Nothing to Lose
“Ugh!! Sitting around like this all day is pure torture. Maybe I should get some fresh air.”
I stretched once, closed the stock app, and switched off my phone screen.
There was no need to keep staring at the stocks I’d already bought in real time. What could be more inefficient than that? Watching them didn’t make the prices rise.
Checking once in a while was enough.
And the most important thing was the faith I had in those stocks. That was what made it possible.
Anxiety? Restlessness?
I didn’t have emotions like that.
I didn’t know where the confidence came from, but my instincts were telling me so.
“Haha… Am I crazy?”
I shook my head once and stepped out of the hospital room on my crutches.
My walking was completely unhindered.
In truth, I didn’t need the crutches or the cast at all. The bones had knit in three days, there was no pain, and moving caused me zero trouble.
The doctor had been shocked by my recovery speed, yet still refused to let me take the cast off. No matter how fast I’d healed, removing a cast after only three days was something he simply could not accept as a physician.
I headed for the terrace set aside exclusively for the VIP ward.
As I walked down the corridor, though, I could faintly feel the nurses’ gazes on me. What was that feeling? Somewhere between curiosity and interest, maybe?
They whispered among themselves and smiled shyly.
It was baffling. I’d almost never drawn women’s eyes before, so I couldn’t understand the reason—and it only made me uncomfortable.
Before long I passed through the automatic doors and stepped outside. A refreshing scent of grass washed over me at once.
The wide outdoor terrace was planted with countless greenery, giving it a genuine sense of being out in nature. Even though it was October, the plants were growing lush and green.
A special space reserved for VIPs, I supposed.
I did a few light stretches as I walked farther in, then admired the plants while drawing deep lungfuls of clean air.
That was when it happened.
“Hey, you fucking bitch! Can’t a young girl like you understand plain Korean? What, are you a newbie? This dumb bitch can’t even do one simple thing she’s told.”
I turned my head. Deeper inside, someone sat in a wheelchair, and in front of him a young-looking nurse stood with both hands neatly clasped, head bowed low.
A quick glance showed the patient in the wheelchair was younger than expected too—late twenties, maybe?
His mouth is filthy as hell. What the hell did the nurse even do wrong?
I frowned and watched the scene unfold. I’d come out to heal, and now my mood was just ruined.
“I asked you to massage my legs because I’m in pain and can’t move, and you can’t even do that right. Do it again.”
“Yes…”
The nurse looked ready to burst into tears at any second; her hands were trembling faintly. In the end she sat beside him and began massaging his leg. But that wasn’t the end of it.
“Higher. Higher. Higher.”
The man wore a sly smile as he ordered her hands up onto his thigh.
This crazy bastard.
I turned on the recording function on my phone.
“I said massage higher!”
He grabbed her hand and tried to force it upward.
I was faster.
“Kyaa!”
I seized the nurse’s arm and pulled her to her feet.
“That’s enough. Nurses aren’t masseuses. And massage your own damn legs.”
I put her behind me and spoke.
“What the hell are you?! Are you crazy?”
The man in the wheelchair flushed crimson and bellowed, veins standing out on his face.
“If I were crazy, I’d be in a psych ward.”
I answered calmly.
“Crazy bastard. Do you know who I am?”
“Who? A crazy bastard.”
I’d never seen a single decent person who led with their power when introducing themselves. The weaker the mental fortitude, the more they did it.
“Wh-what?”
When I shot back without flinching, he was the one who looked flustered and lost his words for a moment. Only for a moment, though. He jabbed a finger at me and barked again, sharp as ever.
“You wanna die? The president of Gasan Construction is my grandfather! Me! I’m ordering my assigned nurse—why the hell are you butting in? Wanna die?”
Gasan? If it was Gasan, that was the construction firm that frequently contracted with our LK Group.
“Whoever your grandfather is. So what? Complete trash personality. Does being a chaebol mean you get to sexually harass nurses? What kind of logic is that? Bastards like you need to be publicly humiliated.”
“What? Sexual harassment?? You bastard, how dare you insult me?”
He huffed and puffed, rummaging in his pocket for his phone. But he’d clearly left it in his room; panic was written all over his face.
I let out a short sigh. How the hell did people like this end up as third-generation chaebols? I was genuinely worried about the future of the country’s economy.
Then the nurse standing behind me carefully took my arm and whispered.
“Um… please just go. It’s not good to get involved.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not scared at all.”
I smiled as I reassured her.
I was a man with nothing left to lose, after all.
But she didn’t know that, and worry still filled her face.
Meanwhile the man kept jabbing his finger and raising hell.
“I’m going to my room right now to call my grandfather! Got it? Don’t you move from here! You’ll regret this, you son of a bitch. You don’t know who you’re messing with? You’ll find out soon.”
“Sure, looking forward to it. But first, you should apologize.”
“What?”
When I took one step forward, he flinched and leaned back. The bluster never left him, though.
“Y-you, what are you doing! A-are you trying to use violence on a patient?!”
“I don’t use violence on hopeless cases.”
I laughed lightly, moved behind the wheelchair, unlocked the brakes, and headed into the hospital.
“Hey, you bastard! Where are you taking me!?”
When he yelled again, I pulled out my phone, showed it to him, and whispered right by his ear.
“Everything you just said is recorded right here. Forcing physical contact on the nurse, the verbal abuse—all of it. No matter how great you think you are, you really believe this just slides in this day and age? They’ll dig in even harder.”
I played a short clip of the recording. The man’s face went pure white.
“Th-this is a misunderstanding! I didn’t mean it that way! The nurse just didn’t check my condition properly so I got a bit angry!”
“What kind of lame excuse is that? Massaging your thigh is checking your condition?”
I scoffed and continued.
“What you just did is clearly a crime. If you keep this up, I’ll formally raise the issue with the hospital, and if necessary I’ll report it to the police.”
I entered the hospital and stopped in front of the VIP ward lounge.
Plenty of people were chatting and resting there, and nurses and doctors came and went constantly.
“Excuse me for a moment!”
When I raised my voice, every gaze locked onto me.
With types like him, private confrontation never worked as well as public humiliation in an open space.
“The gentleman sitting in this wheelchair ordered a nurse to massage his thigh. Are nurses supposed to do that kind of work? I don’t quite understand, so I’m asking all of you. Is this right?”
At my words people frowned and began whispering to one another.
The man’s face flushed scarlet. He bit his lip, then finally snapped in a sharp voice.
“Fuck this! Really. Shit… Just you wait! You’ll regret messing with Gasan Construction! Especially you and you! Even if you beg later it won’t matter. You bug-like bastards!”
He huffed and wheeled himself back toward his room.
I watched his retreating back, then turned to the nurse.
“It’s okay now. If that bastard bothers you again, tell me. I’ll thoroughly educate him.”
When I spoke to reassure her, she nodded while holding back tears.
“Yes… Thank you so much. If I’d been alone I couldn’t have done anything.”
I let out a short sigh, comforted the crying nurse, and headed back to my room.
Annoying trouble might come of this, but I wasn’t scared in the slightest.
At most it was a year.
Before I died, I was going to thoroughly screw over bastards like that.
Kang Bitna left the company early and headed straight for Seoul LK Hospital.
Deputy General Manager Jeon Yonggi had told her that in exchange for leaving early she should stop by the hospital and bring Noh Hoojin a vitamin drink.
She’d said she didn’t want to, but Jeon Yonggi had sent her anyway, no room for argument.
The reason he’d sent a rookie rather than anyone else was simple: she had the freest schedule. The other employees were drowning in work trying to cover Noh Hoojin’s empty seat.
Manager Park Heegon in particular had been cursing nonstop all day—cursing Assistant Manager Noh Hoojin, of course.
Seeing that mess, she almost felt glad of the errand… yet the moment she actually had to face Noh Hoojin, shame still welled up whether she liked it or not.
Wait a second.
Was this even shame? Embarrassment? Or… excitement? No, why would I—
She tilted her head as she stepped into the VIP ward.
If she thought about it calmly, she wasn’t that type of person. She had always been confident, the kind of woman who boldly pushed through any difficulty that arose.
Putting on a thick face was her specialty; living exactly as she pleased was her hobby. She was the sort of unpredictable person no one could ever pin down.
That was when it happened.
“Excuse me for a moment!”
Huh?
A familiar voice reached her ears.
She quickened her steps, rounded the corner into the VIP lounge beside the lobby, and saw Noh Hoojin speaking loudly toward a man in a wheelchair.
“…massage his thigh… I’m asking all of you. Is this right?”
A crowd of people was watching. The man in the wheelchair turned bright red. Then he suddenly jabbed a finger at Noh Hoojin, shouted something, and vanished at high speed.
Noh Hoojin soothed the nurse and then disappeared almost as if fleeing; the people who had been clapping for him went back to whatever they’d been doing.
Kang Bitna stroked her chin with an expression of pure disbelief.
“Hmm… He’s even more reckless than I am. I can’t make sense of what’s going on in that head. Sometimes he looks completely ordinary, and other times he shows this fiery side that can’t stand injustice… By the way, did he say Gasan Construction?”
She walked over to the desk in the VIP lobby and asked the nurses about the man in the wheelchair.
Every one of them made a disgusted face and began recounting his shameless behavior one after another.
His name was Kim Wonho—third-generation chaebol of Gasan Construction, and he made a habit of every ugly deed imaginable.
From what the nurses said, he was pure trash among trash.
Well, if Assistant Manager Noh had stepped in like that, there had to be a reason.
Without realizing it, Kang Bitna clenched both fists tight.
Then she pulled out her phone and immediately dialed someone.
“Oh! Who’s this! Our pretty Bitna…”
“Uncle.”
She cut off the affectionate voice in a single stroke.
“Yeah, yeah! Speak, speak. What’s up?”
“Uncle, do you know if there’s a Kim Wonho from Gasan Construction in the hospital VIP ward?”
Kang Bitna.
Just how far did her network reach?