Chapter 85
Chapter 85
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: Stormy Rescue
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Kang Hyun's hand immediately dialed 119.
“H-Hello. At the Cheongmun Mountain entrance, about 1 to 2 km to the left, there's an abandoned factory—no, a temporary building nearby. A man's fallen from the hillside and collapsed. Looks like pesticide poisoning.”
Kang Hyun's words came faster and faster. First, he stripped off his raincoat and draped it over the man's bare torso.
His face was deathly pale, but he was still breathing—a relief—and mercifully, no foam at the mouth yet. His legs must have been broken; he let out a low groan when the fabric brushed against him.
“Wh-What should I do?”
He pleaded desperately into the phone with 119, but there was no reply.
Click.
It was a double blow.
Kang Hyun's phone had died.
“Damn…”
He muttered a curse under his breath, shoved the phone into his pocket, and gently patted the fallen man's shoulder.
“Are you okay!”
“Ugh… ugh…”
“Just hold on a little longer! An ambulance is on the way!”
“Huh… heuk… huh… heuk…”
Foam began to bubble at the corners of his mouth. His face grew even more ashen, and he looked like he'd already lost consciousness.
There was no other explanation: the pesticide poisoning symptoms were kicking in.
“Gotta make him vomit.”
Kang Hyun knew forcing vomit or taking extreme measures could be fatal to the victim.
But the man lying before him was hovering between life and death.
Not even seconds later, the man's eyes started rolling back.
“Hang on, just hang on. Stay with me. You can do this.”
Kang Hyun shot to his feet.
He spotted a gap leading into the dilapidated shack where rainwater leaked through.
It was pure chance that he'd noticed it, but diving inside was a deliberate choice.
Crash!
Thud!
“Ugh… gotta find something, anything.”
He scanned the surroundings and rummaged through an old cupboard, grabbing whatever came to hand.
“Need water, at least water to give him. Something to hold it in.”
Kang Hyun muttered to himself.
Fortunately, he found an old water bottle, picked it up, and headed toward a pile of trash.
That's when something caught the eye of the now-focused Kang Hyun.
‘Hydrogen peroxide.’
The dirt-caked red bottle was labeled as disinfectant hydrogen peroxide.
Normally used as a disinfectant.
But Yoon Haneul had once mentioned in passing that hydrogen peroxide solution was used to induce vomiting.
It was a method for when pets ate something they shouldn't.
Of course, it had been offhand.
Not an actual prescription, and she had even said it wasn't a good idea.
Even so, that red bottle clung to his vision like it was the most important thing in the world.
“…Damn it.”
Kang Hyun snatched the bottle.
A jumble of tangled items tumbled out in a cloud of dust, but he paid it no mind.
He scrambled back out through the gap to the rear of the building.
Crash!
He tripped over something, and a heap of logs and trash collapsed onto him, but he shook it off unscathed.
All he could see was the man dying before him.
“Mister!”
When he reached him again, the man's breaths were coming in truly ragged gasps. The foaming had worsened.
It was critical.
Wait for the ambulance, or act now.
He had to choose. There was no time.
“…We need to get it out of you first. I know it hurts.”
Kang Hyun uncapped the water bottle and eyeballed a small amount of hydrogen peroxide into it. He shook it to mix, his head throbbing and vision blurring, but the man was dying right in front of him.
“Urgh!”
He pressed his body against the man's back to prop him up. The man, too weak even to whimper, slumped limply against Kang Hyun.
Kang Hyun pried his mouth open.
Then, eyes squeezed shut, he slowly poured in the mixture.
Gulp. Gulp.
Mercifully, the man swallowed what Kang Hyun gave him. Did he still have enough awareness left for that?
Clearly, the man wanted to live. Even if it meant regretting his mistake forever and living out his days in sorrow, when death's door loomed, he wanted to live.
“Gulp… urk! Eugh!”
A reaction came almost immediately—thank God.
The man heaved up his stomach contents once. Kang Hyun stroked his back as gently as he could, bracing his own body to support him.
His hands trembled, his breath caught, but Kang Hyun gritted his teeth like he was trying to will calm into the man.
“Eugh… huhk.”
On the second heave, Kang Hyun could feel through touch that breathing had eased somewhat.
Kang Hyun was saving the man's life.
“Hahk, hahk… urgh!”
The man kept vomiting up his guts. A faint spark of life returned to his eyes.
To bring him back to awareness, Kang Hyun kept talking to him.
“You okay? Mister? Mister!”
“Ugh… ugh…”
He seemed to be trying to say something.
“Just hold on a bit longer—the ambulance is coming!”
As he stabilized the man, Kang Hyun scanned the surroundings.
‘They won't spot us here!’
This was a remote back area, hard for them to find.
But he'd done everything he could. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the ambulance.
‘Can't stay put.’
Kang Hyun gently laid the man against the building wall, then dashed around to the front.
To guide the ambulance when it arrived.
‘Please, hurry!’
Every second felt like an hour. No, a day.
As time dragged on, Kang Hyun stood drenched like a drowned rat, but his body steamed with heat, rough breaths heaving from him.
Pouring rain.
Standing in the downpour, time stretched like a week, a year.
Beep beep.
A siren wailed faintly in the distance.
The sound Kang Hyun had agonized for grew louder.
The ambulance was coming.
“Over here, over here!”
Even from a distance where they couldn't hear yet, Kang Hyun started shouting.
“Right here!”
Critical moment.
Beep—!
The siren cut off.
They'd spotted Kang Hyun standing alone in the rain. The ambulance sped toward him.
“Phew.”
Kang Hyun clutched his pounding heart. The ambulance pulled up, followed by a small rescue vehicle, and people piled out.
The emergency responders he'd waited so desperately for.
“Where is it?”
“Inside there! That way!”
The responders followed Kang Hyun in perfect sync, splashing through muddy puddles—it didn't matter.
“Mister!”
At Kang Hyun's call, the man twitched in response.
He was still hanging on.
“This way, this way!”
The responders administered first aid.
Kang Hyun's legs gave out, and he sank to the ground.
“It's okay…”
He'd found the missing person.
Saved the man from the brink of death.
Having overcome the crisis crashing down on him alone, the once-silent surroundings filled only with rain now came alive with sound amid the patter.
The whisper of living trees, the wind, the sky. It felt like life returned to everything around him.
Rumble—
Then came the roar of tires churning through mud-soaked roads.
The police who'd come with Kang Hyun.
A step late, but that alone let Kang Hyun ease his racing heart a little.
They were rushing in to wrap up the case.
The long, grueling dawn finally passed.
Morning came, and like a lie, the sky grew still. The storm vanished as if it had never been, the sea welcoming people once more with gentle lapping waves.
Kang Hyun stopped by the substation to give his statement and wrap up the case. Most of the precinct staff, including the platoon, gathered nearby to wring out their soaked gear before heading back.
After the storm of an incident, it was time for cleanup.
Truly astonishing.
In the pouring rain at dawn, Kang Hyun had found the missing person. And saved the man from death's door. An incredible feat.
Sure, some might call the discovery luck.
But no one in this place, this unit, would dare utter such a thing.
It was a miracle born of his swift judgment and astonishing resolve.
“Yes, Cheongcho Substation. Ah, yes, thank you.”
One officer took a call and quietly relayed to Heo Yong-jin.
“No threat to his life.”
“Oh!”
Small exclamations of relief filled the substation.
Kang Hyun felt the same.
“…Really glad. He made it…”
A shiver tingled his eyes, but an even greater wave of relief drew a deep sigh from him.
“Kang Hyun, thank you so much.”
Heo Yong-jin approached and extended his hand.
An expression of recognition, a posture of respect, a gesture brimming with gratitude.
Kang Hyun smiled and clasped it firmly.
Then shook with vigor.
It seemed Heo Yong-jin, the substation chief, had more in store.
“We have something we'd like to show you. Would you come with me a moment?”
“Huh?”
He opened the door as he spoke.
His gesture beckoned Kang Hyun to the open yard outside the substation.
Kang Hyun followed silently to find a crowd gathered.
Police officers.
Not the same frantic bunch from moments ago, sorting flood-threatened buses, drying raincoats and tactical gear.
The officers, including the 4th Platoon, stood in a neat fan formation before Kang Hyun, ramrod straight.
Heo Yong-jin made eye contact with his staff, the riot platoon leader, one by one, then boomed as if vested with full authority.
“Company, attention!”
Snap, snap!
The police aligned perfectly before Kang Hyun, united as one.
A stark contrast to their drenched, staggering selves amid the crisis—a picture of crisp discipline.
It was a sight to behold.
“Salute to the hero, Kang Hyun.”
Snap!
“Loyalty!”
They saluted Kang Hyun in perfect unison.
“...”
The sincerity hit Kang Hyun like a wave, stinging his nose.
Finding the vanished, saving one on death's edge, accomplishing it—they knew exactly how monumental that was.
And how worthy of praise.
Kang Hyun stood before them, gazing proudly for a long moment.
“...”
No need for embarrassment. No waving it off. He'd done something tremendous; he deserved this much acclaim.
Saving a life.
What could be greater?
Kang Hyun slowly raised his hand.
He'd never saluted before, wasn't practiced, but he got it.
In this moment, raising his hand was returning the sentiment they'd given him.
Snap.
“Thank you. Everyone, you all worked hard.”
By now, the sun pierced the distant horizon and clouds, rising high.
And shining brightly down on Kang Hyun.
As if blessing his deed, cheering him on. Praising it as admirable and wondrous.