Chapter 102
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 102
Chapter Title: New Building Owner
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Checking the auction results, I grinned.
"Got it!"
And once I confirmed the bids from second and third place as well, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face.
"Heh, heup...!"
So this was how it turned out?
No fewer than three other people besides me had bid on the building.
For 640 million, 650 million, and 678 million won.
Unlike the auction houses in fantasy novels where you could keep raising bids after hearing others', real estate auctions worked differently.
It was a game of chicken—you wrote down your bid all at once, and the highest bidder won.
If I'd gone with my original plan and bid 640 million, the building would have gone to the person who bid 678 million.
How regrettable that would have been if I hadn't listened to Madam Heo?
When the starting price was 800 million, it seemed like no one was interested, but everyone must have been on edge, waiting for the price to drop.
"Everyone, we're good! I'm the building owner now!"
I rushed straight to the clinic.
It was our day off, but I couldn't contain the overwhelming joy surging through me.
"Whoa, you won the bid?"
Seo In-ae asked in surprise.
"Jackpot! Congratulations!"
"Does that mean we don't have to move?"
Seol Yu-hee and Gong Nari came out from the treatment room into the waiting area, making a huge fuss.
"No moving! We're using the second and third floors for the clinic too, uwahaha!"
I high-fived with the staff celebrating with me, but I still couldn't calm my excitement.
Hwang Sang-hun was seeing patients, and there were people around, so I should have been quiet...
But it felt too good!
"Madam Heo, it's me. Han Yeowon, director of Seongsu Clinic. I followed your advice from yesterday, and I won the bid by just 3.5 million won. Thank you so much!"
I called Madam Heo and kept expressing my gratitude.
- Oh, really? You got it for a steal! Congratulations!
"It's all thanks to you, Madam Heo. Thank you truly!"
- What did I even do? You bought it with your own money!
I was thrilled, but it was a little funny too.
How nerve-wracking had it been until yesterday?
My calculations and instincts had pointed in one direction, but I didn't have 100% certainty about entering the auction or spending 40 million more than the floor price on her advice.
When I first heard the building was up for auction, anxiety had taken over, and I'd been inwardly uneasy until yesterday.
But now that I'd won it, the satisfaction of owning the building was too much to contain.
'Ha... There was a time I desperately wanted just a single officetel room.'
Thinking back to my college days when I'd scrimped and saved made my heart swell.
'Come to think of it, I never owned a building even in the murim world.'
The fact that it wasn't borrowed from someone's charity, but bought with my own money and judgment, made it all the sweeter.
In terms of square footage, all four floors combined were probably smaller than the pavilion I'd lived in at the Tang family estate, but imagining my name on the title deed made my chest tighten. It was satisfaction on a whole other level.
- As for me, as long as our director stays right there and doesn't go anywhere, that's enough!
Not just Madam Heo, but I thanked Hwang Sang-hun and Seo In-ae profusely for agonizing over it with me.
If they hadn't talked me out of it at first, I might have paid over 300 million more.
Everything had worked out, but thinking back to how I'd charged ahead with nothing but guts made me dizzy.
"Director, can I tell Mr. Song Won-jong on the second floor too?"
Then Seol Yu-hee stopped me as I stood there grinning.
Song Won-jong?
Right, there was someone else who'd been on pins and needles waiting for the auction results just like me.
He ran the restaurant on the second floor and hadn't been able to eat a proper meal out of worry over not getting his deposit back.
"Yes, go tell him right away. That he doesn't have to worry about the deposit anymore."
"I'll head down!"
Seol Yu-hee dashed downstairs.
Since the incident, he'd been coming to the clinic frequently, so the staff all knew his face well.
A moment later.
About three minutes later? Song Won-jong came up to the clinic with Seol Yu-hee, who'd gone to deliver the news.
"You bought it for 680 million? Then... I should get almost all of my deposit back, right?"
I nodded.
It was close, but he knew himself that he wouldn't lose it all now.
His face was the most relaxed I'd seen since the auction started.
"Yes. The bakery didn't get any distribution, and after auction fees and back taxes with penalties, it might fall a bit short, but if you're planning to vacate, I'll cover the difference."
A little short? I'd just pay it separately, no big deal.
"Ah, really?"
His face brightened even more at my words.
Song Won-jong looked completely relieved now, on the verge of tears for an entirely different reason.
It was common after winning an auction to spend a bit more to get tenants out.
Since both the academy and restaurant were planning to leave anyway, that was part of why I'd bought the building. I could just think of it as paying 100 or 200 million more.
"We'll move out whenever you want. Thank you, building owner!"
I scratched my head.
The title 'building owner' was embarrassing, and his excessive bowing was over the top.
I could believe he'd aged ten years in the last month from living like he was dying.
With my current sense of money after dropping 680 million cheerfully, 50 million might not seem like life-draining cash, but I'd once commuted from Incheon to Yangju by subway to earn extra tens of thousands from tutoring.
I just patted Song Won-jong's back gently.
"Heup, what a relief. Thank... ugh! Thank you."
"Oh no, about to throw up again?"
"Ack! Cough, cough!"
Was his emotional excitement too much?
Just like when stress spiked recently, Song Won-jong complained of nausea.
"No one's in the men's restroom!"
Seol Yu-hee quickly guided him there.
"Guh! Kehek! Hack!"
Song Won-jong bolted to our clinic's bathroom, but it didn't settle him.
He suffered loudly enough for the sound to echo outside.
"You okay? Did you throw up?"
Just moments ago, I'd been beaming about becoming the building owner, but as Song Won-jong emerged clutching his chest, my physician's instincts quietly surfaced.
"Sorry. I must have disturbed you with that awful noise."
"No, it's natural when you're not feeling well."
"Ugh... I feel like throwing up, but nothing came out. It's been like this lately, haha. But now that the deposit's sorted, I should be fine soon."
Song Won-jong said that while continuously thumping his chest.
Not 'I'm fine,' but 'I should be fine soon.'
And his furrowed expression alone suggested the pain was no joke.
"Does your chest feel tight?"
I asked as I led him to the treatment room.
"Ah, no. The good news lifted a huge weight off my mind."
Even as he said that, he followed me meekly.
We couldn't keep chattering at the desk, and we both agreed he needed treatment anyway.
"If it were purely psychological, it might improve that quickly... but mind and body interact. Have a seat here for a moment."
I sat at the desk to properly examine him.
Even on a day off, I couldn't just toss someone I knew with a tough situation to Hwang Sang-hun.
"Do you feel a burning pain in your chest by any chance?"
"Ah, yes. Sort of."
Song Won-jong answered, glancing at me. Why check my reaction?
"And for the past few days, it feels like something's rising from your stomach to your esophagus?"
"Yes."
"You've been coughing a bit lately, but no cold symptoms, right?"
"Yes. Probably just from the tightness. No runny nose or fever."
Combining what I'd observed so far with his current complaints...
One condition came to mind.
"You didn't vomit this time, but at first, there was a little, right?"
"...At the beginning, yeah. Anything I ate came right back up. I couldn't swallow food at all."
I knew that much.
From the first meeting with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floor tenants, he'd complained of nausea.
That day, I'd brought him straight to the clinic for acupuncture and suggested medicine if it persisted.
As expected, his condition hadn't improved much after, so he'd handed off work to part-timers for frequent sessions, but skipped the herbal medicine.
Money issues were the cause, and no treatment would help until the deposit was resolved.
It wasn't wrong—with such a clear external factor, I hadn't pushed either.
It would resolve once I won the building at a fair price.
But it seemed the repeated vomiting had triggered a secondary condition.
"From what I see, the burning in your chest and dry cough are all symptoms of reflux esophagitis. Vomiting repeatedly caused stomach acid to back up, inflaming your esophagus."
"Ah?"
Song Won-jong's eyes widened.
He agreed that mental stress had caused a physical illness, but this was beyond what he'd imagined.
"I thought it was hwa-byeong or something."
"It's not typical hwa-byeong symptoms. Emotional tension is naturally involved, but as you said, that's resolving with the root cause fixed."
People loosely call chest tightness hwa-byeong, but there are diagnostic criteria.
It was even listed as a Korean culture-bound syndrome in the DSM at one point.
For Song Won-jong now, the esophagus was the key.
"I thought reflux esophagitis was from lying down right after eating... but yeah, puking like this is probably worse."
Song Won-jong clutched his chest tightly.
"How do you treat that? With medicine?"
It depends.
If the body was too weak for poor digestion, or hwa-byeong like he mentioned, medicine was almost essential.
"It would help, of course."
Combining it with anti-inflammatories and anti-reflux meds was obviously beneficial.
But was it absolutely necessary?
"Then..."
"Pair it with anti-inflammatories for a few days. I'll control the reflux with acupuncture. Habitual vomiting has already improved, so we can expect natural recovery of the lower esophageal sphincter."
Not necessarily.
I could reverse the habitual reflux flow with acupuncture alone.
Treatment for reflux esophagitis has two goals.
Heal the esophageal lining damaged by backed-up acid so far.
And normalize digestive function to prevent further reflux.
If he just trusted and followed along, success was guaranteed.