Boss, It's My First Time Being Your Resident - Chapter 9

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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 9. I Came Looking for Leeches

Ah-gang finally understood why her colleagues shuddered at the mere mention of leeches.

Repulsive as they were, watching them diligently siphon blood day and night had begun to make them seem almost endearing.

But still.

Leeches were typically a last resort in treatment.

Deploying them meant the venous blood flow in the transplanted skin graft had already developed a serious complication.

In other words, one slip and the carefully reattached segments could undergo necrosis—risking the loss of her grandmother’s fingers entirely.

After a week of not sleeping a wink for twenty-four straight hours, terrified her grandmother might never recover her fingers, Ah-gang existed in that twilight realm between day and night, reality and dream.

It was a brilliant spring day.
The kind where sunlight gleamed so bright her eyes could barely open against it.

For the first time in ages, she’d dressed herself in a white one-piece and white sandals, strolling down the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

“Ah! How long has it been since I’ve walked Paris!”

The fragrant aroma of fresh baguettes seemed to seep deep into her nostrils.

A fashion show at the Grand Palais had apparently just wrapped; a model surrounded by an uncountable retinue of bodyguards and admirers was slowly making his way through the crowd.

Even from a distance, an aura seemed to radiate from him.

Who was he, drawing such a fuss?
Curious, she pushed through the murmuring crowd and rose onto her toes to get a better look.

Wait. Wait?

Unable to believe her eyes, she opened them wider still.

That commanding stride, that distinctive cynical expression, that pale skin, that otherworldly beauty carved from an almost supernatural darkness.

Cheong-hwa Mountain. That reckless… no, that dangerous man?
What on earth was he doing in Paris?

Their eyes met across the empty space as he removed his sunglasses. He smiled and waved cheerfully.

“Hey, you there—the leech specialist! Hold on a second.”

Who? Surely not me?

Ah-gang pointed at herself, mouthing a question to him.

“Yeah, you—the one standing there. Will you marry me?”

His hand reached out like the fingers of death itself, casting an enormous shadow over her head.

“Aaah! No way! You’re a gangster! Back off! You’re terrifying!”

In the blink of an eye, he’d closed the distance and shoved his face toward hers.

“You reported me to the police, didn’t you?”
“No, no! It wasn’t me! Wait, actually… yes, it was me. Please forgive me!”
“Then marry me. That’s your punishment.”

Marry him, marry him, marry him…

“Aaaah! I can’t!!”

“Ah-gang? Ah-gang?”

So-dam’s warm voice seemed to drift to her ears.

“If you’re that tired, go sleep in a bed instead of face-planting on the table! Okay? Looks like you’re having a nightmare.”

A dream?

“Ah-gang! Wake up! We’ve got a problem!”
“What? What’s wrong?”

Shaken by urgent hands, Ah-gang jolted awake and rubbed her eyes.

“You didn’t seal the plastic container properly! The leeches got out! What do we do?”

Twelve remaining in the container, eight crossing the table, seven exploring the floor, eight racing through the hallway. Just three were unaccounted for!

“So-dam, what am I going to do?”
“Ah-gang… I don’t know…”
“If the professor finds out, I’m done for.”

Shadows fell across both their faces in unison.

“Maybe I can check if we can order more from the supplier?”
“But won’t that take days? Let’s just search now!”
“Right! I ran into Seong-jin on the way in—he was carrying a medical tray when he left. What if one of them attached to his sleeve or something? I’ll track him down.”
“Seong-jin? Which way did he go?”

Ah-gang rushed to the hallway railing and craned on her toes, scanning the area.

“There!”

So-dam’s index finger pointed toward the Trauma Center on the right side of the Central Hall on the first floor.

***

“Hello! I’m Ah-gang, a first-year PS resident!”

She wilted under the Trauma Center’s glacial atmosphere.
No one paid her any attention despite her introduction, but she pressed on determinedly.

“I’m here because I received a report that some leeches from our department came in this direction!”

Leeches?
Only then did the gazes of several medical staff members snap toward Ah-gang in unison.

“That’s a first. Someone coming to a trauma center looking for leeches instead of patients. You must be new?”

The nurses clustered at the station threw her glances and stifled snickers.

Ah-gang hesitantly stepped further inside.

She wanted permission first, wanted to search thoroughly, but had no idea who was in charge.

A man’s silhouette caught her eye—he was organizing charts at a monitor near the treatment area.

The man in the long white coat had unusually broad, untroubled shoulders.

Tall enough that a runway would suit him better than a hospital ward.

“Excuse me, hello! I’m Ah-gang.”
“…”

The rapid staccato of typing continued uninterrupted.

He didn’t turn around, but she’d simply convey her message regardless.

“The leeches I’m responsible for—I heard from So-dam they headed this way, so…”

Her voice grew smaller under his frosty silence.

She’d heard the trauma center doctors were intimidating men practically bursting with testosterone.

Rough bodies, rougher mouths.
Having absorbed warnings that they were somehow more dangerous in the OR than half the gangsters out there, her shoulders curled inward.

She half-expected him to spin around and bark at her; her heart hammered against her ribs.

“I… would it be all right if I looked around carefully? If I don’t find the leeches, something terrible will happen… The professor is already punishing me… could you allow it, please?”

Why did her words keep coming out stupid? It wasn’t as though her tongue was twisted.

“What terrible thing will happen?”

His sudden response shocked Ah-gang.

His voice was low and heavy—somehow familiar.

“Well, it’s…”
“I’m curious what terrible thing happens. Will someone die?”

At that moment, the man slowly turned around. It was just as she hesitated at his unexpected question.

What?
A… a gangster?

Her legs froze where she stood.

An icy chill swept through her entire body, leaving her spine numb with dread.

“Wha—what! Ah, um…”
“Why are you so startled?”
“B-because…”

Her mind became a tangled ball of yarn that a cat had scattered carelessly into a corner.

It was him.
The man from Cheong-hwa Mountain. The reckless one.
The very man she’d reported to the police.

The ill-fated encounter at the Single Log Bridge.

“Do leeches have feet? Strictly speaking, they didn’t walk into the trauma center—they crawled.”

Unperturbed by Ah-gang’s frozen reaction, Tae-heon responded matter-of-factly.

“R-right, so one of them clung to Seong-jin’s clothes, or… or Seong-jin went this way, and…”

That’s what she’d meant to say, but why wouldn’t the words flow smoothly?

Ah-gang bit her dry lower lip.

Cold sweat beaded and trickled down her spine.

“Do you not know subject, verb, object? Is that how they taught you to report? Skip the useless adjectives, skip the adverbs. Just the facts. Clearly.”
“…”

A sigh.
Short sighs echoed repeatedly in her mouth.

The man she’d reported to the police was now her new supervisor.
How was this possible?

Ah-gang’s vision darkened.

He was definitely a gangster. Fresh out, at that.

Even a monk had mentioned gangsters frequenting the temple; every detail of the situation pointed to him being part of an underworld organization.

Everything fit together like puzzle pieces.

She’d fled her last job only to end up here. There was no paradise in escape, or so they said.

God, Buddha—do you hold some grudge against me?

“Do I need to teach you how to speak as well?”

His voice cut through the air like a blade of frost.

“N-no…”
“Try again. Do it right this time.”

She never could have guessed.

That day’s thread would extend straight into today.

“I… I’ll report again, more clearly.”

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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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