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How long had he been there like that?
He hadn’t eaten a proper meal, so belated hunger came rushing in.
Fortunately, there was a convenience store and restaurant he’d been seeing since earlier, so he could go there and fill his stomach.
When he went inside and looked at the menu, the only thing worth ordering was ramen. Even that was five thousand won… It was expensive for basic ramen, but since it wasn’t a regular snack bar, he supposed he had to take that into account.
The heat must have been good because the ramen was quickly boiled and brought out. It was chewy ramen served in a small aluminum pot.
The taste itself was ordinary, but because of his hunger, it went down well with slurping sounds. Taein ate the ramen one bite at a time while lifting his head up. The partition was made of glass, so he could see the TV outside from here too. The ajusshi who had been watching a Go match in the afternoon was nowhere to be seen, and now young girls were occupying that area. Thanks to that, a variety show was playing on screen. Even without hearing the sound, he knew how the situation was unfolding. Taein, who occasionally chuckled while eating ramen, brought the water he had poured earlier to his mouth.
“…What is this?”
Taein grimaced for a moment and took the cup away from his mouth. The taste was too strange. A silver water container and silver cup. He had thoughtlessly just poured water and set it aside without ever looking into it.
“……”
When he looked inside, the water seemed somewhat reddish.
“What’s wrong? Is the water strange?”
Just then, the store ajumma who was passing by showed a smiling face.
“Ah, the taste is a bit peculiar.”
“A bit like that? It’s water boiled with herbal medicine ingredients. Do you have any allergies or anything?”
“No, I don’t have anything like that. It’s fine.”
So that’s why the taste was strange and the color was strange too. Taein nodded and pushed the water as far away as possible. It would be better to go out and drink water from the water purifier.
After finishing the remaining ramen and coming out, the restaurant section’s lights went out. He must have been the last customer. Taein glanced back and entered the sleeping room, which had an appropriate temperature. He hadn’t even known it was a sleeping room, but this was the room people entered saying they were going to sleep. Since it was co-ed, there were hardly any women. That would be a bit awkward, he supposed. Thinking this while sitting in a corner, his stomach felt a bit stuffy. Was it because of the water…? He didn’t particularly have allergies or anything, but that might be because he didn’t know. He would have to try herbal medicine or something to know….
He had planned to just digest and sleep, but his stomach was uncomfortable so he couldn’t. Taein sat for about ten minutes before coming out of the sleeping room. The TV was still on. Since it was a space where people moved around, he had given up his spot, but maybe because it was night, there was someone lying down in front of the TV too. Taein also looked around and settled near that area.
It was a bit cool, but his stomach was uncomfortable, so it seemed better to sleep here.
Taein, who had been sitting awkwardly, lay down on his side.
Had about 30 minutes passed like that?
While drowsiness was coming and going, his stomach hurt with a burning pain. What had been stuffy around his chest seemed to have moved downward. Taein grimaced and clutched his stomach. When he had indigestion before, pressing like this would make it better…. Of course, it wasn’t a proven method. Still, using his usual method, the discomfort temporarily went away. Taein dozed while touching his stomach, and dozed while touching his stomach again.
“From drinking the wrong water… for no reason….”
Taein, who muttered as if talking in his sleep, closed his eyes with his hand on his stomach.
“Ah!”
He suddenly woke up because of a dream.
He’d had this kind of dream before, and it was repeating again. A dream of rolling and falling from a high place.
Even before thinking about what the dream was like, Taein greatly contorted his face. A more severe abdominal pain than before came rushing in. Even when he curled up his body and pressed his stomach, the pain didn’t go away. He wished it would go away even for a moment. With no one around to talk to, he just squeezed his eyes shut and touched his stomach.
5 minutes, 10 minutes… As time passed, it only hurt more. Eventually, Taein couldn’t even put his hands on his stomach. Finally judging that this wasn’t right, Taein struggled to get up from his spot.
Taein, who had only changed clothes on the second floor before coming down, got into a taxi that happened to be stopped there. Fortunately, there were many bars nearby, so there were many taxis waiting. Taein only said to take him to the emergency room and hung his head low. He had already used superhuman strength to get dressed and come outside, so he had no strength left. His face was covered in cold sweat and his lips were pale purple. The taxi driver, sensing something was seriously wrong, increased his speed.
In front of the hospital they quickly arrived at, there was a large emergency room sign.
He didn’t have the presence of mind to explain the situation, so he only mentioned the emergency room, but the hospital was quite large for that. Taein only briefly looked at this before entering the building. In the middle of the sprawling first-floor corridor was the emergency room door. He went right in, found the desk, and used his last bit of strength to register. It was a little less painful than when it hurt the most, but it was still unbearable pain. It felt like something was going to come up from inside.
“Will you be able to fill this out?”
“Ah, yes, urgh…!”
Taein, who was answering while out of breath, grabbed his mouth and made retching motions. All that got on his hands was clear saliva, but the nausea kept rising. In the end, he couldn’t even write the registration forms and lay on a bed to receive priority treatment.
As more people gathered, as someone touched his body, Taein’s vision became blurred. His pupils moved rapidly while grasping at empty space, and the hospital scenery changed into the shape of black cloth.
What was this?
Was he dying?
He had lived as if he didn’t exist, as if he had given up on everything, but he had never concretely thought about death.
Even when he wanted to die, had he really wanted to die?
Along with these futile thoughts, Taein lost consciousness.
* * *
Ow, it hurts. Oh my.
Like background noise, like nonsense, sounds came from somewhere. Taein, who had fallen into a deep sleep, twitched his eyelids and slowly revealed his pupils. What he saw immediately was a white ceiling. He was bewildered for a moment, but what had happened came back to him one by one. He drank strange water, his intestines got twisted, and he went to the emergency room. Taein moved his pupils this way and that, then brought his hand to his stomach. The abdominal pain he had felt at dawn had disappeared without a trace.
“…Ah.”
For a moment, one arm was pulled, so when he lifted the blanket, an IV was inserted. Even when he was frequently sick, he had rarely received IVs. When he lifted his head and checked the IV fluid, it didn’t seem like simple glucose or a nutritional injection either. In the first place, it didn’t seem like they would give nutritional injections for indigestion….
Taein was thinking alone when he turned his eyes to where the medical staff had gathered. It seemed like some light words were being exchanged. He could see them laughing and pointing at each other. During this, he made eye contact with one nurse. The nurse seemed to say something right away, and soon the doctor who had been standing in front turned around.
“You’re awake?”
A gentle smile bloomed on the face of the doctor who approached while speaking.
Taein tried to sit up but gave up because his body had no strength. In the meantime, the doctor who had approached adjusted how much IV fluid was dripping and looked down at Taein.
“How do you feel? Are you okay?”
“…Ah, yes.”
“Your body, when traits change late, these kinds of side effects follow too.”
It was a tone that said it wasn’t a big deal. Taein had experienced headaches or stomach problems before, so he thought maybe he had hurt like those times this time too. Taein quietly nodded and looked up at the doctor steadily.
“Did you do any exercise? Running or strength training?”
Running. He remembered running stupidly from the end of the road after leaving Wanjae behind.
“Yes, I did run a bit….”
“You can’t do that. Your body is changing late, so how unstable must it be? You know that patients like you originally have a really low pregnancy rate, right? Depending on the hospital, they might even diagnose infertility. You might have already heard this. But your body got pregnant, so how much must your body be shaking? Think of it like this pillar standing here.”
The doctor raised both his arms and made fists.
“If this is normally standing straight like a healthy body, your body right now is like this, with one side….”
He tilted one arm with the other to express collapse.
“Before establishing balance, this….”
The doctor put his head into the gap that had narrowed as it was blocked by his arms. You could tell at a glance that the head shouldn’t be able to fit in that spot. Taein looked at the doctor who was giving an easy-to-understand example and blinked his eyes. Since he hadn’t been awake for long, the doctor’s explanation wasn’t 100% getting through. Most of all, he didn’t understand why someone who had indigestion was being told about exercise and pregnancy.
“Look. It’s a complete mess, right? Because your body is like this, even a little activity was too much. Even men with much better builds than you, when they get pregnant….”
“Doctor, I….”
Taein opened his mouth to point something out.
“I’m someone who came to the emergency room at dawn because of indigestion….”
He seemed to have confused him with a different patient. Taein said this and looked up at the doctor.
“Mm…?”
The doctor, who had been looking at Taein with raised eyebrows for a moment, rubbed his chin with a serious face.
“Patient, by any chance… are you pregnant…?”
“No, I’m not that kind of person, I have indigestion, I’m someone with indigestion….”
Confusion gradually spread across Taein’s face as his words trailed off. The doctor looked at Taein’s face like that and said “Ah” while sending his gaze backward. When there was no one visible, the doctor looked down at Taein again.
“Well, you don’t have indigestion, patient. You might have had indigestion, but your body suddenly feeling bad at dawn was because you overexerted your pregnant body. If you’re just finding out now, I think it would be good to make an appointment with the relevant department and get counseling.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
