"Mr. Jang."

The nurse's voice came out of her in a burst, nothing like the soft, kind one she normally used.

"What have you been doing all this time?"

Byeong-hui Jang lay on the bed, still in his patient gown, and the nurse's eyes were full of annoyance as she looked at him and spoke.

"Aren't you going to do your discharge paperwork?"

"Please wait a little longer. The person I'm waiting for isn't here yet. My guardian will be along shortly and I'll sign the discharge papers then, so just hold on till he comes."

"Who's supposed to be coming? And didn't I tell you plainly yesterday that you were to be out early today? If you keep this up there's nothing we can do either."

The nurse stepped up to Byeong-hui Jang.

Then she pulled back the blanket and tried to drag Byeong-hui Jang off the bed.

"Get down right now and do your discharge paperwork. We have to clear the room and take the next patient in, don't we? Come on."

"One moment. Really, one moment is all I need."

They had been going back and forth like that for some time when a man walked into the room.

"There's no need for that."

The man was in a suit, and he came over with a sheet of paper and offered it to Byeong-hui Jang.

"We've settled the discharge paperwork, so you can just walk out, Mr. Jang. Go ahead and leave as you are."

The man looked like a clerk from the billing office, and what he had brought was a receipt.

The receipt was in Byeong-hui Jang's hands before he knew it, and he turned to the clerk.

"The cost… who paid it? Did Brother Song pay it? Has Brother Song come? He must have gone by the billing office first — that's what kept him." (TL Note: Korean men call a close senior man 형님 — literally "elder brother" — with no blood tie implied. Among these drivers it marks the order of their own circle, not a family.)

Du-ho Song had left to…