Golden Time

Chapter 57

“Huuhh…”

Suhyuk came off the PC with a short sigh. Since the file was gone, he had no choice but to present it with his own voice. Only that way could he could get whatever score they gave.

Suhyuk manipulated the remote control to lower the screen and turn off the beam projector.

 

“What are you doing now?”

At Park Ganghyun’s asking, Suhyuk laughed bitterly. The professors looked at him curiously.

“I will start the presentation about patient Im Jinmook who has been suffering from hematologic cancer.”

“Are you kidding me?”

At Park’s words, Professor Lee Mansuk moved his hand. It was meant to let him proceed with the presentation. The eyes of the two professors were tinged with curiosity.

What was he going to do? Suhyuk, with a black pen, began to write down the patient’s personal information on a large whiteboard.

“Patient Im, suffering from acute myeloid leukemia, had an easily treatable type of cancer, and he had chemotherapy because there were no prior complications such as pneumonia.”

Suhyuk continued to open his mouth and did not rest his hand.

Suhyuk added that if the patient had complications, he would first have to improve his condition with antibiotics, blood transfusions, and adjuvant therapies before chemotherapy.

“Since then, he has been taking chemotherapy, which can eradicate leukemia cells from the whole body via the bloodstream, but because it does not reach the brain and spinal cord, he was administered the recommended chemotherapy directly to the cerebrospinal fluid.”

And he wrote down on the board some cautions about applying a long needle and the exact technique.

“Next, about introduction therapy…”

Lee raised his hand.

“Please go ahead.”

“According to your words, it means that from the head to the toe the anti-cancer drug is circulated, but don’t you think the drug is overused?”

“About 100 million leukemia cells were present in the patient’s body, so systemic chemotherapy was inevitable.”

“Got it,” said Prof. Lee, shaking his head with glaring eyes.

His explanation was easy to understand. Granted that he searched the patient’s data thoroughly, he was listing the step-by-step treatment as though he himself had done the surgery himself.

Besides, the additional explanations on the whiteboard were easy to understand for the students.

“It would be good enough for me to use it as a textbook…” Professor Kim looked at him gently at his murmuring.

“You’d better give him up quickly. He is going to be my disciple anyway,” Prof. Kim murmured to himself, and looked at Suhyuk with a satisfactory look.

“If there are no more questions, I will proceed with the presentation again.”

The two professors nodded, and Suhyuk opened his mouth again.

“Since then, the patient has received a hematopoietic stem cell (bone marrow) transplantation. There are two types of transplantation for the transplantation of other people’s cells.”

“Okay. That’s enough,” Professor Lee stopped his presentation.

He felt as if he were attending an academic seminar that intensively studies leukemia.

If he were allowed to continue, it seemed he would just go on and on.

So as soon as Suhyuk was about to open his mouth again, Professor Kim first spoke.

“Like other diseases, do you think leukemia can be prevented?”

“The cause of the disease has not yet been elucidated medically yet, but as a proven fact, exposure to chemicals such as cigarettes, lungs, benzene, and herbicides should be minimized and potential of getting leukemia is caused when doxorubicin or etoposide anticancer drugs are used.”

“As for Im Jinmook, can he be cured?”

Suhyuk laughed gently at Professor Lee’s question.

“I think he can be discharged soon.”

Professor Lee stood up from his seat and looked at his notes on the whiteboard.

The summary was concise and to the point.

“Resident Park Ganghyun.”

“Yes, professor.”

“Print out Suhyuk’s notes and distribute it to the interns, and you read it too.”

So then he left, and so did Professor Kim. Looking at Suhyuk with a smile, they left the conference room.

“Huuhh…”

Suhyuk finished the presentation with a sigh.

His friends came up to him.

“Did you hear the professors’ instruction that your notes should be printed out and distributed to the interns?”

“Why didn’t you turn on the PowerPoint?”

Suhyuk answered shortly, “The file was gone.”

“How come…? Anyway, you’re a great guy.”

While all the students were gathered around Suhyuk, Choi Suryon stayed sat down on the chair.

She was grabbing her nails and mumbling, “What the heck are you…”

She had him drink and seduced him. Also, she had all the professors ask him questions during the rounds time. She even deleted the PPT file this time. It was all meaningless. Rather Suhyuk used all that to make him get recognized even more brilliantly. Thanks to that, there was no one in the hospital who did not know him.

Her fingernails that she was biting got crushed.

‘Yes, you should just disappear. Only that way can my brother feel relaxed.’

—–

After the presentations, the students were able to head home early for the first time in a long time.

Still though, it was past 7pm. Suhyuk also left the hospital. But he did not go home.

He was going to visit Hana’s rice and soup restaurant for the first time in a long while.

Arriving at the bus stop, he smiled with relief. He thought he would not get a score as the PPF file was gone. If that had happened, he would have flunked. Unlike his friends whose lives were on track, he would have to study one more year to retake the same courses.

“How lucky…”

What if the professors did not pa.s.s him due to his mistake? He just let out a sigh when he came to think of it. The bus arrived and Suhyuk was on the bus.

Suhyuk, who got off the bus, went into the market alley.

Although the street lights were installed everywhere, the lights were blinking as if they were out of order. Every day Hana and her father would pa.s.s through this road.

“Should I submit a complaint?”

Hana is a woman and her father is uncomfortable with his limp.

The road was dangerous for them because many drunk people would come and go.

“I have to call the civil complaint center tomorrow.”

Thinking so, Suhyuk moved his feet. Then he had to stop because he saw a long shadow of a person between the flickering lights.

When the light was turned off and shone back on, the shadow had disappeared.

Suhyup looked around. Meow. A cat was jumping over the wall.

Shaking his head, Suhyuk moved again. So when the lights went out and came back again, Suhyuk turned back quickly. He surely saw it. A shadow chasing him from behind.

But there was n.o.body.

“Is it another cat?”

Suhyuk moved with a silly laugh.

At that moment, a person jumped out suddenly right before him.

“Die!”

It was a woman holding a sharp scalpel. A thin line of blood was drawn on his cheek.

He barely avoided the scalpel falling on his cheek.

The lights went out and came back on. Suhyuk was holding her wrist with the scalpel.

“Choi Suryon… what the h.e.l.l are you doing?!”

“You must die!”

She gave more strength to her arm holding the scalpel. But she could not overpower him.

“What’s the matter with you?”
“Die! Please die!”

This time she grabbed his neck with her other hand.

When she was about to scratch his neck with her sharp nails, he slapped her in the face hard.

She squatted on the ground. Suhyuk slowly approached her.

And he took a long sigh, “I did not think Inbae would tell you to do this.”

Suhyuk knew from the beginning. She was Choi’s brother. He did realise it when he went out of the movie theater with Hana, but it came back to his mind quickly.

He saw Inbae taking her near the hospital several times.

The only thing he did not know was that Choi Suryon hated him so much.

“Just tell Inbae to give me a call.”

When Suhyuk moved his step again, she abruptly took hold of him again, shouting “He’ll be alright if you are removed!”

He took her wrist again. He fastened her to the wall with the other forearm and looked sharp at Choi’s eyes.

“Do you know how dangerously you are acting towards me? Call Choi Inbae…”

Suhyuk could not talk any more.

Her pupils trembled a lot. Though she was looking at him, actually she was not.

‘Schizophrenia?’

If that’s right, he could understand her behavior to some extent.

Schizophrenia causes hallucinations, delusions, and emotional insensitivity disorders.

“Die! Die! Please die!”

Tears dropped from Choi’s eyes.

The voice coming out of her mouth was close to madness. Even tears.

“Choi Suryon, come to your senses!”

Suhyuk grabbed her chin and faced her straight in the face.

“Can you recognize who I am? How did you follow me? What’s your name?”

She was just struggling as if she could not hear him.

Then he could notice it clearly. The golden ring within her black eyes.

“A Kayser-Flesischer ring… Wilson’s disease?”

Suhyuk, who was controlling her with his strength, spoke again.

“How could a person who wants to be a doctor…”

With a sigh, he moved his hands.

“Just go to sleep for a moment.”

—-

Choi Suryon’s closed eyes slowly opened.

It was a patient’s room.

“Why am I here…”

She woke up from the bed. Then the tingling pain made her head turn.

She saw an IV needle injected into her arm, and Suhyuk drinking water at the side.

“How are you feeling?” Suhyuk approached her.

“I’m okay, but why am I here?”

“Did you keep hiding it or did you know about it?”

She made an expression as if she did not understand his question.

It seemed that she did not know that she had wielded the scalpel to him horribly.

“How long have you been without menstruation?”

At his question, she was stunned. How did he know that?

“If you’ve had anemia, you should have predicted it to some extent. Your organs are not normal right now.”

Choi’s disease was one caused by an abnormality in copper metabolism: Wilson’s disease. Copper acc.u.mulates in the liver, brain, cornea, and red blood cells, causing mutations in the gene. If left untreated, it is a terrible disease that leads to death in any form such as from liver disease, or psychological suicide. It can not be completely cured by modern medicine. The patient should take care of his or her life by taking medication that can release copper from the body.

“What do you mean?”

To her question, Suhyuk murmured with a long sigh.

“What a silly girl.”

How could she, who wanted to be a doctor, just ignore such symptoms?

Vomiting, hemolytic anemia, depression. Obviously she must have experienced it.

‘I wish I could have found out a little sooner…’

Then Choi Inbae came into the room.

His eyes looking at Choi Suryon were full of regrets.

“Suhyuk, can I talk to you for a moment?”

Suhyuk nodded at his words. So then they were out of the room.

Some time later, a middle-aged man came to her room, which remained alone with just her.

It was Choi Suryon’s father. She, who was lying in bed, slowly raised her upper body.

“Dad…”

“Just stay in bed.”

He looked at his daughter quietly. What was he thinking? Amid the silence, she opened her mouth,

“I’m sorry… You came here because of me, even though you were busy.”

She had no expression on her face, but she was surprised in her heart.

Did he ever come to see her first?

“Suryon.”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry.”

Her eyes became wide.

‘What is he sorry for? Why do I get tears?’

She quickly wiped her flowing tears. She did not want to show him her ugliness like that.

Boohoo. But she could not stop her tears from coming. In the end, she burst into tears.

“I’m sorry, Dad. Boohoo.”

She curled herself up, with her shoulders heaving.

The middle-aged man slowly hugged her.

“I’m sorry, I’m a stupid dad… I’m really sorry.”

‘My daughter’s body was not all normal anymore now. Her body and mind. How hard and painful this poor wretch was… Why did I see this poor little girl only as a thorn in my eyes?’

Only now he could see his own flesh and blood in her properly.

‘Do not forgive this stupid father. I’m sorry. My daughter …”

Suhyuk, walking along with Choi Inbae, told the nurse in charge,

“Choi is a patient with Wilson’s disease. I think you need to administer penicillamine or trientine first.”

It was a drug that could discharge copper acc.u.mulated in the organ with the urine. It is a disease very difficult to detect even with a test. So, he firmly defined it as ‘Wilson’s disease’ just in case the nurse would not understand him.

“It has been a while since I saw you,” said Choi Inbae, offering canned coffee to Suhyuk, who took it quietly.

The two looked up at the sky silently.

“You do not deserve having a sister.”

Choi smiled bitterly at his words. It was true. It was really his big mistake that he did not detect her condition like that.

Choi Inbae, touching the canned coffee, opened his mouth, “Thank you.”

He heard from the doctor that she would have had to receive a liver transplant if her condition had been detected a bit later.

“This is just the beginning, it takes several months to heal. It’s not the end. It’s a illness that she has to carry all her life.”

A chronic disease that needs medication until death, and constant attention.

“Thank you then…” said Choi Inbae, touching his neck. It was the spot where Suhyuk opened his cricothyroid membrane for first aid treatment before.

“And now, you have saved me and my sister.”

Suhyuk laughed bitterly, “You know I appreciate it, but as I just told you, this is just the beginning. You have to take care of her well, and she’ll show symptoms of mental illness during treatment. So, don’t take it as abnormal and deal with it well.”

Suhyuk walked away with Choi Inbae left behind him, and he waved his hand.

Looking at his back, Choi Inbae muttered, “Thank you man. From the bottom of my heart.”