Six Thousand Times Deadlier
The deadly toxin inside the castor oil meal fertilizer was ricin — a poison six thousand times more potent than cyanide.
The lethal dose is a mere eighteen milligrams for a 130-pound adult. A single gram of the stuff could easily kill hundreds of people. And Gamja had swallowed this terrifying poison.
But Lee Jun had no intention of giving up. He would do everything in his power.
He stroked the limp little Shih Tzu, then lowered himself to Gamja's ear and spoke in a gentle voice.
"Gamja."
The closed eyelids slowly lifted. Dull, lifeless eyes gazed up at Lee Jun. His mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. The poison had set his entire body on fire, and he'd spent what little strength he had left throwing up only moments before.
"I know our Gamja is hurting so, so much. You don't have to say a word."
Blink. Blink. Gamja's big eyes slowly closed, then opened again.
"The doctors are going to make our Gamja all better."
He knows I'm hurting. And he's going to make me better.
Somehow, Gamja felt a little less afraid. Tears welled in his eyes.
Just then—
"We're all set."
"Okay, Dr. Yoo. Let's start the anesthesia."
"Yes, sir."
Hearing Yoo Mu-hwan's reply, Lee Jun turned back to Gamja.
"Gamja. You're going to take a good long nap, and when you wake up, you'll feel like a brand-new dog."
The eyes looking up at Lee Jun held a little more life than they had a moment ago. But only for a moment. Gamja's eyelids slowly drifted shut.
A beat later: "He's under."
The instant Yoo Mu-hwan finished speaking, Lee Jun slid a tube into Gamja's mouth. Moments later, a splash of color bloomed on the monitor. In the blink of an eye, the tube had already reached the stomach.
"Already at the stomach..."
Yoo Mu-hwan, watching the monitor, couldn't help but be impressed. It was faster than any veterinarian he had ever seen work — himself included.
The awe lasted only a second. Then he caught sight of the gastric mucosa on the screen and let out a low groan.
"Ha... the lesions are severe."
What the monitor showed was Gamja's stomach lining, mottled with red — and those red spots were hemorrhages.
"Are all those ulcers, then?"
"They are."
"You said it's only been two hours, though? Do gastric ulcers progress that fast?"
"Yeah. That's why this is an emergency."
Lee Jun never stopped working as he added,
"Multiple lesions. Gastric damage from a toxic substance. Remember that."
While he spoke, saline — the gastric lavage solution — began flowing into Gamja's mouth. The bag of lavage fluid hung high, so gravity would carry it naturally into the body and back out again. The other tube pointed downward. Through it, everything in the stomach would come pouring out.
A moment later, Go Gi-jin spoke up.
"We've got drainage."
"Okay. Keep a close eye on the input and output volumes."
The amount of lavage fluid going in through the mouth needed to match the amount coming back out.
"Got it."
Fluid began flowing in through one tube and out through the other. Everyone in the room watched in silence. Clear water went in. Filthy water came out. Over and over. It seemed like it might go on forever. But everything has an end.
Yoo Mu-hwan, who had been watching the outflow with bated breath, finally spoke.
"It's coming out clear."
The gastric lavage was done. Lee Jun and Go Gi-jin both looked at the drainage tube. Just as Yoo Mu-hwan had said, clear water was dripping out.
"Let's watch it a little longer, then wrap up."
Once the lavage was fully complete, Lee Jun drew blood from Gamja's IV line and handed it to Go Gi-jin.
"Dr. Go, run another blood panel."
He wanted to check the liver and kidneys — the organs most vulnerable to the toxin.
"Move Gamja to the ICU and manage his fluids."
"Yes, sir."
Lee Jun gave his instructions and stepped outside. The moment he did, the guardians came rushing over.
"Doctor."
"The gastric lavage went well, and Gamja is being moved to recovery now."
"Our Gamja... will he be okay?"
"I think he will be, but ricin is an extremely vicious toxin. I can't give you a definitive answer in his current condition."
"...I see."
"We'll need to watch his progress under intensive care."
"Please take care of him."
There wasn't a scrap of strength in the guardian's voice. Lee Jun's own heart was just as uneasy.
Anxious time crawled by, and then the blood test results came in.
"The numbers have come down quite a bit. When Gamja first came in, his ALT was 850. Now it's 402. ALT is a value we use to assess liver function, and anything up to 78 is considered normal. It's still quite high, but dropping from the 800s to the 400s — that gives us hope."
"Ah..."
At Lee Jun's words, the guardians' faces brightened, if only a little.
"And his kidney values are a bit elevated, but not enough to worry about."
"Please take good care of him."
"Doctor, our Gamja... we're counting on you."
This time, there was strength in their voices.
"I'll do everything I can."
Lee Jun bowed his head to the guardians, then stepped into the intensive care unit. Yoo Mu-hwan was adding medication to the IV line.
"How is he?"
"I think he's going to be all right."
All that remained for Gamja now was drug therapy and fluid management. Yoo Mu-hwan would handle it well.
"I'm counting on you."
"Yes, sir."
Lee Jun entrusted Gamja to Yoo Mu-hwan and left the treatment room. The very thing he had been dreading had just exploded in front of him. He couldn't afford to waste a single moment. He was going to film a video — immediately.
Lee Jun headed out and went looking for Kwak Suho. Kwak Suho had been pacing the lobby with a tense expression. The instant he spotted Lee Jun, he hurried over.
"Is Gamja okay?"
Kwak Suho, who had been watching the situation unfold from the start, asked carefully.
"We've done the emergency treatment. Now we wait."
"Whew. So Gamja ate castor oil meal fertilizer? That's the stuff you told me about before, right? The one that's more toxic than cyanide?"
"That's right. Six thousand times more toxic than cyanide."
The active ingredient in the fertilizer was ricin, a substance the CDC — the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — classifies as a bioterrorism agent. A poison that dangerous was sitting inside ordinary fertilizer.
"They use something that terrifying as fertilizer?"
Kwak Suho asked, as if he couldn't wrap his head around it.
"It's cheap."
"Cheap or not, they shouldn't be selling that stuff. Shouldn't it be banned?"
"Wouldn't that be nice?"
Lee Jun let out a long sigh and added nothing more for a moment.
"You said the fertilizer has a nutty, roasted smell, right? That's why dogs eat it... is that still the case?"
"Yeah."
"What was the person who made that fertilizer even thinking? Didn't it occur to them that if it smells nutty, animals would eat it?"
Lee Jun gave a bitter smile and asked Kwak Suho,
"Do you even know what 'castor oil meal fertilizer' actually means?"
"Isn't that just the name of the fertilizer?"
Kwak Suho looked at him as if to say, it's called oil-meal fertilizer because that's its name — how would I know what's actually in it?
"I thought the same thing. Turns out it's a whole category of fertilizer. It's made from the leftover pulp after oil is pressed from seeds. Oil, plus the leftover mash. Oil meal."
"That's what it is?"
Lee Jun nodded.
"It's made from whatever's left after pressing soybeans, sesame, rapeseed, castor beans — that kind of thing."
"...Yeah, that'd smell pretty nutty."
Kwak Suho nodded slowly.
"But we eat soybeans and sesame too."
"Castor beans are the problem. That's where the ricin is."
"Can't they just leave those out?"
"Castor beans are the cheapest. So they're the main ingredient in most of it. It's inexpensive, and the smell isn't one people find unpleasant, so it gets used everywhere — not just in the countryside, but in parks and along walking trails too."
"But Jun, you said it's toxic to people too. What's the government doing about this?"
"There's a standard — no more than ten milligrams of ricin per kilogram of fertilizer. They even claimed that eating fertilizer with twice that amount wouldn't pose a safety problem. But accidents kept happening every year, so the Ministry of Agriculture finally admitted they couldn't be a hundred percent certain of the fertilizer's safety. Since 2017, they've required a warning on the packaging:"
May cause death if ingested by dogs, cats, or other animals.
"So they admitted it's harmful."
"Exactly. It's bad for people too, so I wish they at least wouldn't spread it in parks. Castor oil meal fertilizer can cause hives, rhinitis, asthma — the whole list."
"People walk on it, right? So the powder would get kicked up into the air?"
Kwak Suho's eyes went round, as if he'd just pieced something together.
"Probably?"
"Wait. Is that why my rhinitis has been so bad lately? That damn fertilizer?"
"Could be. Come on, let's go film."
"This is today's topic?"
"That's right."
"Let's go!"
Kwak Suho was fired up.
"Hold on. We need the materials."
"Materials?"
Instead of answering, Lee Jun turned to Jang Sora.
"Manager Jang. Is that thing I mentioned earlier ready?"
"Yes, Director. I've split it into two like this."
"Give me the small one, and send the larger bottle out for testing. And the room you set up?"
"The staff break room at the end of the second floor. Chef Joo has everything ready in there."
"Got it."
The two glass bottles Lee Jun had mentioned contained pellets of castor oil meal fertilizer, picked out of the vomit Gamja had thrown up just a short while ago. The smaller bottle held five pellets. Lee Jun slipped it into his pocket.
He planned to go upstairs, check on the inpatient ward, then take Hoesaegi, Kkamnyangi, and Sapsaree to the break room. But he ran into the three of them before he'd even finished climbing the stairs.
Hoesaegi, Kkamnyangi, and Sapsaree were sitting in a neat little row right beside the second-floor landing. A soft ae-oong, ae-oh from Hoesaegi, a long nyaooo from Kkamnyangi, a rumbling woof woof-woof from Sapsaree — the moment they saw Lee Jun, all three asked if Gamja was okay.
"You were worried about Gamja, huh? I think he's going to be okay."
A collective sigh of relief. Kwak Suho let out a disbelieving little laugh.
"Hey. Jun. These guys. Am I crazy for thinking they actually look relieved after hearing you say that?"
"No. You saw it right."
Lee Jun gave Kwak Suho a casual answer, then turned to the three animals.
"Kids. I've got a job for you today."
"What is it, meow?"
"Just say the word."
"I got it, I do!"
Their answers were all different, but they meant the same thing: whatever Hyungnim asked, they would do it.
"Gamja almost got into serious trouble just now."
The three of them — and every animal in the hospital — already knew an emergency had happened.
"That's right, meow. Gave us a real scare, meow."
"But Hyungnim said Gamja's okay, so we're relieved."
"That's a relief, it is. But Hyungnim?"
"Yeah, Sapsaree?"
"Gamja is two years old, he is. So why'd he get sick?"
When you get old, you go to the Cat Star, or the Dog Star. The three of them understood that was the natural order of things. But this wasn't that. Not for Gamja.
"He ate something he wasn't supposed to eat. That's why he almost died."
"Did he eat grapes?"
Sapsaree asked, recalling what Mongi and Ttangkhongi had told him.
"You know grapes are off-limits. Good. Do you know anything else you shouldn't eat?"
"Hard bones, you shouldn't eat those, no."
"That's right, those neither."
Sapsaree had been praised twice in a row, so Hoesaegi suddenly cut in.
"Spicy stuff that makes your eyes water — you shouldn't eat that, meow."
"Onions, you mean? That's right, those neither."
"Round, nutty-tasting things — you shouldn't eat those."
"Right. Peanuts and walnuts aren't good either."
"Sweet but hard and tasty stuff — you shouldn't eat that, meow. Hyungnim said it makes your body shake, meow."
Hoesaegi was talking about chocolate.
"The water the Hyungnims drink every day — you shouldn't drink that, no."
That was Sapsaree on coffee.
Just as Lee Jun was praising the two of them, Kkamnyangi's nose twitched. He sniffed the air, then opened his mouth.
"You shouldn't eat the nutty-smelling stuff."
The instant Kkamnyangi finished, the other two protested at once.
"Nutty-tasting meat is delicious, it is!"
"That's right, meow. It's delicious, meow."
Kkamnyangi looked at the two of them — smacking their lips — with utter disdain.
"Of course meat is delicious. Who said anything about meat?"
"Then what kind of meat are you talking about, meow?"
"That's right, it is. Nutty-tasting things are delicious, they are."
"Just because it smells nutty doesn't mean it's meat."
At Kkamnyangi's words, Hoesaegi tilted his head to the left. It was a habit of his, whenever a thought was hovering just out of reach. He sat like that for a moment — then suddenly, tap! He smacked his front paws together and cried out.
"Ah! I remember, meow. I had a subordinate who ate something nutty and went to the Cat Star, meow."
Hoesaegi said this, then twitched his little nose.
Sapsaree froze mid-step. He stopped walking and stared at Hoesaegi.
"There's nutty-tasting stuff that's bad, there is?"
"That's right, meow. It looks a lot like the crunchy kibble we eat, but if you eat it, you drop dead and go straight to the Cat Star, meow. It smells super, super nutty, meow."
Sapsaree tilted his head at Hoesaegi's lengthy explanation, but Kkamnyangi's nose was twitching far more vigorously than before. It was practically flaring. Kkamnyangi looked around, sniffing. Finally he shoved his nose right up to Lee Jun's pocket, sniffed — and then jumped back with a yelp.
"Th-the nutty stuff!"
As Kkamnyangi cried out, Lee Jun pulled the small glass bottle from his pocket.
"The lid's on and you can still smell it?"
And in that instant—
"Ugh!"
"Whoa!"
Hoesaegi and Kkamnyangi scrambled backward. Then the two of them clung to each other, trembling violently. Hoesaegi stared at Lee Jun with eyes full of terror and opened his mouth.
"H-Hyungnim, meow! You can't eat that, meow. That's a really, really scary thing, meow."
"He's right. Hyungnim, don't eat that!"
Hoesaegi and Kkamnyangi's legs were shaking — and so were their voices. Looking at the two of them, Lee Jun grinned. Their expressions were even more priceless than he'd hoped.
Of course, Hoesaegi and Kkamnyangi had no idea, and they warned him again.
"Hyungnim, meow. Throw that thing far, far away, meow. If you eat it, you're in big trouble, meow."
Advice, for their Hyungnim's own good.
"Got it. But what if I throw it away and Sapsaree eats it? He looks like he wants to eat it right now."
Sapsaree, who had no idea what was going on, was staring at his trembling, tightly hugging older brothers — and smacking his lips. Anyone could see he wanted a bite.
Hoesaegi and Kkamnyangi saw it and cried out at the same time.
"No, meow! If he eats that he's in big trouble, meow! Hyungnim! Sapsaree, meow! Don't eat it, meow!"
"He's right. Don't you dare eat that. You cannot eat it."
The two of them, who had been clinging to each other and shaking, suddenly — as if they'd planned it — dashed over, grabbed Sapsaree's legs, and shouted at him not to eat it.
"If you eat that you go to the Cat Star, meow. Sapsaree, you'd go to the Dog Star, meow."
"That's right. That's really bad food. If you eat it, you're in big trouble."
The desperate sincerity of lived experience was written all over Hoesaegi and Kkamnyangi's faces. Anyone watching would have sworn off the stuff for life.
Lee Jun clapped his hands and praised them.
"Wow. Hoesaegi, Kkamnyangi — that was amazing. The best. The absolute best. Just keep acting like that from now on."
Neither of them had the faintest idea what "acting" meant. They just grinned, delighted by Hyungnim's praise.
"Got it, meow."
"I'm the best."
"I'm even more the best, meow!"
"I did it better."
As the two of them bickered, Sapsaree sidled up and chimed in.
"I can do it well too, I can!"
None of them had any idea they'd just flung the gates of hardship wide open on themselves. They simply raised their voices, each insisting they could do it even better.