After looking for a moment into Taesu’s cautious eyes, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon calmly opened his mouth.
“It isn’t right to say I gave a resident an opportunity.”
“Then…”
“I intended to place my trust in the ambition and resolve shown by a young man named Choi Taesu.”
“Hmm.”
Taesu drew in a deep breath, his heart swelling.
Then Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon continued.
“You can think of it as an investment in the future. What you said, Dr. Choi—that this would become not a hospital emergency patients merely pass through, but a hospital that can protect them.”
“Yes. That is what I said.”
“Then shouldn’t I hear an interim briefing on whether my investment is proceeding properly?”
Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon asked naturally.
Without the slightest hesitation, Taesu answered.
“I think it’s still too early to show you results.”
“Too early, is it? Then when do you think I’ll be able to recoup my investment?”
“I expect it will take about two more years.”
Taesu’s answer was far too bold.
It was something that would have made anyone flare up.
Asking for two more years when no one even knew what sort of results would come of it could never be welcome from an investor’s perspective.
But Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon was different.
Perhaps sensing that there was a reason behind Taesu’s unhesitating answer, he showed curiosity.
“How did you decide on two years?”
“I decided it on my own.”
“Then is there a reason you set it that way?”
Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon spoke calmly from beginning to end.
Taesu was inwardly surprised by his patience, but answering came first.
“It’s the time I need in order to be recognized by the world’s greatest surgeon.”
“What is the standard for earning his recognition?”
“He said that, if necessary, he would entrust his body to me.”
At Taesu’s answer, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon’s expression changed greatly.
“You mean you intend to develop the skill to operate on the world’s greatest doctor within two years?”
“Yes.”
“Ha ha. I think that may be a far too unrealistic goal.”
“No.”
At Taesu’s clear-cut answer, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon’s curiosity deepened.
“How is that possible?”
“I’ll go to patients, and then go to them again. In that way, I’ll compress the ten or twenty years other doctors spend into two years.”
“That is an overly arrogant ambition.”
Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon shook his head.
No matter how broadly he tried to understand it, it was a statement that went beyond the limit.
And yet Taesu’s firm gaze remained unchanged.
“It’s possible here.”
“……”
“There are countless people who cannot receive medical benefits.”
It was an answer born from experience.
That was why Taesu could be certain.
But something was strange.
A faint displeasure had appeared on Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon’s face.
Sensing that this opportunity might not come again, he did not hide it and asked directly.
“Are you trying to become a surgery monster?”
“You’re asking something similar, Chairman.”
“A question you’ve been asked by someone before, then. What answer did you give?”
Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon asked carefully.
But Taesu answered with a gentle smile.
“I want to become a true doctor who is damn good at surgery.”
“A true doctor?”
“Right now, I’m a coward who worries himself sick that patients might leave him. But later, I want to be the kind of doctor patients can trust and seek out.”
Taesu spoke honestly of both his present self and the future he dreamed of.
It was also the content of a conversation he had shared with James not long ago.
What was different from then was that now he showed a firm will toward the path he would take.
Had he sensed the same thing?
Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon’s stiffening expression softened again.
“You mean you need two years to reach the ideal you’re pursuing, Dr. Choi?”
“I wouldn’t call it an ideal. I’d call it a midway stop.”
“Do you have an even greater dream?”
“I have a dream I want to achieve over the course of my life.”
He ended his answer at a suitable point.
Perhaps sensing something from that, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon smiled lightly.
“It seems it’s difficult to say it now.”
“It’s so unrealistic that it’s a little embarrassing.”
“Dream it anyway.”
“Pardon?”
When Taesu looked puzzled, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon added,
“A dream is not merely a goal. It can become the driving force of your life, and it can also be the whip that drives you on.”
“Ah. Wow, I just got goosebumps.”
Rub, rub.
Taesu even lightly brushed both arms.
It was too piercing in meaning to be considered words that had simply slipped out.
Looking at Taesu, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon smiled gently and said,
“They say a person without dreams is old. But I still dislike being treated like an old man, you see.”
“Then do you have a dream too, Chairman?”
“Of course I do. I, too, envision a road every day that no one has ever walked.”
At his kindly tone, Taesu slyly added a bit of flattery.
“I knew it. That must be why you seem so young, Chairman.”
“Hmm?”
“I’ve been curious for a long time. How you can be so full of energy, Chairman. I think I’ve finally found the secret.”
At Taesu’s words, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon smiled.
“Do I look that young?”
“Your age this year is… I can’t even guess at all.”
“Dr. Choi, I sent you to learn medicine, but it seems all you’ve improved at is flattery.”
“I have to make a good impression. Ha ha.”
Taesu showed a glimpse of his true feelings and laughed awkwardly.
Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon had always felt difficult to approach, but after sharing so much conversation like this, Taesu felt that they had grown somewhat closer.
Perhaps Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon felt the same, as his face was filled with an unguarded smile.
The conversation could not go on forever.
They also needed a moment to wet their throats.
After taking a sip of tea, Taesu’s gaze naturally turned out the window.
Watching the many people coming and going, he smiled softly.
The peaceful atmosphere of the city had done much to allow Taesu to converse at ease. Perhaps because of that, he was able to talk with Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon without feeling tense.
That could not be denied.
As Taesu looked around broadly, his gaze stopped somewhere.
At the end of his gaze were Jeong Minsu, Kim Hyeokgwon, and Brad Kim.
“Huh?”
At the voice that slipped out, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon grew curious.
“What is it?”
“My companions are over there.”
Swoosh.
Taesu looked at Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon and pointed out the window with only his hand.
Following that gesture, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon looked outside. But he could not immediately recognize the unfamiliar figures and called to Taesu.
“Where over there?”
“You see the clothing shop under the blue canopy, right?”
“Yes. But it seems there are only locals there. No, that person might be mixed-race.”
“Where… Ah, he’s our interpreter and a capable nurse.”
Taesu briefly explained Kim Hyeokgwon.
Watching him from a distance, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon said shortly,
“What a truly nasty-looking face.”
“His personality does tend to be rather distinct.”
“He doesn’t seem ordinary. And who is that smooth-looking person beside him?”
“That’s Brad Kim, a Korean-American surgical specialist.”
When Taesu immediately explained, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon asked as if curious about something.
“Those two look like they have a spear-and-shield relationship. Am I right?”
“They get along the most smoothly, but at crucial moments, the roles of spear and shield sometimes switch.”
“Yes. That is balance. Mm. That plump fellow looks to be around your age, Dr. Choi?”
To Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon’s next question, Taesu answered right away.
“His name is Jeong Minsu. He was in my intern class.”
“That young man also seems to have found his purpose at a young age. With such a warm heart, his body could not help but be plump as well.”
“That’s not…”
When Taesu hesitated, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon asked,
“If my thought is wrong, shouldn’t you tell me it’s wrong?”
“It’s not wrong. The truth is, he also has circumstances that brought him here.”
“What kind of circumstances?”
Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon was curious.
Taesu had no intention of hiding it.
With Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon’s deep understanding and tight lips, he could feel at ease.
“Minsu, in fact…”
Taesu immediately spoke about Jeong Minsu.
The person most deeply entangled in his past was Taesu himself.
Leaving that out would make it an empty shell, so Taesu also explained that shameful incident.
After that time had passed…
Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon was quietly thinking.
Taesu discreetly gauged his mood and wet his needlessly dry mouth with tea.
Then Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon asked Taesu,
“So how is Dr. Jeong Minsu living now? With what sort of mindset?”
“He checks charts until his eyes nearly fall out.”
“Ha ha. Does that mean he won’t repeat it?”
“That’s right. He is still floundering in confusion on his own, but he is trying hard to break free.”
Taesu gave a cool-headed assessment of Jeong Minsu, whom he had been watching all this time.
After listening thoughtfully, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon suddenly asked with a flash in his eyes,
“Then when Dr. Jeong returns to Korea, will he go back to Yeonseong University Hospital?”
“According to another colleague, I think that will be difficult.”
“Then does he have his heart set on the NGO?”
“No. He’ll probably return to Korea around the same time I do.”
As soon as Taesu’s answer ended, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon lightly struck the table and said,
Tap.
“Good. Get Dr. Jeong Minsu’s personal information and account number and send them to Chief Jeong’s email.”
“Pardon?”
“I mean I’ll invest in Dr. Jeong the same way I did in you, Dr. Choi.”
His answer was simple and clear, but Taesu was bewildered.
“The same as me?”
“From what I hear, Dr. Jeong does not seem to be well-off either. Am I wrong?”
“That does seem to be the case.”
“That is why I’m saying I will invest. He may become an even more outstanding doctor than you later, Dr. Choi, so I should lay the foundation in advance.”
At those words, resistance surged up in Taesu’s chest.
“No matter what, Dr. Jeong won’t become as good as me.”
“Who can guarantee what will happen in a person’s life?”
“That won’t change. Me, falling behind Dr. Jeong? Ugh, no, that really won’t happen.”
“Don’t be so certain. You didn’t come here knowing what tomorrow held either, did you, Dr. Choi?”
Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon pinpointed it exactly.
Taesu flinched for a moment. At least against those words, no matter how he racked his brain, he could not find anything to refute them.
“That is true.”
“You must be close.”
“I think it’s fair to say we’re still in a love-hate relationship.”
Taesu answered sourly.
But perhaps Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon took a hint from that, because he spoke with an even more mischievous expression.
“If you have a friend to whom you can lay bare your true feelings like that, you won’t be lonely.”
“What true feelings?”
“No?”
He poked at him with the question.
Feeling needlessly embarrassed, Taesu dragged Kim Hyeokgwon and Brad Kim into it.
“Including those two over there, it’s very noisy.”
“It seems you’re embarrassed.”
“Ahem.”
“Ha ha. Yes. The bustle of people together is the real taste of life. More importantly, explain things appropriately to Dr. Jeong, get his personal information, and send it over.”
Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon seemed to have made up his mind.
But Taesu could not answer readily.
“What if Dr. Jeong goes somewhere else?”
“That is likely not a problem that applies only to Dr. Jeong.”
“Me? When you’re giving me this kind of benefit, how could I turn my back on you? That would be something no decent human being could do.”
Even as Taesu grew heated, Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon still smiled.
“Would Dr. Jeong be any different?”
“That’s…”
“Let’s not think about that already. This is also for Dr. Jeong’s mother. Only if she is at ease will Dr. Jeong gain more strength, will he not?”
Chairman Seok Jeong-hyeon explained calmly.
The moment he heard those words, Taesu also thought of his own parents.
‘I haven’t even called to ask how they’re doing.’
This was not the time to be worrying about Jeong Minsu.
Approaching it from that perspective, anything more Taesu said would ultimately amount to opposing it.
He had no intention of doing that, so he accepted it at an appropriate point.
“Yes. I’ll explain it to him and send his personal information within the day.”
“No. No, that’s not it.”
“Not… it?”
At the sudden reversal, Taesu blinked.