Illusion Blind Date - Chapter 42

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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 42

Was he moving to the next stage?
Wherever Tae Moon’s hand touched, a tingle spread through her.
He asked casually, as if he already knew the state she was in.
“Were you waiting for me?”
She hadn’t deliberately waited, but somehow it felt right to say that she had.
Honestly, she’d wanted to see him.
“…Yes.”
At her answer, he let out a low laugh, his chest rising and falling, the sound resonating like an echo in a cave as it filtered into her ears.
But why did something keep growing there when he laughed?
Bom felt something pressing against her lower belly becoming fuller and gradually lifted her hips.
“Bom, why are you lifting your hips?”
Then, with his large hand, he slowly traced the small of her back and asked.
“Oh, I just thought you might be uncomfortable with my weight, Professor.”
Though she was less than half his size, she was still heavy enough to be heavy.
Thinking this, Bom managed to raise her upper body.
Now straddling his waist, her cheeks flushed, she looked down at him.
“We can’t do this here.”
Gripping her waist with both hands, he suddenly pulled his upper body upright.
Rising smoothly with a single fluid motion of his core strength, he wrapped his arms firmly around her body as she nearly fell backward.
His keen eyes pierced through her.
Heat surged up to his chin, his jaw clenching, he cradled her face in both hands and scattered kisses across it.
Her eyelids, the bridge of her nose, her lips, her cheeks—his mouth wandered frantically before finally stilling.
Bom gazed at him with dreamy, unfocused eyes.
Was this what love was?
His lips touched hers again, then parted.
“We can’t.”
Tae Moon spoke as if restraining himself, slowly caressing her earlobe.
…Was there any reason they couldn’t?
When it felt this good.
“There’s no reason we can’t—”
Rrrrrr, Rrrrrr.
She was about to ask what reason there could possibly be when Tae Moon’s mobile phone rang.
He stretched to grab the phone he’d left at the head of the bed.
“Yes, this is Cha Tae Moon.”
She watched him blankly as he exhaled a trembling breath and continued the call in a measured voice.
“I’m on my way now. Get the operating room prepped and draped.”
After ending the call, Tae Moon stared at her. The heat that had blazed in his eyes had already cooled to something sharp and distant.
“The hospital?”
“Yes. Emergency surgery. Multiple Rib Fracture with Splenic Rupture.”
“Then I’ll go too.”
“The on-call staff are already there.”
Tae Moon released her from his embrace, but held her firmly as she got to her feet.
Bom pulled down her shorts, which had ridden up.
His gaze fell on her pale thigh, then looked away.
Standing there with bare feet wiggling, she watched as Tae Moon rose from the sofa and let out a soft chuckle.
She understood he was doing it to clear the heat and tension that had hung between them.
“Go upstairs and remember to lock the door properly.”
“Yes. Have a safe trip.”
“All right.”
As if he’d never been excited at all, Tae Moon turned and slipped out through the entrance.
With her legs weakened, Bom collapsed onto the sofa.
She buried her face in her hands at the realization that she’d almost asked him to sleep with her—not that the phone hadn’t interrupted.
Sleep clearly wouldn’t come in this state.
The others would be at the PC Bang, and as for who’d be scrubbing in on the surgery, that was predictable enough.
Bom’s eyes lit up as she picked up her mobile phone.

***

Click.
Tae Moon pushed open the door with his foot, feeling the negative pressure give way as he entered the Operating Room.
Every eye in the room turned toward him at once.
The tension was suffocating—the child’s condition was critical.
Tae Moon met the gaze of each person there.
Bom, who should have been home, gave him a slight nod of acknowledgment.
An absurd laugh escaped him.
Gowned and gloved, Tae Moon took his place at the head of the surgical table. A six-year-old girl lay on the table before him.
He exchanged a nod with the anesthesiologist, called a Timeout, and began the surgery.
“Scalpel.”
Tae Moon took the scalpel, drew a deep breath, and continued the incision.
“There’s going to be significant bleeding the moment I open the peritoneum. Get the blood pool ready.”
He spoke in a calm, measured voice, then opened the peritoneal cavity.
Splash.
Blood pooled in the abdomen sprayed upward.
The scrub nurse quickly wiped the blood from Tae Moon’s face.
“Suctioning!”
Bom deftly drew the blood away with the suction, while gauze soaked up what remained.
Blood-soaked gauze piled up beneath Bom’s feet.
“Blood pressure’s dropping.”
The anesthesiologist called out.
“Just hold on a little longer. I’m going to clamp the splenic vessels right now.”
Tae Moon’s hands moved with urgency.
“Check the liver first.”
“The liver appears undamaged.”
Chief Jae Hong reported.
Just as blood threatened to obscure the field, Bom was already suctioning before Tae Moon could even call for it, clearing his view with precision.
Her movements were quick and delicate.
“Retraction.”
The small child’s abdomen was too narrow to work with adult-sized hands.
“Carefully now.”
Bom set down the suction and carefully retracted the left abdominal wall.
“Kelly Clamp.”
With intense concentration, Tae Moon forced down the anger rising within him.
He thought only of the day when this child would run and play freely, and his hands moved accordingly.
“Clip.”
After dissecting the tissue attached to the spleen, he ligated the artery.
Then he proceeded to ligate the vein as well.
“Beginning Splenectomy.”
He removed what remained of the damaged organ.
“Suctioning.”
“Tie.”
Jae Hong, Bom, and Tae Moon moved like the hands of a single person.
Once the splenectomy was complete, Tae Moon looked to the anesthesiologist.
“Vitals are stable.”
Tae Moon finally took a breath, carefully examining the surgical field.
The child had not simply fallen. The marks of Assault were evident everywhere.
“Now I’m closing.”
He closed the abdominal wall himself and finished the closure.
In another surgery, he would have given Bom the chance to close. Not this time.
With such a small girl’s abdomen, he made sure the closure was impeccable.
There would be some scarring, but it would fade as she grew.
He hoped the memory of the assault would heal just as gradually.
“Cut.”
“Thank you for your work!”
“Thank you for your work!”
Gratitude poured down on Tae Moon. A surgery that would normally take three hours—he’d finished in two.
The surgery had been nothing short of flawless.
Now it was time to hold the guardian accountable based on the surgery he had just performed.
“Professor, this is Child Abuse, isn’t it? The chart says Fall, but something doesn’t add up.”
The anesthesiologist looked at Tae Moon and posed the question.
“Yes, that’s my assessment as well. It was Assault.”
A Splenic Rupture caused by direct or indirect blunt force trauma around the left ribs.
The chart noted that the child had fallen from a bunk bed on the second level, but his clinical experience made it unmistakably clear that this was a lie.
“What should we do about this?”
“We need to report it. I’ll handle it.”
Tae Moon acknowledged with a nod and stepped out of the Operating Room.
First, he would need to meet with the child’s guardian and have a conversation.
His heart had gone cold and heavy.
Anyone guilty of Child Abuse deserved to face the appropriate consequences.
His hands clenched at the thought of the pain and suffering the child must have endured.

***

After the child awoke in the Recovery Room, he was transferred to the ICU.
Chief Jae Hong had tasked Bom with completing the surgical progress note before leaving to find Tae Moon, and Bom stayed in the ICU, filling out every detail of the surgical progress note with meticulous care.
The police then came through the ICU with Tae Moon, and Jae Hong found himself scrambling to keep up.
Regardless of all this commotion, the child’s condition remained stable.
“If it weren’t for Professor Tae, this would’ve just slipped through, wouldn’t it?”
An ICU nurse approached Bom with the comment.
“Yes.”
“I saw her earlier—she was a young woman. I can’t understand how she could beat a child like that.”
Bom, who had witnessed the child’s condition firsthand in the Operating Room, nodded gravely in agreement.
“I hope she faces proper justice for what she’s done.”

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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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