Chapter 157
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 157
Chapter Title: The Maknae's Endless Hiccups
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“Lunch break until 2 o'clock, hic! Looks like it! Sorry about this!”
The person who had answered about Melon Soda Horizon's performance apologized amid hiccups.
He was a cute-looking guy, a full head shorter than the two men he'd come with.
“Whoa, Park Haru! …sir!”
Gong Nari recognized him and called out his name like he was a celebrity before belatedly adding the honorific.
“Oh? You know me? Ah, you must've watched the show we were on.”
“Yes! I became a fan right after seeing the broadcast yesterday!”
“Thanks~.”
“It's an honor.”
Park Haru smiled brightly and waved both hands, while Kang Jaekyung, who had entered the waiting room, spoke politely.
Kim Taeyoon didn't say a word, but he wore a pleased smile.
“Sorry about this. We're on lunch break right now. We usually eat in the pantry, but we really made a mess today, huh? You can wait in the third-floor lounge if you'd like, or come back a bit later.”
There was something worth celebrating, and I wanted to chat, but this space reeking of jjajangmyeon wasn't ideal.
When I offered the downstairs lounge for the time being, all three of them simultaneously glanced at their watches.
“Hic, waiting 50 minutes would be too much. We'll swing by somewhere else! Hic!”
I didn't mind at all. We'd only just started eating, so if they had business to attend to, it made sense for them to go and come back.
“Sure thing. Here, have a glass of water before you go.”
More than that, Park Haru's hiccups were way too severe.
Meaning for him to at least drink some water on his way out, I pointed to the water purifier.
“I'm f…… Thank you.”
He started to decline but ended up drinking the water that Seol Yuhee, standing right by the purifier, poured and handed to him, looking embarrassed.
“Hic, anyway, it's been going on a while, hic. I don't think it'll stop. Heh, heh, achoo!”
“Looks really bad……”
Park Haru drank the water while catching Gong Nari's worried gaze.
As people often do for hiccups, he pinched his nose shut and drank, but even as he headed out, it showed no signs of stopping.
“We'll be back later.”
With Kang Jaekyung's farewell, the three of them left.
It wasn't until nearly evening that they returned.
“Some hyungs I know have a studio nearby, so we stopped by, and before we knew it, we were hanging out and lost track of time.”
“We've still got plenty of clinic hours left. No big deal.”
The evening rush of office workers wrapping up at 6 wouldn't hit for a little while yet, so it was fine.
I shrugged to show I didn't mind.
Looked like they had a blast messing around with those hyungs.
Kim Taeyoon even had a guitar slung over his shoulder that hadn't been there before.
“Ah, one of our guitar members has been bugging me to borrow this for a while…… Taeyoon doesn't have treatment today, so he'll just hang onto it here in the lounge.”
Kang Jaekyung noticed my gaze and explained.
“Make yourselves at home. Don't worry about it. If you need somewhere to treat, you can leave it at the desk.”
“Hic!”
Kim Taeyoon said everything was fine on his end, and Kang Jaekyung wanted a quick maintenance treatment since it had been quite a while since his last visit—even though his wrist was doing well.
“The lounge sure got bigger. You guys expanded, huh?”
“Yeah. We'd been gearing up to use this whole floor. You three even showed up on TV—you're huge now.”
“Nah, we were barely on for a minute yesterday. The desk must've spotted us since we come here regularly anyway.”
“Hic!”
Kang Jaekyung spoke humbly, but……
“Sure, today maybe, but I bet you'll have tons of fans soon.”
All three of them had a surging yang energy.
Like eggs on the verge of hatching? Or maybe the eerie calm right before a volcano erupts.
I had a strong hunch they'd blow up big time any day now.
“Hic!”
“Director, that's actually why we're asking…… Could you take a look at our maknae?”
Park Haru had been listening to our stories with keen interest. But he couldn't stop the hiccups.
“Ah, right. Haru-ssi, you're here for the hiccups, yeah? Your hands are okay?”
“Yeah, hic. Hands are fine, hic. But this just won't quit.”
I'd figured band members might have issues with wrists or fingers, but the problem was somewhere totally unexpected.
“Ever since my wrist started hurting, Taeyoon's been super thorough about managing all the members' hands.”
Kang Jaekyung said this with a shudder.
Kim Taeyoon flashed another pleased smile.
“Hehe, Jaekyung hyung thinks it's a hassle, hic, but I love it when Taeyoon hyung feeds me.”
He feeds him meals too? Probably exaggerating.
“Hmm, okay. How long have the hiccups been going on?”
“It's been this bad for two or three weeks now, hic.”
“Any before that?”
“Hic, not nonstop like this. Maybe once or twice a week? The persistent ones came now and then, but water usually stopped them. And those random single hiccups? A few times a day.”
Bad hiccup fits once or twice a week, and minor diaphragm spasms several times daily.
Couldn't exactly call that infrequent to begin with.
“It never used to be this loud. We didn't even notice. But once the broadcast filming kicked off, it got way worse out of nowhere.”
Kang Jaekyung narrowed his eyes and glared at Park Haru as he elaborated.
“Hehe, it was just part of daily life before…… Hic!”
“I looked it up online, and they said Clove Calyx Decoction works great. Could I get a prescription?”
This time, Kim Taeyoon spoke up.
‘He knows about Clove Calyx Decoction?’
He'd researched Dragon Bone Powder and Fragrant Calming Pill before, but Clove Calyx went beyond common knowledge, didn't it?
Unless he'd cracked open the Donguibogam or a Korean medicine internal medicine textbook.
We did get patients who came in after seeing ads from clinics online, but Kim Taeyoon was a cut above.
“The calyx is the persimmon stem, right? Hic, so cool. I was gonna buy some persimmons and chew the calyces off, but my hyungs stopped me, saying there's no way I'd eat stuff sprayed with pesticides.”
The calyx definitely descends rebellious qi—that is, it brings down upward-rushing energy.
But if someone's thinking of eating calyx, wouldn't they go for calyx tea? Chewing raw persimmon calyces?
This kid wasn't ordinary either.
“Good thing you came. Hiccups have all sorts of causes, and while Clove Calyx is the textbook go-to prescription, it doesn't fit every case. Any digestion problems?”
“Uh-uh.”
Park Haru subtly averted his eyes.
“Doesn't go well.”
“The digestives I bought here last time were for this guy.”
“It's not like they don't work at all! Hic, sure, you can't overdo it, but they fix me right up.”
So it was fine with normal eating.
“Frequent overeating? Soda lover by any chance?”
“How'd you know? This kid can't eat without cola.”
Kang Jaekyung and Kim Taeyoon both nodded.
Park Haru puffed out his cheeks in denial.
“Not every meal! Hic! Just greasy stuff like pizza and chicken needs soda.”
People who say that always have one thing in common.
“Bet you eat a ton of that greasy food, huh?”
“……”
Pizza, chicken, jjajangmyeon—all super frequent.
“So, cola and soda…… how many cans a week?”
“Uh, nine? Ten?”
“……”
Kang Jaekyung shot Park Haru an utterly baffled glare.
He'd known the maknae's eating habits were iffy, but not this bad.
“Shouldn't have stopped at just keeping his fingers safe.”
Kim Taeyoon said gravely.
“Taeyoon even got you paraffin wax. Take better care of your health.”
“Hiiing, a little cola isn't……!”
“But here's the problem, right now.”
“This time it was just performance, so it flew under the radar, but when rounds go up and practice scenes air, imagine hiccuping nonstop on broadcast. You'll end up with some weird nickname.”
Under his hyungs' sharp stares, Park Haru sniffled.
“Now, now, calm down, everyone.”
I cut off their lecturing.
He didn't seem like the type to get stressed over nagging, but dwelling on it wouldn't help.
“A hiccup is repeated diaphragm spasms, and each time the glottis closes, making that loud noise. Before, it was probably mild diaphragm stimulation that didn't produce sound—something you two wouldn't have noticed.”
Steering back to the medical side, I gave a simple rundown on hiccups.
“Yeah, hic. I often felt that upward hic sensation, hic. But lately it's so bad I can't control it at all. No idea why.”
I nodded.
The spasm was just the symptom—what was causing the stimulation was the real issue.
“No single cause nailed down, but basically, think of the diaphragm getting hypersensitive from various triggers. In your case, Haru-ssi, soda and overeating, plus alcohol expanding the stomach if you drink—that's stimulating it.”
“Ah.”
“Liver-gallbladder qi stagnation, diaphragm inflammation itself, visceral fat pressing down…… But given the frequency and your diet, stomach's the prime suspect.”
“……Yeah. I figured that too. Hic.”
“Anyway, when other organs press on it like that, tensing the diaphragm, even normal breathing stresses it out and sends signals to the brain.”
Of course, the neural pathways involved still have plenty of mysteries.
“It's also linked to drops in blood CO2 levels, they say. You've tried the quick-drink gulp, breath-holding stuff, right?”
“Yeah. Nose-plug drinking, breathing into a bag, tongue-pulling, swallowing ice—all tried, no dice!”
“Those boost blood CO2 to stop hiccups, but in chronic cases like yours, they barely work.”
Folk remedies with no real risk, and they do help for occasional bouts.
That's why they came to the clinic when those failed.
“Hiiing.”
He'd already tried everything, so Park Haru made a pouty face for no reason.
“What about the Clove Calyx Decoction?”
Kim Taeyoon asked, sounding a bit anxious.
“We passed round one, so we've got more filming soon. Would be great if it cleared up before then…… Not trying to rush you.”
“I get it. But Clove Calyx is better taken over a period with some spacing. To recover that deficient-cold stomach wrecked by overeating and soda, and properly descend the rebellious qi—that takes time.”
“Yeah. Makes sense after pounding ten colas a week.”
“So, to stop the hiccups right now……”
“Possible?”
“Probably.”
I paused, stood from my chair, and moved behind Park Haru.
Not always, but stopping his hiccups right now seemed doable.
“Hic.”
“Mind if I press on your shoulder?”
“Ah, sure.”
Kim Chunsik had actually introduced me to a similar case.
An elderly patient with bacterial pleuritis had hiccuped nonstop for over ten days. Metoclopramide, the staunch antiemetic, failed—then even chlorpromazine, the antipsychotic, didn't touch it.
But acupuncture on the infraspinatus? Instant recovery.
An intriguing paper.
“Uwaaak!”
“Just as I thought—infraspinatus is rock-hard.”
Shoulder? More like upper back?
I stimulated the knot in Park Haru's infraspinatus, right below the scapular spine, and he let out the expected scream.
Since the treatment in the paper wasn't exactly mainstream, it probably wouldn't work on every patient.
But for Park Haru, at least, the qi stagnation here was blatantly obvious.
“Stimulate the tense spots here and elsewhere to loosen the muscles around the diaphragm, and the hypersensitivity should ease up.”
“Hic, with acupuncture?”
Park Haru jumped in surprise.
“Yep. It was already under pressure, and the filming tension piled on top, making it worse. Acupuncture should kick in fast.”
“That'd be amazing!”
I'd been itching to try that paper's hiccup treatment, and here was the perfect patient.
“If it works great, spread the word that our clinic handles chronic hiccups like champs.”
I half-joked as I manually loosened his shoulder a bit more.
If it panned out, I could even publish a case study like Yoo Kyung-hoon.
“Ooh, deal. I'll make it into a song and perform it for you.”
Kim Taeyoon fired back with a fun quip.
Aigoo, saying it with the guitar makes it sound legit.