Back to Seoul (4)
After a while, a man came with surgical tools and started touching the organs.
Slit, suture, and hold. Inhale.
The man seemed to be performing the surgery alone.
‘amazing.’
Choi Ki-seok couldn’t keep his mouth shut at the man’s skills.
The first thing that surprised me was that the man freely used both hands, and the second thing was that the speed of the kill was lightning fast.
Who is this person who does secret things in secret places?
My curiosity disappeared faster than I expected.
Without realizing it, I became a spectator who was immersed in the man’s surgery.
Good!
‘Ah… Damn it.’
I cursed internally.
I was pushing the door to get a closer look at the surgery scene and it made a noise.
Thanks to this, I made eye contact with the man.
For a moment, the man’s eyes smiled.
“I’m going to close the door and go out for a moment.”
A familiar voice was heard.
Choi Ki-seok did as the man told him and closed the door and spent time outside.
Eventually, I heard a voice telling me to come in, so I headed inside.
“It’s too big for a thief cat?”
Song Myeong-jin joked.
The table where the surgery was performed has been cleaned up.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take a peek, but once I saw it, I couldn’t take my eyes off…”
“It’s okay. It’s not a big deal.”
“But, Professor. Just a moment ago…”
“I got a cow lung from a butcher shop and practiced lung transplant surgery. As expected, it’s not easy.”
Choi Ki-seok remained silent in response to Song Myeong-jin’s answer.
Song Myung-jin is a master of heart surgery, not a master of lung surgery.
The burden you will feel during this surgery will be beyond your imagination.
If the surgery fails, first of all, the patient and guardian are in disgrace. Second, their position within the country is narrowed and their reputation is diminished.
It’s literally full of scars.
As silence continued, Song Myeong-jin began to cry.
“A surgeon’s job is not to perform a successful surgery. It’s to try to make the surgery successful.”
“······.”
“I will do whatever it takes to save the patient. Don’t worry too much.”
“yes.”
Choi Ki-seok nodded vigorously.
For some reason, I had faith in Song Myeong-jin’s words. I felt like he could revive even a dead patient.
“Since this place has been created, I would like to talk openly. Don’t feel pressured and listen comfortably. First of all, if I tell you what I really think… I really like Mr. Choi.”
“······.”
“The nurses all praised Dr. Choi, and I also liked the EKG reading skills he showed earlier. So, I would like to make a suggestion.”
“If it’s a suggestion…”
“I want to make Mr. Choi my student.”
Song Myeong-jin’s words echoed in the room like an echo.
Choi Ki-seok blinked in surprise.
“What do you think, Teacher Choi?”
“I am······.”
Choi Ki-seok trailed off.
I knew better than anyone else that this moment was important.
This is the country where Song Myeong-jin and Jo Ji-hwan are competing.
The things that would inevitably happen if I became Song Myeong-jin’s disciple ran through my mind.
“I want to become your student. But there are conditions.”
“condition?”
This time, Song Myeong-jin raised his eyes in surprise.
Is there such a thing as a conditional disciple in this world?
I looked straight at Choi Ki-seok, wondering if he was joking, but his eyes didn’t even move.
“There are two reasons why I want to become your student. One of them is that you have outstanding surgical skills, and the second is that you always do your best for your patients.”
“So?”
“If the professor does not care for his patients, or turns like Professor Jo Ji-hwan, I will quit being his student.”
“Hahahaha.”
Song Myeong-jin laughed heartily.
It was so funny that I held my stomach and cried.
“That’s really amazing, Teacher Choi. Your answer far exceeds my expectations.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know. That’s why I liked Teacher Choi more.”
Song Myeong-jin tapped Choi Ki-seok on the shoulder.
“For more details, let’s go to my room and talk comfortably.”
Song Myeong-jin took the lead and left the room, followed by Choi Ki-seok.
Tiring!
[Conditional buff is activated.]
An alarm flashed through my mind.
* * *
Jiiiing. Jiyiing.
I automatically opened my eyes to the buzzing notifications on my phone.
“Haa… I have to wake up.”
Choi Ki-seok stood up with difficulty.
The current time is 2 am.
Considering that the ward starts at 5:30 a.m., I wake up quite early. But I washed up in silence and filled my empty stomach with a chocolate bar.
Click! Click!
I sat down in my chair and checked my email.
As promised yesterday, Song Myeong-jin sent an email.
When I opened the email, there were two papers on recent heart surgery trends.
One of them is a foreign paper in English and the other is a domestic paper.
The first task given by teacher Song Myeong-jin.
It involves reading papers related to heart surgery.
As times change, the methods of diagnosing and treating diseases also change.
Song Myeong-jin’s theory is that if you do not gain new knowledge, you will always remain in that same position.
Accordingly, Choi Ki-seok had to read the paper every day.
Not only that, I had to send a half-page A4 review.
This means that the thesis cannot be read in vain.
“Why is it so easy?”
I couldn’t help but be amazed while reading Choi Ki-seok’s foreign papers.
Even though I am not good at English, I was able to read well.
I even felt like someone was organizing the key contents in my head step by step.
“if?”
I looked at my condition through the eyes of Hippocrates.
Below the title was a special buff that I received warmly yesterday.
[Master’s Disciple]
– I formed a relationship with Song Myeong-jin as a priest.
– If you receive Song Myeong-jin’s teachings, your learning ability will be 3 times faster.
– If the priest relationship is terminated, the buff disappears.
It seemed like the buff made reading the paper easier.
Otherwise, I couldn’t explain the current situation.
Choi Ki-seok smiled brightly as he checked the buff.
If you use this buff well, you can grow at a rapid rate that is incomparable to the past.
The acquisition ability increases 3 times faster.
This is a scam.
“It’s a thesis on mitral regurgitation?”
Choi Ki-seok, who read the overseas novel, brightened his eyes.
Mitral regurgitation is a disease that Hwang Jeong-woo suffers from.
I couldn’t help but be more curious about it than other diseases.
Since the paper was short, I read it quickly and sent a review to Song Myeong-jin.
“Eurachacha.”
Choi Ki-seok stretched and went down to the second floor.
When I arrived at the room where I met Song Myeong-jin yesterday, there was a Styrofoam box lying there.
When I opened the box, a bright red cow heart appeared.
“Wow. Awesome.”
Choi Ki-seok chuckled.
The second homework given by Song Myeong-jin is to practice surgical operations using animal organs.
In the past, Song Myeong-jin successfully operated on a patient who ran a butcher shop, and it is said that through that connection, he received free organs from cows and pigs.
Ki-Seok Choi spread a sheet on the table and prepared surgical tools.
[Uses the Dragon’s Eyes skill.]
[Provides the optimal field of view required for surgery.]
[Zoom-in and zoom-out modes can be used as needed.]
After using the skill, the field of view changed dramatically.
Comfortable vision was secured even without using loupes (surgical glasses). There is no other icing on the cake as you can practice surgery and increase your skill proficiency.
“Now, shall we begin?”
Choi Ki-seok began the actual work of performing the surgery.
Today, I plan to review the simple surgery I learned in my third year at Reg.
Thump thump thump thump.
My heart was beating like crazy.
When I used scalpel, I even felt an exhilarating sense of joy.
Although it is said to be a cow’s heart, how long has it been since this surgery?
The hand movements of dissecting the cow’s heart became faster and faster.
Song Myeong-jin’s buff was also applied to surgery practice.
How much time has passed?
The flashy hand movements from the beginning suddenly disappeared.
Choi Ki-seok’s housework has dropped to the level of an elementary school student playing house.
“ha······.”
There was a wrinkle between my eyebrows.
Surgery practice, which was fun, soon became a source of frustration.
This is because I practiced surgery with my left hand from the middle.
“As a surgeon, you have to use both hands.”
Following Song Myeong-jin’s instructions, half of the exercises were conducted with the right hand and the other half with the left hand.
After many twists and turns, surgery practice for my left hand was completed.
Choi Ki-seok cleaned up and headed to the ward.
But the call phone I had kept inside my gown was shaking.
I checked the number and answered the phone.
“Yes, Professor.”
[Good morning. Are you on your way to the ward by any chance?]
“It’s a tweezers.”
[If you haven’t arrived yet, come to the funeral home.]
“Funeral home?”
Choi Ki-seok was surprised and asked back.
It was extremely ominous to be at a funeral in the morning.
“What’s wrong?”
[It’s not like that, so feel free to come.]
Song Myeong-jin hung up the phone first.
Choi Ki-seok turned his steps toward the main building and headed toward the funeral hall. As I was looking around, I saw Song Myeong-jin standing at the entrance to the mortuary at the end of the hallway.
“Professor. Why are you at the funeral?”
“I come to the funeral hall sometimes. I don’t want to force this on Mr. Choi, but I think it would be nice to come sometimes.”
Song Myeong-jin paused and then continued.
“Do you know who the owner of this mortuary is?”
“this person is······.”
Choi Ki-seok looked at the photo of the funeral with concentration.
The face was somehow familiar yet unfamiliar.
Choi Ki-seok’s forehead wrinkles became deeper and his face became more and more distorted.
“I understand now. This is the sanitation worker who cleans our ward.”
“That’s right. He was brought in after a car accident last night and passed away early in the morning.”
“ah······.”
Choi Ki-seok let out a short sigh.
My limbs lost strength due to the helplessness I felt in the face of death.
“Hehehehehe. Mom. Mom!”
A woman in her twenties who was guarding the mortuary suddenly burst into tears.
The crying turned into wailing, and the wailing pierced Choi Ki-seok’s chest like an awl.
An image of saying hello to someone who passed away belatedly.
I remembered him patting me on the shoulder and telling me to cheer up.
“Mr. Choi. Doctors are surprisingly insensitive to the pain and death of patients. It is difficult to empathize with patients. But I don’t think that should be the case.”
“······.”
“It’s a doctor’s job to suffer with patients and overcome that pain together. If I feel numb during treatment, I come here. I can clearly feel what kind of guy Mr. Choi is fighting and what happens if he loses to that guy.”
“I understand.”
Ki-seok Choi nodded vigorously.
My suffocating heart cleared up.
The reason why I should aim for a higher place also became clear. .
Choi Ki-seok looked around the mortuary with Song Myeong-jin and returned to the ward.
Song Myeong-jin went into the conference room, but Choi Ki-seok had to work in the ward.
“Super intern teacher.”
Kang Hana at the station waved happily.
Choi Ki-seok said hello to Kang Hana. I stared at the calendar hanging on the station wall.
Today’s date was drawn in a red circle.
The moment I saw it, my fists tightened.
