HTBP 05

 Chapter 05

Madonna

Oh Seungjun came to the bar after receiving his call and looked at Taehyuk with a grin.

“Did your personality change while you were in the U.S.? Or are you just weird today?”

He suddenly called to ask about his younger sister, exposed his own embarrassing past through her, and even suggested drinking first.

None of it matched the Choi Taehyuk Seungjun knew.

Taehyuk, who had been drinking quietly, asked in a blunt voice,

“Do you know Moon Nayeong? First-year resident in our department?”

Seungjun nodded at the familiar name.

“Of course. Pretty, smart, proud. She’s in the same class as my sister. She was basically the Madonna of that year.”

At the irritating title, Taehyuk frowned.

“So she had a lot of men around her?”

Seungjun shook his head.

“She was strict about that. She rejected every single guy who confessed to her. Said it would interfere with her studies.”

Yet the night before starting residency, she slept with him.

From the beginning, Moon Nayeong must have planned to end it as a one-night thing.

Taehyuk’s jaw tightened.

He finished his drink in one gulp and set the empty glass down.

“Do you know which guys confessed to her?”

Seungjun looked confused.

“What do you need that for?”

Taehyuk wasn’t the noble type who accepted sacrifice gracefully.

He just felt like he had lost something.

And he needed somewhere to release the stress.

When she said she would stay in Hepatobiliary Surgery, Department Head Park was sincerely pleased.

“Professor Choi may speak harshly, but he’s a doctor you can learn a lot from. Try to adapt.”

Nayeong still felt uncomfortable training under him.

But she decided not to run away.

More than anyone, she couldn’t stand being seen as a pathetic resident by that man.

She wanted his recognition.

As a first-year resident, she had many emergency room shifts.

Weekend duty felt especially exhausting.

She sat briefly at the station and noticed a Post-it someone had written:

<The heart of a lion, the eyes of an eagle, and the hands of a woman.>

The qualities of a great surgeon.

She smiled faintly, thinking at least she already had one.

Then the ER call came.

A teenage boy had been brought in unconscious after a traffic accident. Severe abdominal distension. Falling blood pressure.

“CT shows ruptured aortic aneurysm. Shouldn’t this be Vascular Surgery?”

[The vascular professor is out. There’s no one available to operate immediately. Who’s on duty there?]

If they waited, the patient would die.

There was no time to transfer him.

Every second mattered.

Nayeong quickly called the on-duty professor who could operate.

It was Choi Taehyuk.

As soon as he heard the explanation, he said sharply,

[Secure the OR immediately. Have everything ready before I get there.]

She arranged the operating room, contacted anesthesia, and moved the patient.

The moment Taehyuk entered, he grabbed the scalpel.

As the blade cut open the abdomen, bright red blood burst out like a fountain, splashing everywhere—including her face.

Her glasses were instantly stained red.

Everything looked like hell.

“Suction!”

He shouted fiercely.

But Nayeong’s body froze.

With that much blood—how could the patient survive?

The blood pressure dropped rapidly.

The fear of death gripped her completely.

The surgery that began at night ended only after sunrise.

And the patient survived.

The vascular surgeon arrived midway and replaced the ruptured aorta with a graft.

Nayeong slowly removed her glasses and wiped the blood from her face.

Even that small action drained her remaining strength.

After washing up, she stepped into the hallway—

And saw Taehyuk leaning against the wall.

As if waiting for her, he straightened and walked toward her.

She had to resist the urge to hide in the women’s restroom.

Without her glasses, she faced him with her bare face.

He stopped in front of her and asked sharply,

“You thought that patient was going to die, didn’t you?”

She couldn’t deny it.

At the beginning of the surgery, she had done nothing.

Only after he clamped the ruptured aorta and stabilized the blood pressure did she regain her senses.

“If you’re going to stand in my OR thinking like that and become a burden, don’t ever come in again!”

She couldn’t argue.

When she still seemed shaken, he frowned and suddenly held out his hand.

“Give me your hand.”

Was he going to punish her?

Without a word, she placed her left hand on his palm.

He gripped it firmly.

Then—

Her hand was placed against his chest.

Through the thin surgical gown, she felt his solid body.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

His heartbeat vibrated clearly beneath her palm.

“Don’t forget. The toughest thing we have is life.”

Her eyes reddened.

She would never forget—

The cold of death in the OR.

And the heat of life from his body.

During morning rounds, Nam Hojin joked when he saw her without glasses.

“Ugly Moon Nayeong didn’t come today.”

The female doctors glared at him until he shut up.

At 7:50 sharp, Professor Choi appeared.

His gaze briefly touched her bare face, then moved away.

“Let’s begin rounds.”

She watched his back from the front row and made a vow.

Do well.

Before her first year ends, she would earn his recognition.

For the first time since he arrived, she could face him as doctor to doctor—leaving that night behind.

But Taehyuk could not.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

He stared at the “death note” list on his desk.

The list of male doctors who had confessed to Moon Nayeong.

There were too many.

He was thinking about how to deal with them legally when someone knocked.

“Professor.”

It was Chief Donggeon.

“We’re planning a welcome dinner for you tonight. Is that okay?”

Taehyuk didn’t like dinners.

But it might be a chance to talk to Nayeong privately.

“Alright.”

Attendance was mandatory.

The scale grew bigger as others joined.

At the center sat Taehyuk, the man of the hour, frowning.

“Smile a little. It’s your welcome party,” Park said.

If it was for him—

Why wasn’t Moon Nayeong here?

There were so many people.

Too many.

But not her.

“I think one resident from Hepatobiliary Surgery is missing.”

He finally spoke.

Kim Youngmi, who had swapped duty with Nayeong, answered,

“Dr. Moon is on duty tonight.”

Taehyuk had already checked that she wasn’t supposed to be.

He looked at Youngmi coldly.

Park stood and raised his glass.

“Let’s toast. Welcome Professor Choi back.”

As everyone looked at him, Yoon Ina clinked her glass with his.

“Welcome.”

From the corner, Oh Seunghee quickly took a photo.

She felt proud, as if she had caught something big.

“Uooooh!”

The howl came from a hepatic encephalopathy patient struggling wildly.

The intern was too frightened to perform the enema.

Nayeong stepped in to help.

They had to use all their strength to restrain the patient.

After one enema, she stepped aside to rest.

She took out a chocolate bar to recover energy—

Her phone buzzed.

It was Seunghee.

A photo.

Taehyuk and Yoon Ina clinking glasses.

<See? Totally medical romance. Hehehe.>

Nayeong let out a hollow laugh.

While she fought filth and exhaustion, he was drinking warmly with his old lover.

She bit into the chocolate hard.

After finishing, her body reeked.

She lifted her arm and frowned at the smell.

She was heading to shower—

“Dr. Moon Nayeong.”

She froze.

Taehyuk was walking toward her.

Why was he here?

He was supposed to be at the dinner.

As he approached quickly, she raised her hand.

“Wait! Stop right there.”

He stopped.

She couldn’t let him come closer.

“Can’t we just talk from there? I can hear you fine.”

She didn’t want him to smell her.

It was from medical work.

But the shame was hers alone.

To Taehyuk, however, it looked like she was avoiding him again.

He had left the dinner to see her—

And she told him not to come closer.

It felt like being treated as a stalker.

No matter what, this wasn’t right.

He was the professor.

She was the resident.

“I don’t like that.”

And he stepped toward her.