A competent doctor can cure everything

“Ugh… Ugh…”

Hearing his name, the boy turned to look at me.

Then, he suddenly began making noises like a whining dog.

‘?!’

His actions were bizarre. He stuck out his tongue, squinted his eyes, and blinked rapidly.

‘Seizure?’

If a seizure occurred while he was on the swing, it could be dangerous. Without thinking, I rushed over to steady his body.

But as I observed more closely, it didn’t seem like a typical seizure.

He hadn’t lost consciousness, nor was he experiencing rhythmic muscle contractions throughout his body.

I checked his pulse. It was surprisingly steady.

‘!’

As I felt his pulse, countless memories and observations flashed through my mind.

Meanwhile, the boy’s behavior changed. He puffed out his cheeks, exaggeratedly moved his jaw, and ground his teeth.

Now, his noises had shifted from whimpering to short, incoherent words.

“No! No! Wah! Wah!”

In between the words, he smacked his lips or sniffled loudly.

“……”

For a moment, I stood there stunned, trying to process what I was seeing. Then it hit me.

This wasn’t a seizure.

‘Tic disorder!’

An involuntary, repetitive movement or vocalization that occurs without the patient’s conscious control.

Tics are divided into vocal tics and motor tics.

– Vocal tics include sniffing, lip-smacking, and in severe cases, uttering profanities or repetitive words and phrases.
– Motor tics involve actions like blinking, shrugging shoulders, or jerking the head or limbs.

When both types of tics are present, it’s called Tourette’s Disorder.

‘But tics usually occur in school-aged children.’

Approximately 10–20% of children experience transient tics, most of which disappear over time.
Chronic tic disorders lasting more than a year occur in about 1% of children.

According to what I heard, Myung Gyu-Beom is 17 years old. Tics at this age are uncommon.

‘I should contact Director Myung.’

I dialed the number I received earlier. Shortly after, his parents hurriedly arrived at the playground.

Their expressions were vastly different.

The mother showed visible relief and joy at finding her son.

“…Phew.”

The father, on the other hand, exuded emotions closer to disappointment, embarrassment, and anger.

It was clear he was barely restraining himself from lashing out at his son.

While the mother checked on the boy, Director Myung turned to me and spoke.

“Thank you for finding him.”

“I’m just glad he’s safe.”

The confident, authoritative figure from earlier during band practice was gone.

He hesitated, glancing at me nervously, before asking carefully:

“Um, and… did my son… cause any trouble?”

“He exhibited tic symptoms, but he didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I see. Understood.”

That’s what he really wanted to know—whether I had noticed his son’s tics.

Upon hearing my honest response, he avoided my gaze as if I had uncovered a secret he wanted to hide.

“Then, we’ll be going.”

As the family of three walked away, I watched their retreating figures before turning to leave.

The future I had glimpsed of Myung Gyu-Beom, coupled with the look of disappointment on the director’s face, lingered in my mind.

Thinking about all of it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

‘There’s a reason they referred to him as “the age of a high schooler” rather than “a high schooler.”’

It seemed Myung Gyu-Beom had dropped out of high school.

Even though it was September, the future I had glimpsed didn’t show him attending school.
In fact, he rarely even left his room.

‘Over the next week, his only outings were to the psychiatric department at Hanbit University Hospital and occasionally to the playground at night.’

I recalled the scene where Myung Gyu-Beom visited the hospital with his mother.

– “Professor, my child’s symptoms seem to be getting worse.”

– “Let’s monitor it for a bit longer, and if necessary, we’ll increase the medication dosage.”

A concerned mother and the professor’s careful reply.

Myung Gyu-Beom stormed out of the consultation room, looking uncomfortable.

– “Is this treatment even working? Can I actually get better?”

– “Gyu-Beom!”

Given how suddenly he disappeared, it wasn’t surprising that his parents were alarmed.

Another striking scene from his future came to mind.

‘He seemed to spend all day in his room, writing something on the computer.’

From the number of quotation marks in the text, it looked like he was writing a script of some kind.

He was uploading it to some website.
From what little I glimpsed, it appeared to be a fantasy story.

“Hyung, you’re back?”

When I returned home, Min-hwa was still awake, waiting for me.
He had been lounging on the sofa, reading webtoons on his phone, but stood up when I arrived.

“……”

Even while preparing for bed, the memory of that family lingered in my mind—particularly Myung Gyu-Beom’s tic symptoms and his subdued expression as his father looked angrily at him.

Eventually, I was caught daydreaming, and Min-hwa noticed.

“Hyung, is something bothering you?”

This perceptive boy, always quick to pick up on things.

I considered asking how he knew, but instead, I just gave a wry smile and nodded.

‘I can’t exactly go around talking about someone else’s son having tics.’

Instead, I casually asked about the writing Gyu-Beom had been doing.

Since Min-hwa knew a lot about celebrities, I wondered if she might know something about this.

“Min-hwa, do you know of any websites where people post scripts or similar writing?”

“Scripts…? What do you mean?”

“Well, it might not necessarily be a script, but it was a story with a lot of dialogue. Do you think there’s a site where an amateur could post something like that?”

“Hmm…? What genre was it?”

“It seemed like a fantasy story with a hero fighting battles.”

“Oh! Then it might be a web novel!”

“A web novel? What’s that?”

“You know webtoons, right? It’s something similar, but it’s just text instead of images.”

I didn’t know such things existed since I didn’t use the internet much.

“Can someone who’s not a professional writer still serialize their work?”

“Of course! There are spaces for new writers where they can publish for free. If they get popular, they can even debut as authors.”

“Is that something anyone can read?”

“Yep, but there are so many platforms… you’d need to know which platform, the title, or the author’s ID…”

“I don’t know any of that. I just glanced at the computer screen while passing by.”

“Ah…”

Min-hwa looked at my expression closely.

“Hyung, you want to find that work, right?”

If Ye Wonil had heard this, he would probably tease me for being nosy.

But for some reason, I really wanted to read that novel.

What kind of world had Myung Gyu-Beom created?

“Yeah. Do you think we can find it?”

“Hyung, then… what color was the webpage?”

“Color?”

“Each platform has a characteristic color—yellow, green, blue, etc.”

“Ah. I think it was yellow.”

“You said it was a fantasy, right? Was there anything else, like the protagonist’s name or any other distinctive words?”

“Hm. It was about a hero fighting Zeus.”

“What’s the hero’s name?”

“Li, Liv… Tess?”

“??”

The words were a bit difficult, so I couldn’t remember them exactly.

Min-hwa asked a different question.

“What’s the update frequency?”

“I think it’s posted every day.”

Then Min-hwa brought over a laptop and rolled up his sleeves.

“Shall we try searching for it?”

We signed up for the platform Min-hwa recommended, created an ID, and started searching.

I didn’t know, but web novels had a lot of different genres.

Even in fantasy, the genres were divided into subcategories.

Traditional fantasy, modern fantasy set in a contemporary world, romance fantasy set in a fictional country, and so on.

Following Min-hwa’s instructions, we narrowed down the search.

“I’ll search for a traditional fantasy posted by amateurs, updated daily.”

“There are so many…”

“Hm… Let’s set the keywords to ‘hero’ or ‘warrior’.”

A lot of results were filtered out. It was still quite a lot, but manageable to scan quickly.

“Now, should we look for one where the villain is named Zeus?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

For a while, the only sound in the living room was the clicking of the mouse.

How long had it been?

I rubbed my tired eyes and discovered a work.

“Min-hwa, look. I think I found it.”

“‘God Slayer Libertas’…? Hyung, I think this is it!”

There was a work that matched all the conditions we had been looking for.

“But hyung, who wrote this?”

“Hm… A younger acquaintance of mine.”

“I see. But wow… they’re really… diligently updating it?”

Min-hwa scrolled through the list of chapters and tilted his head in curiosity.

“Is that so?”

“Yes. It’s currently at about Chapter 150, but the views are low. When the views are this low, most people would give up around Chapter 30. But writing all the way to Chapter 150 without any response… it’s really impressive.”

At first, the views were somewhat decent, but as the story progressed, they dwindled to single digits. The latest chapter often had zero or one view.

“……”

Should I start reading from Chapter 1?

I brought the laptop to my room and began reading intently.

After reading for a bit, I found myself muttering without realizing it.

“What is this?”

The character names and settings felt unfamiliar, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit resistant.

Web novels, especially in the fantasy genre, were something I wasn’t used to.

Lately, the only reading I was doing was academic texts or research papers, so it was understandable.

Still, I decided to push through and kept reading.

“…Hmm.”

Libertas was a demigod born between Zeus and a mortal woman. But there was a prophecy that Libertas would harm Zeus, so Zeus tried to imprison his son in an underground prison. Libertas, in turn, fled and grew stronger while evading his father, eventually challenging Zeus.

‘It’s actually kind of interesting as I read on.’

The expression and vocabulary weren’t particularly impressive, but there was a certain childish charm to it.

Above all, it had the power to make me curious about what would happen next.

In the end, I lost track of time and read all the way to the latest chapter. I left a comment too.

Click.

I closed the laptop and turned off the light.

The story had reached its climax.

The final confrontation between the protagonist and Zeus was about to take place.

I was curious how this novel would end.

* * *

“Hyung…! You didn’t stay up all night, did you?”

“Oh, I kept reading because it was interesting.”

I was on my way out early in the morning to go to work.

Min-hwa looked at my face in shock and handed me a ginseng pill from the freezer.

Even I could see that the dark circles under my eyes were especially prominent today.

“Thanks.”

I yawned widely and popped the pill into my mouth.

I passed through the still-dark streets and headed to the hospital.

Even though I was tired, my body carried out the morning routine like a habit.

After successfully completing the rounds, Professor So Cheong-yeon was staring at me intently.

“Intern.”

“Yes, Professor.”

I had been waiting for an opportunity like this.

I hadn’t had enough conversations with the professor to understand him yet.

Which meant that using my glasses’ ability to ‘possess’ the professor was also impossible.

I was just grateful that he started talking to me first.

“I hear you’re the team doctor for the Blue Whales?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Ah, that’s great. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“?”

“One of the players there is my relative.”

Professor So Cheong-yeon’s relative…?

“Are you talking about player So Min?”

“Ah, yes, that’s right. There’s only one So family in Jinju. She’s a big fan of Seon-Joon. I only found out after contacting her yesterday after a long time.”

So that’s how it was.

I had wondered why he suddenly brought up the team doctor.

“Can you be the attending physician for our department too?”

“Yes. I will do my best.”

“However, I’m not sure if you’d get along well with the kids. Your impression is… well…”

The professor tilted his head as he examined my complexion.

Damn it. Of all days, why did I have to have such dark circles under my eyes today?

Worried that he might reconsider, I quickly responded.

“I can do it.”

“Then, can you wear an animal headband and do exercises with the kids?”

“?!!”

“I’m just joking. I’m not going to force you to do that. But remember this.”

For a moment, the professor’s gaze sharpened.

“Pediatric diseases are often tied to family environments and psychological factors. If you only look at the disease itself, it’s only half a treatment.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Listening to the professor, I fully realized that I was in the pediatrics department of Korean medicine.

I wondered what kind of patients I would meet over the next month.

I clenched and relaxed my fist, feeling both nervousness and excitement.