Boss, It's My First Time Being Your Resident - Chapter 43
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 43. The French-Speaking Angel
“Non! Jamais!”
Whether she’d misunderstood Tae Heon or not, the woman shook her head frantically, sweeping both hands outward in emphatic refusal.
The shrill beeping of the monitor’s warning alarm echoed out beyond the Resuscitation Room.
The child’s oxygen saturation was dropping.
It was at that very moment, as Tae Heon stepped forward once more with no time to waste, that the woman moved to block his path.
“Wait, please. Let me try talking to her!”
A Gang quickly moved to Tae Heon’s side.
“D’ou venez-vous?”
Fluent French poured from A Gang’s lips.
In an instant, an almost dreamlike silence fell over the Corridor.
The Medical Staff members who had been moving busily froze mid-motion, their eyes wide with surprise as they turned to stare at A Gang.
“Je suis Nigerien. Je ne parle pas anglais.”
“Je parle francais. Je vais vous aider.”
At one end of the station, Cha Yu Joo—who had been hurriedly jotting down interview notes in her Notebook—suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Her gaze shifted to A Gang.
“C’est effrayant. Ne faites pas ca!”
“Maman, calmez-vouz. Je vais tout vous expliquer.”
After speaking quietly with the child’s mother for a moment, A Gang relayed what she’d learned to Tae Heon.
“She says she’s from the Niger Tribe. It’s a West African country, and French is her native language. Hold on.”
A dark shadow crossed A Gang’s face as she listened to the woman’s words.
“The mother is saying she absolutely cannot allow a knife to touch her child’s body.”
“What?”
“Let me explain again. I’ll make sure she understands.”
A Gang drew a short breath and continued the conversation in graceful French.
From a distance, Cha Yu Joo—arms crossed—watched with a slight, subtle smile playing at one corner of her mouth.
[Mother, what is the child’s name?]
[Kwami. Gabriel Kwami.]
[Mother, Kwami’s upper body is being burned—the skin is stiffening. He can’t breathe properly. We need to perform the procedure right now so Kwami can breathe again.]
[So what you’re saying is, you’re going to cut open our child’s skin with a knife right now?]
The woman began to weep heavily, gripping A Gang’s sleeve tightly.
A Gang placed her own hand over the trembling woman’s hands and continued speaking with measured calm.
The fumbling junior resident she usually was had vanished entirely; A Gang’s voice now carried an almost uncanny steadiness and resolve.
[Mother, the Escharotomy requires a scalpel. Right now, it’s the surest way to let Kwami breathe on his own again.]
[No! I cannot! I absolutely cannot!]
[Mother…….]
[Please, please. Just treat him like this. Do anything else, but please don’t use a knife. I’m begging you.]
A Gang, faced with the woman’s desperate plea, bit her lip for a long moment before looking up at Tae Heon to relay the message.
“She has an Indigenous Religious Belief she practices in Africa. She believes that if a knife touches her child’s body, the child will die and her soul will shatter into pieces, disappearing into the earth.”
“…….”
“And that in the next life, the child won’t be reborn as a human. She says she absolutely cannot sign the Consent Form…….”
As Tae Heon’s expression grew visibly colder, A Gang’s voice grew smaller.
“Doctor, please! Please!”
Then the woman suddenly seized Tae Heon’s hand.
Rough French, accented and broken, burst forth along with her desperate sobs.
“She’s begging you not to use a knife. She says God will punish her if she allows it.”
“Tae Heon! Hurry! Get the Consent Form! The child doesn’t have much time!”
Eun Do, who had been treating the child inside the Resuscitation Room, burst out, unable to wait any longer.
But Tae Heon’s response was unexpectedly cold.
It was chill, decisive, utterly devoid of warmth.
“What you need to protect isn’t some god you’ve never seen or heard from. It’s your son right in front of you. Don’t you see him fighting for his life?”
A tense silence settled over the Corridor.
Between the woman and Tae Heon, A Gang shifted uncomfortably, her feet shuffling with anxiety.
“That cursed god is killing your precious son, cell by cell, second by second!”
Tae Heon spoke in a low murmur, his eyes boring into the woman with a chilling intensity, his gaze cold as ice.
A Gang could not bring herself to relay the full bite of his words to the woman; her lips only trembled in silence.
“You see that White Bed over there?”
Tae Heon tilted his chin, gesturing toward Zone A across from them.
“If your god is so important, then entrust your son to your god. I’ll go see my other waiting patients.”
As if his patience had reached its limit, Tae Heon stripped off his Medical Gloves without hesitation and threw them onto the Medical Cart.
“Whoa, Tae Heon. Calm down, calm down.”
The startled Eun Do placed a hand on Tae Heon’s shoulder to steady him, but Tae Heon had already turned away.
“Senior, wait! Please don’t go. Let me explain again!”
A Gang quickly grabbed the hem of Tae Heon’s coat as he turned without a flicker of emotion.
Yesterday he had been so warm with her grandfather, so why was he being so cold today?
She couldn’t understand it at all.
If he hadn’t been her senior, harsh words would have nearly spilled from her lips.
“Don’t be so harsh. People have different cultures. You might not have understood.”
Quietly enduring Tae Heon’s stern gaze from above, A Gang reached up with her fingertips and pulled down the Rubber Band that had been holding her hair tight.
With a soft sound, long, full hair tumbled gently down over A Gang’s shoulders.
[Mother, look carefully.]
A Gang placed the Rubber Band on the woman’s wrist and began wrapping it around, round after round, pulling tight.
After looping it three times, blue veins bulged visibly across the back of her hand where blood could no longer flow.
[It’s suffocating, isn’t it? The numbness, the tingling from the blood being cut off. It feels like your hand will fall off.]
[…….]
The woman gazed quietly at her own palm, which was turning a dark red.
[This is exactly what Kwami is experiencing right now. It’s as if a huge rope has been wound so tightly around his chest that he cannot breathe at all.]
A Gang explained gently while she picked up the Scissors from the Medical Cart.
As she cut through the Rubber Band one loop at a time, the blood that had been trapped rushed back, and her hand regained its healthy flush in an instant.
[The Escharotomy releases skin that’s hardened like this, freeing the airways so she can breathe. African hospitals probably use a similar method to treat it.]
The tears the woman had been holding back fell onto the back of A Gang’s clasped hands.
[I… I… cannot betray our god…….]
[I believe without doubt that your god is good.]
[…….]
[A good person’s god must be a good god, so he will never punish Kwami.]
A Gang gently stroked the back of the woman’s hand.
[I will stay with you, Mother. I promise.]
Eun Do, watching for an opening, seized the moment and quickly held out the Consent Form and Pen to the woman.
At last, with trembling hands, the woman slowly traced a signature on the line.
It was a heavy signature, weighted with hesitation and fear.
“I will do my very best!”
The moment the Pen left the paper, Eun Do—unable to conceal his relief—rushed into the Resuscitation Room.
Tae Heon followed silently behind him.
Just before entering the Resuscitation Room, Tae Heon turned his head and glanced briefly at A Gang.
In that brief moment, A Gang felt a flicker of warmth in his eyes—eyes that usually held only an icy coldness.
Was it silent acknowledgment?
Or perhaps something more?
A Gang smiled softly back at him, then carefully guided the child’s mother to a waiting chair.
Once A Gang confirmed through the glass window that the child’s treatment had begun safely, she suddenly sprinted toward the Restroom.
A Gang hurried across the Corridor.
One hand clamped tightly over her mouth.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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