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Chapter 09
We Never Dated
“You’ll do great, Nayeong.”
“Yeah, you’re the only one here who can stand up to Professor Choi Taehyuk.”
“If Professor Choi becomes unbearable, just tell your father.”
“Fighting!”
Nayeong listened silently as her colleagues encouraged her one by one.
On the slip Professor Choi had drawn—
her name was written.
She wanted to deny this reality, but everyone except her looked happy.
As she sank into despair, she even wondered if he had picked her name on purpose.
But she had clearly seen him draw randomly in front of everyone. She couldn’t argue against the result.
With a sigh, Nayeong headed to his research office.
Before leaving, he had said:
“Whoever gets picked, come to my office.”
It felt like he had put a leash around her neck.
As if now, whenever he pulled it, she would have to run to him.
If she truly saw him as only her professor, she could have obeyed calmly.
But she kept failing.
Even when she told herself not to, personal feelings slipped out when she let her guard down.
That was why she sometimes resented the fact that he had appeared in her life as a professor at this hospital.
Out of so many hospitals, why Han River University Hospital?
Out of so many jobs, why a doctor?
“….”
The moment she entered the office, she froze.
Tea and snacks were neatly prepared on the table.
Professor Choi, sitting on the sofa, naturally gestured to the seat.
“Come sit.”
“I thought you called me because of the paper.”
Her voice was stiff.
“Yes. Let’s talk comfortably while drinking tea.”
Even if he had changed his attitude toward residents after being scolded by Department Head Park, this was too much.
“I don’t really want to.”
The memory of that barley corvina meal was still vivid. Did he really think she wanted to sit and eat comfortably with him?
“You’re still angry about that restaurant incident, aren’t you?”
When he brought up that day first, she felt even worse.
So she replied sharply.
“Shouldn’t Professor Yoon be the one who’s angry? How dare a mere resident like me interfere between the two of you?”
Her sarcasm made his brows crease.
He hadn’t meant Yoon Ina. He was asking if she was angry about his words that day.
Yoon Ina didn’t matter at all.
“Yoon Ina and I—”
“There’s no need to explain to me. I don’t want to hear it.”
She cut him off before he could finish.
His mood darkened too.
“Then why are you angry?”
“Angry? I would never dare be angry at a professor.”
Taehyuk was always straightforward. He didn’t know how to speak indirectly.
This kind of twisted conversation frustrated him.
He picked up the teacup in front of him and drank it in one gulp.
Nayeong’s eyes widened slightly.
That didn’t look like iced tea.
Wasn’t it hot?
His face didn’t change.
Maybe it wasn’t that hot—
Or maybe he was enduring it.
“Professor?”
“….”
He didn’t answer.
Nayeong slowly walked to the table and touched the other teacup.
It was hot.
She glanced at him.
He still looked perfectly calm.
Was he enduring the heat to save face as a professor?
The sight was unexpectedly funny.
Seeing this small crack in him made the sharp thorns she had raised like a hedgehog slowly soften.
“I’ll bring you some cold water.”
She turned toward the door—
but his words stopped her.
“Yoon Ina and I are nothing.”
Her heart trembled, but she forced herself to stay cold.
“There’s no need to tell me about your ex-girlfriend—”
“I have never dated Yoon Ina. Not even for one second.”
His firm tone made her turn her head and look at him.
They had never dated?
But Seunghee said she heard it from Oh Seungjun.
And Seungjun was his closest friend.
Taehyuk handed her the medical records of the patient for his first liver transplant surgery at this hospital.
This was the real reason he had called her.
“Dr. Moon, you’ll participate in the surgery too. Review it.”
She accepted the file, still looking at him.
He had told Seungjun he didn’t remember sleeping with her because he had blacked out.
Yet he stubbornly explained his relationship with Yoon Ina to her.
What was this?
It felt like she was missing something important—
but she couldn’t ask.
Between professor and resident, such questions were unnecessary.
“I’ll take my leave.”
She bowed and left the office.
Taehyuk stared at the door after she left, then took out a slip of paper from his coat pocket.
It was the slip with the name “Moon Nayeong” written on it—the one he had drawn earlier.
But the handwriting wasn’t hers.
He had prepared it in advance.
It wasn’t even a perfect plan.
Yet she hadn’t noticed at all.
Maybe she had never imagined a professor would cheat.
If he had to justify it, he would say it wasn’t cheating—
He had simply carved out his own fate.
With a satisfied smile, he threw the slip into the trash.
The liver transplant surgery Professor Choi would perform soon attracted attention because of the relationship between donor and recipient.
Usually, organ transplants between family members involved blood relatives.
But this time, the donor was the patient’s daughter-in-law.
Legally family—
But not related by blood at all.
“Did the daughter-in-law really volunteer willingly?”
“She probably had no choice. For family peace.”
“Putting up with in-laws is one thing, but this is a liver transplant.”
“It’s ironic that only the daughter-in-law is compatible.”
If it were between parents and children, people would assume it was done out of love.
But since mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts were common, the Hepatobiliary residents couldn’t stop talking about it.
“I heard the donor for Professor Choi’s transplant case is a daughter-in-law. Did she personally ask him to do the surgery?”
Even Seunghee from Gastrointestinal Surgery asked Nayeong, which meant the surgery was already famous in the hospital.
“I don’t know exactly.”
Professor Choi had mainly spoken with the donor.
She was curious what words the “viper professor” had used to convince her.
Seunghee shook her head.
“If I were married and something like that happened, I could never do it. Not even if I died.”
It wasn’t fair to call that selfish.
“By the way, Professor Yoon asked about you.”
Nayeong paused while drinking coffee.
“When did your skills catch the attention of a GI Surgery professor?”
Nayeong knew very well it wasn’t about her skills.
But she didn’t show it.
Being disliked by another professor because of Choi Taehyuk was clearly a loss for her.
Still—
When he said he had never dated Yoon Ina,
she felt the tight knot in her heart loosen.
Keeping her distance from Professor Choi was still a difficult task.
She hoped nothing else would shake her.
Her ordinary life had already been unstable enough.
All she wanted was to safely complete her residency at Han River University Hospital.
Cha Hyun, who had been overseas for filming, contacted him to meet.
But this time, Taehyuk was busy.
[You’re not getting revenge because I refused to drink with you before, right?]
Back then, since Cha Hyun was abroad, he had called Seungjun instead.
“I’m really busy.”
[You were desperately asking me to find a woman whose name you didn’t even know. Did you forget her already?]
He realized he never told Cha Hyun that he had found her.
“I don’t need to find her anymore.”
[What? Did you already meet her?]
“Yes.”
[Wow. Is Choi Taehyuk finally going to have a sweet romance?]
Romance didn’t suit his life.
His hardships began the day he was born.
While others grew up carefree under their parents’ care, he lived fiercely.
While others enjoyed youth and dating, he fought death in hospitals.
Now in his mid-thirties, respected as a doctor, he had finally met a woman who moved his heart—
And once again, fate wasn’t smooth.
“For now, I’m going to focus only on hospital work.”
[What kind of reaction is that? If you don’t know how to date, ask me.]
Cha Hyun had plenty of experience with women.
But even he couldn’t solve the problem between him and Moon Nayeong.
“Then turn me back into a resident.”
[What nonsense are you talking about?]
He wanted to date.
If he weren’t a doctor—
If he weren’t a professor—
He would have run to her and asked her to date him already.
[If you just start dating, I’ll make sure you get married.]
Cha Hyun, who personally didn’t believe in marriage, saying that made Taehyuk let out a small laugh.
After hanging up, he checked a message that arrived during the call.
It was from Seungjun.
<Finally, a brave warrior confessed to our department’s Madonna.>
His friend of twenty years cheered for his love life.
His classmate of over ten years only poured salt on his wounds.
Taehyuk immediately pressed call.
As soon as Seungjun answered, he demanded,
“You just watched it happen?”
[I even cheered him on to succeed.]
“….”
Was this man an ally or an enemy?
He had been confused for fourteen years.
Nayeong was briefing Chief Donggeon in the ward.
“This is a patient after hepatectomy. He had a seizure, so I administered 4mg Ativan. Lab results are—”
Donggeon, who had been listening carefully, suddenly looked surprised.
“Huh? Since when did Professor Choi get so close to an Orthopedic resident?”
Nayeong turned around.
Professor Choi was really walking down the hallway with a male resident from another department—
His arm slung around the man’s shoulders.
What was with that overly friendly physical contact?
That was strange.
