HTBP 31

Jealousy Induced

Professor Choi Tae-hyuk was about to turn and leave as if her feelings didn’t matter to him at all.

Na-young clenched her fists tightly.

“I’m disappointed in you too, Professor.”

She stood tall.

His steps, about to take him away, froze.

Na-young poured out the words that had been trapped inside her as she faced his back.

“How can you give up on a patient so easily without even trying? I don’t want to become a doctor like you.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she turned and left the place before he could respond.

She didn’t realize that Tae-hyuk had been frozen in place, unable to leave for quite a while.

After parting with nothing but harsh words, Na-young’s heart remained uneasy.

It was the first time their relationship had gotten this bad since their first meeting, when she had intentionally avoided him.

But more pressing than their argument was the baby patient in need of a liver transplant.

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t understand Professor Choi Tae-hyuk’s refusal.

After all, he had handled far more difficult surgeries back in Cleveland, USA.

It didn’t make sense that returning to Korea suddenly made him overly cautious.

Determined not to leave this matter unresolved, she went to Orthopedic Surgery to find Professor Oh Seung-jun.

“Please, Professor, try talking to Professor Choi. After all, you two live together, right?”

Hearing her request, Oh Seung-jun immediately shook his head.

“He won’t listen to me anyway. There’s a 99.99% chance I’ll just end up annoying him and getting cursed at.”

Seeing her disappointed expression, Seung-jun squinted his eyes.

This was the first time he had seen her like this.

The Madonna who always acted indifferent to other people’s affairs… so it wasn’t just Choi Tae-hyuk struggling alone.

He almost felt a twinge of annoyance, but considering the baby’s life was at stake, Seung-jun couldn’t simply ignore it.

“If you’re really worried, you could try contacting Director Cha-hyun.”

“Huh?”

“Director Cha-hyun is Tae-hyuk’s closest friend. He even handles all of Choi Tae-hyuk’s love advice…”

Seung-jun continued speaking freely, noticing Na-young’s expression of “What are you even talking about?” and laughing, he handed her his phone.

“If you’re going to call, I can give you his number.”

Recalling the time she had seen Director Cha-hyun at the club with Professor Choi Tae-hyuk, and that Eunbyeol had come to the hospital because of him, Na-young took the number from Seung-jun.

She quickly sent a message:

<Hello, this is Moon Na-young, a resident under Professor Choi Tae-hyuk. I urgently need to discuss something regarding Professor Choi. Could you spare some time?>

Director Cha-hyun was famous and busy, so she hadn’t expected a fast response. To her surprise, she got a reply within a minute:

<I’ll come to Hangang University Hospital now.>

Relieved, Na-young felt a tinge of worry. If even Director Cha-hyun had no solution, it seemed there would be no way forward.

Na-young waited in front of the hospital, pacing slightly as she anticipated Director Cha-hyun’s arrival.

While waiting, she couldn’t shake the cold words Professor Choi Tae-hyuk had said, and her mood sank.

Such words were normal between a professor and a resident. Being hurt by them was unnecessary.

But she wasn’t asking him to perform the surgery as a resident.

That’s why she couldn’t shake her feelings of unease.

A Porsche glided smoothly to a stop in front of the hospital entrance.

A man stepped out, wearing sunglasses and a suit styled fashionably with a scarf instead of a tie. He looked casual yet stylish.

Even more attention-grabbing than Eunbyeol, who was a real celebrity.

As the man walked straight toward her, Na-young instinctively stepped back.

Why is he coming to me?

“Moon Na-young, right?”

The man asked her name and removed his sunglasses, letting her recognize him as Director Cha-hyun.

“Yes, we met in Eunbyeol’s hospital room before.”

“No need to explain; I already know. Let’s talk at the cafeteria on the first floor.”

Though she had called him to the hospital, Cha-hyun led her inside to the cafeteria.

When he offered to buy coffee, Na-young insisted strongly that she would.

“I called you here, so I’ll buy it.”

Cha-hyun let her be, putting his wallet back in his pocket.

“You’re meticulous about keeping distance from others.”

Cha-hyun’s passing remark annoyed her slightly, but she ignored it.

Today, she wasn’t here for herself but to discuss Professor Choi Tae-hyuk.

They sat across a corner table, and she hurriedly explained why she had called him.

“This is the first time Professor Choi has refused a surgery. If the patient receives the transplant, they could live a healthy life, but he says he can’t perform it. It doesn’t make sense. This isn’t like him at all. That’s why I called Director Cha-hyun, since you’re close to him. Do you know why he refused surgery for a 12-month-old baby?”

If Cha-hyun said he didn’t know, she would have called the wrong person.

Cha-hyun didn’t answer immediately. He took a slow sip of coffee and then set the cup down.

“Let me guess—you’re worried because he’s acting differently than usual?”

Na-young wanted an answer, but instead Cha-hyun asked her a question, making her eyes flicker.

“I’m more worried about the baby. The surgery needs to happen as soon as possible.”

“But Professor Choi isn’t the only doctor in Korea who could do it.”

That was true. They could find another surgeon.

However, the one she cared about refusing the surgery was only Professor Choi Tae-hyuk.

Cha-hyun took another sip, then set the cup down and said:

“It seems he was uncomfortable because the liver donor is the mother.”

“What?”

Why would that bother him? Any mother would naturally want to save her child.

“Choi Tae-hyuk can’t bear the idea of a mother sacrificing her body to save the baby.”

“Why not? Any mother would do the same.”

“That’s because Tae-hyuk never had a mother from the moment he was born.”

Na-young stared at Director Cha-hyun speechless.

‘If only I could eat my mother’s cooking even once, I would have eaten it all, even if it tasted like coal.’

Her thoughts went painfully to Professor Choi’s words as she remembered the meals she had cooked for him.

Cha-hyun looked at his black coffee with a bitter expression and said:

“It seems he doesn’t have the courage to operate on a patient who reminds him of his unfortunate past.”

Hearing this, Na-young regretted speaking harshly to Professor Choi.

She shouldn’t have said she was disappointed without understanding his reasons.

She should have trusted that there was a reason he refused.

“I think since I already mentioned Tae-hyuk’s mother, I should go ahead and finish everything now.”

“You don’t need to talk more about Professor Choi’s mother. I’ve understood enough.”

“No, I mean his father.”

Na-young looked up at Director Cha-hyun, puzzled why he would bring up his father when it had nothing to do with the surgery.

“Choi Tae-hyuk’s father died even earlier than his mother.”

“What?”

“So he was an orphan from the moment he was born.”

She had guessed he had no parents, but she hadn’t imagined his past was this tragic.

Cha-hyun’s words sank slowly into her stunned consciousness.

“There’s one thing I want to hear from Choi Tae-hyuk.”

He looked directly at her with a faint smile.

“That it’s really a relief that he was born.”

A ripple ran through Na-young’s eyes.

“Moon Na-young, can you do that?”

She had called him to help persuade Professor Choi, yet now he was asking her to do it.

“I’m not that warm-hearted,” she said honestly, feeling a flutter in her chest.

“You don’t need to be kind to give happiness to someone else. Otherwise, only good students would succeed, and poor students would fail. Life isn’t that simple.”

Listening to Cha-hyun, her eyes reddened.

“There’s a reason you two met.”

“What reason?”

Na-young thought it was because of the night she spent with Professor Choi.

Finding true love while tied by a physical relationship might be like looking for a pearl in the sand.

“I see that Moon Na-young, you’re very defensive. How did you open your heart to Tae-hyuk in the first place?”

Na-young muttered as she recalled the first time she saw him at the club:

“…Because we were alike.”

At that moment, Cha-hyun looked up as if noticing someone, and she followed his gaze.

Even from a distance, she immediately recognized him.

Professor Choi Tae-hyuk was riding down the escalator.

“I called before coming to the hospital. They said you’d be here, so I came immediately.”

Na-young felt uneasy seeing Professor Choi now.

He was probably still upset from what she said earlier, and if he found out she had learned about his parents from Cha-hyun, he might dislike her even more. She wanted to get out of the situation immediately.

“Give me your hand.”

“Huh?”

Unsure why, she looked at him, and Cha-hyun urged her again.

She extended her right hand, and Cha-hyun grabbed it, lifting her arm high as if greeting Professor Choi.

“!”

“!”

Cha-hyun’s expression remained calm, but Na-young and Tae-hyuk’s expressions changed instantly.

Then Professor Choi Tae-hyuk began descending the escalator two steps at a time.