The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

“Oh! Yeowon, it’s been so long! It’s so hard to see you after graduation! How have you been?”

“I’ve been well. Are you managing okay at the hospital now?”

“Yeah. It’s definitely more bearable now that I’m in my second year of residency. I guess the intern year was the toughest.”

Hwang Seo-young’s face looked better each time we met, clearly in a better situation than during her internship or first year of residency.

“If Sang-hoon had stuck it out at the hospital, he might be doing alright by now. I wonder if I snatched away a valuable person unnecessarily.”

“No, no, no! What are you saying? He’s over there absolutely drowning in happiness!”

“Drowning in happiness… I’m always grateful and sorry for working him so hard.”

“Oh, come on! He says he’s thrilled every time we talk! Once I get my specialist certification, hire me at your clinic too!”

The line of people asking for jobs just keeps growing.

Should I make Ah-reum the Deputy Director next year, and Seo-young the year after when she gets her specialist certification?

But you know what? Hwang Sang-hoon has no intention of giving up his room, so there’s no space.

“We should meet Professor Shin first, right?”

We arrived at the school quickly while chatting in Seo-young’s car. She had become quite adept at driving now.

Today, we were scheduled to meet four professors at Korea University.

Our academic advisors, Professor Lee Min-seok, and the homeroom professor from our first year of medical school who had looked after our class in many ways.

Since we had planned to have meals with our advisors, we met Professor Shin first.

“Ho ho, I always knew this student would succeed. Keep up the good work.”

“It’s all thanks to you, Professor, for introducing me to great seniors and writing my recommendation letter for China. It’s nothing compared to your kindness, but I prepared a small token of appreciation.”

“Ho ho ho, you shouldn’t have!”

I gave Professor Shin a bottle of whiskey and flowers, and received some words of encouragement.

Since my advisor was still in class, we got drinks from the vending machine in the lounge.

“Dr. Han Yeowon? Dr. Hwang Seo-young?”

Just then, we ran into Professor Lee Min-seok.

We had arranged to meet him in the afternoon, and I was planning to visit him after lunch anyway.

“You’re early? Have you eaten?”

“We have lunch plans with Professor Ahn Min and Professor Park Su-young.”

“Ah, you should have told me. I’ll join you.”

“…?”

What’s this?

I deliberately avoided him thinking he might feel uncomfortable with the older professors.

‘Is he more of a social butterfly than he looks?’

A little later, we ended up having lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant with three professors and two graduates.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the restaurant gladly increased our reservation from four to five people.

Clatter clatter clatter.

Professor Lee Min-seok, the youngest among all the professors, quickly set out the utensils.

Professor Ahn Min, Seo-young’s advisor, is the head of the Department of Herbal Medicine and Prescriptions and also serves as the dean of the College of Korean Medicine.

My advisor, Professor Park Su-young, specializes in obesity and internal medicine and is also the director of Korea University’s affiliated Korean Medicine Hospital.

Both were senior professors and held considerable power in the school.

“Thank you for accommodating me despite the sudden request.”

“Haha, it’s nothing! Having a young friend like Professor Lee here livens up the atmosphere!”

Nevertheless, Professor Lee Min-seok showed no signs of discomfort. Rather, he effortlessly spouted flattering remarks.

He doesn’t look the type at all, but is this how he became a professor at such a young age?

“Dr. Han Yeowon must be incredibly busy with her business now, right? Ho ho ho, why did you come to see old fogies like us in the back room?”

I was dumbfounded by Professor Park Su-young’s words.

There’s a limit to modesty. What do you mean ‘old fogies in the back room’ when you’re the hospital director with more than ten years left before retirement?

“The more patients I see, the more I realize how amazing you professors are. I’m always grateful!”

Seo-young said.

“Thanks to you, Professor Park, I have no worries about digestive patients!”

I also appropriately praised the professors.

“Haha, what did I tell you? If you can treat digestive diseases well, you’ll never go hungry!”

We exchanged pleasantries and caught up, just as we had with Professor Shin.

Actually, it had been over 20 years since I had an advisor meeting, so I couldn’t quite remember how to interact, but I was able to chime in without difficulty by observing Seo-young.

“By the way, how is Professor Kim Chun-sik doing?”

As we talked, Professor Lee Min-seok brought up Kim Chun-sik.

“Ah, right. I heard Professor Kim is working with your network?”

Professors Ahn Min and Park Su-young seemed to know him as well.

“Yes. It’s an honor to have such an excellent person join us, thanks to Professor Lee Min-seok.”

“No need for modesty. He treated us to a big meal last time, saying his income increased tenfold after meeting Dr. Han Yeowon.”

“Oh, did he?”

“I heard from Professor Kim that you’re also preparing to operate an external decoction room. Is that true?”

Moreover, Professor Lee Min-seok even brought up the purpose of my attendance at this gathering.

“Yes. It’s a bit overwhelming to continue with in-house decoction, but I’m reluctant to entrust it to another company.”

“I can understand that. You’d think they’d do a good job, but you’d still worry. I heard there was once an incident where the wrong Cynanchum wilfordii root was delivered to the hospital?”

“Really?! How do you check the quality of medicinal herbs at the university hospital?”

“Professor Ahn here checks once, and then the working pharmacists check again. It’s only happened once in our hospital’s history. Professor Ahn caught it before it reached the patients.”

This worry about such incidents is exactly why I want to have a decoction room right in front of me.

I’ve heard that decades ago, patients would even decoct herbs at home when given packages, but nowadays, hardly any households in modern South Korea have home decoction machines.

Practically, decoction methods are divided into in-house and external decoction. In-house is what I’m doing now, decocting directly in the clinic.

External decoction is overwhelmingly convenient. You just enter the prescription on the external decoction room’s website, and they decoct the medicine and deliver it directly to the patient’s home.

Of course, it costs a bit more than in-house decoction, but considering the management costs of a decoction room and herbs, it’s not that expensive.

However, I’ve been insisting on doing the decoction myself because I’m unnecessarily worried about not being able to personally oversee every step from the condition of the raw herbs to the finished medicine.

…Although the possibility of problems occurring in modern South Korea is very low, you could say it’s trauma from seeing so many scammers in the martial arts world.

“Sigh, I’d like to oversee it myself if possible. But there’s simply not enough time to check not only mine but also the other branches. I was actually going to ask if you knew any experts in this field.”

Thanks to Professor Lee Min-seok bringing up the topic, I was able to naturally state my business.

At the mention of an ‘expert,’ Professor Ahn Min immediately understood why this meeting had been arranged.

“Oh ho, so that’s why you went out of your way to invite me and treat us to a meal?”

“It’s not just that! You know how much I’ve always respected you, Professor Ahn.”

“Hmm.”

Professor Ahn Min smirked.

Although it was killing two birds with one stone, that was indeed one of the main purposes.

“Professor Ahn, don’t you have anyone suitable in your lab?”

Professor Park Su-young asked casually, but Professor Ahn Min frowned.

“Well. These days, most of the students come for degree laundering… To fully entrust such a task, wouldn’t they need to be a Korean medicine doctor or pharmacist?”

“Yes. They need to be licensed and have the ability to actually manage quality control and decoction.”

I nodded. They need to be able to distinguish all medicinal herbs before and after processing, as well as differentiate between high and low quality.

“It’s not easy. Most people in our lab are verifying the effects of specific herbs or herbal medicines through animal experiments. There’s no one who’s truly mastered medicinal herbs themselves.”

“Is it that difficult?”

“These days, students have no occasion to see unprocessed medicinal herbs after graduation. Dr. Hwang Seo-young, could you distinguish between Sinomenium acutum, Stephania tetrandra, and Aristolochia fangchi?”

“What? Oh, no.”

Seo-young, who had been quietly listening, was greatly flustered when suddenly called upon.

I’m sorry, my friend.

But then.

“Isn’t Sinomenium acutum much darker in color? Aristolochia fangchi has a fan-shaped pattern. Of course, Aristolochia fangchi is toxic, so relying on that alone could be dangerous. And anyway, aren’t all three prohibited in Korea, with only Sinomenium acutum allowed for use?”

Isn’t this basic knowledge?

It’s not like they’re asking to distinguish decocted herbal medicines; you can see the difference just by looking at them, can’t you?

Especially among similar species of Fangji, Aristolochia fangchi needs to be very carefully considered due to its nephrotoxicity.

“…How does a doctor who knows this so well only fail the herbal medicine exam?”

“Pardon?”

It took me a while to understand what Professor Ahn Min was talking about.

Then I barely recalled. In the second semester of my fourth year, I completely failed the herbal medicine exam right after the semester started.

“Ah, haha. I’m not good with scientific names. So that’s how it turned out…”

He still remembers the grades of a student who graduated over two years ago…?

I did graduate at the top of my class but failed only that exam, so he must have had quite a lot piled up.

“Anyway, Dr. Hwang is the same, and these days Korean medicine doctors never see medicinal herbs once they finish their herbal medicine exam. They either entrust it to external decoction rooms, or if they do it in-house, they trust the quality to the herb merchants. Decoction is left to the employees.”

“Is that so…”

“Well, practitioners who have been Korean medicine doctors since the days of giving out herb packages would be older private practitioners, and it wouldn’t be easy to scout them.”

“I suppose so.”

“Ho ho, if I were about to retire like Professor Kim Chun-sik, I would have raised my hand.”

No, I’ll pass on that.

Even though Kim Chun-sik is a former professor, I could let it slide since I never actually took his classes, but how could I hire someone who was, even briefly, in a teacher-student relationship with me as an employee?

It would be too uncomfortable, absolutely not.

“It might be better to look among herbal pharmacists for this job. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of much help.”

I nodded.

“Do you have any connections in that area?”

“I do give lectures at the College of Herbal Pharmacy, but don’t expect too much.”

I was grateful just for his willingness to look into it.

Professors Park Su-young and Lee Min-seok also promised to introduce suitable people if they came across any in their networks.

“Thank you. I’m not in a hurry anyway. I don’t even have space for an external decoction room yet.”

Now that I’ve put the word out, I’ll meet someone if it’s meant to be.

If no connection is made, I’ll have to put out an official announcement or handle it myself.

“By the way, don’t you need a Deputy Director, apart from a herbal pharmacist?”

Sensing that the main topic was more or less concluded, Professor Lee Min-seok changed the subject.

“Do you have someone to recommend as a Deputy Director?”

“No way! I’m going to go there once I get my specialist certification!”

“Dr. Hwang, aren’t you only in your second year? There will be a vacancy next year, right?”

Why don’t you all just decide everything among yourselves?

“Next year, junior Lee Ah-reum wants to join. Though there’s no position available anyway.”

“Ah! That’s the student I was going to recommend too. She’s excellent. So she even spoke to you directly.”

“Yes. What on earth have you been telling the students about me?!”

“I’ve only told them the truth and encouraged them to learn from you.”

I tried to confront Lee Min-seok about it, but it didn’t make a dent.

He instead started explaining the advantages of hiring Lee Ah-reum as a Deputy Director.

She’s smart, and when you teach her one thing, she understands ten… That’s enough, thank you.

“Anyway, Sang-hoon-oppa says he’s going to stay. Even if we wanted to hire one more person, there’s no consultation room available.”

“I heard you see over 100 patients a day? Why don’t you expand?”

Where did you hear that from? Director Kim Chun-sik?

“That’s only during the busiest times. And you need space to expand, don’t you? We’re not in a big building; we’re already using the entire floor.”

I shook my head.

If it were possible to expand infinitely like a game map, I’d like to add more consultation rooms, insert more Korean medicine doctor units, and increase the number of beds by about 10.

But aside from rent and labor costs, there really was no space.

Having determined the location solely based on feng shui without even considering transportation convenience, how could I have thought about expandability?

◆◇◆◇◆

Time flew by as we chatted about various things.

After I smoothly paid for the traditional Korean meal, Professor Park Su-young, the eldest, bought coffee.

Everyone was very interested in my business, so we continued our conversation until quite late.

Professor Lee Min-seok was perking up his ears too much… I wonder what stories Lee Ah-reum will hear next.

Just like when I stopped by Seoul before, I arrived in Busan on the first flight of the morning.

As always, seeing patients busily was no different from usual.

Then suddenly, I remembered what Professor Lee Min-seok had said.

Expansion, if only I could do it. I wished the waiting room was about twice as large.

So I dug out the building owner’s contact information from the lease agreement.

I had never met them in person since a real estate agent had handled the contract.

I sent a brief message introducing myself along with my request.

[Are there any tenants in other floors of the same building who are leaving soon? If any space becomes available in the future, I’d like to lease it.]

But there was no reply.

The same was true the next day, and the day after that.

‘…Am I being ignored?’

What’s going on? If there’s nothing available, they could just say so, couldn’t they?

Something felt off.

A week later.

Documents arrived from the court.

It was a notice to interested parties about an upcoming auction, asking to fill out dividend claim application forms and such.

“…What is this about?”

So, the building is going up for auction?!

Did the building owner go bankrupt or something?