The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

Although the weekend tutoring hadn’t been going on for long, Chu Mi-young was keeping up with the somewhat brisk pace quite well.

She had memorized the homework better than anyone I’d ever taught, and we were already nearing the end of the comprehensive review of herbal medicine.

While I didn’t know much about legal matters, it seemed the lawsuit was progressing smoothly as well.

The stalker had already been indicted and was awaiting the first trial date, and hadn’t she said she would file a lawsuit citing breach of contract regarding the termination of the network agreement with Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic?

“The trial couldn’t have ended already, did they make a settlement offer?”

“Yes, yes! I just sent a content-certified mail, and they said to just terminate the contract without any penalty or separate settlement fee! Oh, I’m so relieved. If it weren’t for the lawyer, I would have lost 20 million won for nothing.”

“That’s really fortunate. If you had to pay that money outright… just imagining it makes me want to cry tears of blood.”

“Ahaha, right?”

It was fortunate in many ways. She must have already taken on a lot of debt from this failed clinic opening, so this would ease her burden, even if only a little.

“So did you post the transfer ad as soon as the termination was decided?”

Even so, that’s quick. Was there someone like me who flew in immediately after seeing a post at the top of the transfer site?

The rent seems quite expensive for Busan… No, from a general perspective, a location near a subway station might be better even if the rent differs by a few hundred thousand won.

“Yes. They told me to change the name and move the location as soon as it’s terminated, so I put it up right away. Since I’m moving anyway, it’s better to leave quickly rather than changing the sign and all that.”

“That’s true.”

“So I posted it yesterday, and fortunately, someone immediately said they’d take it over. They came today, looked around, and signed the papers!”

Is it okay to proceed with a transfer this quickly? …As I thought about it, I understood how my friends must have felt when I decided to open my clinic. I was in quite a rush, wasn’t I?

“That’s great. If you’re going to move anyway, go somewhere with lower rent, or even to a city center like Haeundae.”

“I’m planning to go to Dongseongno in Daegu! Since you’re in Busan, it’s only natural for me to go to another city!”

Daegu? That’s quite out of the blue.

While our current locations might influence each other, in reality, the market areas don’t overlap much once you’re a few subway stops away.

Of course, I came to Busan unexpectedly too, but Cheonan to Busan, and now Daegu? What is this, a national tour?

“You don’t need to go that far. Are you financially okay to open a new clinic again?”

“Ah, yes! The cafe on the first floor of my dad’s building failed to renew their contract, so I think I can move in there.”

I was worried she might need to be an associate director for a while, but… your dad’s building?

I wondered how she managed such a large clinic opening and lived in an apartment. So her family was just well-off.

“Ah, I see. You were born with a silver spoon.”

“It’s not quite like that! My dad bought one building using all his retirement money, and the commercial rent is our only income. That’s why I can be exempted from the deposit, but I still need to pay monthly rent.”

Hmm, I see. That must be quite burdensome.

Well, even though I said this, I didn’t really feel envious. As I keep earning, I’ll buy an apartment and a building too, right?

When I was a student, there were many people I envied, but once I had it all, I realized the emptiness of it all.

That’s why I didn’t even need to check how much of my loan was left. It’s absolutely not because it would pain me to look. Absolutely not!

“Why did you come to Busan in the first place when you had a building where you could open a clinic without a deposit?”

More than anything, I was curious about this.

If it was a place where the market had collapsed, it would be understandable, but why come to an unfamiliar area when your parents have a building in the heart of a metropolitan city?

Chu Mi-young readily explained the reason.

“I asked, but they said there was already a Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic branch in Daegu, so they assigned me here.”

“…Ah.”

That was too much, really.

If they were going to assign a location, couldn’t they have chosen a good spot! I even started to suspect excessively – could the Busan branch building also be owned by Director Choi Eun-hee or the Cheonan branch director, or their family?

Anyway, that’s all in the past now.

“Where is your father’s building?”

I asked while opening a map app. Although when I opened my clinic, I only knew about the feng shui perspective, now I roughly understand good locations from a capitalist viewpoint too. Thanks to Hwang Seo-young’s lengthy lecture.

“It’s right here.”

“Oh.”

Chu Mi-young searched for a cafe and showed me its location. Judging by the numerous restaurants, cafes, and hospitals in the vicinity, it seemed to fit the high foot traffic location Hwang Seo-young had mentioned.

Moreover, on the same screen, in the very next block, there was a Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic Daegu Dongseongno branch.

“It’s a head-on battle.”

“It seems so.”

We looked at each other and nodded. Chu Mi-young seemed a bit surprised, probably not realizing that another Haneul branch was this close. Not just there, but right across the street, there was also a 365 Korean Medicine Clinic firmly established.

It’s only natural that competition is fierce in a good location.

“You’re going there with the determination to make them close down,” I said, pointing at those two places.

“What? That’s a bit…”

“When you’re jumping into a battlefield, being prepared to kill or be killed is basic. If you’re going to be lax just because it’s your father’s building, it’s better not to do it at all.”

“…Yes, ma’am.”

“You need to surpass them in every area, not just the specialties these two clinics boast. You must ensure that any patient who enters your clinic once will never go anywhere else.”

“Yes!”

Chu Mi-young’s voice gained some strength. Hmm, this is how my disciple should be. Having taught her personally, I absolutely couldn’t bear to see her lose anywhere.

“Um, then could I ask to observe starting from next week? The cafe in my dad’s building said they’re leaving the month after next, so I think I’ll have some free time. I’d like to see how you conduct your treatments in person!”

“Of course. Two months is rather tight. Let’s have lessons every day from now on.”

To increase the tutoring fees I’ll receive later, I need to teach as much as possible.

We’ve sufficiently built up determination for today, so I should save even a second and start the lesson.

“Let’s start with Chuna today. We can discuss medicines after patients arrive, and I can teach you about them from afar too. I’ll teach you the basic techniques first, and it would be good for you to practice frequently on me and our staff to get familiar with it.”

“Yes, thank you!”

Until now, we had been focusing on herbal medicine basics during weekend tutoring, so Chuna was new.

There wasn’t a Chuna bed in Chu Mi-young’s clinic, right? It means she hadn’t done Chuna for over a year since opening her clinic, and I wondered how much she would remember from what she learned in school.

“Try doing a routine that can be done from the neck to the lower back. I’ll correct anything if needed and add useful techniques that I see fit.”

In truth, I don’t perform Chuna with a set routine. I just use the minimum necessary techniques to achieve treatment effects. What’s the point of treatment time or performance if the patient just needs to get better?

But I couldn’t teach Chu Mi-young master-level skills right away, so the priority was to teach her routines that produce some effect for each body part. After that, we could move on to specifics for each disease and misalignment.

“Um…”

However, Chu Mi-young just moved her lips without doing anything. Even though I was lying face down on the floor, she hesitated without even touching me.

“Don’t you know how to do anything?”

“No…”

“Didn’t you learn in school? No, I’m not scolding you. You just don’t remember, right?”

She couldn’t answer again.

“Are the curricula that different between schools?”

“That’s part of it, but I graduated before Chuna was covered by insurance, so I probably didn’t learn as much as you, Doctor. It’s not that I didn’t learn it at all, but I never thought I’d use it after graduating, so…”

“You didn’t practice.”

“Yes. We didn’t even have an exam on it.”

Chuna covered by insurance… Was that in 2019? With 20 years of memories in between, it was too long ago and felt hazy.

I hadn’t realized it because Chu Mi-young looks young for her age, but there was quite a difference in age and school year between us.

“I guess I’m from an older class? After graduating, I traveled, and then I’ve only worked at Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic since getting a job, so even though it’s been several years, I don’t know much.”

“You can learn now.”

It doesn’t matter if you don’t know. It might even be better than having bad habits.

There’s a reason why it’s called a routine, right? Getting used to it with your hands is a different matter anyway, and memorizing the order could be done even in a day.

“You know how to check how the pelvis is tilted, right?”

I hurriedly started teaching the basic techniques.

“You mean matching the leg lengths?”

“Yes. Try it on me.”

“But how can I do a drop without a bed…”

“The technique came first, then the machine. In the old days, they did everything on wooden beds. Just try it. Check the leg lengths, and the side with the shorter leg has the pelvis tilted upward. Put your hand on the PSIS there and… bang!”

Though she hesitantly placed her hand, Chu Mi-young, of course, couldn’t apply proper force.

I had Chu Mi-young lie face down and demonstrated.

“Make contact precisely here.”

“Yes.”

“Just rattling around half-heartedly is just for show. You need to correct it firmly. Like this.”

Baam!

I pushed down on the pelvis, applying my body weight to my hand.

“Ughh!”

“This is a real drop.”

“You… you do it this strongly?”

It’s true. Chinese Chuna, overseas chiropractic, they all used to do it like this in the old days. How long would it take to correct with a machine rattling 20 times?

Having straightened spines with hand strength and inner force for 20 years in a world without machines, I found the hand feel much more comfortable.

“Try again. We have a long way to go. Let’s quickly master this, and I’ll teach you how to correct a straight back and… ah, I’ll teach you how to release tension in the quadratus lumborum and erector spinae muscles. Actually, for patients who come in pain, releasing muscles is more effective than aligning the spine.”

There was a mountain of things to teach.

I was in a hurry, but unlike studying where she memorized everything I told her to, the hands-on practice wasn’t progressing as I wished.

Is it because she doesn’t exercise regularly? Chu Mi-young struggled to learn how to apply her body weight to her arms.

In the end, Saturday passed without being able to pass on several techniques, and the Chuna routine lecture had to continue into Sunday.

◆◇◆◇◆

A few days later.

Having quickly completed the transfer process and become unemployed, Chu Mi-young visited my clinic at opening time for observation.

“This is Dr. Chu Mi-young, who will be observing on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a while.”

“Yes!”

I was worried it might be awkward to meet her former employer like this, but Seol Yu-hee greeted her with a bright smile.

“Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic director…?”

“Haha, I’m the former Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic director.”

“Doctor, what on earth have you been up to?”

Instead, it was Seo In-ae whose expression turned strange.

Ah, did I not mention that I was going to open a second branch? Come to think of it, it was thanks to Seo In-ae’s advice to check out Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic that this connection continued.

“That’s how it turned out.”

I summed up the recent events in this one sentence. The long story starting from the stalker would have to wait for another time.

Now was the time to prepare for consultations.

Soon after, at 7 o’clock sharp, I sat comfortably in my chair after setting up all the computer programs, and Chu Mi-young stood neatly behind me like a student, waiting for patients.

“We have a new patient right away.”

Although she must already be familiar with using charts, I deliberately showed Chu Mi-young the screen. It was to explain the consultation process before the patient entered.

“Huh?”

Normally, the pain area would appear where my cursor was pointing. When patients check in, we ask where it hurts and note areas like [Neck] [Shoulder, Right lower back] [Left ankle].

But today, the content written there was:

[Said they would only tell the director.]

This was a type of patient I had never encountered before.

No, is it right for such an unusual patient to come when I’ve invited someone to observe?

The patient’s name was Myung Jun-sik. A 53-year-old male.

With only the name and age in mind, I showed the patient into the consultation room.

“Hello, Myung Jun-sik-nim. Please have a seat here. What brings you in today?”

There was nothing special about my first words, even in my consultation.

Not knowing the location of pain, I had to ask that first.

But even at this utterly ordinary question, Myung Jun-sik’s eyes trembled. He glanced at me, looked Chu Mi-young up and down behind me, and then spoke.

“Are there no male Korean medicine doctors here?”

“No, there aren’t.”

He looked like he was considering getting up from his seat right then.

“……”

It was quite an unfamiliar situation.

Before my reputation spread, I had only heard such disregard for being a woman when dealing with third-rate thugs in Murim. In Sacheon Tang Family’s territory, no one would dare speak carelessly, and in the modern world, I had never seen anyone rude enough to leave during a consultation.

At most, some grandmothers might say, “Oh, it’s a female doctor?”

“What seems to be the problem?”

I asked once more.

My tone was a bit more subdued than before.

Myung Jun-sik flinched, perhaps sensing the displeasure in my voice.

After moving his lips for a while longer, he finally spoke in a voice as quiet as an ant crawling.

“Actually… my testicles hurt.”

Ah.

…I’m sorry for misunderstanding.

It’s understandable that you were looking for a male Korean medicine doctor.