Chapter 4 - Just a Whim?

Chapter 4: Just a Whim?TL: Sisona

At his command, Moon Na-young was horrified.

Facing the risk of exposing her face, she quickly grabbed her mask with both hands and shook her head.

“Because of the virus, I can’t!”

Choi Tae-hyuk was rather irritated by her vehement resistance.

He would have understood if it was in front of a patient whose immunity had drastically dropped, but he was clearly an adult male with no apparent immunity issues.

So, her words were just an excuse in front of him.

Tae-hyuk reached out his hand to remove her mask himself.

As Choi Tae-hyuk’s hand approached, Na-young instinctively turned her body and ran away.

With the mindset of surviving first, she ran without looking back.

Everyone present, including Professor Choi Tae-hyuk, was shocked to see her suddenly run away.

They couldn’t understand what was happening.

Nam Ho-Jin, standing right next to Professor Choi, cautiously asked.

“Should I catch her?”

Professor Choi Tae-hyuk glared fiercely at Nam Ho-Jin instead of the fleeing Moon Na-young.

***

Having fled from Professor Choi Tae-hyuk, Na-young immediately went to the department head’s office.

“Director, I want to change my major.”

It was unbelievable for the department head, as a first-year resident, only two days into the job, was making such a request.

It was too short a time to decide it wasn’t her calling.

“Why don’t you try it for a month before deciding?”

The director wanted to keep her in surgery as much as possible, as she had been diligent even during her intern years.

“I would like to, but Professor Choi!”

Na-young stopped mid-sentence.

Realizing she had misspoken.

Coming to the director to blatantly blame her mentor was an insane act in the hospital.

“I’m sorry! I’ll leave now.”

Na-young quickly fled from the director’s office.

She really didn’t know where her resident life was heading.

***

Tae-hyuk immediately sat down at his computer in the research lab and looked up the personnel records of the surgical residents.

He wasn’t sure that the resident was that woman, but he couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling and had to check properly.

His hand, scrolling quickly through the personnel records, suddenly stopped.

Tae-hyuk leaned closer to the monitor and stared intently at the photo in the personnel record.

This clean and beautiful face was undoubtedly hers.

He looked at the name on the personnel record.

“Moon Na-young.”

Tae-hyuk was more astonished than happy to have found the woman so quickly, a woman who had disappeared from the hotel.

He hadn’t expected her to be a doctor like him, let alone a first-year resident…

He thought finding the owner of the single earring would lead to a happy ending, but once he found her, the genre seemed to have shifted from romance to extreme job.

While he was pondering what to do next, the phone in the research lab rang.

Tae-hyuk reached for the phone.

“Yes, this is Choi Tae-hyuk from Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery.”

[Professor Choi. Come to the director’s office immediately.]

It was a call from the director.

Rushed as it was, Tae-hyuk thought it might be about an important patient he was in charge of, so he headed straight to the director’s office.

“Are you here?”

Director Park looked at him with a serious expression.

Tae-hyuk couldn’t understand why Director Park was looking at him that way.

Director Park began to speak gravely. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the N0vᴇlFire(.)nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“A resident wants to change their major because of you.”

The image of the woman running away from him flashed through his mind, and without Director Park even mentioning her name, he had a guess who it might be.

“I know too well that you, Professor Choi, are talented. But you’re not working alone. Take it easy. Nowadays, residents don’t work as hard as in your time. They even have laws to prevent them from working 100-day shifts.”

While Director Park was persuading him not to be too hard on the residents, Tae-hyuk was thinking about Moon Na-young’s behavior.

She must have recognized him from the beginning.

He realized she wore the mask not because she was ill, but to hide her face from him.

Considering she even tried to change her major, she must have been desperate to avoid him.

Tae-hyuk knew what being a first-year resident entailed, as he had gone through that phase himself, so he could understand why she would want to avoid him. But that didn’t make him feel any better.

He could go to her right now and confront her about why she ran away from the hotel and why she tried to change her major to avoid him at the hospital.

But doing so would diminish the effort he had put into finding her.

Tae-hyuk didn’t want to meet her again just to confront her.

He just wanted…

Tae-hyuk tried to calm his emotions and think rationally.

His actions now would determine her first year as a resident.

As her supervising professor, his influence on her was inevitable.

“I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry,” Choi Tae-hyuk said, offering to personally persuade the resident.

Director Park gave him a serious advice.

“Just don’t threaten her.”

Tae-hyuk grimaced.

Now he thought that she might have become disillusioned upon knowing his true character.

Leaving the director’s office, Tae-hyuk took out his phone and made a call.

[Why are you calling me out of the blue?]

The person he called was Oh Seung-Jun, an orthopedic professor and his college classmate.

“Didn’t you say your sister went to our medical school? Is she a resident now?”

[My sister?]

Oh Seung-Jun got a bit scared when Choi Tae-hyuk suddenly called asking about his sister out of nowhere.

***

Na-young couldn’t avoid Professor Choi Tae-hyuk for long.

As long as she was a resident in Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, she was bound to encounter him.

Although she understood this logically, she lacked the courage to act and remained immobile when her phone rang.

Surely it was a call to come quickly, Na-young thought with a heavy heart as she checked her phone.

But it was her friend Seung-hee.

“Hello?”

[Did you cause a scene during the rounds?]

Seung-hee knowing about it meant the whole hospital must be talking about how she had run away from Professor Choi Tae-hyuk.

Her calm image had completely shattered within two days of his arrival at the hospital.

[Are you okay?]

Na-young was moved by her friend’s genuine concern, not blame.

“What should I do now?”

[Professor Choi Tae-hyuk won’t be too harsh. You didn’t harm any patients.]

She wasn’t lamenting the incident, but her jeopardized resident life.

Now, she regretted that one night too much.

She should have held back.

Why did she act like an unrestrained colt and cause this trouble?

As she despaired, Seung-hee tried to comfort her.

[Don’t be too scared of Professor Choi Tae-hyuk. My brother told me he’s not perfect either.]

Seung-hee’s brother was Professor Oh Seung-Jun from orthopedics.

[He got so drunk at a club the night before starting at the hospital that he almost missed his first day.]

The night before his start was when Choi Tae-hyuk had spent the night with her, and Na-young froze, her eyes widening.

“What? He blacked out?”

[Yeah. He drank so much he couldn’t remember anything he did. Seems like he becomes a fool when drunk. Haha.]

Na-young was stunned.

She remembered everything, so naturally, she thought he would too.

But he didn’t remember?

Director Park had specifically instructed the residents to observe and learn from Professor Choi Tae-hyuk’s surgery, so those who couldn’t enter the operating room gathered in front of the monitor where they could watch.

Na-young deliberately stood at the very back.

She had only heard about his exceptional surgical skills but had never seen them firsthand.

Professor Choi Tae-hyuk hadn’t appeared in the operating room yet.

The anesthesiology staff entered first and proceeded with the patient’s general anesthesia.

The door opened with a thud, and like a protagonist, the surgeon, Choi Tae-hyuk, finally entered.

Standing at his position, his gaze turned toward the patient lying on the operating table.

He appeared almost like the sole savior in front of a life at stake.

Despite him being an irresponsible man who couldn’t even remember spending a night with a woman, she didn’t plan to see everything about him in a negative light.

“Let’s begin.”

Professor Choi Tae-hyuk always started with respect.

But everyone knew that as the surgery progressed, his true, viper-like nature would emerge.

The hepatectomy for the liver cancer patient took four hours to complete.

Na-young, witnessing Choi Tae-hyuk’s surgical skills firsthand, thought they were as precise and clean as something out of a medical textbook.

She couldn’t even guess how many surgeries she would have to participate in to reach his level.

After the surgery, Na-young approached Professor Choi Tae-hyuk first.

She had something she needed to confirm with him today.

“Professor Choi!”

At her call, Choi Tae-hyuk, who was walking alone, stopped in his tracks.

As he turned around, Na-young lifted her hand and removed the mask she was wearing.

Her heart pounded at revealing her real face to him for the first time, but as her gaze met his calm one, her heartbeat returned to normal.

He really doesn’t remember. Truly…

Feeling both disappointment and relief, Na-young bowed her head deeply.

“I was rude this morning. I apologize.”

She formally apologized for running away in front of him.

She didn’t feel sorry about running away from the hotel that morning, but as a resident, it was certainly wrong to run away from a professor.

Prepared to endure whatever harsh words he might have,

“Moon Na-young.”

To her surprise, his voice calling her name was extremely calm.

And since she didn’t expect him to know her name, Na-young looked up at him with startled eyes.

“Do you still want to transfer to another department?”

Hearing such a question from the very person who made her feel that way, a strong wind seemed to blow through her heart.

It was a different kind of resonance than the intense attraction she had felt for him in the club.

The emotion she felt was resistance.

Professor Choi Tae-hyuk, standing before her, felt like a huge mountain she had to overcome.

There was a sense of pressure that to become a true doctor, she must conquer this mountain.

So, it wasn’t easy for Na-young to simply say she wanted to run away and avoid him.

When she didn’t immediately respond, Professor Choi Tae-hyuk crossed his arms, and his tone was no longer polite.

“If you’re leaving because you lack confidence, leave as soon as possible. Don’t stay here and hinder other doctors.”

Faced with his criticism, fully reverted to his viper-like professor demeanor, Na-young felt her blood boil.

“It’s not like that!”

Na-young strongly denied it.

“Then why do you want to change departments? Is it just a whim?”

His words, gradually painting her as an unworthy person, provoked her to shout back.

“I have no intention of transferring to another department, so please continue to guide me well!”

She spoke as if making a declaration of war, bowing deeply with all due respect.

As soon as she straightened up, she turned around and strode away.

Tae-hyuk watched her retreating figure.

He knew that this time she wouldn’t return to him like she did by taking a taxi back to him.

When he woke up in the hotel room and realized she had left without leaving any message, Tae-hyuk had promised himself that if he ever met her again, he wouldn’t let her slip away like a fool.

“…….”

But now that he had met her again, he could only watch as she walked away.

It felt like a hole had been punched in his heart, and the emotions he had felt for her were slowly leaking out.

He craved a drink. A very strong one.

***

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