🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 25
Do You Think I’d Hurt You?
Tae-hyuk lifted his eyelids and looked at Na-young.
She was staring back at him warily, her eyes guarded.
It was as if, the moment he tried to approach recklessly, she would vanish straight into a thorn bush.
“Do you think I’d hurt you?”
At his calm question, Na-young’s gaze faltered.
She knew better than anyone that she was overreacting. She felt uneasy, realizing that unlike others who could just laugh things off, she still seemed trapped in her own world.
“I just remembered something I need to do. I’ll be going now.”
Na-young gave an excuse, leaving her half-eaten lunch behind as she rose from her seat.
“Do you know what Mrs. Hwang did to make us eat this eel?”
Suddenly talking about eel, Na-young paused and looked at him.
“Excuse me?”
Professor Choi Tae-hyuk picked up a plump eel with his chopsticks and spoke very seriously.
“Leaving without eating this would be disrespecting Mrs. Hwang’s courage and sacrifice.”
Courage and sacrifice… over an eel?
“Then… should I pay for the eel?”
“The most humiliating thing for a chef is a refund. Think about making Mrs. Hwang, who’s turning sixty, go through that.”
“All right! I’ll just eat it!”
Na-young, feeling he was about to say she was hurting Mrs. Hwang, sat back down and took a bite of the eel. She looked at Professor Choi with a discontented glare.
“You were joking just now, right?”
Courage, sacrifice… Surely not over an eel.
“Grandpa often says people get kicked out of the house for one reason and one reason only.”
Professor Choi placed the last piece of eel onto her bowl and added with a sharp tone:
“Money.”
Na-young swallowed hard. If Mrs. Hwang got kicked out of that house because of this eel, Na-young wasn’t sure she could handle it.
Oh Seung-jun was holding coffee when Tae-hyuk came to his room, and he looked at him with surprise.
Usually, Tae-hyuk had to be the one to go first if they were to meet.
“Did the sun rise from the west today? What wind blew you here to see me first?”
Before Tae-hyuk could speak, he handed Seung-jun the coffee he had brought.
“You didn’t buy this for me to drink, did you?”
When Tae-hyuk nodded affirmatively, Seung-jun felt a strange unease rather than happiness.
“You want to ask me for something, don’t you?”
Without hesitation, Tae-hyuk said:
“Move into my house.”
“What?”
Seung-jun looked at him as if he’d gone mad.
“Why would I leave my perfectly fine house to live in yours?”
His apartment still had an outstanding mortgage. To pay it off, he’d have to continue his medical career for at least ten more years.
“It’d be nice for friends to live together.”
It was the first time Tae-hyuk had ever called anyone a “friend” out loud.
“When were we ever friends? We’re just college classmates.”
Seung-jun was annoyed. He had ignored the question about who he was closer to—Cha-hyun or him—and now Tae-hyuk suddenly acted friendly.
“No, even if I can’t live with Cha-hyun, I can live with you.”
When Tae-hyuk said that, Seung-jun felt touched for a moment. But he couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling. No matter how he thought about it, Tae-hyuk was not the kind of person who would offer to live with someone first. Clearly, he had an ulterior motive.
“I still like our house that I bought with my own money.”
So Seung-jun firmly refused.
From that day on, in the ward, people often saw Professor Choi following Professor Oh Seung-jun around.
This only strengthened the rumors that Tae-hyuk preferred men over women.
The one who enjoyed it the most was Seung-jun’s younger sister, Seung-hee, who was living with him.
“I think our brother’s going to end up living with Professor Choi.”
Na-young, knowing it was because of her that both professors were caught up in these rumors, couldn’t feel excited with Seung-hee.
She had never expected that Tae-hyuk would be so persistent in persuading Seung-jun. She was actually a bit moved.
Her parents were okay letting her live in the hospital dorms rather than alone at home, but Tae-hyuk had gone out of his way, even inconveniencing others, to improve her living situation.
Could it really be because of Kkamang?
A man so unkind to people yet endlessly kind to animals… Na-young didn’t know whether to call him a bad man or a good one.
“If I end up living alone, you can move into my house and live together.”
Seung-hee, knowing Na-young stayed in the resident dorm, had suggested first that she could have a roommate.
Na-young smiled and thanked her. Having a roommate would make it harder for her father to oppose her living independently.
“But what should I get for Mrs. Hwang’s sixtieth birthday?”
Tomorrow, she would finally meet Mrs. Hwang. She planned to prepare a gift and ask about the eel.
She wanted to know whether Professor Choi had been teasing her or telling the truth.
After consulting with Seung-hee, they decided to buy a luxurious scarf as Mrs. Hwang’s gift.
They would have to go to the department store, but Na-young had no time, so she used her younger brother’s help.
She asked Hwi-young to buy the scarf at the department store and bring it to the hospital.
[Whose gift is it?]
“None of your business. Make sure it’s here by 9 a.m. tomorrow.”
[Are you trying to win favor with the mother of the guy you’re dating…]
Click.
Na-young hung up immediately when Hwi-young said something unnecessary.
It wasn’t about winning favor. She was simply showing gratitude for the lunch Mrs. Hwang had prepared. Mrs. Hwang was not Professor Choi’s mother.
Now that she thought about it, Tae-hyuk had often mentioned Mrs. Hwang, but never a word about his own mother. That struck her as odd.
Around 8 p.m., Hwi-young contacted her, and she told him to wait at the hospital entrance.
It would have been convenient to deliver the gift to the ward, but she didn’t want people seeing her younger brother.
So she went down to the hospital entrance herself.
She saw her brother, who was supposed to be alone, talking to two nurses. She was startled and hid behind a pillar.
She immediately understood the situation from their laughter.
Na-young waited until the nurses left, then her brother ran out from the hospital entrance alone. She grabbed his ear and pulled him along.
“Ah! That hurts, sister!”
“You, how dare you flirt with a girl where I work!”
“What are you talking about? They approached me first!”
“Did you tell them I’m your sister?”
She yanked his ear hard, and his voice naturally got louder.
“Ah! I didn’t! I didn’t say it!”
Na-young snatched the paper bag with the gift from his hand, finally letting go of his ear while warning him:
“Don’t ever come near the hospital again.”
Hwi-young, flustered, protested:
“I only came because you made me!”
Na-young, holding only the gift, left without another word. Hwi-young shouted after her:
“I put the receipt in there, so make sure to send me the money! I bought it with my allowance!”
Seeing Na-young ignore him, he clicked his tongue.
Tae-hyuk had surgery starting at 8 a.m., so guiding Mrs. Hwang to the health checkup center was left to Hong-sik.
He had suggested that she get the checkup while she was at the hospital, but Hong-sik would definitely take only Mrs. Hwang and sneak off.
Tae-hyuk, who had to meet Mrs. Hwang after surgery, entered the operating room in a better mood than usual and flinched when he saw Nam Ho-jin assisting.
“Of all people, you today…”
Standing at the surgeon’s position, Tae-hyuk warned Nam Ho-jin first.
“Let’s do this properly.”
He softened his words intentionally, knowing that if he threatened Ho-jin, he’d get more nervous and make mistakes.
“Yes, sir.”
That was the only response needed.
Today’s surgery was a laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
Normally, this surgery requires three or four small incisions in the body, but Tae-hyuk’s procedure only made one through the navel.
It required more delicate and precise skill, but the patient recovered faster and had less post-operative pain.
The patient today was a woman in her twenties, so minimizing surgical scars was important.
The surgery ended after Tae-hyuk called Nam Ho-jin’s name about three times.
After finishing, he headed straight to the checkup center.
He spotted Mrs. Hwang already seated by the entrance. His expression brightened.
“Mrs. Hwang.”
Hearing his voice, the woman turning sixty, sitting quietly, turned her head to look at him.
Her round face, round glasses, and deep double-lidded eyes made her features soft and gentle.
Even standing up, she didn’t reach his chest. Tae-hyuk sat down with her again.
“You came all this way despite being busy?”
“I knew Hong-sik would be late playing around, so I wanted to make sure you got your checkup. Did you have everything done?”
Mrs. Hwang shook her head, saying there was so much to check with age.
In fact, the older grandfather got a checkup only once every two years, thinking it was a waste of money. Since the owner was that way, employee benefits weren’t great either.
So Tae-hyuk paid for Mrs. Hwang’s checkups every year.
“You should’ve come with that young lady.”
She scolded him for coming alone.
Grandpa Tae-hyuk had nagged him endlessly about not inheriting a dime without marrying, but this was the first time Tae-hyuk had mentioned a woman himself. Mrs. Hwang was curious about who she was.
Tae-hyuk confidently raised his hand.
“If I count to three, that elevator door will open and she’ll appear.”
He had called Na-young on the way to the center, and she said she’d come.
Mrs. Hwang looked doubtful, thinking he was joking.
Tae-hyuk slowly started counting on his fingers.
“One.”
Mrs. Hwang glanced at the elevator with a skeptical expression.
“Two.”
He kept counting while watching the elevator panel carefully. He couldn’t be sure if Na-young was on it, but he had a strong feeling she was.
If she really was, it was fate. He decided without her consent.
“Three.”
Ding.
As he finished counting, the elevator arrived and the doors opened wide.
A young female doctor in a white coat walked out, and Mrs. Hwang’s face lit up with a bright smile.
Her porcelain-like fair skin stood out even among the crowd. Her black grape-like eyes were clear, and her elegantly pointed nose and slim face were simply beautiful.
Being beautiful, it was as if the sunlight sprinkled sparkling dust around her.
“Is this the pretty doctor girl?”
Tae-hyuk couldn’t take his eyes off her as he answered.
“Go ask her yourself when she comes.”
It felt like a moment they would all remember for a very long time.
