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Chapter 02
The Man of One Night
The moment she heard him say he wanted to kiss her, Nayeong felt a terrible dizziness.
It must have been because she drank too much.
She wanted to deny that it was because of this man.
“I think I should go home now.”
As she grew anxious, her instinct to run away returned.
She stood up quickly, but her body swayed badly.
She hadn’t realized she was this drunk. Panic filled her.
Before she knew it, his hand was firmly holding her arm.
Embarrassed by how she had stumbled, she simply looked up at him instead of asking him to let go.
Standing face to face, he felt even more overwhelming than when they had been sitting.
It was strange that she had connected him to a faded memory from long ago.
He couldn’t be that person. And she didn’t want him to be.
That would make it a connection too great for her to handle.
They met today and would part today. She wouldn’t ask him anything.
“Are you really leaving now?”
“Yes. Tomorrow is my first day at work. I can’t be late.”
Tomorrow was his first day too.
But he didn’t want to part with her yet.
Still, she didn’t seem interested in even telling him her name.
So he stubbornly kept his own name to himself.
But at the last moment, he lost.
“Aren’t you curious about my name?”
Her eyes widened slightly.
Then she smiled and nodded lightly.
That scratched his pride deeply.
He had never chased after someone who was leaving.
He let go of her arm.
“Alright. Take care.”
He turned around first.
Thinking about it, the women Cha Hyun brought were prettier and more fun.
Except that they made him feel nothing.
He forced himself to believe that.
Just as he was about to go up the stairs, someone grabbed his hand from behind.
When he turned around and saw her, he felt relief.
But she hadn’t come to stop him from leaving.
“That guy from before came back.”
The man was indeed staring at them with a group.
He had probably been waiting for them to separate.
It was Taehyuk who had said he would take responsibility for her safety.
He still meant it.
“Let’s go. I’ll take you home.”
He brought her out of the club.
The loud music disappeared, replaced by city noise.
He even caught a taxi for her.
In the end, the last thing he heard from her was—
“Thank you.”
He didn’t like that those were her final words.
She couldn’t meet his eyes either.
If the taxi driver hadn’t urged her, they might have stood there silently for a long time.
Thud.
He closed the taxi door.
The taxi drove away.
He watched it for a long time, then called Cha Hyun.
“You said ten minutes. Do you know how many hours it’s been?”
As soon as Cha Hyun answered, he scolded him.
Hearing his friend’s voice made everything feel like a dream.
“How do you seduce a woman?”
“What?”
“You’re good at it.”
“If I teach you, do you even have someone to use it on?”
“I had one. She left.”
Cha Hyun burst into laughter.
“Where are you? I’ll come.”
“In front of the club.”
As he waited for his friend, a taxi stopped across the street.
He slowly stood up when he saw her step out.
The cold spring night felt warm inside him as she walked toward him.
He had felt many emotions because of her.
But this one was hard to name.
He was happy she returned.
But it was more than that.
She stopped in front of him.
“Were you waiting because you thought I’d come back?”
In the taxi, she kept turning around.
When she could no longer see him, her chest felt unbearably tight.
If he had tried to stop her, she could have left more easily.
But because he didn’t, she couldn’t let go.
She still had a few hours of freedom left.
Before returning to the hospital, she wanted to do what she wanted.
So she wouldn’t regret it for the next four years.
Warm March sunlight poured onto her face.
Nayeong frowned and opened her eyes.
An unfamiliar hotel room came into view.
She slowly turned her head.
A man was lying beside her.
In the bright light, his naked body looked like a beautiful statue of David.
She held her breath and watched his sleeping face.
If she had gone straight to the hospital, she would never have seen this face.
Last night, they moved to a quiet place and drank more.
The more she drank, the more she laughed.
And the more handsome he seemed.
No—it wasn’t an illusion.
He was truly handsome.
And when a man like that deliberately seduces you, how could someone with no immunity to men resist?
Some parts of the night were blurry.
But the sight of them lying naked in the same bed was proof enough.
She had spent the night with a man she met for the first time.
She wasn’t naive enough to believe in fate.
They were simply drunk and honest with their desire.
There was no point blaming anyone.
Today, her hellish residency would begin.
No time for romance.
So the deviation ends here.
Even if this was the last time she saw him, she had no other choice.
“If we meet again in four years, I’ll tell you my name then.”
She said it to a sleeping man who couldn’t hear.
Then she got dressed and left the hotel.
It was time to return to the hospital.
At Hangang University Hospital, something bigger than the first day of residency was happening.
A surgeon recognized at Cleveland Clinic in the U.S. had returned to his alma mater.
They called him a legend even from his resident days.
Nayeong found it hard to believe.
Just avoiding mistakes was hard enough as a resident.
She half thought the new professor’s reputation was exaggerated.
“Did it go well with that guy? I gave you space yesterday.”
Seunghee asked right away.
Nayeong’s heart pounded, but she answered calmly.
“Nothing happened.”
She had made the biggest mistake of her life, yet she couldn’t tell her best friend.
Her freedom was over.
She had to stop thinking about the man whose name she didn’t even know.
The large conference room suddenly fell silent.
She opened her eyes.
Department head Park Inho stood at the podium.
Next to him stood a tall man in a white coat.
Even in the coat that gave a gentle impression, his presence was overwhelming.
When she saw his face—
Her pupils shrank sharply.
It felt unreal.
It was him.
The man she had spent the night with.
They had coolly promised four years later.
But not even a day had passed.
And now he stood before her—
Not as a stranger.
But as a professor.
This wasn’t fate.
It was disaster.
She had to train under the man who had seen her bare body?
Her face turned pale.
“You may not know him yet, so he’ll introduce himself.”
He stepped forward and spoke.
His voice was firm and authoritative.
“I’m Choi Taehyuk. I’ll be working in the Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery Department.”
The name she never asked for.
The name she thought was better not knowing.
Now it was real.
The man of one night had stepped into her daily life without permission.
You’re doomed.
As Professor Choi Taehyuk’s gaze slowly swept across the conference room and moved toward where she sat—
Nayeong stopped breathing.
