Taming the Wicked Professor (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 4

At his instruction, Na Young was shocked.

Faced with the risk of her face being revealed, Na Young hastily grabbed her mask with both hands and shook her head.

“It’s not allowed because of the virus!”

Her fierce resistance only annoyed Tae Hyuk further.

He would’ve understood if she’d acted that way in front of a patient whose immunity had sharply declined, but he was clearly a healthy adult male with no issues in that regard.

Therefore, her excuse was just that—an excuse in front of him.

Tae Hyuk reached out his hand to remove her mask himself.

When Professor Choi Tae Hyuk’s hand approached, Na Young instinctively turned her body and ran away.

Driven purely by the instinct to survive, she bolted without even looking back.

Everyone present, including Professor Choi Tae Hyuk, stood with their mouths agape, stunned by her sudden flight.

They couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

Nam Ho Jin, standing right beside Professor Choi, asked cautiously,

“Shall I go catch her?”

Professor Choi Tae Hyuk shot Nam Ho Jin a sharp glare instead of the fleeing Moon Na Young.

After fleeing from Professor Choi Tae Hyuk, Na Young went straight to the department head’s office.

“Manager, I’d like to transfer to another specialty.”

Manager Park couldn’t help but be taken aback—after all, she was only a first-year resident who’d started just two days ago.

It was far too soon to conclude the field didn’t suit her.

“Why don’t you give it at least a month before deciding?”

Because Na Young had been diligent even as an intern, Manager Park wanted to keep her in surgery if at all possible.

“It’s just that, even if I wanted to stay, Professor Choi—!”

Na Young cut herself off mid-sentence.

She realized immediately she’d misspoken.

Coming to the manager’s office only to openly blame her supervising professor—there was no crazier thing to do in a hospital.

“I’m sorry! I’ll be going now.”

Na Young hurriedly fled from the manager’s office as well.

She truly had no idea where her residency was headed now.

As soon as Tae Hyuk returned to his lab, he sat at his desk and pulled up the personnel records of the surgery residents on his computer.

He didn’t fully believe that resident was definitely her, but the nagging unease compelled him to verify properly.

His hand, rapidly clicking through the records, suddenly froze.

Tae Hyuk leaned closer to the monitor and stared intently at the photo in the file.

That clear, refined face was unmistakably hers—no matter how many times he looked.

He checked the name listed in the record.

“Moon Na Young.”

He never imagined he’d find her so quickly or in this manner—so much so that his bewilderment outweighed any joy over having found the woman who disappeared from the hotel.

He hadn’t known she was a doctor like him, let alone that she was merely a first-year resident…

He’d thought finding the owner of the single earring would lead to a happy ending, but now that he’d found her, the genre had shifted from romance to “extreme occupation.”

While he was lost in thought over what to do next, his lab phone rang.

Tae Hyuk reached for the receiver.

“Yes, this is Choi Tae Hyuk from hepatopancreatobiliary surgery.”

[Professor Choi. Come to my office right away.]

It was a summons from Manager Park.

Since the call was urgent, Tae Hyuk assumed it might concern an important patient and headed straight to the office.

“You’re here.”

Manager Park’s expression was grave.

Tae Hyuk couldn’t understand why the manager was staring at him like that.

Manager Park spoke heavily.

“Apparently, a resident wants to switch specialties because of you.”

The image of the woman fleeing from him flashed in his mind—Park didn’t need to say her name for him to guess who it was.

“I know very well how skilled you are, Professor Choi. But you’re not working alone. Go a little easier. These days, residents don’t work as brutally hard as we did. In fact, it’s legally prohibited to assign more than 100 on-call shifts.”

While Manager Park was gently urging him not to be so harsh on the residents, Tae Hyuk was reflecting on Moon Na Young’s behavior.

She must have recognized him from the start.

He realized now that she hadn’t worn the mask because it hurt—she’d worn it to avoid revealing her face to him.

Her attempt to change specialties showed she was desperately trying to avoid him.

He himself had been through the first year of residency, so her wish to avoid him wasn’t entirely incomprehensible.

Still, it didn’t make him feel any better.

He could confront her right now—demand why she’d run off from the hotel, why she’d tried to switch departments just to escape him.

But then, the meaning behind his efforts to find her would fade into nothingness.

He hadn’t wanted to meet her again just to confront her.

He simply…

Tae Hyuk tried to suppress his emotions and think rationally.

His actions now would determine the course of her first-year residency.

As her supervising professor, his influence over her was absolute.

“I’ll persuade her to stay. Don’t worry.”

When Choi Tae Hyuk volunteered to personally convince the resident, Manager Park gave him a serious warning.

“Just don’t threaten her—under any circumstances.”

Tae Hyuk frowned bitterly.

Now it occurred to him—perhaps she’d learned his true nature and lost all interest.

After leaving the office, Tae Hyuk pulled out his phone and called someone.

[What’s this? You’re calling me first for once?]

The person he called was Oh Seung Joon, associate professor of orthopedic surgery and his university classmate.

“You mentioned your younger sister attends our med school—so she’s a resident now?”

[My younger sister?]

Caught completely off guard by Choi Tae Hyuk’s sudden, out-of-the-blue question about his sister, Oh Seung Joon felt a little unnerved.

Na Young knew she couldn’t avoid Professor Choi Tae Hyuk forever.

As long as she remained a hepatopancreatobiliary surgery resident, she’d inevitably cross paths with him again.

She understood this logically, but lacking courage, she couldn’t bring herself to move—when her phone rang.

Certain it must be a call ordering her to come see him immediately, Na Young looked at her phone with a heavy heart.

But the caller was her friend Seung Hee.

“Hello?”

[Heard you caused a scene during rounds?]

If even Seung Hee knew, the whole hospital must have heard about it—how she’d fled shamelessly from Professor Choi Tae Hyuk.

Her image as a calm, composed person had completely shattered just two days after Choi Tae Hyuk’s arrival at the hospital.

[Are you okay?]

Hearing her friend’s genuinely concerned voice—not judgmental but kind—Na Young felt tears well up.

“What am I going to do now?”

[Professor Choi won’t make a huge deal out of it. You didn’t harm any patients, after all.]

But her despair wasn’t about that incident—it was about her residency, now in crisis.

She deeply regretted that one night.

If only she’d just held back.

Why had she behaved like a wild, unruly colt and caused such a mess?

Just as she wallowed in despair, Seung Hee comforted her.

[Don’t be so scared of Professor Choi. According to my brother, he’s not perfect either.]

Seung Hee’s brother was Professor Oh Seung Joon from orthopedics.

[He got completely wasted at a club the night before his first hospital shift, blacked out, and nearly showed up late on day one.]

“The night before his first hospital day” was the very night Choi Tae Hyuk had spent with her—Na Young froze, eyes wide.

“What? He blacked out?”

[Yeah. He can’t remember anything he did after drinking. Guess he turns into a total airhead when drunk. Hehe.]

Na Young was stunned.

Since she remembered everything, she’d assumed he did too.

But he didn’t remember?

Because the department head himself had ordered residents to observe Professor Choi Tae Hyuk’s surgery and learn from it, even those who couldn’t enter the operating room gathered around the monitors outside.

Na Young deliberately stood at the very back.

She’d only heard how exceptional his surgical skills were—this was her first time seeing him operate in person.

Professor Choi Tae Hyuk hadn’t entered the operating room yet.

The anesthesiology team came in first to administer general anesthesia to the patient.

Click.

The door opened, and finally, like the main character of a story, lead surgeon Professor Choi Tae Hyuk walked in.

His gaze, as he took his position, settled on the patient lying on the operating table.

He looked almost like the sole savior standing before life itself.

Even though he was the irresponsible man who couldn’t remember the woman he’d spent the night with, she didn’t intend to view everything about him negatively.

“Let’s begin.”

Professor Choi Tae Hyuk always started with utmost courtesy.

But by now, everyone knew that once the surgery progressed, his true, viper-like nature would emerge.

The hepatectomy for the liver cancer patient concluded after four hours.

In Na Young’s eyes, Professor Choi Tae Hyuk’s surgical skill was so precise and clean that it felt like watching a living medical textbook.

She couldn’t even begin to guess how many more surgeries she’d need to perform to reach his level.

After the surgery ended, Na Young went straight to find Professor Choi Tae Hyuk.

There was something she absolutely needed to confirm with him today.

“Professor Choi!”

Her voice stopped Professor Choi Tae Hyuk mid-step as he walked alone.

When he turned, Na Young lifted her hand and removed her mask.

Her heart pounded heavily as she finally revealed her true face to him for the first time,

but when she met his calm, indifferent gaze—showing no sign of recognition—her heartbeat quickly returned to normal.

He really didn’t remember. Truly…

Feeling both disappointment and relief, Na Young bowed deeply.

“I was rude this morning. I’m very sorry.”

She formally apologized for running away from him.

While she felt no regret for fleeing the hotel that morning, as a resident, it was clearly wrong to run off so recklessly in front of her professor.

She steeled herself to endure whatever harsh words he might say.

“Doctor Moon Na Young.”

Unexpectedly, his voice calling her name was utterly calm.

And since she hadn’t expected him to know her name at all, Na Young looked up at him in surprise.

“Do you still want to transfer to another department?”

His question—coming from the very person who’d caused her to feel that way—sent a strong gust of wind surging through her chest.

It was a different kind of resonance from the intense attraction she’d felt when they’d met at the club.

What she felt now was resistance.

Professor Choi Tae Hyuk standing before her now felt like a massive mountain blocking her path.

She felt overwhelming pressure: to become a true doctor, she absolutely had to overcome this mountain.

So there was no way she could easily say she’d run away from him.

When she didn’t answer right away, Professor Choi Tae Hyuk crossed his arms, his tone no longer polite.

“If you’re leaving because you lack confidence, then leave as soon as possible. Don’t linger here and disrupt the other doctors.”

His return to his full “viper professor” persona made Na Young’s blood boil.

“That’s not it at all!”

Na Young firmly denied it.

“Then why do you want to switch? Just being fickle?”

As his words increasingly painted her as unreliable, Na Young snapped.

“I have no intention of transferring! I look forward to working with you from now on!”

She declared it almost like a challenge, then bowed respectfully.

As soon as she straightened up, she turned and strode away sharply.

Tae Hyuk watched her retreating figure.

He knew this time, she wouldn’t return to him like she had that night when she came back in a taxi.

When he’d woken up alone in the hotel room and realized she’d left without a word, Tae Hyuk had vowed that if he ever saw her again, he wouldn’t foolishly let her slip away from his sight.

“…”

Yet here he was, watching her walk away again, powerless to stop her.

It felt as though a hole had opened in his chest, slowly draining all the emotions he’d once felt for her.

He craved a drink—something strong and harsh.