Golden Time

At Suhyuk’s asking tears dropped from her eyes suddenly.

While she was going out to buy ramen with her boyfriend, she got a message from a male acquaintance younger than she.

And then her boyfriend asked her who the h.e.l.l that guy was, which caused a quarrel between the two of them.

Very much upset, her boyfriend hit her.

At that moment she pa.s.sed out and stumbled, falling into the sea.

Listening to her story, Suhyuk knitted his brows.

This was the so-called date violence that he heard about before.

She told Suhyuk about other similar experiences in the past.

It was not the first time her boyfriend hit her.

When she met him five times a week, she said she was beaten three times.

“Why didn’t you report it to the police?” asked Suhyuk.

Based on her story, this was chronic a.s.sault that warranted legal punishment.

“When I think about it carefully, I could understand his behavior. Maybe my boyfriend hit me because he might have misunderstood. I think I made a mistake.”

“How can you say that...”

Suhyuk just shut his mouth, though.

He felt as if she was defending her boyfriend, the attacker, even though she had experienced a life-threatening situation.

Suddenly a mental illness came to his mind.

Stockholm syndrome.

“I guess you love your boyfriend very much?”

At his asking she nodded her head, replying,

“Yes, he is a good person.”

“Still, you were beaten by him. Don’t you want to report it?”

Her eyes opened wide, and she stood up abruptly and asked,

“Why? It just happened because of my mistake. Something like a quarrel between husband and wife. Just think of it that way.”

Suhyuk slightly nodded his head at her remarks.

She was not normal in terms of her thought process, behavior and judgement.

“Got it,” said Suhyuk with a smile.

Only then did she make an expression of relief.

***

Minji took a rest after getting an IV shot.

Though she felt pain due to a fracture in her cheekbone, she would feel better with an outpatient treatment in a few weeks because it was not severe.

While she was lying in bed, Suhyuk met with Minji’s friends.

While showing them her X-ray, he cast his eyes toward a man, her boyfriend.

Given his strong build, he seemed to have had physical training.

“Mr Oh Yonggyu?”

His expression was calmer than before.

“Are you the guardian of Ms. Choi Minji?”

“Yes, she is my girlfriend.”

“I heard that she fell from the cliff by stumbling, but fortunately...”

Oh nodded his head.

“Yes, Minji often stumbles on normal days...”

Suhyuk could barely put down his anger at that.

“It’s a miracle. She’s alright, fortunately.”

Suhyuk then pointed to the X-ray, saying,

“As you can see, she has a fracture in her cheekbone.”

“Please treat it quickly, doctor!” said Jinhee.

At her pressing, he shook his head, saying,

“Regrettably, this is a small clinic, so we can’t give her professional treatment.”

Then Suhyuk looked at Oh again.

“I think we need to take her to a bigger hospital quickly,” said Oh.

“Yes, you should. Where do you live?”

“Seoul...”

“Good. I know a good doctor there. Can I introduce him?”

Suhyuk observed Oh’s behavior then.

‘What would you do? You want to take her to a top doctor or any doctor at a nearby hospital?’

“Thanks for your consideration, doctor. Thanks so much,” said Oh.

After letting them take care of Minji, Suhyuk went out of the room.

Choi Miran at the reception desk asked him with a worried look,

“Is the patient alright?”

Suhyuk opened his mouth, smiling lightly,

“Can I borrow your cell phone?”

“Sure!”

Handed her phone, he went out the clinic.

He called someone.

“Yes, this is Park Sungjae at the cardiothoracic surgery department.”

“This is me, Lee Suhyuk.”

“Oh dear! Who did you say you were?”

“Lee Suhyuk.”

“Wow! Sir, how have you been doing? I miss you dearly!”

“How are you doing?”

“I’m so stressed.. Ooops... I’m doing fine. I am worried about you, sir.”

“I’m doing fine, too. Sungjae, let me transfer a patient to you.”

He then told Park about Minji.

“Hope you’d take care of her.”

“Sir, don’t worry. Let me take care of her well.”

—–

Arriving at Daehan Hospital Oh looked for Park Sungjae.

Park’s eyes were glittering.

“Please treat her well, doctor,” said Oh, holding out his hand for a handshake.

“Don’t worry. Let me have her get a thorough checkup because she might have other problems than a bone fracture.”

Minji went through a thorough checkup.

Park detected all the marks of violence from her body.

Then he whistled while looking at her chart, saying,

“He will be behind bars with this much evidence even without the victim’s consent.”

Then his cell phone in his middle pocket buzzed.

“Yes, this is Park Sungjae.”

“How are you? This is prosecutor Kim Dongsu. I’m here at the hospital. Where can I find you?”

“Why are you looking for me, sir?

“Oh, I received a call from Suhyuk, my friend.”

“Ah...”

Park let Dongsu meet Minji and Oh Yonggyu.

Showing his ID card to Oh, Dongsu smiled a bit.

“Follow me when I speak with kind words. Don’t exercise any right to silence, if you can avoid it. It’s waste of our time if you do so.”

“What are you talking about?”

Dongsu, pointing to Minji with his chin, said,

“You know better than me, don’t you?”

Oh cast an icy look at Minji, at which she waved her hand hurriedly.

“No, no! Prosecutor, you seem to be misunderstanding something...”

Dongsu shook his head from side to side.

Suhyuk mentioned something like ‘Stockholm Syndrome,’ and it seemed he was right.

Dongsu shook the diagnostic certificate before his eyes, which he received from Park.

“This is the name of your crime.”

Staring at his girlfriend, Oh opened his mouth,

“By the way, can a prosecutor like you talk down to me?”

“If you don’t like it, you talk down to me too, b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”

—–

The case was resolved well.

Minji received psychological treatment while her boyfriend went to jail.

It was morally right to have them separated.

About one week pa.s.sed since Suhyuk came to the island.

He spent busy days as there were many patients visiting the clinic.

He was as busy here as he was at Daehan Hospital.

Back home after the day’s work, he put the bike on the yard and headed to the kitchen.

There he found an iron pot.

He wanted to cook rice in an iron pot, but could not because he was busy.

Today seemed to give him a good opportunity to do so.

He cleaned the dirt inside, and pulled water from the well in the yard.

“Do I need to wash the rice first?”

Rolling up his sleeves, he washed the rice, and poured it into the pot.

He lighted a piece of paper and then put some twigs into the furnace.

The fire caught on the firewood immediately.

While blowing air into the furnace, Suhyuk made a satisfactory smile.

Smoke went up from the chimney connected down to the kitchen furnace.

Those pa.s.sing by gathered one by one to look at it.

It was a magnificent spectacle for them to see after such a long time.

While the rice was cooking, he was tr.i.m.m.i.n.g a tripletail as thick as his forearm.

Though he had never done it before, it was not so difficult for him to remove the scales from the fish.

An old man who stopped by the clinic gave him some, saying he had a good catch.

After scaling it, he put it on a grill with some salt.

And he put it inside the furnace.

Soon a savory smell filled the kitchen.

After he took out the grill from the furnace, he held the caldron lid with a dishcloth.

White steam came up quickly from the caldron.

Suhyuk brought a small table from the room, and then set the table ready to eat.

On top was a well done tripletail and some delicious rice.

Also there were vegetables and salted seafood given to him by nurse Choi.

Suhyuk raised his chopsticks picking up the fish.

What a delicious taste!

Suhyuk could enjoy the peculiar taste of each food that he could not usually have in city life.

About 10 minutes into eating, he heard some rumbling noises outside.

“What is this? It’s only smoke from the chimney.”

“You’re right. We made a big deal out of nothing...”

They then opened the door to find Suhyuk sitting before the table.

Each of them was holding a bucket and a large bowl to put out a fire.

With a smile, they said, “Our doctor cooked rice for dinner!”

“Oops, we just raced here thinking this house caught fire.”

Though those nearby knew it was not a fire, those seeing the smoke from the distance might have thought it was.

That meant there were very few people who lighted a fire in the furnace and cooked rice in a caldron.

Scratching his head, Suhyuk asked, “Have you eaten anything?”

“Well, it’s about time we ate.”

“As I raced here, I feel more hungry now.”

Smiling a bit, Suhyuk went out and asked, “There’s lots of cooked rice here. Do you want to share some?”

Some of them, hesitant for just a the moment, began coming into the room.

“Looks like we’re disturbing your dinner, doctor!”

Then they sat before the table one by one.

“I feel great if you can join me like this. I’m no longer bored thanks to you.”

Suhyuk immediately grilled two more tripletails and scooped rice into bowls.

Then some of the people called somewhere.

“I’m here at the new doctor’s house. Please bring me some maggoli (brew rice wine)!”

“Honey, we still have ox head slices in the refrigerator, right?”

Suhyuk had a long dinner together with the island people like that.

The next day came without fail.