After sending the message to Eun Woo, Ju Heon returned to the remainder of his afternoon work. He was putting the finishing touches on a few matters when his secretary brought him a file.
It was the report he had requested not long ago on Gaon Medical Center and Kang Gyu Ho. The investigation had proceeded faster than expected, and the information had reached his hands sooner than anticipated.
As Ju Heon focused on the pages before him, his expression grew more serious than ever. He sat utterly still, his eyes fixed on the file without wavering. Had it not been for the faint movement of the fingers supporting his chin and the occasional narrowing of his eyes, one might have mistaken him for a man meditating with his eyes open.
That absolute stillness was usually a sign that Ju Heon was in an exceptionally foul mood.
Knowing this, his secretary watched her superior anxiously from several feet away. They had not worked together for very long, yet she had already learned to read his mood from the slightest change in his expression.
Despite her unease, Ju Heon remained absorbed in the report.
The investigation was remarkably thorough, containing plenty of information that satisfied his curiosity. There was everything from the background of Kang Gyu Min, the man who had been with Eun Woo the other day, to the history of Kang Gyu Ho, the name that had been reaching his ears with irritating frequency.
Quite a few details caught his attention.
And yet, the deeper he read, the more often a derisive scoff escaped him.
The people in question turned out to be nowhere near as impressive as he had imagined.
They were not particularly influential figures. They were simply an ordinary family of doctors. None of them held especially prominent positions, nor did they possess any meaningful influence within the medical field.
Aside from the title of doctor, there was remarkably little to distinguish them.
“…How laughable.”
Considering the arrogant, contemptuous way they had treated Eun Woo, Ju Heon had expected their background to be considerably more distinguished.
Perhaps because both their parents and grandparents were doctors, they had come to regard themselves as members of the elite. But families of doctors were hardly rare. There was nothing particularly remarkable about them.
“I assumed they would be the sort of family that produced medical researchers and university professors. Instead, they’re running what amounts to a neighborhood grocery store. Their hospital isn’t even a regional medical center. It’s merely the sort of private clinic you find on every other street corner. I can’t believe people with such mediocre credentials had the audacity to treat Baek Eun Woo that way. All that arrogance, with so little substance to back it up.”
Remembering Gyu Min’s attitude toward Eun Woo, Ju Heon’s expression darkened.
He had initially intended to repay some of the humiliation Eun Woo had suffered.
But his opponent was so insignificant that Ju Heon found himself losing the will to fight altogether.
They were hardly worth his attention.
“But, Director… calling a hospital in Gangnam a ‘neighborhood grocery store’ might be a little harsh.”
“What’s inaccurate about it? Look at the facts. I’d say it’s a remarkably accurate comparison.”
Ju Heon gave a quiet, derisive snort at his secretary’s cautious remark.
“These days, quite a few doctors prefer opening private practices rather than working as salaried physicians at university hospitals or major medical centers. The workload at large hospitals is excessive, the pay is relatively low, and the physical demands are considerable.”
“But the prestige is on an entirely different level. They really aren’t comparable.”
His secretary was not entirely wrong.
By ordinary standards, the family was certainly not insignificant.
Perhaps the comparison to a “neighborhood grocery store” was a little unfair after all. A hospital occupying an entire three-story building on one of Gangnam’s busiest avenues could hardly be considered small. And amid the countless dermatology clinics and cosmetic practices lining the streets, a private medical clinic devoted purely to treatment undoubtedly required a certain degree of expertise.
Those people had their own accomplishments and pride.
It was simply that, through the eyes of someone who lived in an entirely different world, they were nowhere near impressive enough to earn Ju Heon’s regard.
The one thing he could concede was that every member of the family had graduated from Hankuk University’s College of Medicine.
“It would at least be impressive if they had worked as professors at a university hospital before opening a private practice. But there isn’t a single noteworthy achievement in their records, and they rushed into opening a clinic. What exactly is there to admire? Are they even trustworthy? Graduates of Hankuk University’s medical school are practically everywhere. You could throw a stone into a crowd and hit a dozen of them.”
“…Perhaps you feel that way because the people you usually encounter are exceptionally accomplished, Director. Graduates of Hankuk University’s College of Medicine are hardly people who can be dismissed so easily. It’s the country’s top medical school. It’s where everyone dreams of going.” New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
Ju Heon merely nodded at her response and turned to the next page.
That was where the person he was most curious about appeared.
The one member of this family so proud of its Hankuk University medical credentials who had, in fact…
failed.
Kang Gyu Ho.
The troublesome name he had heard mentioned more than once.
After failing to get into university, Gyu Ho’s solution had been to flee to the United States.
It seemed he had quickly redirected himself toward an option that could salvage what remained of his pride at the worst possible moment. Fortunately, his family had enough money to make studying abroad an easy choice.
Calling it “running away” was somewhat unkind, but it was not entirely inaccurate, either.
Still, the man could not have been completely incompetent. He had managed to gain admission to an American university in a relatively short time, although he had undoubtedly prepared for such a contingency in advance.
His American citizenship had given him more options when it came to universities. He had devised a fairly sound strategy and managed to enter a respectable school as a biology major.
His ultimate goal was obvious.
He intended to graduate near the top of his class and enter medical school afterward, thereby making his way into the profession without having to confront the failure he had experienced in Korea.
“At least he managed to restore his pride to some extent.”
By ordinary standards, Kang Gyu Ho’s family background and educational prospects were far from poor.
But neither were they exceptional enough to leave any particular impression.
Of course, those were merely Ju Heon’s standards.
He still could not shake the conviction that this family had no right to look down on Baek Eun Woo.
The fact that they possessed nothing more than ordinary medical credentials yet dared to regard Eun Woo with such superiority irritated him in a way he could not quite explain.
The smugness. The condescension. The contempt woven into their voices and gazes.
Even the slight tension that had appeared in Eun Woo when facing them had been enough to make Ju Heon’s brows draw together.
He had no intention of tolerating anyone treating the person carrying his child that way.
<After my father passed away, it was the first time I felt that peaceful. That tiny room felt bigger than a palace because I was free there. I didn’t have to endure the heat or cold in silence. I could come home whenever I wanted, eat a meal someone had prepared when I was hungry, and sleep as long as I pleased. Most of all, I didn’t have to worry about anyone else’s mood. To me, it was a place better than heaven. Maybe that’s why I studied better, too. That period was truly the happiest time of my life.>
Remembering their conversation, Ju Heon’s brows drew together again.
Perhaps Eun Woo really had been treated that badly.
He did not need to witness it firsthand to understand what the circumstances must have been like. How suffocating must his life have been for a cramped gosiwon room to feel like a palace of freedom?
If that tiny room had felt like paradise to him, then things must have gone far beyond what was acceptable.
Of course, having an additional “guest” move into their home could not have been easy for the family members who had already lived there.
But that did not give them the right to treat another human being that way.
<That Gyu Ho probably got bitter because you passed while he failed. And you got into the English Language and Literature department instead of Music, too. That probably bruised his pride. Weren’t the two of you still getting along when you took the entrance exams?>
Jealousy.
It had to be jealousy.
Judging from what the café owner had said, the fact that their relationship had suddenly deteriorated right before the university entrance exams was most likely connected to Gyu Ho’s jealousy.
The remark about Kang Gyu Ho leaving without a word continued to linger in Ju Heon’s mind.
In the end, Eun Woo had been abandoned by the very friend he trusted most, in the very house where he had already been forced to survive by constantly reading everyone else’s moods. New chapters come out on NovelPing first.
Ju Heon could not allow someone like that to cross paths with Eun Woo again, only to burden him with more stress.
Judging from Eun Woo’s attitude that day, he would never be the one to reach out first.
The other side, however, appeared to have different intentions.
Gyu Min had made it quite clear that he intended to find a way to contact Eun Woo and put him in an uncomfortable position again.
Naturally, Ju Heon could not simply leave that alone.
It had taken considerable effort to find a contract partner like Eun Woo.
A dominant Omega was rare enough. A dominant Omega capable of carrying a child conceived with his own genes was rarer still.
In other words, Eun Woo was an exceptionally valuable partner—one who would be exceedingly difficult to replace.
Only if Eun Woo’s body and mind remained in a comfortable, stable condition could his child be born healthy, with the strongest possible genetic makeup.
These unwanted variables could simply be dealt with by Ju Heon himself.
After all, this concerned their contract. It was hardly unrelated to him.
Therefore, what he was doing was entirely legitimate.
“There’s one more thing. Regarding the doctors’ meetings at the hospital, they’ve reported that everything has been arranged according to your instructions. There’s one seminar scheduled in a few days that couldn’t be moved on such short notice, but all the others have already been transferred to the locations you specified.”
“Is that so? The director sounded rather troubled when I called. He handled it quickly.”
Ju Heon nodded.
“I’ll contact the director myself later.”
When Ju Heon had first made the request, the hospital director had been visibly flustered. Understandably so. Asking them to cancel or relocate a series of meetings that had already been scheduled through the following year was hardly a simple matter.
Still, Ju Heon had not forced them to cancel everything outright.
He had agreed to continue paying the hospital’s venue rental fees in full. Meanwhile, the association had been offered a hotel venue with better facilities, and any additional requirements would be accommodated without issue.
It was an arrangement they had little reason to refuse.
It was beneficial to Baek Eun Woo.
And, ultimately, it was beneficial to them as well.
“Would you like to look over the file on Baek Eun Woo now?”
Seeing Ju Heon set the tablet down with a satisfied expression before reaching for his phone, his secretary asked.
At her question, Ju Heon glanced at the tablet on the desk.
Alongside the information on Kang Gyu Ho, it also contained a detailed profile of Baek Eun Woo.
But he did not want to read Eun Woo’s information hastily.
He would rather wait until he had more leisure, when he could take his time and examine it properly.
“I’ll read it when I have time. If anything comes up, I’ll call you. You can get back to work.”
There was no need to rush.
He still had plenty of time.
For now, Ju Heon decided he would slowly learn more about Baek Eun Woo when the opportunity presented itself.
That was the mindset he had settled into.