HTBP 14

 Chapter 14

I Never Forgot

Right before going into surgery, Taehyuk received a message from Oh Seungjun.

The thing doctors found most foolish was patients enduring pain and making their illness worse.

Then why was he the one being told to endure?

Taehyuk shoved his phone into his locker and went to scrub in.

With a scrub brush covered in Betadine soap, he cleaned his hands and arms thoroughly, washing away distracting thoughts.

At least inside the operating room, he could not act like a fool.

He set aside all thoughts of Moon Nayeong and entered the OR.

But the moment he opened the patient’s abdomen, his brow furrowed.

There were metastatic nodules not only in the liver but also in the pancreas.

He handed a frozen section sample to his assistant and told them to send it to pathology.

For ten minutes, while waiting for the result, he could not take his eyes off the patient’s decaying organs.

Rrrrrrrrrr. Rrrrrrrrrr—

The phone in the operating room rang loudly.

It was the pathologist.

[It’s malignant.]

Taehyuk closed his eyes tightly, then opened them.

“Close.”

He had entered the operating room, yet he had to leave without being able to do anything.

It was also his responsibility to step out and inform the patient’s family of the hopeless condition.

No matter how much time passed, he never got used to seeing families break down in front of him.

Comforting others was what he was worst at. He simply bowed his head and left.

Nayeong stared at the chocolate Professor Choi had given her, lost in thought.

Did he give it because he cared for her like his dog?

Or was he trying to tame her with food, like a dog?

The difference was subtle, but the meaning completely changed.

Either way, being compared to a dog did not make her feel good.

But wait. Isn’t territory marking something dogs do, not owners?

If so, did that make Professor Choi the dog?

She shook her head and slipped the chocolate into her coat pocket.

The more she thought, the stranger her conclusions became.

She felt foolish for overthinking just because of one comment from Oh Seungjun.

It was just chocolate.

Professor Choi hadn’t confessed to her. If he knew she was thinking this much, he would probably laugh at her.

As she entered the ER, shouting could be heard.

“We came first! Why do we have to keep waiting?!”

The ER treated patients based on urgency, not order of arrival, so complaints from waiting patients and families were common.

A hot-tempered father seemed furious because his child was sick.

It was unfortunate, but there was nothing she could do. She quietly passed by.

“Dr. Moon, come take a look at this patient.”

First-year internal medicine resident Park Heeseon called her over.

When Nayeong approached, Park Heeseon grabbed her and whispered,

“I think this patient might have Wilson’s disease.”

Wilson’s disease was a genetic disorder of copper metabolism that caused liver and neurological problems.

It was rare and difficult to see, so Nayeong looked at her in disbelief.

Even Park Heeseon seemed unsure, having possibly encountered such a case so early in her career.

“Really?”

“There’s a yellow-green ring around the cornea, just like in the textbook.”

Nayeong shifted her gaze to the patient beyond Heeseon’s shoulder.

The patient looked like a teenager. Even younger than Lee Suji.

If it truly was Wilson’s disease, the patient would need lifelong medication.

Stopping treatment would cause fatal liver damage.

Her heart felt heavy.

Nayeong stepped outside for some fresh air.

She felt like her tight chest might burst otherwise.

As she walked toward a bench, she stopped when she saw the back of a male doctor already sitting there.

Those broad shoulders looked more suited to an athlete than a doctor.

It was clearly Professor Choi Taehyuk.

She had never seen him rest here before.

For a moment, she considered leaving, but she had no reason to avoid him.

She sat on the opposite bench.

He stared straight ahead, not even noticing her.

Now that she looked closely, he didn’t seem to be in a good mood.

He had seemed fine when giving her chocolate earlier.

Then she remembered—he had surgery scheduled.

If the surgery had gone well, he should still be in the OR.

“Was the patient’s condition not good?”

At her sudden question, his jaw tightened.

He turned to look at her.

Instead of greeting him, she gave a small smile.

“I saw a rare disease patient in the ER too. It weighed on me.”

“I don’t want to bond over something like that.”

His cold reply drew a clear line between them.

She closed her mouth tightly.

So this was the man who supposedly marked his territory with food?

As if.

She silently cursed Oh Seungjun for misleading her and curled her body slightly.

Even when she came out to rest, she had to watch her professor’s mood.

Just as she was pitying herself, something was draped over her shoulders.

She looked up.

Professor Choi now stood beside her, wearing only blue scrubs.

His white coat was on her shoulders.

The sudden kindness from the man who had been cold just moments ago left her wide-eyed.

He turned and said,

“Come get your lunchbox tomorrow morning too.”

At the mention of another lunchbox, she quickly refused.

“No! You don’t have to!”

When she rejected it strongly, he looked at her again.

“Mrs. Hwang wakes up at 4 a.m. to make it. And you’re telling me to throw it away?”

Who was Mrs. Hwang?

Clearly not his sister.

“Who is Mrs. Hwang?”

“The person who’s cooked for me for thirty years.”

It didn’t sound like he was talking about his mother.

Probably the housekeeper.

“Then please tell Mrs. Hwang not to make one for me.”

“Then she’ll think her cooking isn’t good. Do you really want to hurt a woman turning sixty this year?”

Suddenly she became the villain hurting a woman she’d never even met.

What kind of logic was that?

She explained calmly,

“Mrs. Hwang’s lunchbox was really delicious. But I don’t think I should keep eating it.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not your dog!”

She said it firmly.

His eyes slowly narrowed.

“Did I ever say you looked like a dog?”

“No!”

She bristled.

If he had said she looked like a puppy, maybe she wouldn’t be so upset.

Looking down at the ground, she continued,

“I’m just one of many residents under you. Why do you have to specially prepare lunchboxes for me? It’s strange.”

She didn’t want special treatment.

It would only stir up the feelings she had tried so hard to organize.

His deep voice fell over her.

“There are plenty of residents at the hospital. But the only one I’ve slept with is Moon Nayeong.”

Her eyes widened.

She jumped up from the bench, and the white coat fell to the ground.

Neither of them cared.

“What did you just say?”

He had said he was too drunk and didn’t remember.

She had chosen to believe that.

Sometimes she felt hurt that he forgot, but mostly she felt relieved.

It meant her residency wouldn’t be affected.

Looking down at her trembling eyes, he said without hesitation,

“I never forgot what happened that night.”

Since he had told the truth, things could never go back to before.

Now he was the professor she had slept with.

She turned and ran away again. The third time.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

He didn’t chase her.

He slowly bent down, picked up his coat, brushed off the dust, and put it over his shoulder.

“See you tomorrow.”

He said it softly to the empty air and walked forward.

It was a spring night where chill and warmth coexisted.

Aaaaah!

Nayeong screamed internally under her blanket.

Suspecting he might remember and hearing him say it directly were completely different shocks.

How was she supposed to face him now?

‘I never forgot what happened that night.’

His words tangled with the memory of that night, and heat rushed through her body.

She was going crazy.

What do I do?!

After a long time of silent chaos, she finally calmed down.

Still, because they had worked together for a month, she could think more realistically than when she first saw him at the hospital.

She couldn’t go to the department head and ask for a transfer like a child.

That would only ruin her life.

Just because he remembered didn’t mean she had to be dragged into it.

She just had to act the same as before.

To her, Choi Taehyuk was just a professor. Nothing more, nothing less.

She clenched her fists tightly.

“I can do this, Moon Nayeong.”

Her heart trembled like feathers shaking in the wind, but she kept telling herself she could do it.

She had to.

If her territory was invaded, she might lose her sovereignty.

She looked like an independence fighter preparing for war.

In truth, all he had asked was for her to take a lunchbox.

Not her body.

The next morning.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Taehyuk leaned against his desk, watching the time on his wristwatch pass 7 a.m.

If she had kept her promise, Moon Nayeong should have opened the office door to take the lunchbox.

But she didn’t appear.

“She’s not coming.”

He stood up lightly.

“Then I’ll go instead.”