Chapter 150

“Tch.”

Kang-hyuk snapped as he hung up the phone.

From the side, it was hard to tell if he’d ended a call or smashed the device.

The phone bounced off the bed, ricocheted against the wall, and landed on the floor.

“Dammit.”

Apparently, that hadn’t been his intention. He grimaced, quickly snatched it up, and sighed in relief when he saw the screen was intact.

A thoroughly undignified moment.

Perhaps realizing it himself, he lashed out.

“What are you staring at! What are you staring at, brat!”

“You, professor.”

Jaewon, who never lost a war of words, shot back.

Kang-hyuk exhaled heavily.

Of course, he was grateful Jaewon had chosen trauma surgery, even if it was the foolish choice.

But at times like this, he wondered if this guy was really the best he could get.

“Forget it. Just drop it.”

Muttering, he rubbed at the screen again and again.

There was a faint line, maybe a crack, and it gnawed at him.

“But professor.”

“What.”

This time, it was Gyeongwon.

Unlike Jaewon, he was always polite.

“Um… we heard everything. How are you planning to arrange an air ambulance on your own?”

“Yeah, that’s not exactly pocket change. Professor, you’re broke—uh, not broke, but you don’t have that kind of money, right?”

Jang-mi jumped in, predictably provocative.

“I’m not broke!”

“Come on. Your salary’s decent, but… no incentives in our department.”

If anything, given how much money trauma surgery bled, they should be penalized, not rewarded.

A university professor’s pay wasn’t tiny.

But without incentives, it wasn’t massive either.

Seven or eight hundred million won wasn’t something anyone could casually cough up.

“You think I only earn money here?”

“Then where? You came from Doctors Without Borders. There, you…”

Jang-mi stopped herself.

The next word would have been ‘dirt-poor,’ and that might have touched a nerve.

‘Right. His parents both died.’

She recalled just how grim Kang-hyuk’s background was.

But he didn’t seem to think so.

His expression was prouder than ever.

“Ah, right. You’re all still under the wrong impression.”

He said something cryptic.

“Huh? Wrong impression?”

Naturally, Jaewon, who’d spent the most time with him, asked shrilly.

His colleagues had asked whether Baek Kang-hyuk had really been with a volunteer group.

He always answered with Doctors Without Borders.

But even then, it felt off.

Nothing about Kang-hyuk screamed ‘volunteer.’

“I never told you, did I?”

Scrolling through his phone, Kang-hyuk finally spoke.

It was so irritating that Jaewon wanted to smack him upside the head.

But the tattooed bulk of his arm kept that instinct in check.

Rage issues only worked against people weaker than you.

When it came to Kang-hyuk, even Jaewon’s temper cooled.

“You really didn’t. I only knew you came from Doctors Without Borders.”

Bolder than Jaewon, Jang-mi answered, trembling with a sense of betrayal.

She’d been asked the same question herself.

And each time, she’d insisted it was true.

It had never been easy.

Baek Kang-hyuk was a bastard through and through.

“Maybe not. Hm.”

Finally stopping his scrolling, Kang-hyuk looked up.

Everyone but Gyeongwon was glaring at him.

“What’s with the attitude? Does it really matter where I was?”

“Of course it does! When you were fighting other departments, I defended you, saying you came from Doctors Without Borders! Do you know how much I covered for you?”

He knew.

Thanks to her, his reputation among nurses was relatively good.

“Well, it wasn’t exactly a lie.”

“Not exactly? Then what is it?”

“Sit down first. It’s not like I’ll get through right away anyway.”

After sending a message to the number he’d dug up, Kang-hyuk sat on the bed.

The others joined him.

They were already awake, the patient was disinfected, and there was nothing else to do.

“You asked what this meant, right?”

He pointed at the tattoo on his forearm.

A cross engulfed in strange flames.

Not the kind of design you saw in Korea.

“Yes.”

Jang-mi nodded.

That tattoo was why she thought he was a gangster—and why she’d earned the nickname herself.

A nickname that everyone but her thought suited her perfectly.

Either way, she hated that tattoo.

But Kang-hyuk stroked it with a look of deep fondness.

As if petting a child’s head.

“This… this is a tattoo to ward off bullets.”

“Bullets?”

Jaewon’s eyes bulged.

Talk about out of nowhere.

Why suddenly bullets?

“Yeah. Mercenaries get these a lot.”

“Mercenaries…?”

Even Gyeongwon couldn’t hold back, tilting his head.

Mercenaries and bullets had nothing to do with medicine.

Not in their lives.

“Yeah. I told you I was in Syria, right? That part was true. But not just Syria.”

“Then where?”

“I was in Somalia. South Sudan. Sokovia.”

“That’s…”

Every place he listed was a war zone.

If asked to choose one to live in, you’d grudgingly pick South Sudan.

That was how bad they were.

“I was with Black Waters. Hired as a trauma surgeon.”

“Ah…”

All three of them gasped in unison, jaws dropping.

Their eyes had already widened to their limits.

Now only their mouths could open further.

“Then… Doctors Without Borders?”

“Doctors Without Borders never go into active war zones alone. They’re a civilian group, volunteers. You know that.”

Volunteer groups couldn’t enter where it was too dangerous.

If they got captured, they’d be a liability, not help.

Even this incident had happened despite precautions.

If you went around recklessly, you’d get kidnapped left and right.

“But once things calmed, they came in. And they helped a lot.”

Kang-hyuk gazed out the window.

The darkness of the desert hid memories of the battlefield.

In places where humanity was easy to lose, the people of Doctors Without Borders had been his anchors.

“But they weren’t everything. Their facilities were lacking.”

“Ah. Right. I heard about mobile surgical trucks, but still primitive.”

Jaewon piped up.

It wasn’t general knowledge.

He must’ve studied it.

Kang-hyuk smiled faintly, nodding.

“Yeah. Mostly they did cataract surgery. You know in poor countries, cataracts are basically untreatable.”

It wasn’t just difficult, it was widespread.

Harsh labor environments made it worse.

With UV rays as the biggest factor, people forced to work outdoors lost their sight all the time.

And in such countries, blindness wasn’t just disability.

It was the end of life itself.

That was why cataracts were a major focus of medical aid.

“Then when a trauma case was too much, you stepped in?”

“Exactly. If my side wasn’t busy, I helped. Free of charge.”

He saved lives. Almost unconditionally.

So much so that he’d earned a nickname.

‘The Violent Angel.’

He was respected and feared.

“I see… no wonder.”

Jang-mi finally looked like she understood him.

A mercenary, not a volunteer.

That explained his brutality.

“What do you mean, no wonder? That’s insulting.”

“Come on. Even you know it. You don’t exactly scream ‘volunteer.’”

“Hmph.”

He couldn’t deny it.

Not when Black Waters had paid him obscene sums.

The base salary was huge, and every life saved brought a bonus.

For a surgeon of his caliber, the money was astronomical.

Black Waters might have been a vicious business, equating lives to money.

But they paid fair value.

“Oh, your phone’s ringing.”

As they talked, his phone rattled loudly on the metal table.

Loud enough to wake anyone, even from deep sleep.

“It’s been a while, Walter.”

After four rings, Kang-hyuk picked up.

His face brightened as he said the name.

An ordinary thing for most.

Rare for him.

‘Must be someone close.’

Jaewon thought as he listened to Kang-hyuk’s fluent English.

‘The more I know, the less I understand.’

Who would’ve guessed he’d been in a mercenary corps?

Or that he spoke English so perfectly?

“Doctor Baek. It’s been too long. I guess you’ve been busy back in Korea? No calls, nothing.”

Walter sounded hurt.

Kang-hyuk chuckled.

Busier than on the battlefield—it was absurd.

“Yeah, been busy.”

“Hm. You’re not usually the one to call first. What do you need?”

Walter knew him well, having spent a long time with him.

So he cut straight to the point.

And Kang-hyuk didn’t flinch.

“The life debt you owe me. It’s time to pay it back.”

(T/N: Oh! I thought we are never getting this scene from the drama!)