novelraw Chapter 61 : I’m Not “Mister”, I Said I’m Your Brother
Chapter 61 : I’m Not “Mister”, I Said I’m Your Brother
Chapter 61: I’m Not “Mister”, I Said I’m Your Brother
Kang-hyuk’s eyes were not the ones full of loyalty and camaraderie I remembered from before the regression.
They were the eyes of a beast — anger, sorrow, and suspicion mixed together.
“Since she’s being treated inside, calm down first…….”
I couldn’t finish my sentence. In an instant Kang-hyuk closed the distance and roughly grabbed the front of my shirt.
His grip was stronger than I’d imagined. I felt my feet lift slightly off the floor and my throat being squeezed. My airway choked.
As I’d suspected, he was a born Boy General when it came to strength. He barked harshly.
“What the hell are you? What are you doing, punk!”
“Hyung, hyung! No! This mister helped my grandmother! Let go! Let him go!”
Aseong clung to his arm and screamed desperately from the side.
But Kang-hyuk didn’t budge. Only raw hostility toward me burned in his bloodshot eyes.
The grip on my collar tightened more and more. My vision slowly began to blur.
It would be stupid to try and match strength with strength.
Holding my last breath, I found the spot on the inside of his wrist where the pulse beat. I pressed hard with my thumb as if crushing bone.
At the same time, with my other hand I jabbed the pressure point between the knuckles on the back of his hand.
“Uhk……!”
Kang-hyuk’s face contorted in pain at once.
He must have felt a stabbing pain spreading from the inside of his wrist through his whole arm and a strange numbness running across it.
I could tell because the strong grip loosened as if the strength had drained away.
I slapped his hand away lightly, stepped back, and gulped the breath I’d been holding.
“Wh-what is this…….”
Clutching his wrist, Kang-hyuk stared at me in disbelief.
He couldn’t accept that his overwhelming strength had been rendered so helpless.
He had probably never in his life been caught so off guard.
I cleared my throat and, toward him who still wouldn’t drop his guard, said coldly.
“I’m not your enemy, Kang-hyuk. I came to help you.”
“Shut the hell up……!”
“This is a hospital. This is where your grandmother is getting treatment. Can’t you see people around here are scared?”
I cut him off and spoke calmly.
Only then did Kang-hyuk look around. Patients and nurses passing in the corridor all watched him with frightened eyes.
He seemed to realize only now that his anger had terrorized innocent bystanders too.
“……I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
The beastlike expression he’d had moments ago was gone; he bowed ninety degrees and repeatedly apologized to the people around him.
He wasn’t an evil person by nature.
At that moment the emergency treatment room door opened. The doctor and the nurse from before emerged with stern faces.
The doctor, looking around as if searching for someone, came over to me and snapped.
“Are you the guardian? The patient is in severe malnutrition and has acute bacterial pneumonia. It’s a very serious condition. What on earth were you doing until the body got to this state?!”
“Grandma! Is my grandma okay? Can she live?!”
The doctor looked down at Kang-hyuk’s arm, which he was shaking violently. The doctor flinched at Kang-hyuk’s rough behavior, cleared his throat, and continued.
“If we start intensive treatment from now, her life shouldn’t be in immediate danger. However……”
Trailing off, the doctor flipped through the medical records in his hand. His face showed self-reproach hiding behind pity.
“From the patient’s condition, she’ll have to be hospitalized for at least a month, receive penicillin injections daily, and be nourished. We’ll need to monitor progress with periodic X-rays as well. Our hospital is run by a sisterhood and is cheaper than others, but for this level of care……”
The doctor let out a small sigh and went on.
“The admission deposit you must pay right now is 200,000 hwan. And if you add up future medication and treatment costs, it will easily be at least 500,000 hwan. Can you afford that?”
Five hundred thousand hwan. An enormous sum — the kind you could buy a house with.
Kang-hyuk’s face went pale. Despair flickered in his eyes.
He was already being tormented daily by thugs over a 1,270,000 hwan debt; getting 500,000 hwan was more impossible than plucking a star from the sky.
I glanced at him, then took out the envelope with 50,000 hwan I’d received earlier from President Wang and handed it to the doctor.
“This is 50,000 hwan for now. I’ll settle the rest of the admission deposit tomorrow morning. Please proceed with the admission process. Save the person first.”
The doctor hesitated at my casual willingness to hand over such a large sum.
But he took the envelope and passed it to the nurse.
As a doctor, he probably didn’t want to tell someone to give up on a patient because of money.
Still, a hospital couldn’t run on compassion alone. In a voice that crept inward, the doctor said,
“I’m sorry. A life is more important, but we can’t keep running the hospital at a loss……”
“I understand. To save more people.” I replied.
It was an era without medical insurance. For a poor commoner, crossing a hospital threshold was harder than blooming a flower in fire.
Kang-hyuk stayed silent, staring blankly, switching his gaze between me and the doctor.
“All right. We’ll start treatment for now. We’re trusting the guardian, so please keep your promise tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it first thing tomorrow morning. Is visiting allowed?”
“Hmm…… If the patient’s condition stabilizes, it should be possible by tomorrow afternoon. Absolute stability is most important right now.”
“Please. Put her in the best room you have here, and give her the best medicine and meals.”
“That would increase the hospital bill……”
“Don’t worry about the money.”
Nervous, Kang-hyuk, who had been listening to the conversation, couldn’t hold back and tried to jump in.
“Um, excuse me……”
“Stay quiet.”
I cut him off and warned the doctor again.
“Please give her the best treatment.”
“We’ll put out the urgent blaze and keep her alive. To be honest…… for a full recovery, I’d recommend going to a large hospital in Seoul if cost isn’t an issue. The patient has had pneumonia for too long and has severe lung damage. To get proper treatment, you’d need to go to Seoul Severance Hospital, which has the country’s best respiratory department.”
“Thank you. I’ll consider it.”
The doctor returned to the emergency room, and an awkward silence returned to the corridor.
Only then did I slowly turn toward Kang-hyuk.
Gone was the beast who had glared at me as if to kill; in his place stood an eighteen-year-old boy who had no idea what to do, his eyes darting around and gauging the situation.
He was so different from the heavy, taciturn man I’d first met that I couldn’t help but smile.
Kang-hyuk fidgeted, glanced at me, and finally managed to speak.
“I… I… I’m sorry about earlier.”
“I’m not going to make you repay me. If you have something to say, say it properly. Or try grabbing my collar again like before.” I teased.
My teasing made his face flush for a moment. He bowed his head deeply and kept clenching and unclenching his fists.
“……Thank you.”
After a long while, a mosquito-quiet voice came out.
“Grandma…… thank you so much for saving my grandma. This grace… this favor, I’ll definitely……”
“Grace, my ass.”
I cut him off firmly.
“I’m just repaying the debt I owe you. So don’t even think about paying me back.”
“What does that even mean……”
“Maybe you were my wife in a past life or something. Just think of it that way.”
At my joke, Kang-hyuk narrowed his eyes slightly — the kind of look you’d give a crazy person.
Seeing his innocent face show emotions so honestly made me laugh out loud. This side of him felt fresh somehow.
“Enough. Stop with the useless talk and stay here tonight. Don’t go home, no matter what. We don’t know when those Yeongdo gang bastards might show up again.”
At the mention of the Yeongdo gang, Kang-hyuk’s expression hardened again.
“How much do you owe those guys?”
“……”
“They said earlier it was 1,270,000 hwan. What the hell did you do to borrow that much?”
“No, sir! What do you mean 1,270,000 hwan!”
Kang-hyuk shouted in frustration.
“I only borrowed 70,000 hwan! But… no matter how much I pay, the debt keeps increasing……”
I could tell what kind of situation it was. He must have borrowed in desperation and fallen victim to the kind of vicious tricks thugs used all the time.
The magic of compound interest — no, the curse of it. Interest calling for more interest, growing even more terrifying than the principal.
It must have been over 1,000% annual interest. The kind of murderous rate possible only in this brutal era where fists ruled over law.
“Enough. Tomorrow, we’ll go together to their office. I’ll take care of your debt.”
“Wait, why are you paying that for me?”
“Then what else are you going to do? Join them and become a gangster yourself?”
Kang-hyuk opened and closed his mouth, speechless. I looked straight into his eyes.
“Are you trying to drive a nail into your only grandmother’s heart? Would you let her watch her precious grandson turn into a thug who beats people and extorts money?”
“……”
“That’s why you’ve been enduring their threats and temptations until now, right? Isn’t that so?”
“But still, why would you……”
Hold on. There was something I needed to address first.
“Hey, you keep calling me ‘mister’. We’re only two years apart. Do I really look that old to you? Why do you keep calling me that? And I’m paying it back because I want to.”
“What exactly are you going to make me do, then?”
A sharp question came back — typical of someone full of distrust toward others.
No, even if he wasn’t distrustful by nature, anyone would be suspicious if a stranger suddenly offered to pay off such a huge debt without asking for anything in return.
“Don’t worry. I’ll never make you do something you don’t want to do. Like I said earlier — I’m just repaying a debt I owe you.”
“What kind of debt could you possibly owe me, seriously.”
No matter how much I explained, to someone who didn’t know the circumstances, it would sound strange. Still, I wasn’t about to keep going in circles with this conversation.
“Enough. Stop thinking about it and rest here tonight. Stay by your grandmother’s side. I’ll come back early tomorrow.”
“I have to go to work tomorrow, though.”
How naive. That’s what he was worried about in all this? I let out a short laugh, incredulous, and patted his shoulder.
“Take the day off. From the looks of it, they’re not treating you that well anyway.”
Then I turned to Aseong, who was standing blankly nearby.
“Aseong, go back to Busan Port right now and tell the foreman that Kang-hyuk’s taking the day off starting today.”
“Yes!”
“No, then I’ll get fired! Do you know how hard it was to find that job…….”
“With your strength, anywhere you go they’ll be begging to take you in. Why do you think those Yeongdo gang bastards made such a fuss trying to recruit you?”
“……”
“So stay here tonight. Don’t leave your grandmother’s side. Tomorrow morning, you’re coming with me to the Yeongdo gang’s office.”
I patted his shoulder again and turned away — my signal that I wouldn’t hear any more protests.
“Hey, mister! At least tell me your name!”
Kang-hyuk’s urgent voice came from behind me.
There he goes again, calling me “mister.” Without turning around, I raised my hand over my shoulder and waved lightly.
“I’m not ‘mister,’ I said I’m your brother. My name’s Baek Min-woo.”
With those words, I left the hospital with Aseong.
After sending Aseong to Busan Port, I returned alone to Deokhwa-ru.
Since it was dinner time, the first-floor restaurant was packed with customers.
President Wang, moving busily around, spotted me and came over.
“You’re back, Mr. Baek. There are no empty seats, so I’ll have your meal sent up to your room.”
“All right. I’ll wash up and get ready, so bring it up in about thirty minutes, please.”
After going up to the third floor, I washed up quickly in the shared restroom and returned to my room. The fatigue that had piled up over the day began to wash over me.
A little while later, President Wang personally came upstairs with a tray of food.
He set the dishes on the table, then quietly sat across from me.
“Please, eat first.”
I was quite hungry, so I didn’t refuse his offer and began eating.
By the time I was finishing my meal, Aseong returned from his errand. The three of us sat together in the room.
President Wang spoke carefully.
“……Mr. Baek. I heard you had a conflict with those Yeongdo gang punks?”