Chapter 48

“Ah, yes, Professor.”

Jaewon responded as he pressed down on Ji-young’s heart with his hand.

Even with gloves on, he could feel the heart’s texture through the thin surgical material.

After all, tactile sensation was one of the most crucial senses in surgery, and surgical gloves were designed to preserve it as much as possible.

One of the reasons robotic surgery hadn’t completely taken over the medical field was precisely because of this lack of tactile feedback.

‘Ugh.’

The sensation traveling through his fingertips was bizarre.

Wasn’t the heart the most densely developed muscle in the human body?

Thump. Thump.

That dense bundle of muscle was beating right under his palm.

And part of it was ruptured.

With each contraction, an intense pressure pushed against his fingers.

For Jaewon, who had only trained in general surgery, directly feeling a beating heart like this for the first time was an overwhelming experience.

“Uh….”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“I think… I might pass out.”

“You’re getting dizzy? Damn.”

Kang-hyuk immediately noticed the subtle shift in Jaewon’s complexion.

His face was rapidly draining of color.

He was noticeably paler than just moments ago.

That meant his peripheral blood vessels were constricting.

In other words, he was in a state of extreme tension.

“Hey. What kind of surgeon gets dizzy just from touching a heart?”

“Don’t say that… Have you ever actually touched one yourself?”

“Of course I have. Didn’t you just see me cutting it with a scalpel?”

“Ugh….”

At the mere mention of “cutting it with a scalpel,” Jaewon’s nausea worsened.

He hastily covered his mouth.

His legs even began to buckle slightly.

Which meant Kang-hyuk now had to take over compressing the heart himself.

“For god’s sake… Anus, you’re worse than I thought.”

“I just… lack experience….”

Jaewon finally pulled his hand away from the heart, retreating a few steps with an expression of pure relief.

It must have been a momentary shock, as his complexion quickly returned to normal.

Rattle.

Just then, Jang-mi burst into the operating room, arms full of endoscopic equipment.

Only about seven minutes had passed.

She had clearly sprinted the entire way without a single break.

After all, the main OR was on the third floor, and the ENT surgery room—where the endoscopes were stored—was deep inside the building.

“Huff… Huff….”

Jang-mi was drenched in sweat, gasping for air.

Kang-hyuk glanced at her and grimaced.

“Hey, hey. Gangster, wipe off that sweat.”

“Yes. Thank you for your concern.”

“What concern? If you drip sweat on the floor, it’ll contaminate the OR. You probably sweated out a ton of waste running all the way here.”

“Ah.”

Jang-mi barely resisted the urge to throw the endoscope set at Kang-hyuk’s face.

If she beat him to a pulp right now, all her effort would go to waste, and the patient would die.

‘Just you wait.’

So instead, she made a mental note to get her revenge later.

For now, she quickly grabbed a box of tissues from the side of the OR and wiped the sweat from her face.

Then, she carefully unwrapped the endoscope set, making sure not to contaminate anything, before handing it to the main assisting nurse.

Kang-hyuk nodded as he examined the endoscope lens.

“Good. The camera system’s set up, right?”

“Yes, it is.”

Jang-mi, still catching her breath, responded immediately.

“Then connect it.”

“Understood.”

Despite her exhaustion, she wasted no time and quickly wheeled over the camera system from the corner of the OR.

She must have received intense training when she first joined, as she set up the system without hesitation.

Jaewon watched in awe.

“Wow, you look like a total pro. I always get confused just plugging that thing in.”

Kang-hyuk scoffed at him.

To Jaewon, it seemed like Kang-hyuk either performed surgery or insulted people—there was no in-between.

“You’re Anus. Why would you ever need to use a camera?”

“Professor… Why do you keep bringing that up….”

“Am I wrong? Even that guy over there probably doesn’t know how to use a camera.”

Kang-hyuk jerked his chin toward Han Yoo-rim, who was still sprawled on the floor.

With Jung Jae-min, the cardiologist, covering his eyes, he probably couldn’t see a thing.

But his ears weren’t plugged.

Which meant he had heard everything Kang-hyuk just said.

“Hey… what the hell did he just say about me…?”

Of course, given his anxiety over his daughter, he wasn’t fully processing the words.

Jung Jae-min leaned closer to his friend’s ear and murmured softly.

“Nothing important.”

“Then why is it so quiet? Wait… don’t tell me….”

“No, no. They’re still working. She’s alive.”

“Did you see for yourself?”

“No… I didn’t see.”

“Then go check… I can’t stand up.”

The sheer tension in their conversation made it sound like they were in a warzone.

As if Yoo-rim had taken a bullet to the leg and couldn’t move.

Jung Jae-min sighed and reassured him.

“You gonna be okay?”

“I’m fine. Ji-young is the problem… My poor Ji-young….”

“Alright, then… Ah.”

Jung Jae-min started to stand up but froze mid-motion.

Ping.

The sound of a fuse connecting echoed through the OR.

The monitor switched on.

It displayed the endoscopic footage from the camera Kang-hyuk had just connected.

“What’s wrong?”

“Uh… I think I can see what they’re doing from here. But… why are they using an endoscope…?”

An endoscope.

For cardiac surgery?

At least according to everything Jung Jae-min knew, that made zero sense.

And Han Yoo-rim, an experienced surgeon, was just as clueless.

“An endoscope? In the heart? That lunatic…! Stop him!”

“Alright, alright.”

Pushed by Han Yoo-rim’s urgency, Jung Jae-min stood up.

Slowly, he approached Kang-hyuk.

‘What the hell is he doing…?’

One thing was certain—this was no ordinary surgery.

And yet, Ji-young was still alive.

With a ruptured heart, she should have been long dead by now.

‘Is he really… keeping her alive?’

Jung Jae-min looked at the girl on the operating table and then at the monitor displaying her vital signs, his face filled with disbelief.

Her toes were still red, a clear sign she was still alive.

Her vitals were stable.

“Hey, old man. Step back. You’re in the way.”

Kang-hyuk waved a hand at him dismissively.

Jae-min suddenly realized he had gotten too close to the surgical field.

“Oh, my bad. Sorry.”

“If you’re sorry, then move back further.”

“R-right.”

Scratching the back of his head, Jae-min took a step back.

Of course, Yoo-rim wasn’t having it.

“What the hell are you doing?! I told you to stop him!”

“Hey, now’s not the time for that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That Professor Baek guy… might actually save your daughter. So shut up and stay put.”

Jae-min had no idea what exact procedure Kang-hyuk was doing—or planning to do.

But one thing was absolutely clear.

Kang-hyuk was keeping Ji-young alive.

And doing so successfully.

Yoo-rim, however, still looked skeptical.

He had initially agreed to let a resident operate on his daughter.

But now that he was watching, wasn’t this guy just winging it?

And yet, he was doing well?

“This is insane….”

“I said shut up. What are you gonna do if you distract him and your daughter dies?”

“…”

“Let’s just wait and see. Honestly, the fact that she’s still alive is already a miracle.”

Jae-min, now standing in front of the ultrasound monitor, muttered to himself.

The echocardiogram showed that half of her heart was already destroyed when they first scanned it.

Given that, her heart should have completely ruptured by now.

He even heard something tear open earlier.

And yet, somehow, Kang-hyuk had stopped it from happening.

Jae-min was starting to suspect that this guy might be a genius beyond comprehension.

“Alright, give me the anti-fog solution.”

“Here.”

While Jae-min stood there in stunned silence, Kang-hyuk casually applied anti-fog solution to the tip of the endoscope.

“Alright, Anus. I’m removing the surgical glove from inside now.”

“Y-yes.”

“The second each stitch is undone… blood is going to start leaking out through the rupture.”

“…”

Jaewon shivered at the mere thought.

Kang-hyuk, however, remained completely calm.

“That’s why you’ll press down so the blood doesn’t escape. Just like before, got it?”

“Ah….”

“I can’t press down myself. Unless you’d rather remove the glove using the endoscope.”

“N-no! I’ll press down…!”

There was no way Jaewon could handle extracting a glove stuck inside a ruptured heart using an endoscope.

So, unwillingly, he braced himself to compress the heart again.

Leaving Jaewon on the verge of tears, Kang-hyuk smoothly inserted the endoscope into the gap between the heart muscles.

The monitor now displayed the ruptured area, still covered by the glove.

Voong, voong.

The glove was visibly thinner than before.

Some blood had already begun seeping out.

“Ah….”

Jae-min finally understood how Kang-hyuk had kept Ji-young alive.

He turned around—only to find that Yoo-rim had the same expression of realization.

“Scissors.”

“Here.”

Even as the two professors reeled from shock, Kang-hyuk never stopped moving.

Taking the endoscopic scissors, he began cutting the sutures holding the glove in place.

Snip.

Gush.

Snip.

Gush.

Each stitch he cut loosened the grip between the glove and the heart, and blood poured out in response.

“PRESS!”

“Y-yes!”

“Hey! Look at the screen while pressing! You almost pressed where I have the scissors! Are you insane?!”

“A-ah! Right!”

Jaewon finally realized he needed to watch the monitor while working.

And that this surgery was far more complex than he had imagined.

It also made him realize something else.

That assistants were critical in this kind of surgery.

Unfortunately, this realization came with an unpleasant side effect.

“Idiot! Let go! Keep pace with me!”

“Y-yes!”

“Press!”

“Yes!”

“Let go!”

“Press!”

“Let go!”

“Press!”

The more critical the assistant’s role became, the higher the chances of getting yelled at by Kang-hyuk.