Chapter 56

“Hey, what the hell is that?”

“I don’t know. Was that directed at them to shut up?”

“Is this a drama?”

“It’s the news, though?”

Two college students in the middle of their meal exchanged baffled looks as they watched the broadcast playing in the cafeteria.

They weren’t the only ones. Everyone who had just witnessed the broadcast wore similar expressions.

One small relief was that ‘TV Goryeo’s’ daytime current affairs program typically pulled only about 1% viewership.

That said, a decent number of people still saw it.

“C-Crazy bastard. Switch the screen! Switch it now!”

The person panicking the most wasn’t Kang-hyuk himself but the PD in charge.

Shouting like someone who’d lost his mind, he ordered the screen to be changed. Thankfully, they managed to cut to the recording studio before more profanity could spill from Kang-hyuk’s mouth.

Of course, Reporter Park Sang-eun was still unaware of this.

So he continued nervously trying to coax Kang-hyuk.

“P-Professor Baek. You weren’t speaking into this just now, were you?”

Kang-hyuk pointed directly at the microphone the reporter held out so pitifully and responded.

“Get that thing out of here! Didn’t you hear me say shut up earlier? There’s a patient coming!”

“W-Wait…”

Reporter Park flinched backward, utterly flustered.

Seeing the situation, other newspaper reporters also backed off, making circular motions next to their temples.

Feeling embarrassed, Professor Kim Sun-woong urgently stepped forward.

“Now now, reporters. It seems Professor Baek is in a bad mood because the patient’s condition is severe… Let me take your questions instead.”

“I told you to keep it down.”

Even to the desperately mediating Professor Kim Sun-woong, Kang-hyuk snapped back.

Professor Kim let out a strained chuckle and gently pushed Kang-hyuk inside by the shoulder.

“Professor Baek, please take the call inside. I’m begging you.”

It was hard to remain in place when another professor resorted to the word “begging.”

Besides, no matter how quietly one tried to speak, the surroundings were still quite noisy.

So Kang-hyuk stepped inside obediently.

Not without leaving one last curse behind.

“Damn.”

“Haha. Alright, let’s take questions. Questions.”

The moment Kang-hyuk stepped in and the door closed, Professor Kim turned to face the reporters.

One reporter gathered his courage and threw out a question, which Professor Kim answered with exceptional grace and dignity.

It was only natural, but after dealing with Kang-hyuk, Professor Kim’s character suddenly seemed truly admirable.

Encouraged, even the dismayed Reporter Park Sang-eun worked up the nerve to request an interview.

“Professor, what happened just now…?”

Just one door away, Jaewon observed the suddenly harmonious atmosphere outside and turned to ask Kang-hyuk.

But Kang-hyuk, fully focused on the call, didn’t even hear him.

“Professor, I’m seriously asking. Why did you do that?”

Frustrated, Jaewon asked again—only to get smacked on the back of the head.

“You got something jammed in your ear? Why is it so damn noisy? Didn’t I tell you I’m on the phone?”

“Th-That’s not the issue! You were just on live TV…”

“So what if I was? We’ve got a patient who’s about to die.”

“Even so… you can’t say stuff like that on live TV…”

“Hey, are you a doctor or a broadcaster? Which is more important, the show or the patient?”

“You’re the one who said we should use the opportunity to promote the trauma center… Ugh.”

What Jaewon had just said was true.

So why did he get hit?

There was really no need to wonder.

Kang-hyuk wasn’t someone who cared about what was right or wrong.

If something annoyed him, he hit it. That was all.

“Hey, Slave.”

“Y-Yes?”

But even so, did he really need to glare that fiercely over a factual comment?

Jaewon answered reluctantly, wondering just that.

“Have you gotten over your fear of heights yet?”

“W-What? No. I mean…”

Phobias were technically considered a type of disorder.

In other words, they weren’t something that could be cured quickly.

And given how overworked Jaewon was—barely able to grab a proper meal—it didn’t even make sense for Kang-hyuk to ask that now.

“You haven’t? Hm.”

“Why?”

“Well, that’s great. Let’s cure it now.”

“What do you mean…?”

“We’re riding a helicopter.”

“Huh?”

* * *

The caller was none other than emergency paramedic Jung-heon.

As the head of the Central Fire Agency’s Emergency Rescue Team, he was the first to receive reports on disasters and accidents from various outposts.

Usually, local rescue teams would be dispatched instead.

But some locations didn’t allow for that.

“W-Where to?”

“Baengnyeong Island.”

“Baengnyeong… Island?”

It was a very familiar name.

One that often popped up in the news.

But not many actually knew where it was located.

Jaewon was the same.

“Yeah, looks like there was an accident during a training exercise. A boat carrying Marines capsized. There are military doctors, but… well, you know how it is.”

“Y-Yeah…”

Unlike Kang-hyuk, who was an orphan, Jaewon had served as a military doctor.

He didn’t know everything about military medicine, but he knew enough.

‘There’s no way… they can handle trauma.’

Of course, most military doctors were specialists.

That meant they were trained at university hospitals for at least five years, like Jaewon.

But they rarely had proper backup equipment or personnel.

What good was a neurosurgeon if there was no CT machine or functional emergency surgery room?

Even if backup was available, the problem remained.

Even university hospitals were ill-equipped to handle trauma. So how could specialists trained at such places be expected to manage it in the field?

“Slave, time is critical. Go get the supplies we’ll need from Gangster.”

“W-What about you, Professor?”

“You idiot. I’m going with you. I have to check Han Ji-young’s orders, too.”

“R-Right.”

They still didn’t know how many people were injured—or how badly.

But the very fact that the call came from the Central Rescue Team was enough to send the two of them rushing out.

Because a military accident being relayed to the Fire Agency already meant the situation was extremely urgent.

“Ah, Professor. Did it go well?”

Jang-mi, whose tears had finally stopped, asked with a bright face.

“Yeah, roughly.”

Despite having just told a reporter to shut it on live TV, Kang-hyuk answered as if nothing had happened.

Jaewon felt fury bubbling up and was about to say something, but he held it in.

A ‘ruined press conference’ was best left as a ruined press conference.

The patient who had just arrived was more important right now.

“Slave, the helicopter’s going to be here in about seven minutes. Hand over our deployment bag.”

“Ah, yes.”

Jang-mi looked momentarily puzzled but nodded right after.

She seemed fairly confident.

It was because Kang-hyuk had personally assembled the emergency deployment bag when he became the department head.

And since Jang-mi had been rotating the kits daily just as he instructed, the preparation was flawless.

“This time, there might be more than one patient, so pack all the spare kits if we have them.”

“Um… yes.”

It was a slightly unexpected order, but Jang-mi still moved with her usual energy.

Thanks to the daily kit swaps, they had a decent number of spares.

“Heave-ho.”

In the meantime, Jaewon had brought over the defibrillator and a large backpack.

It should’ve been the hospital’s job to provide such a bag, but because the budget had been planned by people with no field experience, they had no choice but to use Kang-hyuk’s personal gear.

The only saving grace was that Kang-hyuk had once led a top-tier trauma response team overseas.

Because of that, many of the items he had were of a quality almost impossible to find within Korea.

“Professor, we’ve got two sets each, and three regular incision and drainage kits.”

Within moments, Jang-mi returned with one of the trauma bags and the rest of the sets.

Even though the total weight had to be close to 20kg, Jang-mi looked completely unbothered.

Every time he saw her like that, Jaewon honestly felt that the nickname ‘Gangster’ wasn’t entirely off the mark.

“Hmm. Two of each, huh.”

Kang-hyuk ran his hand across the gear that had been brought over and pondered for a moment.

But only for a very brief one.

The helicopter was on its way.

If they didn’t board immediately, it would delay treatment—and that could mean death for the patient.

“Whatever. We’ll take what we can. They’ll have something over there too, hopefully.”

As far as Kang-hyuk knew, the Marine Corps stationed on Baengnyeong Island operated at a command-level post.

That meant their medical unit probably wasn’t totally under-equipped either.

“Alright, shall we go?”

Jaewon, possibly more excited than necessary, quickly adjusted the backpack on his shoulders.

Kang-hyuk looked at him and shook his head.

“Hey, are you just going to leave the other patients here?”

“Ah…”

“You need to organize the prescriptions first. Check Lee Ki-young’s orders.”

“Yes, Professor.”

Only then did Jaewon scramble to an empty computer and start organizing the prescriptions.

Fortunately, Mr. Lee Ki-young, though in the ICU, wasn’t critically ill.

He’d already passed all the danger zones successfully.

Because of that, there weren’t many comments to leave for Jang-mi or the other ICU nurses.

“Gangster, pay close attention to this. Got it?”

In contrast, Han Ji-young was a critical case among critical cases.

Her heart had burst. That said it all.

“Yes, Professor.”

Jang-mi listened intently, visibly tense.

Of course, if something went wrong, she could seek help from the emergency medicine team, but in order to even recognize that something had gone wrong, she couldn’t afford to miss a single detail Kang-hyuk was now giving her.

“Pay attention to this part too.”

“Yes.”

“And this one too.”

“Yes…”

“And here.”

“Mhm, yes.”

So even though there were far too many places to “especially watch,” Jang-mi nodded diligently at every instruction.

About five minutes later, Kang-hyuk finally finished his directions and left the ICU.

Looking out the window, he saw the helicopter approaching in the distance.

Given its aircraft type, the noise had been audible from earlier.

“Alright, Slave. Let’s go.”

“Yes, Professor!”

The two of them burst out of the ICU.

Clack.

It was just as Professor Kim Sun-woong was enthusiastically explaining how he had saved patient Lee Hye-young, and how Professor Baek had also helped.

It was also when ‘TV Goryeo’ had resumed the live broadcast that had previously been interrupted.

“Ah…”

Reporter Park Sang-eun and the cameraman were stationed right in front of Professor Kim—which meant they were extremely close to the ICU entrance.

In other words, they were standing squarely in Kang-hyuk and Jaewon’s path.

Any normal person would’ve carefully gone around them.

But Kang-hyuk was no such person.

He shoved the camera aside and yelled out.

“Which lunatic thought it was okay to gather in front of the ICU?! Move!”