Sense

Chapter 9: What day, what time(2)

2 hours later.

All scans were finished after and even the cerebral vascularization was checked.

[TN: cerebral vascularization- Blood flow to the brain.]

“The location of the cyst is really awkward. I’ll upload it to the VIP chart as well.”

“Thank you for the hard work, doctor.”

Dowook pressed on the mic connected to the MRI room and spoke.

“The scans are finished. It was hard, wasn’t it?”

-Being in an enclosed area was a bit stuffy, is there anywhere I can get some air?

At Lim So Yool’s request for a break, Dowook steered her wheelchair to the indoor garden on the 3rd floor.

“We’re here.”

“Wow.”

Lim So Yool tilted her head to the sky as she entered the garden with natural light.

While she was stretching her arms with a smile on her face, Dowook kept thinking about the note.

‘That means she spent the whole night looking for each related case of tumor.’

All the documents piled on the table were about neurenteric cysts. Dowook thought it was her way of showing her unease.

“Doc!”

At the petulant voice, Dowook turned his head. He saw a boy about 10 years old riding a skateboard on the smooth pavement of the garden.

The boy had recently had a nerve resection and was currently undergoing rehabilitation training.

“Did you get permission to ride that?”

“Of course. There’s a nurse over there, too.”

Checking to see a nurse watching, Dowook paid attention to the kid who’d gotten a nerve resection for the wrist. His movement was quite good.

“Ride slowly. Don’t remove your helmet just because it’s hot. Just because the pain’s gone, doesn’t mean you’re all better.”

“Ahum, nagger. I’ve won competitions before.”

“Na-what? Use nice words, brat.”

“You don’t even know how to ride, Doc!”

The boy stuck his tongue out and disappeared with a light twist of his body.

Having been soaking in the sunlight, Lim So Yool kept her eyes closed and asked.

“What tests do we still need to do?”

“Cerebral artery ultrasound and one more blood test. We can do them all in your ward so it should be more comfortable than now.”

“After we finish with them, can we determine the cause, usually?”

She was talking about the average mean. Taking the note and looking at it once more, Dowook answered slowly.

“Since we’ve found the location of the cyst, skilled professors will analyze it accurately.”

At this moment, that was all he could tell her. She seemed to know this and stopped asking difficult questions.

‘As long as we smoothly pass over things….”

It was at that moment he organized his thoughts.

Euk.

There was a sudden tingle, and his fingertips turned numb.

A mysterious light undulated in his sight and down his nerves, the same phenomenon he experienced in the operating room happened again.

Dowook wondered if Choi Hoo suddenly appeared and looked around to check.

In that moment, the light passed through his brain and the weird sensation focused on the hand holding the note.

‘Why is this happening?’

Dowook’s eyes stopped on Lim So Yool who had her eyes closed.

This sensation. Somehow felt as if he had a connection with her.

Different from just a moment ago, the graph and numbers felt very familiar. His fingertips prompted him with the idea that he could add something to the paper.

‘Let’s check, shall we?’

Putting the note on the chart file, he took out the pen from his coat pocket. As if it had been waiting for it, his hand automatically drew a line.

‘……!’

This was just the start.

The real time data he’d seen in the examination room was replaced by formulas Dowook didn’t know and were recorded on the paper without rest.

‘I don’t understand it, but I have a sense for it. What am I doing?’

He recalled the voice of the lecturer from the video talking about this ‘special sense.’

Scribble. Scribble.

His hand moved faster than his eyes could follow and continued to fill the paper with numbers.

“Doc! Skate!”

“What?”

The skateboard the boy had been riding slowly came closer to where Dowook was standing.

As soon as he saw it, his left leg started cramping.

Tapping the end of the approaching skateboard with his foot, he deftly turned the direction the board was facing with a touch to the lifted head.

Stepping on the board going in the opposite direction as if it were a habit, Dowook slid beside the child without meaning to.

“Huh?”

“Woah~ Doc, you know how to skate?”

“Did I? Not really…. This too?”

“What?”

“Just a sec.”

Dowook sped up one more time. For some reason, he had confidence that allowed his legs to balance without tripping.

As he was skating, he felt as if he could do more and a tingle gathered at the tip of his feet. Just like a while ago, Dowook gave over control of his body to the sensation.

A jump balanced on his left foot.

The board rotated 360 degrees in the air as he twisted his right foot lightly.

Whirl, tap.

He stepped off the board that seemed to be stuck to his body like a magnet and came to a stop. The boy who’d been following him stared with his mouth open.

“Kickflip! Wow, Doc. You have some skills, huh?”

Having managed to perform a more difficult trick than he’d expected, Dowook was also a bit surprised.

“I can ……. No, you can ride quite well.”

“I can ride well like I said. Doc, can you do a tre-flip, too?”

“If you can do it.”

“What are you talking about?”

Dowook looked at his hands and feet with a blank expression on his face. He couldn’t consider it a delusion anymore.

The professor in the video was telling the truth, and he was currently making use of Lim So Yool’s and the boy’s sensations. This was a pretty rational decision.

‘…….or I’ve really lost my mind.’

While Dowook was doing tricks on the skateboard, the piece of paper from the file chart was swept away by a breeze.

The paper attempted to fly low and smoothly settled on Lim So Yool’s cheek.

“Huh?”

She opened her eyes and as she looked in the direction the paper came from, she realized that it was her note.

“Poisson?”

A probability distribution dealing with rare events.

Including the results of the tests taken today, the existing graph was delicately expanded. If one followed this Poisson distribution, the median value of the treatment’s success increased by 5.59%.

“Even so, it's just 10.7%….”

This much was not enough to mention success. However, the median value had changed.

A normal person changed that number by themself.

“…….how interesting.”

Lim So Yool smiled slightly.

“Doc, if you keep learning, you might become an athlete.”

“I have no interest. The nurse is calling you. Is it time for your shots?”

“Eugh~ don't wanna.”

After sending the child away, Dowook turned his head. Then he stopped.

Seeing the paper that should have been in the chart being held in Lim So Yool’s hand, he made an excuse.

“I didn’t mean to scribble on your note.”

“Thank you for the answer.”

“What?”

2:00 PM, Room 2007

“The size of the neurenteric cyst existing in the patient’s brain is quite small. Radiation and chemotherapy seem ineffective, and we do not recommend surgery until the cyst grows to a bigger size.”

When Chief Ha Sang Joong’s explanation finished, Lim So Yool who was sitting on the bed asked.

“Is there a way to cut it out?”

“The damage to the normal tissue would be greater than to the tumor. Since the tumor is benign, the best we can do is to watch its progress.”

Lim So Yool turned her gaze to the documents about the brain tumor she had spent the night looking through.

“That’s a rather complicated way of informing me that there is nothing the hospital can do.”

As soon as the VIP patient showed signs of disappointment, the vice dean cut in.

“It only recurred after 10 years. The cause is cerebral meningitis. As long as the immune system and overall health are kept an eye on, the chance of problems occurring is very low. Lower than getting a cold.”

“Probability?”

Lim So Yool’s thin eyebrows furrowed into a slight frown.

Standing in a corner of the room full of professors and the vice dean, Dowook could not advise him that talking about numbers in front of that woman would not go well.

She asked the vice dean another question.

“Which sample group was used to draw that conclusion?”

“There’s no need for a sample group. A case like this is rather rare. However, all the hospital’s oncologists’ opinions do not differ from mine.”

“Is that the only diagnosis? That I need to know.”

“As of the moment.”

“All right.”

Nodding her head, Lim So Yool calmly chose the option that made everyone flinch.

“I cannot continue living with the cause of an accident like yesterday remaining in my head. Secretary Ok, look for another hospital that can perform the surgery.”

The secretary asked back in surprise.

“Ri-right now?”

“Now.”

At her choice, the vice dean became flustered.

“You haven’t fully recovered from the infection in your brain. If you could at least wait until that is taken care of…..”

Dowook realized that there was only one language that could be used to convince her who had made up her mind.

Leaving things as it was didn’t seem like a good idea so he held a pen in his hand. Then he took a piece of paper from the parlor’s table.

‘Hope this works!’

The thought probably didn’t have anything to do with it, but a tingling sensation passed through his right hand.

Having the origin of the sensation nearby seemed to make it work more easily.

“How dangerous is brain infection? Is the probability of this also quite low? Why do you keep trying to keep me here with such ambiguous answers?”

The moment everyone in the room fell into silence.

“…… if you leave in your current state, there is a 37.5% chance of experiencing at least dizziness and at most fainting. There is no error range.”

At the sudden noise, everyone turned to look at the parlor.