Illusion Blind Date - Chapter 19

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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 19

Still, compared to the one-room apartment she’d lived in before, this place was practically on a main street. In fact, just two blocks away sat a four-lane road where cars whizzed past constantly.
“It’s dark, isn’t it?”
“It’s fine, really.”
“I should have more streetlights installed.”
Could a private person just do that?
Han Bom started to ask but held back. There was something unsettling and unpredictable about this man—she had to tread carefully.
“But what are you carrying that makes your bag so heavy? Your shoulders will cave in.”
“That’s why I told you to get one.”
“Not my shoulders—yours.”
……Why is the professor worried about my shoulders?
When Han Bom looked up at him with confusion written across her face, he laughed softly and spoke.
“You’re already small enough. I’m worried you’ll get any smaller.”
…….
My growth plates closed ages ago, though.
At 162 centimeters, Han Bom was constantly told she was short, especially when walking alongside Cho Eun, who was over 170.
Calling a fully-grown adult woman short—really.
It felt like a deliberate jab, as if he were warning her not to get her hopes up, that he had no interest in her. Her mood sank.
So being handsome excuses everything?
He sensed her gaze and lowered his eyes, the streetlight catching his face as he did.
Dark, thick lashes hung from his eyelids, casting shadows across his features.
The sharp line of his nose and the masculine curve of his mouth below it sent her vision spinning.
……Yes, fine. Being handsome does excuse everything, then. What else is there?
Han Bom quietly shifted her gaze forward, staring straight ahead.
“Han Bom.”
His low voice drifted on the breeze, burrowing into her ears.
“Yes?”
She turned her head again, meeting his eyes.
“What happened to that person you were supposed to meet for the blind date? Did you decide to see him again?”
Caught off guard, Han Bom flinched.
“Oh, well…….”
“What does he do? Ah, is it rude to ask these things?”
“It’s not exactly rude, but…….”
“I thought about it sometimes. Why you mistook me for the blind date. Do we look alike?”
“I haven’t actually met him yet, so I wouldn’t know. I think I confused you with how my aunt described him.”
“How did your aunt describe him?”
He smiled slightly, asking in a probing way that sounded like he was asking her to tell him what he looked like.
How could she say that out loud?
“Well, he looks like you, professor.”
Han Bom slipped her gaze away and gave a vague answer.
He laughed lowly, as if he understood, and let the matter drop.
“So the man didn’t show up? Or did he come and then just leave?”
“He’s a police officer, and apparently a murder case came up that day, so he couldn’t make it.”
“Ah, police.”
He pressed for details with persistent interest. Han Bom couldn’t begin to guess why.
In any case, since he was asking, she answered him diligently.
“Yes. I heard he graduated from the Police Academy.”
“So you decided to meet him again?”
“He said he’d come by our hospital, but I’m not really sure.”
He was supposed to come this week, but since he hadn’t shown up, it seemed like he’d just been making empty talk.
“He’s going to meet you for a blind date while he’s on duty?”
“I know, right? I don’t really get it either.”
Cha Tae-moon’s eyebrow rose when Han Bom’s answer seemed halfhearted.
“It’s your business—why are you being so passive about it?”
Why are you being so active about it when it’s not even your business?
The words almost spilled from her lips, but Han Bom bit them back hard.
Cha Tae-moon’s gaze brushed her lips before falling away.
Han Bom suddenly looked away, flustered by the memory of that reckless kiss.
“Here we are. The hospital.”
Already?
She’d been staring down at her feet, but now she lifted her head. The hospital’s main gate loomed just ahead.
The walk had felt unusually short today.
“Pity we have to part ways. Here—take your bag.”
At his casual words, Han Bom questioned her own ears. She tilted her head, looking up at him.
Was he trying to tease her? Had they just arrived too early? Or was he bored of walking alone?
He draped the bag across her shoulders, then thrust his hands into his trouser pockets, gazing down at her with quiet intensity.
“Thank you. I should go in now.”
She adjusted the strap of her bag, bowed politely, and turned toward the hospital entrance.
The back of her head tingled with the urge to look back, but she resisted it.
Of course he’d be gone by then.
It occurred to her that tomorrow was April 1st.
The day Cha Tae-moon started his new position. She couldn’t begin to imagine how her hospital days would unfold from here on.

***

April 1st, 7 a.m.
A line of doctors in white coats stood before the Surgical Ward station, waiting for the attending physician to arrive.
“You all prepared for ward rounds? No slip-ups?”
“Yes, sir.”
Chief Park Jae-hong’s expression was unusually rigid.
“Chief, you’re wound up pretty tight today, aren’t you? You’re not about to have a bathroom emergency, are you?”
Ju Min-ki cracked a joke to ease the tension.
Han Bom shook her head silently.
Min-ki’s mouth was always a disaster—though she had to admit hers wasn’t much better.
Ordinarily, the chief would’ve torn him apart for that, but today he simply let it slide.
Instead, he shot Min-ki a look that said ‘what do you know?’ and fixed his gaze on the elevator bay.
“The director’s attending ward rounds today, apparently. That’s why he’s on edge.”
Lee Ro-un, first-year peer, whispered this to Min-ki as if he’d gotten wind of it from somewhere.
“You bastard, why tell him now?”
Ro-un cringed, his shoulders hunching up.
For a man—or more precisely, for someone in the surgical department—he had a small, lean build, but Ro-un was studious and meticulous.
He worked quietly on his own, moving about with methodical care. He hadn’t had many friends during his student years, but nobody disliked him for it.
If anything, he had a likable quality about him.
And Han Bom’s best friend, Cho Eun, absolutely doted on him.
“I, I just heard from the chief too. That the n-new attending is coming with the director……”
“That so?”
Min-ki scratched his matted hair sheepishly and grinned.
Watching this quietly, Han Bom suddenly noticed that Ji Moon hadn’t arrived yet and scanned the area.
When her eyes met Yoon Gun’s, he waved at her. She glared back at him with a sidelong glance.
Yesterday, those three never showed up in the end.
Did they really think she wouldn’t notice they’d coordinated their absence?
And here she was, alone with that difficult cousin, kissing him by accident.
All the effort it had taken to keep her eyes off that sculpted frame and that provocative water bottle.
And now, on top of it all, those soft lips kept drifting back into her mind.
Han Bom cut off the thought before it could spread further.
“Speaking of which, where’s one of the first-years? Where’s Ji Moon?”
The chief looked around, searching for him.
“He’s coming now.”
Ji Moon came rushing over and took his place beside Han Bom.
She shot him a glare as well.
“Alright everyone, cut the chatter and focus up.”
At the chief’s words, everyone fell silent.
A moment later, a cluster of white-coated figures emerged from the distant elevator.
“Whoa, the director!”
“Holy—the hospital president and vice president too. It’s chaos up here.”
“What, are we going to war? Might as well call it the Avengers.”
Ju Min-ki and Kim Young-ung were gawking like starstruck fans.
Indeed, leading the procession were Director Shim Eun-gyeong, the hospital director, the associate director, the department chief, and Cha Tae-moon, who was walking toward them.
He approached with measured steps, his white coat fluttering, and among the broad shoulders that filled the room, he stood unmistakably commanding.
She’d half expected it, but seeing him in the white coat made it real at last.
“Good morning. We hope you’re doing well.”
The residents’ voices rang out in unison, bright and spirited. Han Bom joined in, greeting him with equal vigor.
When she lifted her gaze, Cha Tae-moon’s dark eyes were trained directly on her face.
Why is he only looking at me?
Caught off guard by his unwavering stare, Han Bom glanced away.
Why did the Busan Branch dispatch have to start in May?
“Thank you all for your hard work.”
Director Shim Eun-gyeong, slender and composed, offered a warm smile in greeting.
Tall and sharp-featured with a bob cut, she resembled a model.
She was around the same age as Han Bom’s aunt, but wealth and an easy life had kept her looking at least five years younger.
Her aunt really deserved to be pampered a little.
Lately she seemed to be aging more noticeably, and it troubled Han Bom.
Shim Eun-gyeong’s gaze swept across all the residents, meeting each eye in turn.
There was something about her presence as director—an authority that weighed differently than others.
“Hospital Director, shall we begin?”
Shim Eun-gyeong turned toward the hospital director with a serene smile.
The hospital director stepped forward.
“Han Bom, would you please come forward?”
The sudden call caught her off guard, and she blinked.

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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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