“It looks like I have no choice but to ask Mother about this. There’s more than one man in the Cha family, after all.”
The taste in my mouth turned bitter.
I craved a cigarette.
“Hey, kid. If you keep biting your lips like that, you’ll draw blood.”
Cheolgu Park, the landlord sitting beside me, ruffled my hair roughly.
“You can cry if you want. I’ll let it slide just for today.”
“No thanks. If crying could have saved Mom, I would have been wailing long ago. But crying doesn’t solve anything.”
Unless there was another way to fix this.
“So, that’s why I’m asking, sir—could you lend me some money?”
“Money? Is it for the hospital bills?”
“No. I need it for something urgent right now.”
Requests are supposed to come with sincerity.
I had grabbed Mother’s bag, but it contained a pitiful 9,850 won.
“What’s this about? A request?”
“I want to offer the attending Doctor a generous token of appreciation.”
“……”
Cheolgu Park blinked twice.
His cigarette trembled in his mouth with every blink.
This guy really doesn’t get it.
“Rather than comforting myself with the Prophecy of Destiny—‘do your best and leave the rest to heaven’—or praying to every god out there, this way is much easier, faster, and more certain.”
I rubbed my fingers together and smiled wryly.
“What better lubricant is there to smooth out life’s dealings?”
Plop.
Cheolgu Park dropped his cigarette.
“In that case, lend me some money… ughk!”
He grabbed my cheeks and mercilessly stretched them sideways.
“Ughyaaak…!”
“Where do you get the idea to bribe your way through?”
“Gyaaah…!”
I rubbed my stinging cheeks furiously and took a cautious step back.
“At the hospital, the attending Doctor is God and Buddha rolled into one. My mother’s life hangs in their hands.”
“Ugh.”
“If sincerity and devotion can be bought with money, then you better buy it. They say the aftereffects of carbon monoxide poisoning are awful.”
Cheolgu Park sighed even longer than I did while Mother was in the ICU.
“Is that something a seven-year-old kid should say?”
“Then should I ask you to avoid secondhand smoke in front of a kid poisoned by coal gas?”
I picked up the cigarette Cheolgu Park had dropped and blew the dust off it.
Looking like a grizzly bear, Cheolgu Park cleared his throat.
“I was just holding it.”
Suddenly, the ICU door opened, and a Doctor came out.
We both jumped up at the same time.
The Doctor said, “If you had come ten minutes later, it would have been dangerous.”
“Ah……! Thank you, Doctor! Thank you so much for saving my mother!”
I bowed deeply in gratitude.
Someone grabbed my shoulder firmly, and when I looked back, it was Cheolgu Park smiling brightly.
“See? I told you, your Mother would be fine. She’s going to pull through.”
I nodded vigorously.
My chest swelled with overwhelming relief.
The Doctor, looking utterly exhausted, said, “Our hospital is equipped with the latest hyperbaric chamber, and we have the finest medical team…!!”
He trailed off, then narrowed his sharp eyes at us.
I was barefoot in the dead of winter, wrapped in a hospital blanket and wearing only my underwear.
Cheolgu Park was in a tracksuit with a worn flight jacket and scruffy sneakers carelessly thrown on.
The Doctor’s tone grew colder.
“Please settle the treatment fees at the administration office first. Then we’ll move the patient to the general ward immediately.”
***
Just minutes had passed since Mother entered the ICU.
One corner of my mouth twitched involuntarily.
‘Could it be that they’re planning to skimp on the hyperbaric oxygen therapy just because we look poor?’
In truth, the only treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning is to supply pure oxygen at high pressure.
They place the patient in an oxygen chamber at four atmospheres for one to two hours.
But hyperbaric oxygen therapy costs money.
I suppose many people around here, looking as shabby as we do, just skip it because they can’t afford it.
This area was full of factories, and the pockets of factory workers were usually as light as feathers.
As long as we survive.
That way, the hospital can claim it wasn’t a medical error or negligence.
The aftereffects become the patient’s burden.
‘If Mother suffers delayed sequelae from carbon monoxide poisoning, we’re in trouble.’
Once the brain is damaged, it’s hard to recover its function.
The terrifying thing about carbon monoxide poisoning is that carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin 200 times more strongly than oxygen.
If blood saturation with carbon monoxide reaches 55-57%, paralysis and nerve cell death begin, and above 60%, death occurs from lack of oxygen.
Mother lost consciousness due to suffocation.
I can’t let her be cast aside like this.
‘With Mother’s aftereffects on the line, I can’t back down.’
It’s frustrating.
I’m just a seven-year-old kid.
I have no money, no status, no influence, and not even power.
‘The surest and simplest way would be to pressure the Doctor’s superiors. But I don’t have that kind of ability, strength, or connections.’
Sigh.
‘I guess all I can do is offer everything I have.’
Back then, a bowl of Jajangmyeon cost 300 won.
Ten thousand won was a pittance to bribe a Doctor, but at least it would show sincerity.
Because I was just a seven-year-old kid.
The Doctor would take that into consideration and decide accordingly.
‘If push comes to shove, I’ll offer my luxury wristwatch. But Mother comes first.’
But Cheolgu Park was faster than me.
He pulled out a thousand-won bill from his wallet.
I was surprised when I saw his ID card inside.
‘Wait, this guy isn’t just some unemployed local who keeps talking about spies, huh?’
Cheolgu Park slipped the money into the Doctor’s gown pocket.
“Thank you for your hard work. I hope you continue to take good care of her.”
“Ahem!”
The Doctor cleared his throat conspicuously.
It meant this money wasn’t enough to buy sincerity or devotion.
‘This guy’s greed is a bit much. Well, if that’s how it is, then I’ll have to show my hand too.’
I snatched Cheolgu Park’s wallet.
I spread it open so the Doctor could see his ID.
“Your name’s Cheolgu Park? Central Intelligence Agency agent.”
The Central Intelligence Agency, aka the CIA.
The predecessor of the 1980s Korean KCIA, it was the President’s powerful sword.
An organization that controlled domestic and foreign intelligence in one hand, wielding power beyond even the prosecutor’s office.
“You can read Hangul? Wow, smart.”
“I heard you’re busy catching spies these days. If a spy tip comes in, you rush out immediately?”
Cheolgu Park looked confused about why I was suddenly talking about spies.
But when I brightened my eyes, he answered obediently.
“Right.”
“What do you do if a spy tip comes in at the hospital?”
“First, catch the damn spy and shake them down. Then tear everything apart.”
“That would cause the whole hospital to be turned upside down for no reason.”
“If there’s no spy charge, they get released quickly.”
As long as you’re linked to a spy, you get a dirty deal.
The 1970s were an era when the government yelled anti-communism and relentlessly hunted spies.
‘Complaints from the powerless might seem trivial, but threats from the powerful are a serious nuisance. If a CIA agent gets involved, the hospital’s records would be the first to disappear. Who would like that?’
Since the hyperbaric chamber was already running, comparing the hassle of tracing who caused this mess and the effort to just administer more high-concentration oxygen— the scale clearly tipped to one side.
I snapped the wallet shut.
“……”
***
The Doctor immediately straightened up and spoke seriously.
“To prevent any aftereffects, we’ll need to extend the hyperbaric oxygen therapy time a bit. I promise we’ll do our best with the treatment.”
Then he took the thousand-won bill from his pocket and stuffed it back into Cheolgu Park’s pocket.
“We shouldn’t make those working for the country worry about things like this. Medicine to the pharmacist, patients to the Doctor. We are the medical staff of Taeseong Hospital. Trust us.”
The Doctor opened the ICU door and loudly gave a few more instructions.
“Check the blood oxygen saturation levels properly, add one more nutritional supplement to the IV.”
“Yes.”
“The patient’s shivering because of the cold. Wrap her with several blankets quickly. We can’t afford her catching a cold.”
“Yes.”
The quality of medical service immediately improved.
The landlord opened his drowsy eyes and looked down at me.
I shrugged my shoulders.
“The effect’s obvious.”
‘If bribery guarantees my Mother’s treatment without aftereffects, what else can I do?’
If bribes don’t work, then threats have to.
We sat side by side, waiting for Mother’s hyperbaric oxygen treatment to finish.
Cheolgu Park crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and rested his head against the wall.
I quietly took out the bankbook I had saved earlier.
‘She saved so carefully.’
It looked very similar to the bankbook my late Mother had left behind.
Some days it was 120 won, other days 90 won, some days even 440 won.
Mother had been steadily putting away small amounts like this.
In neat handwriting on the cover of the bankbook was written:
I hadn’t even properly graduated elementary school, let alone college.
Yet Mother had been saving money to send me to university.
‘Did Kangwoo feel this way when he saw his Mother’s bankbook?’
There’s a big difference between vaguely guessing someone’s feelings and experiencing it firsthand.
Somehow, a sharp ache tugged at a corner of my heart.
‘When Mother passed away, this bankbook, the Household Register Book, and the wristwatch were missing. Someone must have stolen the entire jewelry box.’
It was bitter.
I might understand if they stole the luxury watch out of greed.
But they even took the bankbook, as if it were just money.
‘There’s only one phone number written in the Household Register Book. No name, no address, nothing else.’
I’d seen that phone number somewhere before.
‘It was definitely the home phone number of the chaebol chairman’s house, wasn’t it?’
I think I know where this is going.