Chapter 28 – Transcendental Diagnosis (3)

‘Once is possible.’

As soon as he thought so, a second dart also pierced the center. Surprisingly, the last dart hit the back of the first dart and fell to the floor.

Dowook had seen something similar in the Olympic archery contest. The skill to hit arrows that were already embedded in the target with the following arrow.

“Trial finished. I was right, wasn’t I?”

Lim So Yool patted her hands and took a step back from the target, but Dowook couldn’t take his eyes away from the target.

How could someone improve the accuracy of darts just by calculating? At the very least, there was also the issue of constantly controlling the force in your hand consistently.

Dowook remembered in that instant Lim So Yool’s hand which drew hundreds of drawings of the same picture for the little girl in the Skylounge.

‘No way.’

It was possible she wasn’t just a normal math genius.

“What are you doing over there, Dr. Park? Aren’t we starting the next test?

“That’s… What on earth is this…”

“The dart function?”

Lim So Yool simply picked up a pen from the desk with a happy expression after completing a calculation. Then, on a sheet of paper, she laid out a calculation formula.

“The most important thing is the parabolic equation. Self-quantification of air resistance is the second factor. Newton’s three laws of motion are so simple that they are omitted from the formulating process.”

In an instant, a formula listing numbers like ciphertext was written down on the paper.

“Here. With this, Dr. Park can also do it.”

He couldn’t even read it, what could he do with it?

Dowook’s mind went blank as he received the paper Lim So Yool handed to him. Of course, he had assumed it would fail, but how did it end up like this? He couldn’t even decide what to do from here.

Tingle.

In the meantime, Lim So Yool’s sense was actively traveling down his fingers. If the person whose sense he had already borrowed stood next to him, their sense started to work even when he wasn’t trying to use it.

“Try it out. Let’s see if my calculations are right.”

“Director, the thing is. Normal people, even if they can calculate it, can’t use the results to throw the darts.”

While talking, Dowook subconsciously picked up a dart from the floor. Then, he subconsciously threw it.

The dart flew straight through the air and hit the red bullseye.

“…..huh?”

“See, it works. It’s easy as long as you understand it.”

“It’s not that it’s easy…”

This dart function was denied by his head but understood by his hands. Since he himself had proved Lim So Yool’s claim, Dowook was unable to add any objections afterward.

‘I’m going insane, really.’

He shook his hand to get rid of the sense but it didn’t go away very easily.

Click.

At that moment, the test room’s door opened and people from the broadcast studio entered. It was time for them to give way so Dowook pointed outside.

“Let’s first move for another test.”

“Ah. Then I can choose, right? Since I won.”

“That …..”

A bet was a bet. Dowook nodded his head.

Two hours later.

“We’ll start the interview. Cue!”

PD Lee Chang Yong of the QBS special documentary ‘Sounds Heard Because You Can’t See’ focused his attention on the camera monitor that was filming the professor of neurology.

-Well, Jeong Woo Seok’s problem is not that simple. The cerebral cortical developmental malformation itself is a very rare case. This deformity is also the cause of this hearing loss. Put simply, hearing, like sight, will suffer permanent damage.

PD Lee Chang Yong sighed in shock at the doctor’s opinion.

If the blind pianist lost his hearing, he would lose the music he loved for the rest of his life.

It would be like he had lost everything.

“Nam Cheol. What is Mr. Jeong doing?”

“He is in the EEG examination room. The VJ was removed because the test required a quiet environment.”

“Has he heard that diagnosis?”

“Not yet.”

Documentaries, which should be based on inspirational stories, would flow in another direction.

Asst. Director Baek Nam Cheol sighed as he looked at where the interview was being conducted.

“What kind of bombshell is this right before the 40th anniversary of him winning the contest?”

Meanwhile Dowook was facing an unexpected situation.

He had no way to stop her from excitedly coming up with various formulas as she went here and there around the examination room.

Lim So Yool, who was trying to grasp the principle behind the sensory examination by looking at the tuning fork used in it, seemed unwilling to move once more.

‘If we keep going like this,we won’t finish even if we continue until tomorrow.’

His declaration of ‘not saying anything’ during the dart function bet had rather created a problem of lacking time.

As he was doing so, he discovered a doctor surrounded by cameras.

Lee Won Seok, the most famous professor in the neurology clinic. He also had a reputation for being very skilled so he reached out to see if he could get his sense.

Tingle.

Fortunately, he could feel Prof. Lee’s sense at his fingertips. The skills of a neurologist would help him through this difficult situation at an increased speed.

He closed the door and turned toward Lim So Yool once more.

“Director.”

“This machine even shows when the fork vibrates. In this case, we can simply define the reverberation function in linear algebra……”

“Director.”

“……Yes?”

“If you’re finished calculating, please sit over here.”

Dowook quietly waited. If this went on she would come back.

After a while, she sat down on the chair, having finished her calculations satisfactorily.

“Have you finished?”

“I just have to keep a record. Do you want me to show you when I’m done?”

“Another time.”

From now on, he had to go all-out. Dowook spoke quickly.

“We can’t stay in this room long enough to test all skeletal muscles. The people who are filming may arrive. May I check the important areas before we have to leave?”

Manual strength test. This was the suggestion from the neurologist’s sense.

“Please proceed as you wish.”

As soon as he got permission, Dowook grabbed Lim So Yool’s hand.

“All you have to do is resist in the opposite direction of my pull.”

When he gently pulled the forearm muscle connected to the radial nerve, he immediately felt that something was not quite right. He quickly flexed the wrist joint to check the median nerve and also checked on the ulnar nerve.

“The other hand, please.”

“Already?”

Feeling her wanting to focus on another calculation, Dowook quickly knelt in front of her. At his action, Lim So Yool flinched.

“I’ll be touching your ankle. It’s a lower limb test.”

The sense of having done hundreds of manual examinations delivered very useful results.

“Dr. Park…..”

“Shh. I need to concentrate.”

Blocking the conversation in advance, he didn’t even give a hint as to what the test was for. The moment she fell into her calculation haze, 15 minutes would disappear.

‘Just a bit more, just a bit….. Phew.’

Dowook, who succeeded in completing the important test in a short time, sighed in relief.

Thanks to that, he managed to reduce it by at least an hour.

“It’s done. Shall we go?”

“Your expression suddenly became serious.”

“It’s not because your condition became worse. Physical tests usually consume a lot of energy.”

Lim So Yool, who had been looking up at Dowook, stood from the chair. As she took a step, she wobbled slightly due to the tingling from her ankle. Surprised by her loss of balance, she threw her arms around Dowook’s neck.

“Oh my.”

Dowook grabbed Lim So Yool, who was about to collapse and naturally placed his hand on her shoulder to support her.

Both of their uncomfortable gazes clashed in an awkward hugging posture.

Thump.

Whose heart was beating so hard?

Dowook spoke first.

“Was there a sudden pressure on your neck?”

“It’s fine.”

Dowook released his hand after making sure the other had found her balance. However, Lim So Yool could not easily release her arms.

“M-my ankle suddenly hurts.”

“Please sit back down. Slowly.”

Once he placed his hand on her ankle, Prof. Lee Won Seok’s sense told him the answer right away.

“Since you have recently only been riding a wheelchair, your leg muscles have atrophied slightly. Your joints were just a bit surprised because you stood up too quickly. It should be fine after resting for a while.”

“So you mean I lack exercise.”

“Uh…. roughly.”

The more accurate reason would be going to and fro around the examination room for two hours.

“Ugh. This, I wasn’t able to calculate.”

Dowook felt curious when he heard her muttering as she wiggled her feet and moved them around.

“Can you also calculate the feeling of pain in your ankle?”

Sparkle. Lim So Yool’s eyes instantly lit up with vitality. Dowook thought, ‘oops.’

“The load on the joint is related to the gravitational constant. A little application of functions on masses…..”

He fell for it. One hug had made him careless. If that was what she was aiming for, she would really turn out to be a scary woman.

After that, Dowook had to listen to the joint load function value verification process without moving for 15 minutes.

The next place they went to after going out of the room was the EEG examination room.

“You just have to keep your eyes closed for about 20-30 minutes. If you fall into a light sleep, the results would be better.”

Entering the room, Dowook stopped his steps when he saw a patient already lying on the bed.

It was the patient Son Jae-geol had told him not to disturb, Jeong Woo-seok.

Thinking he was asleep, Dowook whispered softly to Lim So Yool who came in after him.

“We can’t stay here as the patient is here. Let’s leave for a while and come back.”

“Is that so?”

As they were about to go out, a gentle voice echoed through the room.

-If it’s because of me, then just come in.

Jeong Woo-seok was awake.

Dowook went further into the dark examination room and bowed his head to Jeong Woo-seok.

“Please excuse us.”

“We should be the one saying that. Since we stopped the hospital’s regular operations with the recording and such. There’s not much time left before this test is finished so please do your work as you wish, doctor.”

The old gentleman displayed a very polite attitude. Dowook, who secretly resented the filming for making him take charge of neurological tests he had never done before, began to feel sorry.

Dowook pointed at another bed behind a partition to Lim So Yool.

“Don’t lie down but sit down first. I have to attach some electrodes.”

Lim So Yool flinched as he squeezed out some gel and spread it on her forehead.

“Is it cold? You don’t feel like you need to calculate something or anything like that?”

Lim So Yool looked up at the question.

“I’m not like that.”

“Sure.”

He attached the electrodes connected to the device to her forehead and fixed them in place with medical tape. As he was doing so, the conversation in the room rapidly decreased, and the examination room became quiet.

Lim So Yool, who had been quietly letting Dowook work, spoke in a soft voice.

“Dr. Park.”

“Yes.”

“About a while ago. Dart. Thank you for understanding. There aren’t that many people who do. Especially in Korea.”

“The fact that there aren’t many, do you admit the average person can’t throw darts with the formula alone?”

Pretending she hadn’t heard, she looked down as if feeling guilty. Needing to stick an electrode on her forehead, he grabbed her head and made her lift it up.

“There’s no need to look away. I will treat this case as an attending physician as well.”

Because it meant pretending not to know, Lim So Yool’s face heated up when she remembered what happened that morning.

“No. I admit it. I didn’t expect you to be able to make use of the dart function without an error like that. You don’t even know the value of your muscle function.”

“Is it a bit easier if you know that?”

“Very.”

She looked up with sparkling eyes. Her expression showing she was itching to talk about numbers was now clearly visible to him.

“You don’t have to prove it to me.”

“Tsk.”

Dowook thought he had now figured it out why her sister had called her by such a casual nickname.

The proofs that Lim So Yool found were all genius, but that was all. In other situations, she was often silly. Perhaps in front of things that could not be confirmed by numbers, she was like that.

An idiot obsessed with numbers, Semdeok.

‘It’s pretty cute, this nickname.’

Finished with his work, Dowook let her go.

“Please lie down. I will be in the recording area on the other side. If you need anything, please press the mic button like the one in the VIP room.”

Leaving the partition, Dowook opened another door and entered the recording area.

A silence fell in the examination room.

Be-beep. Be-beep.

Once the device started operating, a little shock of electricity went through her, causing Lim So Yool to flinch.

-It’s only like that at the start. If there’s no other discomfort, please try to sleep.

The voice coming from the speaker was Dowook’s.

Lim So Yool stayed lying down for a while before she pressed the mic button.

“I can’t sleep.”

-What complicated calculations are you doing?

At the question, Lim So Yool glanced at the recording area where Dowook was and then turned to look at the ceiling.

She wondered when was the last time she had such a fun time going around talking about numbers.

-If you really can’t sleep, try to keep your mind as blank as possible as you lie there. Spacing out. You know what it is, right?

“It’s what I have the most trouble doing.”

-It’s what I’m best at. I never thought I would brag about it though.

Sleep still escaped her. Even though she wasn’t trying to prove anything. As she was contemplating, Lim So Yool realized she had been subconsciously attempting to calculate.

A person’s feelings.

A very special collection of functions with so many variables, she had never spoken out loud.

If she had to simplify levels of affection to 100, Father was 100, Unni was 50, and that woman was 0.

What about Park Dowook?

It would be at least more than half.

Lim So Yool compared him to her sister objectively and gave Park Dowook a score of 51. Then she put the back of her hand on her cheek. No one was looking but it still felt a bit hot.

She thought she had to give up on sleep as her head refused to clear up even after some time.

That was when.

She heard noise from the other side of the partition due to how silent the room was.

-Mr. Jeong, it’s time to slowly get ready to get up. A nurse will soon be there to help.

-I understand.

She thought she heard the sound of a rustling collar, but it was the sound of someone tapping the table with their fingers.

A humming voice followed the sound of fingers gently caressing the table as if it were the keys of a piano.

A familiar sounding melody.

Lim So Yool immediately fell in love with this little piece of music performed without a single tool.

The comfortable tone rushed into her ears without any force.

The melody flowed slowly, seemingly paying attention to every detail of her breathing, heartbeat, and tossing and turning, and it erased the errant thoughts in her mind one by one.

Would lying beside a quietly flowing river feel like this?

Jeong Woo-seok quietly hummed ‘Aria on G-note’ and gradually reduced his volume.

“Three, two….. one.”

Quietly.

Realizing that the person on the other side of the partition had fallen asleep, he smiled gently.

The charm of Bach’s music, which gave happiness to the joyful and comfort to the restful, had helped another person in this manner.