A Foolish Choice

Taekyung let out a derisive snort, his expression growing colder still.

"Or you think life in an organization is some kind of game."

She couldn't quite grasp the intent behind the remark, but Dajeong shook her head all the same.

"No. Absolutely not."

"You say that, yet why do you expect the organization to cover for Dr. Yu's shortcomings?"

"……Excuse me?"

"Low performance and missing out on a training post are on the individual. Did someone threaten you not to go?"

Heat flooded Dajeong's face—stunned, mortified heat.

"Director, I wasn't asking you to keep Professor Im at the hospital—"

Ding. The unwelcome chime announced their arrival on the first floor. The time he had allotted her was up.

"Well. I'm sorry about your situation, Dr. Yu. Still, leaning on the reputation of a corrupt professor strikes me as a foolish choice, doesn't it?"

Even the way he needled people came wrapped in the most businesslike tone. A perfect finishing stroke.

"……!"

Before she could form a reply, Taekyung stepped out of the elevator with long, decisive strides.

"What the hell was that……"

Left standing alone, Dajeong raked a hand through her hair over and over.

So just now he treated me like some completely incompetent, clueless idiot?

"Ha……"

The longer she turned the words over, the hotter the anger rose. She didn't even notice the elevator doors sliding shut again.

Maybe, just as he'd said, she had taken him a little too lightly.

No—not lightly. More precisely, she had fallen for the illusion that they had grown closer.

The moment she saw the notice, she had been seized by the urge to go to Taekyung and had come running.

All because they had walked in step for a little while and exchanged a few conversations.

Ah—wait. Even now she was thinking "we."

"Get a grip, Yu Dajeong."

It wasn't even funny. She squeezed her eyes shut, opened them again, and punched the button for the residents' floor.

Bang!

Taekyung slammed the rear door of the sedan with open irritation.

"Hopeless people."

Bzz. Bzzz. His phone screen lit up endlessly with the hospital director's name.

Taekyung yanked his stifling tie loose and tossed the phone onto the seat beside him.

"Just because the foundation CEO shows his face every day, they think I'm the neighborhood mutt."

If he pointed out a problem, they were supposed to bring him a fix—not come pouring in, whining as if the sky had fallen.

"Director, Legal says we can file criminal charges against Professor Im as well. How would you like to proceed?"

"Do it. We need to make an example."

"I'll pass that along."

Tsk. Taekyung clicked his tongue and turned his gaze out the window.

By any measure it had been a successful audit……

And yet his mood still scraped along the floor.

There had been a piece he missed—something uncharacteristic of the perfectionist Jang Taekyung.

Professor Im is my thesis advisor.

And Yu Dajeong had been the one to make him aware of it.

The peculiar structure of a university hospital, so different from a corporation, was the problem. In punishing hospital personnel, they had inadvertently harmed medical students as collateral.

Watching Yu Dajeong speak in that quiet, measured way—face gone pale, cheeks flushed—he had felt a brief, sharp damn.

Of course he had recovered his impassive mask at once, so she would never know of the slip.

To keep even the smallest crack from showing, you had to dominate the other person first. He had answered exactly as he always did. And yet—

Because of you my future might be ruined. You bastard.

……Those large eyes looking up at him, full of that kind of resentment, had left him in a thoroughly foul mood.

"Secretary Kim."

His head pounded as badly as the whining phone. Taekyung pressed his temple and called for his secretary.

"Tell the director to quit the damn phone harassment and get a new pediatrics chief appointed already."

"Yes, sir."

"Prioritize redistributing the professor's duties so the gap is minimized."

Since when had Gaejakdu Jang Taekyung cared about anyone else's resentment or curses?

This particular condemnation, though, left a stubborn afterimage.

He couldn't understand why it kept grating on him. A fragile little herbivore who wouldn't even fill one of his fists if he closed his hand.

Dajeong's angry footsteps carried her down the corridor and all the way to the residents' room.

"What? He said I was leaning on a corrupt professor's reputation?"

It wasn't as if she could parade every transcript and award she'd ever earned in front of him!

"I'll get the paper through and land that Canadian fellowship myself. Just watch me."

From now on she would live in the OR and take every assist that came. Double the case studies with the juniors.

And she would finally shed this busywork-heavy chief-resident tag! Board exam prep, daily workouts for stamina that never quit—

In a way it was for the best. Now she no longer had to wonder whether he was a decent person or not. No need to worry about falling for him, either.

Fired up with fresh resolve, Dajeong rounded the corner—

"Dr. Yu. Why aren't you answering your phone?"

—and nearly collided with Park Hyeonwoo standing outside the pediatrics residents' room.

"Ah…… I'm sorry. Is something wrong? Do I need to go to the ward?"

"We need to talk."

With a heavy sigh, Park Hyeonwoo steered her toward the emergency stairwell.

"With Professor Im ending up like that, what are you going to do about your thesis?"

"I'll get it out somehow. I was going to ask the other professors today if any of them would co-author."

"This is a mess. What about the conference? Can you present?"

"I'll figure that out too."

"You're really something. So calm. I came because I was worried."

Now that Dajeong had finished her own mental collapse and gone quiet, it was Park Hyeonwoo who seemed steeped in anxiety.

"That's why I told you from internship days to apply for CS."

He scrubbed his face dry as if he himself had been the one struck, looking genuinely distressed.

"Yeah……"

Dajeong gave a bitter little smile. Then a sudden question surfaced.

"Did you…… know? About our chief's case?"

"You were always buried in the wards, so of course you didn't. Word had already spread quietly."

So that was it. As she nodded, the gaze watching her grew especially heavy.

"I thought he would be someone who could help your future. I regret not talking you out of that choice, Dajeong."

"Ah……"

The atmosphere felt oddly oppressive. Dajeong rubbed the back of her neck, awkward.

"And the overseas fellowship…… I can help with that."

"Sorry? You, Doctor?"

Park Hyeonwoo swallowed once, then smiled with an air of reluctant concession.

"If you go with me, I'll speak to my father about a recommendation letter for you. He has connections at UCLA."

"……"

Watching her blink rapidly, unable even to answer, he added in a hurry:

"Only if you want to, of course."

It was a confession that wasn't quite a confession.

Having tossed it out on impulse, Park Hyeonwoo looked embarrassed and turned his head as if to smooth his hair.

To claim she hadn't known would have been a lie. Park Hyeonwoo had always shown her kindness and attention that went a little too far.

Yet instead of any thrill at being confessed to, the first feeling that rose was well, this was bound to happen.

What could she do? Her heart simply didn't move.

"Doctor. I—"

"No. You don't have to say it. My fault. You're already this shaken—what am I even spouting?"

He already seemed to know her answer.

"Yes. I don't want that."

She needed to draw a clear line from the start. That was the iron rule born of having been burned too thoroughly once before.

Dajeong finished his confession with a calm refusal.

"Hey, you know you're really cold sometimes? At least pretend to think it over a little."

Even with his face flushed red, Park Hyeonwoo tried to keep it light.

Watching her smile and shake her head to the end, he finally threw both hands up.

"I've liked you for a long time, Dajeong."

It had probably started back when the pretty intern arrived and all the dark-hearted male residents had stirred.

But there had been practical problems. In a family that had produced doctors and medical professors for generations, Park Hyeonwoo's people were unlikely to look kindly on someone from an orphanage.

Everything about Yu Dajeong was fine—except that one flaw, which was simply too large. If not for that, he would have already charmed her into anything he wanted.

Unable to voice any of those thoughts, Park Hyeonwoo simply sent her off with his usual good-natured smile.

For now, remaining the cool senior was the best he could do.

Lunchtime.

While Dajeong ate cup ramen in the residents' room, Kang Jiho launched into a lecture.

"Sunbae, you've been living on cup ramen for days. Let's at least go to the staff cafeteria together."

"Don't worry about me. I still have to run the aortic cannula simulation later."

……She couldn't exactly add that she was avoiding two separate people and therefore refused to wander around anywhere, cafeteria or otherwise.

Jang Taekyung—that man—was simply hateful for now. Park Hyeonwoo was just burdensome.

"This is a disaster. Sunbae, your dark circles are about to reach your knees."

As she cleared away the cup ramen and gathered up the 3-D heart model, Kang Jiho needled her.

"But I bet you'll be praising me soon. I prepared a surprise so our sunbae can finally get some real rest!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Huh? You haven't seen the notice yet?"

Another notice? Watching Dajeong's face go pale, Kang Jiho grinned mischievously.

"Aigoo, relax. This one's a good notice."