The Three-Month Ultimatum
“You seem to be under a misunderstanding. What is a hospital for? It’s a place that treats patients.”
“But the CEO is telling us to make money, not treat them.”
For God’s sake, shut up already—the director shot Park Hyeonwoo a look that was one breath away from tears, but it was already too late.
The words had struck Jang Taekyung’s raw nerve dead-on.
“Who told any of you to go make money? Think you could even do it well if you tried?”
“…….”
“Just focus properly on your own damn jobs. I’ll handle the money. You people concentrate on saving patients.”
He let his gaze sweep over the murmuring crowd, held a beat of silence, then opened his mouth again.
“Our goal is to enter the top three general hospitals within six months. Especially Emergency Medicine. Obstetrics and Gynecology. Pediatrics.”
“……!”
Yu Dajeong’s already round eyes went even wider, as if her own name had just been called.
“Those three departments will bring me numbers showing a twenty-percent improvement in operating profit margins within three months. If not—”
He controlled even the rhythm of his breathing, manipulating the tension like a conductor.
“—we plan to transfer the entire organization to the refugee support centers operated by the foundation. Contributing to the hospital’s social responsibility at the same time.”
The emergency medicine chief’s shoulders flinched hard.
Refugee support center. Exactly what it sounded like: an organization that went wherever refugees were—jungles, war zones, deserts—no destination off-limits. When the government requested deployment, they packed tents and sleeping bags and left.
“And if even then recovery still doesn’t look viable… well. We’ll have to make them independent.”
…In other words, kick us out of here either way.
For a moment Dajeong’s mind went blank white. The instant her eyes met Lee Suhui’s—
“That’s absurd!”
Park Hyeonwoo slammed the table and shot to his feet.
“By what authority are you eliminating essential medical departments?!”
Taekyung alone remained perfectly at ease. He folded his arms and scanned the room.
“Eliminate? Who said anything about eliminating? This is internal reallocation of personnel.”
“Aren’t you just trying to cut them loose and pocket a little more government subsidy money?”
“Refugees need patients and doctors too. Far more than a polished place right in the middle of Gangnam.”
“Now, now, everyone! Let’s all calm down for a moment.”
The vice director finally stepped in to cool the overheated air, but it was useless.
The cold, slanted smile lifting the corner of Taekyung’s mouth looked ominous.
“You’re all doctors, aren’t you? You know full well that a disease only heals once you cut out the affected part.”
“O-our department is the affected part?”
The obstetrics chief’s shrill cry was buried under the force of Taekyung rising to his full height.
“I won’t drag this out. Within three months—twenty percent improvement in operating profit margin.”
“…….”
“If you want to keep performing the noble act of saving lives—”
He strode toward the exit with the unhurried confidence of a man walking a runway and drove the final nail in.
“—then thrash about a little. Leave things as they are and this place is finished.”
The door slammed shut behind him. Instantly the room erupted in furious voices.
“Th-th-that crazy son of a bitch!”
Against the backdrop of the emergency medicine chief’s curses, Lee Suhui muttered blankly,
“Wow……. The day we got marked was nothing, Dajeong.”
Dajeong’s dazed gaze was still fixed on the door through which the man had vanished.
“Dr. Yu Dajeong.”
After the meeting that had felt like a bomb being dropped, she was on her way back to the residents’ lounge.
Behind the soft tap of her footsteps came a voice calling her name.
“You okay?”
Park Hyeonwoo closed the distance in a few long strides, his face full of concern.
“Ignore everything that guy said earlier. I’ll start formal protest procedures.”
Even as he spoke sharply, the look he gave her complexion was careful.
“I’m fine. Thank you for worrying.”
…But Jang Taekyung’s cutting remarks weren’t entirely wrong.
Even someone as uninterested in gossip as Dajeong had been hearing lately that the hospital’s finances were in serious trouble.
Still, people had been brushing it off easily—Seohan Hospital had its reputation, after all, plus government support. How bad could it really get?
While her classmates applied to the popular, high-earning specialties, Dajeong had stubbornly chosen pediatrics. She had a dream she wanted to fulfill here.
Her advisor, Professor Im Gyeong-a, was one of the few authorities on pediatric thoracic surgery in the country.
Growing into a pediatric heart specialist under her was the goal.
She wanted to treat children who suffered from heart disease the way she once had, and in doing so repay the life debt she owed for her own heart transplant.
But if Jang Taekyung truly shipped the Department of Pediatrics off to a refugee support center……?
Of course she would still fulfill a doctor’s mission of quietly caring for patients and conducting research, no matter where she was.
Yet the chance to encounter diverse pediatric cardiac cases and grow through actual surgery would almost completely disappear.
“Who am I to start ranking people by performance and taking sides? Is this some ordinary company?”
Seeing Dajeong look crushed, Park Hyeonwoo spat out his anger.
“I need to find out what CEO Jang Taekyung’s real agenda is.”
“…….”
He didn’t seem like a bad person, though.
The serious expression she had seen on Taekyung’s face on the emergency stairs last time rose in her mind.
He had clearly been eager to understand the hospital.
She had thought it was because he wanted to manage it well. Was he actually just trying to exploit it for his own greed?
…Oddly enough, she felt a small twinge of disappointment.
She must have trusted someone she had barely met a few times far too readily.
Maybe she had simply gotten carried away by his good looks and the charged atmosphere when they had been alone.
Clutching the turmoil inside her, she started to turn away—only for Park to catch her again.
“Have you eaten?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Then let me at least buy you coffee. The first-floor café is gone, so let’s go to the one in front of the staff cafeteria.”
Dajeong smiled and gently pushed his kindness away.
“Rounds are soon—the timing’s awkward. I’ll just take the thought, Doctor.”
Come to think of it, CEO Jang Taekyung had also ruthlessly driven out the café that had stood guard over the hospital for years.
The first-floor café Medics had coincidentally closed the moment he took office, its contract terminated.
In its place now stood a café operated by Hanju Travel, complete with an AR experience zone and a Hanju Pharma health-food corner.
A man like that would think nothing of expelling unprofitable departments.
“You looked upset. I just wanted to comfort you a little.”
She pretended not to notice Park’s open disappointment and rounded the corner—
“……!”
—only to come face-to-face with the tall man standing solidly in front of the elevators.
His glance at Dajeong and Park was completely indifferent. She gave a small bow of silent greeting and took her place beside him.
As if Taekyung did not even exist, Park focused solely on Dajeong.
Is this really the same Dr. Park Hyeonwoo who glared daggers and charged at me?
Even at a glance, the eyes he turned on Yu Dajeong were moist and subtly glowing. Ridiculous.
Playing around, are we.
The repeatedly irritating Yu Dajeong and that unbearable Park Hyeonwoo. What the hell was this godawful combination?
“Then shall we have coffee in the lounge? I bought new beans—the aroma is excellent.”
The voice, oiled to the max in an effort to impress, whispered close.
Standing still, Taekyung was forced to hear every last scrap of the flirting. Unbelievable.
He raked a hand through his hair in irritation.
Fucking hell. Flirting at work.
Ding. The elevator doors opened at last. Taekyung stepped inside carrying his twisted mood.
“Ah……. In the lounge?”
So, was she going to accept the bastard’s schemes? Yu Dajeong trailed off ambiguously.
He found himself pricking up his ears at the unclear reply—but the two of them got off before he did.
He had just gone a round with the doctors and absorbed information he had no need to know. He desperately needed a cigarette.
Lunchtime at the Seohan Hospital staff cafeteria.
Today’s menu was ttukbaegi bulgogi.
“Yes! Ttukbul!”
Meat-lover Kang Jiho happily shook his shoulders.
Dajeong set her tray down across from him and paused the video she had been watching.
She had finally obtained the footage of the successful pediatric heart-valve replacement performed in the United States last week.
She had been watching those wondrous scenes over and over the entire way to the cafeteria.
“Is that the video?”
“Hello, Dr. Park.”
At the approaching presence, Kang Jiho was the first to greet him.
“Eat first, then study.”
Park Hyeonwoo, tray loaded with a full meal, sat down naturally beside Dajeong.
“How is it? Anything worth learning?”
“Mm, they used the new M-company product developed in Germany for the artificial valve. At a glance it seems a bit thinner than the Japanese P-company one.”
“Really? Something worth checking.”
Park leaned in closer to see the screen. Dajeong shifted slightly backward, putting distance between them.
“I’ll email you the link later. It’ll be easier to watch on a computer.”
She offered a bright, professional social smile.
“Picky eating again?”
Park’s nagging reached her as she carefully picked out the flower-shaped carrot pieces.
Dajeong pouted but stubbornly continued fishing them out.
She was still diligently working her chopsticks when a shadow suddenly fell across her tray.
She looked up without particular thought—
“Is this seat empty?”
“……!”
—and met the eyes of Jang Taekyung standing there with his tray.
Before she could even answer, he set the tray down diagonally across from her.