Boss, It's My First Time Being Your Resident - Chapter 60

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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 60. Secrets, and the Price

“Why are there so many high school students here? Something going on?”

A-gang asked So-dam with a puzzled expression, watching the unfamiliar crowd of uniformed students lined up at the entrance to the Hospital Cafeteria.

Unlike usual, groups of female students had gathered in clusters, filling the cafeteria with chatter and commotion.

The students held their trays and kept giggling as they peered toward the corridor.

“The neighboring school has a day off today, so they came to watch the filming. Ha Tae-heon is totally hot right now.”
“Huh? Why? It hasn’t even aired yet, has it?”

When A-gang tilted her head in confusion, So-dam let out an exasperated sigh.

“A-gang. Don’t you check social media at all? Pay some attention to what’s going on around you. The press conference video went viral a while ago. What Ha Tae-heon said—’I am neither a boss nor a hero.'”

So-dam mimicked Ha Tae-heon’s low voice with a solemn expression and giggled.

“Look at his face while you still can. Once the broadcast airs, he’ll rise to such heights you won’t even be able to look up at him.”

So-dam shifted forward along the long queue, tucked her tray under her arm, and shoved her phone screen in front of A-gang’s face.

On the screen, Ha Tae-heon’s composed expression coldly cut through praise directed at him, alternating with shots of Cha Yu-joo looking flustered and at a loss.

The comments section was already flooded with frenzied responses.

[When does this drama air? What’s the actor’s name? I’m getting dizzy.]
[If you’re that handsome, please don’t study hard. I’m begging you.]
[A practicing doctor, no less…… My life has become unhappy.]
[God is unfair. Damn. I don’t want to live in this world.]

A-gang stared blankly at Ha Tae-heon on the screen.

So-dam wasn’t wrong.

A star. A light in the heavens.
He already shone like a distant star in the sky.

Last night, the traces of her brother she’d discovered at his home.

How was she supposed to bring up her brother?
How much did Ha Tae-heon know about her and Joo Jun-won?

Despite a night of worrying, today they hadn’t had a single chance to see each other’s faces, with his grueling schedule packed with filming, emergency surgery, and conferences back to back.

‘Senior! I’m Jun-won’s sister.’

Should she bring it up casually, as if nothing were wrong?

‘Senior. Do you happen to know Joo Jun-won…… ? Were you friends? 0511…… Could that be the anniversary of my brother’s death?’

Or should she confess it earnestly?

Would he be pleased?
Or would he prefer to avoid it, dismissing it as a past he’d rather forget?

Would that name, already faded and forgotten in the mists of time, even matter to him anymore?

She ran through dozens of scenarios, but each led nowhere.
No matter how many times she imagined it, no answer came.

There was also a fearful thought: what if dragging up a brother who no longer existed in the world would shatter the peace Ha Tae-heon had preserved?

A-gang was biting her lips as she dismissed So-dam’s chatter, her mind churning with worry, when she caught sight of a familiar silhouette approaching from a distance, long legs striding purposefully.

It was Woo-seop.

“Oh! It’s Woo-seop!”

So-dam’s cheeks flushed with warmth at the sight of a face she hadn’t seen in a while.

“Why do you both look like death warmed over today? Get scolded by a professor?”

So-dam set down her tray on the table and teased them playfully.

Woo-seop too bore the marks of a struggle with sleep last night, his eyes shadowed with exhaustion.

It was a stark contrast to his usual neat, composed appearance.

“What is this meager meal? Do you two have the same taste buds too?”

So-dam frowned, watching A-gang and Woo-seop sit vacantly with only a bland bowl of thin noodles, having skipped any other appealing options.

“Woo-seop! I heard that in the orthopedic department it’s so busy that the doctor goes NPO—nothing per oral, nothing by mouth—instead of the patient. So the O in NPO stands for OS. Is that why you’re eating so little, so listlessly? Ha ha.”

Unable to bear the heavy atmosphere, So-dam tried to lighten the mood with a joke.

“Sorry! I need to head up.”

He’d barely eaten a few bites.

Woo-seop checked his vibrating phone, his expression darkening rapidly, and stood up with his tray.

“Wait, isn’t this yours? You left it behind. Something wrong?”

So-dam picked up Woo-seop’s Employee ID, which lay abandoned on the table, her expression questioning.

“I’ll bring it to you.”

A-gang quickly cleared her tray and hurried after Woo-seop.

Once they left the noisy cafeteria, a cool silence settled in the corridor.

Woo-seop stood leaning against the wall near the window, his shadow stretched long and thin across the floor.

His expression as he spoke into the phone was ominous—fragile, as if he might crumble at any moment.

“I don’t wish to know who that person is.”

Woo-seop’s voice lay low in the corridor.

“Woo-seop……”

***

After finishing the afternoon shoot, Yu-joo fled into her car.

The moment the car door shut, the breath she’d been holding burst free.

Why was everything tangling up today? Yu-joo gripped the steering wheel hard and bit her lip.

It was infuriating.

For six years she’d been at Ha Tae-heon’s side, yet his heart had never been hers—and that truth stung and burned within her.

Now it was time to play the card she’d been saving.

She’d meticulously researched Chairman Ha of Taesan Group’s autobiography and articles, investigated his business interests, all because she’d wanted to grow closer to Ha Tae-heon and his family.

But now that effort had become a weapon against Ha Tae-heon.

“Cha Yu-joo. I love someone else.”

She could almost hear Ha Tae-heon’s firm, cold voice in her ears.

“Don’t make yourself any more miserable.”

Though she understood it was meant as advice for her own sake, the kindness mixed with that coldness cut deeper than any cruelty could have.

She’d believed that obtaining Ha Tae-heon was the only answer that would compensate for her six years.

She felt so pitiful and pathetic—her youth in her twenties, her vigor, all spent on Ha Tae-heon’s test, filling it with nothing but wrong answers.

Even she found her current behavior, acting like a villainess in a drama, childishly shameful.

But she couldn’t quiet the roiling inside her.

Just once……
Just once, let yourself be cowardly, Cha Yu-joo.

Yu-joo wiped away tears that had spilled down her cheeks without her noticing and stepped hard on the accelerator.

***

Knock, knock.

“Chairman, Cha Yu-joo is here.”

With the secretary’s announcement, the heavy doors of the Taesan Group Chairman’s Office slowly swung open on both sides.

In an instant, her vision opened wide and the city skyline spread before her in full view through the massive floor-to-ceiling window.

Yu-joo passed down the long, gray marble corridor and entered the executive office.

The room, with its cool air and oppressive weight, was the very fortress of Chairman Ha, called Qin Shi Huang.

“Welcome! You should have called the PR team first. We could have treated you to a nice lunch.”

Chairman Ha greeted Yu-joo with a benevolent smile.

“It’s fine. Today I came as Cha Yu-joo, not as an announcer.”
“Is that so? Please, have a seat.”

Yu-joo settled onto the sofa and fingered the Document Envelope tucked deep in her bag.

Would what was inside be enough to scratch an itch for Chairman Ha?

Yu-joo studied Chairman Ha for a moment across the steaming teacup between them.

Qin Shi Huang.
Like the historical tyrant who built the Great Wall upon the countless deaths of mercenaries, he’d earned his sinister reputation by driving multitudes to ruin in his rise to power at Taesan.

Yet the man before her—Ha Tae-heon’s father—was not the fierce-looking crime boss she’d imagined.

Rather, he was a dignified, intellectual man in his middle years, his dark hair combed back neatly, intelligent eyes gleaming behind silver-rimmed glasses.

Had she encountered him on the street without knowing his background, she’d have mistaken him for a distinguished professor.

It was almost impossible to believe this was the same Chairman Ha who’d ruled a city with such savage brutality in his youth.

“Please, speak freely, Father.”
“Father? What do you mean?”

Chairman Ha paused at the audacious form of address, then burst into hearty, booming laughter.

“You’re no ordinary girl.”

Chairman Ha’s eyebrows rose at an angle, as if intrigued.

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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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