How to Tame a Bad-tempered Professor - Chapter 2 - One Night Stand

Episode 2. One Night Stand
TL: Sisona

The moment she heard the man say he wanted to kiss her, Nayoung felt a dizzying vertigo.

It must have been the alcohol she had drunk, to the point of intoxication.

She wanted to deny that it was absolutely not because of this man.

“I think I need to go home now.”

Her survival instinct kicked in as she started to feel anxious.

She quickly got up from her seat, but her body swayed heavily.

Nayoung, who did not expect to be so drunk that her body wouldn’t listen, was greatly taken aback.

His hand had firmly grabbed her arm without her realizing it.

Because she had just shown a pitiable appearance, Nayoung couldn’t ask him to let her go and instead looked up at him.

The man standing in front of her was much more overwhelming than when they were sitting face-to-face.

It was amazing how she could look at this man and remember her old faded memories like an old photo album.

There was no way he was the same person. She didn’t even want him to be the same person.

Because it would turn into a tremendous relationship that she couldn’t handle.

Since they were only meant to meet and part on this day, Nayoung decided not to ask him anything.

“Are you really going to go now?”

“Yes, it’s my first day at work tomorrow, so I can’t be late.”

Taehyuk also had his first day at work tomorrow. However, he didn’t want to part with her yet.

However, she didn’t even seem to want to tell him her name.

So he stubbornly didn’t tell his name either, but he lost that resolve at the last moment.

“Aren’t you curious about my name?”

At his question, her pupils widened slightly.

But soon, she laughed and nodded her head. So effortlessly.

That struck his pride deeply.

He had never clung to someone who said they were leaving, nor did he want to.

Taehyuk immediately let go of her arm.

“Okay then. Take care.”

Taehyuk turned his body away from her first.

And he headed for the place where he should have been.

Come to think of it, the girls that Cha Hyun brought today were prettier, and they knew how to have fun.

It was a much better option, except for the fact that they couldn’t make him feel anything.

As he tried to rationalize it and was about to go up the stairs, someone from behind grabbed his hand.

Turning his head to look behind, Taehyuk felt a sense of relief upon seeing her, who had followed him.

But she didn’t follow him because she wanted to hold onto him as he was leaving.

“That guy from earlier is back.”

Looking in the direction she pointed, sure enough, the guy from before was staring in their direction with a group of his friends.

He must have been waiting for them to part.

He had promised to ensure her safety first. And Taehyuk still felt the same, so he turned back and came back down the stairs.

“Let’s go. I’ll take you.”

Taehyuk left the club with her.

Once outside, the pounding music disappeared and was replaced by the noise of the city.

Taehyuk even helped her hail a taxi.

In the end, the last thing he heard from her was a word of gratitude.

“Thank you.”

Taehyuk didn’t like those words, but he didn’t say anything.

Nayoung couldn’t look him straight in the eye and lowered her gaze.

If the taxi driver hadn’t rushed them, they might have stood facing each other in silence for a long time.

Thump.

As he closed the taxi door for her, the taxi immediately took off.

Taehyuk stared at the departing taxi for a long time before taking out his phone and calling Cha Hyun.

-You said you’d be here in 10 minutes, but do you know how many hours have passed?

As soon as he picked up, Cha Hyun scolded him.

Hearing Cha Hyun’s familiar voice, his meeting with the woman felt like a dream.

“How do you woo a woman?

The woman had already left, but Taehyuk asked Cha Hyun a question to correct his flaws now.

-What?

“You’re good at it.”

It seemed like what he couldn’t do today was due to a lack of skills.

-If I teach you, do you have a woman to woo?

“She was here, but she left.”

-Hahaha.

Hearing about his epic failure, Cha Hyun laughed heartily.

He thought it was funny, too. That he was talking like this to Cha Hyun. He, Choi Tae-hyuk, who was rejected by a woman.

-Where are you? I’ll come to you.

“In front of the club.”

He was staring blankly at the night view of Seoul while waiting for his longtime friend instead of the woman who left, when a taxi stopped across the street.

Watching a woman get out of the taxi, Taehyuk slowly stood up.

It was still a chilly night closer to winter than spring, but watching the woman cross the street towards him made warmth spread inside his body.

Today, Taehyuk had experienced many emotions through her, but at this moment, it was hard to put a name to what he was feeling.

She came back, and he was happy, but that wasn’t all.

A deeper and more colorful emotion stirred within him.

“Did you really wait here, thinking I’d come back?”

Nayoung couldn’t help but keep looking back at him from the taxi.

When she could no longer see his figure, her heart felt unbearably stifled.

If he had held onto her until the end, she might have been able to leave without hesitation.

But because he didn’t, Nayoung was left with more regrets.

She only had a few hours left of freedom, and since her freedom hadn’t ended yet, Nayoung found it hard to resist her impulses.

In the end, she turned the car around and came back to him.

She wanted to do as she pleased until she had to go back to the hospital.

So that when she thought about his face over the next four years, she wouldn’t be left with regrets.

***

As the warm March morning sunlight poured onto her face, Nayoung squinted and opened her eyes.

Feeling bewildered as the unfamiliar hotel room view entered her sight, Nayoung felt wide awake.

Nayoung slowly turned her head to look at the person beside her.

A man was lying there.

The naked body of the man, even more elastic and beautiful in the bright light, looked like the statue of David¹.

Nayoung held her breath, so that he wouldn’t wake up, and looked at his sleeping face.

If she had taken the taxi and gone straight back to the hospital, she would never have seen this face, which made her feel strange.

Last night, the two of them moved to a quieter place and had a second round of drinks.

As she got more drunk, she laughed more, and the man looked increasingly handsome.

No, it wasn’t an illusion, he was really handsome.

The man was determined to seduce her, but how could she, who had no immunity to him, resist him to the end?

There were gaps in her memory, so Nayoung doubted if it really happened to her.

But the sight of the two people lying naked on the bed was undeniable proof.

She spent the night with a man she met for the first time yesterday.

She wasn’t naive enough to believe in a fate-bound love.

The two had been drunk enough to lose control, and they were merely loyal to each other’s desires.

Blaming someone else was also a meaningless deviation.

Starting today, a hellish residency awaited her.

She couldn’t even dream of dating.

So, the deviation should end here.

She had to part ways with this man here.

Even if this moment became the last time she saw him, Nayoung had no other choice.

“If we meet again in 4 years, I’ll tell you my name then.”

She made a one-sided promise to the man who was asleep and didn’t hear her, dressed herself, and left the hotel.

It was time to return to the hospital.

***

Today, something more exciting and grand happened at Hanyang University Hospital than the start of the first year residents’ duties.

A renowned surgeon, recognized at the Cleveland Clinic in the U.S., had returned to his alma mater, Hanyang University Hospital.

They said he was a legend who made a name for himself during his residency, but Nayoung, who had just started her residency, found it hard to believe.

Being a resident, it would be a relief just not to make mistakes.

It was impossible to become a perfect doctor right after losing the intern tag.

Knowing how much time and effort it takes to train one doctor, Nayoung felt the new professor, who had been successful from the start, was a bit like a con artist.

It must surely be an exaggerated rumor.

“I saw you with that guy and immediately made way for you, right? It went well?”

Seunghee, who disappeared first at the club yesterday, asked about the man as soon as she sat down next to her.

Nayoung’s heart pounded for a moment, but she immediately shrugged it off and said,

“Nothing happened.”

She had caused the biggest accident in her life, but she couldn’t even tell her best friend Seunghee.

If Seunghee knew, it would be even harder to forget.

Her freedom was over now.

So, she had to stop thinking about the man whose name she didn’t even know.

“Really? He seemed like such a really nice guy.”

Seunghee pushed up her glasses and regretted not being able to see the man’s face properly since she didn’t wear her glasses yesterday.

Nayoung just laughed it off.

Fortunately, Seunghee didn’t bring up the man from the club anymore.

Instead, she turned her attention to the love stories among the hospital’s fellow doctors.

Seunghee slapped Nayoung’s arm and pointed at a beautiful female doctor sitting in front.

“Today’s new professor and Professor Yoon I-na, were once a famous couple. Doesn’t Professor Yoon look a little excited today?”

She managed to date while leading an excellent residency life?

Nayoung felt down today when the image of a handsome man she had to give up on while coming to the hospital came to mind.

However, unlike the legendary professor, she wasn’t cut out to handle both her resident life and love life well at the same time.

Both would become a mess.

So she told herself again that breaking up with the nameless man was the right thing to do.

“If they had been apart for so long, they must have broken up by now.”

Nayoung responded cynically.

Just as she had accepted reality and missed out on a wonderful man, they must have been the same.

“Wouldn’t it be more affectionate if they met after a long time? Wow! It’s like a total drama.”

Seunghee was already deeply engrossed in other people’s love affairs and letting her imagination run wild.

Nayoung was a little envious of Seunghee, who looked happy just from hearing other people’s love stories.

Nayoung, who was sleep-deprived, leaned her body against the chair and closed her eyes for a moment.

Although her heart felt hollow and empty, she tried to ignore it.

As the conference room, which was bustling, quieted down as though someone had died, Nayoung realized through her hearing that the legendary professor had arrived.

She slowly opened her eyes.

As the pitch darkness lifted, the view of the conference room came back into her sight.

Surgery Department Head Park In-ho was standing at the podium, and a tall man was standing next to him.

He was a young, new professor who had flown in from the Cleveland Clinic.

He wore a white doctor’s gown that gave a good impression to anyone, but his imposing aura was not hidden at all.

The new professor looked not as if he had come to save people in this hospital, but as if he had come to conquer the hospital.

The moment she saw the confident and handsome face of the new professor, Nayoung’s pupils constricted sharply.

At first, she thought she was dreaming with her eyes open.

If this was reality, Nayoung was not confident that she could handle it.

It was him. The man she had spent the night with.

She had coolly parted, promising to meet again four years later, but they ran into each other in the hospital before even a day had passed.

Moreover, he had suddenly appeared in front of her as a high-ranking professor.

This wasn’t a fateful meeting; it was a disaster.

She had to undergo training under that man who had seen her entire body?

Nayoung’s face turned pale, and her mind went blank.

“Since the residents are seeing you for the first time, introduce yourself formally.”

Regardless of her, who was turning pale in her seat, the introduction of the new professor flowed smoothly.

He stepped forward and opened his mouth for the first time.

In a confident voice filled with absolute authority, unlike the tender voice from last night.

“I will be working in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery department from now on, my name is Choi Tae-hyuk.”

It was a name he hadn’t told her, a name she had thought it better not to know, but now that she knew even his name, she could not deny that this situation was reality.

The man from that night was infiltrating her daily life without permission and confirming her worst fear.

“You’re screwed,” she thought.

“Look, look. Professor Yoon’s expression completely changed the moment Professor Choi appeared.”

Seunghee was still deeply immersed in the professors’ love affairs.

However, Nayoung couldn’t hear what Seunghee was saying.

She couldn’t breathe right now.

She had to figure out how not to be noticed by Professor Choi Tae-hyuk at the hospital.

Should she change departments?

But even if she moved to another department, she would inevitably run into the surgery professor.

Unless she left the hospital, she was bound to be found out sooner or later.

Like Russian roulette.

If only she could turn back time to yesterday, the first thing she would ask him was his profession.

If she had just known that he was a doctor, she would have bolted without looking back.

The moment Professor Choi Tae-hyuk, who was scanning the conference room, turned his gaze toward her, Nayoung found it difficult to breathe.

*****

TL Notes:

1) Referencing David of Michelangelo Statue –> Read More Here –> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Michelangelo)

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