Chapter 24

Merely stepping foot into the workplace was enough to guarantee a dead-last ranking in any daily horoscope, but the true misfortunes always struck long after clocking in.

“There is a limit to how much you can look down on someone! Hey, tell the director to get out here!”

“Please lower your voice, sir. The other patients are in the middle of their treatments,” Gi-hyeon replied, his tone an unbothered flatline.

“Where do you get off being so arrogant? Hey, you’re nothing but a glorified masseur who calls it therapy, so what makes you so damn special?”

Such was the reality of Gi-hyeon’s day. Face drained of color, he couldn’t help but wonder if his zodiac sign had completely flatlined, plummeting to the absolute bottom of the twelve astrological animals.

While that morbid thought crossed his mind, the middle-aged man standing before him only grew more furious.

The man was originally assigned to Gi-hyeon, but when Gi-hyeon hadn’t come down from the ward on time, the patient called to check and then briefly stepped out to run an errand for Team Leader Lim. During that brief window, the man had returned to the clinic to wait.

Unfortunately, every other therapist was either knee-deep in a session or evaluating a new patient, leaving him standing awkwardly in the middle of the treatment room. The only staff member left in the athletes’ lounge was Team Leader Lim. All the team leader had to do was offer the man a seat, but instead, Lim had simply glanced at the patient, ignored him completely, and walked out of the lounge, never to return.

Outraged that he had been left standing on a bad knee, the man was currently directing all his explosive collateral damage at his assigned therapist, Gi-hyeon.

“Switch my therapist! I’m so fucking offended right now, I refuse to get treated by a bastard like you!”

Perhaps he was genuinely humiliated by having to stand for five minutes, but the man’s face had turned a furious crimson as he bellowed at the top of his lungs.

Gi-hyeon stared back with an impassive expression. “I cannot assign you a new therapist when you start off by screaming like this, sir.”

“What? You can’t switch my therapist? Who the hell do you think you are! Are you a doctor or something?! You’re just a lowly hack of a therapist, huh?!”

The man completely closed the distance, aggressively shoving Gi-hyeon. Malice dripped from the hands striking roughly against Gi-hyeon’s chest.

Why is he going this far? Gi-hyeon wondered, right before the man provided the answer, as if reading his mind.

“Swap my therapist for an Omega, not some stiff little bastard like you!”

To think this entire tantrum stemmed from such a pathetic, low-class reason.

A sigh threatened to escape Gi-hyeon’s lips. He clicked his tongue in quiet disdain—a subtle slip that the man immediately caught.

“Are you fucking mocking me right now?!”

Snapping completely, the man swung his hand, striking the side of Gi-hyeon’s head with a vicious crack. Only then did the other therapists rush over to pull the violent patient away. It was precisely this moment that solidified Gi-hyeon’s belief that his fortune was dead last among the zodiac.

Eventually, the brief chaos was quelled when the Administration Manager sprinted over and escorted the man out of the treatment room. Returning in the aftermath, Team Leader Lim must have heard the full story from another therapist, because he immediately called Gi-hyeon into the office.

Gi-hyeon stood there, pressing an ice pack that Byeong-ju had prepared against the side of his throbbing head.

“Dr. So, what year are you in?”

“This is my third year, sir.”

What is he trying to say now?

Gi-hyeon unfocused his eyes, letting his gaze drift to a food stain on Team Leader Lim’s uniform.

Getting slapped wasn’t entirely unfair in the grand scheme of things. Had it not been Gi-hyeon, another therapist would have suffered the brunt of the assault. He much preferred taking the hit himself rather than watching a female or Omega colleague endure it.

He had suffered far worse beatings in the military, and even then, he hadn’t felt particularly offended. As such, physical violence could never shatter So Gi-hyeon’s soul.

This incident was no different.

All he had to do was ensure the man who struck him was blacklisted and permanently banned from the clinic. After all, if the man were reassigned to another therapist, there was no telling how he might harass them. However, the words that spilled from Team Leader Lim’s mouth took a wildly different turn.

“You aren’t going to sue him or anything, right?”

“…”

Gi-hyeon clamped his mouth shut. So that’s why he asked about my seniority. The implication was clear: as a third-year, Gi-hyeon should know how hospital politics worked and shouldn’t make waves.

“Look, I’m not forcing you or anything… I’m just saying this because a third-year like you should know how things operate around here.”

Team Leader Lim had despised Gi-hyeon before, assuming he had connections, but now that Gi-hyeon had actually been assaulted, the team leader was desperately trying to sweep it under the rug. If Gi-hyeon pressed assault charges, the managerial responsibility would inevitably fall on Lim’s shoulders.

Gi-hyeon didn’t bother hiding his heavy sigh.

“I have no idea what you’re trying to say, sir.”

Offended by his subordinate’s unyielding attitude, Team Leader Lim furrowed his brow. “Then what? Are you actually planning to sue a patient? Over something this trivial?”

If it’s so trivial, you should have taken the hit for me. Baffled as to why the team leader was acting so condescending when Gi-hyeon was the one nursing a bruised face, Gi-hyeon remained silent and simply turned on his heel.

“Hey! Dr. So! Are you really going to sue him?!”

The impatient, reedy voice calling out behind him was almost comical.

Ignoring the question entirely, Gi-hyeon walked out to handle his backlog of appointments. Seong-su, the luge athlete who had witnessed the entire spectacle from start to finish, studied Gi-hyeon with nervous eyes.

“…Doc, your face is really red.”

He was clearly referring to the slapped cheek.

Gi-hyeon gave a curt nod. “You saw that, right? The sorrow of the working class. So what should you do? When you go to the Olympics and win gold, you better say, ‘It’s all thanks to Dr. So Gi-hyeon at Haeseong Rehabilitation Centre,’ understand?”

“Ah, Doc, you say that to us literally every day…”

The tension in the air dissolved at the dry joke, and the athlete offered an awkward smile. Amused by the kid’s concern, Gi-hyeon lightly patted the back of his head.

“Since I’m in a bad mood, let’s do five sets of planks today, Seong-su.”

“How does one have anything to do with the other!” the athlete hollered indignantly, though he immediately dropped into position with a disgruntled grumble. Just as Gi-hyeon was barking out instructions to lower his hips and tighten his core, hurried footsteps echoed behind him. He turned to find Lee Beom-hee rushing over.

“Dr. So! I heard some absolute nightmare of a patient caused a scene!”

“Director.”

“I heard he threw a tantrum demanding a therapist change. I’ve already put him on the blacklist. We’ll make sure he never sets foot in here again, so don’t worry.”

Gi-hyeon’s eyes widened in mild surprise before settling back into a calm gaze. He had worried that word of the assault would instantly reach Jo Yeon-oh’s ears, but it seemed the Administration Manager and Team Leader Lim had already synchronized their stories. Only half the truth had been reported to Beom-hee.

Relieved, Gi-hyeon gave a vague nod.

If the man was blacklisted, he would never receive treatment here again. It wasn’t a terrible conclusion. Gi-hyeon hadn’t planned on suing anyway; Team Leader Lim had simply soured his mood by bringing it up.

Actually, pressing charges would have been infinitely more problematic. If Jo Yeon-oh found out, the bastard—who still treated Gi-hyeon like a fragile chick that had just hatched from its egg—would undoubtedly cause an apocalyptic uproar.

Gi-hyeon absolutely loathed dealing with anything exhausting. The bastard who slapped me will get his karma somewhere down the line. If not in this life, let him repent in the next. It was easier to leave it to Buddha. All things considered, this wasn’t a bad resolution.

“Yes, thank you, Director.”

“What’s there to thank me for? I’m the one who should be sorry. Let’s have a company dinner! A dinner!”

Gi-hyeon’s face immediately crystallized into a mask of pure dread. He looked as gloomy as a man who had just been handed a death sentence. “A company dinner is a bit…”

“You love tuna, right, Dr. So? Let’s get tuna. Manager Seo! Book a reservation at Lee Chun-sung Tuna right now!”

Despite the blood rapidly draining from Gi-hyeon’s face at the mention of a company dinner, the hyper-extroverted Lee Beom-hee proved unstoppable. Gi-hyeon reached out to grab her, but she had already spun around, enthusiastically ordering the Administration Manager to secure a venue.

A wave of exhaustion—heavier than anything he felt when he was slapped—crashed over him. Trembling furiously at Gi-hyeon’s feet, the luge athlete managed to wheeze out a plea.

“Doc… how much longer do I have to do this? Why aren’t you counting…”

Apologizing quietly, Gi-hyeon instructed the athlete to move on to the next set. He let out a long sigh, utterly drained by the prospect of the impending dinner.

In a newly established clinic, the first to jump ship were never the patients, but the staff. Working in an unorganized hospital was a brutal grind, prompting experienced therapists to cut their losses and seek employment elsewhere. While Lee Beom-hee possessed magnificent skills as a physician, she also boasted surprisingly competent management skills as a hospital owner.

The only problem was that this specific management tactic was a massive misfire when it came to Gi-hyeon.

“Anyone who doesn’t drink goes bald!”

The company dinner was in full swing, and Lee Beom-hee—who was already wearing the Administration Manager’s necktie strapped around her temples—was having the time of her life. Her sheer exuberance only made the introverted Gi-hyeon desperately want to teleport home. On any normal occasion, he would have slipped out without a second thought, but since the dinner was technically hosted to console him, sneaking away felt entirely inappropriate.

A brief wave of emptiness washed over him as he wondered why he was stuck here while the entire nursing department had been sent to an aesthetic clinic on the company dime. Still, the tuna was remarkably high quality, and as he mechanically chewed through several premium slices, the hours slipped by.

Normally, hospital dinners attended by the director were funded by pharmaceutical company kickbacks. However, Jo Yeon-oh had strictly forbidden such practices, handing over a corporate card instead, ensuring a lavish feast without the shady undertones.

The core issue lay in Gi-hyeon’s thoroughly spoiled palate. Much like a dog raised in a scholarly village for thirty years that eventually learns to recite poetry, Gi-hyeon had spent half his life standing beside a chaebol heir. Forced to consume every rare delicacy known to man against his will, his appetite and materialism had practically evaporated. It was no wonder he found this extravagant dinner so agonizingly boring.

To make matters worse, the incredibly handsome, overwhelmingly wealthy, and exceptionally brilliant Lee Beom-hee harbored one fatal flaw that was currently torturing him.

“I was just so, so upset that you had to go through that today, Dr. So.”

“I see.”

“I was just so, so upset that you had to go through that today, Dr. So.”

When intoxicated, the brilliant director repeated the exact same sentence, with the exact same tone and expression, roughly five hundred times. Gi-hyeon sat there bewildered, wondering how he had ended up abandoned at the drunk director’s table. The restaurant had been packed with noisy hospital staff earlier, but they seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Even Therapist Kang Na-yoon—who had taken a half-day off, gone home, and then sprinted all the way back just because she heard tuna was on the menu—had mysteriously disappeared first, despite being the latest arrival. And this was after she had devoured more premium tuna than any other therapist present.

At this rate, Gi-hyeon was going to be left alone to handle the director’s messy aftermath.

The clock on the wall already pointed at ten at night. Only then did it dawn on Gi-hyeon that he hadn’t received a single message from Jo Yeon-oh all day.

What’s up with that bastard?

Gi-hyeon was in the middle of pondering this anomaly while desperately trying to stop Beom-hee from drunkenly reciting the entire rehabilitation protocol for a torn ACL. Suddenly, the Administration Manager sprinted over, panting heavily as he supported Beom-hee’s weight.

“Director, it’s time to go! The designated driver is here!”

“Huh? Gajwa-dong? No, Manager Seo, what are you talking about? I don’t live in Gajwa-dong. Manager Seo, I live in Sangam-dong.”

Still wearing the necktie around his head, Manager Seo mumbled incoherently as he practically dragged the rambling director out of the private room.

Gi-hyeon did a quick sweep of the area to ensure no one had left any belongings behind before finally rising from his seat.

Wondering where everyone had migrated to, he stepped toward the entrance, only to find the staff clustered together in a buzzing swarm. Scanning the crowd, his eyes snagged on a figure towering a full head above the rest.

Jo Yeon-oh had arrived.

Unlike his usual pristine corporate attire, Yeon-oh was dressed comfortably. The spring night air still carried a crisp chill, and the cream-colored knit sweater suited him flawlessly. A navy paisley silk scarf was tucked casually beneath the collar. The luxurious fabric somehow managed to make him look entirely refined and yet profoundly indecent at the same time. Slacks in a matching navy tone draped elegantly over his endlessly long legs.

If a man intent on seduction wore that outfit, it would have reeked of sleaze, but Jo Yeon-oh bore a clean, indifferent expression despite being the center of attention. In fact, the people surrounding him were the ones making a fuss.

“Oh my god, hello, Chairman…”

“The Chairman must have come to pick up our Director.”

The excited murmurs rippled through the crowd.

Gi-hyeon, who had been stepping toward the door intending to call out to him, subconsciously froze in his tracks.

The clinic rumors suddenly flooded his memory.

The absurd gossip claimed that Alpha Jo Yeon-oh was secretly dating Alpha Lee Beom-hee instead of the partner arranged by his family, and that he was investing in Haeseong Rehabilitation Centre purely to support her. Given their status, it wasn’t a completely unreasonable assumption for the staff to make.

If a union between two Alphas was considered a powerful, if unconventional, alliance, the relationship between Jo Yeon-oh and Gi-hyeon—an Alpha male and a Beta male—was a bond society wholly refused to tolerate. Despite the modern trend of condemning discrimination, the masses still viewed Alpha-Beta relationships with visceral contempt.

Lost in his dark thoughts, Gi-hyeon didn’t realize Yeon-oh had turned his head until their eyes locked.

Yeon-oh spotted him emerging from the restaurant.

“So Gi—”

Realizing the bastard was about to shout his name, Gi-hyeon quickly shook his head.

Don’t.

It was a silent, desperate plea.

Hospital life was already exhausting enough with Beom-hee constantly doting on him; he absolutely refused to let the staff witness Yeon-oh fawning over him too.

Having a normal conversation at the hospital was one thing, but this was entirely different. Even Gi-hyeon knew that Yeon-oh cared for him with an intensity that bordered on abnormal. He was used to it, but to outsiders, it would look utterly grotesque.

So, with a firm shake of his head, Gi-hyeon turned his back and began walking away. The restaurant was close to the clinic, meaning the walk to his apartment would be brief. He felt a twinge of guilt for not bidding a proper farewell to the other therapists, but a quick text to his senior, Seung-hee, would have to suffice.

He was in the middle of that rationalization when a heavy grip clamped down on him.