Just Dinner
……But that was as far as it went.
He was her type, yes — yet there was no pull that made her want to know what came next.
So Dajeong decided to draw a clear line.
"I'm not in a position to be seeing anyone. I'm busy, and I don't have the emotional bandwidth. Oh — and you know I'm an orphan, right?"
"Excuse me……?"
"When the chance comes, I plan to leave Korea. I might end up drifting through refugee zones all over the world."
At the sudden confession, the man's eyes went wide.
"So I think this is probably as far as we go."
He said nothing. The honesty of his silence was, if anything, a relief to her.
They left the sponsorship event together and walked around the side of the building toward the main entrance, him falling into the role of seeing her off.
"Um, Ms. Dajeong."
As she bowed and turned to head into the hospital, the man caught her.
"Would you at least have dinner with me once?"
"No. Please don't waste your valuable time on me."
"It wouldn't be a waste of time. Not at all."
As if he had made up his mind, he took another step closer.
"Honestly, I want to get to know you better, Ms. Yu Dajeong."
"Ah……."
"It's just a meal. Give me one chance."
She was about to refuse again when a familiar black sedan pulled up just beyond his shoulder.
The rear door opened, and a long leg in a navy suit stepped onto the ground.
The moment Jang Taekyung got out, the air itself seemed to yield. Dajeong swallowed dryly for no good reason.
Buttoning his jacket as he walked, he cast an indifferent glance toward Dajeong and the man.
"……."
That mercilessly dry look — as if they were furniture — sent a bitter wave crashing through her.
"……All right."
Her lips moved of their own accord, as if wanting that careless back to hear her.
Why was it that the second Jang Taekyung entered the picture, some mix of impulse and stubborn pride always jumped out first?
Still, Dajeong didn't stop.
"Fine. Dinner."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"You'll have dinner with me?"
After confirming it several times, the man beamed like a child.
Behind him, the tall man disappeared inside, leaving a dark trail of cologne in his wake.
"Thank you. For giving me the chance. I'll find a place I think you'll really like."
Dajeong focused on the smile in front of her instead of Taekyung's vanished back, and smiled in return.
Right. It was only dinner.
Given that the hospital director had introduced them, it seemed better than cutting the man off cold.
It was absolutely, absolutely not an impulsive decision because she felt dismissed by Jang Taekyung. She repeated it to herself as she walked.
A few days later.
"Dr. Yu Dajeong."
Park Hyeonwoo barged through the residents' lounge door and called for her.
"Why weren't you at the CS consult meeting? Is it true you stepped down as chief?"
He barely acknowledged Kang Jiho's greeting as the junior scrambled to his feet, zeroing in on Dajeong instead.
"Yes. I stepped down as chief. I want to focus properly on the board exam."
She cut Park Hyeonwoo off with professional coolness and tried to finish what she had been saying to Kang Jiho.
"Dr. Yu. Can I talk to you alone for a second?"
"I have plans soon and need to leave. Say it here."
At that, Park Hyeonwoo studied her for a moment.
Dajeong, who almost never wore makeup, had done it carefully today. She was in a bright yellow V-neck wrap dress — dressed up so femininely that anyone could tell she had somewhere important to be.
"……You're acting weird today, Dr. Yu Dajeong."
Caught in the middle, Kang Jiho read the room and quietly slipped out. Dajeong let out a small sigh.
"Being chief is part of your career. You know that, right? If you want the seniors' trust and to get yourself noticed, that's the best way."
Park Hyeonwoo pushed his glasses up and launched into a lecture.
"And if something's hard, you should have come to me first to talk about—"
"Dr. Park Hyeonwoo."
"Wh— what?"
His eyes wavered at Dajeong cutting him off — something she never did.
"I've been grateful for the advice you've given me. But from now on, I'd like to handle things on my own."
She stressed on my own, and Park Hyeonwoo's face twisted for a second.
Seeing his true face that night had been a blessing, if anything.
All those reliable-senior tips he had offered her had clearly been for some other purpose.
Whether that purpose was, in his own words, to "use" her or something else — she would never trust Park Hyeonwoo again.
And more than that.
Should I dig a trap of my own?
He was the kind of man who schemed in the shadows to take a swing at the CEO from behind.
She had sworn to look out for her own path now. She could not afford to get tangled up with someone that underhanded.
"Yu Dajeong. I've…… honestly treated you pretty well up until now."
"……."
"What's with the sudden iron wall? It's offensive."
It was a cold, hard stare — and yet it didn't scare her in the least.
"I'll be going first."
"Dajeong!"
She left the residents' lounge with his shout at her back.
Click, click. Even the high-heeled sandals she had chosen for today sounded light and bright.
But—
"Haa."
That composure lasted only as far as the elevator.
The moment she stepped into a space that was hers alone, a deep breath tore out of her as if she had just surfaced from underwater. Dajeong squeezed her eyes shut.
……Should she tell CEO Jang about Park Hyeonwoo, or not?
The question had been prodding at her conscience for days and still wouldn't let go.
A family like Park Hyeonwoo's carried real weight in the medical world.
If someone like that set his mind on going after Taekyung, even someone as solid as him might take a scratch or two…… right?
Ah. Why was she worrying about Jang Taekyung again?
"Mind your own business."
She forced her eyes open and muttered the reminder to herself.
Lee Suhui always said the most useless worries in the world were celebrity worries — and chaebol worries.
And this was that Jang Taekyung.
Why should she look after a man who lived on the pure satisfaction of how great he was?
Right now, she needed to worry about the dinner in front of her.
Smoothing the soft floral pattern of her dress, Dajeong stepped out of the elevator.
"We meet again, Ms. Dajeong."
In front of the main entrance, the gentle, soft-smiling man from the blind date was already waiting for her.
It had been an unusually exhausting day.
An executive briefing. A luncheon with the deputy prime minister for economic affairs. And for the finishing blow, his second brother Jang Taewan's absolute train wreck of a presentation at the investor meeting.
"Hyung-nim seems to have had a thorough second youth."
It was the kind of presentation you could have believed was an elementary school vacation assignment, Taekyung added from the back seat. His secretary gave an awkward laugh.
"Ah…… yes. Haha."
"And cleaning it up will fall to me again, of course."
"I expect instructions from the Chairman's office soon. I'll prepare in advance."
Taekyung nodded and rubbed between his brows, irritation still pooling somewhere he couldn't quite shake.
"The three deficit departments. Are you tracking their operating profit?"
"Yes. Emergency Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology improved by about ten percent within a month, then stalled. But as you know, Pediatrics shows no positive change."
Right. That was the quiet thorn under his skin.
Pediatrics — the leading headache in Seohan Hospital's deficits.
And inevitably bound up with it, that pale face that always rose to mind.
"Pediatrics has had a vacant department head, so there's been no one stepping up to manage it."
Taekyung knew perfectly well that was why they had been flailing. That didn't mean he could make exceptions.
Tap, tap. He drummed lightly on the armrest of the seat and was silent for a while.
They were entering the second of the three months he had given them.
Realistically, it was impossible for the operating profits of three clinical departments to turn around dramatically through the medical staff's efforts alone.
"Prepare Plan B as well."
And yet, actually dumping any one of those three departments wholesale into the refugee support center would cost Seohan Hospital more than it could afford to lose.
Just as that irritating bastard Park Hyeonwoo had pointed out.
So while he would deal with the problem departments as he had warned, he also needed measures that would dress up the operating numbers a little more attractively.
Reassigning them to a regional branch, for example, or converting them into research institutes to pull in government funding. As always, Taekyung was already looking wide — Plan B, Plan C, and beyond.
While he was lost in thought, the car slid to a stop in front of the hospital's main entrance.
The front of the hospital was quiet, outpatient hours over.
As busy as the medical staff who worked day and night, Taekyung stepped out of the car with the feeling of reporting for work all over again.
Up until that moment, it had been nothing more than another ordinary, hectic day.
"……."
The second he saw the black sedan parked a short distance away, his mood soured in an instant.
More precisely — the second he saw Yu Dajeong getting out of it.
A few days ago she had been standing around with that stick-figure in glasses. Today she had ridden in with the bastard entirely.
A short, incredulous laugh escaped him. He could barely believe it.