Boss, It's My First Time Being Your Resident - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 10. You’re Quite the Grudge Holder

“A patient in Plastic Surgery had Finger Reattachment Surgery and Microsurgical Skin Grafts ten days ago, and I’m currently managing their leech therapy.”
“…….”

Ta Heon continued typing without expression, listening to the woman’s strained voice.

“The leeches I was caring for escaped while I was napping, and three of them are… missing… it’s quite the situation.”

Pretending to know nothing, Ta Heon turned his head and fixed his gaze on the woman staring at him with an embarrassed expression.

“And?”
“And……”
“And?”

A mischievous impulse stirred in him—a desire to keep watching the woman with her eyes wide and frozen like that.

A strange curiosity about just how much redder those two cheeks would turn as they tinted increasingly pink—the cheeks of someone who was anything but a human peach.

Pathetic.
Ta Heon let out a self-mocking laugh.

“I’d like to take a quick look when there’s a gap in the Trauma Center. Please allow me……”

The more directly he held her gaze, the more her pupils trembled like aspen leaves. Her voice grew quieter in real time.

Ju A Gang, was that her name?
It was an unusual name.

“Ta Heon, what did she just say?”

Professor Ma, standing at a distance, strode over and planted himself firmly beside Ta Heon.

“What? No patients? You’re telling me there are no patients in our Trauma Center right now? Good grief. I’m losing my mind, I really am!”

Professor Ma grabbed the back of his neck with his thick hand.

With a build so imposing that you’d believe him to be a mixed martial arts champion if he weren’t wearing a coat, his gown billowed upward into the air.

“Hey, you all get ready for calls! Brace yourselves for a long night! Patients are about to pour in, I’m telling you!”
“I’m, I’m so sorry, Professor. I misspoke.”

A Gang, looking frightened, gnawed at her lower lip.

Professor Ma did have a rather forbidding appearance, it was true.

Watching the woman shuffle backward one small step at a time, Ta Heon let out a quiet chuckle despite himself.

“Ah, so you’re the one they call Leech? Blacklisted by Park Do Joon from day one and made the leech handler?”

Leech?
Had the professors already given her a nickname?

Listening to their conversation, the corner of Ta Heon’s mouth twisted slightly.

“Professor, would it be alright if I lay down and checked the bed frame?”

Courage came from somewhere unexpected. The woman ventured a cautious question toward Professor Ma.

“Go ahead then. By the way, how much are they per leech these days? Prices on leeches gone up with inflation too?”
“Seventy thousand won per leech, sir.”
“Ha! Prices are murder these days. Back when I was starting out, they were thirty thousand.”

The patient’s spine will be ruined with these costs, Professor Ma muttered to himself as he continued.

“Alright, search hard. You have my permission!”
“Thank you! If I go around this corner, would that be the Ward? I’d also like to check the bed there……”
“Hey!! Shut that girl’s mouth!!”

Professor Ma shouted loudly, waving his arms toward the station.

“Go around? Go around?! How dare you speak such words carelessly in a Trauma Center! Don’t you know about Taboo Words? If a patient passes, you’ll be responsible!”
“…….”
“Ha Ta Heon! Help her find those leeches quickly and send her back to Plastic Surgery! Ugh, the patients are going to be flooding in today. Absolutely flooding in.”

As if there was no stopping him, Professor Ma rubbed his furrowed brow forcefully as he walked toward the Ward.

Taboo Words.

In a Trauma Center where countless lives hung in the balance every single day, there were certain words you never spoke.

It was like how students avoided eating seaweed soup the night before an exam or didn’t want to use words meaning “to slip”—a superstition born of fear.

For instance, “Hwanta,” which meant a patient was being transported, so no one went near orange drinks.
“See you again,” which meant never crossing paths with a patient again, was never uttered.
And words like “free time” or “quiet,” which brought a flood of patients the moment they left your lips, were carefully avoided.

The Trauma Center’s jinx.
Or perhaps a superstition—a strange phenomenon difficult to explain in words.

“Come here a moment.”

Ta Heon quietly called A Gang to the side.

She still couldn’t even meet his eyes properly.

“I’m sorry. I’m still not accustomed to the Taboo Words……”

Her small face, distressed and flustered, came into Ta Heon’s view. It was pale and clear.

Where had that bold and fearless manner from the mountain gone?

The woman, her cheeks flushed red, blinked with moistened eyes, her small lips trembling like a frightened squirrel.

Perhaps the Trauma Center’s atmosphere really was rather fierce. To be frightened to this degree.

“Give me your hand.”
“My hand? Why would you need……”
“I have something to show you.”

He peeled away the leech that had been clinging to her shoulder and placed it gently on her hesitantly extended palm.

The woman startled.

“What? How did you……”
“It was on your shoulder.”
“Really? Oh……”

Only then did a faint glow return to the woman’s face.

The leech wriggled on her palm as if it had found its way home.

The woman cradled it carefully, as if she’d discovered a pearl in a mound of clay, trembling with excitement.

It wasn’t even a family reunion. Could something be this joyful?

The moment her lips curved upward, a small, endearing dimple appeared on her right cheek.

An honest dimple that concealed no deception.

Faced with that innocent smile she couldn’t hide, Ta Heon found himself unable to look away.

Realizing his stare had lingered too long, Ta Heon let out a soft cough.

“Now I just need to find two more!”
“They’re Contaminated, so they can’t be used anyway.”
“……Contaminated?”
“If they’re not in a sterile state, they’re useless even if you find them. Don’t bother searching—let’s go back.”
“Oh……”

The brightness that had bloomed on her cheeks faded, and her expression grew downcast again.

“Still, thank you for finding this one. Se, sen……”

The woman labored through the last three syllables.

“Thank you.”
“No, not that.”
“Sen… sensei?”

Ta Heon laughed.

Right. It would feel awkward calling someone a teacher when you’d called the police on them.

In any case, thanks to this woman disarming him, his suspension hadn’t been extended and he’d been able to return safely.

If he’d attempted a tracheotomy with that knife right then, it was clear what additional disciplinary action would have followed.

But thinking that the patient might have died if the ambulance hadn’t arrived immediately in that critical moment, heat suddenly boiled up inside him.

“Wait. Ju A Gang, look at me.”

Ta Heon stopped her as she turned away with slumped shoulders.

“What does Ju A Gang think kindness is?”

As if someone had told him to live kindly this time around.

“Um… I’m not sure……”

Taken aback by the unexpected question, her pupils widened noticeably.

“I hope you live well this life without wielding that sword again. Kindly!”

He could still hear that bold woman’s voice echoing in his ears.

“Is it kindness to disarm a doctor trying to save a life?”
“…….”
“Or is it kindness to misdiagnose an Anaphylaxis patient in a race against the clock and attempt the Heimlich Maneuver?”

I have my doubts.

Ta Heon stared at A Gang, whose lips trembled without finding an answer.

“Or is it kindness to call the police on someone after they’ve saved you, spinning fantasies in your head?”
“…….”
“I don’t recall ever saying I went to prison myself.”

There was no answer.

“Kindness is not stupidity. Remember that.”

Ta Heon spoke indifferently and turned away.

A long silence fell.
The cold air of the Trauma Center felt all the more chilling.

“……Ha Ta Heon! You’re quite the grudge holder!”

Through the heavy silence came the woman’s voice, thick with resentment.

“Then you should have told me straight from the start that you were a doctor, not a freshly released thug! And that the narrow place you mentioned wasn’t a cell—it was an operating room!”
“What?”
“Did you enjoy making fun of me?”
“…….”
“Do you know how terrified I was when you held that knife?”
“…….”
“Back then, I was risking my own life to take it from you! I wasn’t trying to kill the patient—I was trying to save them!”

As if something had broken loose inside her, the woman poured out a torrent of words all at once.

“Please forget what happened on the mountain! I’m asking you! And the fact that you saw me naked too. All of it!”
“…….”
“I’d like you to treat me like someone you’re meeting for the first time!”

The woman bit her lip and met his eyes directly.

“Pleased to meet you. Ha. Ta. Heon, Doctor!”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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