Please Save Our Song-i
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
Kim Dong-wook and his wife ran until a metallic sweetness filled their mouths, their only thought to find an animal hospital.
Kyaaaaeng! Kyaeng-kyaeng!
Even as the couple sprinted, Song-i's screams never once broke off. She shrieked as if her very breath might snap at any moment, a sound of pure, unbearable agony. Clutching her to his chest as he ran, Kim Dong-wook was beside himself. No—he felt as if he might lose his mind.
"I-I thought there was an animal hospital around here."
"Th-there—right next to the convenience store."
"R-right."
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.
The hospital sign swam into view. The couple burst through the door, gasping, and cried out.
"P-please save her."
"D-Doctor!"
Their shouts were almost indistinguishable from Song-i's own screams.
"Was it a car accident?"
The staff member at the reception desk asked as she rose to meet them.
"N-no… D-Doctor, our Song-i, please, hurry—!"
Kim Dong-wook couldn't even finish answering. All he could do was beg them to take away her pain. The only thought left in his head was that Song-i was hurting too much.
"She was just at home, and then she suddenly started screaming. Why—why is she like this?"
"Did she fall from somewhere?"
"N-no. Nothing like that."
"I see. In that case, a herniated disc or stones would be the first things I'd suspect…"
A veterinarian had come out to them and was asking questions.
"Could it be pancreatitis? Or even a ruptured spleen?"
Another veterinarian added, looking over Song-i's condition.
"That's possible too. We'll have to run tests first."
The couple was frantic—but the veterinarians were no less at a loss.
"Let's start with an X-ray."
"Yes, yes. Please—do whatever you have to."
All Kim Dong-wook could do was nod. He nodded at every word the veterinarian said, without question.
As the veterinarian lifted Song-i into his arms, Kim Dong-wook managed one more plea.
"D-Doctor—our Song-i. Could you please take the pain away first?"
"I underst—"
The veterinarian had been about to agree. Then, the moment he gathered Song-i against his chest, he stopped. He looked Kim Dong-wook straight in the eye.
"If we give her a painkiller now, we may not be able to use other medications afterward."
The meaning was clear: Do you still want it?
Kim Dong-wook shook his head.
"N-no. Never mind."
Song-i was carried into the exam room. From inside, her screams went on and on.
"So-Song-i. That's our Song-i…"
All Kim Dong-wook could do was pace outside the door.
Ten-odd minutes stretched into an eternity.
The exam room door burst open. The veterinarian came out still holding Song-i, who had not stopped screaming.
"W-what's wrong with her?"
"Our Song-i—why is she like this?"
The couple asked at the same time.
"Nothing remarkable shows up on the X-rays."
In other words: they hadn't found a cause.
"Why? Why?"
"Then… why is our Song-i in this much pain?"
"Hah."
The veterinarian looked every bit as frustrated as they did.
"I thought it might be a herniated disc, or stones, or a ruptured spleen. It doesn't appear to be any of those."
"Th-then what?"
"Whatever this is, it doesn't look like something we can confirm with the equipment we have here. I think you'd be better off taking her to a larger animal hospital for further testing."
"T-take her somewhere else?"
Kim Dong-wook stared at Song-i, now in his wife's arms, her thin, piercing screams coming as if her breath itself were about to give out. His voice rose almost to a shout.
"Wh-where are we supposed to take a baby in that condition? If something happens on the way— D-Doctor, please save our Song-i. You have to save her."
He couldn't bring himself to finish the thought—what if something goes wrong—and so he simply begged.
"Sir, you'd be doing Song-i more good by using this time to get her to a hospital that has the proper equipment. For her sake."
The veterinarian was firm, the way a man is firm when he knows the limits of what he can do. He knew this was kinder—to the Pomeranian, and to the people who loved her.
"Th-then where do we go? Wh-where are we supposed to take her?"
Kim Dong-wook asked it like a howl.
"There are a few larger hospitals not far from here. You can choose whichever you'd prefer. If you have one in mind, I'll call ahead for you."
"D-Doctor, please recommend one."
"In that case, I'd recommend Mami Animal Hospital, or Mongmong Animal Hospital."
In that instant, Mongmong Animal Hospital drove itself into Kim Dong-wook's mind like a nail. Th-that's Lee Jun's hospital?
One of the hospitals the veterinarian was recommending belonged to his old classmate. Lee Jun.
No matter how desperate, how unmoored he was, Kim Dong-wook could not bring himself to say he would go to Mongmong Animal Hospital. Not after he had poured every vicious word he had at Lee Jun during the reunion.
"M-Mami Animal Hospital. We'll go there."
"Understood. I'll call them and let them know you're coming."
"Th-thank you."
"D-Doctor, the bill—"
"Just get Song-i to Mami first. You can come back and settle the bill later."
"Th-thank you."
The two of them stumbled straight outside. Kim Dong-wook turned to his wife.
"Do you know where Mami Animal Hospital is?"
"I don't. Just—just get us a taxi first."
They had come out in their slippers, still in the clothes they'd been wearing around the house. No car keys. No presence of mind to go back for the car.
The one small mercy was that they had at least grabbed their phones.
His wife stamped her feet, trying to flag down a cab. None stopped. Even the ones that looked empty sailed past with a wave of a hand—already booked. And they were in too much of a panic to think of opening a taxi app. They just kept waving, kept stamping, while Song-i's ragged, dying screams bored into their eardrums.
Every second felt like an eternity.
Then, in the middle of that unbearable waiting, a sedan pulled up in front of them.
The couple only grew more frantic. This was an emergency—why was a car stopping here? To two people trying to catch a taxi, the sedan was nothing but an obstacle.
His wife started to step around behind it, still hunting for a cab, when a voice called from inside the car.
"Song-i's guardians—get in!"
At the sound of Song-i's name, both of them turned.
"Doctor?"
It was the veterinarian from a moment ago. The one who had told them to transfer her.
"Get in. I'll take you there myself."
On any other day they might have declined, at least once. In this moment, the car looked like a golden carriage.
"Th-thank you."
"Thank you so much, Doctor."
Still holding Song-i, the two of them accepted a kindness from a veterinarian they had met only today. A complete stranger who had put their bill on credit—and was now driving them himself.
A short while later they arrived at Mami Animal Hospital. Word had clearly gone ahead: a veterinarian was already waiting, and Song-i was whisked into an exam room at once.
This hospital was larger than the last. It felt professional. The couple allowed themselves a little hope.
They stared up the stairs to the second floor, where Song-i would be undergoing her tests.
"They'll figure out why she's hurting here, right?"
"They will. They have to."
That hope did not last thirty minutes.
The veterinarian who had carried Song-i upstairs called them into a consultation room that doubled as an exam space.
"I'm sorry. I don't think we're going to be able to pinpoint the cause right now."
"Why? Why not?"
"We've checked the X-rays and the ultrasound. Before I go any further, I need to ask you something. How has Song-i been taking her heart medication lately?"
"Heart… medication?"
"Yes. The referring hospital didn't include any notes about heart medication, so I wanted to ask."
The couple looked at each other, bewildered. Kim Dong-wook spoke first.
"I-is our Song-i screaming because her heart hurts?"
"It isn't a heart attack. The murmur is quite severe—I mean the heart murmur is loud. There is a little fluid in the lungs, but I don't believe that's why she's in this much distress."
Fluid in the lungs. Both of them went wide-eyed.
"What?"
"Fluid? You said there's fluid?"
"Yes. I believe it's pulmonary edema secondary to heart failure. But that is not what's causing her pain."
They could barely think. It was already unbearable just watching Song-i suffer—and now they were being told she had heart disease. Heart disease so advanced that fluid had filled her lungs.
The news was staggering. And still, something more urgent stood in front of it: Song-i's pain. They had to find out why she was hurting.
"Th-then why is our Song-i in this much pain?"
"I suspect a neurological problem. A herniated disc compressing a nerve, perhaps. And we can't rule out a tumor, either."
They had only just reeled from the fluid in her lungs. Now they reeled again.
"A t-tumor—you mean cancer?"
"Our Song-i has cancer?"
"It's only a suspicion. To know for certain, we'd need a CT scan. However…"
"Do it. If it will stop our Song-i from hurting, do anything—anything at all."
Kim Dong-wook cried it out before the veterinarian had even finished.
"I understand how you feel. But in Song-i's current condition, I don't believe we can safely anesthetize her."
The veterinarian's voice had gone heavy.
In that instant, Kim Dong-wook's hands began to shake. He knew. He knew what the man was about to say: that there was nothing more they could do for her.
His wife knew it too.
And still, both of them wanted to deny it. They could not, would not, accept what lived inside the veterinarian's words.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Why? Doctor?"
They pressed him. If they asked again, maybe he would say Song-i still had a chance. That if they could just get the pain under control, she would be all right.
The veterinarian betrayed that hope.
"I'm sorry."
A boulder dropped onto Kim Dong-wook's heart. It felt as if the stone were crushing it to pulp.
The scrape of a chair. A sharp creak.
"N-no. Doctor, you can't."
"P-please, save our Song-i. Doctor—Song-i, please save Song-i."
They were on their feet, clutching at the veterinarian, sobbing the words out.
"Doctor, please save our Song-i. Do something—anything. We can't let her go like this."
"Doctor, I'm begging you. We can't let our Song-i go like this. She was smiling this morning. She was smiling so brightly."
"Th-that's right. Our Song-i is so precious to us. When I hold her, she loves it. She really loves it."
They howled without even knowing what they were saying.
"Please, anything—do anything, Doctor!"
"Hah. I wish I could. But a CT scan requires anesthesia, and I'll be honest with you: I don't have the confidence to manage her anesthesia in this condition."
"Then—if someone could anesthetize her, they could find out where she's hurting?"
"In principle, yes. Surgery would be a separate question after that."
"We'll go anywhere. Anywhere there's a doctor who can anesthetize our Song-i! Please."
"…"
The veterinarian said nothing.
He did not know what was wrong with Song-i. What he did know, with certainty, was that her situation was grim. Even in the most skilled hands, the chance of failure was well over fifty percent. Fifty percent? Who am I kidding. One wrong move and this is a Table Death.
To send them to another hospital knowing that…
The veterinarian pressed his lips shut.
That was when Kim Dong-wook pulled his phone from his pocket. He scrolled through something quickly, then placed a call. It rang. No one answered. He tried again, and again. Each time, the ringing simply died away.
He hung up, searched for something else on the phone, and dialed once more.
This time, someone picked up.
"Hello, this is Mongmong Animal Hospital."
"L-Lee Jun— I mean, I'd like to speak with Director Lee Jun, please."