[Get up. Let’s wind the mainspring.]
To people in the English-speaking world, it’s no longer such a foreign-sounding language.
Thanks to the successive global successes of K-pop and Korean dramas and films, countless people around the world now have a feel for what “Korean” sounds like.
However, the fact that the world-famous band “Box-43” deliberately shouted that language with clumsy pronunciation carried a different meaning.
On top of that, those repeated lines, like an incantation, roused those whom the world had erased.
The busking that began in the poor districts on Liverpool’s east side started to move slowly as the performance truck arrived.
It toured the outskirts of Liverpool at walking pace, and the number of homeless people following behind the truck had already, by estimates, passed “a thousand.”
Ordinary citizens who came out to watch the procession mingled in, swelling the crowd to the tens of thousands.
The stretch directly behind the truck was reserved for those whose clock hands had only just begun to move again.
When Janis shouted, “Get up, you idiots!” the line behind and the onlookers answered, “Let’s wind the mainspring!”
As the off-kilter yet powerful chorus of the spell spread across Liverpool, people who had walled themselves off from the world crawled out and, without fail, joined the march.
It wasn’t only the homeless.
Those cut off from the world and lost in their own private realms, the lethargic who, though they had roofs over their heads, were for all intents and purposes no different from homeless also found the “cog” being offered a useful part.
Local TV stations had already been broadcasting this miraculous sight for two hours, and now, an hour later, networks across the U.K. were carrying it as breaking news.
[The Second Coming of God?]
With a spectacle this overwhelming, you could almost expect a new religion to be born.
When they reached the place where the performance had first begun, the miracle truck came to a stop.
Janis’s voice had given out long ago, and the members were spent.
Gasping for breath, Janis turned back, face flushed with excitement.
Behind his bewildered bandmates, those whose clocks had only just started to tick spread out like a sea.
For the finale, “Rise up!” he cried in Korean.
They had heard it many times, but for those whose mouths formed the words for the first time today,
“Wind the mainspring!” came the clumsy reply.
Jinhyuk, on the other side of the globe, woke with a start, having no idea that his music had just sparked an enormous miracle.
“Dad! Aren’t you going to work? Did you get fired?”
His daughter, in her school uniform, shouted as she headed out the door.
‘Ah. Late again today?’
Bleary-eyed, Jinhyuk rolled out of bed.
“Oh. I’m sorry!”
“Uh… please be more mindful, Manager Jo.”
Deputy Manager Gwak Jeong-su, wearing a somewhat sour look, avoided his eyes.
‘What seeds of revolution shall I sow today?’
Jinhyeok had been looking forward to it, but at the unexpected reaction from his rival, he glanced around the office.
The scent of spring blossoms had spread everywhere.
Ah, the revolution succeeded.
No one was wearing a necktie; the top buttons of dress shirts were open.
The sounds of typing, of pages turning, of the copier whirring— the stifling tone he’d sensed yesterday had vanished entirely.
It was obvious the seeds he’d planted yesterday had already come into bloom.
Spring flowers in full bloom across the office.
Jinhyeok closed his eyes and savored the fragrance.
“So… Manager Jo? You know we’re going out on a call today, right?”
“Sir?”
“Neulpureum OB-GYN, today’s the day for the ultrasound machine check… Uh. It’s not illegal. This is work we’re supposed to do…”
“Yes! Let’s go. We’ve got a job to do!”
What needs doing must be done.
Revolutions that shirk responsibility end up stained with laziness and mostly fail.
“I’ll go bring the car around, sir!”
Minseok sprang up, grabbing his jacket and tie.
Jinhyeok also checked the tie in his pocket.
A revolution sets order right, but it doesn’t flip everything over.
It’s just a slightly rough change aimed at a better future.
Smiling brightly, Jinhyeok bowed to Deputy Manager Gwak.
“We’ll be back from the field.”
Neulpureum Obstetrics & Gynecology.
A fairly large women’s hospital in northern Seoul.
A generation giving up on marriage.
Low birthrates.
Bleak statistics fill the news every day, but step into an OB-GYN and you’ll see it crowded with expectant mothers even on weekdays.
Moms and dads-to-be each holding their own hope.
Wearing the happiest expressions in the world, delighting in a barely visible black-and-white photo as they wait for the precious future they’ll meet in a few months.
Perhaps it’s the place where the feeling called “hope” is most abundant.
Mothers whose bellies don’t yet show, and mothers near term with bellies magnificently full. Each rests a hand on her stomach, communing with the child who has not yet entered the world.
“Oof. Sis, you’re amazing. That’s a lot of work.”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
“Of all people, you had to end up with that clown…”
The man seated next to the expectant mother glared at the OB-GYN.
“Cut the crap and do your job.”
The two had been inseparable friends since high school.
OB-GYN specialist Kim Rokyeong shook his head at his friend.
They already had three kids.
All boys.
And now another on the way.
He really was something.
“Be honest with me, Sis. This wasn’t planned, was it?”
“Oh. We’re planning to go up to five.”
The world’s toughest mom answered with a sunny smile.
Rokyeong could only take her at her word.
A nurse said the ultrasound was ready, and the couple with the woman’s belly just beginning to show, carefully went into the ultrasound room.
“Hey, it’s five months…”
His friend gave Rokyeong a quick signal.
At five months, you can usually tell the sex.
“Well, let’s see. If it’s clear.”
Sweat began to bead on Rokyeong’s hand holding the probe.
He’d braced himself for the moment. Hadn’t he even had a nightmare last night?
It wasn’t even his kid, so why did it feel so heavy?
Beep, beep-beep.
Beep, beep-beep.
Arms and legs came into focus quite clearly.
“You see the head circumference? Average. And… oh, look, posing for the picture with arms outstretched. Okay, the legs…”
As the image panned down toward the well-formed legs,
Bzzt!
Rokyeong hurriedly switched screens.
“Hey! What are you trying to pull?”
“Huh? Wha… what?”
“I saw it. A clear rocket.”
As expected, a father of three boys had a keen eye.
He’d seen it three times already, so he was about as accurate as Rokyeong.
“Well, at this stage the sex isn’t always certain… Let’s check again at the next visit…”
“It’s fine, Dr. Rokyeong! We don’t care either way. We just want the baby healthy.”
With three sons already, you’d think they might wish for a girl, but from the way his friend smirked, he truly didn’t seem disappointed.
“Man, when you’ve raised only boys, if a girl comes along, that’s a whole different set of worries.”
“Ha… you’d think you’d get at least one mixed in…”
“We don’t have to buy clothes, they can use their brothers’ toys. It saves us money!”
“Still… you never know, so…”
His friend tapped Rokyeong’s shin with his foot—twice— for pouting over a child that wasn’t even his.
“The baby can hear you, idiot.”
Ah, right.
He, the OB-GYN, should have been more careful.
“We’ll print your pictures. Please come back in four weeks. And! I’m very sorry for the slip of the tongue, Sis.”
“No, it’s fine. Thank you again today.”
“Good work. PUBG tonight?”
“I’m on call.”
“Ah… hang in there!”
The happiest couple in the world gave Rokyeong a bow.
His friend was amazing.
Three sons, and after putting them all to bed he still played games. What a machine of a man.
They truly loved children.
Some mothers, when the sex isn’t what they wanted, burst into tears, creating awkward situations.
Not at all rare in an OB-GYN.
A new life is an enormous blessing simply by coming into being.
“Hello there. How are you feeling?”
His friend’s family left, and another couple carrying their own happiness came in.
“The baby doesn’t move around much lately. Maybe I’m just tired? Nothing else out of the ordinary.”
“Near term, some babies do get contemplative. Let’s take a look!”
A couple who always smiled brightly.
A precious life conceived after four rounds of IVF.
Having shared their failed attempts, the life in that belly was special to Rokyeong as well.
“Uh…”
As he studied the white life on the black screen, Rok-yeong’s lips trembled.
Couples carrying new life are remarkably perceptive.
Just like his friend a moment ago.
“Is… is something wrong?”
“One moment, please.”
Please, let it be that he’d misread where the heart should be.
Please let it be that the ultrasound had picked up the signal wrong.
He restarted the paused ultrasound.
“Well… the thing is…”
Sometimes, he regretted choosing obstetrics.
Times like this, when there was nothing he could do but watch a life ebb away.
He shouldn’t think it, but if only the baby had already passed by the time they came…
He could accept it, and go straight into surgery.
But when the heart, so faintly, seemed to be saying, “Please save me,”
his own helplessness tore at him.
“In situations like this… this is how we usually explain it.”
The couple’s eyes were already brimming, their chins quivering.
A fifth farewell.
“Usually, the baby passes first, and symptoms appear that send you rushing to the hospital… But sometimes, like now, the heart can slow and stop gradually.”
Rokyeong bit his lip for a moment.
“The baby is saying goodbye to Mom and Dad. It didn’t want to go without even saying goodbye, so it’s held on this long. It’s saying, ‘Just a little longer… let’s meet in a bit…’”
He could see the couple’s clasped hands tightening.
The vitals graph moving faintly, and the heartbeat so irregular it might stop at any moment.
“This sound is the sound of goodbye.”
“S… so the baby’s not gone yet…”
At the husband’s words, Rokyeong shook his head.
In cases like this, you mustn’t offer false hope.
“The heart is beating weakly. But in most cases like this, you should prepare yourselves…”
It was too late for surgery.
Even if they did it immediately, the odds were slim.
They couldn’t gamble and risk the mother’s life.
Of all medical fields, this is perhaps the hardest in which to offer hopeful words after the crisis hits.
Perhaps it’s the place that faces death most directly.
The baby is already gone or is going.
Sometimes you’re forced to weigh the sizes of lives on a scale.
An OB-GYN is achingly powerless before the tiny life in the womb.
Rokyeong clenched his teeth and bowed his head.
Had it lasted just two months more, it could have seen the light.
All he could do was let go.
The couple broke down, sobbing.
“Sir, why don’t you sit and rest a bit? I can handle this part.”
As soon as they entered the OB-GYN, Minseok rolled up his sleeves.
When an exam room was empty, you slipped in, checked fast, and came out.
The wait times were long and a bit boring, but as field calls went, it was one of the easier ones.
Maybe that’s why
Minseok was extra peppy today.
From the moment he stepped inside, Jinhyeok breathed in the fragrance of hope.
Each person cradled their precious life with care and wore a happy smile.
Memories from forty-three-year-old Jinhyeok came flooding back.
“Look at this!”
That moment when the tiny bean on the black photo made his heart feel like it would burst.
“Ohh, it’s moving.”
His wife had felt it much earlier, the quickening a man could never truly know.
“Do you feel it now, too?”
When he quietly pressed his face to the well-rounded belly, the precious life gave a little twitch.
From learning of the pregnancy through seven months, those moments had been an unbroken string of wonders.
He found himself smiling.
Every face brimmed with hope as hands stroked a life that felt like a miracle.
Suddenly, from a corner of that space thick with hopeful air, an exam room door opened, and staggering despair spilled out.
Then someone collapsed, wailing.
Confronting, up close, the instant when the world’s brightest hope is dyed into despair, in a corner of his heart that had been full only of warmth for new life, the tiny, tucked-away worry and fear he hadn’t wanted to recall sprang to their feet.
The shift in feeling was so stark that, as if on cue, everyone held their breath.
The tender, congratulatory caresses turned into anxious, soothing ones.
Silence poured into the once-noisy waiting room.
The despair Jinhyeok felt as well was so deep and dark.
He wanted to comfort it.
He wanted to turn those worries back into warm hope.
Could he soothe this surge of feeling that had filled the room in an instant?
He wanted to send off the tiny life departing without ever seeing the light…
‘Ah!’
Forty-three-year-old Jinhyeok smacked himself on the head, and the knowledge he had came rushing in.
If the near-term life in that belly had truly and completely gone wrong, they would have wheeled her straight to the OR.
The fact that, with her husband’s support, she walked outside meant that life had not yet gone out.
‘Can my music reach a life still in the womb?’
He quickly looked around.
A huge air-purifying plant, and next to it, a contrabass.
Probably just a decoration.
He’d never seen one up close before.
He’d never played one.
But a stringed instrument is a stringed instrument.
Even if it was only ornamental, please, let it make a sound, he prayed, and walked toward it slowly.
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