The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

Cancer. The power of that diagnosis was overwhelming.

Kyu Kyu remained silent for a long time.

“Haha, no way. Kyu Kyu is still a college student…”

Blue Wind Young Master broke the silence.

“Even people in their 20s get stomach cancer these days. An 8kg weight loss without intentional dieting isn’t something to take lightly. Of course, I hope it’s not cancer, and given his young age, it’s much more likely to be gastritis or reflux esophagitis, but there’s no harm in getting it checked out.”

“That’s true.”

“Kyu Kyu, please go to the hospital as Divine suggested.”

Blue Wind Young Master and another guild member agreed with me, but Kyu Kyu remained silent.

“But…”

After a long hesitation, he finally spoke.

“I don’t have any money.”

“Divine said it could be cancer! Is money the issue right now?”

“If you do it without sedation, it’s not that expensive. Some places do it for around 100,000 won. Early-stage stomach cancer is often asymptomatic or just causes heartburn, so please look into it.”

Blue Wind Young Master burst out angrily, and I tried to persuade him again.

Is this something to hesitate about? I lived without much money as a college student too, but if someone insisted this much, I would at least get the test done.

…No, he might really not have much money.

“If you really don’t have any, I’ll pay for the test. Please go tomorrow.”

“What if it turns out to be nothing?”

“Then that’s fortunate. I won’t say anything since I insisted. I’m just worried about you.”

“Worried… about me?”

Even after that, Kyu Kyu still hesitated. His voice seemed to be choked with tears.

“But… even if you give me money…”

“Yes?”

“I… actually can’t go.”

“What? Why not?”

“…The truth is, I’m not a college student.”

Ah…

I thought something seemed off. If he were a college student without money, he’d at least do part-time jobs. It seems he was a minor.

Now that he told the truth, his voice did sound quite young.

“Are you in high school? Don’t tell me middle school?”

“Yes. I’m in middle school… I’m sorry. I thought the guild wouldn’t accept me if I told the truth… I’m using my grandmother’s ID.”

Kyu Kyu confessed the truth he had been hiding in a barely audible voice.

“Oh, forget about that! These things happen! Just tell your parents and go to the hospital quickly!”

Blue Wind Young Master said.

I too had no intention of scolding him for lying about his age. There’s no age requirement for joining the guild, and he’s not my child, so I didn’t want to interfere with him playing games until dawn.

But unlike Blue Wind Young Master, I, who had no parents, understood why Kyu Kyu kept saying he had no money.

Living in the countryside, playing games with his grandmother’s ID instead of his mom’s or dad’s. And in a household where no one says anything about playing games late into the night…

“I don’t live with my parents.”

He must be living with his grandmother.

“Where do you live? I’ll send you taxi fare too.”

I said. Since I’d decided to help, I might as well go this far.

“Taxis probably don’t come out here… It’s really rural. In Hapcheon, Gyeongsangnam-do, not even in the town center, and there’s no hospital…”

“Eek. Is there a place without an internal medicine clinic? …You really have to go all the way to Daegu for an endoscopy?”

Blue Wind Young Master, presumably raised in a middle-class Seoul family, kept making clueless comments.

I looked it up too, and while there was an internal medicine clinic in town, it didn’t seem to have the necessary equipment.

“Well, at least it’s in Gyeongsangnam-do. I’m in Busan, so I’ll drive to pick you up.”

It seems difficult to go by bus, so I’ll have to rent a car? Good thing I got my driver’s license.

“The guild leader is coming? All the way here?”

“Yes.”

“But I’m only 15, surely…”

“Just think of me as a fussy Nuna. Or consider it a drive! Kyu Kyu can sightsee in Daegu too! I’ll treat you to something delicious!”

After saying all this, Kyu Kyu finally agreed to my proposal.

“Okay then. Let’s get the test done, and then play games together at an internet cafe!”

“Ooh, you two are having a sudden meetup? I’d come down to Daegu too if it weren’t for work!”

I got Kyu Kyu’s phone number and address.

I learned his real name too. Yoon Han-byeol, second year of middle school.

“If you have severe gastric spasms at night and it’s difficult, don’t worry about the money and call 119. And to have an endoscopy tomorrow, you need to fast, so don’t even drink water in the morning!”

“Okay, thank you.”

I made these additional requests to Yoon Han-byeol over the phone before going to sleep.

The next morning, I rented a car and set off for Hapcheon.

At a rest stop, I found and made an appointment at a hospital in Daegu that could do same-day endoscopies.

Although Hapcheon is in Gyeongsangnam-do, Daegu was much closer. Considering I’d have to take Yoon Han-byeol back home and return to Busan, going to Daegu made sense logistically.

‘I hope I’m just being overly concerned…’

Yoon Han-byeol contacted his homeroom teacher saying he couldn’t go to school because he was sick, and was waiting for me at home.

His house, where he lived with his grandmother, was an old two-story building located in an area where you had to take a bus even to reach Hapcheon’s town center.

“Hello. …Wow, guild leader, you’re really… cool.”

“Get in quickly.”

Meeting in person, he seemed shyer than I expected. He said he lost 8kg, and his frame was indeed quite small.

I put him in the passenger seat and drove to the internal medicine clinic I had booked.

Then came the consultation.

The internal medicine doctor also said an endoscopy was absolutely necessary after hearing about the sudden weight loss.

I waited in the waiting room while Yoon Han-byeol went into the examination room.

And shortly after, we learned the results.

“It’s stomach cancer, estimated to be stage 2.”

I had hoped it wouldn’t be.

I thought it was more likely to end with relief that it was just an excessive worry, but…

“Me? Really? C-cancer, you say?”

The diagnosis we had dreaded came true.

The doctor went on to explain that it was caught relatively early, and with surgery, the survival rate is over 90%, but Yoon Han-byeol couldn’t hear anything more.

I listened to the doctor’s explanation on his behalf, then took the deeply shocked boy out of the hospital.

“This can’t be happening. How… how could this happen to me? What did I do wrong?”

“…It’s not because you did anything wrong. You were just unlucky.”

“Does this happen just from eating some ramen and not sleeping enough? All my friends do the same. Why, why only me.”

My words of comfort from beside him were of no use.

I had planned to treat him to a meal, but he shook his head while shedding tears, so I just took him back to Hapcheon for now.

“I know it’s very shocking and difficult right now… but most people survive with surgery. I’ve seen many patients living well after gastric resection. Han-byeol, you’re young, so you’ll recover even better.”

“Earlier, the doctor said I might need chemotherapy even after surgery… Does that mean I’ll end up like those leukemia kids in dramas, with all their hair falling out? I don’t even have money for hospitalization…”

Yoon Han-byeol pulled at his hair and sobbed loudly.

“I don’t want to die. If I was going to die like this, they should have just killed me earlier. No, if I hadn’t been born, my mom and dad wouldn’t have fought so much!”

“It’s okay. It really will be okay. …I know it’s hard. It feels hopeless.”

“Waaaah. Thank you… guild leader. You’re the only one who’s ever cared about me like this…”

Despite telling him repeatedly that he wouldn’t die, his panic wouldn’t subside.

I parked the car upon arriving in Hapcheon and hugged him tightly.

“Let’s rest for a bit, then contact your parents. We need to prepare for surgery.”

He had calmed down somewhat during the drive, but at the mention of his parents, the boy’s attitude sharpened again.

“…My parents won’t care at all.”

From what I gathered, unlike me, his parents hadn’t passed away.

His mother had remarried, and his father worked alone in the city, but they seemed unwilling to take care of Yoon Han-byeol directly, leaving him with his grandmother.

It was a situation where he could easily feel abandoned by his parents in many ways.

“Still, we need to let them know. You need to have surgery and live.”

“I think my parents would prefer if I just died like this…”

“It takes a long time to die even if it progresses to the terminal stage, and it’s painful. Is that what you want?”

Yoon Han-byeol shook his head.

The first thing he said after receiving the cancer diagnosis was that he wanted to live.

He was afraid to tell the truth because he feared his parents might actually say they didn’t care.

“The surgery will go well. You can get better. Even if you end up needing chemotherapy and it’s tough, I’ll help you.”

“You will…?”

“Yes. I have a few patients undergoing chemotherapy too.”

“Why would you go that far…”

“Why? Our raid can’t function without Kyu Kyu! You need to get better quickly so we can fight the bishops!”

At my casual joke, Yoon Han-byeol finally showed a smile.

“You won’t kick me out of the guild?”

“Kick you out? You’re my precious main tank that I’ve nurtured! We’ll keep having fun together! Study hard too, and when you become an adult, earn money and spend it on the game!”

“…I really want to do that.”

Yoon Han-byeol smiled softly when we talked about the game.

I finally managed to get his parents’ contact information from him.

◆◇◆◇◆

After dropping Yoon Han-byeol off at home, I made the call from my car.

I didn’t want to cause him unnecessary hurt, not knowing how his parents would react.

There are parents in this world who are worse than one can imagine, and I couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might actually say they don’t care whether their child lives or dies.

“Hello, this is Team Leader Yoon Jung-hoon!”

After a short ring, a man answered the phone.

“Hello. Are you Yoon Han-byeol’s father?”

“Yes? That’s correct. Did something happen to Han-byeol?”

“I’m…”

How should I introduce myself? I was momentarily at a loss for words, but had no choice but to tell the truth.

It’s not like I’m telling him I’ve returned from the martial arts world, after all.

“…someone who got to know Han-byeol while playing games together.”

“What?!”

As expected, he was quite flustered.

“D-did Han-byeol perhaps… commit some kind of fraud?”

“No. That’s not possible.”

“Ah… Thank goodness.”

“I’m Han Yeowon, director of Seongsu Korean Medicine Clinic in Busan. I’m not a strange person. While gaming, Han-byeol suddenly said his stomach hurt, and after hearing his story, I was worried it might be a serious illness, so I recommended he get tested.”

“An illness?!”

Yoon Jung-hoon exclaimed in shock.

At least he didn’t seem to be the insensitive or hot-tempered person I had worried about.

Even when he mistakenly thought his son might have been a fraud perpetrator, and even when hearing about the illness, Yoon Jung-hoon’s voice was tinged with deep concern and interest.

“Yes. Fortunately, I was nearby, so I took Han-byeol to Cheon General Hospital in Daegu for an endoscopy. It’s very difficult to say this, but… they say it’s stomach cancer.”

“……”

Yoon Jung-hoon was silent.

Even I would find it hard to believe.

“…Is this a scam? Is Han-byeol with you?”

“No. I dropped him off at his grandmother’s house and called you separately. Han-byeol didn’t want to contact his father, but I thought I should tell you, so I barely managed to get your number. Please contact the hospital and Han-byeol separately to confirm.”

“…So you really are Han-byeol’s acquaintance… Han-byeol, Han-byeol… is he taking it very hard?”

“He’s in shock. Even though I tell him he won’t die, that surgery will fix it, the weight of the word ‘cancer’ is enormous. I’m sure it’s shocking for you as his father, but he’s having the hardest time of all, so… please comfort him well.”

It was truly difficult to say.

I suddenly realized I hadn’t had to deliver a serious illness diagnosis for a long time.

“Ah…”

Yoon Jung-hoon’s voice trembled. He couldn’t find words and kept letting out groans.

“Um… excuse me.”

“Yes. Go ahead.”

“You even went with him for the test, and I know this is an unreasonable request, but…”

“Yes?”

“Could you please look after Han-byeol a little… No, nevermind. I should go myself.”

“I’ll take care of him as much as I can, but there are things that only a parent can do. If you’re not overseas, come as soon as you finish work today.”

Yoon Jung-hoon hesitated, unable to readily agree.

If he had been insensitive from the start, I would have scolded him harshly. But I had already sensed his genuine concern for his son.

“Is there a reason you can’t see Han-byeol? Like custody issues or a restraining order…”

“No! I have custody!”

When I carefully asked, Yoon Jung-hoon vehemently denied it.

“It’s not that far. I’m in Busan. It’s just… I think my son… will hate me even more if he sees me.”

“…It seems there’s a big misunderstanding.”