The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

Gong Na-ri’s family situation was more complex than I’d imagined, leaving even me, who’d been through thick and thin, momentarily stunned.

What should I do?

Should I give her a hug and tell her she’s been through a lot? Or should I yell at her to leave home immediately?

“Ah, so that’s what was going on in your family. It must have been so hard for you at such a young age…”

“Na-ri-ssaem…!”

TN: 쌤 (Ssaem); Teacher.

Jin Min-jung and Seol Yu-hee chose the former.

“Na-ri-ssaem, listen carefully. …Even if it seems like your parents might starve, people don’t die that easily. Once the money is completely cut off, they’ll set aside something for themselves before spending on cryptocurrency or donations. The more it’s like this, the more you need to leave.”

Seo In-ae opted for the latter.

“Even my parents used to claim they were too sick to work, but when my sister who had been sending money cut off contact, they immediately started working.”

Neither approach was immediately helpful.

As Na-ri herself had said, she wasn’t pouring water into a bottomless pit out of ignorance.

“Haha, thank you all for caring. It feels good to talk about it.”

She said it felt good to talk, but she seemed to regret impulsively confessing her family situation in front of her coworkers.

“……”

Gong Na-ri left the clinic as if escaping.

This time, even Seo In-ae couldn’t stop her.

“I was too hasty. She reminded me of my sister from a few years ago, and I got frustrated.”

Seo In-ae regretted her words, saying she had been too quick to speak.

“You must have gone through a lot too, In-ae-ssaem.”

“Not really. I cut ties ruthlessly as soon as I became an adult. My sister suffered for a while, sending money even after I went off the grid.”

Seo In-ae rambled about her own family situation.

She had endured throughout high school with plans to leave home as soon as she became an adult, but her sister congratulated her on graduating high school and said she would lighten her burden from now on.

She left home that very day and moved into a goshiwon, even blocking her sister.

It took several more years after that for her sister to come to her senses.

“Those were words I wanted to say to my sister, but I ended up snapping at Na-ri-ssaem instead. Her situation might be different from mine or my sister’s.”

“It was sudden, but what you said wasn’t wrong. It just takes time to accept, and the delivery is important too. I’ll talk to Na-ri-ssaem.”

“Yes. I’ll apologize to her separately later.”

I first calmed Seo In-ae down and had all three employees go home.

They each returned home, but I wanted to get some fresh air and walked a bit in the park.

I had held back my words, not wanting to be rash, but I hadn’t been much help either.

‘Is it better to talk about it even if it’s uncomfortable? Or should I just leave it alone?’

Maybe it would be better to let the other employees comfort her instead of me.

There were clear limitations to what I could do as an employer, and I… well, even at best, I’m not exactly a friend-like employer.

While I’m in the habit of empathizing with patients, my mindset might be even more old-fashioned than Seo In-ae’s.

I saw a swing in the middle of the playground in the park.

My favorite piece of playground equipment as a child. I sat down and let out a sigh.

“Whew.”

A middle-aged person approached me.

“Oh my~ What could a pretty young lady like you be worrying about?”

It was a woman who looked to be in her late 40s or early 50s.

“Huh? Oh… it’s nothing.”

“Your face is full of worry. Life must be hard, right?”

Although she was a complete stranger, the middle-aged woman spoke to me as if we were close.

Is she just an overly meddlesome person? I should have made my presence less noticeable.

“Haha, I guess so. Even when I do my best, problems beyond my control keep popping up.”

“Talk to me comfortably, like I’m your mother. I have a daughter about your age too.”

No. You’re probably actually the same age as me.

“It’s just family issues.”

I mumbled, showing a bit of reluctance to talk.

I couldn’t carelessly discuss someone else’s family matters, and it wasn’t a situation that needed a stranger’s advice.

“Family issues! That’s a real problem. I once had worries like that too~ My husband lost a lot of money in stocks, you know?”

“Ah…”

Despite my reluctance, she kept trying to engage me.

“But, when I prayed with all my heart and faith for him to stop trading stocks, God answered my prayers!”

“…Pardon?”

So it was evangelism.

“You don’t need to tell me~ But come to the pulpit tomorrow and pour your heart out before God. It’ll ease your mind, and if you just believe sincerely that things will work out, your family will change too.”

“Ah, I see.”

Evangelism, huh.

I stood up without engaging further.

There was no point in continuing, we were just wasting each other’s time.

“Hurry and meet God to find peace! If you just believe, everything will go as you wish!”

Despite this, the middle-aged woman kept following me.

“I have an appointment. Maybe next time.”

“At least take this! It doesn’t have to be tomorrow! Whenever you hear God’s voice…”

She even ran after me as I walked quickly, handing me evangelism materials.

It was just as I had completely left the park and was standing in front of the crosswalk.

“Whew.”

I turned my head, thinking maybe I should just take it, when…

“Oh.”

At that moment, I made eye contact with Gong Na-ri coming out of a convenience store.

Judging by the beer in her hand, she must have also been walking in the park and decided to have a drink.

“Na-ri-ssaem?”

I called out her name.

It wouldn’t make sense to pretend I hadn’t seen her, and I also partly hoped the middle-aged woman would leave.

But Gong Na-ri’s face froze.

“Mom, what are you doing here?”

Mom…?

Was she trying to get me away from the cultist she thought had caught me?

If that was the case, she could have just called me Director.

“Oh? Na-ri, weren’t you supposed to be at the gym at this hour?”

But the answer came from the middle-aged woman behind me.

“…It must really be some kind of day today.”

Gong Na-ri let out a deep sigh.

“Do you know this young lady?”

“She’s the director of the Korean medicine clinic where I work.”

“Oh my!”

She reluctantly introduced me to the middle-aged woman.

The middle-aged woman acted flustered and made a big fuss.

“And here I was, meddling without knowing~ Nice to meet you, I’m Na-ri’s mom! What a coincidence to meet like this?”

“I’m Han Yeowon, director of Seongsu Korean Medicine Clinic.”

I took out a business card from my bag and handed it to her.

In return, the middle-aged woman pressed the church pamphlet-like thing into my hand. So I ended up receiving it after all.

“Mom, don’t stand around in the street like this, go home quickly.”

“What about you?”

I quickly spoke up on behalf of Gong Na-ri, who was hesitating to answer.

“The appointment I mentioned earlier was with Na-ri-ssaem. We’ll meet again another time if we have the chance.”

“Oh my~ I see!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she’s not out too late.”

“No, no! The director’s business comes first! Take your time coming home~ I’ll go ahead~”

The middle-aged woman… no, Gong Na-ri’s mother waved to her daughter and quickly disappeared.

Gong Na-ri watched her mother’s retreating figure and clenched her fist tightly.

“Were you going to drink alone in the park? Let’s drink together.”

It seemed Gong Na-ri didn’t particularly want to go home right now either. If she had, she would have gone home with her mother.

“Okay.”

She certainly didn’t refuse. She waited quietly in front of the store while I went in to buy my share of beer.

We sat on a park bench and each took a swig from our chosen cans of beer.

“If you met her in this park… I guess Mom targeted you for evangelism? Haha. As you saw, it’s not even a normal religious group, but a cult.”

Gong Na-ri scratched her head as she spoke.

She didn’t seem to mind running into me by chance.

“Actually, everything In-ae-ssaem said is right. Do you think I’m being foolish too, Director?”

“I don’t think that.”

I had simply held my tongue.

I wasn’t confident that this was a problem I could solve.

If it were a physical illness, I would do my best to treat it, and if this were the martial arts world, I might have tried to (physically) beat some sense into them.

But family members addicted to cryptocurrency and cults?

There’s no specific acupuncture or herbal medicine to treat gambling addiction and religious fanaticism. Even Western medicine can only reduce impulsivity caused by mania, right? As far as I know, once changes occur in the brain, there’s no solution.

And morally, I’m not exactly in a position to be proud about this issue either.

Instead of working hard to eradicate pseudo-religions for the sake of the people, I’ve been building friendly relations with the Heavenly Demon Lord and enjoying the perks.

“It’s a bit of a heavy topic, but is it okay if I talk about it?”

But if it’s just listening, I could certainly do that much.

“Of course.”

◆◇◆◇◆

Since Gong Na-ri was young, her father loved stocks.

Some days, her father would come home in a great mood and order chicken, jajangmyeon, and pizza all at once – those were the days when stocks had risen significantly.

On other days, his anger was palpable from the moment he punched in the door code. Her mother advised against approaching him on those gloomy days – those were the days he had lost money in stocks.

Gong Na-ri thought this was just how fathers were. It wasn’t until she became a middle school student that she learned other fathers didn’t engage in such frequent day trading, and even if they did invest in stocks, they didn’t react so extremely to the results or take out their frustrations on their families.

“Ah, I’m telling you I’ll multiply it by 5 and bring it back!”

“Think about how many times you’ve actually brought back the principal when you say that.”

“What are you talking about? I bought that refrigerator and TV with money I made from stocks, didn’t I?”

“You’ve lost millions of won!”

Around that time, her mother’s greatest wish was for her father to quit stocks.

At first, her mother had agreed to her father investing some of their assets, but she realized that with her father’s skills, it was impossible for him to actually increase their money.

So, she first asked her husband to stop trading stocks.

But of course, he didn’t accept.

What was the second step then? Separating the couple’s finances? Or marriage counseling?

Unfortunately, it was neither.

“Master, if I make this offering, will my husband really quit stocks?”

Her mother started begging everywhere for her husband to stop trading stocks.

And it really was “everywhere.”

She doesn’t even know where she went first. Sometimes there were talismans plastered all over the house, as if she had met a shaman, and other times there was noise about performing a gut ritual. Sometimes she attended a regular church, and other times she believed in a religion that called its god something other than “God.” She would come back from a temple and do 108 bows every day, and sometimes she would perform ancestral rites.

“If you have money for that, give it to me to invest. This one’s really going to work, I’m telling you!”

“You’re talking nonsense! Please, at least quit the biotech stocks!”

“What do you know? Just because it’s biotech doesn’t mean it’s automatically a scam. If you do it right, this is where you can really hit the jackpot! Don’t you see Ki-young’s head in this chart? This is a once-in-a-decade opportunity. This one can go up 10 times, no, 20 times!”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to know. Stop talking nonsense!”

Gong Na-ri didn’t think at all that the stock her father had invested all their money in this time would increase tenfold.

Her mother sincerely wished for her father to quit stocks. Meanwhile, she kept taking money to some unknown religious group.

But unbelievably…

“Is, is this for real?”

“See! What did I tell you? I said it was going to take off!”

That biotech stock really did increase tenfold.

“You wouldn’t let me sell the house, so I could only invest 50 million won! If we had sold the house and put in 200 million more, our lives would have changed!”

“Oh my… I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t know anything. This is really great!”

For a while, her father was loud and boisterous at home.

Because that stock kept rising even after that.

Gong Na-ri’s parents gradually cashed out some of it to replace their furniture and buy a car.

Even as they did this, the stock price continued its upward trajectory.

“…Let’s buy more now.”

“With what money?”

“We’ll sell the house and live in a monthly rental for a month or two. We’ll put it in here for a bit, then take it out and move to a bigger house.”

“…Alright! Let’s do as you say!”

And just as they sold their house and moved…

“This, this can’t be happening!”

The stock hit the lower limit for several days in a row.

Embezzlement? Manipulation? Was it a scam from the start? Gong Na-ri didn’t understand much, but the TV kept talking about it for days.

“Aaargh!”

Every time the company’s name was mentioned, her father would scream.

And finally, he quit stocks.

The god her mother had believed in so fervently had granted her wish.