A competent doctor can cure everything

“Ugh… What is that…?”

I squinted my eyes open at the loud noise coming from outside. The room was enveloped in pitch-black darkness. Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I sat up.

“~~~!!”

Someone was shouting loudly outside the public health clinic building. Half asleep, I checked my phone on the nightstand beside the bed. It was just past midnight.

‘What is it? A drunk person?’

From my three years of experience working as a public health doctor in this rural area, I knew that occasionally, drunk people would cause a commotion throughout the village.

(On a side note, public health doctors provide medical care in underserved areas for three years as an alternative to military service.)

The first floor of the building housed the clinic and treatment rooms, while the second floor had accommodations for me, a public health doctor specializing in Oriental medicine, and another public health doctor specializing in Western medicine.

The shouting outside was so loud that it reached my room on the second floor.

‘Is it Grandpa Gil-Young again? I’ll have to tell him to cut back on his drinking when I see him tomorrow.’

I initially tried to ignore it, but…

“…Doctor! Doctor Seon Joon! Please help!”

As I listened more carefully, I realized someone was desperately calling for public health doctors.

The moment I heard my name, a sense of dread overwhelmed me, and I became fully alert.

‘If someone has come here at this hour, something serious must have happened.’

I quickly put on the robe with “Korean Medicine Doctor Seon Joon” written on it over my pajamas. After a brief hesitation, I grabbed the glasses from the nightstand and dashed out of the room.

‘I haven’t been wearing glasses for long, so they still feel unfamiliar.’

These are my father’s old glasses. I used to carry them around like a talisman but recently had them fitted with non-prescription lenses to start wearing them.

I’m about to begin working at a university hospital in Seoul as soon as my public health service ends.

‘I heard that doctors in Seoul are looked down upon if they look too young.’

So, I decided to start wearing glasses to appear a bit older.

As I hurried out of my room, the other public health doctor, who specialized in Western medicine, was also groggily opening his door.

“You heard too, right?”

“Yeah. Seon Joon, you too? Let’s hurry down.”

We nodded and rushed down the stairs to the first floor. While the other public health doctor fumbled to turn on the light switch, I opened the front door of the public health clinic.

“What’s going on?”

At my invitation, someone hurriedly entered. But it wasn’t just one person coming in.

As they were illuminated by the light, we were stunned to see who they were.

“Dongsoo!”

It was Dongsoo’s family, who had returned to their hometown from the city.

A young couple speaking in Seoul dialect and their young son, Dongsoo, who had just started elementary school—a warm, happy family of three.

In this rural area, where children are precious, Dongsoo was cherished by everyone in the village, so I knew them well.

Dongsoo was crying loudly in his father’s arms, his face smeared with tears and mucus. Next to them, Dongsoo’s mother was pale and trembling.

“Doctor, our Dongsoo… he just fell from somewhere.”

From her disjointed explanation, it seemed Dongsoo had snuck out with friends to the school in the middle of the night.

And it turns out that Dongsoo had slipped while climbing the “Reading Girl Statue” and fell to the ground.

“After Dongsoo fell and couldn’t move, the other kids got scared and came to our house. I don’t know why they went there in the middle of the night…”

This kid!

I sighed deeply, suspecting the reason for their night-time adventure.

This happened earlier today.

“Hey, Doc!”

After the village grandmothers and grandfathers had received acupuncture and left the health center, I was enjoying a rare moment of quiet in the examination room.

Little Dongsoo excitedly called out to me and peeked into the examination room.

I greeted him with a smile.

“Dongsoo, you’re here?”

“Doc, I came to ask you something.”

The little guy looked serious about whatever he was going to say.

“Are there really such things as ghosts?”

“Huh? Ghosts?”

His offbeat question made me raise my eyebrows.

“Yeah! The other kids say that the statue of the girl reading a book in the school playground moves at midnight.”

“The statue moves?”

Seeing how serious he was, I barely managed to suppress a laugh and responded.

“Yeah! Every night at midnight, the book turns a page, and if you see it, you’ll die!”

“Really? What do you think, Dongsoo?”

“I think it’s nonsense! But the kids keep saying it’s real.”

I pretended to seriously consider the issue along with him.

“I think Dongsoo’s right. If it turned a page every night, the statue would have read the whole book by now.”

“Really? Really?”

The little guy puffed out his chest proudly at my response.

‘…So that’s what happened.’

It seems they decided to check it out for themselves in the middle of the night.

‘They say a final-year soldier should be careful even of falling leaves…’

It seems this rule applies to public health doctors as well.

Next month, my term of public health service will end.

I thought I’d finish my three years without any incidents, but now something has come up in the last month.

However, determining the patient’s condition is more important than lamenting. I turned to Dongsoo’s parents.

“Your child can’t move his body?”

“Yes, yes. He keeps saying his neck hurts and he can’t hold it up. He says it hurts so much he can’t move.”

Dongsoo’s father, holding Dongsoo tightly in his arms, answered with concern.

“Is there a chance that Dongsoo… might have injured his spine or something? Should we quickly take him to an emergency room in the city? What should we do?”

Dongsoo’s mother looked like she was about to cry any moment.

“Have you called 119?”

The medical resident asked with worry.

Dongsoo’s father bit his lip as if he was anxious.

“We’ve called, but they said there’s no one available to come out right now. It looks like I’ll have to drive him to a big hospital myself.”

“No matter how fast you go, it’ll still take several hours to get to the city’s emergency room. He’s crying in pain, and we were so worried that we came here first… What should we do, doctors?”

Finding an emergency room in the middle of the night in the countryside isn’t a common thing.

Dongsoo’s parents looked at me and the medical resident desperately, as if searching for a solution.

I grabbed the resident’s arm and stepped back to whisper.

“What do you think?”

“Well… This place doesn’t have X-rays, and if we need a proper examination, it’s better to go to the emergency room, don’t you think?”

“Hmm… So you’re saying it’s better to send him quickly rather than wasting time here?”

“Yes, and you’re an internal medicine doctor… This looks like something a pediatrician, orthopedic surgeon, or neurosurgeon should handle.”

If it turns out to be an emergency requiring surgery, delaying here could lead to greater resentment.

Meanwhile, Dongsoo continued to cry loudly, either from pain or fear.

‘There doesn’t seem to be any visible injury or bleeding…’

But Dongsoo kept crying with his head held stiff, saying his neck hurt.

At this rate, he might become exhausted from crying.

I need to calm Dongsoo down first.

“Dongsoo, don’t cry. Stop it. It’s me, your brother.”

“…Ugh, Doc….”

“Dongsoo, where does it hurt the most right now?”

Dongsoo weakly raised his hand and tapped the area where his neck connected to his shoulders.

“You can’t move your head at all?”

No response.

“Can you walk?”

He barely stopped crying, but tears started welling up again. It seemed like he was scared and confused by the situation.

Indeed, sending Dongsoo to the emergency room quickly seems to be the right answer.

As I considered this, I gently touched Dongsoo’s neck and shoulder muscles.

At that moment,

“…Ugh?!”

My head spun, and a series of scenes flashed through my mind in an instant.

Isn’t it said that before dying, one’s life unfolds like a panorama?

Although I’ve never experienced such a phenomenon, it felt as though this might be what it would be like if I did.

“Seon Joon, what’s wrong?”

I felt the concerned voice of the medical resident and his hand gripping my shoulder.

“Oh, it’s nothing, just feeling a bit dizzy all of a sudden.”

I forced myself to respond calmly and shook my head.

‘What is this? Déjà vu?’

No, déjà vu is the sensation of feeling something as if it has happened before.

‘This isn’t something I’ve experienced or am experiencing…’

It was strange that a scene I had never heard of or experienced before was now in my mind.

I swallowed hard, trying to recall the scene that had just come to me.

Dongsoo’s family, having driven down the dark, rural roads for a long time, finally arrived at the emergency room.

Despite X-rays and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans, they couldn’t find the cause of the child’s inability to move his head.

Eventually, they were told to go to a larger hospital when the day broke and returned without results.

The child, exhausted from crying, fell asleep, and the parents’ faces were more troubled.

By the next morning, Dongsoo still couldn’t move, and Dongsoo’s family headed to a larger city hospital.

‘Yes, this is… something that will happen in the future.’

The scenes I saw were what Dongsoo would experience going to the emergency room in the future.

‘Why are these scenes coming to me?’

Is it my imagination?

But this wasn’t just ‘imagination!’

It was more vivid and clear… like numerous scenes were being injected into my brain in an instant…

It was an unfamiliar sensation I had never experienced before.

As I continued to feel dazed, people around me looked at me with concern.

“I’m… really fine.”

I struggled to speak to reassure those around me.

Even now, time is still moving forward.

‘Based on the medical resident’s opinion… It’s best to send them to the emergency room as soon as possible…’

I was about to speak, but the scenes I had just seen weighed heavily on my mind.

According to those scenes, Dongsoo did not have a broken bone or spinal cord damage.

However, even in the emergency room, they couldn’t find the cause of Dongsoo’s inability to move and advised us to go to a larger hospital.

If that’s true, we need to find the real cause before taking unnecessary steps.

“Dongsoo’s parents, it seems…”

“Wait a minute!”

I cut off the medical resident’s words impulsively, without even realizing it.

Everyone stared at me with wide eyes.

I need to quickly follow up with my next words. My mind is racing.

‘So why…? Why can’t he move?’

I’m not sure.

For now, I’ll trust my instincts and proceed.

“I’ll give it a try.”

“Pardon? Doctor, then what might be the diagnosis for our

Dongsoo…?”

Dongsoo’s father looked at me with some suspicion.

That’s a natural reaction.

First, they need to be convinced of the diagnosis before they can entrust the child to me.

I took a deep breath and approached Dongsoo. I then gently held the little toe on Dongsoo’s right foot.