Golden Time

Suhyuk hastily approached his mother.

“What’s wrong with your legs?”

She came into the living room as if it were nothing. Of course, she was limping. She sat on the dining table, telling him not to worry.

“Son, you must have been surprised quite a bit. I just sprained my ankles. I’ll be alright easily after one night.”

He didn’t care about her mother’s words. Having knelt on one knee, Suhyuk carefully put her feet on his thigh and slowly peeled off her thick socks.

“Ha …”

A short sigh came from Suhyuk. Did she say she felt alright? Her feet were swollen with some bruising. Every time she moved, she must have felt a sharp pain from the sprained ankles.

“With an ice pack, my ankles will heal quickly. Did you eat? You should have dinner. Let me prepare it quickly…”

“I already ate.”

Suhyuk held his mother who was trying to stand up.

“Have you sprained your ankles before?”

With a warm smile on her face, she looked down at Suhyuk. She could feel son’s warm heart right away.

“No, I should have been more careful. So clumsy…”

Suhyuk felt relieved. Fortunately, when he checked her ankle sprain, it was not a chronic ankle instability. That meant it could not get worse from here on. Suhyuk examined her ankles more closely. Her ankles had a little bruising, but there were no symptoms of skin redness around them. Then? ‘Is it 1st degree ankle sprain?’

Ankle sprain is divided into three stages: the rupture of the ligament tissue is a 2nd degree sprain; and when the ligament supporting the calf bone and ankle joint is ruptured, it is a 3rd degree sprain. This is the most severe stage, and because there is no medium that can hold the joints, there arises a dislocation between the bones of the joint. As the ligament is totally cut off, it causes bleeding in the body, and the symptom can be the seen with the naked eye. Feet get swollen and bruised heavily as if blood has permeated into the skin. On the contrary, the pain can get lesser due to stiffened muscle. His mom was a fortunate case.

He did not see any such symptom on her ankles. Only the tissue around her ligament fibers seemed to have been damaged. In other words, she pulled a ligament, which was a 1st degree ankle sprain. Still, there might arise an anomaly related to her sprain, so he could not be 100% sure.

“Mom, do we have a bandage at home?”

“I guess not. I’m really okay.”

All he could find at home were some pills and ointments. He then started to tear off his T-shirt without hesitation. And he tightened her ankle joints and fixed the ankle joint ligaments to reduce the secondary damage by minimizing any burden on the ligament.

“Suhyuk, Mom is really …”

Even before he recognized his mom’s defiant voice, it fell deaf to his ear because he was thinking about something else. ‘What does this son of a gun mean to her? Mom must have done her best to do something for him…’

“Did you walk back home?” asked Suhyuk.

Did she walk home with her sprained ankles? A distance of a 15-minute car ride? He was heartbroken as if he had some rock stuck in his heart.

“I’m really okay. I just made a mistake. I was just a little bit hurt,” she said.

Kim Myunghee, smiling softly, stroked his head slowly.

He stood up.

“Let’s go to the hospital.”

He felt his mom’s sprained ankles needed to be examined with medical devices. Even if her sprains were 1st degree, the sprains, left untreated, could develop into a chronic condition followed by periodic spraining.

“Come on,” Suhyuk prodded again, and she nodded.

In the past, her son used to get very irritable if he felt something uncomfortable in his mind. If he did so, a chilling feeling between them lasted for a week. She silently obliged this time before he showed his old habit. Though she disagreed with her son, she, supported by her son, moved her body to leave home…

…………..……..……..……..……..……..……..…..

The moment Suhyuk arrived at the hospital, he sought the doctor right away.

“I think she has a 1st degree ankle sprain. As I’m not so sure, I want to have her checked with x-rays to confirm it.”

The doctor raised one of his fingers and scratched his head. ‘Who the hell is this boy now diagnosing and checking her condition? He is only a child.’

Actually the doctor himself thought of doing an x-ray test as he found no blood stains on her sprained ankles and only saw her limping.

When Kim Myunghee’s X-ray photo was displayed on the chart, Suhyuk looked at it quietly. There was no gap between the bones of the joint. Other areas were normal. As expected, it was a 1st degree sprain. Fortunate for her.

The doctor said with a light smile, “As you can see …”

Saying this, the doctor was forced to laugh awkwardly because that little boy came up with the full diagnosis of his mother.

“Fortunately, it’s not a big injury. It looks like a light bruise. You will be alright after a few day’s rest. You need to wear a cast, though,” the doctor explained.

As for a sprained ankle, one can compress the ankle with a bandage, but recovery is faster when the ankle cannot move at all. Kim Myunghee, staring at her son blankly, smiled. ‘Was my son’s dream to be a doctor?’

“Sir, do you think what my son said makes any sense?” Kim asked.

“You have a smart son,” the doctor replied.

“My son is very good at studying too.” Her face became much brighter.

…………..……..……..……..……..……..……..…..

A few days passed in an instant, and finally the weekend came. Choi Inbae, Kim Insoo Kim Donghyuk. It was the day when they were supposed to have a study session.

Suhyuk was already informed of the destination. It was Kim Insoo’s house. It was the same from the beginning, which Suhyuk could not believe. What are they up to? He did not avoid this.

After he took textbooks and workbooks mechanically, Suhyuk left for Kim’s house, which took him 40 minutes. It was a huge duplex apartment that looked expensive even at a glance. Actually it had a reputation as an expensive place. After confirming the unit number and the floor of Kim’s place, Suhyuk did not hesitate to enter the complex.

Ding Dong.

When he pressed the bell, the intercom screen flashed and turned off. Someone inside only confirmed Suhyuk’s image. The guy who opened the door smiled lightly, a very handsome guy just like a pin-up boy. It was Kim Insoo.

“Come on in. This is your first visit here, right?”

As he had lost memory, it was like his first visit anyway.