“No, just how much longer am I supposed to wait?! My family member is dying!”
A middle-aged man stormed inside.
His face was flushed, and his breathing was rough.
“You can’t come in here like this! I told you consultations were over for today!”
The attendant who had followed him inside tried to stop him, looking flustered.
“Let go of me! Someone is dying, and you expect me to care whether consultations are over?”
The man roughly shook off the hand holding him.
“My family has to be examined by the Family Head! Do you know how long we’ve been waiting?”
I instinctively stiffened.
Even when I had treated patients in the clinic at the detached quarters in my previous life, I had occasionally encountered people who behaved just as recklessly.
People whose pain or anxiety had reached its peak sometimes behaved completely differently from how they normally would.
Dealing with such patients had always been difficult.
‘Grandfather……?’
I glanced to the side.
But Grandfather wasn’t shaken in the slightest.
Instead, he slowly rose from his seat and approached the man.
“It seems your family member is very ill.”
His voice was calm.
The middle-aged man, who had been so full of himself, immediately fell silent when the Family Head of Yakryeong himself addressed him.
“Ah……”
“What is troubling your family member?”
“Th-That……”
The man’s ragged breathing gradually settled.
“I’m sorry. I was too desperate…… My family member is very sick.”
“I understand.”
Grandfather nodded.
“There is little more painful than having someone who is ill beside you while you can do nothing but wait.”
He didn’t get angry.
Nor did he scold the man for barging in.
He simply first examined why the man had become so desperate.
I watched silently.
What I had said just moments ago came back to me.
A physician who sees the person before the illness when examining a patient.
After listening to everything the man had to say, Grandfather calmly added,
“However, I need to make preparations to examine your family member properly. Please wait a moment.”
Then he looked at the attendant beside him.
“Bring him some warm tea inside.”
“Yes, Family Head.”
“Settle your mind first. I’ll examine them shortly.”
At those words, the tension in the man’s shoulders visibly eased.
“……Thank you.”
The man bowed deeply before following the attendant outside.
I stared blankly at his retreating back and murmured without realizing it,
“……Amazing.”
Only after the words slipped out did I come to my senses.
‘Ah.’
I quickly clamped both hands over my mouth.
Grandfather glanced at me and let out a hollow laugh.
“Hah.”
“……”
“What was so amazing?”
His words sounded lighthearted at first, but his eyes as he looked at me were anything but.
My face grew hot for no reason. I hesitated for a moment before answering.
“Just……”
“Hmm?”
“You didn’t get angry even though that person was angry.”
I recalled what had just happened.
“You looked at why he was so angry first.”
Grandfather’s gaze deepened slightly.
After thinking for a moment, I said,
“I think that’s what makes a real physician.”
“A real physician.”
“Yes.”
This time, I didn’t hesitate.
“Someone who treats patients as people no matter what the situation is.”
A physician faced sick people every day.
And if they weren’t careful, there could come a point when they stopped seeing the person in front of them and saw only the person’s illness.
I had lived my entire life as a patient, so I knew that feeling better than anyone.
“Take this medicine and go straight to sleep.”
“Where do you think you’re going when you’re a patient? I told you to stay quietly in your room.”
The feeling of disappearing simply because I was sick, of being reduced to nothing more than an illness that needed to be treated.
It was truly horrible.
That was why I had thought about it for a long time.
I would never become that kind of physician.
……I would see my patients as people until the very end.
Just as the grandfather standing before me did.
“But what is that bundle?”
While I was lost in thought, Grandfather suddenly asked.
His gaze was fixed on the bundle I had been carefully holding against my chest.
“Oh.”
I hesitated for a moment before holding the bundle out in front of me.
“Actually…… I brought it for you, Grandfather.”
“For me?”
“Yes.”
I carefully untied the knot.
The small needle case inside the bundle was revealed.
At that moment.
Grandfather’s gaze stopped on the needle case.
“……A needle case?”
“Yes.”
Grandfather was silent for a moment before suddenly looking at me.
“Don’t tell me……”
“Yes?”
“Is this what you went to the market to buy for me before?”
My eyes widened.
Quite some time had passed, so I hadn’t expected him to still remember.
“You…… remembered?”
“How could I forget after you said it so confidently?”
Grandfather answered casually.
But his words made me inexplicably happy, and the corners of my lips rose on their own.
“That’s right. I bought it to give to you then. I couldn’t give it to you right away because of everything that happened, but I wanted to give it to you now.”
I held out the needle case with both hands.
“Of course, I don’t know if you’ll like it……”
Grandfather did not take it immediately.
Instead, he stared at the needle case for a long while.
“……Of all things, why did you choose a needle case?”
“Hmm?”
It was an unexpected question.
I blinked several times before answering honestly.
“……I thought it would suit you best.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
I thought for a moment before adding,
“Before being the Family Head, you’re a physician…… and you always sincerely care for your patients.”
“……”
“So I wanted to give you something that a physician like you would need and that would suit you best.”
A needle case was something a physician always kept close and used regularly.
It felt like the kind of object that carried within it all the years spent meeting countless patients and administering acupuncture.
I looked down at the needle case and quietly said,
“And now that I’ve become a physician trainee—”
Grandfather’s gaze fell upon me.
“I want to learn a lot from such an amazing grandfather from now on.”
I raised my head and looked at him.
“Someday…… I want to become an excellent physician like you.”
For an instant, his pupils trembled ever so slightly.
“……Like me?”
“Yes!”
This time, I nodded firmly without hesitation.
“A physician who sees the person before the illness when they look at a patient.”
The voice I had heard in the clinic moments ago came back to me.
The way Grandfather had comforted an anxious patient, calmly explained to his family what they should do,
and reassured them until the very end.
“I respect you for being that kind of grandfather.”
Grandfather remained silent for a long while.
Only belatedly did I begin to feel embarrassed.
‘Did I make it sound too grand? Maybe it’s putting too much pressure on him.’
I cautiously watched his expression.
But Grandfather’s expression had changed somehow.
His usually firm face had softened ever so slightly.
Surprise and joy……
And something deeper than either of those emotions flickered in his eyes.
“……You’ve been thinking like that?”
“Hmm?”
“When you said you wanted to become a physician trainee, I was worried that it was merely something you said with a child’s heart.”
Grandfather’s gaze returned to the needle case.
“But it seems that wasn’t the case.”
He slowly reached out and accepted the needle case.
His fingertips carefully brushed over its surface.
“A needle case is one of the things a physician keeps closest throughout their entire life.”
I quietly listened to him.
“Having good needles does not make one a good physician.”
Grandfather looked at me.
“But the path a physician walks can change depending on the mindset with which they draw the needles inside from it.”
His voice lowered slightly.
“Whenever I take a needle from this needle case, I will think of you. I will remind myself that I must become a physician who has nothing to be ashamed of before my granddaughter. That feeling is something I don’t think I’ll be able to forget, even as I grow old.”
Grandfather smiled faintly.
“So, the fact that you deliberately chose this out of so many things……”
Grandfather paused for a moment before giving a very small laugh.
“Makes me very happy.”
“……!”
My eyes widened.
I hadn’t expected Grandfather to so honestly say that he was happy.
Something in the corner of my chest felt strangely ticklish.
Just then, Grandfather slowly rose from his seat.
“Wait here for a moment.”
“Hmm?”
Without explaining further, Grandfather walked toward the medicine cabinet at the back.
A moment later.
Click.
With the sound of the medicine cabinet closing, he returned carrying a wooden box.
It was a needle case that wasn’t particularly large.
Its body was made of dark reddish rosewood, its surface carrying a subtle sheen as though it had been handled for many years, while not a speck of dust clung to its brass fittings.
“That……”
As I moved my lips, Grandfather looked down at the needle case.
His eyes were warm, like those of someone looking at an old friend.
“This is the needle case I used from when I was young.”
“……!”
I swallowed.
Grandfather opened the lid himself and showed me the inside.
Needles of various lengths and thicknesses were arranged neatly without a single one out of place.
The handles had a subtle shine from being polished countless times, while cotton and needles of various sizes were organized neatly without leaving an inch of wasted space.
‘Even though he’s used it for so long…….’
It was so pristine that I could have believed it was new.
I could tell at a glance how precious it had been to him.
Grandfather closed the needle case.
Then he held it out toward me.
“Take it. I’ll give it to you.”
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