Trauma Center : Golden Hour - Chapter 98

There’s a saying, ‘major idiot.’

It refers to someone who knows only their specialty and nothing else.

Most doctors fall into that category.

Of course, some have special hobbies and get deeply into them, but that’s not so common.

Unfortunately, the three doctors currently staring at the screen spent so much time tied to the hospital that they never had time for such hobbies.

In fact, they hardly even knew which site this SNS was.

“Hmm.”

Naturally, everyone’s eyes turned to the staff member who had been fiddling with the computer the whole time.

The staff member shrugged under the pressure of their stares.

“Uh… I’m not really sure either…”

“Aren’t you a computer expert? And you don’t know?”

Director Choi Jo-eun asked, looking truly clueless about computers.

The staff member thought, ‘If this old man weren’t the director, I’d give him a good smack.’

He was suddenly reminded of all the times in college when people asked him to build their computers.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Oh, nothing. I just have dry eyes.”

“Hmm… Anyway, you don’t know?”

“Well… how would I know what Professor Baek did…”

“In the movies, you just pound on the keyboard and you know, right?”

By that logic, in movies, just wiggling your fingers can save a person.

The staff member barely swallowed those words.

He could only put up with it because his job was on the line.

“That’s just movies…”

“Hmm. So you don’t know?”

The tone made it sound like he was incompetent.

For the staff member, it was a pretty depressing situation.

But what could he do?

The other person was the director, and he was just an employee.

He could only bow and scrape.

“Yes, yes.”

“Fine. I’ll look into it myself.”

“Yes, Director. I’ll check, too.”

“Good, good.”

The director left the room, flanked by Hong Jae-hoon and Jin Tae-rim.

He was used to working with Hong Jae-hoon, a fellow director.

But it was always awkward being with Jin Tae-rim.

Director Choi Jo-eun was only a director now—he used to be in general surgery.

Back then, ‘Anesthesiology’s Jin Tae-rim’ had quite the reputation, and they’d raised their voices more than a few times.

‘So we’re united as the anti-Baek Kang-hyuk coalition.’

At first, he’d been annoyed when Professor Hong Jae-hoon brought in Jin Tae-rim as a substitute for Han Yoo-rim.

No matter what, Han Yoo-rim was a direct junior from general surgery.

But after hearing from the board’s side, his thinking changed.

‘They say the board doesn’t like having two general surgery directors in a row.’

It was out of concern for the consolidation of power in general surgery.

If that’s what the higher-ups wanted, those below had to go along.

Besides, anesthesiology was almost the largest department in the hospital, excluding internal medicine.

It was reassuring to have the head of that department supporting the director.

Thinking about it differently, there were only advantages.

“But, you know…”

Professor Jin Tae-rim looked directly at Choi Jo-eun.

“Yes, Director Jin?”

“That… Baek Kang-hyuk. What exactly does that guy do?”

“He’s out of his mind. Isn’t that why we’re having this strategy meeting?”

Director Choi naturally handed out coffee as the three of them went into the director’s office.

It was routine for the real power players to have their own meetings, so nothing seemed strange about it.

But Jin Tae-rim’s response was a little different from what he expected.

“No, I mean it. I’m really curious what he actually does.”

“What do you mean…?”

“Look at today. He hacks a computer out of nowhere… then posts from the official account. He’s not normal.”

“Ah. Well, that’s true.”

Director Choi nodded, recalling the résumé Kang-hyuk had sent.

It looked perfectly ordinary.

Maybe the only difference was that he was unusually good-looking.

If you had to pick one more thing, it was that he was affiliated with [Doctors Without Borders] ( T/N: An international humanitarian medical organization ).

Choi had never heard of a Doctors Without Borders member who was so out of control.

“Should we check his background?”

Professor Hong Jae-hoon took a sip of the hot coffee.

If nothing else, Director Choi’s taste in coffee was excellent. It was Hong Jae-hoon’s only consolation today.

“Background check? This isn’t a detective agency. And that guy… he came in on the Minister’s recommendation. What could you possibly find? They must have already checked everything.”

Director Choi thought of his senior from the medical society, Choi Pil-du, now the Minister of Health and Welfare.

Even as he said this, he knew something was fishy.

It was suspicious, the way Kang-hyuk had been placed here.

‘Don’t tell me… was he sent here just to ruin the hospital’s finances? Make me take responsibility, resign, and then take my job?’

It was a ridiculous thought, but it kept popping up.

While he was lost in his imagination, Hong Jae-hoon and Jin Tae-rim continued their conversation.

“Still, it’s weird. I heard he’s got a tattoo on his forearm. Do you know how much trouble our department has because of him…”

“I heard about that, too. And they say he doesn’t even have a house? He just sleeps at the hospital…”

“He has no house? Isn’t that weird? Where does his salary go?”

Th𝗂𝘴 𝖼h𝕒pţℯr 𝒾𝙨 p𝙤𝗌𝙩ℯⅾ b𝘺 𝘬𝙞ƚꬲ𝐧𝑜𝕧𝘦𝓁

“I don’t know. Maybe he didn’t save any money since he was with a volunteer group…”

“Whatever the case, he’s strange. He’s definitely not normal.”

“Should we check him out after all?”

They both decided, on their own, that they should look into his background.

Director Choi, suspicious of Minister Choi Pil-du, thought it might be a good idea too.

“Then… would you mind looking into it quietly?”

In the end, Director Choi sided with Professor Hong Jae-hoon’s suggestion.

It was only natural since Kang-hyuk seemed so suspicious.

While the three were plotting in the lavish director’s office, Kang-hyuk was entering his shabby on-call room.

“Whew.”

The moment he opened the door, a musty smell hit his nose.

“Oh, Professor, you’re here.”

As expected, Jaewon, worn down by life, greeted him.

Kang-hyuk shook his head, convinced Jaewon was the source of the smell.

“Take a shower, will you?”

“I’d rather sleep than shower if I have time. Haha.”

Jaewon had lost all the neatness he had when he first showed up in front of Kang-hyuk.

Now, he just ate and slept whenever he could—he was a real Slave.

At least he still brushed his teeth.

He said it was because it wouldn’t do for a doctor explaining things to patients to have bad breath.

‘Crazy bastard. If you’re brushing your teeth, just wash everything else too.’

You could shower and brush your teeth at the same time.

If you do general surgery residency, your shower time gets shorter and shorter, until you can do everything in three minutes.

“Ah, but…”

Jaewon spoke up, watching Kang-hyuk cover his nose.

“What, you punk.”

“I saw that post on the official account. I don’t usually follow it, but a friend from another hospital sent me the link.”

“Oh… that. What are people saying?”

“Was it really posted by the hospital? Our department is usually hated here, but this is nothing but praise…”

Jaewon still had the SNS post open, but he looked like he could hardly believe it.

It wasn’t just about keeping Trauma Surgery around—it was talking about giving them special treatment.

The reaction was so positive, he wondered if that was the goal.

But for something like this, the loss to the hospital was just too big for a little bit of attention.

“I posted it. Are you crazy? Would they do that?”

“Oh, I knew it—wait, what?”

Jaewon nodded like he’d expected it, then turned to look at Kang-hyuk.

His expression was like, ‘Is this guy nuts?’

“What, you idiot. I told you I posted it.”

If anyone else said this, you’d just assume they were lying.

But this was Baek Kang-hyuk.

He was the kind of person who’d really do something like this.

And surprisingly, he didn’t lie very often.

“Wait… how did you post it? Did you hack it? That’s a foreign site—it’s got crazy security…”

“Why would I bother hacking it? You know how many people in the hospital have the official account’s ID and password?”

“So did you hack an individual?”

“How would I do that?”

“Uh… then how…?”

If it wasn’t hacking, how could you post from the official account?

For someone as ordinary and normal as Jaewon, it was hard to understand.

But with just a little different perspective, it was easy.

“I just went into the PR office and used their computer.”

“Huh? You could get in there? Didn’t you have to beat someone up to get through?”

“You bastard. Jeez.”

Kang-hyuk almost put Jaewon in a headlock but stopped himself when he saw Jaewon’s messy hair.

It wasn’t like this guy used hair wax for style.

“Just take a shower!”

“Okay, okay. But let me hear the rest first. How’d you get in?”

“You could go in, too. You just never tried.”

“What?”

“You didn’t know? A doctor’s coat is like a free pass in this hospital.”

Kang-hyuk tapped his own crisp white coat.

Compared to Jaewon’s, which was stained yellow, it still looked almost new.

So it somehow looked even more expensive and authoritative.

“Oh…”

“Think about it. Who’s going to stop a doctor anywhere in the hospital?”

“Yeah… now that you mention it…”

“I just walked in, looked at the computers, and sure enough, there was a Post-it with the ID and password stuck on it.”

“That’s so sloppy…”

“There’s no real security in the hospital. It’s a mess.”

The only information that had to be protected was research and patient info.

The PR team was a security blind spot.

“So… does that mean the staffing increase mentioned here is a lie?”

Jaewon looked disappointed as he tapped the screen.

He must have been really hoping for it.

“No, it’s not a lie anymore.”

Kang-hyuk smiled slyly at him—a smile that looked both wicked and trustworthy.

“Huh… why?”

“It’s not just on the official account anymore—every media outlet has picked it up. Do you think they can take it back now, when there’s this much public support?”

“Oh…”

“And in the meeting, nobody objected when I brought up the staffing increase.”

Well, to be exact, they didn’t even discuss it.

Kang-hyuk might not lie, but he knew how to hide the truth or exaggerate.

“Oh… then!”

“Yeah. There’s going to be more staff. Maybe your pathetic state will improve, too.”