Surviving as a Rogue Hospital Director - Chapter 22

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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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Chapter 22.
“Director, the Heart Transplant Surgery for patient Seo Jin-ha has been completed successfully.”
Im Sung-hyuk’s voice came through the receiver calm and measured, nothing like the nightmare he’d had moments before. He spoke as though he’d simply done what needed to be done—without fanfare.
Beom Jun, who’d been reviewing Seo Jin-ha’s Hospital Information System on his computer, already knew the surgery was over, but he said nothing else about it.
Any more interference would look excessive. Everything concerning the patient’s treatment remained the professor’s prerogative.
“Well done. You’ve earned your rest.”
Beom Jun spoke in measured language, his tone crisp and understated.
“No, Director. You’re the one who worked hard. I was able to finish the surgery well because of all your attention to the details.”
Im Sung-hyuk, who’d been locked in the Operating Room for five hours bringing patient Seo Jin-ha back to life, turned the credit toward Beom Jun.
He wasn’t one to offer empty flattery. If he said it, he meant it.
“Come now, don’t be like that. You performed the surgery—what did I do?”
All Beom Jun had done was enable Sung-hyuk to focus on the treatment. And even that, in the end, had been for his own benefit.
[Im Sung-hyuk’s Favorability has reached MAX status.]
[Im Sung-hyuk has developed Loyalty toward you.]
Sung-hyuk’s Favorability had already maxed out, so it couldn’t rise any further. Instead, like Jae-gyeong before him, he’d developed Loyalty.
[Survival Probability has increased by 2%.]
[Current Survival Probability is 19%.]
The more entangled Beom Jun became with Sung-hyuk, the higher his Survival Probability climbed.
“That’s not true, Director. You’re the one who saved patient Seo Jin-ha.”
But Sung-hyuk spoke with quiet conviction.
[Through the effect of Loyalty, Emotion Sharing is now possible.]
Though his voice was low and steady, Beom Jun could now read Sung-hyuk’s emotions through his newfound Loyalty.
He was suppressing something that swelled deep within his chest.
Relief at having completed the surgery well mingled with something tender and overwhelming—his feelings toward patient Seo Jin-ha, who had endured so much. The emotions braided together, too complex for a single word.
Perhaps it was all the feeling he’d set aside for the surgery suddenly flooding back at once.
And carrying this fullness in his heart, Sung-hyuk had called Beom Jun first—the director who’d been his steadiest support through this Heart Transplant Surgery.
During the procedure, a staff member from the Organ Transplant Center had brought in the donor heart and mentioned that the director’s intervention had made them cancel their leave.
‘That’s why my mother-in-law is in Ward 77 right now. I really hope this surgery goes well. Fighting!!’
Beyond simply procuring the heart from the National Organ Procurement Center, Beom Jun had coordinated the surgical schedule and smoothed over every last detail without a single hitch.
“I… truly. I only know how to perform surgery. Director. Thank you for saving my patient.”
Sung-hyuk’s words came in fragments, rough breathing audible between them.
Faced with such gratitude, Beom Jun found himself without words.
‘Me? What did I do? I didn’t perform the treatment myself.’
Beom Jun, gripping a warm Computer Mouse instead of a cold Scalpel, found his thoughts spiraling.
Days from his past—when he’d branded himself a failure at the hospital—flickered past like a panorama. It was old history, certainly, but that didn’t make it any less real.
“Exhale.”
But Beom Jun closed his eyes tight and pulled himself back to the present before he could sink deeper into sentiment.
Sung-hyuk needed something from him now, over the phone. Something he needed to hear.
“Sung-hyuk, get some rest. You can’t just look after your patient—you have to take care of yourself too.”
For someone as ruthlessly rational as Sung-hyuk to say something like that meant he’d reached his limit.
Beom Jun couldn’t fathom how hard Sung-hyuk had been pushing himself.
From what he’d observed, Sung-hyuk was even more consumed by his patients than what Beom Jun had read in the popular “Doctor X” series—he poured everything into his treatment.
A racehorse has the finish line, a bullet train has a station, but a doctor has no place to rest, even briefly. One patient’s discharge doesn’t mark the end.
And Sung-hyuk was poor at pacing himself. He simply endured through sheer force of will and physical stamina.
‘Back then, my heart was always racing ahead of everything.’
Beom Jun, having experienced something similar when he was a junior professor, could understand Sung-hyuk’s current state.
“No, Director. I’m fine.”
Of course he refused rest. Beom Jun had expected as much.
So he brought up the patients instead.
“If you collapse, what happens to all your other patients?”
“…I suppose I should get at least a little sleep.”
“That’s right. Rest in between, pace yourself.”
Only after extracting a promise from Sung-hyuk did Beom Jun finally end the call.
‘You’re the one who saved patient Seo Jin-ha.’
‘Thank you for saving my patient.’
Sung-hyuk’s sincerity, compressed and held tight, echoed in his ears like a refrain.
Despite his exhaustion, Beom Jun felt every sensation in his body sharpen. Even the air entering his lungs felt vivid.
His heart beat steadily, and he felt profoundly alive.
It was a fullness he’d never experienced during his own years of direct patient care.
* * *
With her new heart, Jin-ha recovered with remarkable speed as the days passed.
While Sung-hyuk’s surgical skill had been exemplary, her youth at twenty-eight played a significant role in her recovery.
“Good morning, everyone! What a beautiful day!”
She infused the hospital with a fresh vitality, like a flower bud on the verge of bloom,
and in a university hospital where more than half the patients were in their sixties or older, she stood out unmistakably.
“My, how beautiful she is.”
“Youth is such a blessing.”
“Indeed, that young lady’s been through so much.”
Patients gathered in small groups to talk about Jin-ha. Once they learned her story, they all became her supporters—and not merely because of her appearance. She possessed a natural magnetism that drew people in.
And matching her recovery pace, the filming accelerated. Though Sung-hyuk’s awkwardness on camera kept grinding progress to a halt every time he stepped in front of the lens.
“Uh, um, Professor, are you a robot?”
In Jin-ha’s hospital room.
The production director and crew had gathered. Sung-hyuk sat awkwardly perched on the foot of the bed.
Jin-ha pulled him toward the center of the bed.
“Professor, come over here. Come on, quickly!”
They were filming a scene where the two of them sat across a folding table attached to the bed, having a conversation. It was all staged, of course. There wasn’t time in a real doctor’s day to chat like this with a patient.
It wasn’t a lack of sincerity so much as a lack of time. One professor oversaw dozens of patients. Consultations lasted five minutes at most; rounds were timed in seconds.
“Th-the surgery? It went very well, so… I’m glad.”
Exactly as Jin-ha had said, Sung-hyuk recited his lines with all the naturalness of a robot. He’d clearly memorized his dialogue beforehand, but it showed.
‘If worst comes to worst, we can dub in background music and strip the audio. Besides, these two look good together on camera.’
Sung-hyuk, wearing thin-rimmed glasses, cut a neat, intellectual figure—the archetype of a doctor. Though his personality was taciturn, his features naturally suggested a gentle disposition.
That’s why his two-shot with the distinctly featured Jin-ha worked so well.
Behind the director, Beom Jun watched the scene unfold with Jae-gyeong. There had been silence for a while—until a Quest appeared that morning.
[A new Quest has appeared.]
[Main Quest: Reveal the vision of Korea University Hospital]
Produce authentic treatment footage and
gain public empathy to increase view counts
– View count over 300,000: Survival Probability +3%
– View count over 100,000: Survival Probability +1%
– View count under 100,000: Death
Perhaps because he’d told the board chair about the filming.
This promotional video for Korea University Hospital—content that never appeared in the original “Doctor X”—had spawned a Quest regardless.
Beom Jun tilted his head as he read it.
‘One hundred thousand?’
Korea University Hospital’s homepage received fewer than three hundred visitors a day. Yet a minimum of one hundred thousand? This was madness.
Seeing the explicit number and the word “death,” Beom Jun swallowed hard. He watched the filming with grim determination.
“All right, rolling. Action.”
[Im Sung-hyuk’s emotions are being shared with you.]
Receiving Sung-hyuk’s emotional transmission, Beom Jun nearly pressed a palm to his forehead in frustration.
This shoot was crucial—and yet Sung-hyuk was getting shy in front of the camera.
NG after NG came as Sung-hyuk sighed. While Jin-ha spoke with natural grace before the lens, Sung-hyuk was painfully stiff.
‘This is no time for that! View count needs to break one hundred thousand!!’
Beom Jun’s insides were burning. The director had grown increasingly quiet, and occasionally he glanced back at Beom Jun, who was standing off to the side.
Apparently, the external crew member didn’t know who Beom Jun was.
Meanwhile, Jin-ha bloomed before the camera like a fish returned to water, her smile radiant.
“If I were still myself, I would have given up before the surgery even happened. It’s so surreal to be alive like this, you know?”
She also expressed deep gratitude toward the Brain Death Donor who’d given her a new heart.
“I wanted to meet them and tell them myself, but they said it wasn’t possible. If you’re watching this, I want to say thank you so much. I promise I’ll live with all my heart!”
Organ donors and recipients are forbidden from meeting.
The recipient is spared the guilt of having received life from someone; the donor’s family is spared the complicated emotions of seeing the person now living with their loved one’s organ.
Moreover, if gratitude leads the recipient to offer compensation in any form, it muddies the line between donation and organ trafficking.
Even if a donor watched Jin-ha’s footage, they wouldn’t be able to identify her, yet she continued pouring out her gratitude.
For someone who’d been on borrowed time, a heart transplant was her only hope—her gratitude was so overwhelming she couldn’t contain it.
Jin-ha, her eyes glistening, wrapped up her solo shots smoothly. Now only Sung-hyuk’s individual scenes remained.
“Should we take a break and start again?”
The production director stood up. During the break, the crew started conferring among themselves.
They deliberated seriously over how to salvage Sung-hyuk’s wooden performance, but found no clear solution.
“What if we had someone else play the doctor? We could still go with it, but… wouldn’t it be a waste?”
“Exactly! The patient did such a great job. I think we could get better quality!!”
“But can we find another doctor available right now? It has to be the one who treated Seo Jin-ha.”
There seemed to be no way around it. On-site casting had its limits. So the director made a cautious suggestion.
“How about… that person?”
He pointed at Beom Jun.
“Director, are you insane? That’s the hospital director!”
The assistant director urgently waved him off, saying it was impossible. The problem was that his voice had risen in his panic.
At the mention of “hospital director,” Jae-gyeong, standing nearby, turned his attention to them, and the director explained the situation.
“Well, we were wondering if perhaps… we got a bit ambitious as we worked. If it’s not possible, we understand. But still….”
As Jae-gyeong and the director continued talking, the eyes of everyone around them gradually turned toward Beom Jun.
He was the only available doctor who could film right now and already had solid rapport with patient Seo Jin-ha.
Beom Jun, standing aloof as though it were someone else’s problem, suddenly realized all eyes were on him.
‘What? Why are they all looking at me?’

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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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