Boss, It's My First Time Being Your Resident - Chapter 12

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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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Chapter 12. An Unexpected Disciplinary Action

“…Professor, what do you mean by that?”

It struck like a thunderbolt from a clear sky. Had she misheard?

“While you were sleeping those brief moments, the patient was struggling to save a severed finger.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Sorry to me? You owe your apology to the patient!”

At the sudden shout, A Gang’s shoulders reflexively hunched inward.

“I’ll go and apologize to them…”
“The patient entrusted their own flesh and blood to you. To you, it was just a disgusting leech, but to them—it’s their whole life. Their livelihood depends on it.”

The professor’s sharp rebuke pierced her chest like a blade. A Gang’s eyes began to redden.

“I wanted to see that sense of responsibility in you.”
“I’ll be more careful from now on. Please forgive me, Professor…”

A Gang’s lips moved silently, searching for words that might soften the professor’s anger, before she finally lowered her head.

“You ran here to Sae In University Hospital after something went wrong at Cheon Woo University Hospital, didn’t you?”
“…”
“When trouble comes at our hospital, you’ll make plans to run away again?”
“…No, I won’t.”
“You have four years ahead. During your residency, you’ll face ridiculous situations constantly. Will you cry and run away every time? Hair will be grabbed, slaps will be thrown, lawsuits will be filed—a university hospital is where everything under the sun happens.”
“…”

It wasn’t as if she’d applied for residency without that resolve.

If she’d been afraid of such things from the start, she would have taken seminary classes at her father’s insistence instead of pursuing residency.

She could have lived comfortably as the heiress of Onelga, presiding over tables laid out by secretaries, finding a harmless son-in-law to her father’s taste, and spending her life in a flower garden.

A life of difficulty level one—pure comfort.

But she’d never wanted to live like a doll.

“I won’t waste my time teaching a student without the resolve to endure. One who loses even in a battle against herself.”
“…”
“Pack your things.”
“Pardon?”

Why was her vision suddenly growing cloudy?
The ceiling lights of the doctors’ office wavered and distorted through her tears.

“Didn’t you hear? Pack. Your. Things.”
“…”
“Starting tomorrow, you’re dispatched to the Trauma Center for two months! Move your things to the on-call room there immediately!”

Tears gathered in her eyes finally spilled down both cheeks, dropping to the floor with a soft tap.

A Gang stared blankly, her lips trembling slightly.
She couldn’t believe it.

It was common for surgical residents to be dispatched to other surgical departments for a month or two, but dispatch to the Trauma Center was rare.

A resident doctor going to the Trauma Center…

It didn’t make sense.
She was dumbfounded.

***

“Park Do Jun, you bastard!!!”

Professor Ma’s roar filled the busy Trauma Center station.

It was a pleasant afternoon.

“What is the Trauma Center, a neighborhood charity? It’s so easy to push people around here.”

Professor Ma spat out rough words while crunching the ice in her Americano loudly.

“Shoving a first-year fledgling at us! A girl who hasn’t even gotten her hand steady with suturing!”
“Professor, please calm down! Take a deep breath.”

Eun Do rushed over and patted Professor Ma’s back soothingly.

“Even ten fellows wouldn’t be enough, and now you send a green resident? Have you lost your mind?”
“Exactly what I’m saying.”
“Who made this decision? Park Do Jun, or the Head of Education and Training?”
“Actually, Professor, I happened to overhear something a while back…”
“Don’t drag this out—just tell me!”
“I think it’s the hospital director’s doing. Lately he’s been trying to squeeze profits out of the Trauma Center’s poor performance through marketing…”

Eun Do, who’d been carefully reading Professor Ma’s expression, quickly elaborated.

“What? Marketing? Squeeze profits? What does that mean?”
“From what I heard, the hospital director seems desperate to earn the title of ‘actively supporting residents.’ You know—the image that Sae In Hospital really backs the Trauma Center with manpower. That kind of publicity play.”
“Does he want to plaster the front page of the newspaper?”
“The Trauma Center doesn’t make money anyway, so at least let it serve as a hospital publicity ambassador through media coverage.”
“Now we’re supposed to do sales, too?”

Professor Ma grabbed the back of her neck as if in disbelief.

“Even so, this is too much! Can you actually get a first-year to do proper work? Send her here to just stand around as a decoration?”
“We’ll work her hard. At least gaining one extra pair of hands is better than nothing, isn’t it, Professor?”
“I’m not asking for a servant! An overly delicate girl like that—it’d be a miracle if she doesn’t pass out in the OR.”
“Right. If they sent us a competent servant, I’d welcome her with open arms.”
“A pretty face like that? How hard can she work? Mark my words—’Professor, I’m scared! That’s gross! I can’t do this!’—she’ll find every excuse to back out.”

This is maddening, absolutely maddening!
Professor Ma grumbled and scratched the back of her head roughly.

That’s when it happened.

“Are we in the nineties?”

Tae Heon, who’d been quietly inputting charts, spoke softly under his breath.

A crooked smirk played at the corner of his slightly tilted mouth.

“What?”
“I momentarily forgot we weren’t in the nineties, Professor Ma.”
“Tae Heon, what are you talking about?”
“The prejudice that a pretty face can’t work—isn’t that outdated eighties thinking? For this day and age.”

Tae Heon spoke without hesitation and strode out toward the ward.

“Why is he being so prickly today?”
“I’m not sure…”

Eun Do, equally confused, cocked his head and scratched his chin.

“Residents running away isn’t something new. Fifteen years into my medical career, and I’ve noticed the prettier they are, the faster they flee!”

Mark my words—that one? A month, tops. Just wait and see!

It was the very moment Professor Ma spoke with such certainty.

“Professor! A helicopter’s taking off to our hospital right now!”

The peaceful afternoon shattered as an urgent nurse’s voice echoed through the Trauma Center.

***

“A Gang!!”

A man in blue scrubs burst through the doctors’ office door and strode inside with purpose.

The heavy air that had settled over the room instantly shifted.
Like sunlight breaking through clouds, the tall man in scrubs brought a clarity and freshness that seemed to purify even the dim atmosphere of the office.

The man roughly pulled down his mask, and his gaze fixed on the luggage at A Gang’s feet.

“What’s all that luggage? Where are you going?”
“Oh my! Who is that radiant person from over there?”

Baek So Dam’s mouth fell open.

“A Gang, do you know him? Is this the orthopedic surgeon Shim Woo Seop?”
“We’re the same age. You don’t need the honorific, So Dam.”

A Gang, who’d been packing her luggage without seeming surprised at his arrival, glanced up at Woo Seop briefly as she answered.

“Woo Seop, hello! I’m Baek So Dam. They say on the day I was born, the first white snow that fell was as pure and clear as me, so they named me So Dam—hehe.”

So Dam tucked her poodle-permed hair behind her ear and put on a demure expression.
It was completely different from her usual self.

“It’s nice to meet… Oh! I saw you from afar at the new resident orientation! You really stood out. Your presence just, well, like, radiates all the way to me…”

So Dam’s face flushed as she fanned herself and shyly extended her hand for a handshake.

But Woo Seop paid her no attention whatsoever and suddenly grabbed A Gang’s wrist.

“Come on, let’s talk for a moment.”
“What? Where am I going…”

A Gang was pulled out into the corridor by Woo Seop’s grip.
The air in the hallway seemed unnaturally quiet, even more so than usual.

“What’s going on with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why are you packing?”
“…”
“And why are your eyes so red and swollen?”
“It’s nothing.”

A Gang forced a smile and turned her head away abruptly.
Woo Seop stopped his hand midway to her eyes, pulling it back, and spoke again in a quieter voice.

“You can tell me. It’s okay.”
“…They’re sending me down to the Trauma Center for two months because I made a mistake.”
“What? Who the hell said that!”
“The professor. He said he’d decide whether to keep me as his student based on how I perform there.”
“What? Dispatching you without your consent? No matter how much like slaves residents are, that’s crossing a line!”

Silence hung for a moment.
As A Gang remained silent, biting her lip, Woo Seop finally grabbed her shoulders and pressed gently.

“You can tell me everything. Okay?”
“…I think the professor is misunderstanding me, Woo Seop.”
“Misunderstanding what? There’s nothing you could do that deserves that.”
“When I came to Sae In. Because of what happened back then…”

It truly couldn’t be helped.
I’m not the kind of doctor without responsibility who abandons her alma mater and carelessly transfers hospitals.

It wasn’t running away—I wanted to endure.

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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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