The locations where needles are inserted or moxibustion is applied are known as acupoints.
Among them, the most fundamental are the acupoints found along the Twelve Primary Meridians, together with the Conception Vessel, which runs along the front of the body, and the Governing Vessel, which travels along the back. These fourteen meridians contain what are known as the regular acupoints.
To correspond with the days of the year, their number had been neatly standardized at 365.
Which really wasn't that many.
[You're memorizing all of them?]
Hwang Seoyoung, who had been typing on her phone, suddenly looked up at me.
[We learned them all in Acupuncture and Meridian Studies during second year, remember?]
[Sure. Then I forgot everything the moment the exam ended.]
Had she?
Come to think of it, we'd basically crammed nonsense mnemonics into our heads to pass. Since there was no opportunity to use them in practice, forgetting was inevitable.
[I remember most of them. One quick review should be enough.]
In my case, I'd personally inserted needles countless times and spent years discussing medicine with physicians throughout the martial world.
[Wow. You're insufferable.]
The truth was...
If I concentrated even a little, I could actually sense where qi naturally gathered.
Academics still argued over whether acupoints came first or meridians came first, and modern medicine didn't assign much significance to either theory.
But when you could literally circulate qi through your body with breathing techniques, feeling the locations where energy pooled wasn't difficult at all.
I'd been capable of that even when I'd first started training.
[If you've forgotten them, start memorizing. You'll need them before the licensing exam.]
[I'll memorize everything the week before.]
Well.
Suit yourself.
I closed my phone and pulled out a textbook.
Rather than procrastinating, it seemed wiser to review every acupoint now.
After all, there were slight discrepancies between the locations where qi actually flowed most strongly and the modern anatomical definitions.
Take Neiguan (PC6), for example.
Modern textbooks described it as:
"Between the Palmaris Longus tendon and the Flexor Carpi Radialis tendon, two cun proximal to the palmar wrist crease."
But the place where qi truly concentrated wasn't always exactly there.
Not quite.
Not perfectly.
Just slightly off.
As soon as I buried my nose in the book, Seoyoung gave up trying to distract me.
Instead, she wandered through the library shelves and returned with a fantasy novel.
“Want to go get coffee?”
Less than an hour later, she tapped my shoulder and whispered.
I wasn't even halfway finished.
I shook my head.
“Then what should we eat for dinner?”
“No idea. Let's think about it at six. If there's something you want, go ahead without me.”
“Aaaaaaaaaah!”
“Shh.”
I couldn't afford to lose focus now.
I returned to the textbook.
And somehow—
Four hours passed.
By then I'd completed what I considered a satisfactory first round of memorization.
I finally raised my head.
My body's getting stiff. I should grab a drink before I start reviewing again.
Then I noticed something strange.
Seoyoung had returned the fantasy novel she'd been reading and was now opening a wuxia novel.
“That's terrible. Read Romance of the Three Kingdoms instead.”
“What? You were watching me?”
She nearly jumped out of her chair.
“I just noticed. We're in a library, so keep it down. I was about to get up anyway.”
“How do you sit still for four straight hours? Are you even human?”
“Core strength.”
I stood and stretched.
“One hour of horse stance, three sets a day, for a hundred days. After that, sitting all day is easy.”
Seoyoung stared at me as though I'd lost my mind.
“Does that book actually teach stuff like that?”
“No idea. I've forgotten which novel it's from. But I did try it in high school.”
Her expression became even stranger.
It was the face of someone trying—and failing—to determine whether she was being lied to.
“Come on. Let's go. You're done studying for the acupuncture exam, right?”
I laughed and stood.
Personally, I wouldn't have minded skipping a meal and continuing to study.
But there was no way I could starve the friend who had patiently waited four hours for me.
Three days later.
Friday.
The day of the class I'd been eagerly awaiting.
“Good afternoon. My name is Lee Minseok, and I'll be teaching the Acupuncture and Moxibustion section of this semester's Clinical Special Topics course.”
And immediately, something unexpected happened.
The professor standing at the podium introduced himself with a name that wasn't on the schedule.
“Huh? Hyung!”
Even more surprising, Jo Haneul shot to his feet and waved enthusiastically.
“It's been a while, Haneul.”
“Whoa! You're teaching here now? You should've told me!”
“Professor Kim Seongcheol took parental leave unexpectedly, which opened a position.”
Professor Lee Minseok said it casually.
The classroom, however, erupted into whispers.
“Huh? Professor Kim?”
“Apparently his wife just gave birth to their youngest daughter.”
That only made the reactions louder.
A middle-aged male professor taking parental leave wasn't exactly common news.
“Professor Kim took parental leave? Isn't he, like, sixty?”
“What does age have to do with it?”
“No, I mean... never mind.”
“Hey! He's only in his late forties! The baldness just makes him look older!”
“No way!”
I understood the situation almost immediately.
Professor Kim Seongcheol—the professor famous for recycling the exact same exams and even reusing the same acupoint questions every year—had gone on leave.
And a newly hired adjunct instructor had inherited the course.
The next slide displayed Professor Lee's credentials.
Interesting.
Jo Haneul's father was a professor at Umyeong University.
Judging by how familiar they seemed, they were clearly close.
“As for introductions, that's enough. Let's discuss the course.”
The professor advanced the PowerPoint slide.
The room instantly fell silent.
“In six months, you'll all be entering clinical practice. Unfortunately, not many students are actually prepared for that. Rather than following Professor Kim's lecture notes, I intend to focus on material that's genuinely useful in real-world clinics.”
“Sounds great!”
Jo Haneul shouted enthusiastically.
Students willing to answer professors were rare.
Which made becoming a professor's favorite surprisingly easy.
“Haneul. Come up here for a moment.”
Of course, most students had absolutely no desire to become a professor's favorite.
“Yep.”
Haneul strode confidently to the front.
Professor Lee led him all the way onto the platform and turned him toward the class.
Then—
SQUEEZE.
The professor dug his fingers hard into Haneul's shoulder.
“AAAGH!”
Haneul nearly jumped.
“You're extremely tight. Went drinking last night?”
“How did you know?”
The two exchanged jokes as the lesson continued.
“Lean your head backward. All the way.”
Haneul complied.
“Now forward. Good. Rotate left. Rotate right. Side-bend both directions.”
The professor guided him through cervical extension, flexion, rotation, and lateral flexion.
“When does it hurt?”
“When I bend forward. And when I turn right.”
Haneul pointed to the right side of his neck.
“Good. So what would you treat?”
A surprise question.
The trademark weapon of professors everywhere.
“Uh...”
Several dozen students immediately lowered their gazes.
A classic survival instinct developed through years of exam-focused education.
“That shouldn't be a difficult question.”
Unfortunately, Haneul couldn't escape.
“Uh... here?”
He pointed to the painful spot.
Honestly?
Not technically wrong.
“You need to identify an acupoint or muscle.”
“Trapezius?”
But clearly not the answer Professor Lee wanted.
The professor frowned.
“The trapezius is involved in nearly every neck-and-shoulder complaint, yes. But it's not the primary problem here.”
He paused.
Waiting.
Haneul blinked helplessly.
“Patients come into clinics every day saying their neck is stiff or they can't turn their head. This is one of the most common presentations you'll ever see. The muscle originates from the transverse processes of C1 through C4 and inserts along the medial border of the scapula.”
That was practically the answer.
Students who had been avoiding eye contact suddenly recognized it.
Several desperately mouthed the solution toward Haneul.
Most notably Hwang Sanghoon.
Yet somehow—
Astonishingly—
Haneul still didn't get it.
The more pleading looks he directed at Professor Lee, the colder the professor's expression became.
“Levator scapulae.”
I finally answered.
Not because I wanted to embarrass him.
Honestly, someone had to put the poor guy out of his misery.
“Correct.”
Professor Lee nodded.
“I've heard Professor Jo praise his brilliant son endlessly. What am I supposed to do if you don't know this?”
“H-Haha... it just slipped my mind.”
Haneul scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
He looked too mortified to even glare at me.
Interesting.
I'd assumed being his father's acquaintance would make the professor go easy on him.
Instead, the opposite seemed true.
“Return to your seat. And you—what's your name?”
“Han Yeowon.”
“Ah, Miss Han. If Haneul came into your clinic as a patient, how would you treat him?”
Now the spotlight shifted to me.
I had expected a follow-up question.
My answer came without hesitation.
“I would release the levator scapulae by needling acupoints located near its origin and insertion, including Fengchi (GB20) and Quyuan (SI13), as well as Jianwaishu (SI14) and Jianzhongshu (SI15).”
I continued calmly.
“After identifying the areas of maximal tenderness, I'd also treat the trapezius, sternocleidomastoid, supraspinatus, and infraspinatus muscles.”
I didn't usually think in terms of acupoints when treating muscular issues.
But thanks to reviewing every point the other day, recalling them wasn't difficult.
“Good. What about patient education?”
“It might resolve in one session, but I'd advise a follow-up visit or two just in case. I'd also teach a stretching exercise—rotate the head about forty-five degrees and pull it forward.”
To demonstrate, I pressed lightly on Seoyoung's neck beside me.
Was that what he wanted?
Should I mention orthopedic tests too?
“Excellent.”
Professor Lee smiled.
“At least one student has actually been studying.”
Thankfully, he seemed satisfied.
“You should all be able to answer questions at that level. Graduation is right around the corner. How can you not identify the muscles involved in a simple neck strain? Are you planning to needle only tender points? If that's the case, why spend six years studying anatomy and acupuncture theory?”
A lecture.
On the very first day.
The students immediately lowered their heads again.
Despite his youth, Professor Lee had mastered the art of sounding like an old-school disciplinarian.
“I'm sure most of you knew the answer and were simply too shy to speak.”
Well...
After the hint, most of them probably figured it out.
Probably.
“Classes will continue in this format. We'll focus on the conditions most commonly seen in clinics. I'll present cases, and you'll tell me how you'd treat them. There are no absolute right answers in acupuncture prescriptions, but I'll explain my own approach in detail.”
Wow.
A brand-new professor.
No old exams.
No study guides.
And endless cold-calling.
This course was going to be thrilling.
“Your assignment: write a brief treatment plan for a young male patient with a partial rotator cuff tear caused by repetitive heavy lifting. Include patient education, similar to what Miss Han described.”
Oh.
Now that was a patient type I knew very well.
The martial world had been overflowing with idiots who trained by lifting enormous boulders.
“Class again tomorrow. Submit it before midnight tonight.”
The moment Professor Lee left the room, groans of despair filled the lecture hall.
Meanwhile—
I eagerly opened my laptop and started the assignment.
