Boss, It's My First Time Being Your Resident - Chapter 41

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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 41. The Gap in the Flawless

“A final farewell. Perhaps the only solace one human can offer another.”

Tae Heon spoke the words softly, almost to himself.
At his detached reply, A Gang felt her chest drop like a stone.

“I won’t become a surgeon who preaches about taboos when facing someone’s last miracle.”

Perhaps it was the deep chill of pre-dawn air.
Under the cool corridor light, his eyes held a depth and intensity she’d never witnessed before.

“Even in a hospital where protocols and prohibitions are absolute, this place is ultimately where people arrive and depart. In that inevitable moment, our work is to pour in sincerity.”

Tae Heon’s voice was calm, yet it carried a warmth she’d never felt from him before.

“I’ll live well and go on ahead, Ri Han Young. I’ll wait for you there, so come slowly. There’s no rush.”
“Thank you for not forgetting and coming to see me.”

The image of Tae Heon holding the old man’s hand, struggling to preserve that final gleam until the very end, refused to leave her mind.

She’d always thought him an iron wall of a man, untouched by emotion.

But the sight of him gently answering the old man’s longing—that unfamiliar gentleness shattered her every preconception about Tae Heon.

The warmth that seeped from him as his large hand wrapped around the old man’s shoulder, the callous coldness he usually exuded—the temperature gap between them was simply too vast.
The smile he’d worn so unconsciously, so tenderly aimed at his grandfather, had been carved more deeply into her than ever before.

Suddenly she realized: the Tae Heon she’d drawn so carelessly in her own mind might be an entirely different person from the real one.

A thug. A ruffian. A stickler for rules.
A duplicitous pervert…….

Her judgment of Tae Heon had been arrogant.

Perhaps—just perhaps—
the Safe Parting plan was no longer necessary.

Her own childish snap judgments. The fragmentary interpretations So Dam had offered.
All of it might simply have been hasty misunderstandings.

While A Gang stared up at him in a daze, Tae Heon turned away as if nothing had happened and strode ahead with long, purposeful steps.

Only today had she discovered the human gap in the otherwise flawless Tae Heon.

The feeling was strange—like holding a rare secret in her palm.

It was like stumbling upon a delicate wildflower blooming unexpectedly in the crevice of a stone you’d carelessly stepped on a thousand times.

She stared after his broad, retreating back in a daze, and only then coming to her senses, A Gang clutched her flushed face and scurried after him in quick, hurried steps.

“Senior! Just this once, couldn’t I have one bite of something too? There’s so much here!”
“No. Patients incoming.”

What?
A Gang’s steps came to an abrupt halt.

“Senior, but I…….”

As if suddenly understanding something, her face flushed with realization.

“What. Speak.”
“Ha-ha……!”

A short exclamation and a small smile escaped between her teeth.

“You’ve been speaking casually to me this whole time, haven’t you? That’s right, isn’t it?”

A Gang hurried after Tae Heon with long strides, pressing the matter.

“So that means you’re thinking of me as your junior now?”
“If you have time to read meaning into that, go sleep instead, or read one more page of a paper.”
“Tch!”
“Or go wash up.”
“What?”
“Forgot the Duty Room shower schedule? Between 1 and 4 a.m. If you’re in there during those hours, you won’t be able to handle what’s there.”

A Gang bit her lip tightly, her face twisting into a pout.

Tae Heon.
No loose ends with this one.

“And it’s not senior—it’s teacher.”

Tae Heon’s eyes flickered with a momentary hint of mischief before he composed himself and reverted to his usual cold demeanor.

Watching his unhurried gait, A Gang’s eyes narrowed slightly with a small glint.

This Safe Parting mission, too, had been perfectly and utterly defeated.
But it no longer mattered.

The gap in the flawless Tae Heon.

Now she felt she understood it, at least a little.

***

Early morning.
A Gang hurriedly unplugged the hair dryer cord and bundled up her damp hair into a careless knot.

Her shoulders ached from staying awake all night, only to catch a few minutes of sleep just before waking.

“You won’t be able to handle what’s there.”

His low voice echoed in her ears—the warning about the Duty Room shower’s basic rules, how you couldn’t use it during those early hours.

“What’s in the shower isn’t a grandmother but a young woman. Her specialty is slipping her arm through the door crack, so don’t look down at the floor.”

That casually recited warning clung to her ears like a scab, impossible to shake off.

“Does he think I’ll actually get scared?”

She’d grabbed a towel and pajamas confidently enough, but the clock read 2:44 a.m.

The hallway visible through the door crack was unusually dark and silent.

She couldn’t muster the courage to step out into that long, endless corridor toward the shower room.

She couldn’t help imagining the young woman Tae Heon had mentioned crawling through the corridor with eerie, scraping sounds.

At the faint, unidentifiable noise echoing from the far end of the hallway, her shoulders jumped more than once.
At the call bell ringing from another room, her heart dropped more than once.

In the end, she repeatedly placed her hand on the doorknob and pulled it away, then finally shut the Duty Room door with a bang and crawled back into bed.

“Who said anything about being scared of ghosts?”

Ju A Gang.
People are scarier than ghosts.

Tae Heon is scarier than people, the professor scarier than Tae Heon.
Patients are scarier than the professor in this hospital.
Why was she like this all of a sudden, really.

But something was strange.

Despite having burrowed under the blankets out of fear of ghosts, no matter if her eyes were closed or open, her mind was filled entirely with Tae Heon.

Those strong, distinctive brows, the pure, unexpectedly delicate double eyelids beneath them,
the firm, prominent bridge of his nose, and equally mismatched, refreshing curve of his lips.

His brow furrowed in unconscious concentration, the rare smile that bloomed there, occasionally harsh and irritating words.
The playful glimmer in his eyes that appeared now and then.

And that breath from that day, which had stirred her heart just a little.

Buried under her blanket up to her forehead, she spent all night quietly turning over in her mind this person called Tae Heon.

Every moment spent with Tae Heon from February until just before—it all replayed in her head like a panorama, scene by scene, slowly unfolding.

Since coming to the Trauma Center, there hadn’t been a single day without him.

Today too, beginning and end were both him.

***

“My goodness! Didn’t even have time to dry your hair. You’ll catch a cold.”

In the middle of the lobby, a woman A Gang had never seen before approached her with a light step.

“Being a resident physician must be exhausting, no?”

The woman asked gracefully, her clear eyes crinkling at the corners.

Her gaze looking down at A Gang was leisurely, tinged with pity and compassion, a gentle smile playing about her lips.

She was beautiful.
Smooth, sharp, alluring, refined—a woman of true grace.

Speaking without introduction, so blunt it was almost rude, yet she carried even that rudeness with such confidence that A Gang found herself staring, transfixed.

“Ah. You don’t watch TV, I guess. I’m Cha Yu Joo.”
“Y-yes.”

Who was Cha Yu Joo?
The woman’s tone carried a subtle arrogance, as if speaking to someone who should have known but didn’t.

“Ju A Gang, right? I recognized you right away. You look just like you did when you were little.”
“I’m sorry? You know me?”
“Want to borrow a mirror? Your hair’s a mess.”

Just as she was hurriedly smoothing down her hair—

Tae Heon crossed through the entrance opposite and approached with long strides, stopping between her and Yu Joo. His brow narrowed as he checked his wrist watch.

“Oh, you’re here!”
“I’m busy now. I have a resident meeting.”
“You have to keep your promises. You promised me last night.”

Cha Yu Joo looked up at Tae Heon with a meaningful smile.

Even her smile, nose wrinkling with laughter, seemed to waft a fresh fragrance.

Could there really be someone so beautiful in this world?
She was like a single flower.

In her sky-blue blouse and navy slacks, despite the neat attire, she had a loveliness that could make even another woman fall for her at first sight.

Her long hair was tied tightly in a ponytail and she wore horn-rimmed glasses, but even those couldn’t hide her beauty.

Her makeup-free face somehow emphasized her clean, milky complexion all the more.

Tae Heon’s eyes briefly met A Gang’s, then he turned away indifferently toward the opposite side of the lobby.

“Not for long.”
“I missed you so much I couldn’t sleep. It’s only been a few hours. I want to be by your side all day.”

A Gang watched the retreating figures of Tae Heon and Cha Yu Joo intently.
The two tall figures walking side by side looked as harmonious as a fashion magazine spread.

But why.
Why did the harmony of two who seemed so well-matched feel strange?

The woman’s height, a hand’s span taller than herself, her coquettish manner, her seductive movements.

The way Cha Yu Joo naturally nestled against Tae Heon and linked her arm through his made A Gang’s heart prick like a needle, sharp and stinging.

A Gang gently swept her palm across the space above her heart.

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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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