While changing into a surgical suit and heading towards the D-rosette, Dowook paused when he saw the two women sitting near the entrance.
"Director Lim?"
At the call, the ZQ Investment Group's financial director and KG Entertainment’s CEO turned their heads at the same time.
"Oh my. Nice to see you, doctor."
It was Lim So-hee who welcomed Dowook first.
He had only run into her very briefly once, but he remembered that she was very impressive. In particular, the way she treated Lim So Yool, who most people at the hospital had trouble dealing with, like an immature child.
"Semdeok, weren't you waiting for him?"
"I told you not to call me that. Welcome, Dr. Park."
"Why are you hiding the chocolate milk behind your back? Look at how cute she is."
As expected, the impression at that time was not an illusion. He’d never seen Lim So Yool's face look so red.
"Go home if you're done eating."
"I don't want to. I'm going to stick next to you today.”
To Lim So Yool, who rejected her sister trying to link arms with her, Dowook calmly talked to her as usual.
"That milk must suit your taste.”
Lim So Yool, who stopped, looked up at Dowook.
"The cacao content is 65.72%, but this is the first that’s not bitter."
"Don't you think it’s because they just poured a ton of sugar in?”
"If they did, that's condensed milk. Like this, skim milk powder liquid with an acidity of 6.65 and a viscosity of 1.63 centipoise needs 15 g of sugar per liter to be moderately sweet. More than that, it's greasy."
"Aha."
Lim So-hee raised her eyebrows toward her younger sister, who continued her ridiculous answer. She’d purposely induced the atmosphere to become sweet, but this was a dead-end cliff.
Lim So-hee, who was lamenting over her clueless sister, discovered that Dowook was watching her younger sister’s answer as if it were funny.
Lim So-hee's lively eyes moved to Dowook.
"Dr. Park Dowook."
"Yes."
"I heard that you went around calculating with her. Now that I see it, it seems just like the main character.”
"What?"
Lim So-hee quickly continued to talk to Dowook, who tilted his head.
"As you know, what our Semdeok says is not common. As the only person who takes care of her and her older sister, I'd like to say a word of concern. Don't try to abuse the fact that she’s a number-idiot. Because she can't really judge that."
Those words put a lot of pressure on him, so Dowook straightened his posture.
"It's not abuse, but the degree of mutual exchange as a friend. That's how I’ve received help."
"I thought so, so I’m saying first. I hope you don't abuse it and continue to use it. It's my first time seeing an acquaintance who looks social like you next to her."
"CEO Lim So-hee seems to be very social".
Smiling Lim So-hee looked back at Lim So Yool.
"But what's the point? She doesn't open the door to her heart. I think the doctor knows what that key is better than me."
"If you're done talking, can I do my thing, unni?”
"Okay."
Lim So-hee, who made a zipping gesture over her mouth, took a step back and Lim So Yool stepped forward.
"The surgery is scheduled for 10 o'clock, right? It ends after dinner."
"That’s right. So why have you been sitting here since this morning?"
"I'd like to check on Kim Suhan's entry."
"You calculated all the probabilities involved."
"It's not because of that calculation."
"Then?"
As Lim So Yool quietly looked up at Dowook, his whole body was reflected in her eyes.
"There is a function that I have been trying to prove for a long time."
She, who had been talking about a bunch of things whenever she talked about math, was shy and stopped talking. Dowook thought there was something strange but still treated her as usual.
"Dr. Nam Hana will transfer the patient, so I'll call you then meanwhile you can wait at the entrance for a while. I hope this calculation is not long. You didn't stay up all night trying to cut your lifespan, did you?”
Lim So-hee, who was yawning, paused. She had stayed up all night today as well.
Lim So Yool nodded.
"I've sorted out almost all the numbers related to the hospital."
"Selfish numbers. That one, right?”
"There's that, too."
Lim So-hee watched the two talking quietly about their daily lives as if it were interesting. At the end of the conversation, she spoke because she remembered something.
"Dr. Park Do Wook. I heard you're on a team with Dr. Choi Hoo. He purposely chose the least delicious lunch box at the convenience store a while ago. Do you know the reason why?”
"One that’s not delicious?"
Dowook thought about it for a while and answered.
"He probably wanted to replenish his calories for the long surgery."
"There's no reason to choose something that tastes bad, though."
"It's just a guess, but I think he might have judged that if he focused on delicious things, his concentration in the operating room would decrease."
"What, is he fueling up? How can a person be like a machine….”
"He's that kind of person."
Lim So-hee muttered as if she was surprised, turning her eyes toward the operating room.
"He's more unique than I expected. This side is sweeter than expected."
"How did you know about Professor Choi?"
"I ran into him before and just now."
"Just now?"
"He went in there. About 10 minutes ago."
Dowook asked again with an unbelieving expression.
"The surgery time is 10 o’clock, but you saw him go in already?”
"Yes. It's hard to not recognize such a character."
They’d been in the operating room together dozens of times, but this was the first time. Dowook quickly greeted the two.
"I'm going to go now, director. It was nice to see you, CEO Lim."
Dowook quickly disappeared into the operating room. Lim So-hee, who was watching his back, stabbed Lim So Yool in the side.
"Do you always talk about numbers when you run into him?"
"Yes."
"Oh, my. You idiot".
Dowook applied the disinfectant while touching the running water.
He was in a hurry since Professor Choi was inside, but he had to wash his hands for at least two minutes to make them sterile.
‘Why did he go in already? The anesthesia team probably hasn't even arrived yet.’
After washing, he opened the door of the second operating room with his feet.
Drrrrk.
Dowook entered the open door and flinched.
He couldn't even feel the presence of a grain of dust in the air in the operating room. The white floor, where the disinfectant had passed by, the angular surgical tools and surgical beds, and the location as if measured by an LED lighting ruler that seemed to illuminate the whole area.
The final preparation that the assistant was supposed to do was finished completely differently by Choi Hoo himself.
Dowook could understand him, who gave the medical team tips every time he entered the operating room.
‘This is the best, but I haven't been able to do it like this.’
Choi Hoo, located in the middle of the room, moved his head toward Dowook.
"You’re here, Dr. Park."
"Professor, if you're going to prepare, you should have informed me prior."
"I needed the perfect setting. I have to go through a simulation as well."
Choi Hoo, already wearing sterile gloves, reached into the air to measure the timing of the surgery.
Tingle.
Even though Dowook didn’t intend to, he felt Choi Hoo’s sense rushing in. And he was sure.
There was one reason why he was so focused on this operation.
Perfect application of new skills.
The tremendous impulse emitted by Choi Hoo stimulated Dowook. This was the pure desire of a surgeon, that he had no desire to refuse.
Standing opposite Choi Hoo, Dowook participated in the preoperative simulation.
"We're going into the temporary bidding."
"Blood pressure?"
"It's unstable. 40 to 60."
"If the state of hypotension is long, this patient dies. 10 minutes. You have to finish the suture of the ligated area within that time.”
There were discussions on priorities and timing of the treatment, which they had talked about many times over the past week.
Drrrrrk.
An Ho-san of anesthesia, who was entering the operating room with the nurses, was surprised to see the surgeons coming first.
"What? Nurse Kim. Did we recall the wrong time?"
"No, we still have 25 minutes left. Look. The patient just arrived."
"What are they doing? Are they practicing?”
"Oh my, oh my. The scrub is all set up. Oh my god. Look at how the scalpels are lined up."
The preparation of two surgeons who refused to allow an inch of error. An Ho-san beckoned to the nurses, who were bursting with exclamations, covering his mouth with his finger.
The surgery had already begun.
Beep beep. Beep beep.
LED lights from a microscope searched the patient's brain. Tweezers, scissors, needles, and threads traveled countless times over unstable blood vessels.
Eight hours after Kim Suhan's surgery, even those watching in the observation room kneaded on their stiff necks and backs.
"Blood pressure?"
"It’s 130 and 160cm."
"It's high. It's serious here.”
However, Dowook and Choi Hoo, wearing bloody gowns, were still having the same conversation as at the beginning.
Capillaries bulging like a strawberry in the brain relaxed with a retractor.
The micro-scissors and suture needle waiting in front of it were unable to advance hastily due to the patient's blood pressure.
Dowook, who was in charge of incision and dissection, asked Choi Hoo.
"What should we do? The moment you touch it, everything will rupture."
The pulse felt by his fingertips, had predicted a fatal situation for the two surgeons.
While looking at the blood vessels in the microscope with serious eyes, Choi Hoo raised his head and looked at Dowook.
"We do anastomosis and dissection at the same time."
Vascular anastomosis was a safe connection of bursting or incised areas. Choi Hoo had just suggested an extreme way to sew it even before it burst and resect the finished area immediately.
– Hey, Choi Hoo! What are you talking about?
Chief Ha, who sat in the observation room, immediately roared. However, it was a voice that did not enter into the ears of the two surgeons.
Dowook asked Choi Hoo to confirm.
"It's only possible if you know exactly where I'm going to cut it."
"You can do it. It is also possible for you to complete the incision with zero error range.”
"Let's try. There's no other way."
The staff who participated as the first and second assistants stuck to the side of the two surgeons after the discussion. And a voice full of worries continued.
"You used a lot more sutures than other cerebral aneurysms, but is not having an error of 0.1mm possible?"
"That's right. This is an area of impossibility."
The voices of two fellows. Choi Hoo turned his gaze.
"I twisted the same knot 3,000 times just for this surgery. Impossible? It's already evaporated for the thousandth time. If you can't follow me, leave the equipment and scram. There's a lot of doctors up there to replace you.”
Faculty members of the association sitting in the observation room and neurosurgeon doctors who came for a special visit from nearby famous hospitals all had a sparkle in their eyes.
Surgery that would become the first case in the world as well as in Korea. It was an honor to just visit, but assisting it meant that it would be a golden business card to be used somewhere.
The two fellows immediately bowed their heads to Choi Hoo.
"We were thoughtless, professor."
"I hope you will speak less from now on as well."
"Yes."
Turning his head back to the patient’s brain, Choi Hoo told Dowook.
"Let's start."
Beep beep beep beep!
When Dowook began the incision, blood pressure repeatedly rose and fell like a roller coaster.
"Suction!"
Above it, Choi Hoo’s suture wrapped part of the blood vessel like his hands were dancing. Above the needle that wound around even the unincised area, Dowook’s forceps and micro-scissors worked together.
Beep beep. Beep beep.
Once the fluctuating blood pressure calmed down, the doctors in the observation room, who were watching with sweat in their hands, also sighed.
– Even if we reveal this as an original technique, I wonder if there will be a surgeon that can do it like those two.
– If you want to study the cerebral aneurysm case properly in the future, you will have no choice but to visit Myeong Sae hospital. Which patient will choose another hospital when there’s such a perfect operation?
LED lights from a microscope searched the patient's brain. Scissors and needles went back and forth over the more stable blood vessels.
Despair that came to a patient who was sentenced to a time limit. It gradually disappeared under the hands of these two surgeons who wished for perfection.
"Ugh".
Kim Suhan, who opened his eyes moaning with a splitting headache, confirmed that Dowook was sitting next to him and tried to say something, and choked.
"I didn't take out the respirator yet. Self-breathing is possible, but I'll leave it until the skull is fixed. It hurts a lot right now, right? Depending on the degree of pain, sleep anesthesia will also be carried out for a few days."
Kim Suhan blinked to show that he understood.
"The surgery progressed very well. I brought the director here for accurate analysis."
Someone stuck their head out from behind Dowook.
Not long ago, she was the mathematician who was the top contributor to the hit broadcast. She was as beautiful as her name, with a pretty name called Lim So Yool. Seeing a beautiful woman right after he almost traveled to the other world made him feel good.
"I just finished calculating your life expectancy. The aftereffects have different recovery periods for each symptom, and the nerves in the left arm will be the most problematic.”
Little by little, her voice, which unraveled the results of the surgery in numbers, was like an angel, but there was also a little cruel side.
"…You can live at least 50 years if you don't put anything harmful into your body, such as alcohol and cigarettes."
Kim Suhan blinked quickly. When he saw that, Dowook asked Lim So Yool.
"If he keeps drinking beer, how much does his lifespan decrease?"
"I don't know. It'll be as much as others. We need to think more about alcohol-related functions. Do you want to calculate it together?"
"I’ll just not drink. I want to live long.”
"Tsk."
* * *
[Live ON AIR]
[Are you sleeping? It's me, Ssuhan.]
A young man with a hospital room in the background appeared on the platform transmission screen.
Bandage around the entire head, a slimmer face than before.
Kim Suhan, who finished the surgery, looked so sick that viewers wondered if something bad happened, and crying emoticons filled the chat.
"I'm doing this secretly, so I can't turn it on for long. It’s the nurse’s break time."
「What's wrong with you?」
「Didn't the surgery go well?」
A useful chat came into Kim Suhan's eyes as he was browsing the screen.
「In just a few weeks, your features are in chaos.」
Kim Suhan's energetic but angry voice continued.
"Hey. What do you mean by chaos? It's because they didn't feed me but just poured glucose into this tube. Don't make fun of me. Don't even talk about features."
「Yes, Lord. But your face is in trouble.」
「Trouble Hahahahaha」
「Your face is all mixed up.」
「A fight all over the face. Would you like to try Tangpyeong massage?」
In the chatroom where all kinds of jokes started as usual. A calm smile spread on Kim Suhan's mouth.
"You guys are still the same. My surgery went well. I heard I can live for another 50 years. They said I could live longer if I stopped drinking so I said never mind."
「Really? I was worried. I thought it was the last show.」
「I thought you were announcing a funeral broadcast. I almost went to donate at the funeral.」
"… But my left-hand doesn't move well. It will take some time to return with neurorehabilitation training after the wound heals."
Kim Suhan, who showed his shaky left hand on the camera screen, smiled.
"You don't have to wait. I don't care if you guys are scattered into more fun rooms on other channels. I'm going to continue to do broadcasts. Just come in whenever you're bored.”
Saying this was the reason he forced himself to open the broadcast.
-Ddirring.
-While looking for a job, watching you was my only joy. I’ll wait. For sure.
“Heesung49, thanks for the support. yeah, you’re not going to wait. You’ll succeed in finding a job and won’t have time to watch the broadcasts.”
-Ddirring.
-Can I go visit after my part-time?
"Pyeonsooni, thank you for your sponsorship. Yes, bring Melona when you come."
[T/N: Melona is a brand of ice cream in Korea. It’s melon flavored.]
-Ddirring.
-I'm sorry. You're the only streamer who's worse at games than me. I'll hang on.
"TrainingBug, thank you for your sponsorship. Yes, please go to another room and learn."
-Ddirring.
-Let's stop the broadcast. If you don't want to reduce your life expectancy to 30 years.
"Park Dowook, thank you for your sponsorship. Yes, I'll live longer than you…Dr. Dowook?
-Ddirring.
-I followed you. You can broadcast as much as you want after the seven weeks it takes for the wounds to heal, for now, take a rest.
From the way of speaking to knowing the recovery period not mentioned in the broadcast. This was really Dr. Park Dowook.
「Lol. A broadcast that the doctor takes care of!」
「Doctor! Look at him! He turned on the broadcast without telling the nurse!」
“Doctor, don't get me wrong. I turned it on for a short time. It’s really the last.”
-Ddirring.
-Yeah, we're going to confiscate all the PCs in the hospital room. You don't have to make excuses.
「Your way of talking is so beautiful. hahaha」
「When will you be on V LIVE. Dr. Tto-wook?」
Just before pressing the stop transmission button on the computer, Kim Suhan looked at the chat window with regret, as everyone had a pleasant conversation with his doctor.
Looking at it, he was determined to succeed in rehabilitation as soon as possible and return.
"I'll remember everything you told the doctor. I'm going."
「Come back~.」
「Hyung, make sure you become strong and come back!」
"Thank you, guys."
Click.
[Live OFF AIR]
The screen froze.
Kim Suhan, who had been looking at the black screen for a while, wiped his sour eyes with his sleeves.
"Oh, my. What if I miss you already?"
—–
Sync: The sense of over immersion of a shut-in streamer
Action: You can enjoy various communication with online friends. Self-sacrificing words that sacrifice yourself to draw laughter is a bonus.
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