The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 40

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 40

“Ha, haa…”

Chu Miyoung confirmed my face and calmed her ragged breathing. She seemed to have been very frightened by someone chasing her from behind.

“I’m sorry. For suddenly screaming like that.”

She took out tissues from her bag and wiped away her tears. The tears stopped quickly, but her hands kept trembling as if she couldn’t calm down at all.

“Not at all. I should be the one apologizing. I should have been more careful since this is a secluded place, but I was thoughtless.”

It had been too long since I felt threatened by safety concerns, so I had overlooked the fear that Chu Miyoung would feel.

“Um, could you please walk me to my car?”

“Of course.”

Chu Miyoung walked while almost leaning on me as we moved. She seemed to have difficulty even standing, as she collapsed with a thud as soon as she reached her car.

“Haa… I’m really sorry. It wasn’t something to be so startled about. I think I’ve become very sensitive because of the stalker.”

“Stalker?”

“Yes. There’s been someone who’s been obviously lurking around the area for almost a year now.”

“Oh my. Clinic Director Chu, that must have been very difficult for you.”

I sat in the passenger seat, took Chu Miyoung’s hand, and infused her with energy.

I thought she was stressed about treatment-related matters since she came to spy, but there was a stalker?

If her basic safety was being threatened, it was natural for her to always be tense.

“I’m even more sorry now. I thought you had bad intentions toward me since you were recording, but it was because of the stalker.”

Ah, I need to reflect on this. How could I jump to negative conclusions about someone without knowing the situation?

Moreover, didn’t I even secretly criticize her for being a physician who couldn’t treat her own condition?

My cultivation was severely lacking.

“What?”

But Chu Miyoung, who had been catching her breath, suddenly raised her head.

With a frozen expression, she doubted her own ears and asked again.

“Just now, recording. No, did you call me Clinic Director Chu…?”

“Ah, yes. You’re Clinic Director Chu Miyoung of Haneul Clinic, right?”

“That, no. That, don’t tell me, you knew from the beginning?”

“Ah, I should have mentioned that part first. I was rude.”

Chu Miyoung didn’t know what to do and covered her face with both hands.

“You don’t need to do that. I’ve also been to your clinic as a patient.”

“…What?”

I took out the mask from my pocket and put it on, then made glasses shapes with both hands and placed them over my eyes.

“Eek…”

“I went there saying my ankle hurt, don’t you remember?”

At first, she thought I was mocking her morning disguise and felt even more embarrassed, but soon she remembered me visiting her clinic a few weeks ago in the exact same appearance.

“Ah! That person from back then with the ridiculously clear skin!”

“Yes. That person is me.”

“Haaaah. I see.”

When I revealed that we had both committed the same rudeness, her embarrassment seemed to lessen, and Chu Miyoung closed her eyes in relief and leaned her head against the steering wheel.

“I see… So that’s how you recognized me.”

“Yes. I was curious about how Network Korean Medicine Clinics operate. Since we both spied on each other, let’s call it even.”

“Haha. Yes. Let’s do that.”

Chu Miyoung nodded and lifted the corners of her mouth. She tried to be polite with a gentle smile, but it didn’t seem to work as intended.

“You still haven’t calmed down, have you? Will you be able to drive?”

“Ah… Honestly, I’m not confident.”

“If it’s okay with you, I’ll drive you home.”

“Oh my.”

“If you don’t want to reveal your address, feel free to decline. I’ll call a designated driver.”

“No, no. I’d be very grateful if you could drive.”

Since Chu Miyoung accepted my proposal, I moved to the driver’s seat while she moved to the passenger seat.

Chu Miyoung operated the car’s navigation system to set her home as the destination, and I checked the general location before immediately starting the engine.

Her home was an apartment located not too far away.

“It’ll be hard for you to get back, but thank you.”

“Not at all. Since I was rude, I should at least do this much. More importantly, are you okay? A stalker. That must be causing you tremendous stress.”

For me, if I concealed my presence, avoided people’s eyes, and used lightness skills, this distance was nothing. I was more concerned about letting someone in a weakened mental state drive.

“I’m okay. Actually, he hasn’t directly approached me yet.”

“Then how does he… lurk around?”

“Yes.”

Chu Miyoung accessed Instagram and opened someone’s account, then handed me her phone when we stopped briefly at a red light.

“Like this, he’s been posting photos of restaurants near places I go since I was in Cheonan. Ah, it hasn’t been that long since I came down here after working as an associate director in Cheonan.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Back then, I was actively using Instagram, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. He would visit restaurants I had posted about on Instagram and leave lots of comments. Since I had quite a few followers, there are occasionally people like that.”

“Don’t tell me he followed you all the way to Busan?”

“…Yes.”

Looking closely at the account she showed me, the recent posts included restaurants I knew.

Seeing a Chinese restaurant near the station and a franchise cafe that weren’t Instagram hotspots at all, his intention to announce that he was in this area was obvious.

“After I opened my clinic and became busy, my Instagram activity became a bit sparse, so he started sending DMs saying things like ‘I miss you’ and ‘What are you doing where.’ When I ignored them, he started asking personal questions like ‘Did you get a boyfriend?’ and ‘You didn’t get married, did you?'”

“Did you keep ignoring them?”

Chu Miyoung shook her head. She let out a deep sigh as if deeply regretting it.

“I replied. I said I was moving far away and would be too busy to pay attention to Instagram. In the early days of opening the clinic, there were miscellaneous tasks and quite a lot of patients.”

“Ah… So those photos were uploaded after that.”

“Yes. Since I’ve always openly revealed that I’m a traditional Korean medicine doctor on Instagram, it wouldn’t have been that difficult to find Haneul Clinic’s website.”

That makes sense. Since Chu Miyoung was advertising with both her face and name revealed, anyone could easily identify the clinic’s location if they put their mind to it.

“Have there been any DMs since then?”

“Once. It said ‘So it’s true. I’ll always be watching.'”

Chu Miyoung relayed the stalker’s message and gritted her teeth. Whether from anger or fear, tears welled up in her eyes again.

“Do you have any family or acquaintances who could accompany you during commuting?”

“No, no one. I have no connections in Busan at all. The head office told me to open a clinic in Busan, so I came down here alone.”

This is truly a difficult situation. Even if she reports to the police, they won’t be able to escort her 24 hours a day, and since he’s using a fake account and not approaching directly, it won’t be easy to catch and punish him either.

“Hmm…”

“We’re here. That apartment over there. Thank you for bringing me this far.”

Although no proper solution came up, Chu Miyoung expressed her gratitude, saying she felt refreshed just from talking about it.

She blushed, saying she couldn’t bring herself to tell her family because she didn’t want to add to their worries when they were already concerned about their daughter living far away.

“Not at all. It’s not a difficult thing. If the timing works out, I’ll give you a ride home on days when evening clinic ends. I’m glad I got my license.”

I smoothly finished parking and got out of the car.

Does she have evening clinic on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday? It’s completely dark by 9 o’clock, and while she’d be fine in the car, something could happen during the move to the adjacent building’s parking lot like today.

“Oh, did you get it recently? You must not be used to driving yet, but I made a difficult request.”

Chu Miyoung was startled and apologized again. She apologizes for everything. I don’t know how many apologies we exchanged in the short time from meeting today to getting here.

“Yes. It’s been two weeks now, but it doesn’t bother me at all, so it’s fine.”

Chu Miyoung’s mouth dropped open again.

Creak.

And her head turned mechanically with jerky movements.

She had sat in the passenger seat without knowing I was a beginner, and now seemed belatedly worried about her own safety and that of the luxury foreign car.

“I, I, I see.”

“Ahaha. Don’t worry. I’m good at anything physical, so I’m confident I could stylishly shake off a stalker’s car chasing from behind like in movies.”

Chu Miyoung widened her eyes and shook her head. I could strongly feel her expression that she absolutely did not want to ride in a car engaged in such a chase.

“Yes… You’re very, uh. Confident, and you drive well, and all that.”

Oh my. Of course I don’t normally drive like that!

I always do my best for the safety of all drivers and pedestrians on the road!

* * *

After the day I gave Chu Miyoung a ride home, I visited the stalker’s Instagram whenever I had time.

Somehow, hadn’t I ended up sharing a secret that none of her acquaintances knew?

Chu Miyoung declined my offer to give her rides home for the time being, but I accompanied her several times on the way to the parking lot after evening clinic.

During that time, I didn’t feel any sign of the stalker at all, but photos were uploaded to Instagram every 2-3 days.

‘Huh, this place?’

The moment I pressed F5, a new post appeared. This time it was a Chinese restaurant located near our clinic.

None other than Yongho Restaurant run by Jin Yongho, whom I had treated for frozen shoulder last time.

“Hello? I’m sorry for calling suddenly. This is Hanyewon, director of Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic.”

I immediately found the contact information online and called. Fortunately, Jin Yongho answered the phone, so I briefly explained the situation and asked if there was someone who had just eaten alone.

– I’m not sure. There are quite a few office workers who eat alone during weekday lunch.

Jin Yongho seemed eager to help me somehow, but there was nothing he could do about not remembering.

“No problem. Thank you even though you’re busy.”

I hung up without regret and looked at the stalker’s account again.

‘Hmm. Looking at how the movement pattern goes… Could he be living in the apartment-dense area near our clinic?’

If only he made clear threats, we could ask investigative agencies for help. The level was truly ambiguous.

But staring at the screen like this wouldn’t produce any new clues.

Chu Miyoung had already tried everything an individual could do, like IP tracking, and she was reluctant to get involved with private investigators.

“Ugh, what kind of untimely detective play is this!”

If this were the martial arts world, I could have asked Master to look into it and he would have brought the culprit right away!

I had to see patients and had no one to assign to this, so it was very frustrating.

I can’t wait forever like this for him to appear during the time he’s with me…

“Ah, that’s right.”

If he doesn’t appear, I can just call him out, right?

A good idea suddenly occurred to me.

I immediately informed Chu Miyoung of that idea through personal messenger, as we had recently gotten to know each other and occasionally exchanged messages.

[Director Chu, I’ve been thinking about this.]

[Yes?]

[Instead of continuing to worry like this, let’s throw out some bait and draw him out.]

Why didn’t I think of this until now?

The stalker was hovering around Chu Miyoung’s vicinity, conscious of ‘something.’ And Chu Miyoung was certain that while he hadn’t approached directly ‘yet,’ he would eventually reveal himself.

[Bait? What kind? It’s not like he’ll come just because I call him. He’ll probably think it’s the police, right?]

[Oh, calling him directly obviously won’t work. If he comes to that, it might actually be disadvantageous in court.]

[Then what?]

[What if you pretend to have gotten a boyfriend? Wouldn’t that provoke some kind of reaction?]

[Ah?]

The situation was that he had followed her all the way to Busan, asking whether she had a boyfriend or got married, keeping her under surveillance.

Until now, Chu Miyoung had always been alone, so he showed no change, but if we created a situation where she appeared to be dating someone, he would respond in some way.

[Hmm. I don’t really have anyone suitable to ask for such a favor. It might be dangerous for no reason.]

[Ah, of course the person playing that role should be someone who would be safe even if the stalker suddenly appears and makes threats.]

And there was a very suitable person for that role.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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