The Morning After

The woman who had been sleeping opened her eyes.

Blink. Blink. Her eyelids, still heavy with sleep, refused to lift.

"……."

High ceilings filled her vision. Elegant lighting. Elegant blackout curtains in the distance.

Where was this?

Not the ugly gray drywall ceiling of the hospital on-call room she saw every morning, nor the pathetic white ceiling of her studio apartment.

A scene more like a hotel.

A hotel?

"……!"

Her mind snapped awake as if doused with cold water. The woman bolted upright and frantically examined her body.

The slip left her feeling bare. Vivid red marks stamped her shoulders, collarbones, and upper chest in a dizzying scatter.

What was all this?

What on earth had happened last night?

Just as she tried to deny the bad feeling and pull the blanket up—

"You're awake."

A firm, deep voice sounded from somewhere beyond the bed.

A tall man in a robe approached, raking a hand through his hair.

The woman screamed as if she'd seen a ghost and dove under the covers.

I'm crazy. I must be crazy!

"Ha. What's that reaction supposed to mean."

She heard him draw closer, laughing under his breath as if he couldn't believe it.

"Dr. Yu Dajeong."

The bed dipped as he sat on the edge—the mattress sank with a soft thump. Dajeong screamed again.

"CEO—why are you here?"

"Why, you ask."

The blanket was yanked away mercilessly. Dajeong squeezed her eyes shut.

"I'm here because we slept together."

This couldn't be. Her eyes flew open of their own accord.

"We… slept together?"

Her voice came out cracked and rough from sleep.

Ahem. Ahem. She hastily cleared her throat while the man watched her with a gaze somewhere between pity and interest, then smirked.

His fierce eyes curved, for a moment, into something almost handsome.

She must still be half-asleep. To see the infamous CEO Jang Taekyung smiling in front of her.

No—she must simply be insane.

To think she would wake up in a hotel room with that man.

"Then… all of this was also done by you, CEO…"

She couldn't finish the sentence, only gesturing with her eyes at her mottled shoulders.

"If anything, Dr. Yu did more."

"……!"

Suddenly the front of the man's robe fell open. Startled by the motion, Dajeong screamed a third time.

Across his broad shoulders and flawlessly perfect chest muscles, angry red marks were scattered in chaos.

A riot of color. Premature autumn leaves ripening across Taekyung's solid upper body.

"I was starting to wonder if Dr. Yu was a dog or a wolf in a past life."

As he approached and held out a glass of water, Taekyung's dark eyes roamed over Dajeong's face.

"You bit so much."

Dear God. Better not to know. Fragments of memory chose the worst possible timing to surface and torment her.

Hey. Jang Taekyung.

…You're drunk. Dr. Yu Dajeong.

Wait a second. I… have something I'm curious about. I really want to know.

And after that? She'd grabbed his necktie and pulled him down, boldly kissing him first.

Once I start something, I never stop. Once I bite down, I don't let go no matter what.

If that scares you, if it terrifies you, if you want to run—say so now. Then I won't bite.

She'd toyed with the lips of the man giving that warning and begged with her whole body to be bitten.

…She had done something truly insane. Alcohol was the enemy.

Dajeong's flushed face dropped.

"But. Why have you looked so wronged this whole time."

Taekyung withdrew the arm offering water. He seemed displeased that Dajeong wouldn't accept his kindness.

"Who was the one who threw herself at me first."

Right. With the memories coming back, she couldn't even deny it. Dajeong hung her head even lower.

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry?"

"Yes, CEO. I made a… enormous mistake… I'm sorry."

But the man gave no reaction.

In the glance she stole, he was as impassive as ever.

Sharp jawline. Attractive lips. A perfect nose bridge as if the Creator had paid special attention. Dark, deep-set eyes.

The crown prince of Hanju Group. The arrogant, cold CEO of the Hanju Foundation.

The superior of Yu Dajeong, a mere resident physician on staff.

"A mistake."

His eyes seemed to gleam as he chewed over the end of Dajeong's words—or was that her imagination?

"Yes, it was a mistake… I'm sorry. CEO. So please, just forget—"

"Interesting. Dr. Yu Dajeong."

Saying so, Taekyung walked toward the window with a face that looked anything but amused.

His mood had turned harsher, somehow. Different from before.

Had she made another mistake? Dajeong fretted again as she hurried to cover herself with the blanket.

"Forget it. That won't be possible."

Whoosh—he threw open the blackout curtains. The brilliant sunlight pooled behind them scattered glittering scales across the Sokcho sea.

"I happen to have an exceptional memory."

Backlit, Taekyung's body looked even larger. Crushed by the man's superior charisma and overwhelming presence, Dajeong could only blink, words forgotten.

"I'll see you at the hospital."

After fixing a long look on the dazed Dajeong, Taekyung moved his long legs and left the bedroom.

Click. The moment the door closed, the breath she'd been holding burst free.

"Yu Dajeong. You're crazy, for real! What do I do. What do I do."

She clutched her spinning head when her phone buzzed.

"The hospital?"

It might be about a patient. Dajeong looked around, spotted her handbag dumped at the foot of the bed, and scrambled up.

As she rummaged through the bag for her phone, her ID badge caught on her fingers and tumbled out.

"Gaejakdu?"

"Yeah. Gaejakdu."

Yaaawn. Dajeong's classmate Shin Yumi, mid-stretch, turned her stiff neck and tilted her head.

"Like the dog guillotine they used to execute criminals? That's the nickname for the new foundation CEO?"

"A friend who works at Hanju Trading told me. He's foul-tempered and vicious. If he doesn't like something, he chops the whole thing down."

Another classmate, Lee Suhui, nodded firmly.

Brutal. Too drained even to play along, Dajeong quietly rubbed her eyes.

Even so, for fourth-year residents who'd spent the night on call, they were in fairly lively shape.

"The director and vice director are apparently a wreck because of that CEO."

"Afraid of getting chopped by the Dog-Chopper?"

"Honestly, what does a chaebol third son who's only ever run companies know about hospitals? But the ownership is changing either way. Having someone clueless storming around is giving them a headache."

"True enough. A hospital isn't like a regular corporation."

Today's topic was fairly serious. Dajeong felt no interest whatsoever.

All the way down to the first-floor café, her classmates kept talking. Mostly about the incoming foundation CEO.

Seohan Hospital had recently been acquired by Hanju Group, one of the country's leading conglomerates.

It had been a hospital on the scale of Korea's Big Five, but the foundation that ran it couldn't weather its financial crisis and sold the place to a major corporation.

For better or worse, Dajeong's life stayed the same. Her morning rounds schedule was packed tight, and patients poured in without end.

One of the few pediatric thoracic surgery subspecialists in the country—that was Yu Dajeong's title. Put another way, one body was not enough.

Dog-Chopper, Dragon-Chopper, whatever. To survive the day, a caffeine transfusion came first.

"Unnie! We're here."

"Good morning. Coffee, please~"

The moment they stepped into Café Medics, the three of them turned their greeting into an order for the owner.

"Oh, Doctors, you're here…"

The owner's voice was a full tone lower than her usual cheerful self, but the three women, deep in conversation, didn't notice.

"He used to be vice president of Hanju Construction. The Dog-Chopper just landed that seven-trillion-won redevelopment project near the Han River, right?"

"Seven trillion? Insane."

"For all the good it does him. Word is the chairman cast him out. Coming to Seohan Hospital is a demotion."

Lee Suhui always managed to dig up the gossip from somewhere. Listening without much interest, Dajeong picked up the iced Americano waiting at the counter and took a sip.

Hmm. The taste was different from usual.

She spit out the straw and tilted her head.

"Unnie. This is three shots, right? It's way too weak."

But whether her voice was drowned out by her classmates' chatter or not, the café owner didn't answer.

"So what is that Dog-Chopper's real name, anyway?"

The moment Dajeong finally reacted, sick of her classmates' conversation—

"Jang Taekyung."

A long arm stretched from behind her and took the coffee she had set down after that single sip.

"CEO of the Hanju Foundation. Jang Taekyung."

The overwhelming low voice drew every eye.

Its owner pressed down on the air slowly, but with absolute certainty.

Sharp eyes holding boredom, arrogance, and ease locked straight onto Dajeong.

Her head tilted up of its own accord to take in a man a full head taller than she was.

"……."

It was a first. A gaze so dense it bound a person in place from the mere act of looking.

The man spoke with his eyes. That Dog-Chopper is me.