Chapter 67
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: Family Reconciliation and Complications
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Midworld Online player KkyuKkyu, real name Yoon Hanbyeol, returned to his empty house.
Even up until yesterday, when he'd heard it might be cancer, he'd thought it couldn't possibly be true.
Cancer? That was something that happened to grandmas and grandpas on TV, right?
Sure, he'd had nagging worries just in case, but he was more excited about eating delicious food with the Alliance Leader and wandering around the city.
"Ha...".
Why did life have to be so unfair to him?
All he could do was lament.
He vaguely remembered being happy as a little kid, but ever since coming here, his life had been a complete mess.
Yeah, back in the day, he'd loved visiting Grandma's house.
But how could a once-a-year trip to the countryside compare to being abandoned by his parents and forced to live there reluctantly?
That's what came of begging his parents not to divorce. Yoon Hanbyeol couldn't bring himself to like this neighborhood no matter how hard he tried, and the middle schoolers born and raised in the countryside could clearly see that the city kid looked down on them.
He didn't fit in with the kids at school either.
He hated how Grandma pitied him. But if he didn't cling to that pity, he had nowhere to go. It was miserable.
So Yoon Hanbyeol avoided even Grandma, and in that rural backwater, all he had was video games.
'But these past few days were really great.'
In the game, there were plenty of people who played with him.
The relationships were built on a lie about him being a college student, but there were people who waited for him, praised him for doing well. He waited for updates, for the Alliance Leader to log in, for raid days.
He'd been a little excited for tomorrow.
'Why take it all away right when I was happy?'
The only thought in his mind was that the world was tormenting him.
Why, just why him?
The idiots at school lived carefree lives without a worry.
Mom and Dad ditched him, made tons of money, had new kids, and were probably happy now.
Bzzzzt-.
As he hugged his pillow and cried, his phone vibrated.
'Is it the Alliance Leader? Or Young Master Qingfeng? Maybe the Leader told him...'
Yoon Hanbyeol checked the caller ID.
[Dad]
The Alliance Leader really contacted him. A call anyway.
Should he pick up? As Yoon Hanbyeol hesitated, the call ended.
'Of course.'
He sighed and closed his phone.
But it vibrated again soon after.
"...Hello?"
"Hanbyeol?"
"Yes."
"I heard, Hanbyeol. How... how tough must this be for you. They should've taken me instead—how could they put a young kid like you through this..."
"...".
"You're at home, right? Dad's on his way now. Once you get surgery, it'll all be fine, so don't worry about a thing."
He's coming?
"What about work?"
The words slipped out of Yoon Hanbyeol's mouth before he knew it.
"Work? What matters about work when you're sick! I'm taking half the afternoon off and heading up now. I'm sorry. Really sorry. For not paying attention until it got this bad..."
"Sorry? To me?"
"Of course I'm sorry. I'm dying of guilt. My beloved Hanbyeol—if I'd taken proper care of you... Ahh..."
"You love me."
Dad said it over and over. Sorry, I love you.
"...".
He'd thought Dad didn't love him at all.
That work was way more important.
But dropping everything to rush over? It felt a little good.
"I miss you, Dad."
Yoon Hanbyeol murmured softly.
He clutched his stomach tight.
Cancer cells really growing inside here...
It was scary. Terrifying beyond words.
For a kid his age, it was a horror too awful to imagine.
But with Dad coming, maybe he could get through it.
Dad hung up soon after, saying he had to drive.
Immediately, another call came in.
[Young Master Qingfeng]
He couldn't help but smile. The nickname made reality feel distant for a moment.
People were looking for him here, and in the game too.
Yoon Hanbyeol answered and turned on his computer.
After talking with Yoon Hanbyeol's father, Yoon Jeonghun, it turned out there were quite a few misunderstandings between father and son.
Yoon Jeonghun thought his son hated him so much he didn't even want to see his face, while Yoon Hanbyeol believed his dad had abandoned him in the countryside because he felt no love at all.
According to Yoon Jeonghun, Yoon Hanbyeol had been devastated by his parents' divorce.
His only child had begged and pleaded not to divorce, so Yoon Jeonghun tried to find some compromise... but the marriage ended anyway.
"Do you want to live with Dad or Mom?"
First year of middle school, facing that awful question, Yoon Hanbyeol's answer was...
"I hate both. Just die!"
Pretty harsh.
He didn't hold back on hurtful words like hoping they'd get in accidents or catch some deadly disease, so Yoon Jeonghun said he'd been hurt too.
His barely thought-up solution was to leave him with Grandma.
No suitable relatives on the maternal side, and Yoon Hanbyeol had always followed Grandma, so it wasn't too hard to ask.
Grandma worried a young kid might be lonely in the countryside but gladly accepted if it was what Hanbyeol wanted.
So he worked in Busan and sent child support.
Of course, he planned to visit often at first to see his son... but he just couldn't muster the courage.
"Even so, how could you go over a year without contact?!"
Yoon Jeonghun had nothing to say. It was all his fault; he'd assumed they were living well with Grandma.
"Not visiting was wrong, but don't blame yourself for the illness too. You need to stay strong for your son."
"...Yes."
"He'll be scared before surgery, and anxious for a while after. Worried about side effects, if they'll push chemo... Total gastrectomy could bring dumping syndrome too."
"Yes. I'll pull myself together. Thank you."
Fortunately, Yoon Jeonghun went straight to Yoon Hanbyeol that day, and they cleared up the misunderstandings.
The next day, when Yoon Hanbyeol logged in, his voice was much brighter.
"I'm moving to Busan! Gonna live with Dad from now on!"
"Really? That's great!"
"Hehehe. Now if anything hurts, I'll come straight to you, Alliance Leader!"
"Good. Come anytime."
With the move and school transfer ahead, they booked surgery at a Busan hospital for follow-up care.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a stage where just removing the mucosa would suffice.
If the cancer under 2cm was confined to the mucosa, a simple procedure would do, but since it had spread widely under the mucosa toward the muscularis, partial gastrectomy was necessary.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Up to surgery day, Yoon Hanbyeol fell into panic attacks now and then.
He'd game all day to forget the fear, then scream and tear at his hair.
I couldn't watch him 24/7, but all the guildmates prayed for his successful surgery.
Thankfully, it went smoothly.
He woke up fine, and the pain or stamina loss wasn't as bad as he'd feared.
"Hehe, it was no big deal. Sorry for worrying everyone. Thanks to the Alliance Leader spotting it early, we treated it well!"
Yoon Hanbyeol was discharged in under a week and quickly resumed daily life.
More cheerful than even before surgery.
His playtime decreased, but with new friends at the transfer school, I wasn't worried.
A month after surgery, Yoon Jeonghun and Yoon Hanbyeol visited the clinic together.
"Hello, Director. Nice to meet you in person. Thank you so much for all the advice over the phone last time."
"No need. So glad you two reconciled. Has KkyuKkyu been well?"
"...Don't call me that!"
Yoon Hanbyeol hid his flushed face and turned away.
"Haha, just teasing. You should've called ahead—we could've had lunch. Just saying hi? Or some issue?"
I smiled and asked them.
Surgery went well, no chemo as far as I knew. So possible issues were limited.
"...Not serious."
"Not serious? You ignored the heartburn like that before too!"
Yoon Jeonghun hugged his son as he spoke.
"It's dumping syndrome, like you warned us about."
"Ahh... So that's why you're here."
"Yes. It came to mind vaguely. Thought we'd say thanks and see if there's a remedy."
Dumping syndrome.
One of the most common complications after gastrectomy.
"Dumping" literally means "pouring out."
Normally, food from the esophagus enters the stomach gradually, then to the small intestine for digestion.
Remove part or all of the stomach, and that regulation vanishes—food floods from esophagus to small intestine, spiking osmotic pressure and causing symptoms.
Symptoms 10-30 minutes after eating: early dumping.
Then blood sugar spikes, massive insulin release causes hypoglycemia later: late dumping, 2-4 hours post-meal.
"What symptoms are main? Nausea, abdominal pain? Dizziness, blurry vision too?"
"Pain sometimes? Not as bad as pre-surgery heartburn, just stuffy. The surging feeling's most uncomfortable, sometimes dizzy with cold sweats, but rests make it fine."
Yoon Hanbyeol shrugged like it was nothing.
Yoon Jeonghun saw it differently, of course.
"No. He's downplaying it. You know how insensitive he is, Director... Collapsed during PE once, total chaos."
"That was the kids overreacting."
My view aligned more with Yoon Jeonghun.
"Fainting from hypoglycemic shock? Can't ignore that. Dumping often improves with diet over time, but collapsing and hitting your head first? Disaster."
"Eh, I let my guard down. Usually just brief after meals, but it hit during 6th period."
"Early and late dumping together—needs caution! Dizziness, bloating—all treatable."
Why endure discomfort if treatment works?
Saw many cases at university hospital clinic, in Korea and China.
Herbals and acupuncture effective for bloating, dizziness, sweats, palpitations—and dumping patients too.
"Good you came. I'll take care of it from now on—no worries."