Chapter 7 - Desk Conversions and the Path of Vengeance

The door to the private office swung inward, and Ma Ha-rin marched straight into the room. Dr. Choi Hyun-woo was seated rigidly at his large mahogany desk, his head lowered as he feigned deep absorption in reading a stack of medical case files. Despite his posture, his expression looked profoundly troubled and frantic.Ha-rin stopped directly in front of the desk, placing her hands on her hips. "Dr. Hyun! You were inside your office floor all along—so why on earth didn't you answer when I knocked on the door panel?"Hyun-woo jumped slightly, startled as he forced a look of absolute, feigned surprise onto his features. "Oh! Ma Ha-rin! What exactly are you doing here in my wing?"Internally, his heart was pounding violently against his ribs. 'Thank God I managed to hide Sun-woo completely under the desk just a microsecond before she turned the handle!' Hyun-woo thought to himself, a cold sweat breaking out across his neck. 'If she had spotted a billionaire CEO crouching under my workspace, my entire romantic plan for Kim Seo-ah would have been completely and permanently ruined!'Hyun-woo abruptly stood up from his leather chair, quickly moving around the perimeter of the desk to steer her steps completely away from the wooden workspace. As he stepped closer to Ha-rin, he subtly and gently extended his foot under the table panel, signaling to Sun-woo to stay entirely put and not make a single sound.Ha-rin adjusted her handbag, gesturing toward the hallway. "Oh, Kim Seo-ah and I came down to the hospital complex to visit Junu's ward. While we were here, we also wanted to formally ask when exactly Junu would be fully discharged from his treatment line."Hyun-woo let out a slight grimace, trying to maintain his professional medical tone. "Oh... I see. His bone alignment looks completely stable, so he should be ready for official discharge by the day after tomorrow. But before that can happen, please tell him to fill out all the necessary administrative paperwork at the front desk.""Alright, got it perfectly," Ha-rin nodded, a mischievous, highly knowing smile breaking across her glowing cheeks. She leaned forward slightly, lowering her voice. "By the way... are you perhaps feeling completely jealous, Doctor?"Hyun-woo froze, looking entirely dumbfounded as his clinical composure cracked. "What?! What exactly kind of ridiculous nonsense are you spouting right now? Why on earth would I be jealous of a patient?"Meanwhile, down under the tight mahogany desk—completely from Choi Sun-woo's perspective—the situation was an absolute disaster. The powerful billionaire CEO was tightly cramped into the small wooden space, his body experiencing sharp muscle cramps as he sweated profusely from the trapped, suffocating heat of the floor.'This chaotic girl...' Sun-woo muttered fiercely to himself inside his thoughts, biting his tongue in pure irritation. 'She is practically hell-bent on killing my physical build today! She genuinely doesn't think twice before she speaks her mind on this hospital floor!'Out in the room, Ha-rin let out a loud, joyful laugh at the doctor's flustered state. "Dr. Hyun, please don't be shy or act formal with me! Kim Seo-ah literally told me everything at the apartment—she told me that you deeply like her, and that you even blurted out an absolute proposal to her face in the corridor this morning!"Hyun-woo's face turned a violent shade of bright pink. "What?!" he stammered, completely flustered as he lost the argument. "But... how on earth did you even figure out that I was acting jealous?""Junu told me all about your strange, rigid behavior over the past two days," Ha-rin explained, waving her hand triumphantly. "The second he described your weird questions, I figured it out instantly, so I came over to see your office face-to-face."Underneath the desk table, Sun-woo rolled his intense eyes in utter, deadpan disgust. 'You absolute idiot, Hyun-woo...' Sun-woo thought, clenching his fists in the dark. 'Thanks to your absolutely terrible acting skills and obvious facial expressions, every single person in her family knows everything about your secret crush now!'Dr. Hyun-woo let out a heavy, defeated sigh, completely giving in to her interrogation as he threw his hands up. "Alright, fine... I will tell you the absolute truth about everything. But you have to mandatory promise me that you won't repeat a single word of this to Kim Seo-ah, okay?""Promise!" Ha-rin cheered, crossing her fingers with a wide grin. "I won't tell a single soul. Now, tell me quickly before she looks for me!"Hyun-woo rubbed the back of his neck, looking deeply embarrassed. "Actually... the truth is, I get incredibly jealous of Junu. Kim Seo-ah is always so deeply close to him, and she takes such beautiful, constant care of his recovery. I couldn't handle watching them together."Ha-rin stared at him for a microsecond before completely bursting into a loud, echoing round of hysterical laughter. "Hahaha! Oh my god, Dr. Hyun! Why on earth would you be romantically jealous of Junu?! He is her actual blood brother! Obviously, she is going to be incredibly close to him and look after his health!"Hyun-woo nodded along automatically, his brain completely stalled. "Exactly... wait, what?!" He stopped dead in his tracks, his dark eyes widening in total, paralyzing shock as the words hit his ears. "Junu is her... her actual biological brother?! Really?!""Yes!" Ha-rin giggled, looking at him like he was an alien. "What on earth did you think their relationship was?!"Down under the table panel, Sun-woo's internal corporate anger completely boiled over. 'I explicitly told this absolute idiot the exact same thing back at the penthouse breakfast table!' Sun-woo screamed fiercely inside his own thoughts, sweating in pure rage. 'But he wouldn't listen to a single word of my logical reasoning! See? My executive deduction was right all along. But when on earth is this girl leaving this room? It is getting dangerously hot down here on this carpet!'Dr. Hyun-woo stood completely frozen, his entire build radiating absolute embarrassment as he swallowed hard. "I... I honestly thought he was her romantic boyfriend from the village complex.""Oh!" Ha-rin gasped, a look of realization hitting her face. "So, just because of that one ridiculous misunderstanding, you were treating poor Junu like a criminal for the past two days?!""Yes... I'm incredibly sorry," Hyun-woo muttered, lowering his head in shame. "I got the entire situation completely wrong. But... I really do deeply like Kim Seo-ah. My intentions are completely pure."Seeing his sincere, deeply vulnerable expression, Ha-rin's protective stance melted into absolute delight. "Oh, you really are a genuinely good and sweet person, Doctor! Alright, my mission is complete, so I'm off back to the ward now... Brother-in-law!"Hyun-woo's head snapped up, his eyes widening to the size of saucers as a brilliant, radiant smile broke across his handsome features. "Brother-in-law?!"Ha-rin winked playfully, her eyes full of complete mischief as she turned toward the door handle. "You don't have a particular problem with that title, do you, Doctor?""Yes! I mean, no, absolutely not at all!" Hyun-woo cheered, his heart exploding with pure, unfiltered happiness. "Just... please don't say that specific word in front of Kim Seo-ah right now. I want to win her heart properly.""Yeah, got it perfectly! Bye-bye!" Ha-rin waved, stepping out of the office and shutting the heavy wooden door firmly behind her build.The very second the metallic click of the lock signaled her departure, Mr. Sun-woo rapidly crawled out from underneath the desk frame. He stood up on his feet, panting heavily for air as he aggressively loosened his designer silk tie and smoothed down his wrinkled charcoal suit jacket."Phew!" Sun-woo gasped out loud, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a deep groan. "Thank goodness that chaotic girl is finally gone from this room! I was practically suffocating to death in that enclosed heat! And as for you... 'Brother-in-law'? Seriously, Hyun-woo? You got a little too extraordinarily excited over a silly nickname!"Hyun-woo completely ignored his brother's complaints, a look of absolute, star-struck joy shining in his eyes as he smiled up at the ceiling. "She literally called me Brother-in-law, Sun-woo... that means her closest friend supports me! I don't have to be scared of a romantic rival anymore! And since Kim Do-jung is her actual brother, that technically makes him my future brother-in-law too... Wow! This is magnificent!"Sun-woo rolled his eyes, adjusting his cuffs with sharp corporate precision. "Yeah, yeah, I told you that exact family fact ages ago, but your jealous brain wouldn't believe a single word I said. Anyway, let's completely drop that romantic celebration for now; that specific issue is successfully resolved. We have much heavier matters to handle. We still mandatory have to settle the score with that gluttonous monster."The mention of the office conflict caused Hyun-woo's joyful expression to instantly vanish, his face turning perfectly serious and dark. "What? Who exactly is this 'glutton,' and what do you mean by settling the score?""He's our company's former interim branch CEO, Goo Kyung-min," Sun-woo explained, his voice dropping into an icy cold executive tone as the dark office flashback data replayed in his mind.Sun-woo rapidly detailed every single piece of information Ma Ha-rin had exposed inside his cabin—how the gluttonous former manager had hit on the young girls, and how he had acted deeply disrespectfully toward both Kim Seo-ah and Ma Ha-rin before fabricating a fake story about an ill grandmother to abandon his corporate post overnight.Hyun-woo's jaw clenched tightly, a dangerous, terrifying medical fury flaring up inside his dark eyes as he slammed his fist firmly against the desk. "WHAT?! That disgusting, mean glutton Goo Kyung-min actually had the absolute audacity to mistreat and disrespect Kim Seo-ah and Ma Ha-rin on the office floor?! He lied about his family just to take time off and run away so no one would track his antics?! What on earth does he think of our family? That he can just escape my wrath after targeting the woman I love?!""That glutton is completely toast," Sun-woo nodded coldly, his executive posture radiating absolute power. "By the way... chanced upon your shift schedule, have you come up with a stable plan to track his location down?""Yes, I absolutely have," Dr. Hyun-woo answered, his voice dropping into a razor-sharp, freezing whisper. "He really enjoys taking advantage of and mistreating innocent women, doesn't he? Well, now he is going to get a taste of something entirely and painfully different from our family. I will ensure his medical records and corporate name are blacklisted from every sector of Seoul.""True, that is a solid path," Sun-woo reasoned smoothly, grabbing his briefcase. "But where exactly would an absolute coward like him be hiding right now? By this time, he must have fled the city lines or the country entirely, hasn't he?""No, a gluttonous man like him wouldn't have the courage or the funds to completely flee the country," Hyun-woo countered with absolute certainty, his eyes burning with determination. "I will personally find his village logs and trace his exact coordinate location before midnight. I'll come down and pick you up in my car the exact second I am done with my final hospital shift; just ensure you are completely ready for the hunt.""Yes, alright," Sun-woo nodded, his expression locked into a matching state of fierce family unity. "I will be perfectly ready at the penthouse. I'll be taking my leave from the hospital campus now. See you tonight."Sun-woo turned on his heel and walked firmly out of the private office doors. Left alone inside the room, Dr. Choi Hyun-woo slowly sat back down into his leather chair, sinking deep into a state of silent, terrifying thought as he prepared the ultimate family takedown for the gluttonous monster who dared to cross their path.