A Quick-Witted Spy
"Director, I'm going to go organize the storage room. Could you watch the front desk for a bit?"
"Organizing the storage room now? You'd be more helpful if you just sat there and turned away the patients who come in..."
Kyungwoo grumbled, slumping into his chair in the director's office.
*Hiccup*
"The stagnant qi in my middle jiao is surging upward into my upper body. This is all because of stress."
No, it was because he’d eaten way too much for lunch.
Kyungwoo had inhaled nearly two-thirds of a pot of whole boiled chicken. He’d even scraped up every bit of the glutinous rice stuffed inside the bird.
"There are no patients this afternoon, so maybe I should catch up on some sleep."
The previous day, he’d been pestered by that Book-bugi until dawn, leaving him exhausted. On top of that, he’d had to resonate with the pain of three scheduled patients that morning, draining his energy. He was just about to doze off, relieved that there were no more appointments, when—
*Jingle*
"Excuse me... is anyone here?"
Kyungwoo furrowed his brow at the unfamiliar woman's voice. He had just arrived in dreamland and was about to turn off the engine.
"Is there nobody here...?"
The woman who pushed the door open was Jin Seyoung.
'What the? They said they were fully booked, but there isn't a single customer!'
After declaring to her own director that she would look into the Yongdeok-ri clinic, Jin Seyoung had first checked the map app. She’d searched for "Oriental Clinic" with Yongdeok-ri centered in the map, but nothing came up.
'There isn't a single place these days that doesn't register on the map...'
If they didn't register, how were patients supposed to find them? Maps were the bare minimum, and advertising was optional.
As a manager currently locked in a fierce competition with surrounding clinics to capture keywords like "Goesan-gun Oriental Clinic" and "Goesan-eup Oriental Clinic," Jin Seyoung couldn't understand it.
'Is there actually no clinic? Did I misunderstand what Mr. Kim Yuhwan said?'
She decided to use her connections.
"Hello, Officer. It's Manager Jin from Myeongho Oriental Clinic. Yes, yes. Thanks to you, we're always doing well. But, by any chance... has a new clinic opened in Yongdeok-ri? Oh... eight months ago? Yes, yes, I need to get the treatment history for one of our patients. Could I have their phone number?"
'A clinic... it really exists?'
Jin Seyoung looked at the seven-digit number with suspicion before dialing.
"Hello. Is this Gyeongwoo Oriental Clinic? I'd like to make an appointment for tomorrow. What? You're fully booked tomorrow? Then the day after... oh, you're booked then too? Then what's the earliest date? What?? I have to wait over a month? Then can I just come in and wait without an appointment... you only operate by appointment?"
Jin Seyoung hung up, fuming. She hadn't managed to get an appointment.
'What is this? Are all the people in the surrounding villages flocking there? Or is this some high-level marketing strategy where they deliberately push appointments far into the future to make themselves look popular?'
Deeply suspicious, she had reported to her director that she would visit Yongdeok-ri the next afternoon, and that was how she ended up here.
'The facilities aren't much. No TV in the waiting room, no foot massager, not even instant coffee.'
Gyeongwoo Oriental Clinic didn't have a single piece of entertainment to lure in patients. She felt a slight sense of relief, thinking they weren't really a competitor, when a young man with a look of utter annoyance on his face shuffled out of the director's office.
"Who are you?"
"Oh, I was just passing through the neighborhood and sprained my wrist."
Jin Seyoung pulled off the brace on her right wrist.
Carpal tunnel syndrome.
It was a condition she had actually suffered from for a long time, so there was genuine inflammation and swelling. On top of that, she had rubbed the skin on her wrist raw right before entering to make it look red.
"I can't move it at all, and I heard there was an Oriental clinic here..."
"We're by appointment only. We don't take walk-in initial consultations."
"...I drove here, but it's impossible to drive with this wrist. Could you please treat me just this once?"
Kyungwoo looked at her wrist suspiciously.
'Doesn't look like she just sprained it.'
The palm side of the wrist was slightly swollen, and the muscle near the thumb was slightly more atrophied than in a normal person. While there were superficial red marks from rubbing, the skin beneath them looked pale.
"It looks like chronic carpal tunnel syndrome."
Jin Seyoung broke into a cold sweat at Kyungwoo's sharp observation.
"I, I do have carpal tunnel, but I sprained it again a little while ago."
"Doesn't look like it."
"I'm telling you it is! You'd know if you palpated it, wouldn't you?"
'Palpate...?'
That was a bit too much medical jargon for a patient. Kyungwoo's suspicion deepened, but just then, Miyoung opened the side door from the storage room and entered the clinic.
"Director, do we have a guest? I'm sorry. I should have turned them away... Oh? Seyoung unni?"
"Park Miyoung? You work here?"
"Who are you?"
"She's the unni I did my nursing assistant internship with. She should be working as a manager at Myeongho Oriental Clinic in town..."
'Manager...?'
As Kyungwoo's sharp gaze swept over her, Jin Seyoung shuddered.
* * *
"Unni, what brings you all the way out here?"
"I have a relative in Baejae-ri, and I stopped by because I urgently needed a restroom, but I accidentally sprained my wrist."
"You're hurt? Wait a second, I'll go get an ice pack!"
As Park Miyoung went into the treatment room, a sharp silence hung between the two.
'Is she spying?'
It was something that happened all too often when he worked in Gangnam.
"How did you know, Director?"
"He only says he's in pain, but he's actually perfectly healthy. A very rare specimen of health.
"Oh my, as expected of you, Director!"
Secretly visiting a successful rival clinic to steal information on patient numbers, treatment styles, and pricing was common in this industry. Kyungwoo's Pain Resonance ability was incredibly effective at weeding out such spies.
'The problem is that if I turn her away, she'll just do the same thing again. If anything, it might just spread rumors...'
For a clinic that wanted to succeed, a spy was obviously someone to be kicked out, but for Kyungwoo, who absolutely did not want his clinic to become more successful, Jin Seyoung was a risk factor.
'It's a bit annoying, but maybe I should just...'
Jin Seyoung was watching him, unaware of what he was thinking, when Park Miyoung came running back with an ice pack.
"Unni, give me your wrist."
Park Miyoung wrapped the ice pack around her wrist and turned to Kyungwoo with a desperate look.
"Director! I know you don't take walk-ins unless it's a serious emergency! But she's an acquaintance of mine, could you please treat her just this once?"
"Bring her to the treatment room. It's not an acute sprain, so get rid of that ice pack."
Kyungwoo turned away, his coat fluttering.
'Do I have to beg this much just to get treatment?'
Jin Seyoung was flustered by the situation, but Park Miyoung, oblivious to the atmosphere, whispered with a happy face.
"Unni, it worked! The director said he'd see you! I'm so relieved."
Jin Seyoung followed her into the treatment room and scanned the surroundings in an instant.
'The treatment room isn't much either.'
There was a warmer with wet hot packs and one ICT machine. On the walls by the four beds, there were only IR (infrared) lamps; there wasn't even a common electro-acupuncture machine.
'Patients these days are so sensitive about physical therapy equipment.'
Myeongho Oriental Clinic had massage beds, air compression massagers, and high-frequency therapy machines, and they had even recently installed aqua beds that cost 20 million won each.
'But... this rural clinic uses disposable bed covers and pillow covers. Can they afford that?'
It was a strange clinic that defied common sense in many ways.
"Give me your wrist."
When Seyoung held out her wrist, the director who grabbed it frowned strangely. Then, he pressed his thumb firmly into the area where the wrist nerve passed.
"Aaaack!"
"It's numb up to your first, second, and third fingers, right?"
"Yes."
"Looking at the degree of tissue thickening, this is a chronic condition that's been going on for over a year. You wake up in the middle of the night because of the numbness, right? And it pulls all the way from here to here?"
"Oh, yes. That's right!"
"You work at an Oriental clinic, what have you been doing instead of getting treatment?"
"I did get treatment, but I use my wrists so much..."
His words were blunt. These days, if an Oriental clinic wasn't kind, patients would leave immediately. Was this just his style, or was he picking on her because he knew she was a spy?
His diagnosis was accurate. He had pinpointed the exact area that pulled, as if he were looking inside her body, but...
'Well, other than that, they are all typical symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome...'
Kyungwoo took out his needles.
"Are you good with needles?"
"Of course. I'm a manager at an Oriental clinic, so I can handle needles just fine."
"Hmm. My needles are a bit painful. Try to endure it."
The moment she tilted her head—
"Aaaack—!!"
A pain like an electric shock struck her wrist, and Seyoung tried to pull her arm away instinctively. However, Park Miyoung was already there, holding her down.
"Daling point complete. Next is Yangchi."
"W-wait, aaaaack!!"
Her screams echoed through the treatment room.
* * *
"Director, thank you!"
Thirty minutes later, Jin Seyoung, having finished her ICT session, poked her head into the director's office and bowed at a 90-degree angle.
"Does it feel a bit better?"
"It feels like it's 90 percent better!"
"That's just a feeling. The stimulation was strong, so your brain is momentarily tricked. Chronic illnesses don't get better that quickly."
"Yes..."
"What are you going to report when you go back?"
Jin Seyoung scrambled to think at the sudden question.
'Does he really hate it when a clinic does well? I don't understand, but his actions are exactly that...'
"Uhh... just that it's a clinic run by a retired doctor who sees two or three people a day as a hobby, so you don't need to worry about it...?"
"You're quick-witted. You can go now."
"Umm... then, can I come back for treatment again next time..."
Kyungwoo frowned and spoke reluctantly.
"Well, if you make an appointment."
Even without his words, she had no intention of creating more competition for appointments.
'Was acupuncture supposed to have such an immediate effect?'
She had received acupuncture many times at Myeongho Oriental Clinic, but she had never seen such a dramatic effect.
'No wonder the patients in Yongdeok-ri don't go into town...'
"Unni, how is it?"
"Thanks for today, Miyoung."
"Oh, it's nothing."
"When can I book my next appointment?"
"Hmm... two weeks from Thursday?"
When she called, they told her to wait over a month, so two weeks for a follow-up seemed reasonable. She was grateful for even that.
"Okay, I'll definitely be back!"
* * *
That evening.
Just as he was closing up the clinic, the phone rang.
*Ring-ring*
"Hello. Jia's mother? Yes? Yes. Please don't cry... Yes, just a moment. The director will be there soon. Director! It's Jia's mother on the phone!!"
"Tell her I'm on my way!"
Im Jia.
The 10-year-old girl who lived in a house with an apricot tree in the yard was the only patient who received an exception at Gyeongwoo Oriental Clinic, where getting an appointment was notoriously difficult. She was also the reason Kyungwoo had unexpectedly opened his clinic in Yongdeok-ri.
Park Miyoung handed him his house-call bag, her feet tapping nervously.
"Should I come too?"
"No. You go home, Miyoung."
Kyungwoo dashed out.
*Huff, huff*
Kyungwoo ran along the rice paddy path at high speed. Jia's parents were excessively polite and hated causing trouble for others. Even though they visited the clinic twice a week, they were always apologetic that they were the ones getting frequent appointments.
'If people like that called me...'
Kyungwoo pushed himself harder, covering the 15-minute walk in just five minutes.
*Bang*
"Jia's mother, is Jia okay?"
"Director, I'm sorry. Today, Jia is just... she's in so much pain..."
When he entered the room, the girl, who was pale as flour because she couldn't see the sun like other children her age, was twisting her body in cold sweat.
"Haa... haa..."
Pediatric CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome).
This condition, for which there was no definitive cure in modern or traditional medicine, was excruciatingly painful. Among the most painful diseases, this one was near the top, and even painkillers didn't work well.
"Jia, it's teacher. Can you hear my voice?"
Kyungwoo caught his breath and spoke softly. He couldn't startle the child.
"Tea... cher."
"You're having a hard time today. Can teacher help you a little?"
"Yes... please help me..."
A normal 10-year-old would be afraid of needles, but Jia never was. Compared to the massive pain the child was enduring, the sting of a needle was nothing.
Kyungwoo placed his hand on Jia's leg.
*Twitch*
He felt a chill from his fingertips, and then a sharp pain that made his vision go white surged through him. It was as if hundreds of needles were being inserted into the inside of her ankle simultaneously. To make matters worse, it felt as if someone were slowly twisting those needles, a sensation that traveled up Kyungwoo's right ankle.
Cold sweat beaded on Kyungwoo's forehead.
'The child endures this kind of pain... every single day...'
With trembling hands, he tore open a needle packet. He had been seeing the child for eight months now, and he knew that acupuncture couldn't completely save her from the pain. But... if he could alleviate even a little of it.
'The pain area is from the right ankle to the shin.'
Kyungwoo gritted his teeth and began the treatment.
'The first point is Taichong of the Liver Meridian.'
Between Jia's first and second metatarsal bones, at the concave point on the top of her foot, the needle was sucked right in.