Boss, It's My First Time Being Your Resident - Chapter 68

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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 68. Code Orange (2)

She was a pregnant woman, near term.

The woman pinned beneath the car cradled her swollen belly in both hands, her body wracked with great groans of pain.

“I… there… there…”

Her lips moved in desperate pantomime, her hands gesturing frantically as she fought to communicate something, anything. But her voice was swallowed by the chaos around her—too faint to be understood.

“What did you say? Patient! Hold on just a little longer! We’ll have you to the hospital as soon as we finish emergency stabilization!”

The paramedic gripped the woman’s arms, trying desperately to calm her.

Beside him, other team members fought through sweat and strain, using hydraulic lifts to raise the wreckage crushing the woman’s legs.

Ha Tae-heon moved to her side without hesitation, his practiced hands assessing her condition with practiced efficiency.

He immediately retrieved a tourniquet from the emergency kit and cinched it firmly around the upper thigh.

It was to prevent massive bleeding once the vehicle wreckage was lifted away.

“There’s… a baby… there is…”

A-gang knelt beside Ha Tae-heon, watching the woman’s lips intently—and her breath caught in her throat.

Back when she was a Practicing Medical Student, she’d learned a smattering of Sign Language to communicate with a deaf child, her first patient. She never imagined it would matter like this.

“Wait! I think she’s trying to tell us something!”

The woman’s trembling hands rose to her cheeks, five fingers splayed on each side, then her thumb and pinky extended toward her nose.

The desperate gestures meant “baby” and “there is.”

“She says there’s a baby!”

A-gang cried out.

“A baby? Another child besides the one in her womb? There’s nothing in the car! We already checked!”
“There has to be! We need to find her before the next explosion!”
“Then we should…”

Before the paramedic could finish, A-gang pushed off the ground and bolted upright.

The smoke was so thick she could barely see beyond her own hands, but A-gang moved frantically between the wreckage, searching.

Through the murk, a small shadow caught her eye—a child huddled beneath one of the vehicles, shaking.

A little girl, no more than three years old.

The moment their eyes met, A-gang’s heart plummeted.

She crouched slowly, careful not to startle the frightened child, and spoke gently.

“Hey there? Will you come with me to see your mommy?”
“No! Scary! Mommy bleeding bad.”
“Then… would you like to play stickers with me instead? I have lots of pretty ones! Look—flowers, hearts, puppies. See how the puppy’s ears curl? Funny-looking, right!”

Calming the child came first.
A-gang forced a bright smile.

Praise Stickers trembled in her fingertips as she pulled them from her pocket.

Please, baby. Please come out…

The encroaching smoke made it hard to breathe, but as the moments stretched, something strange happened—her racing panic settled into an eerie calm.

Fire had been the trauma of her lifetime.

To face such an extreme moment again should have been madness-inducing, yet paradoxically, what surfaced was the memory of warm arms cradling her—her brother’s embrace.

And the image of Ha Tae-heon reaching toward her from the threshold of death, desperate to save her.

Did the worst extremes awaken hidden reserves of strength she didn’t know she possessed?

Or did the memory of being loved teach her how to love in return?

A-gang couldn’t understand herself—not anymore.

This version of herself that shed no tears, that felt no nausea.

“Puppy?”

At last the child’s eyes gleamed with curiosity, and she crawled out from beneath the vehicle.

A-gang scooped the girl up into her arms in one fluid motion.

“A-gang! Get back! Danger!”

Boom! Crash!

Ha Tae-heon’s shout was drowned by a deafening explosion that rocked the parking lot.

Scorching heat engulfed her back. A-gang instinctively pulled the child deeper into her embrace.

Through her dimming vision, she saw Ha Tae-heon’s silhouette rushing toward her through the smoke, his mouth open in a scream she could no longer hear.

“I’m okay… don’t come closer…”

“No!”

***

She had traveled through an endless tunnel.

In that boundless white corridor, A-gang searched desperately for Ha Tae-heon, over and over.

He had been running toward her. Why had he vanished so suddenly?

“Senior? Where are you?”

Time had become meaningless.

Then—that voice she longed for drifted through the mist, growing clearer with each word.

It was Ha Tae-heon.

—When will she wake up?

Who was he speaking to?

The simple knowledge that he was alive filled A-gang with relief.

The conversation continued from somewhere beyond her sight. The other voice belonged to the Neurosurgery Professor.

—It’s only temporary shock. She could wake up soon or it might take longer. All we can do is wait. The good news is there’s no external trauma, and the CT shows no abnormalities in her brain. You saw it all yourself.

—Professor, but it’s already been a month. Shouldn’t we run more comprehensive tests…?

—Tae-heon, this is just my hypothesis… I think her body triggered a self-induced unconsciousness as a defense mechanism, a way to protect herself. In cases like this, time is the answer. She’ll wake up soon. Let’s work together.

A-gang tried desperately to wiggle her fingers. She fought to open her eyelids, but it was useless.

Then understanding flooded through her.

She was lying in a hospital room. She had been unconscious for a month—an entire month lost to the blast’s impact.

And beside her, in a place she could never quite reach, Ha Tae-heon was watching over her.

—Stubborn A-gang. Wake up already. I hate waiting.

Her body wouldn’t obey, but her ears absorbed every word.

And she could feel his touch.

—I watered that little succulent plant yesterday. You’re supposed to water cacti once a month, I guess?

Ha Tae-heon’s soft voice filled the silence without pause.

—I’ve never seen a first-year resident this lazy. You need to wake up. The fruit I brought to the on-call room is waiting for you. I still have mountains of things to teach you, and you’re just going to keep sleeping?

Somewhere between dream and waking, she felt his touch.

Gentle fingers combing through tangled hair. Ointment applied to the long scars on her palms. Careful trimming of nails as they grew. Then—the soft pressure of interlaced hands pressed against her skin, against her heart.

—A-gang. Can you hear me? You’re listening, aren’t you?

Ha Tae-heon’s interlaced fingers tightened against hers.

***

Taesan Group Chairman Ha’s study was cool despite the warm late spring.

Ha Tae-heon entered with heavy, measured steps. His low voice reverberated through the quiet room.

“I’m busy.”
“Look at you, all grown up. Is that how you greet your father after all this time—’I’m busy’?”

Chairman Ha, reclining on the sofa, chuckled genially and picked up the remote.

“So you’re on air next week, I hear?”

With a soft chime, a teaser for “Romance, Medical Drama” began playing on the large wall-mounted screen.

“You look good, son. I was worried all you did was play at being a doctor, but it seems you’ve been nursing some ambitions on the side. Bloodline never lies.”

Ha Tae-heon glanced at his wristwatch, his brow furrowing.

“Make yourself clear, Father. I have no time for idle conversation.”
“That habit of checking your watch all the time. That girl—she’s not Onel’s biological daughter.”
“…”
“The woman you’ve been seeing. She’s not Onel’s real daughter. I don’t know what your purpose is in meeting her, but it’s not genuine romance. If you’re calculating some advantage through her, the math doesn’t work.”

Chairman Ha uncrossed his legs with casual arrogance and lifted his teacup.

“They say she was adopted from a children’s home as an infant. Kept it well hidden—I almost fell for it completely.”
“…”
“That announcer, Cha Yu-joo, came to see me crying. Asked me to make you break up with her. But I thought differently. An Onel heiress? A precious jewel like that? Why would I say no? But then I dug into it and found out the bloodline was fake. I almost ended up with a hollow confection for a daughter-in-law.”

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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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