LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 27
An unfamiliar ceiling came into view.
‘…?’
Where am I? Wasn’t I just at the wedding hall?
Hwang Sanghun’s eyes flew open as he sat up.
Fortunately, while the ceiling was unfamiliar, the walls were recognizable. His cousin’s graduation photo hung prominently.
“Seoyoung’s house?”
Right, he had definitely gone to the wedding.
Absurdly, he had collapsed in the parking lot and unexpectedly met Han Yeowon. With her and Hwang Seoyoung’s help, he had regained consciousness and attended the ceremony safely.
And then, and then…
“I fainted again?”
For a moment, he worried that something serious might be wrong with his body, but Hwang Sanghun quickly assessed his physical state.
His condition felt better than ever. Like he had slept soundly for 12 hours.
“Ah!”
Surely it wasn’t Monday? Hwang Sanghun hastily checked his phone.
Thankfully, it was still Sunday at 6 PM. He had 12 hours to spare before work.
Relieved, he slowly got out of bed.
“How did I end up here…”
As he entered the kitchen and searched for water to drink, he racked his brain, but that part remained completely blank.
All memory had evaporated after receiving the forehead flick from Han Yeowon.
Ding-a-ling-
As he struggled to piece together the situation alone in the empty house, he heard the sound of the door lock opening.
He immediately went to the entryway.
◆◇◆◇◆
“Oh, oppa, you’re up? Are you okay?”
Hwang Seoyoung entered the house, carelessly kicking off her shoes. After tossing aside the paper bag she’d been carrying from the department store, she examined Hwang Sanghun’s complexion.
‘Much better.’
It was worth channeling energy into him in the car so he could sleep well. Apparently, this is a special skill usually reserved for patients on the brink of death?
“Yeah. Did you bring me here?”
“We did. Yeowon worked really hard.”
“I’m so sorry!”
I bowed deeply at a 90-degree angle towards Hwang Sanghun.
The first incident aside, the second fainting spell was half… no, a third my responsibility, so I had to treat him!
“No, what are you doing? I’m the one who caused trouble.”
Hwang Sanghun waved his hands in bewilderment, but I apologized firmly.
“I didn’t realize you were so frail and was disrespectful. Not all men in their 20s are healthy, my perspective was too narrow.”
“No, it’s not that bad…”
“It’s entirely my fault. I should have been as careful as if handling a delicate child.”
Hwang Sanghun tried to stop me, at a loss for words. Only after seeing his cousin snickering beside him did he breathe a sigh of relief.
“Ah… you were joking.”
“I’m 100% serious. I’m so relieved you seem to have slept well and woken up.”
Though my expression was slightly exaggerated, I meant every word.
It seems I had some prejudices about young people’s health.
The 20-something men I saw in Murim were mostly later-day disciples of martial arts families, or those who spent their entire days in agricultural labor.
And even the men in their 20s who come to our clinic are at least 70% athletes who’ve been injured somehow, so I hadn’t seen many 20-somethings as frail as Hwang Sanghun.
These days, regardless of gender, people don’t get much physical activity, so they might stagger from just a forehead flick.
“Did I really collapse again after getting hit by that… thing?”
“Yes! You’ve taken 20 years off my life just yesterday because of you!”
“Haha… sorry.”
“I thought you were joking too, oppa. You were sleeping so peacefully.”
At a loss for words, Hwang Sanghun scratched his head.
“I guess I should have waited in the car like you said. I must have caused a commotion at Yujin sunbae’s wedding. By the way, who carried me?”
“Yeowon did.”
Come to think of it, that was careless of me too.
“…?”
“She said you must have been really tired~ and then just scooped you up in a princess carry! Everyone was so shocked they flipped out, but you were the only one who didn’t see it!”
After uploading a video blatantly using martial arts on NewTube without being caught, I’d become too careless. I should have at least pretended to struggle a bit.
Hwang Sanghun rolled his eyes in confusion.
“I’m just a bit strong.”
His face clouded over peculiarly. He seemed entirely unconvinced.
Hmm… I always thought he was unpleasantly aloof, but whether it was because we hadn’t met in a long time or because he was extremely fatigued, I could read his expression a bit.
“Should I carry you again?”
“No thanks, I’ll pass.”
“You narrowly escaped death about three more times while you were sleeping. Seoyoung drove us here.”
I gave a perfunctory answer and changed the subject. I quickly brought out the food while talking about getting my driver’s license as soon as I return to Busan.
It was sushi bought from the basement level while shopping, as it was almost dinner time.
“Let’s talk while we eat.”
“Ah, sure.”
We’d never eaten in this combination even during our school days, and it was fascinating how unpredictable life can be.
As I unwrapped all the packaging and laid it out on the table, Hwang Seoyoung aggressively picked out the delicious sushi pieces.
“Aren’t you eating, oppa?”
In contrast, Hwang Sanghun seemed to lack appetite, merely nibbling.
“I’ll eat slowly. My stomach’s been burning lately.”
There’s definitely a problem.
“Oppa, have you tried getting treatment but it didn’t work? Or have you been neglecting it all this time?”
“Ah, the heartburn is just occasional…”
“But the insomnia seems to have been going on for a very long time.”
“…You’re right.”
“I’m not trying to scold you or anything! If it’s the former, wouldn’t it be good if I could help, or rather, if we could think about it together?”
“Oh.”
Hwang Sanghun’s eyes widened slightly, like a child caught secretly skipping meals and eating sweets.
“You want to prescribe something?”
“Yes. Of course, you must know many excellent directors around you.”
“No, not really. I’d be really grateful if you could prescribe something. I’ve been thinking I should do something about it, but I just endured. I figured nothing would change since I can’t quit my job.”
“Your ability to withstand stress will be different!”
With the patient’s consent, the three of us quickly finished the sushi and sat down again.
At the clinic, I usually write prescriptions on the computer and compound medicine, but spreading out paper like this reminded me of when I had just started studying at the medical pavilion.
“Do you have a prescription in mind?”
“I do, but I should still do a proper examination.”
“Right, right.”
Hwang Seoyoung picked up a pen and wrote “Main Symptoms” at the top of the page.
“The main symptom would be insomnia, but what time do you go to sleep and wake up?”
“The time I go to sleep varies… but I have to be at work by 5 AM, so I wake up at 4 if I’m at home, 4:30 if I’m in the on-call room.”
“Eek! What kind of work hours are those at a university hospital?”
“Isn’t it the same for you?”
“Our hospital starts at 6!”
Even Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital doesn’t seem to be that bad.
As expected of hospitals. The working hours are worlds apart from private practices.
“So you sleep about 4 hours? You go to bed at midnight, right?”
“I fall asleep around 2 AM… but if you include naps during the day, it might be 3-4 hours.”
“Is it difficult to fall asleep?”
“It takes at least an hour to fall asleep… and I wake up once in the middle, regardless of day or night. Often I’m not sure if I’m actually sleeping or just lying with my eyes closed.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“It’s always taken me a long time to fall asleep. It got this bad after I started at the hospital. With frequent night shifts, I keep getting drowsy during the day and then feel drained at night.”
Hmm, as I suspected from his collapse, the symptoms are quite serious. When sleep is extremely lacking, there’s no room to recover from the physical and mental stress received during the day.
“Have you fallen asleep like this, as if collapsing, before?”
“No. This week was a bit… exceptionally busy. I switched shifts to come to the wedding, and I pulled almost all-nighters handling work the professor assigned.”
“So you pulled an all-nighter yesterday?”
“For about a week.”
Correction. The environment is much worse than Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital. How can they make someone go without sleep for a week?
‘I’m glad I didn’t go there after all.’
If I had fallen for Professor Lee Minseok’s temptation… it would have been dreadful. Opening my own clinic isn’t always comfortable, but at least I can eat and sleep as I please.
“You don’t seem to have much appetite.”
“That’s right. I always have to eat and clean up quickly, so I haven’t really been conscious of it.”
“Is your digestion poor too?”
“Yeah. Even slightly spicy food gives me terrible heartburn. I have some diarrhea too.”
Hwang Sanghun said, pointing to the area below his solar plexus.
“Do you have epigastric stuffiness?”
I focused on that area and asked again.
Epigastric stuffiness, literally meaning congestion below the heart, refers to a symptom where the area below the solar plexus feels full but isn’t particularly hard when touched.
“…Ah, so this is epigastric stuffiness.”
Hwang Sanghun said, pressing his solar plexus.
For reference, if it actually feels hard when touched, it’s called epigastric stuffiness and hardness, which is a more serious condition than simple epigastric stuffiness.
“Have you had this for a long time?”
“Well, my digestion wasn’t great even as a student. But Haneul hyung kept dragging me out to drink…”
“Oh dear.”
As expected, illnesses don’t suddenly appear. He must not have been able to detoxify from alcohol properly.
“Judging by your slightly flushed face, you also have a sensation of heat… Insomnia, loss of appetite, heartburn, indigestion, diarrhea, and epigastric stuffiness and hardness. It’s clear.”
I tapped the paper with my finger. I had identified all the major diagnostic points and even pinpointed the core issue.
“Guibi-tang?”
But Hwang Seoyoung gave an unexpected answer.
“Not all cases of insomnia and loss of appetite call for Guibi-tang.”
“He must be under a lot of stress~ Isn’t it overthinking? Then with the epigastric stuffiness being phlegm-dampness, Wendan-tang?”
“Insomnia treatments aren’t limited to just Guibi-tang and Wendan-tang! Though of the two, the latter would be somewhat better.”
TN: Guibi-tang is primarily used to nourish the heart and spleen, improve blood circulation, and calm the mind. It is often recommended for symptoms like fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, palpitations, and poor memory, which are believed to stem from deficiencies in the heart and spleen.
Wendan-tang is mainly used to clear phlegm, regulate Qi, and calm the mind. It is often prescribed for conditions related to phlegm accumulation, such as dizziness, nausea, digestive issues, insomnia, and emotional disturbances like anxiety or irritability.
“Wow, you sound just like Professor Lee Minseok!”
The two prescriptions Hwang Seoyoung mentioned, Guibi-tang and Wendan-tang, are representative remedies for insomnia.
Guibi-tang is used for various symptoms caused by overthinking or stress, and is excellent for students… I mean, exam takers and office workers with deficient qi. It’s the best choice if there’s loss of appetite along with heart palpitations.
Wendan-tang, on the other hand, is much more for excess patterns than Guibi-tang. It’s suitable for patients who are easily startled and have disturbing dreams due to phlegm-heat, which is a kind of metabolic waste.
Actually, neither is bad.
There’s both phlegm accumulation and deficiency from long-term insomnia, so whichever approach is taken, the internal organs will start functioning on their own once the issue is resolved.
You can help a broken body recover in various ways, can’t you?
‘But there’s no need to take the West Coast route to Busan when the Gyeongbu Expressway is available.’
Providing the fastest and most efficient recovery is the appropriate prescription. The skill of a doctor lies in selecting the most suitable medicinal ingredients for the body.
“The loss of appetite seems to have confused you, but that’s a side issue. The key is the epigastric stuffiness and hardness. We must clear the blockage first.”
“Heh, then what’s Doctor Han Yeowon’s choice?”
Hwang Seoyoung offered me the pen with both hands. Hwang Sanghun also watched me with an interested expression.
“There’s no need to overthink it.”
I took the pen and drew a human figure on the paper, then marked the area with epigastric stuffiness and hardness.
“Can you see the scenario? He’s been under constant stress since school, and whether due to alcohol or not, his stomach isn’t in good condition.”
“Yes.”
“At first, he had enough energy to recover, so eating and sleeping would resolve issues quickly, but after entering the hospital, external factors limited his sleep. This gradually increased and blocked the flow, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“The key is epigastric stuffiness and hardness. Here, the hardness that’s accumulated in the epigastrium interferes with the communication between the upper and lower body heat, so the area above this point becomes hot while below becomes cold. When heat rises to the head, it causes insomnia, and when the lower abdomen is cold, it leads to diarrhea.”
So the treatment follows the same order.
If it were a frail elderly person who couldn’t tolerate clearing treatments at all, we’d need to use tonics alongside, but no matter how you look at it… Hwang Sanghun isn’t at that level.
I wrote down the medicinal ingredients below the drawing.
Pinellia, Scutellaria, Coptis, Ginseng, Dried ginger, Jujube, and Licorice.
Banxia Xiexin Tang.
“Ah!”
Hwang Seoyoung clapped her hands as if she finally understood.
“Draining the heart… I see. Draining comes before tonifying.”
Hwang Sanghun also seemed to have an epiphany as soon as he saw the answer sheet.
If there had been multiple choices like in an exam, he probably would have known right away, but real-life prescriptions aren’t so simple, are they?
TN: The quote reflects a realization in traditional medicine that before focusing on nourishing and supplementing the body (보, “bo”), it’s crucial to first eliminate excess or harmful elements (사, “sa”) like toxins or heat. The term “사심 (瀉心)” specifically refers to purging the heart, suggesting that clearing out imbalances or blockages takes priority before tonification. This approach aligns with the principle that treating excess conditions must precede strengthening the body for optimal health.