Golden Time

Chapter 54

Choi Suryon, who came back from the bathroom, laughed as she looked at Suhyuk.

“Let’s drink.”

Suhyuk looked at her, shaking his head.

Her collarbone was clearly visible under her white, pale neck.

Perhaps because of drinking, her neck was tinged with red.

“I think we should refrain from drinking any more.”

“No, let’s not yet stop. Cheers!”

Drinking a cup of soju instantly, she wiped her lips and looked at him.

Every time he drinks, his uvula moved up and down.

“What are you looking at?”

At Suhyuk’s voice, she woke up from her thoughts.

“I’m saying this perhaps because I drank, but you look more handsome today.”

Now she was looking at him, with her chin rested on her hands.

Suhyuk drank some water with a laugh.

All along Choi’s gaze was fixed on his neck.

“Don’t you think your clothes show too much skin?”

She looked down at her chest at Suhyuk’s question.

It was not that exposed so as to see her vest.

“Other girls are wearing clothes like this. It feels like you have come from the Yi dynasty several hundreds ago.”

Though Choi said that, as a rule, she did not like to wear clothes that are too tight or exposing. Why and for whom would she wear clothes like that…

Choi, laughed, holding her cup and poured alcohol into his cup.

At that moment she moved her gaze suddenly to her cellphone.

The message was seen displayed on the screen. Hiding it, she held her phone.

“I’ll go to the bathroom.”

Walking with short and quick steps, she went out and called somewhere.

“Oh brother, you are nearby?”

“Yes, did you have a lot to drink? Drink moderately and then let’s go home together.”

She hesitated for a moment at the voice coming out of her cell phone.

Then, she had in her eyes Suhyuk, seen over the window of the bar, staring with her eyes full of regrets. However, Choi’s agony did not last long.

“Yeah, I’ll come out soon.”

Entering the bar, she said, as if she really felt it regrettable, “Sorry, I have to go first.”

Her friends responded strongly.

“Yeah, yeah, you should go quickly if your brother called.”

“Don’t worry about us. See you tomorrow!”

“Hey, what’s wrong with you? Isn’t it normal that you should take hold of me?”

She, shaking her head, waved her hands at Suhyuk and said to herself,

“Today is the only day for this. See you tomorrow.”

Like her, Suhyuk also waved his hands.

As soon as she disappeared, their eyes began to s.h.i.+ne.

“Yaah, tell them we want to join them quickly! Join!”

“Wait.”

Suhyuk had no choice but to shake his head.

***

Choi, who came out, walked for about 10 minutes. And then she stood still by the side.

Within a very short time, a black foreign car stopped in front of her.

As usual, Choi opened the car door and sat next to the driver.

He was casually dressed, and holding onto the steering wheel.

Hiding behind a hat, with his eyes shaded by it.

“You drank a lot, didn’t you?”

She shook her head at his question.

“No, just a little bit. Very little.”

It was true that she drank a lot, but she vomited most of it out in the bathroom as she drank.

“I can strongly smell alcohol on your breath. You’ll get scolded again for drinking like that.”

Choi’s expression became dark at his words. But she laughed very quickly,

“I’m not scared at all because I get to go home with you, my brother!”

Opening the window, she breathed in the wind with her chin on her hands.

The wind blowing moved Choi’s hair pleasantly. Perhaps he drove for about 30 minutes.

Soon they arrived at a large single-family house.

The garage door opened and the luxury foreign car went in. It was very s.p.a.cious inside.

Choi, who got out the car, swept her head and sighed briefly.

“Let’s go in.”

The man moved first, followed by her. As she entered the porch, she adjusted her dress.

“I’m home.”

The man’s voice made a brilliant smile on a middle-aged woman’s face.

“Son, where have you been?”

“I’ve been seeing a friend for a while.”

His father, who sat on the couch, also welcomed his son.

“Have you eaten?”

Choi then came into the living room.

“I’m home.”

When she said that, there was a moment’s silence.

They were frowning at her. And it lasted only briefly.

The father fixed his gaze on the TV without saying anything, and the middle-aged woman only talked to her son. They acted as if Choi was an invisible person.

She dropped her head and turned to her room.

At that moment, the mother opened her mouth, leering at Choi, “Did you drink?”

She was standing without lifting her head.

“A little.”

“It doesn’t fit a student like you. Tut, tut.”

With a light smile, the man took her side, saying “She drank with me.”

“Really? You said you met your friends…”

While the mother and son were exchanging conversation, Choi bowed her head once and then entered her room.

“Huhh…”

Leaning against the wall, she let out a sigh.

She looked up at the dark ceiling, and then she turned on the light and sat in front of the desk.

She took a small picture from her wallet and stared at it. In the picture, her mom and dad, who was watching TV a while ago, held their hands. And between them was a girl smiling brightly in her childhood. She was really happy until that time. But unhappiness came without warning and without sound. Her mother died and she was brought to this house by her father when she was nine years old. Then she came to realize that her dad already had shacked up with another woman before her mother died. It was the beginning of her unhappiness. The new mother treated her as if she was an invisible person. Her dad did the same thing.

The moment her mom pa.s.sed away and she set her feet o

in that house, they did not care about her except for feeding her and telling her to go sleep. So she became an invisible person, just like a ghost.

No, there was one person who recognized her existence. It was her half brother.

He always cared about and took care of her. When she was sick or sad, he always took care of her. And even as the years pa.s.sed, he never changed.

Then one day. He was in an accident. Fortunately, he recovered without any injury.

But when he had the accident, she felt as if the sky would collapse.

The feeling that the only person in this world who took her side would disappear forever…

It was terrible.

“Lee Suhyuk,” she muttered that name, recalling him.

Her brother is still suffering from the nightmare of the past.

He enjoys an occasional nap while watching TV in the living room.

Several times she saw him waking up flabbergasted, touching his throat.

Whenever he did that, he murmured the name of Lee Suhyuk, wiping the cold sweat.

Post-traumatic stress disorder. The terrible memories of the past continue to cause a man to make a panicked reaction, which then makes him devastated. Lee Suhyuk was the root of this. Then she could realize one thing. It was that she found some work to do for her brother.

—–

The faces of the students, who gathered at one place after lunch, were resolute.

Kwon Jaehyuk said in a subdued tone, “You guys have to respect the outcome. Don’t talk about something different or change what you said.”

Everyone nodded, anxiously.

“We’re going to decide by the rock-paper-scissors game. Whoever doesn’t partic.i.p.ate is the loser.”

The body of the students who showed their hands became stuck like a stone statue.

It was because only Suhyuk showed rock in the game while others showed scissors.

Withdrawing his hand, Suhyuk smiled bitterly.

Kwon stuttered and asked him, “Which patient will you take?”

Clinical practice test.

Resident Park Ganghyun offered a piece of A4 paper to Suhyuk’s group.

“You guys have to choose the patient among yourselves, and prepare for your presentation until next week. You have to prepare well because the professor will give you the score.”

It was a list of patients hospitalized with different causes and diseases.

The total number of patients was five.

Four of them were patients with simple diseases. They could expect good scores if they prepare well enough by integrating the diagnostics of these patients with their hospital data…

But the problem was the remaining patient. The patient with leukemia.

The seriousness of that patient’s disease was different from the other patients.

It was true that they found themselves reluctant to choose a patient with leukemia when they have easier patients to choose.

“Who is going to take that patient?”

When they asked one more time, Suhyuk laughed slightly,

“Let me take patient Im Jinmook.”

Their eyes turned wider at Suhyuk’s words. He was taking the leukemia patient.

“Really? Don’t say anything different later, okay?”

“Are you for real? Anything to say after that?”

Suhyuk nodded his head lightly.

“Hey, guys, why don’t we buy Suhyuk delicious food?”

“Thank you!”

Suhyuk waved his hands, saying he would decline such a treat, and he came out into the hallway.

***

A nurse, who seemed to be in her mid 20s, was leisurely drinking coffee in front of the PC monitor. Then a voice popped out from the side.

“Good morning,” It was Suhyuk.

The nurse who recognized him laughed brightly.

He was a PK pract.i.tioner who she looked at from a distance. She knew that he was a celebrity.

“h.e.l.lo, what brought you here?”

“Well, I’ve been a.s.signed to do a presentation on patient Im Jinmook.”

“Oh, you are here to see his medical data. Wait a moment.”

Her hand holding the mouse moved around.

Click, click.

“Take a look.”

Suhyuk sat down at the seat where she had been sitting.

When he was about to look at the monitor, the nurse said, “It’s an acute myeloid leukemia.”

Suhyuk nodded his head.

The most common leukemia is acute myelogenous leukemia.

Suhyuk kept looking at the monitor quietly. The nurse smiled at his gesture like that.

No matter how famous he was, he’s but a student.

Actual practice was different from that of studying with textbooks.

‘Can I help him?’

She opened her mouth softly, “There are four different types of leukemia: acute lymphoblastic leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, chronic lymphoid arthritis, and acute myeloid leukemia, such as those of the immune system.”

He responded with a smile at her kind voice, “Thank you.”

Then he fixed his gaze on the monitor again.

“The leukemia Im has been suffering from is a very dangerous acute disease, and cancerous mutations occurred in the cells, resulting in excessive division…”

When Suhyuk scratched his head and stood up, she slurred her words, ‘Was my explanation too difficult?’

When the nurse was about to open her mouth again, Suhyuk spoke first,

“He already received chemotherapy, but did he get a hematopoietic cell transplant by any chance? I think it’s time for him to have a self-transplant… I can’t find the data for that.”

The nurse was startled all of a sudden.

She should have put down the record on his treatment, but forgot.

She was being helped rather than helping him.

“Would you like some coffee?”

Suhyuk answered with a smile, saying, “No thanks. Can I see patient Im Jinmook now?”

He wanted to see the patient first.