Golden Time

Hana was bleeding too much.

“What happened... How did this happen?!”

It seemed to be related to the motorcycle that disappeared down the alley a little while before. But right now, that was not important. He scrutinized her whole body quickly to find the area the blood was pouring from.

“Where is it ... Hana, which area do you feel pain from?”

He could not see the wound. But he could not touch her body carelessly because moving her wrongly could lead to more blood gus.h.i.+ng out. Suhyuk continued to check her body.

Suhyuk had a look on his face that seemed horrifying.

Some mumbling came out of her mouth, as she were looking at him blankly.

“You ... you are not crying, are you?”

His eyes became red as drops of tears looked like they were about to fall off if he blinked his eyes.

“Hana.. tell me, which area do you feel pain from?”

She made a hard smile. And her eyes were becoming closed more and more.

“I feel cold.”

Her eyes closed with a short voice after that.

“Wake up! Don’t close your eyes. Open your eyes!”

Suhyuk caught her slender shoulders.

“Wake up, you have to hara.s.s me like before. Just hara.s.s me with open eyes like before!”

Despite Suhyuk’s screaming, her closed eyes would not open.

Drip. drip.

Sparkling drops of tears from Suhyuk’s eyes fell down onto Hana’s white face.

“Let’s go, let’s get up, let’s go to the hospital, hospital...”

Suhyuk raised her body in a hugging style. At that moment, a rebar was pulled out from her back. A rebar as long as 8 cm had been nailed into her back.

Rus.h.i.+ng into the rice and soup house, Suhyuk shouted, “Call 119!”

He laid her back down with her belly touching on the ground.

Surprised, her father fell before her while rus.h.i.+ng forward.

“Hey, why are you doing this?”

Suhyuk did not answer him, but dialed 119 first.

“Here with me is a patient with excessive bleeding. Please come quickly! Blood type B blood packs are needed urgently. The patient may die soon.”

He ended the call after mentioning the address.

After soaking a towel, he squeezed it out completely. Suhyuk came back to her urgently, and tore off her clothes. There was a deeply penetrating wound on her waist. The blood gus.h.i.+ng from there reddened her white skin. He blocked it with a towel right away. The bleeding site was not very good.

If it was her leg or an arm, he would tie it with a string, but it was her waist.

And her white face became more and more pale like a piece of white paper.

With a blank expression, her father shook her upper body.

“Hana, Hana, wake up! Why are you lying down? It’s dirty, get up!”

Suhyuk, who was blocking the bleeding wound, pushed him away.

“Father, she will bleed more if you move her. So, trust me.”

“What’s wrong with you, Hana...”

About 5 minutes pa.s.sed. 119 paramedics rushed in.

Appreciating Suhyuk’s words, they carefully s.h.i.+fted Hana to the stretcher.

Suhyuk, riding with the ambulance, hardened his expression because he did not see what he wanted anywhere.

“Did you bring any blood type B?”

They shook their heads.

B-type blood packs usually found in abundance were not available at all on that day.

Suhyuk was forced to look at her with a sigh. He wanted to use a syringe to pull blood out of him his own blood, but even with the same blood type, if the leukocytes in his blood were not compatible with hers, they would attack each other. Then the situation would become worse, and Hana would...

Suhyuk grasped her white hand firmly, which seemed to be infinitely weak.

***

As soon as Hana arrived at the hospital, she immediately was examined.

As the doctor was examining her CT, Suhyuk was there next to him.

“Student, look here...”

“Please do a blood transfusion first, because it is urgent!”

The doctor flinched at his sharp eyes.

“Student, we have the procedure to follow...”

“Don’t you see her blood pressure is plummeting inducing hypothermia?”

Hana lying on the stretcher was headed to the operating room.

“Guardians, please wait here.”

Despite the nurses’ request, Suhyuk was trying to get into the operating room.

“Guardian!”

Only at the doctor’s shouting did Suhyuk come to his senses and said,

“A rebar pierced into her back missing the organs, so it seems there was no organ damage. Just in case, however...”

“I will do my best.”

The doctor said so and disappeared.

Suhyuk sat on the waiting chair.

“You can survive, Hana. You can survive, you have to get up.”

There was nothing he could do at this moment.

Suhyuk looking down at his hands with which he wrapped his face.

Just futile. When he really needed to, he could not use his own hands.

Suhyuk wrapped his face again. His mumbling of self-reproach kept coming out between his fingers.

“d.a.m.n it...d.a.m.n...Stupid me!”

At that moment he heard someone’s footsteps.

Limping, limping.

Hana’s father.

He was walking fast while looking at the red light indicating there was an operation going on.

“Hana, she will be okay?”

Suhyuk rose from the seat.

“She’ll be okay, and she will definitely get up again.”

Since when did it start? Tears that he could not control were dropping from his eyes.

When he wiped tears like a child, Hana’s father hugged him.

“Yeah, you’re a medical student, and if you say she is okay, she will be okay. Yeah...”

Hugged in Hana’s father’s arms, Suhyuk, who was dropping his head, could see his wounded foot was bare, with one shoe lost. Suhyuk had not yet fixed this foot of his. And the same for Hana who closed her eyes before him.

‘How stupid of me.. Lee Suhyuk, you’re such a stupid guy.’

Suhyuk fell down on one knee and shook the dirt off his foot, saying,

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“What are you sorry for? I told you not to say sorry again...”

Even from his eyes staring at the closed operating room door, tears were falling.

—–

Probably, it was on a certain night. The winter night where white snow was falling aplenty.

Yes, it was. White snow falling heavily on the lights of the tree-lined streets looked as beautiful as flowers. Right there I slipped like a fool and probably had my ankles sprained. You knelt on the white snow and stroked my reddened ankles. That day... Do you remember?

—–

Hana’s eyes opened gently. A fluorescent light s.h.i.+ning white came into her eyes.

“Hana?”

Her eyes moved sideways. It was Suhyuk.

“How do you feel? Can you see me?”

His face that at first appeared blurred was then seen clearly, and his voice was heard distinctly.

“Your father just went to the bathroom.”

She nodded slowly. Then, she looked at Suhyuk silently who was checking her condition.

‘Back then, he must have been very cold because his knees were buried in snow.’

“Suhyuk.”

“Don’t overdo yourself. You may come speak another time.”

Suhyuk moistened her cracked lips with a towel.

There was a slight smile on Hana’s eyes.

“Back then, you felt very cold?”

“Uh? What?”

Hana slowly shook her head as if she were asking him how he could not remember it. And when she opened her eyes again, her gaze was fixed on Suhyuk’s knees.

***

She has been hospitalized for over a week.

Fortunately, there were no complications, and her body recovered quickly.

After clinical practice, Suhyuk came to Hana right away.

Suhyuk, who visited her room today, checked her physical condition here and there, as if he were her primary care physician.

“I am okay.”

Suhyuk laughed gently, “Yeah, I think you’re definitely better now.”

It seemed to be possible for her to be discharged soon.

That was not all, of course. That motorcycle that hit her shoulder and ran off; the hit-and-run criminal had to be arrested.

“The police are still investigating the incident.”

She nodded and opened her mouth, “I am feeling stuffy in here.”

When she tried to get up from her seat, Suhyuk helped her. And he helped her to sit in the wheelchair.

“It’s cold outside.”

He covered her with his padded clothes.

She hugged the fluffy padded clothes of his, and could feel his warmth.

Does he use perfume? The smell is also good.

Suhyuk looked at her with a smile.

‘Now... I do not know what to think.’

She laughed and said, “Let’s go.”

Today of all days there seemed to be so many stars in the night sky.

“Don’t you feel cold?” asked Suhyuk.

Hana looked up at him and replied, “Yes.”

Suhyuk looked down at her. Hana’s two eyes holding the stars twinkled.

“Huh, I feel the atmosphere here smells a little fishy?”

The two turned their heads toward a familiar voice.

It was Dongsu walking with a black bag.

Suhyuk answered with a smile.

“What’s in there?”

“Spicy roasted rice cake and boiled sausage.”

Hana narrowed her eyes.

“I never said I wanted to eat it, and now I can not eat anything.”

“It’s okay, you will not die after eating it. Just try it. You won’t be able to stop once you start eating.”

Suhyuk opened his mouth, “You just bought it because you wanted to eat it.”

—–

The students who had been following the resident for a long time were about to cry.

Question after question after they made the rounds. When they could not answer, they had to get a scolding. And they deserved it. So, their practice scores were cut and cut like that.

There were more students who did not answer the questions than those who did. The atmosphere among Suhyuk’s group was subdued heavily. Nonetheless, there was one person who kept up with an expression like Buddha. It was none other than Suhyuk.

He answered any questions given to him without any embarra.s.sment. Residents from each department shook their heads as if they were stunned. The group who belonged to Suhyuk, who made an expression different from the others, moved to the cafeteria for lunch.

“Maybe he was the famous Chinese doctor Hua Tuo in his previous life...”

“No, he would have been Hippocrates...”

“He might have been born with a scalpel in his hand...”

All the group members praised him, but their expressions were calm. Well, they have seen it not just once or twice, so they were not aroused like before.

“Does your head feel okay?”

At Choi Suryon’s asking, Suhyuk made a curious expression.

When was I sick? She asked again,

“Are you alright? You seem normal?”

“Well...”

She slowly nodded her head and kept holding and then putting down her jacket as if it were hot.

Whenever she did so, her white breast bone became exposed and then disappeared.

Choi glanced at him and knitted her brows because he was gazing somewhere.

Suhyuk, who stopped his walking, opened his eyes wide.

He surely saw her somewhere before. A familiar face to him.

“Hey, my eyes saw correctly!”

The grandmother approaching him and grasped his hands.

Only then could he recall her face.

As a freshman in college, he did a volunteering job briefly in the hillside village.

She was the very old woman who had pain on the back of her foot.

Suhyuk smiled at her naturally.

“h.e.l.lo, how are you madam?”

“Yes, yes, thanks to you I was doing okay.”

And she turned back and called out to others.

“I told you this is the right place. Right here!”

Grandmothers and grandfathers, looking around, came to where Suhyuk was standing.