The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 66

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 66

Cancer. The power that disease name held was far too strong.

Kkyu Kkyu remained silent for a long time.

“Haha, no way. Kkyu Kkyu is still a college student…”

After the silence, it was Young Master Chungpung who spoke first.

“People in their twenties get stomach cancer these days too. An 8kg weight loss without intentional dieting isn’t something to take lightly. Of course, I hope it’s nothing, and given your young age, it’s much more likely to be just gastritis or gastroesophageal reflux disease, but there’s no harm in getting it checked.”

“That’s true.”

“Kkyu Kkyu, go to the hospital like Divine Physician said.”

Young Master Chungpung and another guild member agreed with what I said, but Kkyu Kkyu still remained silent.

“But…”

He hesitated for a long time before speaking.

“I don’t have money.”

“Divine Physician said it could be cancer! Is money really the issue right now?”

“If you do it without sedation, it’s not as expensive as you think. There are options in the 100,000 won range. Early stomach cancer is usually asymptomatic or only causes heartburn, so look into it.”

Young Master Chungpung got angry, and I tried to persuade him once more.

Was this really something to hesitate about? I lived without money during college too, but if someone said this much, I would at least get tested.

…No, wait. Maybe he really doesn’t have much money.

“If you really don’t have it, I’ll pay for the test. Go tomorrow.”

“But if it turns out to be nothing…”

“That would be fortunate. Since I’m the one insisting, I won’t say anything. I’m just worried.”

“Worried… about me?”

Even then, Kkyu Kkyu hesitated. His voice seemed to be filled with tears somehow.

“Um… but…”

“Yes.”

“Even if you give me money… I can’t go.”

“What? Why not?”

“…Actually, I’m not a college student.”

Ah…

I thought something seemed strange. If a college student didn’t have money, they would at least work part-time, but it seemed he was a minor.

Now that he told the truth, his voice did sound quite young.

“Are you a high school student? Don’t tell me you’re in middle school?”

“Yes. I’m in middle school… I’m sorry. I thought the guild wouldn’t accept me if I told the truth… I’m using my grandmother’s ID.”

Kkyu Kkyu confessed the truth he had been hiding in a voice barely above a whisper.

“Oh my, that’s fine! These things happen! Tell your parents and go to the hospital quickly!”

Young Master Chungpung said.

I also had no intention of scolding him for lying about his age. There wasn’t an age requirement for joining the party, and he wasn’t my child, so I didn’t want to interfere with him playing games until dawn.

But unlike Young Master Chungpung, having no parents myself, I thought I understood why Kkyu Kkyu only mentioned not having money.

Living in the countryside, using his grandmother’s ID instead of his mother’s or father’s for gaming. And if it was a household where no one said anything about him playing games late into the night…

“I don’t live with my parents.”

He must live with his grandmother.

“Where do you live? I’ll send you taxi fare too.”

I said. Since I decided to help, I should go this far.

“Taxis probably won’t come here…? It’s really rural. Hapcheon, Gyeongsangnam-do, and it’s not even near downtown, there’s no hospital…”

“Huh? There are places without internal medicine clinics? …You’d really have to go all the way to Daegu for an endoscopy?”

Young Master Chungpung, who presumably grew up in a middle-class Seoul family, kept making ignorant comments.

I searched too, and while there was an internal medicine clinic downtown, it didn’t seem to have the equipment.

“Fortunately it’s Gyeongsangnam-do though. I’m in Busan, so I’ll drive there to pick you up.”

Going by bus seemed difficult, so I’d have to rent a car. I was glad I got my license.

“The guild master is coming here? All this way?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my, I’m only 15, surely…”

“Just think of it as your sister being overly concerned. Or consider it a drive! Kkyu Kkyu can do some sightseeing in Daegu too! I’ll buy you something delicious!”

After I said this much, Kkyu Kkyu accepted the proposal.

“Then that sounds good. After the test, let’s play games together at a PC cafe!”

“Ooh, so you two are having a meetup? I’d go down to Daegu too if it weren’t for work!”

I got Kkyu Kkyu’s phone number and address.

I also learned his real name. Yun Hanbyeol, 8th grade.

“If your stomach cramps get really bad at night, don’t worry about money and call 119. And if you’re getting an endoscopy tomorrow, you need to maintain an empty stomach, so don’t even drink water in the morning!”

“Yes, thank you.”

I gave Yun Hanbyeol additional instructions over the phone before going to sleep.

And the next morning, I rented a car and set off for Hapcheon.

At a rest stop, I found a hospital in Daegu that could do same-day endoscopy and made a reservation.

Although Hapcheon was in Gyeongsangnam-do, Daegu was much closer. Considering I’d have to take Yun Hanbyeol back home and return to Busan, going to Daegu made more sense logistically.

‘I hope it’s just me being overly concerned…’

Yun Hanbyeol contacted his homeroom teacher saying he was too sick to go to school, and waited for me at home.

His house, where he lived with his grandmother, was a fairly old two-story building, located in a place where you had to take a bus to get to downtown Hapcheon.

“Hello. …Wow, Guild Leader, you’re really, um… cool.”

“Get in quickly.”

Meeting him in person, he was a much shyer kid than I had thought. Having lost 8kg, he had quite a frail build.

I put him in the passenger seat and rushed to the internal medicine clinic I had reserved.

And then came the examination.

The internal medicine doctor also said that an endoscopy was absolutely necessary given the sudden weight loss.

I waited in the waiting room while Yun Hanbyeol went into the examination room.

And the results we learned shortly after were.

“It’s stomach cancer, estimated stage 2.”

I had hoped it wouldn’t be.

I had thought there was a high chance we’d be relieved that it was just excessive worry.

“Me, I have? Really? Can-cancer?”

The diagnosis I had worried about with a “what if” had come down.

Even though explanations followed about how it was discovered relatively early and that surgery would give over 90% survival rate, Yun Hanbyeol couldn’t hear anything else anymore.

I listened to the doctor’s explanation on his behalf, then left the hospital with him in complete shock.

“This doesn’t make sense. How…. How could this happen to me? What, what did I do wrong?”

“…It’s not something that happens because you did something wrong. You just had bad luck.”

“Just because I ate some ramen, didn’t sleep much, it gets this bad? All my friends do the same thing. Why, why only me.”

My words from beside him weren’t any comfort.

I tried to buy him food, but he shook his head while tears streamed down, so I took him back to Hapcheon for now.

“Right now it’s very shocking and difficult, but… most people survive with surgery. I’ve seen many patients who live well after stomach resection. Hanbul is young, so he’ll recover even better.”

“Earlier, the doctor said I might need chemotherapy after surgery too… Then I’ll become like those leukemia kids in dramas who shave all their hair off, right? I, I don’t even have money to be hospitalized like that….”

Yun Hanbyeol clutched his head and wailed.

“I don’t want to die. If I was going to die like this, they should have just killed me earlier. No, if I hadn’t been born, mom and dad wouldn’t have fought so much!”

“It’s okay. It’s really going to be okay. …It’s very hard, isn’t it. It feels hopeless, doesn’t it.”

“Huuuung. Thank you… Guild Leader. You’re the only person who’s ever cared about me like this….”

I told him several times that he wouldn’t die, but his panic wouldn’t subside easily.

I arrived in Hapcheon, parked the car, and hugged him tightly.

“Let’s rest a bit first, then contact your parents. We need to prepare for surgery.”

He had calmed down somewhat during the drive here, but at the mention of his parents, the child’s attitude became sharp again.

“…My parents won’t have any interest.”

From what I roughly heard, it wasn’t that they had passed away like mine.

His mother had remarried and his father worked alone in the city, but since they didn’t want to care for Yun Hanbyeol directly, they had left him with his grandmother.

It was a situation where he had every reason to think his parents had abandoned him.

“Still, we have to let them know. You need surgery, you need to live.”

“I think my parents would prefer if I just died like this….”

“Even dying after reaching terminal stage takes a long time and is painful. Do you want that?”

Yun Hanbyeol shook his head.

The first thing he had said upon receiving the cancer diagnosis was that he wanted to live.

He was afraid his parents might really say they didn’t care, so he didn’t want to tell them the truth out of that fear.

“The surgery will go well. You can get better. If you do end up needing chemotherapy and it gets tough, I’ll help you.”

“You will, Guild Leader….”

“Yes. I have several patients who are undergoing chemotherapy too.”

“Why would you go that far….”

“Why? Our guild won’t function without Kkyu Kkyu! You need to get better quickly so you can fight the High Priests!”

At my casual joke, Yun Hanbyeol finally showed a smile.

“You won’t kick me out of the guild?”

“Kick you out? You’re the main tank I’ve been carefully raising! We need to keep having fun together! Study hard too, and when you’re an adult, make money and spend on the game!”

“…I really want to do that.”

When we talked about the game, Yun Hanbyeol smiled softly.

I finally managed to get his parents’ contact information from him.

* * *

After dropping Yun Hanbyeol off at home, I made the phone call from my car.

I didn’t know how his parents would react, so I didn’t want to cause him unnecessary hurt.

There are parents in this world who are more trash than you can imagine, and I couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might really tell him to figure it out himself since they don’t care whether their child lives or dies.

“Hello, this is Team Leader Yun Jeonghun!”

After a brief ring, a man answered the phone.

“Hello. Are you Yun Hanbyeol’s father?”

“Yes? That’s right. Did something happen to Hanbul?”

“I am….”

How should I introduce myself? I was momentarily at a loss for words, but I had no choice but to tell the truth.

It’s not like I was saying I came back from the Martial Arts World, so whatever.

“…I’m someone who got to know Hanbul through playing games together.”

“What?!”

As expected, he was very flustered.

“By, by any chance, did Hanbul commit some kind of… fraud?”

“No. There’s no way that could be the case.”

“Ah… That’s a relief.”

“I’m Han Yewon, the director of Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic in Busan. I’m not a strange person. While we were gaming, Hanbul suddenly said his stomach hurt, so after listening to his story, I was concerned about a serious illness and recommended he get examined.”

“An illness?!”

Yun Jeonghun asked back in surprise.

At least he didn’t seem to be the insensitive or hot-tempered person I had worried about.

Even when he misunderstood that I might have been a scammer, and even after hearing about the illness, Yun Jeonghun’s voice was filled with deep worry and concern.

“Yes. Fortunately, I was nearby, so I took Hanbul to Cheon General Hospital in Daegu for an endoscopy. This is truly difficult to say, but… they say it’s stomach cancer.”

“…”

Yun Jeonghun was speechless.

Even I would find it hard to believe.

“…This isn’t a scam, is it? Is Hanbul there with you?”

“No. I dropped him off at his grandmother’s house and called you separately. Hanbul didn’t want to contact his father. I felt I should tell you, so I barely managed to get your number. Please contact both the hospital and Hanbul to confirm.”

“…You really are Hanbul’s acquaintance… Hanbul, is Hanbul… suffering a lot?”

“The shock is huge. Even though I told him he won’t die and that surgery will fix it, the intimidating power of a diagnosis like cancer must be tremendous. It will be shocking for you as his father too, but since he’s suffering more than anyone else… please comfort him well.”

These were truly difficult words to say.

I realized anew that I hadn’t had to make serious illness diagnoses for a long time.

“Ah…”

Yun Jeonghun’s voice trembled. He couldn’t find words to say and kept letting out groans.

“Um… excuse me, Doctor.”

“Yes. Please go ahead.”

“You even took him for the examination, and I know this is really an unreasonable request, but.”

“Yes.”

“Could you look after Hanbul just a little… no, that’s not right. I should go myself.”

“I’ll take care of him as much as I can, but there are things that a parent needs to do directly. If you’re not overseas, please come as soon as you get off work today.”

Yun Jeonghun hesitated and couldn’t readily say he would do so.

If he had been insensitive from the start, I would have scolded him harshly. But I had already sensed his genuine concern for his son.

“Is there some reason you can’t appear in front of Hanbul? Like custody issues or a restraining order…?”

“No! I have custody!”

I asked carefully, but Yun Jeonghun vehemently denied it.

“It’s not that far either. I’m in Busan. It’s just… my son, when he sees me… I think he’ll hate me even more.”

“…It seems like there’s some big misunderstanding.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————