Boss, It's My First Time Being Your Resident - Chapter 36

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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 36. The Stradivarius

“Here, over here!”

A private wine bar where stars studded the night sky like embroidery, visible at a glance from above.

Cha Yu Ju, who had claimed her seat beforehand, waved to Tae Heon with unmistakable delight.

She watched him approach in his white shirt and black slacks, each step deliberate and measured.

Tae Heon at the hospital and Tae Heon outside were as opposite as the two sides of a coin.

At the hospital he was like an austere instructor—poke him and you wouldn’t draw blood. Outside, he seemed defiantly dissolute, a rebel wrapped in worn-out charm.

The impossible proportions and structure hidden beneath the white coat were mesmerizing enough to steal her breath just by looking.

“It feels strange seeing you outside like this after so long. Makes me nervous.”

Yu Ju shifted her gaze toward the menu, then glanced back at Tae Heon across from her.

So easily summoned—that was what baffled her.

Without any cheat codes from Ju A Gang, Tae Heon appeared within a minute of her call, without hesitation. That was strange.

For six straight years, meeting him had been harder than plucking a star from the sky.

The memory of his blank, indifferent face raising walls around him made Yu Ju smile bitterly.

“Do you believe that saying? Chop at a tree ten times and it’ll eventually fall?”

Tae Heon’s brow furrowed at the seeming non sequitur.

“I keep getting stubborn about this. When will I ever be a woman to you?”
“Don’t take my indifference as permission to drive yourself mad. Live your life well, Cha Yu Ju.”
“Sometimes I wonder. What if I were more beautiful? More deadly? Would you have liked me then? I wish I knew the answer.”
“Find a good man, Cha Yu Ju. Stop examining yourself like that. Even if you write an answer, if he can’t see it, it’s useless.”

Tae Heon’s reply came low and weary, his exhaustion unconcealed.

“If I do well with this program and make team leader, would it be okay for me to ask you out officially?”

She swirled her wine glass leisurely, but clearly harbored hope for his positive answer.

In the silence, Yu Ju swallowed dryly without realizing it.

Pretending she was fine, pretending she was cool, pretending she was aloof in front of this man who paid her no mind—it was always exhausting.

Tae Heon looked down at his wrist watch instead of answering. A silent signal to get to the point.

“There you go again with the fake-busy act. You’re a bad man, you know that? A bad man who checks his watch in front of a woman. You know I’ll get hurt and you do it anyway.”
“If you know you’ll get hurt and you do it anyway, isn’t that disrespectful to yourself?”

His voice came back cold.

That was always how Tae Heon was.
A man who gave not even one percent of leeway to someone hoping for tenderness.

“No, actually—it’s because of that void that I’ve bled myself dry to get here. I’m an SBC announcer now, and I’m about to become team leader.”

Yu Ju didn’t lose heart. She spoke with the crisp diction of a seasoned announcer, her inflection deliberate, meeting his gaze squarely.

“So in the end, were you a good man to me? You provoked me.”

She set down her empty wine glass and smiled at Tae Heon.

“Glad it was motivating. So shall we move to business like professionals now?”
“Fair enough. I’ll get straight to the point.”

At Tae Heon’s polite but icy prompt, Yu Ju bit her lip.

She pressed the remote on the table, and an image appeared on the large screen that filled one wall of the private room—a photograph alongside a bold headline.

Tae Heon’s eyes, which had been gazing out at the city lights, finally fixed on the screen.

Ju A Gang?

It was unmistakable at a glance.
A dimple sunk sweetly beneath her right eye, eyes as gentle as a crescent moon, lips curved up with fresh brightness.

Though he’d never seen her as a child, the young junior high student smiling radiantly in the photograph could be no one but Ju A Gang.

A Gang stood beaming in a concours hall awash in golden light, cradling an armful of bouquets and clutching her violin.

[The 30 Billion Won Melody Reborn at the Fingertips of a Fourteen-Year-Old Girl.]

The moment Tae Heon read the headline, his brow dropped low.

Clink. Yu Ju refilled her wine glass and broke the silence.

“Ju A Gang. I did some digging with our writers, and the deeper we went, the stranger things became.”

Yu Ju put on her glasses from the table and scrolled rapidly through her tablet screen.

Her eyes gleamed sharp behind the transparent lenses.

“You can find almost anything in our station’s internal archives. But Ju A Gang doesn’t seem like just an ordinary medical resident. Even with my years at the station, I’ve got instincts. What they call it now is ‘on-air presence.'”
“So. What’s your conclusion?”

Tae Heon, who had been staring at A Gang on the screen, lowered his gaze and asked quietly.

“This is an article from a French regional newspaper twelve years ago, about a youth violin competition held in Montpellier. Ju A Gang won first place.”
“…….”
“But why would news of a win at such an obscure competition get translated and featured so prominently in Korean media?”

Yu Ju pressed the remote again, advancing to the next screen.

“Because of this violin. A legendary Stradivarius that went to auction at Sotheby’s for 28.9 billion won.”

Tae Heon’s eyes narrowed sharply.

“Look here. The journalist left one line of commentary.”

[To have heard the melodies of a master instrument born in 1708 from the hands of a master craftsman—that alone was the finest moment.]

Yu Ju magnified that section of the article.

“The focus wasn’t really on the award, but on the violin—made three hundred years ago.”

Yu Ju’s eyes sparkled like a cheetah spotting prey.

“The Hospital Director specifically proposed a storytelling angle about a poor medical resident rising from a rural village, right? But this dragon from the stream is holding a 30 billion won auspicious bead? That doesn’t add up.”
“What’s your evidence?”

Tae Heon’s response was drier than she’d expected.

He leaned back into the sofa, crossing his arms while regarding her methodical analysis.

“You’re asking if I have facts to back it up. Not just one line from some foreign tabloid from twelve years ago.”

Yu Ju, caught off guard, pushed her glasses up and took a sip of wine.

“You know I majored in violin, right? My father’s a mid-sized company president, and I took the elite route as a performer. But 500 million won was the max I ever saw. Getting past a billion is rare unless you’re renting or just looking. But 28.5 billion?”

Yu Ju laughed incredulously.

“Even if Paganini’s grandfather rose from the dead, he couldn’t get his hands on a violin like that.”
“…….”
“Since you’re not a musician, maybe you don’t feel the weight of it. Having the only violin like that in the entire world—that’s celestial power.”

A brief silence fell.
Yu Ju continued, as if savoring Tae Heon’s quiet.

“How would a girl from a rural backwater possibly own a National Treasure Grade instrument like that? Maybe she’s one of the top five conglomerates in South Korea? Or perhaps the illegitimate child of some closely guarded chaebol chairman?”
“Same name, different person.”

When Tae Heon replied in a flat voice, Yu Ju burst out laughing.

“Same name, different person? Are you joking? How many twenty-six-year-old women with the surname Ju and the given name A Gang do you think exist in South Korea?”
“…….”
“I haven’t seen her in person yet, but look at that dimple under the right eye in the photo. And here—Dr. Ju A Gang’s ID picture. The dimple’s in the exact same spot, see? How common do you think that is?”

Tae Heon’s gaze lingered on the ID photograph of A Gang that Yu Ju held out on her tablet.

The match was undeniably exact.

“You want to know what’s even creepier? All those articles and photos that were posted on Korean portals—they’ve been completely deleted. Only a tiny handful survive in our station’s private database.”
“…….”
“Try searching yourself. ‘Ju A Gang’—no trace. It’s as if she evaporated. Like someone deliberately wiped her away.”

Yu Ju held the wine in her mouth for a moment, savoring it slowly, before parting her lips.

“What’s Ju A Gang’s real identity?”

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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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