Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 120

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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 120.
Beom-jun waited for Deputy Director Gu Hui-jeong in the Director’s Office.
“The Deputy Director wishes to see you.”
When he received the call from Sung-hyuk, Beom-jun had been tracking Park In-suk’s movements through Korea University Hospital’s computer system.
Fortunately, Sung-hyuk’s Emergency Treatment had worked well. The admission procedures to Ward 77 were already complete.
“Tell her to come to the Director’s Office. I have time right now.”
Beom-jun said this to Sung-hyuk. The Deputy Director was probably listening from beside him.
Beom-jun had deliberately assigned Im Sung-hyuk to the Emergency Room today. He’d anticipated that Patient Park In-suk would arrive around this time.
Everything had unfolded exactly as planned. Im Sung-hyuk administered Emergency Treatment to Patient Park In-suk, and the scenario where Deputy Director Gu Hui-jeong was moved had fallen perfectly into place.
He’d even demonstrated the good sense to use the Underground Passage.
It was all part of the process of winning Hui-jeong’s heart and clearing the quest.
[A Main Quest has been generated.]
[Main Quest: Bring the enemy into your fold]
Register Han Myeong-jae’s close associate as a Talent.
Reward: Survival Probability +3%
Failure: Death
Winning over Han Myeong-jae’s closest aide—at this point, he could do whatever it took.
“She’ll come right away. I’ll escort Patient Park In-suk to Ward 77 and head back.”
“No, she doesn’t need to come all the way here. You’ve done well.”
It seemed the Emergency Treatment had taken longer than expected. She still hadn’t been admitted.
But Hui-jeong had moved separately from her mother.
‘Wasn’t she obsessed with family?’
Beom-jun actually hadn’t fully understood the description of Hui-jeong from .
In his previous life, family had been nothing but formality to him. Everyone else got married and had children, so he did too.
In any case, if she was coming over, this was an opportunity.
‘I need to clear the Hidden Quest and use the Advanced Favorability Potion. There’s no way I’ll raise it to 7 in time otherwise.’
Unlike the intermediate potion that had raised her Favorability to 5, this time he had the advanced version.
[Name: Advanced Favorability Potion
Effect: Target’s Favorability increases by 7.
Remaining uses: 1]
Gu Hui-jeong’s current Favorability was 3, so if he used the advanced potion, she’d hit MAX right away. Before Hui-jeong arrived, Beom-jun centered himself mentally.
[Hidden Quest: Move the one who stands still.]
Deputy Director Gu Hui-jeong is maintaining strategic silence. Motivate her.
First, he needed to move her out of her silence.
* * *
A few dozen minutes later, in the Director’s Office.
Gu Hui-jeong came to find Beom-jun.
“You could have just called for me.”
Regarding the matter of treating Patient Park In-suk, Hui-jeong spoke with a dismissive snort.
If she was grateful, she should just say so. But having come all the way to the Director’s Office, she led with pride instead.
Yes, that’s a deputy director for you.
“How is your mother doing?”
When Beom-jun mentioned her mother, she knitted her brow. She hesitated for a moment, but only briefly.
“She’s fine. It’s thanks to Professor Im. Wasn’t it you who sent him?”
She complained, but there was a curious lack of bite to her words.
“Yes, that’s right. I’m glad it helped.”
Beom-jun spoke to Hui-jeong without resistance, keeping it brief. He didn’t mention that he’d seen it all through the computer system.
Watching him, Hui-jeong slowly opened her mouth.
“You need me, don’t you? It would be hard for you to stand alone against the Chairman.”
She didn’t dance around it—she threw a direct pitch.
But Hui-jeong’s words were half right and half false.
Beom-jun’s goal in bringing her over was purely to clear the quest. He wasn’t planning to side with Hui-jeong to take down Han Myeong-jae.
“Well, it’s not exactly that,”
“If that’s not it, then I don’t understand why you’d look after my mother too. I’m the kind of person who needs to understand the good intentions behind an offer before I accept one.”
Hui-jeong had crossed her arms at some point.
“You know what I’ve done to you as Director all this time.”
She was wary of him.
Unlike Kim Do-yoon, who had essentially handed his life over to the Chairman,
even with her mother’s health hanging in the balance,
she seemed to understand full well that no one here was a savior.
Beom-jun agreed with Hui-jeong to some extent. Honestly, it wasn’t something he could easily brush past.
Though there was no clear evidence, the fact that he’d woken up in the ICU after his possession was probably also related to the Deputy Director.
But Beom-jun had made a resolution the day he used the Reset Tissue on her. Now was the time to look forward, not backward.
To untangle the knotted threads, cutting through the past was the cleanest way.
“I know.”
Beom-jun didn’t rehash the past at length.
“I would have done the same for any other director. You wanted Korea University Hospital not to fall apart, didn’t you?”
He didn’t threaten or coerce her. Like before, he simply stated facts plainly.
He showed her the path while allowing her—proud as she was—to make her own choice.
After registering Ha Rin as a Talent, Beom-jun discovered something: Gu Hui-jeong held a deep affection for Korea University Hospital. It manifested as anxiety over its potential ruin.
“I thought it was something you did out of care for the hospital.”
Hui-jeong spoke to Beom-jun with sudden firmness.
“No. You’ve misjudged me. How the hospital fares is none of my concern, so don’t drag me into this needlessly.”
But Beom-jun detected a flicker in her eyes, a contradiction to her words. A small crack had formed in her iron composure.
“If you truly hated Korea University Hospital, you would have left long ago. People who are genuinely indifferent don’t react to hospital matters.”
Whenever anything Beom-jun did seemed off, Hui-jeong would come running. That itself was evidence that she responded with acute sensitivity to what happened at Korea University Hospital.
“People who’ve given up don’t get angry.”
At his words, Hui-jeong bit her lip. Her crossed arms fell away, dropping to her sides.
“…You think too highly of me.”
“Am I wrong?”
Hui-jeong didn’t answer, but a Status Window appeared before Beom-jun’s eyes.
[Gu Hui-jeong’s Favorability has increased by 1.]
“Be careful. Uigwonhoe will come looking for you soon.”
And the moment Hui-jeong finished speaking, a quest notification chimed.
[Hidden Quest completed.]
[Hidden Quest: Move the one who stands still.]
[You have obtained an Advanced Favorability Potion as a reward.]
* * *
A few dozen minutes earlier, on the way to the Director’s Office, Hui-jeong’s mind was churning.
‘True, it would be too much for Director Choi to face the Chairman alone.’
It was a mismatch from the start.
No matter how accomplished Beom-jun was as a doctor, he’d only been Director for a year and a half.
‘Even if Director Choi is doing quite well lately, he’s really not in the same league as the Chairman.’
The Chairman was someone who could overturn the entire medical landscape of South Korea.
And behind him stood Uigwonhoe—something Hui-jeong could never penetrate, no matter how hard she tried.
Hui-jeong was genuinely afraid.
‘If I side with Director Choi now, won’t I completely fall out with the Chairman?’
Hui-jeong worked her palms against each other. The marks from gripping the wheelchair tightly earlier still remained on her hands.
‘When you face a crisis, the real and the false are revealed. That’s why it’s an opportunity.’
Her mother had once been a female executive who swept across an era. She’d run a furniture company, and with her original designs and practical sensibility, there wasn’t a soul in the industry who didn’t know her name.
From childhood, Hui-jeong had been heavily influenced by her mother. She was an adult Hui-jeong wanted to become. The fact that she was the one who’d given her life was truly a blessing.
Now, seeing her mother struggle even to move about on her own, Hui-jeong felt the weight of time.
‘Is this the crisis she used to talk about?’
Hui-jeong sighed, thinking of her mother—her mother who’d said to seize the opportunity, not to fear.
Chairman Han Myeong-jae and Director Choi Beom-jun.
Compared to the Chairman, who wielded people strategically, Director Choi was shouldering everything alone.
Some days his name was in the news. Other days he was securing projects from government ministries.
On top of that, he was handling the grunt work of a physician, and the Director was even doing chest surgery consultations himself.
He might earn the respect of his doctors, but a person couldn’t sustain that indefinitely. Above all, his stamina would give out.
And yet, Hui-jeong knew that what he was pursuing was right. He genuinely cared for his patients, and his concern for his medical staff seemed genuine.
‘Still, one can’t go far alone. Someone has to push, someone has to pull.’
Hui-jeong had experienced that too—back when she’d been directing a hospital in America. Then, she’d received help from so many people, including her mother.
When she stepped forward to open the path, those who steadied her back were seasoned life mentors.
Perhaps now was the time for Hui-jeong to shift from the front to the back of the group. Perhaps this was a role only she could play in the Korea University Hospital that was being rebuilt.
But above all, what mattered was what Beom-jun wanted. Why he was drawing her in.
‘I suppose I’ll find out by watching.’
After being used by Han Myeong-jae, Hui-jeong had resolved not to help him again. Whoever came next, not just Choi Beom-jun, she wouldn’t have aided them.
But after meeting Choi Beom-jun with her conflicted heart,
Hui-jeong began to understand why people were turning from the Chairman toward Beom-jun.
“I would have done the same for any other director. You wanted Korea University Hospital not to fall apart, didn’t you? I thought it was something you did out of care for the hospital.”
He was someone who moved forward without wavering.
For a while, everyone thought he was a silver-tongued operator getting the better of them, but it was the opposite. His words had pierced Hui-jeong’s heart.
“No. You’ve misjudged me.”
Hui-jeong denied it reflexively, but the truth was she’d been convinced by him.
‘Right—who else cares for Korea University Hospital as much as I do?’
For now she was holding her breath, watching the Chairman’s mood, but a passion burned within her, fiercer than anyone else’s.
In the end, Hui-jeong told Beom-jun exactly what he needed to know right now.
“Uigwonhoe will come looking for you soon.”
Hui-jeong had only recently learned of it herself.
The world Han Myeong-jae had built.
The source of his power.
Uigwonhoe would be coming for Director Choi soon.

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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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