The vacation ceremony was approaching. In the meantime, Hana went to see Suhyuk every day. They spent time together and ate lunch together. Though, it was inevitable that Suhyuk found himself in a very embarrassing situation. Wherever he went, other boys fixed their scornful gazes on him. Nonetheless, he could not stay away from her. She was a kind person who liked him in the past.

Or is her affection toward him still going on?

For he and Hana went to the dining place together even now. They ate lunch together. Suhyuk, Hana and Dongsu drank coffee and juice.

“You’re beautiful and that smart. What’s the secret?” asked Suhyuk.

“Just study hard,” she responded with a smile, and then asked back, “Did you say you were 12th in the school this time?”

When Suhyuk nodded, Hana opened her mouth again, “Are you satisfied?”

“Well, to some degree.”

“If you move up to your second year, you intend to get the top, right?”

Suhyuk shook his head. Because of Hana, it’s not reasonable for him…

“You’re destined to be the first place forever. You said you only missed two questions. You’re really doing great!” said Suhyuk.

Unless he got the perfect score, he felt he could not beat her.

Actually he did not want to when he looked at her smiling face.

Hana shook her head from side to side. A pleasant fragrance spread from her shivering hair.

“No, you can easily get the 1st place as you have a smart brain.”

She moved her gaze out of the window, and her eyes turned strange.

“I’ll make you get there. By all means…”

She looked back at Suhyuk with a smile.

“It’s time for class. Let’s get up.”

Dongsu rose from his seat, shaking his head, for she was only focused on Suhyuk.

***

Suddenly, Dongsu stopped in the hallway. He looked at the other classroom with a curious look.

“Looks like there’s a fighting going on inside.”

Some students were gathered in one place as if they were watching something.

“It must be fun to watch the fight. Let’s go,” said Dongsu, who went into the room without hesitation.

“Hey, you bastards, I can’t see it. Get out of my way.”

Dongsu elbowed his way into the fighting site without hesitation.

“What the heck are you doing?”

Dongsu blinked his eyes. Because two of them were involved in strange behavior, and they were very familiar faces who Suhyuk and Dongsu detested very much. They were Donghyuk, and Inbae who wore horn-rimmed glasses.

Donghyuk was pulling Inbae’s solar plexus with both arms while embracing him behind his back. What the hell were they they doing?

Dongsu instantly uttered his curiosity, asking, “What kind of situation are you in now?”

One guy, who had been watching the situation, replied,

“I think he had a rice cake stuck in his throat while swallowing it.”

“Rice cake?”

Dongsu looked into Inbae’s face closely once more. With all kinds of frowning, he was spitting out.

“Spit it out!”

“Should we not bring in the health teacher? Call him!”

Suddenly, the atmosphere surrounding the scene died down heavily.

At that moment, Suhyuk’s voice, buried due to students’ noise, was heard in Dongsu’s ear, “What’s the matter?”

“He had a rice cake right stuck in his throat.”

When Dongsu made way, Suhyuk saw two students there. At that moment one phrase swept over his mind. ‘Heimlich maneuver?’ That’s exactly what Donghyuk was doing to Inbae.

The Heimlich maneuver is a first aid treatment used when food or the like is caught in the throat.

“He swallowed a rice cake. It served him right, given his bad behavior! Let’s go.”

Dongsu then turned back. However, Suhyuk kept his place with a firm face. The situation looked serious.

“What are you doing? Let’s go.”

His words fell on the deaf ears of Suhyuk, though.

Inbae’s face was growing white.

Suhyuk approached them and asked Donghyuk.

“How long has he had the rice cake stuck in the throat?”

“Get out,” replied Donghyuk. His tone was tinged with sharpness.

However, Suhyuk did not flinch at all. Rather, his eyes were cool.

“How long?”

However bad his relationship with them was entangled, he was a sick person who needed help.

Inbae was no more or less than that to him at the moment.

“Let me examine him.”

Suhyuk pushed Donghyuk. Did he feel hurt by his pushing or did he take it as challenge?

“You motherfucker?”

Donghyuk’s fist was being thrown to Suhyuk.

But Dongsu, who was watching the situation, acted a little faster.

“Are you trying to beat him? Do you want to be killed, motherfucker?”

Dongsu threw him away. Thump! He tumbled over seats, and Dongsu spewed his breath as if he felt satisfied beating him like that.

“Why? Are you disgusted? Then come over and challenge me!”

Dongsu, who moved his hand, laughed at him because Donghyuk, rising from the seat, could not say anything.

Meanwhile, Suhyuk lay Inbae on the floor.

Inbae’s face, who clinched his throat with his hands, was gradually getting blue.

“Call 119!” said one student with an urgent voice.

Suhyuk opened his mouth and checked inside. He saw nothing. Obviously, the rice cake blocked the airway.

“How long has he been in this state?”

One student replied to Suhyuk’s shouting, “It’s been about five minutes.”

Five minutes? Suhyuk’s look became even more serious.

Five minutes was long enough to cause damage to the brain that’s not oxygenated.

That’s not all. Another five minutes without any measures will lead to irreversible injury, coma, and then complete death. At best, the patient would be in a state of permanent vegetation.

All of this is determined within 15 minutes from the time of the accident.

“Call the health teacher quickly! And call 119!”

At Suhyuk’s shouting, the students moved around busily with their cell phones.

Suhyuk’s eyes, looking down on Inbae, were mixed with irritability and anxiety.

‘It’s going to be too late. Late. I have to act now. Now…’

Such thoughts dominated Suhyuk’s mind.

‘I have to clear the airway now. Only that way I can save his life. Only that way…’

Suhyuk, standing up suddenly from his seat, looked around in a hurry. And he searched through a pencil case on one side. And soon he took out a pen. Suhyuk quickly dismantled the pen and shouted to everyone loudly, “Knife! Is there anybody with a knife!”

The time to save one’s life at a moment’s notice. Golden Time. You can not miss it.