Boss, It's My First Time Being Your Resident - Chapter 18

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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 18. Spotlight (1)

“I’m absolutely not that kind of person with the patient. Suddenly… without any warning……”
“Oh, come on! Without warning? So did a marriage proposal suddenly drop from the sky?”
“No, I’m really……”

A massive stone seemed to lodge in her throat, choking off any words.

She absolutely did not want to be branded as a thoughtless intern in front of the professor.

Rule Number One for interns. Violation of the Medical Ethics Code.

Ju Agang’s face grew uncomfortable, her lips barely moving.

“Is this something new? Male patients getting the wrong idea, throwing tantrums at female staff? Who here hasn’t dealt with it?”

Tae Heon, who had been silent until now, spoke matter-of-factly.
Ju Agang’s gaze shifted toward him, caught off guard by the unexpected support.

His hands organizing the chart remained as dry and businesslike as ever.
Yet that low voice, so calmly taking her side, struck her with a comfort she couldn’t explain.

“Professor, don’t pry into your residents’ personal lives either. It’s rather outdated, isn’t it? Eun Do, too.”

At Tae Heon’s sharp rebuke, Hwang Eun Do looked sheepish, scratching the back of his head.

She thought the situation was finally settling, breathing a sigh of relief—but the moment didn’t last.

“Anyway, Ju Agang! Now that you’ve stepped foot in our Trauma Center, remember this one thing! Flirting with a patient? Absolutely forbidden! Making eyes at a colleague? That’s the end for you both!”

Ma Heup made a throat-slitting gesture with his finger, delivering the threat with grim theatricality.

“Not even a whisper of romance before this Ma Heup sends out wedding invitations!”
“…….”
“Even a godlike professor like me can’t find marriage, rotting away alone in the on-call room—how dare these fresh young things think of dating! Love has its hierarchy too! Remember that!”
“Yes, Professor……”

The gruff Professor Ma, adjusting his colorful surgical cap as he lamented his fate, looked ironically like a bear wearing a pink ribbon.

“So. You know how to do dressing, right? Our new recruit Gedam?”

Professor Ma asked Ju Agang with the patience one might use on a kindergartner.

“The patient in Room 308—came in yesterday with a fragment wound from the airshow accident. She had a laceration on her left arm and received debridement. Go do her dressing, check if she’s uncomfortable about anything, and come back.”

Professor, I know how to do more than just dressing.
So please, could you not treat me like a child……

And I’m no longer the leech handler, so could you please stop calling me Gedam?

The words rose to her lips, but she could only nod silently.

“Yes. I’ll be back shortly!”

Ju Agang grabbed her dressing kit and shuffled toward the ward.

Tae Heon’s gaze lingered on her retreating form for a long moment, her long ponytail swaying as she disappeared.

***

[Im Seok Hwan / Male, 52 years old
Attending: Ma Heup / Nurse: Kim Eun Bin]

Ju Agang’s footsteps halted before the nameplate of Room 308’s VIP private ward.

Huh? Same name as my uncle? And the same age too.

She knocked and opened the door to find a secretary in a black suit and sturdy bodyguards positioned vigilantly around the bed.

“You should rest today.”
“Does my body resting make the nation rest too?”
“Still, your primary physician strongly advised you need rest.”
“Ha, ha. Lying here doing paperwork is so convenient and pleasant! If not for this, I’d have been dragged to a breakfast meeting at dawn again, just to listen to unsolicited advice. This is my legal paid leave.”

The man had suffered a serious injury to his left arm from a drone fragment that had flown into the audience during the airshow accident.

His arm, wrapped and secured with bandages, looked uncomfortable, yet he paid it no mind, leisurely reviewing documents.

Unlike the secretary, who placed one approval document after another anxiously on the side table, the man made casual jokes and exuded an air of complete ease.

After hesitating for a moment, Ju Agang nervously threaded her way past the bodyguards and approached the patient.

“Hello, patient. I’ve come to help with your dressing.”

The moment the man, whose eyes had been fixed on documents, lifted his head.

A subtle expression settled simultaneously on both their faces.

“Un… un……”
“Un…?”
“W-Welcome, Patient! Hello! I’m Resident Physician Ju Agang!”
“Patient?”

The man’s eyebrows rose in gentle amusement.

Ju Agang’s trembling hands gripped the tray tightly as she swallowed hard.

A silence stretched—brief yet endless.

Perhaps he read the desperate plea in her eyes.
Then, from the man’s lips burst a hearty, resonant laugh.

“Prime Minister, do you know this person?”

At the secretary’s careful question, the man smiled warmly.

Instead of answering, he waved his uninjured hand lightly, dismissing all the bodyguards around him.

Click—as the secretary too left the room and the door closed completely, Ju Agang finally released the breath she’d been holding.

The morning sunlight seeping through the blinds felt unusually warm today.

“Calling your uncle ‘patient’—I’m hurt.”
“Uncle, it’s just……”
“How long has it been? First time since your medical school graduation ceremony, isn’t it?”
“Have you been well all this time?”
“As you can see, I’ve sacrificed an arm and I’m on extended medical leave.”

As if to reassure the still-rigid Ju Agang, her uncle wiggled his injured arm and winked at her.

“So this is where you work? I heard you changed hospitals. Your mother was upset—she said you didn’t even visit near the new hospital.”

Ju Agang pretended not to hear, keeping her lips sealed as she slowly unwound the bandages wrapped around her uncle’s arm.

“I’m glad, Uncle. That you weren’t hurt too badly.”
“This Im Seok Hwan was born with strong bones! This is nothing!”
“Uncle……”
“Yes, my dear girl.”
“I have one favor to ask……”
“A favor? What could my precious, pampered princess possibly ask of her uncle?”
“Uncle, please don’t know me here at the hospital. I just want to be one of many resident physicians.”
“Keep it a secret?”

Her uncle’s eyes deepened for a moment, then he gave a low laugh and nodded.

“So that’s why your mother and father, your grandfather are all disappointed saying you’ve changed?”
“…….”
“But I’m so proud of our niece. You’ve become such a wonderful doctor, turning down all your family’s influence.”

Like the best of old friends sharing a secret, her uncle burst into hearty laughter that filled the hospital room.

“I want to finish my residency entirely on my own strength. I don’t want to be the subject of gossip either.”
“Understood, understood. If I can keep state secrets, I can certainly keep my niece’s secret. Your uncle’s lips are sealed!”
“Thank you, Uncle.”

Once she finished the careful dressing, her uncle rolled his shoulder lightly as if he were already healed.

“By the way, Agang, why did you choose Plastic Surgery of all specialties? Your uncle is curious.”

Instead of answering, Ju Agang offered a heavy smile as the Prime Minister pressed gently.

“Is it because of Jun Won?”
“…….”

Her uncle’s cheerful laughter stopped abruptly.
Ju Agang’s heart too sank into deep waters.

Brother……
A name already forbidden at home for years now.
And Ju Jun Won—that name locked in a drawer so deep no one opens it.

The moment she spoke it aloud, the silence she’d built so carefully might shatter into pieces, so her lips trembled and she swallowed those three letters each time.

When that name—existing now only in everyone’s hearts by unspoken agreement—surfaced in her mind, her eyes began to tremble.

***

It was a cold dawn, more than a decade ago.

– Listen! I don’t care anymore! As long as you all live well, that’s all that matters? Huh?!

It was the betrayal of a driver who had served her grandfather for thirty years.

She woke from deep sleep to find herself in a sealed warehouse, walls closed in on all sides.
The acrid stench of gasoline assaulted her nostrils.

“Brother, my nose hurts.”

Coughing violently, her brother quickly removed his outer jacket and covered both her nose and mouth.
Beyond the door, a man’s rough voice continued on the phone.

– Why do I have no money while you have plenty! Why should I spend my whole life as your family’s errand boy! Aren’t we all the same people?

As if negotiating with someone, the man vented his bitter resentment about his wretched life.

– Three billion! That’s pocket change for you people!

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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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