Illusion Blind Date - Chapter 36

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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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#36

“Why are you doing this?”
“……Wouldn’t it be all right if I went in for the surgery?”
Tae Moon tilted his head and looked down at Yi Roun.
According to what he’d heard from Hae Il earlier today, the young resident had been in the Operating Room all night performing surgeries, yet now wanted to scrub in again.
“You were in the Operating Room all last night. You must be exhausted—get some rest.”
“I’m fine. I can do it.”
Yi Roun spoke with determination, eyes sharp, but Tae Moon shook his head.
“You’re rotating through Colon Surgery right now, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but since that’s the case, I can scrub in because I’m scheduled to leave in the afternoon anyway.”
“Next time.”
“Professor…….”
“Yi Roun? What’s gotten into you today? Have you lost your mind?”
The bewildered chief resident watched Tae Moon’s expression before glaring at Yi Roun.
“It’s not happening. Do it next time.”
Tae Moon spoke coldly and turned away.
Yi Roun.
The young resident was hungry for work, and above all else, brimming with enthusiasm for surgery.
He wouldn’t be training for just one year; he had several more years ahead of him.
There was no reason to rush.
Tae Moon resolved that when Yi Roun came into his rotation next time, he’d give him plenty of work to do, then turned and left.
After Tae Moon departed, Jae Hong glared sharply at Yi Roun.
“What’s this about? I told you that you were a good fit, and now you’re climbing the walls?”
“……I apologize.”
“Ugh, you workaholic. Finish what you’re doing and head out. You look so haggard I’m worried you’ll collapse.”
“That won’t happen.”
“Tsk, and now you’re talking back? Our Yi Roun’s really grown up, hasn’t he?”
“…….”
“I’d like to put you in a surgery too, but the professor said no. Please, just go rest.”
“…….”
“You’re not answering?”
“Understood.”
“Geez, stubborn as a mule.”
Jae Hong shook his head in disapproval and turned his steps toward the Doctor’s Office.
The first-year residents who’d joined this year were surprisingly unconventional.
Thud, thud.
Jae Hong turned around at the sound of footsteps.
“Hey, why are you following me! I told you to go rest.”
Yi Roun was trailing behind him.
“I was curious about how Bom’s doing.”
“All right. Come here.”
Jae Hong threw an arm around Yi Roun’s shoulders and put him in a playful headlock.
“You’ve got quite the personality on you. How didn’t I notice it before?”
“…….”
“Didn’t you catch hell during Professor Hae Il’s surgery yesterday?”
“He praised me. He said that from now on, I’m always a Colon Surgery resident—those were his exact words.”
Now Jae Hong understood why Yi Roun had been so eager to scrub in with Tae Moon. Not that anyone wanted to avoid Colon Surgery.
No one who’d ever been in the Operating Room with the temperamental Professor Hae Il came out without getting chewed out.
But praise?
That was unheard of.
“You’re really that good?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Yeah, right.”
Jae Hong had been worried that Yi Roun didn’t mesh well with his peers and might end up flaming out, but now it seemed those concerns were unfounded.
“Looks like you’re one of those fiery spirits in a small package.”
“I’m not a small package. I’m big.”
“Ha ha ha, this guy’s something else. You actually crack me up.”
Yi Roun slipped quickly from Jae Hong’s embrace and pushed through the doctor’s office door, quickening his pace.
Never mind Roun. Now, how am I going to discipline that crazy rabbit? If he’s in bad shape, it’ll be rough.
He’d said in the Emergency Room that he’d been hit by a patient—worry seized me at the thought of how badly.
But I’d have to be firm about it, make sure it never happened again.
Being a chief is harder than I thought.
Jae Hong felt the weight of his responsibility and rubbed the stiffness from the back of his neck.

***

There were two Cholecystectomies that morning.
After sending one patient out of recovery, Spring had taken the next one straight into surgery, and it wasn’t until after one in the afternoon that he could finally leave the Operating Room.
Even assisting was this exhausting—watching the surgeons Lead made him feel genuine respect.
Time would tell, but he wanted nothing more than to reach that position himself one day.
A yearning rose in him—to become a surgeon who could save lives with these small hands.
Watching patients recover and walk out was his greatest joy.
Surgery was one of those disciplines where you could receive treatment and leave whole, walking on your own.
Forgetting even his hunger, Spring cleared the backlogged Colon Surgery calls on the ward, then settled at the Nurse Station to fill out the surgical progress notes.
Through tired eyes, he caught glimpses of his colleagues making their rounds through the Hospital Ward and ICU, dark circles hanging beneath their eyes.
Each time his exhausted peers passed the station without the energy to raise a hand in greeting, Spring smiled at them.
There was no reason he should feel this surge of energy today when ordinarily he was no different from them—it was all because of Tae Moon.
Now that he was certain Tae Moon liked him, it was as though he possessed the whole world.
Even the scolding he’d taken felt reassuring, energizing.
This feeling was entirely new—strange and frightening all at once.
Calm down. Get your head on straight.
Spring slapped his own cheek sharply and exhaled through his teeth.
As he turned back to the monitor to enter the chart notes, his phone vibrated.
A text from Han Ae Jung.

「Spring, when you get a chance, call your aunt. Please!」

He turned the message over in his mind, wondering if that police officer had contacted her.
Thinking it best to just tell her directly, he decided to call her himself.
Spring left the Hospital Ward and made his way to the window at the end of the hallway.
He sat on one of the benches where patients and their families could rest and called Han Ae Jung.
As soon as he pressed the call button, there was a brief tone, and his aunt’s voice came through.
—Spring, can you talk?
“Yeah, Aunt.”
Han Ae Jung, an internal medicine specialist, ran a private clinic with two nurses on staff.
At this hour—well past lunch—she should have been busy, but she sounded at leisure.
No matter how hectic things got, she made it a point to visit home once every two months to spend time with her aunt before heading back.
— Your father called you?
Spring’s brow furrowed at the sudden mention of his father.
“No, he didn’t call.”
They weren’t close enough to exchange calls regularly.
— Well, that bastard has apparently decided to go through with a wedding. With that fox of a woman.
“Let’s not worry about what Dad does, Aunt.”
The man had been having affairs while her mother was alive—whether he remarried now was of no consequence to her.
— Not worry about what? That lunatic has made it his mission to ruin your marriage prospects, his only daughter! I even begged him to at least wait until you were married off. God, it infuriates me.
“I’m fine, Aunt. So please, don’t get upset.”
— How could I not be upset?
“Stop it, my ears are ringing. Lower your voice, Aunt. No patients right now?”
— If I had patients, would I be doing this? Some shameless hack just opened an internal medicine practice right next door in the same shopping center.
“Seriously?”
For Spring, this news about the rival clinic mattered far more than his father’s wedding—it was her aunt’s livelihood at stake.
— He keeps saying I’ll get what I deserve. We’ll see about that.
“Who is it? Do you know him?”
— Yes. My medical school classmate. Absolutely rotten person.
But beneath the contempt, something thick and lingering colored her aunt’s voice.
“Wait—is this that person who’s supposedly never married because he liked you, the one living alone all this time?”
— That bastard never married because of me? He never married because he wasn’t capable of it.
So she’d checked, and it was indeed him.
Bom knew all too well that her aunt had sacrificed her youth to raise her, and the guilt of it gnawed at her.
“Anyway, when Dad calls, I’ll tell Aunt about it.”
-Tell him flat out. Don’t remarry until you’re married off.
“Honestly, whether she remarries or not, what does it matter to me? I need to make sure I get my share from Mom’s inheritance.”
-Don’t worry about that money. Aunt will get it for you no matter what. But anyway, has the police called? Are you supposed to meet with them?
“No, nothing like that. And even if he calls, I’m not meeting him. You shouldn’t hold onto any lingering feelings either. Understood?”
-Ugh, fine. There’s not just one man in the world, is there? Aunt will look around again, so don’t worry.
“Aunt!”
It was her aunt’s dearest wish that Bom would meet a man from a well-to-do family and receive the love from parents she’d never had, living a comfortable life.
Knowing this, Bom couldn’t bring herself to say harsh things, no matter how frustrated she felt.
-Aren’t you busy?
“I’m swamped—absolutely drowning in work. Please don’t add to my confusion.”
-Such a temper. You really are just like your mother. Anyway, make sure you eat proper meals and don’t drink too much coffee. You know it upsets Aunt’s stomach, don’t you?
“I know.”
-Go on now.
“Okay.”
After ending the call, Bom let out a long sigh.

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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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