Golden Time

Chapter 55

The nurse stared at him with wide eyes.

“Oh, don’t you know about it? It’s hard for any one other than a leukemia patients guardians to see them. I think you could prepare the presentation well with just the patient’s data.”

Suhyuk laughed bitterly. That’s the kind of situation that he expected when he asked the nurse.

He was the first patient Suhyuk took since he came to the hospital.

Though he could not treat him directly, he wanted to see the patient’s face even just once, which was regrettable.

So Suhyuk was forced to look at the monitor again.

The nurse looked at Suhyuk quietly. Thanks to him she could recall the forgotten medical record. She could have been disciplined for that.

‘Well, let me do him a favor…’

“I’m now going to check patient Im Jinmook. Would you like to come with me?”

Suhyuk hastily looked back at her. The nurse was smiling a little.

“I have a condition instead,” said the nurse.

“Condition?”

“Yes, please keep it to yourself that I let you come with me.”

Suhyuk nodded pleasantly.

Suhyuk, dressed in aseptic clothing, entered the room along with the nurse.

A 42-year-old male patient Im Jinmook.

The nurse smiled as she looked at him.

“How are you feeling today, sir?”

Despite his haggard face, he answered with a smile.

“Very good. I want to brush my teeth everyday. I don’t feel refreshed by just rinsing my teeth alone.”

“You don’t get any bleeding out of my gums, right? You can probably brush your teeth gently now, but don’t forget to ask the doctor about it.”

The nurse carefully checked the patient’s condition.

Suhyuk looked at him from behind quietly and recalled his examination record from a little while ago. ‘Did it say that he was overall in good condition and that he received chemotherapy because there were no complications? He received a bone marrow transplant for radiation therapy.’

A smile flickered in Suhyuk’s eyes. One month? It seemed that he could be discharged by then.

At that moment, the name of a disease suddenly pa.s.sed through his mind.

‘HIV’

Whenever he saw reports about leukemia on TV, he naturally came to think about HIV.

Can HIV be used to repair leukemia? Leukemia produces and inhibits the production of normal red blood cells and platelets by overproduction and proliferation of immature white blood cells. As a result, the defense system of the body collapses, resulting in complications such as sepsis, anemia, and difficulty breathing. HIV is the opposite. HIV is a disease where the white blood cells are destroyed while leukemia is one where white blood cells increase abnormally.

A poison is cured by a poison. The HIV virus that destroys white blood cells is put into a disease that increases white blood cells. In other words, genetic information (the HIV virus) is planted into the blood stem cell to treat leukemia. Theoretically it is more than possible, but it is not as easy as one thinks. If one can dp the research successfully, treatment of leukemia will be easier and the pain suffered by the patient will be significantly reduced. In fact, it was a project implemented seriously in foreign countries. One in five responded favorably.

Suhyuk shook his head. Right now it’s not perfect, but someday…

It was his own homework that Suhyuk had been thinking of.

“Shall we go now?”

At the nurse’s words, Suhyuk nodded his head and turned back to the patient.

He looked at the patient again.

‘When you are discharged, do not come back to the hospital.’

It was another way of Suhyuk saying to the patient he should stay fit and healthy.

***

The practice students’ every day was hectic and busy.

As soon as they were done with the morning rounds, they went to see the a.s.signed patients for examination or to check the medical records.

Only three days to go before the PPT announcement.

They did not go home, and prepared a presentation through the night at the hospital.

Suhyuk was no exception. No, he moved the mouse effortlessly.

While everyone was wrestling with the patient’s illness, he was surfing the internet to look for a background for his PPT.

Then Choi Suryon approached him, saying,

“What are the tests that are essential to proving the early peritonitis? No matter how hard I tried, I cannot find the answer.”

Letting out a sigh, she swept up her long hair as if she did not know.

“I think it would be better to take a simple radiographic image (Chest X-ray), because you can offer your own opinion on pneumoperitoneum[1].”

“Are you talking about one where you capture the image of a person’s chest while he’s standing?”

Suhyuk nodded and spoke again,

“If you go deeper, you can find free air from using an electrified CT …”

She shook her head. She felt her head throbbing as if she were talking with a professor.

“I just need to include a chest radiography in the presentation because all I need is to show pneumoperitoneum. Thank you!”

She turned back without any regrets. At that moment she was staggering and put her hands on his desk.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” asked Suhyuk.

At his questions, she slowly nodded her head.

“I feel like I have anemia. I feel it these days often.”

Suhyuk slightly frowned.

Recently he has not seen her eating, and if she did, she ate very little like a bird.

“Are you on a diet these days?”

She put her hand on her waist and made a posture as if she wanted to show off her shape.

Her tight pants and vest stuck to her upper body showed that her shape is a subject of praise.

“Do you think my body needs to be on diet?”

Suhyuk said, shaking his head,

“Don’t skip your meals. Or eat anemic medicine. If you want to be a doctor, you should be able to manage your body.”

“Hey…”

She leaned back and showed her face to Suhyuk, saying, “Are you worried about me?”

With her vest stretched down, her breastbone was openly visible.

Suhyuk turned his head to the side and muttered to himself, “Put on some clothes, too…”

When he thought as such, Choi said calmly, looking around, “Are not you hungry?”

Suhyuk nodded his head. It was already 9 o’clock in the night.

Actually he felt hungry at this moment.

“Let me treat you, so let’s go out.”

“What about our other friends?”

“I’m not that rich, okay? Let me leave first, and you come out 10 minutes later.”

She wrapped her backpack and waved to them, saying, “I’m leaving now. See you tomorrow.”

Choi hopped like a rabbit to get out of the PK room.

Suhyuk looked around. Everyone was staring at the medical records on those patients they were a.s.signed to. He felt sorry for them because only both of them were eating out.

For them, however, the practice score would be more of a priority than eating.

Ten minutes later, Suhyuk rose from the seat, saying, “I’ll get some air outside for a moment.”

They were jealous at his words.

“You must feel good as you can afford to go out for fresh air.”

“Are you done already?”

Suhyuk went out of the room, with them casting jealous eyes.

***

Suhyuk and Choi found a coffee shop.

With coffee and a piece of chocolate cake, he moved to his seat.

What he ordered was a sweet piece of chocolate cake. He chose it without thinking, but the price was very expensive. That little piece cost 7,000 won. Naturally Hana’s rice and soup store came to his mind. With this money, he could fill his stomach with one bowl of delicious rice and soup.

“Thanks for the treat.”

She smiled at his words. The cake disappeared shortly.

Hardly had he moved his fingers a few times than he had suddenly eaten it all. He felt as if he lost to his appet.i.te.

On the other hand, Choi had yet to eat half.

No, she just poked the fork as if to dismantle the cake rather than eat it.

“What are you doing?”

She woke up from her thoughts at his words, and she put some cake in her mouth.

“I just don’t know what to do with the presentation… I already feel anxious.”

“You’ll be okay if you do it well seeing as you have prepared for it.”

He has secretly seen the PPT she had been making.

The prescriptions and coping for the disease were accurate without any margin of error.

If she goes ahead with it just as it is, she will definitely get a good score.

Then Choi stood up and laughed, saying, “I’ll go to the bathroom.”

She went to the bathroom and said, “Wow!”

She started to feel nauseous.

As if she felt choking in her throat, her white neck was becoming red.

She headed to the sink and rinsed her mouth.

Looking at the dripping water, she muttered, “Disgusting b.a.s.t.a.r.d…”

Recently, she felt it hard to swallow food. It was natural that anemia followed because she ate little.

“Lee Suhyuk…”

Chewing her thin lips, she shook her head and blew away her thoughts.

Extreme stress.

‘I’ve had this before. ”

“Huuhh…”

After adjusting her hair that slipped off, she soon went out of the bathroom.

—–

Parting with Suhyuk, she was adjusting her clothes in front of her house.

Then soon she went inside.

“I’m home.”

Her father  and her stepmother that were watching TV took a glance at her.

That was it. No one spoke to her.

Heading down, she walked across the living room.

In a situation like this, she just felt confused about if she was alive or dead. She felt like a ghost.

So she opened her door and her expression brightened in an instant. He is the only one who makes her like this. When she went into her room, her expression became bright in a moment.

For she found her brother sitting at her desk; her only supporter in the world.

“You’re late.”

With a big smile, she hugged him and played the baby.

“Yeah, I’m so tired these days because I have to prepare a presentation.”

Tapping her on the shoulder, he said with a soft voice.

“Suryon”

“Yeah?” she replied, holding herself in her brother’s arms.

Choi In-bae looked at her face-to-face after pus.h.i.+ng her shoulder gently.

With a little sigh, he fixed his gaze on the notebook he put on her desk.

It was her diary. He did not mean to see it.

He was about to go out of her room after secretly leaving a bottle of perfume she wanted, but noticed her diary on the bed and read it with curiosity.

And he was stunned.

The diary was packed with the name Lee Suhyuk everywhere.

It showed her hate of, and big obsession with him.

“Suryon, I told you about it.”

“What?” she asked, making a curious expression.

“I told you he saved my life. The doctor said my life would have been in jeopardy without his first-aid.”

At his words, she hastily picked up her diary, and she murmured as she put it in the drawer as if she were hiding it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Choi Suryon!”

She closed her ears with both hands, and she squatted in the corner of the wall.

“No, no, no, no, no! He tried to kill you! What a fool you are seeing as you don’t know it yet? You will be alright if Lee Suhyuk disappears! Yes, if that b.a.s.t.a.r.d disappears!”

Choi Inbae was forced to look at her like a person totally aghast.

Did she not look like a person who had lost their mind?

“You… what’s wrong with you?”

There was no response. Eventually he shook Choi’s shoulder.

“Suryon!”

She slowly raised her head. Tears of sorrow dripped down her face.

“Choi Suryon, are you okay?” Choi Inbae, staring at her with surprised eyes, did not know.