Chapter 3
When Gain had gone through this interview before, they had definitely praised her for being hardworking.
The old memory slowly surfaced.
"Professor."
Just as Im Gain was about to speak, Professor Oh Seongmin cut her off.
"Dr. Gain, you know I don't actually need to tell you this, right? I'm only saying it for your benefit. This isn't just an issue with our hospital. It's a realistic judgment."
He paused.
He lowered his gaze slightly and put on the face of a kindly older adult giving sincere advice.
"You know your competitor, Taehun, right? His grades might be a little lower than yours, but he gets along well with other people. Social skills are important too. Doctors deal with patients, after all."
He rambled as if his discrimination and prejudice were some grand tradition supported by flawless logic.
There was no need to wonder why they liked Kang Taehun.
Their logic was obvious.
If someone eventually became a professor, it should be a graduate of the main campus so the hospital's reputation would remain strong.
And when attending academic conferences, senior graduates could support people from the same school network.
They meant that Kang Taehun.
The man who barely worked, was terrible at his job, but bowed deeply whenever anyone important appeared and was excellent at pouring drinks for his seniors.
"Besides..."
Professor Oh Seongmin continued.
"I believe graduates from regional universities tend to lack clinical ability. There's a gap between them and doctors trained at the main campus. That's simply reality."
Kang Juhan remained silent the entire time.
He merely tapped one finger very slowly against the table.
It was his way of agreeing.
Oh Seongmin carried the gun and fired the shots.
Kang Juhan stood behind him and quietly gave those words authority.
The two worked as a pair.
Ha.
Im Gain's expression didn't change.
Memories of hearing this conversation before gradually returned.
Back then, even after ranking first, she'd been pushed aside because of her educational background.
She had felt miserable.
It had hurt so much that she'd wanted to die.
"Well, it looks like you've had some work done on your face."
"...?"
This was something she'd never heard before.
"We don't choose fellows based on appearance at this hospital."
Gain raised an eyebrow.
It was so ridiculous that she almost laughed.
Paper tigers.
They should try facing the majestic Emperor charging toward them with an entire cavalry force.
Compared to that, these old men hiding behind the thin paper shield of their academic background despite lacking real ability weren't frightening at all.
They looked pathetic.
Fragile, even.
"Professor, for four years, I covered every night shift Taehun abandoned and spent countless nights in the delivery room."
The professors claimed ability was what mattered most, yet they placed enormous importance on educational background and gender.
In the end, they always gave the best positions to a male main-campus graduate even when his grades were worse.
Then they justified their discrimination by talking about "the quality of patients" and other excuses.
But Im Gain had lived in another world.
A world where the family you were born into could determine everything.
Yet she'd also seen people prove their value through ability alone.
A mercenary born a commoner becoming commander of the knights.
A merchant becoming a duke.
Compared to that world, the culture inside Hanguk University felt even more backward.
It was both funny and sad.
"I've never been careless with a single stitch. Every patient I operated on and sent upstairs was discharged in good condition."
Gain looked directly at them.
"What is a hospital supposed to do?"
Her voice was low.
But every word was perfectly clear.
"Isn't our job to save patients? I'm extremely good at that."
"Dr. Im, how dare you..."
Gain lightly smiled and interrupted Oh Seongmin.
"I am a skilled and capable doctor."
Kang Juhan looked at Gain.
For the first time, he truly looked at her.
There was no visible anger or confusion in his eyes.
Only coldness.
"Losing me would be a real waste. For Hanguk University Hospital, I mean."
Professor Kang seemed to have already placed Gain's name on some kind of blacklist.
His gaze said that if he ever had the chance, he was prepared to block her future career.
Oh Seongmin sneered.
"You think that just because you call yourself talented, we're going to hire you as a fellow?"
There was no reason to deal with these people any longer.
Gain stood up and walked toward the conference room door.
"Dr. Im! How dare you!"
Gain simply walked out.
"Dr. Gain... Something about her has changed."
Kang Juhan muttered, but Im Gain didn't hear him.
"Professor, may I send in the next applicant?"
"Yes."
After the staff member left, Oh Seongmin spoke.
"Strange. She couldn't have suddenly become that beautiful while working here."
She had always been fairly attractive.
But lately, she seemed like a completely different person.
Beautiful enough to be a celebrity.
"Maybe keeping her wouldn't have been so bad."
At Professor Oh's comment, Kang Juhan shook his head.
"Attitude matters more than appearance."
Gain never looked back.
The hallway smelled of disinfectant.
It wasn't an unfamiliar smell.
Even during thirty years on the battlefield, she'd often missed this scent.
Gain smiled and opened her hand.
The steel IV pole that should have appeared in her palm was no longer there.
It was simply an empty hand.
This is enough.
For the first time, she felt as though she could breathe properly.
"I'll open my own clinic."
Even if she looked for a position at another university hospital, Kang Juhan and Oh Seongmin would probably interfere.
If she became an employed doctor somewhere else, she'd still have to watch someone's mood and work beneath them.
She would find her own path outside the hospital.
Not through academic connections.
Through ability.
There would be patients who truly recognized her value.
A female doctor opening her own clinic.
Until the mid-1990s, female doctors in obstetrics and gynecology were mostly treated as 'assistants.'
They worked in outpatient departments at hospitals run by male doctors or at health screening centers.
Opening a private clinic was considered something male doctors did.
"Why would a woman open her own clinic? What happens when she has a baby and takes time off? Who covers for her?"
Female doctors were given vice-director positions.
Almost never the director's position.
Women were considered people who were supposed to "carefully assist treatment and look after the smaller details around the patient."
There had been a time when almost everyone thought that way.
Then, in 1997, the Asian financial crisis struck Korea.
Hospitals collapsed.
Private clinic owners went bankrupt and closed their doors.
Amid the chaos, while large hospitals struggled, small clinics slowly began appearing inside shopping buildings in new towns.
Some hung banners saying:
[Female Doctor Available]
Between 2003 and 2007, the times were slowly changing.
It was no longer considered strange for a female doctor to open and operate a clinic alone.
A true women's clinic didn't only deal with pregnancy and childbirth.
Even women who never became pregnant or gave birth still menstruated.
Hormonal issues affected a woman's entire life.
Queens couldn't escape them.
Neither could female presidents.
Birth control and sex life, the uterus and hormones, and a woman's entire life... I want an OB-GYN clinic that doesn't only look at childbirth, but at women's lives as a whole.
That was Gain's dream.
Just as she was thinking about it, the real estate agent spoke, breaking her train of thought.
"Dr. Im, this is the place."
The agent stopped in front of an old commercial building where the sign had been removed.
Gain nodded and stopped beside her.
This is already the sixth real estate agent.
Gain had used every remaining day off she had and officially taken leave from Hanguk University Hospital.
She wouldn't have to go back to work for the fifteen days remaining before her resignation became final.
While she was still receiving a salary, she wanted to finish preparing her clinic.
Unfortunately, all five of the previous real estate agents had treated her like an easy target and tried to scam her.
The first agent had added thirty million won in goodwill money to a hospital that had already closed.
The second asked her to leave the special-conditions section of the contract blank.
The others hadn't been much better.
Because of them, she had wasted three full days.
This one seems normal, at least.
During her years as a Saintess on the battlefield, countless people had tried to take advantage of Gain.
It was common for nobles to disguise themselves as commoners to receive treatment.
Some merchants sold the Saintess's name to gain privileges.
Others replaced donated supplies with cheap substitutes and sold the originals for profit.
Through negotiations and wartime requisitions where people's lives had been on the line, Gain had learned exactly how swindlers behaved.
Based on that experience, this real estate agent seemed like an ordinary person.
Neither particularly good nor bad.
Just ordinary.
That was far better than five scammers.
"So this is it."
Im Gain carefully stepped forward.
Then she heard church bells ringing nearby.
A hymn followed.
The abandoned hospital property the agent had shown her stood directly beside a Catholic church.
There was a market next to it too.
This brings back memories.
During her days as a Saintess, Gain was always accompanied by the Temple Knights.
It was almost like having a mobile cathedral traveling with her.
She had experience organizing units of nearly a thousand people.
Compared to that, opening a single clinic didn't seem particularly difficult.
First, find a suitable location.
Buy or rent it.
Then prepare the equipment.
If all else failed...
Well, she could just start seeing patients anyway.
The building was a small two-story structure.
Faint traces remained where the sign for "___ OB-GYN Clinic" had once been.
The sign itself had been removed, but the letters remained like pale stains against the sun-bleached wall.
The agent turned the key and opened the door.
"Cough, cough."
The agent coughed.
As the door opened, the smell of dust from a building that had been closed for a long time poured out.
"The inside is mostly cleared out. All the equipment is gone, but the examination rooms and delivery room layout are still intact. The plumbing is still working too, so this would probably be the best place if you're planning to open an OB-GYN clinic."
The agent explained.
Im Gain slowly stepped inside.
There was a lot of dust on the floor.
That can be cleaned.
The examination tables.
The nurses' station.
The hallway leading to the delivery room.
The basic layout was identical to an old-fashioned hospital from the 1980s.
Strangely, that made the place feel more familiar.
"They used to handle deliveries here too. It was small, but they even had three inpatient rooms. I heard a lot of pregnant women from this neighborhood used to come here."
The agent's voice gradually became quieter and more distant.
Gain silently walked through the hallway.
Just by looking at the empty rooms, she could tell how they'd once been used.
This had been the recovery room.
The room with the metal door had probably been the ultrasound room.
The room at the end was likely where they stored medical waste.
It's not bad.
"If we're this close to the church, you'll hear everything on Saturdays and Sundays."
The agent smiled at Gain's comment.
"If you don't have hospitalized patients, it probably won't be a big problem. And some people actually like hearing hymns. They say it feels sacred..."
After they finished looking around the hospital and stepped outside, the agent carefully spoke.
"Two hundred million won deposit and 4.5 million won monthly rent. There's no goodwill payment. Once you remodel it, you could start using it right away."
The building wasn't bad.
But the price didn't work.
It's more expensive than I expected.
Unlike the days when her work had been funded by donations, Gain now had to pay for everything herself.
With her medical license, she could borrow roughly two hundred million won.
Her budget was limited.
Ultrasound machine, examination chair, endoscope, sterilizer...
The ultrasound brochure she'd studied at the hospital listed a purchase price of fifty million won.
Leasing it would cost seven hundred thousand won a month.
That alone was almost another rent payment.
Even the specialized gynecological examination chair cost ten million won.
An autoclave for sterilizing each instrument cost around five million won.
If she had to cover everything within the two hundred million won she could currently borrow, a property requiring a two hundred million won deposit and 4.5 million won rent wasn't even worth considering.
I want to begin with as little debt as possible.
The agent's brow tightened slightly.
She looked disappointed.
"Please show me if another property becomes available."
"But that one is the best OB-GYN property around here."
Gain parted ways with the reluctant agent and headed toward the market next door.
It had been a long time since she'd visited a traditional market.
Old signs in mismatched colors lined the street.
Small food stalls operated side by side.
The faint smell of boiled vegetables mixed with fried pancakes and the powerful scent of kimchi.
From one side came the strong fishy smell of seafood.
All the scents blended together and brought old memories back.
It feels like when I visited that coastal city.
Back then, looking at the fish in that city's harbor market had reminded her of Noryangjin Fish Market.
Now, strangely enough, walking through a traditional market in a small Korean city reminded her of her days in the Kingdom.
People were funny that way.
No matter where they lived, they always ended up missing somewhere from their past.
I can't believe coming here made me think of the port city of Amibel.
Then a strong smell of mugwort drifted through the air.
As Gain passed by, she casually looked down at a bundle of mugwort.
The elderly woman selling it gave her a broad smile.
"Young lady!"
