send him. To that hospital.”
At that moment, the smile that had been creeping up while looking down on Seonwoo as just a kid instantly disappeared from the doctor’s face.
“What?”
The doctor he was seeing for the first time only went on about boring things, but that might be proof that he was an ordinary person. If he was an ordinary person enough to go on about deceiving parents or the duties of children, wouldn’t he understand how unreasonable this situation was?
Seonwoo still expected common sense even in this situation. It was an easy judgment he wouldn’t normally make. So he opened his mouth lightly.
“That person made him that way. He suffered domestic violence.”
But the moment those words left his mouth, from the doctor’s expression alone, Seonwoo could tell he’d made a mistake from being unable to bear his impatience.
“What are you saying right now?”
The doctor raised his voice with his face completely crumpled as if he’d heard nonsense.
“The Society Chairman himself asked me to take good care of the surgery, so what is this? I heard there was an accident. If you were there together, you would’ve seen everything from the side, wouldn’t you?”
“……”
“What, domestic violence? Can you take responsibility for what you said? You’re so young and green, yet you have no fear and speak recklessly? Anyway, kids these days don’t know to be afraid of adults. I couldn’t even sleep and rushed out at this dawn for this……”
