Chapter 26 – Transcendental Diagnosis(1)

Sunday, Sinchon Sharehouse.

The long-awaited first day of work was approaching. Dowook, who was up early in preparation for tomorrow, went into the break room and met Jeong In-seok, who was sitting with a frown on his face.

It was the face one would make after a day of too much drinking.

“Did you have too much yesterday?”

“I’m dying. But I can’t not drink if I want to relieve some stress in a short time.”

Jeong In-seok who tried to hold back his nausea suddenly turned his head.

“Dr. Park. The rumors say you’re the attending physician for that VIP patient?”

“Director Lim So Yool?”

“Yeah. It’s because I saw my department chief trembling when he saw Chief Song being called out in the auditorium. Do you think Lim So Yool will sweep out all those who were managing their departments’ finances poorly?”

“I’m also not sure…… the thoracic department is the pillar of all surgery departments, so she probably won’t touch it.”

Dowook had no idea how she was going to handle Myeong Sae Hospital’s financial problems as he hardly met her during her recovery period.

“Argh, I’m worried. My department is already very exhausted as we don’t have enough residents. If people get fired, who will still apply? If you know anything, let me know.”

“If I learn anything.”

Coming out of the bathroom after a shower, he quickly finished getting ready and headed for the hospital.

He entered the hospital frantically thinking about how to organize the surgery schedule according to Prof. Choi’s instructions from last Friday, but a senior from the Department of Internal Medicine, who he rarely interacted with after graduation, blocked his way.

“Dowook, it’s been a while.”

“Senior Yoo?”

“I was about to call you. You have a VIP patient under your care recently, right?”

“Director Lim So Yool?”

Dowook recalled a similar conversation he had a while ago.

“My section chief keeps asking me to ask you what Director Lim has been doing when he found out you are my junior. I’m going insane.”

“I also don’t know. I’m just the attending physician, the one really responsible for her care is the vice-president.”

“That…..what does Director Lim So Yool like?”

“Bribery probably won’t work with her.”

He gave an answer similar to the one he gave Jeong In-seok and got on the elevator. This time, he got a message from a junior from the Otolaryngology Department.

[Senior. Could you tell me a time when someone can meet privately with Director Lim So Yool? Chief’s orders.]

As expected, it was related to Lim So Yool.

‘Why is everyone acting like this so early in the morning?’

Arriving at the staff room, Dowook was making a schedule plan when the door slammed open.

“Park Dowook!”

“Chief Ha? Why are you here on a weekend?”

“My office!”

Holding the printed schedule, he entered the chief’s office. The first thing he saw was Chief Ha Seong Joong’s face which showed that he hadn’t gone home but had stayed at the hospital overnight.

“Sit, sit.”

“What have you been doing, sir?”

Dowook asked as he scanned the piles of documents on the chief’s desk, and Chief Ha gave out a deep sigh.

“Of course I was checking our department’s ledger.”

“Our ledger? Why?”

Chief Ha placed a sheet of paper on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

[Official Correspondence: There will be a preliminary visit related to financial revisions, so all department heads are requested to cooperate actively from Monday, November 4th. -Lim So Yool Temporary Financial Manager]

“Look. How can I sit still when something like this comes?”

“Oh? Did you also take a lot of kickbacks, chief?”

“What do you mean take kickbacks!”

Chief Ha screamed, then as if it hadn’t been enough, he shouted.

“All I did was use the corporate card to buy you guys delicious food!”

Seeing Chief Ha’s haggard appearance, Dowook realized the unusual atmosphere this morning. Director Lim So Yool was slowly making her move.

“You can’t avoid it by fixing the ledgers now. I saw her fire the cafe manager at the Millenium Hotel. In a single strike. If you have something to report, just do it. That’s the only way to avoid being taken to court.”

“Court? I’m a transparent person. Seeing what happened to Chief Song just made me nervous, that’s all.”

“She was hired by the dean to help us. Is there a reason to be so afraid?”

“It’s because the Neurosurgery Department is short on hands, brat! To put it bluntly. If I get a warning and things happen, am I the only one in trouble? Neurosurgery is one body!”

Deficit department. Hearing these ominous words made him feel that the problem was not just Chief Ha’s concern. Myeong Sae Hospital had been in chronic deficit for several years.

“There’s not enough time. When are you going to check on Director Lim?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Then could you……”

Chief Ha glanced at Dowook and spoke in a low tone.

“Go back to the clinic and buy some time. So she can’t go anywhere. The section chiefs are planning to gather and talk about a countermeasure tomorrow morning. Informally.”

“I want to help but I’m going to be Prof. Choi’s assistant starting tomorrow. I have surgery right away.”

“Ah, just push it back a day!”

Dowook pointed at the surgery schedule on the table that listed 4 surgeries on Monday.

“You want me to tell Prof. Choi to just push this back? Why are you doing this to me?”

“Umm…… I will talk to Choi Hoo about that. Don’t worry.”

“That’s very believable. Right?”

Dowook had almost given up.

After examining the difficult position of his student, Chief Ha sighed.

“You went to work under the most demonic professor in the hospital, and you became the most burdensome patient’s doctor. Dowook, how will you survive?”

“Don’t enumerate them one by one. I also just realized and am shivering.”

Dowook looked at the printed schedule and spoke frankly.

“I’ll do it because it’s a neurosurgery crisis, it’s not for free. On-call duty this November. Don’t schedule me for it.”

Chief Ha’s eyes widened at this request.

“You brat, one month’s too much. I’m also on duty every two weeks. Plus there’s a lot of places to cover since Dr. Hong quit.”

“If you don’t want to, I’ll only perform a cognitive test and come out.”

“Hey!”

Chief Ha raised his index finger and carefully suggested a compromise.

“Exactly half a month. What do you think?”

“4 weeks.”

“3 weeks. It’s just right.”

“3 weeks and 10 premium meal tickets.”

“Are you playing Seossda with me?”

[T/N: Seossda is a kind of Korean game.]

“I should get some benefits, too.”

“3 weeks, 10 meal tickets and you tell me how Director Lim is doing every 20 minutes.”

“I’m a surgeon, not a spy. If you want to do it, give me the meal tickets or just don’t do it.”

“What the heck.”

After winning the negotiation, Dowook stood up.

Before leaving the chief’s office, he asked Chief Ha, who was once again looking over the ledgers.

“Do you think Director Lim can solve the hospital’s financial deficit problems, chief?”

“How should I know? I’m just following along silently since the dean thinks so.”

“Then I will also follow the chief silently.”

“Brat.”

“Of course after I see you make a compromise with Prof. Choi.”

“Punk!”

* * *

Scribble. Scribble.

Inside the room filled only with the sound of a pencil gliding on paper.

After looking at the written notes for a long time, Lim So Yool smiled in satisfaction and carefully tore it out of the notebook.

She put down the paper titled [Myeong Sae Hospital’s Future Financial Expected Profit Test] on the table and looked at the wall clock thinking she could now go to sleep.

6:50 AM.

…..she probably couldn’t sleep.

Letting out a short yawn, she turned her head to look at the trash can full of crumpled paper.

“Um.”

Almost time for the nurse to burst into the VIP room. She didn’t care about the nurse’s nagging, but she didn’t want the man who got hit by that crumpled paper to hear about it for some reason.

Lim So Yool stood up and headed to the trash can.

She crammed in all the paper, even the ones that fell out of it. Then she put the lid back on.

She patted the dust off her hands and returned to the bed. Thinking, ‘it was a perfect crime,’ she smiled as she covered herself with the blanket.

She hadn’t slept, but pretending she had. She closed her eyes to greet the morning.

“What are you doing?”

Then, Lim So Yool’s eyes moved to the sound of laughter. Lim So-Hee, her sister who had been sleeping on a spare bed, was looking at her.

“You didn’t sleep?”

“I woke up. Because someone did something so cute.”

Placing down the blanket covering her, Lim So-Hee gave a huge yawn as she approached the bed.

“Did you get so focused on calculating and didn’t get any sleep again?”

“The multivariate vector values kept going wrong. It’s solved now.”

It was hard to pretend to be sleeping, so Lim So Yool lowered the blanket and leaned back on the pillow as she quietly watched Lim So-hee stretch her arms.

Lim So-hee leaned her upper body forward as much as possible to show off her stretched waist. There was a large age gap between the sisters but one would know it just by looking at them.

“Do you want to do it with me?”

“Don’t wanna.”

“It’s good for maintaining your body.”

Lifting her upper body again, Lim So-hee looked up and down Lim So Yool’s body.

Her sister’s gaze felt like it went through her clothes, making Lim So Yool cover her body with her hands.

“I don’t need it, ok?”

“What? A handsome guy? Dating?”

“Both.”

The hospital rounds would begin soon. Since their personalities were so different, Lim So Yool wished her sister would leave soon.

“If you’re done maintaining, go to work. It’s Monday.”

“I can stay until Secretary Ok comes. We can eat breakfast together.”

After stretching, Lim So-Hee sat on the chair beside the bed. Then she looked at her younger sister’s pouting face with a gaze filled with affection.

“Should we eat lunch together as well?”

“What about work?”

“It’s a position with free working hours. Ha.”

“Aren’t you bored staying here with me?”

“Our Semdeok is so pretty even when she grumbles, how can I get bored?”

[T/N: Semdeok from what I could find is a nickname for someone who likes to calculate and do math.]

Lim So Yool pursed her lips.

“I told you not to call me that.”

“Why, it’s sweet and nice.”

“Whatever. Do whatever you want.”

When Lim So Yool turned her head to the other side, Lim So-Hee chuckled.

Turning to the table, Lim So-Hee grabbed the paper full of numbers with her fingers.

“Is this the result of staying up all night? Let’s see~ Wow, you’re probably the only one who applies logistic functions to this extent.”

“There’s one person.”

“Really? That person is a Semdeok like you?”

Lim So Yool gave the impression of refusing to answer by keeping her mouth closed.

Letting go of the paper, Lim So-Hee asked with a serious expression.

“Why did you agree to do the financial planning for Myeong Sae Hospital? Is ZQ group coveting this hospital?”

“I guess you don’t know, unni. The dean of this hospital is Dad’s friend.”

“Ah.”

“Don’t say anything to that woman. I don’t even want to talk to her on the phone.”

Lim So-Hee couldn’t say anything about what the younger had experienced by herself when she followed their father abroad after their parents’ divorce.

Lim So-Hee looked at her sister, who had grown bravely, with pity for a while, then quickly asked a question while hiding her expression.

“What are your plans? This hospital’s business evaluation doesn’t seem very good.”

“This and that.”

“If you need anything, just say it. You unni has quite a bit of power here in Korea.”

“It was enough that you took care of me this weekend.”

“This unni hasn’t given you enough love though.”

“Gross. Don’t keep saying things like that.”

Lim So-Hee flipped the jacket, which had been hanging on the sofa, over her shoulder and looked at Lim So Yool.

“I’m leaving.”

“You’re going?”

“The employees will look down on the company if the CEO doesn’t come in on time. Let’s have lunch together next time.”

Lim So Yool glanced at her sister leaving and picked up the paper once again. Then her eyes landed on the printed documents piled up on the bedside.

Closing the door to the VIP room, Lim So-Hee took her phone out as she walked.

[Secretary Ok. I’m going to work now. When are you getting here?]

After sending the message, Lim So-Hee leaned on the reception desk as she waited for a reply.

She had thought that her heart would leap out of her chest when she received the news that the little sister who had returned to Korea after many years was hospitalized.

Thankfully, what she saw as she stayed in the hospital during the weekend was her sister’s normal self.

“Wait. she wasn’t like herself this morning. She even cleaned when she usually doesn’t care what other people say about her. She wouldn’t have done it if not for Secretary Ok….”

While reasonable doubts went through her mind, a young man with a robust physique walked to the front of the reception desk.

It was a doctor with a name tag stating ‘Park Dowook’ on his chest.

“Please check if I can go in RM 2007.”

“Just a moment.”

The nurse picked up the phone.

“…..no one is answering the phone from the room.”

“Would she still be sleeping?”

Lim So-Hee couldn’t help but pay attention when she heard, RM 2007. Since the room she had just left was RM. 2007.

Then, her phone notified her of a message. It was Secretary Ok.

[Thank you for your hard work over the weekend, ma’am. The doctor’s round should begin soon. Could you tell the doctor I will be there soon if it has already started? I’m almost there.]

Attending physician. She must be referring to that young man exuding a manly aura. Lim So-Hee found it strange that her sister had been doing cute things over and over again today, but this gave her a sweet hunch.

Lim So-Hee’s mind went into overdrive.

There was a man, So Yool, who always put up a wall when meeting others, cared about? It was clear that he was not an ordinary man. In this case, there should be a suitable amount of seasoning.

[Secretary Ok. You don’t need to come in a hurry. Let’s have a cup of tea at the 1st-floor cafe.]

“Hoohoo.”

Lim So-Hee sent her reply, then she approached Dowook at the reception desk.

“Excuse me, but are you the attending physician for RM 2007?”

“Huh? Yes.”

“I’m the patient’s legal guardian, Lim So-Hee. So Yool’s older sister.”

Dowook was surprised to see someone other than the secretary for the first time.

“Our Semdeok is awake so you can go do what you have to. Secretary Ok will be very late today.”

“Is that so? I understand. But what does Semdeok mean?”

“A fan of counting. You know what So Yool is like. Whatever she does, calculation, proof. She doesn’t admit she’s a kind of number idiot.”

Lim So-Hee became sure when he laughed as if he understood something. There was a possibility of young love between the two.

Checking the name on the coat, Lim So-Hee asked.

“Dr. Park Dowook. Do you have a business card? I have something to ask about So Yool’s condition some other time.”

“Nothing like a business card….”

Lim So-hee took out a platinum case from her coat. Then she took out a luxurious gold paper and stuck it out at him.

“Then please contact me here. It’s my private number so you can call whenever.”

On the business card, it was written, ‘KG Entertainment CEO Lim So-hee.’