Emergency Instinct - Chapter 17

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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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In the residents’ office, Kyung-seok and Min-su were taking out cup noodles, preparing to eat them.

Ji-an set the bag down on the table.

On the first day, she had shared it with the hospital security guard, and yesterday she had shared it with the people in the nurses’ station.

Today’s particularly heavy bag, Ji-an had brought as breakfast for her seniors.

“Seniors. Please have this.”

“What is all this?”

Kyung-seok asked in surprise.

“…Breakfast.”

Ji-an shrugged her shoulders and unpacked the contents.

“Wow. Isn’t this from an expensive place? It looks really delicious. Hong Ji-an. What’s gotten into you?”

Min-su, who seemed hungry, took out a sandwich and put it in his mouth as he asked.

“Don’t tell me you’re trying to use this to cover your New Year’s bonus?”

“You’re trying to squeeze blood from a flea. Just eat what’s given to you.”

Kyung-seok immediately intervened and threw a drink to Min-su. Min-su, who caught it reflexively, grumbled.

“Why does senior only pick on me?”

“If you don’t want to eat it, give it back.”

“Who said I won’t eat it? I’ll eat it. I’ll eat.”

“Ji-an, aren’t you eating?”

Kyung-seok picked out a ham sandwich that Ji-an usually liked and offered it to her. But Ji-an immediately shook her head.

“No. I’m fine. I’ll go out first.”

Watching Ji-an turn around with an unfamiliar expression, Kyung-seok looked back at the contents on the table.

There was no sweet coffee milk that Ji-an always bought when eating sandwiches.

Ji-an didn’t buy this. At this hour, who on earth could have…?

Kyung-seok completely lost his appetite.

He wanted to take it easy, but his heart kept growing impatient. It seemed he could no longer postpone his confession.

***

Did she eat today?

Coming out after finishing the morning meeting, Tae-jun imagined Ji-an eating her sandwich bit by bit.

Even while making a troubled face, Ji-an had been accepting everything he gave her without fail.

Even if they couldn’t eat together, at least seeing her briefly in the morning.

Tae-jun was pleased that he could take care of her breakfast.

Suddenly, he wanted to hear her voice.

He took out his phone and pressed her number. But it didn’t connect right away.

Is she busy? Or…?

His contemplation wasn’t long.

Tae-jun sent a message with his usual threat, hoping his suspicion was wrong.

[Answer the phone. Or else, I’ll go to the hospital right now.]

When he pressed the call button again.

-Hello.

The moment the signal rang, Ji-an’s stiff voice came through.

Tae-jun, who felt relieved for a moment, let out an incredulous sigh.

How did I end up like this?

-Hello? If you have nothing to say, I’m hanging up.

She tried to hang up immediately, as if she didn’t want to spare even a moment of time.

He could have been annoyed by her indifference. But instead, his chest tickled and he felt like laughing.

“Did you eat breakfast today?”

-No. I threw it away.

At her cold answer, Tae-jun shook his head.

“What a waste. All of it?”

-…Yes.

After seeming to hesitate for a moment, the answer came out a beat late.

A lie. She didn’t throw it away.

“Did you eat lunch?”

-Did you call just to check that?

“Among other things. When you’re busy, shouldn’t you take good care of eating everything?”

-Chairman.

She called him calmly, in a subdued voice. And then.

-I’m not free enough to take prank calls.

Utterly stiff words flowed out.

Even at her voice, so cold and low, he foolishly smiled and felt pleased.

He was definitely in a serious condition already.

Tae-jun suppressed his instincts with effort, then opened his mouth.

“It’s not a prank call.”

-…

“I called to hear Dr. Hong Ji-an’s voice. You don’t have to eat what I give you, just take care of your meals while working.”

After a brief silence, her small voice was heard.

-…If you have no business, I’m hanging up.

Click. She hung up the phone just like that.

Somehow he could picture her reddened face, and Tae-jun laughed helplessly.

Perhaps he had become immune to the repeated rejections, as he wasn’t even unpleasant now.

He really didn’t know he had such a childish side. Rather, an even more intense fighting spirit surged up.

“If I need business, I can just create some.”

Just then, an appropriate item came to mind.

It was worth saving. I even took photos already.

Tae-jun sent Ji-an consecutive messages and returned to work. While imagining Ji-an’s eyes widening in surprise.

***

As soon as the call ended, Tae-jun’s message arrived.

[I remembered. The business.]

What?

Seeing the text on her phone, Ji-an frowned and stared at the screen.

[Contact me. Or I’ll throw it away.]

Ji-an doubted her own eyes.

“Wh-why is this…?”

It was the designer bag that Grandmother had forcibly given her, insisting she must return it.

Seeing the bag she had completely forgotten about, Ji-an trembled all over as if an earthquake had struck.

Oh my goodness. I left it in the hotel room that day.

The bag had been the problem from the beginning.

If only Tae-jun hadn’t appeared with that bag, wouldn’t they have avoided getting entangled like this?

Ji-an’s head throbbed.

How had she forgotten about the bag until now?

Grandmother had even inflated the hospital bills to demand payment. Although she had warned her, there was no way she would back down easily.

Contact would obviously come soon, and she would definitely look for the bag too.

Ji-an, who had been grinding her lips, searched for the price using the bag photo.

Although she didn’t know much about luxury goods, she knew it was from an expensive brand. But when she actually saw the price that came up, she was dumbfounded.

“What kind of bag costs two thousand?”

Wondering if she had the units wrong, she counted again, but she hadn’t seen it incorrectly.

It wasn’t two million won, but definitely twenty million won.

She couldn’t just tell her to throw the bag away either.

Having declared war on the persistent grandmother, Ji-an couldn’t just relax and feel at ease either.

As she roughly ran her fingers through her hair, her phone vibrated again.

Thinking it might be Tae-jun, she checked immediately, but it was a station call.

Ji-an, who had stepped outside briefly to take a call, immediately ran back into the emergency room.

“What’s going on?”

“Professor Cha is calling for you.”

“The department head is calling for me?”

Ji-an couldn’t help but be surprised.

Cha Seong-hyeok, the head of the Emergency Medicine Department, was famous for having no interest in residents.

Because he had many external activities, he actually spent more time outside the hospital than in the emergency room. Naturally, Kyeong-seok, his direct subordinate, handled most of the hospital work in his place.

“He went to a conference in Jeju Island and came back today. He must have heard about Dr. Hong.”

“Ah…”

Well, he’s someone who likes to get involved, so there’s no way he’d pretend not to know.

It was unwelcome attention.

She thought it would die down if she stayed quiet, but for several days now, even people she didn’t know were acting like they knew her.

Though she didn’t want to, Ji-an had to head to the professor’s office.

But what awaited her wasn’t Professor Cha alone.

“Come in. Dr. Hong Ji-an. Perfect timing, a reporter I know came by and was curious about Dr. Hong, so I called you. Sit here.”

“Hello? I’m Kim So-ra from Medical Information. You’re even more beautiful than in the video.”

“…Video?”

“Haha, Dr. Hong doesn’t know yet. The video was uploaded a little while ago. Look, you came out really well.”

Professor Cha took out his phone and showed her the video.

It was hotel CCTV footage vividly showing the scene of her coming out of the elevator and saving the child.

“Why is this…”

“Gangchihan Clinic’s office uploaded it.”

“Ah…”

“The comment reactions are good too, and there’s a lot of interest in you, Doctor. You’re really amazing. They said if you had been even a little later, her life would have been in danger.”

“No. It was something anyone could have done.”

She was flustered.

No matter how she thought about it, it was just a small incident. But it seemed to have blown up because that child happened to be a congressman’s daughter.

Still, uploading a video like this without my consent. Is this even allowed?

As she bit her lips in displeasure, the reporter smiled and said,

“You don’t need to be so modest. This is an opportunity to get your face known. If you give me an interview, I’ll write a good article for you. It’s good for you too if you become famous.”

“No. I don’t really…”

As Ji-an was about to refuse immediately, Professor Cha gave her a look and stepped in instead.

“Haha. Of course we should do it. But you’ll have to properly promote our Hanyeong Hospital Emergency Medicine Department.”

“Of course. Professor, would you like to take a photo together too?”

Professor Cha and the reporter were perfectly in sync.

“Haha, is that okay? Dr. Hong, this is for hospital promotion, so just spare a little time. That’s fine, right?”

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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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