Boss, It's My First Time Being Your Resident - Chapter 50

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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 50. Zero or One

“Woo Seop… sorry, but could you wait outside while I shower?”
“What? Why? Is someone bothering you?”
“Ah, well… this is kind of silly to say, but it’s early morning and I’m a bit scared. Sorry.”
“Sorry for what! Of course, naturally!”

Ah Gang’s troubled eyes were etched clearly in Woo Seop’s mind.

“I was protecting you!”

Woo Seop shot Tae Heon a look.

“What? Protecting?”
“Yes! From the ghost.”

His eyes were thick with resentment—as if asking why Woo Seop had spread that rumor about the Sein University On-call Room ghost story that everyone knew about but hushed up, and especially to Ah Gang, who was already easily frightened.

“A ghost?”

Tae Heon looked Woo Seop up and down with an expression of disbelief.

Just as he was about to dismiss it as nonsense, a memory suddenly surfaced in Tae Heon’s mind.

Sein University’s midnight shift protocol.
First: the facilities are off-limits between 1 and 4 a.m. If absolutely necessary to use them, do not look in the mirror.

He’d thrown that story out as a joke to tease Ah Gang, who kept trying to break up with him cleanly, insisting on keeping distance. He hadn’t expected her to be genuinely frightened by it all this time.

“Your girlfriend?”

Tae Heon fixed Woo Seop with a direct gaze, waiting for an answer.

Well, it wasn’t a bad idea to know in advance.
He needed to determine whether Shim Woo Seop was a variable worth engaging with, or an insignificant factor he could ignore.

“She will be. My girlfriend-to-be.”

Sensing Tae Heon’s sharp intent, Woo Seop met him without backing down.

Their gazes locked taut in midair.

A cold silence settled between them.

“There’s no such thing as ‘will be.’ It’s zero or one. One of the two.”

Is there such a thing as 0.5 between a man and a woman?
Either it is or it isn’t.

Tae Heon let out a short laugh and brushed past Woo Seop.

***

“Senior!”

Ah Gang, who was opening the On-call Room door with a towel wrapped around her wet hair, and Tae Heon’s eyes met at the same moment.

“…What brings you here?”

Ah Gang’s gaze shifted to the fruits piled across the On-call Room table.

Apples, bananas, kiwis, mangoes, oranges…
As if he’d swept up every piece of fruit the convenience store sold, wrapped styrofoam containers of fruit were stacked high like a mountain.

“Thank you for this!”

Rather than ask why he’d bought fruit at this hour, expressing gratitude seemed more appropriate first.
Feeling as though she had to say something, Ah Gang spoke hurriedly.

“I didn’t bring them to eat.”
“Then why…?”
“Want to practice Suturing?”
“Practice?”

Ah Gang’s eyes widened.

“You’re my First Assistant, after all.”

Tae Heon remained standing, watching Ah Gang stare blankly up at him.

“Isn’t it too late? You usually fall asleep past two. Are you tired? Then let’s—”
“No, no! I’m not tired at all! I was going to read more papers anyway before bed! Yes, let’s practice!”

Worried that Tae Heon might change his mind, Ah Gang quickly pulled a hair dryer from the storage shelf.

“Senior! Just give me three minutes, okay? Let me dry my hair a bit.”
“Take your time.”

Standing before this difficult senior—no, before Tae Heon—drying her wet hair felt strange.

Was it because it was early morning?
It felt dreamlike, and her heart was beating out of rhythm.

She caught Tae Heon’s eye fleetingly as he sat casually at the table, flipping through his medical texts.

Why was her hair taking so long to dry today?
Ah Gang swallowed hard and wielded the dryer more forcefully.

“I’ll look away.”

Sensing her discomfort, Tae Heon angled his gaze away.

She should have dressed properly before coming out.
Embarrassment flooded her face as she caught sight of herself in the mirror across the room—a character-print t-shirt and pajama pants.

Clothes she’d hastily bought from a shop near the hospital. The collar was already starting to stretch from a month of constant wear.

Worried the wear might show, Ah Gang fidgeted with the hem as she peeked sideways at Tae Heon and finally put down the dryer.

“Senior, I’m done now!”

Ah Gang haphazardly twisted her hair up with a rubber band and carefully approached Tae Heon’s side.

She never thought she’d receive private tutoring from Tae Heon.

Just thinking about it made her heart race.

“I practiced with banana peels when I was an intern. I haven’t tried tomatoes yet, but I’ve seen the seniors practicing with them.”

She was talking too much.
How could she break this awkward atmosphere?

Setting up the Needle Holder, Forceps, Scissors, and other instruments on a steel tray, she glanced up at Tae Heon briefly.

It was at that moment.

“Will that work?”

Tae Heon leaned in suddenly and tugged out the rubber band holding her hair.

Her long hair tumbled loose over her shoulders.

Ah Gang’s pupils trembled.

“I’ll use this for a moment.”

Her heart fell to the floor as readily as her hair.

“…”

Ah Gang pretended to be unaffected, tucking her hair behind her ear, her toes curling nervously.

Tae Heon deftly looped one end of the rubber band onto the round handle of the Needle Holder, then stretched it long and wound it diagonally around the shaft with practiced efficiency. It was the work of someone who had done this many times before.

“Watch carefully. When you wrap the rubber band around the Needle Holder like this, the elasticity creates resistance in the handle. It lets you train the small muscles in your palm. Over time, you develop a finer tactile sense.”

Ah Gang nodded blankly.

“Remember the Tension-Free technique I mentioned last time?”
“…Yes.”
“All right. Let’s try.”

Tae Heon picked up a Shine Muscat grape from the corner of the table.

He plucked one grape and placed it on the tray, where the taut pale-green flesh gleamed luminously under the lamp light.

“Senior… Shine Muscat grapes…? How am I supposed to… with something so thin and easily torn…?”

Ah Gang’s voice grew strained.

“That’s exactly why you learn tension control. If the angle of the needle entry shifts even slightly, or if your fingertips apply force incorrectly, it tears immediately. Just like human Soft Tissue.”
“But…”
“Feel the resistance of this thin grape skin and adjust your force. That’s the core of today’s training.”

Ah Gang bit her lip, thinking the task seemed too harsh from the start.

She grasped the Needle Holder tightly and looked at Tae Heon with anxious eyes.

She’d been a Resident Doctor for only a year since starting in March.
Essentially ‘year zero.’

Was he placing excessive expectations on someone like her?

“You’ve been doing well, though.”
“…What?”
“I saw. That mandarin orange.”
“The mandarin?”
“The one you’ve been practicing on every dawn. You’re doing great.”

There was certainty in Tae Heon’s measured voice—a certainty that said he hadn’t placed her as First Assistant on a whim.

Color rose to Ah Gang’s cheeks.

She’d been secretly worried that being chosen as First Assistant was based on something other than skill.

Why did his simple words make her chest swell like this?

“A surgeon begins and ends with Suturing. Every stitch you place determines your patient’s prognosis. Focus.”
“Yes!”
“The Tie—the knot—relies on fingertip sensitivity. Too loose and it unravels; too tight and the tissue dies. Finding that proper tension is skill.”

Tae Heon lifted a 6-0 Nylon Suture with the Needle Holder—thread so fine it was barely visible to the naked eye, thinner than a strand of hair.

Ah Gang narrowed her eyes, focusing on the thread’s end.

“Sometimes sensation matters more than sight. Feel it with your fingertips. When your delicate sense is fully awakened, that’s when you become a true Surgeon.”

Tae Heon explained patiently, as though sensing her overwhelm.

“Go ahead. Try.”

Tae Heon handed her the Needle Holder.

The Needle Holder, wound tightly with the rubber band, was far heavier and more difficult to control than she’d expected.

Ah Gang took a deep breath.

The moment she leaned forward in concentration, her long hair, which she’d tucked behind her ear, slipped down across her cheek.

“Ah…”

Startled by the hair blocking her vision, Ah Gang was about to brush it away when Tae Heon, sitting beside her, quietly moved closer.

The sudden closeness made her flinch, her shoulders drawing up.
His large hand brushed past her cheek and grasped her hair without hesitation.

“…Senior?”

His warm body heat reached the nape of her neck.

The sudden touch of his unfamiliar warmth made her heart feel as though it might burst. Her cheeks flushed as if burned.

He reached and picked up the Blue Nylon Thread from the table.

He seemed entirely unaware of her distress.
He gathered her hair neatly in his grip, wound the Blue Nylon Thread around it, crossing and binding it securely.

“Done. I’ll remove the rubber band after training is over.”

When Tae Heon released his hand, her scattered hair was bound by the Blue Nylon Thread into an impossibly neat arrangement. Like a pretty ribbon.

Tae Heon settled back into his seat as if nothing had happened, his gaze unwavering.
His eyes fixed on Ah Gang’s fingertips were grave.

“What are you waiting for? Get started.”
“…”

Ah Gang quickly turned her head away, trying to hide her flushed face.

She couldn’t breathe properly. Her heart felt foreign to her.

“Ah Gang. That promise this weekend.”

Tae Heon spoke casually, his arms crossed, tossing the words out without ceremony.

“Come with me.”

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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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