Chapter 45
Chae Seunghui grabbed a utility pole with a trembling hand.
Then she slowly slid down until she was sitting on the ground.
At that moment, a woman nearby approached.
"Are you all right?"
She was fair-skinned, with delicate features.
The woman came closer and took Seunghui's hand.
"Yes."
Strangely, the moment the woman held her hand, Seunghui felt as though her head cleared.
Only seconds earlier, she had been terrified that she would collapse and smash her head against the ground.
The dizziness eased enough that the danger of falling seemed to pass.
Perhaps simply knowing someone was beside her had calmed her.
The woman asked with concern,
"Are you still very dizzy?"
With her support, Chae Seunghui managed to stand unsteadily.
"I'm okay now."
"Still, you did well grabbing something before you collapsed."
"This isn't the first time. It happens whenever I'm on my period."
The words came out before Seunghui realized it.
She had always struggled to say such things inside a clinic.
Maybe it was easier because this was a stranger she would never meet again.
The woman nodded.
"Heavy bleeding makes everything difficult. You've suffered for a long time."
It was not a particularly extraordinary thing to say.
Only that she had suffered.
But the instant Seunghui heard it, something surged up from deep inside her.
Tears spilled from her eyes.
"I've seriously tried everything."
Her voice broke.
"Hospitals. Pharmacies. Everything."
"You must have."
The woman smiled gently.
"You've endured alone for a very long time."
She lightly patted Seunghui's shoulder.
The touch was comforting.
After crying in front of a stranger and pouring out words she had kept inside for more than ten years, embarrassment finally caught up with her.
She suddenly felt ashamed.
"Haah..."
Seunghui took a deep breath and lifted her head.
With tears still streaking her face, she finally realized what she was doing.
She was crying and sniffling in front of someone whose name she did not even know.
"Excuse me, but... are you a medical professional?"
The woman smiled faintly.
"I'm a doctor. I run a small clinic nearby."
Seunghui's eyes widened.
"Are you... Director Im Gain?"
"Yes, that's me."
The doctor Jeong Eunwoo was talking about.
A wave of dizziness suddenly returned.
As Seunghui swayed, Director Im supported her again.
"Would you like to come in for some tea?"
"Ah, yes. Tea. Tea sounds good."
It was strange.
Seunghui had no intention of going to a hospital.
But having tea with this kind woman somehow felt acceptable.
***
Gain had understood the woman's condition at a glance.
That was why, when she caught Seunghui before she collapsed, she had let one drop of divine power flow through her.
She could not create new blood.
She had only made sure that blood circulated evenly to the brain long enough to keep the woman from falling.
The amount missing from her cup was barely noticeable.
I don't know the cause yet, but she's lost a lot of blood.
If Gain had seen someone like this on a battlefield, she would have assumed there was some hidden stab wound or cut.
But modern Korea was peaceful.
Such an injury was unlikely.
There were no drops of blood on the ground nearby either.
The most common possibility remained the obvious one.
Menstrual blood.
Gain walked beside her while observing her steps.
Her gait was strange.
Not because her legs lacked strength.
She was forcing them to move while fighting dizziness.
Gain also disliked how pale even her lips looked.
This had not begun yesterday.
The woman had probably lived with anemia for a long time.
She said she was menstruating.
The woman herself had mentioned it.
As they walked, Gain glanced at her again.
From her clothes, the expressions she used, and her manner of speaking, she gave the impression of someone who worked in medicine.
At minimum, she had medical knowledge.
"Do you work nearby?"
"Ah, yes. At Myeongwon Girls' High School."
A teacher.
During the school term, even leaving early for a medical appointment could be difficult.
But school vacations provided more freedom.
She feels like a medical worker, but she's a teacher.
A school nurse, maybe.
There must be a reason she hates hospitals.
When they reached the clinic, Gain opened the door.
"Come in. I happen to have some tea already brewed."
The woman cautiously stepped inside.
Gain walked ahead while organizing her thoughts privately.
That pale face and that gait.
This hasn't been happening for a day or two.
She's lived like this for years.
It was not an immediate emergency.
There was no need to force her to reveal anything.
Still, the woman hesitantly continued speaking.
"I'm a school nurse. My name is Chae Seunghui."
"Ah! Eunwoo mentioned you. She said her school nurse is wonderful."
"Haha."
Chae Seunghui gave a bitter laugh.
"You have heavy menstrual bleeding, don't you?"
Gain asked while pouring the tea.
Seunghui's expression stiffened instantly.
Defensive.
It was the face of a nurse with extensive clinical experience.
"If you'd like an ultrasound, I can do one for you. You must want to know the cause."
Seunghui's whole body froze.
She did not answer.
Gain immediately backed off.
"You came in for tea, so let's just drink tea."
Silence fell.
Seunghui bit her lip.
"You said you can look if I want?"
"Yes."
"Are you going to recommend another procedure...?"
Her sentence trailed off.
But Gain understood exactly what she meant.
"I'm not looking because I want to perform a procedure."
Gain looked at her gently.
"Aren't you curious why you bleed so much?"
Seunghui stopped.
It was not the answer she expected.
Instead, it went directly to the question she herself had always wanted answered.
"..."
For a long time, Seunghui stared at Gain.
Nobody had ever answered her like that.
"Do you know something?"
"About what?"
"You're the first doctor who hasn't immediately tried to make me do something."
Seunghui's voice was hoarse.
Gain did not answer.
She simply waited.
Seunghui stared at the teacup for a while before slowly speaking.
"I almost died during a D&C in my early twenties."
Gain frowned.
"And after that, I stopped going to hospitals."
"You've been like this ever since that day?"
"Yes. I survived with medication."
Seunghui laughed weakly.
"I haven't even had a proper examination in years."
Then she looked directly at Gain.
"So if you tell me I need some procedure too, I'm just going to leave."
She tried to make it sound like a joke.
She meant every word.
Gain accepted that quietly.
"All right. I won't."
"I've had hundreds of ultrasounds, but nobody found the cause."
"You've never had one from me."
Gain spoke calmly.
"I have an idea of what it might be."
"...?! Really?"
"Yes. But I can't tell you yet."
Gain continued carefully,
"Once I'm sure, I'll tell you. Even saying I suspect something is something I need to be careful about. I have to see it directly on ultrasound before I can be certain."
Disappointment and hope crossed Seunghui's face at the same time.
"I want to know what you're thinking."
She looked genuinely curious.
"Why are you the only one who suspects something?"
Gain set down her teacup.
"Because of what you just told me."
Seunghui paused.
"The accident during the D&C."
Gain asked,
"Have you ever told another hospital about that?"
Seunghui searched her memory.
She realized she had not.
Every time she saw a doctor, she only described her current symptoms.
How heavy the bleeding was.
How dizzy she felt.
How long it lasted.
She had never once spoken about the accident.
To talk about it, she would have had to remember the recovery room.
That doctor's face.
She had not wanted to.
"No."
Her voice was quiet.
"Never."
Gain nodded.
"A standard ultrasound shows the shape and thickness of the uterus in black and white."
She explained,
"But it doesn't show how blood vessels are running through the tissue."
"To see blood flow separately, you have to activate Doppler mode."
Gain continued,
"And doctors usually don't turn that on unless they have a reason to suspect a blood-flow problem. There are reimbursement issues too."
Seunghui processed the explanation.
"So because I never told anyone about that accident..."
Her eyes widened.
"Nobody had a reason to think about Doppler ultrasound?"
"That's one possibility."
Gain remained cautious.
"We won't know for sure until we look."
Seunghui looked down at her hands.
For ten years, she had hidden the story because she simply did not want to relive it.
"Can you look?"
She lifted her head.
"No. I want you to look."
The moment she said that, Gain felt warmth spread through her chest.
A woman who had avoided hospitals for ten years had chosen, on her own, to walk into an examination room.
The single drop Gain had used on the street returned as enough divine power to slosh inside a small shot glass.
"Yes. Shall we go to the procedure room now? It won't take long."
It was already after closing time.
Every nurse had gone home.
A doctor in ordinary clothes guided her through the quiet clinic.
It felt both strange and natural.
"..."
Seunghui set down her teacup and stood.
For the first time in ten years, she was walking into an examination room of her own will.
***
The procedure room was quiet.
While changing clothes behind the curtain, Seunghui repeatedly rubbed her fingertips together.
It was a habit she had whenever she became nervous.
"Lie down comfortably. It may feel cold."
There was no nurse, so Gain prepared everything herself.
She squeezed out the ultrasound gel.
Once Seunghui lay down, Gain gently placed the probe against her abdomen.
Gray shadows appeared on the monitor.
Gain's fingers moved with familiarity.
First, she examined the overall contour of the uterus.
Then the thickness of the endometrium.
Next, she slowly scanned through the muscular layer.
Seunghui held her breath while watching the movement of Gain's hand.
No doctor at the other hospitals had ever looked this long.
Most had scanned for a few seconds and turned off the screen.
"Let me look a little more."
Gain pressed a button on the side of the machine.
Red and blue colors appeared over the gray image.
The Doppler function showed blood flow in color.
Gain's gaze stopped at one corner of the screen.
There.
Inside the uterine muscle was a pattern.
Multiple blood vessels twisted together.
On the monitor, they glowed in a multicolored mosaic of red and blue.
Normal blood flow did not look like this.
This was turbulent flow created when arteries and veins connected directly.
Seunghui could not properly interpret the screen.
But she noticed the change in Gain's expression.
She found something.
Gain carefully chose her words.
"Could you look here?"
"What is that?"
Red and blue whirled across the gray screen.
The colors gathered in one area and twisted chaotically together.
It looked different from the blood-flow images Seunghui remembered.
Normal flow did not move in so many directions at once.
Gain positioned the cursor over the area and pressed several buttons.
A waveform graph appeared.
"Resistance index, 0.3."
Gain looked at Seunghui.
"Normal is around 0.6 to 0.8."
Resistance index.
Seunghui definitely remembered learning the term during nursing school.
But she could not remember exactly what it measured.
Nor whether normal meant higher or lower.
"What does that mean?"
"Normal blood vessels should have resistance."
Gain explained slowly.
"Blood doesn't normally travel directly from an artery into a vein."
"It passes through small capillaries first. That creates resistance and lowers the pressure before the blood reaches the venous side."
Gain pointed at the screen.
"But your blood vessels have almost no resistance. The flow speed is also more than twice normal."
Resistance in normal blood vessels.
Seunghui struggled to recall what she had studied in school.
An artery carried blood outward, thick and powerful.
Before reaching tissue, it divided into smaller capillaries.
That narrowing reduced the pressure.
By the time blood reached the veins, the flow should have become gentler.
According to everything she had learned, that resistance was natural.
Gain looked once more at the tangled vessels on the screen.
Divine power could temporarily calm this area.
But it could not create a wall where no wall existed between artery and vein.
Even if one drop stopped the bleeding today, it would return next month.
This condition needed treatment at a higher-level hospital.
Gain lowered the probe.
"You have a uterine arteriovenous malformation."
Seunghui closed her eyes and tried to absorb the unfamiliar term.
"What about the D&C back then?"
Her voice cracked.
Gain paused before answering.
"The procedure probably disturbed this lesion and ruptured the abnormal vessels."
"That alone caused that much bleeding?"
"These vessels don't close properly even when the uterus contracts."
Gain continued,
"There's a direct shortcut from the arteries to the veins. There's nothing in between to reduce the arterial pressure."
She paused, then gave a simpler comparison.
"Think of it like a hole in the middle of a pressurized water pipe. Even if you try to shut things down farther away, water keeps bursting through that hole."
Seunghui processed the explanation.
Normally, the uterus contracted and compressed blood vessels to stop bleeding.
But her arteries and veins were directly connected.
No matter how much the uterus compressed, it could not overcome the arterial pressure forcing blood through that abnormal connection.
For the first time, she truly understood why she had lost unit after unit of blood in that recovery room.
Seunghui looked from the monitor to Gain.
This doctor had identified the illness she had suffered with for more than ten years.
Gain had not claimed certainty from the beginning.
She had only said she suspected something.
Then she had gathered the evidence one step at a time until she reached the diagnosis.
This person is the real deal.
