2 episodes. I’m trying to do everything I want to do.
corneal dystrophy.
It’s a disease I had.
It is a disease in which a white substance called hyalin accumulates on the cornea, causing the cornea to become cloudy and blindness in the past.
In Korea, it is a rare genetic disease, affecting 0.1% of the total population.
I broke through that huge probability, I.
Moreover, the rate of onset was also unmatched.
In general, the symptoms of gradually becoming cloudy with age, in my case, were invisible after only a month.
The doctor in charge was also surprised by the unusual case.
Still, thanks to her, I received a lot of help from her.
I wrote a thesis using my case as a sample or something.
Anyway, she recognized the donated cornea in every way.
Oh, of course, corneas donated in Korea were unreasonable.
He said that the number of donors was so small, and that the waiting patients were waiting with a lot of numbered tickets.
There was a saying that the domestic cornea should be abandoned unless there was money or power.
“It’s a little expensive, but there’s an imported cornea.”
The female doctor in charge slowly explained to me.
There are many donors in foreign countries, so it is said that they even export them.
Of course, Class A is exhausted in your country, and only the case of Class B is applicable. Well, of course.
But here her interest in my case makes me an A.
“So, if I agree to the study, you can get an A grade?”
“Yes. Alumni who studied together in the United States are interested in Mr. Yoo’s case, and I will do my best to help that friend donate a grade A cornea. We will also transport the freshly harvested cornea by air so that it can be transplanted within 24 hours. I’ll set you up.”
“What should I do?”
“It’s okay. You can follow the overall instructions for post-surgery management thoroughly and submit a daily record of what you ate and how you lived.”
“How long?”
“Until I make a decision.”
The operation was done quickly.
There was absolutely no reason for me to hesitate.
It’s a bit cumbersome to transplant into my body, but it’s natural to be greedy for grade A rather than grade B.
But it was the first time I opened my eyes after surgery.
“Wow!”
“What’s wrong?”
“……”
I looked at the skull with fearful eyes as he stared at me in a cold sweat.
The round eyes and bones, muscles, and organs exposed throughout the body.
I soon found out that the grotesque monster was the doctor who spoke to me.
Not only her but also the nurse next to her looked the same.
However, the phenomenon disappeared after about 5 seconds.
After listening to my explanation, the female doctor reassured me by saying that the operation was successful and that it might be a psychological factor.
After that, as she said, the anomaly no longer appeared.
So at the time, I just dismissed it as something I saw in vain and moved on.
‘what?’
I couldn’t take my eyes off the wind doll dancing ridiculously.
Obviously I haven’t seen it before.
I drank some alcohol in the first car, but I wasn’t drunk.
Because Donghwan didn’t notice, only half of the bottle went into his mouth.
“Wagrano? Are you a dog?”
This time, Donghwan asked me as he put my shoulder on my shoulder.
“Huh? Uh, a dog hit. Let’s go.”
I tapped my friends on the back and rushed down the road.
Hey, I must have been wrong for a second.
“Looking at your face, I don’t think your eyes are open. If your eyes are weird, tell me. Alcohol is always a thing, right?”
“Don’t say it or not. Ganchanta. Don’t overdo it. Haengnim can’t stand it.”
“Aida. Hey, bastard, don’t drink this.”
Dong-hwan looked back at Oh-seong and Sung-hoon and said.
The guys just came together and united with one heart and one mind.
oh my, sibling!
The place I went to by car was a hop house.
It is said that small beer, such as Banggu Beer, Changu Beer, etc., has recently started gaining popularity.
Cold draft beer was placed in front of them, and cider foaming up in front of me.
“Is that really true?”
I frowned and pouted my mouth.
“Hey, Yooseong-ah. Let’s taste today and then roll up the seeds next time and stay.
“After today, the next position will be next year, so that’s okay.”
“Huh? What do you mean? Are you going to be guided further this year? Are you busy with work?”
“That’s the kid…”
I was talking while I was talking.
A man in a stylish suit with a briefcase approached the table.
“Hey, sorry. Am I a little late?”
“My late, Sheki. Are you the only one going to work?”
Oh-seong threw the snack he was holding in his mouth and scolded Myung-seop.
“I’m sorry, I don’t. I heard that Manager Kim Gae Shiki said he was looking at the data during the Monday meeting. He was so quick to make it.”
“Do you do it on Saturday? Gaettorai?”
“Sir, I forgot to tell you in advance.
“Ugh, hoguya. Did you come to work on the weekend and show your allegiance?”
“주말이 오데 있노. 월화수목금금금인데. 나도 좆같다. 과장새끼 쫌생이라서 삐지면 회사생활 괴로워지는데 고마 맞춰주고 마는 거지. 갈굼 당해보니까 정신적으로 힘든 것보다 그게 낫드라.”
“That’s how they’re raised. Heh.”
Myung-seop put his jacket on the chair with a bitter face and sat down.
“But were we talking far? You’re coming this year? The company doesn’t force you to work because of your illness?”
He is still living in the same country, so he knows my current situation quite well.
I replied scratching my head.
“I want you to quit my job.”
At those words, your friend opened their eyes and opened their mouths with one voice.
“why?!”
Everyone must have been surprised that I quit after 2 years at a time when the economy was bad and finding a job was difficult.
“Are you fucking hard from above? Are you sick?”
“Isn’t it right?”
“Is it because of the money? Your salary is too tight, but you always paid money because Seoul prices are high.”
“Why are you telling me to quit? Please tell me.”
You have to give you the timing to say.
It’s pouring out like a quick-fire cannon.
“It’s not like that, just to go somewhere.”
“Where are you going? Where are you going, are you going to quit your job?”
“foreign country.”
“A foreign country?! Where abroad?”
“I’m thinking about it. So Myung-seop wants to ask you something.”
At my words, Myung-seop pointed at himself and muttered, ‘Me?’
“A backpacking trip or a working holiday, which one has more meaning in life? You’ve done both.”
Backpacking and working holidays.
These two things could be called the romance of our generation’s college life.
Myung-seop was the only one of the five of us who had done both of these.
No, no one has ever done either one of them except him.
The trio of small and medium-sized businesses, including myself, finished their military, graduation, and employment straight through, and Sung Hoon stayed in the library for four years in college to prepare for the accountant exam.
“Is going abroad to do that?”
“Uh. Now that I’m blind, I’ll understand. Later, if I do it later, I may not be able to do it later. If I had been so ill at the time that I couldn’t even get a corneal transplant, would it have been better? I’d probably have been blind all my life and couldn’t see anything. So now I’ll try to do it one by one, so I won’t regret it.”
“Have you ever thought of a country?”
I nodded.
Well, isn’t there a roughly generalized course?
Backpacking in Europe, working holiday in Australia.
You can visit various countries in a short period of time in Europe, and Australia is the only country where you can apply for a working holiday visa.
It would be nice to take a different course, but I want to go to Europe or Australia.
Why? If I had gone to college, I would have gone to Europe or Australia as if following a trend.
It meant that I wanted to do a dream that I couldn’t do in the past, even now.
And no matter where I was, I wanted to throw myself into a different environment right away.
“Even in Europe, Australia is a little different.”
After drinking the beer, Myung-seop put it down and said.
“why?”
“I’ve been to Australia on a working holiday. There are too many Koreans. I know you speak a little English, but if you look at it, the intent is to go abroad to learn more English. But when you go, Koreans flock together.
“……”
“still.”
“still?”
Myung-seop refilled his glass with beer and held it in front of me.
I faced a glass of cider there.
After taking a sip of the beer, the boy grinned and opened his mouth.
“If you chose Australia, there must be a good reason. Of us, you are the most calculating. And if you want to do either of them, go on a working holiday.”
“Why? Why are you on a working holiday?”
“First of all, you think for a long period of time. And… backpack travel has only memories of spending money, and working holidays have memories of spending money and memories of making money. Looking back, I only remember the hardships and sufferings .. Negu is also making money while being treated like shit right now, so you know baby.”
At Myeongseop’s words, we all burst into laughter.
It was.
To put it simply, it reminds me more of having a fucking job at work and drinking alcohol and playing games with these guys than the memories of spending money and going on vacation together last year.
But that doesn’t always mean it’s better.
“But there is…”
Seong-hoon raised his horn-rimmed glasses with his index finger and continued.
“Myung-seop, didn’t you cut off a one-year package for a language school back then?”
“……!”
“As far as I remember, my mother gave me all the money to go and study, but in reality, you flirted with Japanese and spoke Japanese better than English.”
That’s right.
That bastard even lives in the house.
So my parents applied for backpacking trips and working holiday as well, saying that I was accepted into a prestigious university.
“Hey, bastard! Where are you hitting the gourds! Crane, grab Judy!”
Donghwan grabbed Myeongseop’s cheeks and shook it.
“Oh, hey! I worked at night too!”
“I said that I was buying a present for Yuki Konji or Nami Konji! Now I remember. This bastard, then, boasted by e-mail that he was a prince riding a white horse, boasted that he filmed pornography with a Japanese girl, and went about doing all the damn things alone.
Myung-seop has a good appearance and is good-looking, but if you look closely, one screw is missing.
This guy always does stupid things.
So, my friends don’t envy him and I’m sure they’ll be blaming him without hesitation.
***
The meeting with friends ended only after 12 o’clock.
I couldn’t even drink alcohol after the first session, so I went to a convenience store near my house and bought a can of beer and drank it.
The half bottle of soju was a bit disappointing.
How long have you been drinking alcohol?
“Great, that’s straight.”
I always feel liberated when I come home.
Did I say that living abroad was embarrassing?
Life in Seoul has always been tight and cramped.
Money is money, work is the same, and even when resting, what makes you so busy?
A feeling of relief was born in my mind that the surrounding environment had changed a little.
The reason why I wanted to leave the company and go abroad was largely due to this experience.
I try to live a little differently than before the illness, but the human mind is also about compromising with reality and adapting to it.
So he decided to forcefully change the environment.
Moreover, I wanted to live in a good place, a wonderful place, and in a word, see everything that others see.
Wouldn’t the donor who gave me my cornea hope that the recipient of my cornea will live like that?
If it were me, it would have been
‘You only have to do it once in your life, so try everything you want to do.’
The words I muttered with regret and regret when I couldn’t see the future or the future have now become my life’s motto.