Emergency Blind Date - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#Episode 18

“Ticklish? It doesn’t hurt?”

Then Kang Hyeok nonchalantly cupped Da-som’s sole with his hand and gently scratched it with his fingers.

“Ah, don’t do that! It’s, it’s ticklish.”

Da-som pushed Kang Hyeok’s shoulder away with incomparably more force than before.

If it had been Eun Hyeok, he would have already been sent flying, but Kang Hyeok only leaned back slightly.

“You’ll get hurt doing that. Stay still. Let me loosen this.”

He unwrapped the compression bandage around Da-som’s ankle. Marks left by the compression bandage were visible on her pure white ankle.

“Since you won’t be walking much, it’s better not to wear this.”

He was too well-mannered to call a pervert, so Da-som just glared at him while breathing heavily.

Anyway, because of Kang Hyeok doing things that were embarrassing, shameful, and unimaginable to Da-som, her head was spinning.

“…Professor! I really hate being tickled.”

When she spoke haltingly with a face red as a burning sweet potato, it must have been quite amusing because the corners of Kang Hyeok’s mouth twitched upward.

“I didn’t know. I won’t do it again.”

“…Yes.”

When Da-som reluctantly answered, Kang Hyeok extended his hand to her.

“Come on, get up.”

Really, why is he acting like this?

Da-som stared at the masculine hand with prominent tendons, then hesitantly placed her hand on top of his.

She was pulled up in one swift motion as if being sucked in.

“Now, hurry and go get ready.”

Da-som left the research lab with her face bright red and her head hung low.

Click.

After closing the door, Da-som leaned against the wall and exhaled excitedly. She touched her flushed cheeks with her hands to cool them down, but it was no use.

Brother-in-law, he was quite the alpha male.

To make a maiden’s heart flutter like this.

Da-som barely managed to collect herself and took out her phone.

She needed to call Eun Hyeok and Han Byeol, who were waiting for her to get off work at the department.

Eun Hyeok, who absolutely couldn’t stand not knowing things, was probably looking at his watch and counting seconds.

When she left the department earlier, Eun Hyeok had said this:

If she didn’t show up within 30 minutes, he’d consider her dead and storm into the research lab.

If she said she was meeting Kang Hyeok alone outside the hospital, he’d go crazy with curiosity.

What excuse should she make?

Originally, she had planned to tell them about what happened with Kang Hyeok after work, but that would have to be postponed until tomorrow.

It would be safest to say she had to go to her family home for an urgent matter, right?

***

Without even time to shower, Da-som hurriedly changed clothes and left her dormitory, quickly heading to the main building’s first floor entrance.

The street visible through the large glass windows was shrouded in deep darkness.

Kang Hyeok would be waiting out there.

Although they had avoided rush hour, that didn’t mean there were no people coming and going. What if Emergency Department staff happened to see them meeting right in front of the entrance?

It was absurd for a first-year resident who had just started to be close enough with a professor to carpool.

If they forced Eun Hyeok into the equation, it might make some sense, but that wouldn’t explain everything.

She vividly remembered when she was an intern at Central General Hospital, how she had to endure all sorts of rumors after catching rides with an internal medicine senior a few times.

What if she gets traumatized again?

Of course, the situation was different from back then, but it was true that she felt intimidated.

She quickened her naturally slowed pace, opened the entrance door, and went outside.

Perhaps because it had rained, the wind was quite sharp.

Get it together.

Slap.

When she hit her cheeks hard with both hands, her mind snapped to attention.

A passerby looked back at Da-som as if she were strange.

Pretending not to notice, she looked around and spotted a car waiting in the distance with its taillights on.

The car, massive and imposing like Kang Hyeok, noticed Da-som and glided toward her.

Da-som quickly approached the car and threw open the passenger door.

Click.

As the door opened, jet-black eyes silently gazed at Da-som. His seemingly indifferent yet calm eyes gleamed in the darkness.

He looked much more dangerous than when she had seen him in the brightly lit research lab.

Her heart constricted and she felt breathless, unable to readily get in the car.

As she stood there with the door open, he slightly tilted his head and curved his lips upward.

“Aren’t you getting in?”

His low voice was also dangerously seductive.

Even if rumors spread, it wouldn’t be too unfair if they were about such a handsome man, right?

Ha, really…

Da-som, a serious believer in appearance supremacy, wasn’t confident she could resist Kang Hyeok’s charm.

He looked good in a gown, without it, and in a suit too.

“Jeong Da-som.”

He called her name as if to wake her from her daze.

It was the same voice he used when calling Ms. Jeong So-yeon.

Lucky Jeong So-yeon.

If she wanted to, she could easily meet men like this, right?

This time, she had ended up as a substitute by chance, but if her sister had properly gone on the blind date, this wonderful man might have become her brother-in-law.

…Maybe that would have been better.

Wicked fate. A cruel trick of destiny.

Just as her thoughts were about to wander off track, Kang Hyeok called her again.

“Jeong Da-som.”

He placed his hand over his seatbelt as if ready to get out of the car.

“I’ll, I’ll get in.”

“Hurry up. Your friends are coming out over there.”

When she turned around, she could see Han Byeol and Eun Hyeok crossing the hospital lobby in the distance.

Da-som quickly got in the car.

“Seatbelt.”

“I can do it myself.”

Remembering how he had leaned close to fasten her seatbelt that morning, Da-som hurriedly pulled the belt.

Click.

This time it went in on the first try.

“You have excellent learning ability.”

What learning ability.

“Haha, yes.”

Da-som answered with an awkward laugh and gripped the bag on her lap tightly for support.

Watching Da-som like that, he started the car. The massive vehicle moved silently and left the hospital.

Looking at the entrance through the side mirror, she saw Eun Hyeok and Han Byeol, who had just exited, having some conversation with serious expressions.

“Didn’t you tell them you were meeting me?”

As if realizing who Da-som was looking at, Kang Hyeok asked.

“Yes. Not yet.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to tell them in advance? I think that would be better for later too.”

“I should.”

Da-som nodded and answered in a small voice.

As always, her friends would understand. Of course, she’d get scolded a bit and her wallet would be emptied, but still.

***

Kang Hyeok, gripping the steering wheel, looked at Da-som who was frozen stiff beside him and smiled faintly.

Where did the bold Jeong Da-som who came out as a substitute for the blind date go?

As he felt in the emergency room today, Jeong Da-som wasn’t the type to freeze up like this.

Da-som, who was naturally bright and cheerful, never got intimidated.

He recalled Da-som’s rather bold gaze as she looked over Kang Hyeok’s bare body when he was changing shirts in the research lab.

So this behavior must be because of what happened that day when she came as a substitute.

He could tell just by how much Eun Hyeok, who was no different from a child, relied on her.

Despite her delicate appearance like a pure white rabbit, her inner strength seemed strong.

“Professor, where are we going?”

Watching Da-som flutter her long eyelashes and ask cautiously, Kang Hyeok became even more certain his thoughts were correct.

“To have dinner.”

“Ah, there seem to be plenty of restaurants near the hospital too.”

When Kang Hyeok turned his head to look at her intently, she curved her eyes and smoothed things over with a smile. She meant there was no need to go far.

See, there it is.

“Is being with me burdensome?”

He asked indirectly what he wanted to ask directly—whether she disliked it.

“A little.”

Though it was the answer he expected, hearing it actually made him feel bad. You can’t fill your stomach with the first spoonful, but thinking about the long road ahead made him sigh involuntarily.

“We’re going to keep seeing each other, so what are you going to do being so uncomfortable?”

“Of course it’ll gradually get better, but I think it’s worse because I committed a sin.”

The moment Da-som appeared before him, all of Kang Hyeok’s anger had dissipated.

So talking about committing sins wasn’t right.

Unlike him, Da-som seemed to want to make it clear that today’s meeting between them had no meaning beyond that.

If that were the case, there would have been no reason to put her in his car.

Kang Hyeok raised the corner of his mouth in a grin and said.

“Let’s go back to square one. Then we’ll find out whether that was committing a sin or not.”

“Square one?”

Da-som asked with wide, round eyes.

“That’s right.”

Kang Hyeok was literally thinking of going back to square one and starting over.

Though he had boasted to his sister that he didn’t see people in white coats as women, Da-som running around the emergency room in a white coat with a stethoscope was definitely a woman.

From when they met in the elevator this morning until now, Kang Hyeok had been constantly revealing his feelings.

Unless she was incredibly dense, she would have realized what Kang Hyeok wanted to do with her.

Surely she didn’t think he would put just anyone in the passenger seat, bandage their wounds, and touch their feet.

“…So…”

Da-som trailed off. Then she watched him with a thoughtful expression.

Kang Hyeok pretended not to notice Da-som’s gaze and focused on driving.

The road was clear without any traffic.

It was refreshing, as if foreshadowing his heart reaching out boldly toward Da-som.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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