Chapter 37
After ending the call, Gain stared out the window for a moment.
Another OB-GYN director wanting to expand into the area was not necessarily a bad thing.
Still, something about it felt wrong.
Opening another OB-GYN in this exact location, right when patients were flooding into Gain's clinic, was strange.
I don't think he's from our school.
Gain drew another underline beneath the words in her notebook.
[Meeting with bank loan officer.]
Monday at lunchtime, Gain visited the bank.
She moved the business-loan consultation, originally scheduled for Friday, to that very afternoon.
The loan officer looked through the turnover in her account and told her not to worry about the limit.
After writing down the address and size of the property she planned to lease, he promised approval within three days.
On her way back to the clinic, Gain called the real-estate office.
"I'll go see the unit right now. I'm going to rent it."
"Great! Director, it's ready whenever you are."
Gain inspected the second-floor unit with Kim Misuk.
Misuk sounded confident.
"You already know because you're working right next door, but this building itself is very well constructed."
She explained,
"This office is only becoming vacant because the tenant's lease ended and they're getting married and moving down to Busan. There isn't anything wrong with the unit."
"It'll still take some time to remodel this into a delivery room and inpatient rooms."
Renting it was already a foregone conclusion.
Gain looked around.
The storage room could be renovated into a linen room.
The large office where the desks currently stood was the perfect size for an operating room and delivery room.
The area with the best natural light looked suitable for a nursery.
"We'll need time to demolish things and install medical gas lines, plumbing, water supply, and drainage inside the walls."
Misuk smiled.
"I'll tell Mother that you want to rent it."
Gain nodded faintly.
Her gaze remained distant.
"It'll be noisy too. Once construction starts, normal consultations might be difficult for a while. Hmm..."
"The demolition and plumbing will be the noisiest parts. The rest should be manageable."
Misuk continued,
"Wednesday is your day off, right?"
"Yes."
"If we concentrate the noisy work on Wednesdays and evenings, it shouldn't interfere too much with daytime consultations. Even so, you'll probably need to reduce appointments for two or three weeks."
Gain frowned.
Misuk thought for a moment.
"Wallpapering the walls and ceiling, floor tiles, and lighting don't make much noise. If we let those happen during the day, we could shorten it to about ten days."
"Let's do that."
Gain nodded.
At that moment, Lee Seyoung came out of the neighboring clinic and looked around for her.
"Doctor! Dr. Im!"
"I'm over here."
Gain turned toward Misuk.
"Please tell Ms. Choi Yeonok that I want to lease this unit as soon as possible."
"Yes! Don't worry."
Misuk winked.
"Mother will say yes. Actually, she was the one who first suggested that she wanted you to rent this unit too."
When Gain returned to the clinic, Lee Seyoung immediately handed her a quotation from a liquid-based cytology supplier.
"Good. Let's use this company."
Gain reviewed the quotation.
They would switch over starting next month.
She also told Seyoung to organize a list of patients being treated for heavy menstrual bleeding.
She planned to begin explaining the new options to them next month.
As Gain closed her notebook, she noticed a business card sticking out between the pages.
It was tucked inside the infertility training brochure.
They said it was a ten-day intensive course.
She was busy.
Construction was just beginning.
The clinic was full of patients.
But...
Gain opened the brochure.
If she missed this session, the next course would not be held for another six months.
Six months from now, she hoped to be actively delivering babies.
Once deliveries began, she would not be able to leave the clinic for ten days.
She might not even be able to leave for a single day.
If I'm going to learn it, now is the only time.
And I'll have to reduce appointments during the demolition and plumbing work anyway.
If she matched the noisiest ten construction days with the ten-day training course, no time would be wasted.
During that period, she could hire a locum OB-GYN to mainly handle follow-up patients.
Gain drew a circle in the corner of the brochure.
Seyoung asked,
"Doctor, you went to look at the tax accountant's office... Are you planning to lease that too?"
"Yes. Before we even finish the first-floor construction, I'm going to remodel the second-floor unit as well."
"Then are you closing the clinic during construction?"
Lee Seyoung tilted her head.
"We only have appointments booked until two weeks from now, so I suppose we shouldn't accept more."
Gain thought for a moment.
"I'm going to attend an infertility training course. It's a ten-day intensive program."
Seyoung's eyes widened.
"Ten whole days? What about the clinic?"
"A locum doctor will come and keep the clinic running normally."
Seyoung nodded, then asked another question.
"Then how should we schedule appointments? We're already full for the next two weeks."
"During the locum period, focus on follow-up patients. Delay new patients until after I return."
Gain wrote another item in her notebook.
[Organize clinic protocols. Find locum doctor.]
Hong Inyoung asked carefully,
"If you're expanding into that unit, that means you really are planning to handle deliveries, right?"
"Yes."
"Then you'll be hiring more delivery-room and nursery nurses too?"
"Yes. Seyoung, please handle the hiring."
Gain had many other things to do.
Lee Seyoung nodded with a determined expression.
"I know a few experienced juniors."
She smiled.
"They quit after getting married and are currently staying home to raise their children, but all of them have said they'd like to work with you."
"I'm grateful they think that way."
Gain answered seriously.
"Do you have a limit on how many years they've been away from work?"
"If they're people you trust and recommend, I'm fine with them."
"Great. Then I'll contact only the capable ones."
Seyoung sounded excited.
Hong Inyoung cautiously joined in.
"I have a nurse friend who used to work in a neonatal intensive care unit. She's really good with babies. She even cared for premature infants."
