BEEP BEEP BEEP
“Ha-ah… What the hell, why isn’t anyone picking up the phone?!”
Seo No-eul tossed his phone to the ground in frustration.
It had already been an hour since his mother entered the operating room, and there was still no contact from his brother, Seo Maru.
“Damn… damn…”
On this ordinary Friday in March, it was just another special day for Seo Maru, Seo Yu-na, and Seo No-eul.
Perhaps because it was Friday, even though it was lunchtime, there were a lot of food deliveries placed, and No-eul thought he was lucky.
He decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to gather the family for dinner and make the Neobiani that Yu-na loved after a long time.
Of course, no matter how much he earned, it wouldn’t compare to the money Maru brought in after half a day of work, but someone had to stay by his mother’s side all day.
There was no better job than delivery that allowed him to frequently come and go from home.
Maybe if he chopped the meat really finely, his mother could eat it.
“Mom, I’m back! How about Neobiani for dinner? Mom…? Mom!!!”
His mother’s belly was so swollen it looked like it was about to burst, reminiscent of a pregnant woman’s. Her complexion had turned a sickly green, almost suggesting that red blood was flowing beneath her skin.
Seo No-eul couldn’t shake off the horrifying last 30 minutes from his mind.
It was a very rare symptom that occurs in patients with late-stage multiple sclerosis.
If the doctor and paramedic hadn’t told him it was multiple sclerosis, he would have surely misunderstood it as an intestinal blockage.
“Corticosteroid administration has stopped the acute relapse for now, but we cannot guarantee how the disease will progress next time.”
A condition that could never be fully cured didn’t require major surgery.
But Seo No-eul couldn’t curse the doctors and nurses who had only kept his mother barely alive to their faces.
After all, weren’t they the ones trying to save her?
He turned away from his mother, who had numerous IV needles stuck into her.
“How long… how much longer can mom live?”
“We can’t know that. It could be three days, a month, or even a year. But I can assure you that it won’t be any longer than that, so it would be wise for the family to prepare themselves mentally.”
“A year… just a year?”
“Due to the long-term medication treatment, the patient is already severely steroid-resistant, so anything beyond this point is just a lethal dose. We can’t guarantee anything if you come back for a second visit.”
Seo No-eul felt his heart sink.
He hadn’t even had a chance to repay his mother before she was about to leave this world so emptily.
Moreover, Yu-na was only eight years old, far too young.
She was at an age where she craved her parents’ love, and No-eul didn’t have the confidence to pour that kind of affection onto her.
“A year…?”
“Seo Yu-na? How did you get to the hospital so quickly?”
“Mom can only live for a year? Why…? What happened to our mom! Hwaaaah!”
“Yu-na, calm down.”
“If I don’t have mom, I can’t live! Mom, please wake up. I really promise to listen to you every day and study hard, so please just look at me!”
“Mom needs to rest now, let’s go outside and talk…”
“Uwaaaah!”
Seeing Yu-na’s state, it didn’t look like she had walked here.
However, using her transportation card that only supported specific routes, she would have had to walk quite a distance even after getting off at the final stop to reach the hospital.
It was too early for her to have come here straight after reading a note at home.
“Who brought you to the hospital?”
“Ugh… my brother. No-eul, is that the important thing right now?”
“Just making sure you didn’t ask some weird person to help you!”
“Na-me called a taxi for me. She’s my friend…”
“Friend? How did your friend know to pick you up?”
“I was with Na-me at home, but when I got there, no one was around. Ugh… but as soon as I saw your note, I came right here.”
Only then did Seo No-eul spot a girl wearing the same school uniform as Yu-na on the other side of the waiting room.
Na-me, was it?
Seo No-eul recognized that name.
There was a day when Yu-na cried particularly hard about something.
She had complained that the new transfer student at their academy had scored first in the aptitude test, and it made her feel miserable.
‘Is that her?’
It was astonishing how someone could have such a dull look in their eyes. No-eul evaluated Na-me’s first impression like that.
She looked like she was living in a world where the camera filter was set to black and white.
Not that it was gloomy; it would be more appropriate to describe it as profound.
*
“Hey, do you like Shikhye?”
Yu-na’s brother sat next to me and handed me a vending machine can drink.
“Thank you.”
“Not at all, I should be the one thanking you.”
“What about Yu-na?”
“She wouldn’t leave mom’s side, so I ended up setting up a folding bed for her. She’s probably asleep by now. If you can’t open it, give it here; I’ll pop it open for you.”
POP The sound was crisp and refreshing but quickly drowned out by the chaos of the emergency room.
Anyone who has been to the emergency room knows well that it can be summed up as an orderly chaos.
Occasionally, screams and shouts could be heard, but since the hospital staff quickly intervened, everyone had no choice but to hold their breath and suppress their emotions.
Seo No-eul was no exception to this.
The Shikhye was refreshing but not very sweet.
“Thanks a lot. My brother hasn’t been picking up calls, and I was worried about how to get Yu-na here. I initially thought to tell her to stay home, but knowing my sister, she would have come looking for me, no doubt.”
Seo No-eul explained why he had left the note.
“Is your mother feeling any better?”
“Ha-ah, I don’t know… She’s never been this sick before. I really don’t know, not a clue…”
“Your heart must be heavy.”
What feeling underlaid his words? Resignation? Regret?
“Yu-na tried to walk to the hospital.”
“She walked? You were given a transportation card, didn’t you?”
“There wasn’t any balance left on it.”
“So why didn’t Maru hyung tell you to recharge it in advance? I bet it was tough for you to walk back and forth to school. You must’ve had to climb a hill too.”
Seo No-eul scolded his younger sibling.
Does this guy really know not a thing about his sister?
“Did you say her name was Na-me? How’s Na-me doing at the academy? Is she getting along?”
“What does Yu-na say about her?”
“She says she enjoys going to school every day! She likes her teacher, has many friends, and finds learning magic fun. There are times when she hides under the blanket and cries about studying being tough, but overall her grades are satisfactory.”
“…”
“By the way, Na-me mentioned you topped the aptitude test in 2nd grade? Please take good care of our Yu-na.”
Without realizing it, I clenched my fist tightly around the can.
The empty can was so easily crushed by my weak grip.
“Yu-na has never taken the bus to the academy.”
Seo Yu-na… she was wearing a mask not only at school but also at home.
Neither school nor home could provide a safe haven for her.
It was bleak to ponder how this little one managed to get through a whole school year.
“To save 2,100 won a day, she commuted back and forth for 1 hour and 30 minutes and climbed 519 stairs every day.”
“She walked every day…?”
“How can you say she has many friends? Truth is, at least when it’s not class time, I sometimes didn’t hear her speak at all.”
“…”
“From the moment she arrived at school to the time she left, she never said a word, just sat there studying. She’s even thrown up in the school bathroom multiple times after lunch.”
Yet, do you really think Yu-na is adjusting well to the academy?
When the potion incident happened, I had to stick my finger in her mouth to check the magic circle parameters; her oral acidity was way too low.
It was evident that, with stomach acid splashing back into her esophagus, it had likely caused inflammatory damage.
Considering she frequently vomits in the bathroom, she probably has stress-related reflux esophagitis.
“Yu-na suffers a lot from feeling like you all are hiding something from her. Even if it’s meant to protect her. Not knowing what’s being hidden from her and you not wanting to know about her, that’s something I consider wrong.”
I understand that her brothers are trying hard to revive their family, putting their lives on the line.
But for them to care about their sister only when she reached this point after giving her a few coins is…
That’s something that should never have happened.
It’s as if the reason this Shikhye isn’t sweet at all correlates with that.
Hospital-supplied foods and beverages are all designed for the patients, with low sugar and salt content.
But those who drink them without knowing the facts might simply think the product is defective.
While it may have seemed like an act for Yu-na’s sake, the pain she endured wouldn’t be minimal.
At this rate, Yu-na would continue spending meaningless time with her eyes open but seeing nothing, with her ears hearing nothing.
“Ha-ah…”
Seo No-eul held his head, breathing heavily.
Even though Yu-na’s little brother was just as crucial a pillar for the family as the older brother, his face still appeared youthful to me.
At most, he looked about seventeen or eighteen.
That was far too young an age to take responsibility for the family and its future.
With his older brother only a year older, he had just barely crossed into adulthood.
Happy families are happy for similar reasons, but unhappy families are unhappy due to their own unique reasons.
And that unhappiness might not stem from anyone’s fault.
Unless someone breaks the cycle of unhappiness, they would remain trapped in a vicious cycle.
“Yu-na always loved and looked up to her brothers.”
“I never knew Yu-na… would suffer that much… I just thought she was a little brat who complained a lot, but she was sending signals all along. And I didn’t even notice…”
“So don’t blame yourself.”
Despite her immaturity, Yu-na wouldn’t fail to understand those feelings.
“Did she say she wanted to be a basketball player?”
“Did Yu-na say that? She had no skills anyway; basketball? It’s just a mental victory. I’m just using the excuse of my family situation for my lack of talent.”
“Yu-na still cheers for that dream, you know.”
“Forget it. As long as Yu-na is attending the academy, I have to stay home. I don’t even know how much longer mom will be alive. I have to make good use of her while she’s here… while she’s still here…”
He lamented that taking care of a mother who was almost in a vegetative state meant a guardian needed to be by her side at all times.
Especially to prevent bedsores, it was crucial to turn her over at least every two hours.
“Do we know what the diagnosis is?”
“It’s multiple sclerosis.”
I was familiar with that name from my own experiences researching it in the Magic Tower.
According to my previous memories from the world, the first noticeable phenomenon when [Laziness] begins to erode is widespread observation of the ‘Medusa’ phenomenon across the globe.
Plants vanish, and animals and humans become stiff as boards.
Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.
It was almost impossible for a person who couldn’t even fully understand their body to stop the creeping erosion from the unknown.
That’s why humans excluded and at times even executed the contaminated.
Just like in an apocalypse where protagonists in movies kill zombies without any sense of guilt.
“How did the doctor prescribe it?”
“Huh? I think he mentioned some steroid for the nose. Why?”
“Corticosteroids. They can speed up the recovery timeline but have no effect on the degree of recovery. Could we check on your mom in the hospital room?”
