Chapter 02
Tiger’s Den
Shaking off Kwon Woojin’s hand, Lee Yeon turned and headed for Soram General Hospital, where she had worked right up until just before her detention.
“Dr. Joo Iyeon?”
A nurse she ran into in the hospital corridor turned deathly pale, as if she had seen a ghost.
“Dr. Oh Hyunah, have you been well?”
“How did you get here?”
“I took the express bus.”
Lee Yeon knew perfectly well that Hyunah wasn’t asking how she had come.
She was asking why someone who was supposed to be in prison was standing in a hospital.
Calmly, Lee Yeon shook the ID badge hanging around her neck.
“I’m really lucky, you know. That I had my check card tucked inside my ID. You know how I got dragged away without even being able to grab my wallet.”
At Lee Yeon’s words, Hyunah subtly stepped backward.
“I—I should go. It’s time for my shift change.”
Watching the nurse flee as if running away, Lee Yeon let out a small laugh.
Lee Yeon knew why Oh Hyunah couldn’t look her in the eye.
When a dead man had been brought into the ER, it was Hyunah who had handed Lee Yeon the phone when the call from the hospital director came through.
Even when the prosecutor demanded a one-year sentence for falsifying a death certificate, Lee Yeon had firmly believed that Oh Hyunah would testify for her.
They had been close enough to eat lunch together sometimes, to exchange coffee coupons.
Yet in the end, Hyunah had stood as a witness for the prosecution, testifying that the falsification of the death certificate had been Lee Yeon’s sole decision.
Lee Yeon had no intention of confronting her.
Hyunah, too, must have been crushed by a power she couldn’t resist, forced to bury the truth.
She simply thought that one day, Hyunah would pay the price for standing by and watching someone else’s misfortune.
After walking all the way to the end of the corridor, Lee Yeon held her ID badge up to a tightly shut door.
It was the doctors’ lounge—a locker room where they stored their belongings and clothes.
Beep—
As the door opened, she saw doctors sitting around in small groups, hurriedly finishing a late meal.
“Joo Iyeon?”
The doctors’ eyes widened as well, as if they were seeing something they shouldn’t.
Ignoring them, Lee Yeon walked straight to the locker with her name on it.
Fortunately, the three characters Joo Iyeon were still there.
“You got out? Are you coming back to work?”
As if that could be possible.
Lee Yeon stopped herself from saying it aloud.
Instead, she rummaged through the bag she had left behind for a long time.
“Does anyone have a pager charger?”
At her question, the doctors who were eating exchanged glances.
“I’m asking if you have one!”
“Yeah, I’ll look.”
One male doctor clumsily dug around and found a charger.
Lee Yeon plugged her pager into the cable.
“What’s going on?”
“There’s something I need to check.”
Lee Yeon remembered clearly how her pager had rung loudly just before she was dragged away by the police.
Doctors’ pagers were used for emergencies, so it was rare for personal phone numbers to be input.
Who had contacted her right before her arrest?
“Looks like your pager’s broken.”
The male doctor said this while looking at Lee Yeon standing by the charger.
“Is it?”
“See? The red light’s not on. It usually lights up as soon as you plug it in.”
“Maybe it’s because it’s been left unused for so long.”
With a sigh, Lee Yeon unplugged the charger.
After gathering all the belongings in her locker, she trudged toward the lounge door.
“Joo Iyeon, where are you going?”
“Director Jung Yongho—do you still drink milk these days?”
At Lee Yeon’s question, the doctors’ eyes went round.
Someone even started coughing, as if they had choked.
Leaving them behind, Lee Yeon turned her steps toward the most secret room in this hospital—the one she knew well.
A small injection room next to the director’s office.
Director Jung Yongho often received sleep-inducing injections there.
Lee Yeon knew this because she herself had given him those injections before.
Rattle, rattle—
Lee Yeon roughly pulled on the injection room door.
But it was locked from the inside.
“Who is it?”
A female doctor with startled eyes cracked the door open.
Lee Yeon immediately shoved one leg into the narrow gap.
“What are you doing?”
“Director Jung Yongho is inside, right?”
Pushing the doctor aside, Lee Yeon went in.
Inside, Director Jung sat with bleary eyes, as if he had just woken up.
“Director, I’m sorry. She barged in without any warning—”
Director Jung recognized Lee Yeon’s face and ran a dry hand down his own.
“Dr. Hwang, you can leave.”
“…Pardon?”
After hesitating and looking back and forth between Lee Yeon and Director Jung, the doctor finally left the room.
Lee Yeon calmly walked over and locked the door.
“You don’t look surprised. I guess you knew I’d come?”
“I heard you got probation. I figured you’d be released right away. I just didn’t expect you to come this soon.”
“Who was the person who died? Why did I have to go to prison over someone I don’t even know?”
“Don’t ruin yourself over something that’s already in the past.”
“What more is there to ruin? I already have a red mark on my record.”
“Dr. Joo Iyeon. I hope you’re someone I can reason with.”
“Then try explaining it so I can understand.”
“Having a red mark as a doctor isn’t that big a flaw. Do you think I don’t have one?”
Lee Yeon pretended to be shocked at his words.
“You’re part of Kwonseong Group now. Soon, an offer will come—one that will be a very good opportunity for you, Dr. Joo. Don’t miss it.”
Only then did Lee Yeon recall Woojin, who had come to see her in front of the detention center.
He had already offered her the position of Kwonseong Group’s attending physician.
“You too, Director? Have you been living like Kwonseong Group’s dog, wagging your tail for whatever scraps they throw you?”
Director Jung burst out laughing.
“Looks like your time in detention made your tongue sharper. You’ll be serving the madam, so you should watch what you say.”
“Why do you think I’ll accept that job?”
“Because we’re people who don’t have the right to refuse.”
As Lee Yeon mulled over those words, Director Jung continued.
“Have you ever wondered why your medical license wasn’t revoked?”
Lee Yeon was left speechless.
She knew that doctors sentenced to prison could have their licenses revoked, so she had thought herself lucky that hers remained intact.
So that was it.
Her life had never been close to luck from the start.
There was no way luck would suddenly be on her side.
The reason her medical license had been protected—it was all due to Kwonseong Group’s power.
“If I bow my head low and do whatever the group tells me, can I become a hospital director too?”
Director Jung smiled.
“Big ambitions are better. Don’t settle for being the director of some provincial general hospital.”
Lee Yeon decided to flip her thinking.
There was a reason people said you had to enter a tiger’s den to catch a tiger.
What if she became thoroughly a Kwonseong Group person and searched for their weak points from the inside?
In any case, Lee Yeon’s goal was only one.
Even if she couldn’t shake the entire Kwonseong Group, she would steal at least one thing that mattered to them.
If that was the case, why not slowly tear apart the board they had set up however they pleased?
Only then did a smile form on Lee Yeon’s lips.
“I understand what you mean.”
“I knew you would.”
A few days later, a black sedan sent by Kwonseong Group stopped in front of the place where Lee Yeon had been staying temporarily.
The driver got out and asked, looking at the suitcase Lee Yeon was holding,
“That’s all your luggage?”
“Yes.”
A resident attending physician—Lee Yeon had never even heard of such a position.
Not knowing what to prepare, she had packed only a few clothes and daily necessities.
After driving for a long while, they arrived at a mansion on the outskirts of Seoul.
As soon as they entered the estate grounds, the gate opened automatically, and the car drove on for quite some time even after passing through.
“We’ve arrived.”
In an instant, the driver took Lee Yeon’s suitcase out of the trunk and drove away.
As she stood there, dazed, a familiar shadow fell over her.
“Welcome, Joo Iyeon.”
Lee Yeon slowly looked up at Kwon Woojin standing before her.
His face—so perfectly sculpted that the word handsome felt insufficient, as if a god had crafted it without a single mistake—suited the word beautiful more.
But his eyes, deep like a dark night, and his smile, cold as ice, were of a kind she never wanted to be entangled with.
“So this household calls its attending physician by name?”
“Ah, no. Not really.”
Kwon Woojin chuckled and spread his arms wide in an exaggerated gesture.
“Dr. Joo Iyeon, welcome to my home.”
At that moment, the wind blew, rustling the tree branches.
Lee Yeon told herself that the reason her body was trembling was probably because of that wind.
