Golden Time

He met them when he worked as a volunteer for briquette delivery service during college.

Every one of them grabbed his hands warmly. Wearing smiles on their wrinkled faces, they offered him words of grat.i.tude.

“I told you he was a doctor. Right?”

“Thank you very much for back then. We were so worried because you suddenly disappeared without saying a word.”

“Hey, we met him again like this, and that’s enough!”

At their exchange of words, Suhyuk laughed softly.

“I’m still a medical student...”

“Ah! Have you had lunch lunch yet?”

“No, I’m actually just now going to eat.”

“Good, good. You don’t have to go out to buy lunch. Just share this food with us.”

The grandma lifted a pink wrapping cloth. But then the grandpa next to her shook his head, saying,

“Hey, old hag, don’t you know that young people do not eat this?”

“Oh, really?”

Suhyuk laughed, “I am happy to eat any and all food.”

He could eat lunch for 1,000 won at the staff-only restaurant, but he felt it hard to break up with those nice people that he had not met in such a long time.

“What is all the food?”

She laughed and said, “I wonder if you like seaweed rolls and miso soup.”

“I love seaweed rolls very much.”

Suhyuk guided them to the elevator. On the rooftop of the hospital there was a sky park where patients and carers could rest. There were small trees and gra.s.s on it. Of course, the place where the helicopter could land was located elsewhere in the sky park.

“Suhyuk,” Choi Suryon called, but Suhyuk said, “Sorry, I’ll eat with them today.”

Suhyuk got on the elevator with the elderly people.

It was not cold. Even the winds blowing occasionally felt warm enough.

Seaweed rolls and miso soup in a Thermos bottle.

She offered him miso soup using the cap of the Thermos bottle.

“Drink it.”

“Thanks for the soup. It is very delicious.”

She smiled like a girl. Eating a seaweed roll, Suhyuk asked, “What brought you here, by the way?”

“Oh, someone in my village has been hospitalized...”

Suhyuk’s eyes grew bigger.

“Is the patient feeling very uncomfortable?”

“No, the surgery was well done. And he says he’s okay.”

Was it a simple surgery?

“What kind of surgery did he have?”

“What was it... What did the doctor say?” She asked someone next to her.

“It was appendectomy, you said it was appendicitis?”

Suhyuk laughed as if he was fortunate.

Appendicitis is no problem when the surgery is done well.

However, if one gets older, it can become a burden physically, so they need constant care.

“It’s so delicious,” said Suhyuk eating the seaweed rolls.

“Yes, it is. If you want more, let me know.”

Suhyuk nodded his head but was forced to make a bitter laugh.

Although seaweed rolls were delicious, the sight of them carrying food in a wrapped cloth made him feel bitter. They carried the food like that to save whatever little money they could. So Suhyuk ate it all the more deliciously.

Then she gave him a small pack of milk.

“I’m fine.”

She had only one pack. She wrapped it to drink for herself. How could he have it?

“Try it instead of water. It tastes good after eating.”

Suhyuk shook his hands once again, saying, “I like water.”

“Really? Then let me have it.”

Then she opened the milk pack and put it on the side. Then she pulled a plastic bag out of her pocket and poured something into the milk.

Suhyuk asked with a surprise, “Grandma, what is that?”

“Oh, this is good for your joints. I have eaten it a few times and it was really good.”

It seemed as if she put in some processed herbal medicine.

“Don’t drink too much. Such medication is good, but most of all, exercise is the best.

From now on, take it with water because medicine is mostly made to take with water.”

She wore a warm smile at Suhyuk’s soft voice. Her eyes became warm as if she were looking at her grandson.

“Oh, I love it.”

After swallowing down the milk, she looked around slowly.

“I just wish I had a garden like this one.”

Everyone was nodding at her words.

In their village, the house was narrow and there was no yard, and there was no s.p.a.ce to plant even a small plant.

“Now, why don’t we get up? We’ve been holding onto a busy doctor for too long.”

When an old man said that, everyone got up from their seats.

“I’m fine because it’s lunchtime. Pease have a cup of coffee.”

They waved their hands at Suhyuk’s words.

“We can drink coffee at any time but our doctor should take a break.”

Suhyuk laughed gently.

“When you come next time, don’t come if you’re sick like today.”

They nodded, smiling. They could feel the same kind heartedness of his which they had felt in those days when he treated them without any compensation. Suhyuk was walking ahead to catch the elevator. At that moment, he heard a thump.

“Hey, hey!”

Suhyuk’s body quickly turned around.

The old woman holding the wrapping cloth fell down.

Suhyuk hastily approached her, “Are you okay?”

“Uh-oh,” she started to mumble with a strange sound.

Besides, her pupils were losing focus and becoming blurred.

“Grandma! Can you see me? Can you hear me?”

Despite Suhyuk’s asking, she continued to shake hands in the air.

It seemed like an action as if she were trying to catch something.

He grabbed her hand and asked, “Why are you doing this? Are you sick?”

He kept asking, but she just murmured incoherently.

His gaze suddenly moved toward her left hand.

Her right hand kept moving, but her left arm did not move at all.

‘Left side weakness?’ Suhyuk lifted her left hand. When he put it back, it fell to the floor weakly. Suhyuk knitted his brows. It was as he expected.

‘What the h.e.l.l?’ He quickly checked her head.

He did not find any scratches or bulging b.u.mps.

‘Brain hemorrhage?’ There was a possibility, because some sort of disabilities overtook a normal person suddenly. Suhyuk carried her on his back right away.

He could feel her weight hanging down on him.

“Oh, what’s wrong with you? Wake up!”

Following the woman behind, their faces were seriously hardened.

Suhyuk was as anxious as them. Today of all days, the elevator stopped and resumed on each floor.

“Grandma? Please wake up!”

“Well ...that one. It looks delicious. Pretty, pretty.”

He kept hearing her mumbling incoherently in his ears.

“The door opens.”

The elevator arrived, and Suhyuk went in quickly.

***

She was taken straight to the emergency room and Suhyuk put her on the bed.

And then he sought Oh Byungchul. Exhausted, he was handing over the chart.

“Sir, she has got left side weakness and her mental state is not right. I suspect that there is a brain hemorrhage.”

Oh, lifting his head, looked at him with a frown.

“What are you talking about? What’s going on? Slow down.”

“Oh, she’s an emergency patient.”

Only then did he move, with his white gown fluttering.

“Do you know her?”

“Yes, she fell, and she was fine until a while ago...”

Oh shone the light in her eyes. She opened her eyes, but the pupils did not respond.

“You said she fell down?”

“Yes, you have to check it out quickly.”

“It looks like a brain hemorrhage.”

Oh who muttered, called the nurses, “This patient, please take a quick CT.”

She was moved on a stretcher. Suhyuk followed her.

In the Tomography room.

She, while blinking her eyes, was moving her fingers in the empty air. Then she kept muttering, however, it was not hard enough to not take a CT.

Within a few seconds, the results of the CT showed up, and along with Oh, Suhyuk looked at the computer monitors closely.

“What? It’s clean?”

Suhyuk nodded his head at his words. The cerebral blood vessels did not burst and were fine.

Then it was not a cerebral hemorrhage.

“What is this? You said she fell over and showed this symptom all of a sudden?”

Suhyuk nodded his head.

She was okay, but after she fell, she was struck with paralysis and language impairment.

Oh called the department of neurology right away.

If you worry about it, it will only delay the time. It was much quicker to have a neurologist confirm it. So, she was moved back to the ICU, and a neurologist looked at her condition.

The doctor talked to her, and touched her left hand and foot, which did not move.

At that moment Suhyuk, who was nervously watching, opened his mouth,

“I did not see a hemorrhaged blood vessel from the CT scan. But she was suspected of having a cerebral infarction, so we should do an MRI...”

A resident checking her condition looked at Suhyuk.

He had seen a glimpse of him among those students moving like a herd of chicks.

It was Lee Suhyuk, a PK student who has become a rising star among his doctor colleagues these days. Does he not deserve it?

“You are here after studying very hard?”

He smiled and called the nurses.

“Please take the patient to MRI.”

The neurologist, looking at the monitor, wore an expression that he could not know.

He was 90% convinced that the blood vessels were blocked, but he guessed it wrong.

Professor Lee Mansuk, who just came after receiving the call, was the same.

He looked at the brain, which was circulating in 3D on the screen.

He could not find the answer.

“You said she suddenly had that symptom and fell down? ”

“Yes.”

Suhyuk was as impatient as the professor.

The brain was fine, but her mental state was weak.

Fortunately, she did not hurt her brain, but she could remain in that condition forever.

Before she missed the timing for a cure, they had to find the cause of her sickness quickly.

Looking at the MRI, Suhyuk moved his body quickly to meet those who came with her.

“What kind of medicine did she get?”

Some of the sleeping pills and other medicines often weakened one’s mental state.

They shook their head at Suhyuk’s question.

“She wouldn’t have cold medicine even if she catches a cold.”

They were surprised at his deep sigh.

“What? Is she in a bad condition?” they asked.

Suhyuk thought about it quietly. Her brain is fine and medication was not the cause.

He had to think differently.

Before turning back, he asked the old men, “Please call for her guardian.”

His face grew even darker.

“She had no guardian. She lost track of her daughter last year, who contacted her on and off.”

“Huhh.....”

Suhyuk let out a deep sigh, lowering his head, and then smiled, saying,

“Let me serve as her guardian. Don’t worry too much, and wait here. I’ll bring her here.”

“Mrs. Bang, that old hag, is giving the doctor a hard time again...”

“Please take good care of her!”

Everyone seemed to scold her, but their voices were filled with worries.

Suhyuk soon turned around.

‘Her blood vessels did not burst. It was not blocked, and she didn’t usually take drugs.’

What did all these hidden hints point to? Suhyuk’s eyes laid low, and his white gown was fluttering silently.