Chapter 24
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Pillar of Support (3)
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The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit was still a world of gray. Nothing could be heard, nothing could be felt. Was I the crazy one, or was the world? Or maybe both.
Jin So-yun, who had been moved to the hospice ward, was in better shape than expected. Probably thanks to stopping the chemotherapy. How long could she hold on? Could I hold on until So-yun died?
About two weeks passed like that, and now I had to lie motionless in bed. Even sitting up was no easy task.
At the very least, the last sight I took in ought to be a blue sky. Not this gray ceiling.
"Haa... Haa... Hoo..."
And then, a doctor I'd never seen before came by. I couldn't hear his voice, but his flushed expression told me everything as he delivered the news.
Patient, a donor has been found. This is truly fortunate.
"What...?"
Not exactly welcome news.
Blood type matches, and once we check the gene compatibility, we'll schedule surgery right away.
"...What about So-yun?"
Pardon?
This was a development I hadn't wanted.
My sister brought our parents to see me. Mom and Dad, after nearly five months apart. Both looked a bit thinner, like the stress had worn them down. But their faces were beaming.
...Hope. That's the expression people made when hope was right in front of them.
I'd thought facing Mom would stir something in me. Surprisingly, nothing. Had I already given up completely?
The family saying it was great, that I'd pull through. That sort of thing, anyway. I couldn't hear them. So now what? What was I supposed to do?
How could I die?
"You're here again today! My little sis~ You're getting surgery soon, right?"
So-yun, wasting away day by day, greeted me with a smile. If I died, you'd be sad, wouldn't you? If you died, I'd...
"...You heard?"
"Of course I did! I'm getting surgery soon too!"
"...Surgery? Why?"
Being moved to hospice meant giving up treatment. Surgery out of nowhere?
"A new surgery method came up, and the doctors said they'd try it! If it works, I could be completely cured!"
This was weird. Too weird. Suddenly? Why now? At this timing? Wasn't it too contrived?
"So I'm coming back to our ward! Isn't that great?"
Suddenly, our blood types flashed in my mind. ...No way. It couldn't be. I didn't know the exact diagnosis, but she'd had chemo, so cancer. Surgical scars suggested brain cancer. A brain tumor. Cancer patients couldn't get organ transplants.
Transplant recipients had to take immunosuppressants for life to prevent rejection. Their immune systems tanked.
Obviously, someone on immunosuppressants getting an organ from a cancer patient couldn't fight off the lingering cancer cells. Skip the meds, and rejection killed you.
So was there really a new surgery method? I knew the odds were absurd. But hadn't I come back from the dead against absurd odds?
Hope appeared. A brilliant hope where So-yun and I could live together.
"...Little sis. Did you just smile a bit?"
So-yun stared at me in surprise. Smile? Me?
"...Maybe."
"Smile big! Like me!"
"Okay."
"Pfft... Still looks tough! Don't worry, you'll be smiling soon!"
So-yun returned to my room. The gray of the PICU lifted. It filled with white, which I'd hated so much. But even that white was breathtakingly beautiful.
"Hoo... Hoo—what're you doing?"
So-yun was sitting, scribbling in a notebook. She had her back turned completely, so I couldn't see even if I wanted to.
"Writing down things to do with you after we leave the hospital!"
"...Show me."
"No way! This stuff's a secret! Ab-so-lute-ly not showing! 'Excuse me, could you take a photo of us?'"
Back in my room, So-yun had gotten into photography with the camera she'd been given as a gift. She kept snapping pics.
"Okay, So-yun, wanna lie next to A-yeon? A-yeon, smile a little."
"Sure!"
-Click.
So-yun showed me the photo, saying it came out great.
"When we get healthy, we'll look at these and say, 'Remember when...?'"
"...That notebook just now, hic. You wrote, right?"
"Oh, yeah!"
"...You're such an idiot."
"The idiot's my sis who doesn't know how to smile! Smile! You're always making me do it alone! Yeah, like that!"
The idiot's you, Jin So-yun.
"Hic... Cough, hack!"
-Beeeep!!
"A-yeon!! Professor Hwang!!"
"...Little sis?"
-Thud thud thud!
"Move! Everyone, move!"
Medical staff rushing in at the alarm. Leading them was Professor Hwang, the chair of Pediatric Thoracic Surgery, who always checked A-yeon's heart.
"She can't hold out any longer. We need to hook her up to ECMO right now."
After checking the echocardiogram, Professor Hwang spoke firmly. Sedatives were administered to A-yeon's body, and the waiting staff began connecting machines.
Large needles pierced her clavicle and thigh, and ECMO—the machine that took over heart and lung functions—whirred to life.
Professor Hwang's mind was a storm. ECMO, one of modern medicine's miracles that could save even the dying. This bought at least two more weeks.
"I'll monitor vitals myself. Everyone out. Good work."
"My little sis will be okay now. She'll be fine."
"So-yun..."
Only now did Professor Hwang realize they hadn't even moved So-yun, who was lying beside her, out of the room in the rush. His words trailed off. So-yun pressed her forehead gently against the unconscious A-yeon's.
"It was too short, but I'm so glad I got to be your big sis. A-yeon. This is my last gift as your sister."
Mwah. So-yun's lips brushed A-yeon's forehead briefly, then parted.
"S-So-yun. You must be shocked. Let's move to another room first. A-yeon needs to rest for a while..."
"Tiger Doctor."
"Wh-what?"
So-yun met Professor Hwang's eyes. Her next words hit him like a hammer.
"Please give my heart to A-yeon now."
"...What?"
"The director said so. If I give her my heart, A-yeon can live. Just ask you, Tiger Doctor."
"You... right now... what are you..."
Even Professor Hwang, nearing sixty, stammered. Was this real? Wasn't this a dream? A horrific nightmare he'd never forget. Yeah. It had to be a dream. It had to be.
"I know, Tiger Doctor. I'm twelve now. My birthday's long past."
So-yun flashed her usual grin.
"I've seen it a lot. I've been here almost a year. Kids dying. Just like me... I knew I had no chance."
"N-No. Nooo... So-yun... That's not it!! You must have misunderstood something."
"Tiger Doctor, you're terrible at lying!"
She laughed brightly, ahaha, then continued.
"They say kids grow up fast these days. I know everything. Tiger Doctor."
"So-yun..."
Professor Hwang, who'd lived life as a lone wolf and never shed a tear, felt his eyes burn red. So-yun's ever-smiling face began to twist.
"I... wanted to help someone too. I've only been a burden to everyone... Mom said she married a guy who couldn't make money because of me. My grandma said her son suffered marrying a weirdo because of me. Dad slaves away for money because of me. Tiger Doctor, Witch Nurse, Angel Doctor. Everyone suffers because of me."
"Ah..."
So-yun swallowed her leaking tears with effort.
"Even my classmates avoided me, saying I was weird. I didn't get it then. I just wanted friends. Guess I acted strange."
"So-yun. You're... you're not weird..."
"But this time, I can finally help. I'm so happy. I'm the big sis. A-yeon's big sis..."
"So-yun, stop. Please. Don't say more."
"Tiger Doctor... I... the truth is..."
I don't want to die...
With her final words, her sobs burst out, and Professor Hwang could only hold her.
"Oh, Professor Hwang? What brings you to the director's office—"
"Out of my way."
"Wha—Professor Hwang!?"
Cutting off the secretary mid-sentence, Professor Hwang flung open the director's door like he was smashing it.
-BAM!
"Director Yu!!"
"Well, quicker than I thought. Careful with those hands, Professor Hwang. They're precious."
"You bastard!!"
-Pow!
-Crash!
Professor Hwang, fury boiling over, lunged and smashed his fist into the director's face. The seated director toppled backward in his chair but got up casually, righted it, and smiled his usual kindly grin.
"Calm down, Professor Hwang. Hands okay?"
"Wh-what?"
"Told you to be careful. You have surgery soon. Damage those, and it's trouble. So-yun told you, huh? Only reason to punch me out of nowhere."
"You... you bastard. Don't you have a heart?! How—how could you tell So-yun something like that?!"
"Calm down, I said. There's a reason."
"Reason? No reason you give will convince me. She's twelve! So-yun's twelve! You told a twelve-year-old she'll die soon, but give her heart to her friend and save her. Who says that— you human scum!?"
"What choice did I have? Seol A-yeon will die if Jin So-yun does. You know her condition better than I do. With that death wish, even a transplant won't save her long."
Professor Hwang ground his teeth at the director's calm words.
"Hey, Yu Won-jun. Spit it out straight. What does that have to do with what you told So-yun?"
"To give her a reason to live."
"...What?"
"Seol A-yeon's pillar is Jin So-yun. Her dying wish should be reason enough. You know how hard it was for me? I just want to save Seol A-yeon. Why am I the villain? You know it too—Jin So-yun has no hope, and without a miracle, Seol A-yeon follows."
"..."
"I even had her meet the family to spark that will to live. Didn't work. Parents came, but no change. She ignored them, acted like she couldn't hear a thing."
The director smiled at Professor Hwang's dazed expression.
"Convinced now? Get those hands to orthopedics. Surgery's soon."