Chapter 6 : Different This Time (1)
Chapter 6 - Different This Time (1)
"Call my guardian quickly! Can't you hear me?"
Behind her expression, which looked like it would explode any second, her appearance near the time of her discharge overlapped.
— I was really sorry back then. I must have been crazy, truly... What should I do now? I’m so embarrassed I can't go outside.
As most manic patients do, she also regretted what she had done before and after hospitalization and felt depressed.
‘The less dark history, the better.’
Shorten the manic period as much as possible and discharge her quickly.
That was the goal Sihyeon set for this round.
Since she was a patient whose dream was to be a singer, there was nothing good about showing her current self to anyone.
"I heard from the outpatient doctor that you've had some mood changes recently. How are you feeling today?"
"Let me out! Right now! This is illegal detention!"
Even before the interview could properly begin, Kim Su-yeong started shouting at the top of her lungs.
"Inpatient treatment is absolutely necessary right now. It won't take long. You'll be able to get better quickly."
"What, am I some kind of lunatic? What’s going to get better? What’s wrong with me that you're saying that?"
The veins in her neck bulged.
In the past, as this argument dragged on, Choi Ji-hoon, who was in the ward, would have Kim Su-yeong moved to the stabilization room to be restrained.
‘I got scolded quite a bit back then. Being told that's not how you handle an acute phase patient.’
Sure enough, Choi Ji-hoon could already be seen standing outside the hospital room door with his arms crossed.
— I was so scared then. I usually feel suffocated in narrow places... I really thought I was going to die.
It might have been a convenient method for the moment, but for her, who had claustrophobia, it was a traumatic event.
‘There must be another way...’
A clear acute manic state.
Even if a master of consultation came, it wouldn't be easy to persuade her. No, it was close to impossible.
"Let me out of here! Now!"
An agitated Kim Su-yeong shouted as she threw her handbag toward Sihyeon.
Her belongings rolled vigorously across the floor.
"Dr. Cheon! What are you doing? Take the patient to the stabilization room immediately..."
In the end, Choi Ji-hoon walked over, rebuking Sihyeon.
Up to here.
A progression exactly identical to before the regression.
Sihyeon squeezed his eyes shut.
‘No choice this time either?’
It wasn't a method he particularly liked, but just as he was thinking there was no alternative but to do as Choi Ji-hoon had done in the past.
Rattle, rattle.
Thud.
Something rolling on the floor hit the tip of Sihyeon's shoe.
A perfectly ordinary vitamin bottle.
Suddenly, a past memory flashed through Sihyeon's mind.
‘Could it be...’
And he slowly reached out and grabbed the medicine bottle.
"What are you doing? G-Give that back!"
In the next moment, a look of bewilderment flashed across Kim Su-yeong's face.
Bingo.
"You should have kept something like this more securely."
As Sihyeon lightly shook the bottle, the patient's pupils dilated greatly.
"Shall I take a guess? For some reason, I feel like there's some 'precious medicine' that's hard to find inside."
"……."
A heavy silence fell for a moment.
“...I’ll take it as that. Let’s meet in the ward consultation room.”
Sihyeon continued speaking with a sharp look in his eyes.
It was a voice so quiet that only the person right next to him could hear, but the patient nodded her head repeatedly.
She appeared so calmly subdued that one would wonder if she was the same person screaming just a moment ago.
At that sight, Choi Ji-hoon could not close his mouth in surprise.
‘She’s a patient who should be injected with sedatives and restrained... how?’
Calming a manic patient with just a short consultation in the hospital room.
It was a scene even he was seeing for the first time.
The nurses in the same room were equally bewildered.
“Dr. Cheon Si-hyeon, what did you just say to the patient...”
“I didn’t say much. I just told her to see me in the consultation room in a moment. Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s not that, but how...”
“Well then, I will go for the consultation.”
Choi Ji-hoon just stared blankly at Sihyeon's back as he headed across the ward corridor toward the consultation room.
……
A moment later, in the consultation room.
Sihyeon opened Kim Su-yeong's outpatient chart and entered an additional prescription.
[Naltrexone 25mg HS]
Naltrexone.
A type of anti-craving agent, it was a treatment for alcohol and narcotic dependence.
— The pressure was so intense when I was preparing for my debut at my former agency. Even when I was hospitalized back then, they made sure I took my diet pills. I wonder if they were trying to starve me to death...
These were the words she had said when concluding her two-year maintenance treatment in the outpatient clinic.
‘If it's diet pills...’
Most of them were drugs close to stimulants.
Thanks to them, she could forget her hunger and immerse herself in practice until late, but there were fatal side effects.
‘Because her mania worsened and she eventually ended up hospitalized.’
It was a fact he learned only later, but before her debut, Kim Su-yeong was taking phentermine, fluoxetine, topiramate, and amphetamine-based diet pills that were difficult to obtain through international direct purchase.
While phentermine or topiramate were drugs that could be easily obtained with a prescription, amphetamine-based drugs could lead to legal issues.
The door swung open.
“How did you know?”
Kim Su-yeong, who burst through the consultation room door, asked bluntly.
An expression as if she were about to cry at any moment.
Considering only this moment, she seemed like an anxiety disorder patient, not a manic one.
“What are you talking about? I don't know anything,” Sihyeon answered with a feigned, mysterious expression.
Because he couldn't say that she had told him in the future.
However, seeing Sihyeon's reaction, Kim Su-yeong's mind became complicated.
‘No one must find out. Absolutely! If anyone ever finds out...’
No matter how much she was in an acute manic state, she was someone who wanted to become a singer.
She didn't even want to imagine collapsing like this, carrying the label of a drug offender even before her debut.
‘What on earth is he up to?’
What she couldn't understand was Sihyeon's attitude.
Even though he knew the identity of the medicine bottle, he was pretending not to know anything.
There must be a reason why he called her separately without reporting it or taking any action.
“What do you want? Is it money by any chance?”
Kim Su-yeong finally opened her mouth after a long time.
“…….”
However, contrary to her expectations, Sihyeon only stared at the monitor and gave no answer.
‘For now, I just need to make sure she doesn't take the diet pills. To minimize withdrawal symptoms, the prescription should be... and the report to the attending professor...’
In truth, he had momentarily missed his cue to speak because he was busy worrying about how to manage her medication during her hospitalization, but she, having no way of knowing the reason, anxiously watched Sihyeon's reaction.
‘I was lucky to find the medicine bottle quickly.’
The patient will recover faster, and her future progress will be better.
At least this time, there will be no heartache caused by his first patient.
A few words from a conversation he had with the patient in the future had changed the situation like this.
Sihyeon soon looked at the patient with a smiling face.
In the next moment, consternation spread across the face of the patient who was scrutinizing his expression.
‘W-what? If it’s not money he wants...’
That expression, which was not just shady but looked downright happy.
‘S-surely, what he wants is m...’
Kim Su-yeong unconsciously tightened the front of her clothes and huddled her body.
“Um, is there something uncomfortable, patient?”
“D-don't come any closer!”
What is it?
Is it persecutory delusion?
Sihyeon thought he was doing quite well, but he reflected that he was still far from truly understanding the patient.
……
‘What should I do?’
Kim Su-yeong’s face was full of worry as she left the consultation room.
Being hospitalized by her parents' hands was already frustrating enough to drive her crazy, but to make matters worse, even the medicine she had was taken away.
And it was medicine that must never be discovered by anyone.
‘How on earth did he know?’
She hadn't even taken the medicine since entering the ward. It wasn't like she had accidentally dropped it or anything.
That wasn't the only thing she couldn't understand.
— Yes? What I want? Well... I think it would be good if you consistently take the prescribed medication and follow the ward rules?
The reaction of the doctor in charge when she asked repeatedly if there was anything he wanted.
For one thing, it definitely wasn't money he wanted.
‘He didn't seem like such a bad person.’
She had considered if he was approaching her with an ulterior motive, but as expected, that didn't seem to be it either.
However, that image of him giving a strange smile while looking at her still weighed on her mind.
‘You never know what's inside a person.’
He might be waiting for an opportunity while pretending to be innocent, only to suddenly change and start making all sorts of threats.
The only thing certain was that for the duration of her hospitalization, she had to stay quiet and avoid upsetting Sihyeon's mood as much as possible.
……
A few days later, in the Ward 9 conference room.
Professor Jin Cheol-yeong was in charge of the general rounds today.
“Is everyone looking after the patients well?”
He scanned the faces of the residents sitting at the conference table.
“Looking at the faces of the doctors in charge, it seems there are no major issues in the ward. Let's start with the rooms.”
He often started rounds while skipping the process of receiving reports about the patients from the residents.
However, it was not as if he were just making a formal appearance for the rounds; far from it.
“Mr. Gil-o, are you being discharged this week? Since your anxiety has subsided a lot, you'll be fine now. Let's see each other again at the outpatient clinic.”
Encouragement for the patient whose symptoms had improved and who was facing discharge.
“Mr. Sam-tae, it seems you'll need to stay hospitalized a bit longer.”
“Professor, I've improved a lot.”
“I know. But let's stay a few more days. It won't take that long.”
A firm message to the patient who had experienced behavioral problems a few days ago.
“Ms. Su-yeong, you're a completely different person compared to when I saw you in the outpatient clinic. What on earth happened?”
A reaction of surprise toward the patient who had improved significantly beyond expectations.
To the point where it was hard to believe there had been no prior report, Jin Cheol-yeong pinpointed the patients' conditions accurately.
His intuition was at an amazing level, even seeing it again.
‘He isn't called Guru Jin for nothing.’
Was it said that you only see as much as you know?
Back when he was a first-year before the regression, he had only thought it was good that rounds ended quickly, but seeing it now, he became curious about how such judgments were made.
“The patients all seem fine... but the patient in room 902, Kim Su-yeong, has improved a lot in the last few days?”
Jin Cheol-yeong said, looking at Sihyeon.
“What kind of magic did you perform? Is there a secret?”
“The patient...”
Just as Sihyeon was about to answer Jin Cheol-yeong's question, someone cut in.
“First, we started medication with Depakote and Zyprexa, and I made sure clonazepam was used sufficiently from the day of admission.”
It was the 4th-year, Choi Ji-hoon.
‘What? "Made sure"?’
Sihyeon scoffed inwardly.
If anyone heard him, they would think he was someone who worked harder than anyone else at teaching first-years.
“I wonder if that's really why she got better...”
Professor Jin Cheol-yeong's eyes narrowed.
“In that case, do you plan to continue that prescription moving forward?”
“Of course. In principle, using the medication that was previously effective...”
Choi Ji-hoon continued answering as if she were his own patient.
“I'd like to hear the attending doctor's thoughts too.”
Jin Cheol-yeong asked Sihyeon directly before the other could even finish his sentence.
“I...”
When an answer didn't come readily, Jin Cheol-yeong nodded as if it were okay.
“I believe a medication change is necessary before discharge.”
At Sihyeon's answer, Choi Ji-hoon's face twisted into a menacing grimace.