Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 205

JQ Department Store

Washington, D.C., USA –

“Chairman, you need to see this.”

Koh Don-jin of Shinhwa University Hospital, who was in the United States on personal business, received documents from his chief of staff.

“Chief Cha, do you even look at the time before you speak? It’s still dawn.”

“You always wake up at this hour anyway.”

“Is it so urgent that you have to report it to me as soon as I wake up?”

Koh Don-jin, with his fastidious personality, took the documents from his secretary and sat at his desk.

“Yes, I think you should definitely see it.”

“What could be so important that you’re making such a fuss at the crack of dawn?”

“Just take a look first.”

Koh Don-jin glanced at his secretary and examined the documents.

“Hmm!”

After a long time of being unable to take his eyes off the documents, he threw them on the desk and opened his mouth.

“So, to put it simply, a doctor with a good reputation appeared on television and exposed a doctor who lacks qualifications, and people suspect that doctor is from our hospital.”

“Yes, and the former workplace of the doctor who appeared on the broadcast was Shinhwa University Hospital.”

“So what? People are just stirring up issues. Why are you paying attention to every little thing like this?”

“It seems like there’s a bit of a problem.”

“A problem? What problem?”

“From what I’ve gathered, it seems that the doctor in question is indeed Director Koh Gye-deuk.”

One of the chief of staff’s duties was to organize various matters related to the hospital and report them to Koh Don-jin.

After Tae-kyung appeared on the broadcast a few days ago, as Shinhwa University Hospital received more attention, the chief of staff began to investigate the matter separately. And he even found out that Koh Gye-deuk had his secretary contact the families of patients in the intensive care unit.

Of course, an investigation would be needed to know for sure, but Chief Cha seemed confident that Koh Gye-deuk was behind it.

“Really? You investigated this separately?”

“Yes, Chairman. If Director Koh Gye-deuk really did this, shouldn’t we take some action? The construction of the cancer center will be finished soon, and the director needs to be present at official events for a while. This doesn’t look good.”

Koh Don-jin was listening carefully to what the chief of staff was saying.

“Well, you’re not wrong. But Chief Cha?”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“Most people opposed my decision when I appointed Koh Gye-deuk as the director. Do you remember?”

“Of course.”

It wasn’t a position to choose a chairman to be responsible for a company, but to choose a director to care for patients and the hospital.

There may be many qualities that a hospital director should have, but even if nine out of ten things are right, what’s important for a doctor is their heart for the patients. But Koh Gye-deuk lacked that heart back then and still does now.

That’s why there were quite a few people who opposed his appointment as the hospital director at the time.

“You know that owners who receive a salary resign if their performance is not good, right?”

“Of course. Isn’t performance the most important thing for a company?”

“The hospital is the same. I think the hospital is also a kind of company. The reason I chose Koh Gye-deuk, who has mediocre surgical skills and an ordinary background, is because he has good business acumen. We had deficits for two consecutive years, but after Director Koh took office, we’ve been making profits. You know how difficult it is to make money off of sick people.”

Like Kim Gun-hyung said, Koh Don-jin was not a good person either.

Especially since he wasn’t a doctor, the immediate profits that Koh Gye-deuk brought were much more important to him than the patients.

“A heart for the patients? If that’s the case, then we should provide free treatment. Hospitals are all businesses. Businesses!”

“Chairman, you’re not wrong, but I think it would be better to resolve this here before something bigger happens.”

“It’s okay. You’re too cautious. Business is all about taking risks. Risks!”

“Chairman, please think about it carefully.”

“It’s a spark that will die out if we close our mouths and ears. It’ll quiet down on its own in a week.”

Despite Chief Cha’s dissuasion, Koh Don-jin didn’t seem to have any intention of letting Koh Gye-deuk go.

* * *

JQ Department Store in Seoul –

Despite it being a weekday, JQ Department Store was crowded, perhaps because it was Friday, heralding the start of the weekend.

“Oh my! This place is really nice.”

“How could they decorate it so well?”

“It’s listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, so the size is enormous.”

It wasn’t just that there were a lot of people, there were an incredible amount. It was literally packed.

A few days ago, a large department store opened in Seoul. It was more than just a department store; it was a place where people could play and enjoy themselves.

It was as if the owner was saying, ‘How can you not spend money even with all this?’ There was everything.

There were hotels, swimming pools, spas, theaters, bookstores, various restaurants and performance halls, aquariums, and even play facilities that children loved.

Also, its size was so large that it was listed as the largest department store in the world.

The department store, which a department store company had spent 10 years constructing and risked everything to open, was a huge success.

From the opening day, it was breaking record sales every day, so the staff were screaming with happiness.

“There are so many people.”

“But the department store is so big that it’s nice that it’s not uncomfortable to walk around even with so many people.”

A close-knit family of three, whose happiness could be felt even from afar, came to the department store.

“Should Daddy give our pretty princess a piggyback ride?”

“Honey, don’t. It’s dangerous here.”

“No, I want to hold Mommy and Daddy’s hands.”

Chae-young, a pretty four-year-old with round eyes, held her mom and dad’s hands tightly with her small, fern-like hands.

The child, who matched her clothes with her mom with a ribbon headband and a couple t-shirt, was lovely.

“Oh my! Our Chae-young speaks so well. Whose daughter are you?”

“Mommy’s daughter!”

“Oh, so you’re not going to be Daddy’s daughter?”

“No. I’ll be Daddy’s daughter too. Mom? That looks delicious.”

Chae-young appealed to her mom, looking at a large lollipop.

“Chae-young wants to eat that.”

“Mommy will buy it for you after we eat. Let’s look at Chae-young’s clothes first and then buy it after we eat.”

“Daddy~~!”

Looking at her dad with sparkling eyes, her husband asked his wife.

“Why don’t you just buy her one?”

“No. If she eats that now, she won’t eat later.”

“See? Mommy said no. Let’s eat later and then eat it. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“You can’t either.”

“What?”

“You just want to eat snacks under the guise of Chae-young. Your eyes automatically turned every time we passed the snack corner, didn’t they?”

“Oh! You know me too well. But they really decorated it well.”

“I know. It’s very luxurious. The luxury goods section is really magnificent.”

“Mom? Dad? Look up there.”

Chae-young, who was looking around, raised her head and pointed to the ceiling.

“There’s a moon and stars too. They’re sparkling. Wow! It’s amazing.”

“It’s really pretty.”

The couple, who shifted their gaze to the ceiling at Chae-young’s words, couldn’t help but admire it.

In the center of the department store, there was a space that was open from the first floor to the seventh floor.

There, decorations that were so beautiful that they were dazzling were suspended from cables, creating a spectacle.

It was a work by a famous foreign artist called ‘Happiness in Childhood,’ and there were children and animals in a carriage being pulled by winged horses, and various sculptures such as moons, stars, and clouds created a fantastic harmony.

The sizes ranged from 1 meter to 5 meters. And all these sculptures were made of crystal glass, so they shone beautifully under the lights.

“My goodness! How could they think of making something like that? It’s amazing.”

“Artists are different.”

Not only Chae-young’s family but also many people around them were mesmerized by the ceiling decorations, and there were several people taking pictures.

Because it was a work by such a famous artist, there were quite a few people who came just to see it.

“It really feels like a department store when you see this.”

“What do you mean it feels like a department store when you come to a department store?”

“The department store in our neighborhood is really small.”

“Hey! That’s not a department store, it’s just a shopping mall.”

“That’s true.”

“Oh! That’s right. Didn’t you say you had to buy cosmetics?”

“I was just thinking of buying them later.”

“Why? I’ll buy them for you. This brother is treating today.”

“Oh my! Really?”

“Dad~ Buy Chae-young something too.”

“Then I’ll buy something for our princess too. Let’s go.”

While Chae-young’s family moved to the cosmetics corner, two men in neat suits were standing in one corner with worried eyes.

At a glance, the two men, who appeared to be department store staff, were looking at the ceiling decorations.

“Is that going to be okay?”

The man who appeared to be the superior among the two pressed his temples and frowned slightly.

“I don’t know.”

“No, how many days has it been since it opened and it’s already causing trouble? Geez!”

The superior consistently spoke in a frustrated tone with a troubled expression.

The reason he was frustrated was because of the decorations, which were the pride of the department store and cost billions of won to install.

One of the cables connecting the decorations to the ceiling had snapped.

It was clear that there were no problems when the manager checked after closing the day before, but it had snapped without anyone knowing when. Fortunately, the other cables holding the decorations connected to the snapped cable were intact.

“Ah! This doesn’t feel good.”

“I know. It would have been nice if the managers had checked more carefully. But we can’t suddenly kick everyone out because of that one thing, can we?”

“The higher-ups would throw a fit if we did that.”

The two staff members contacted the manager and reported to the higher-ups early on, but the answer they received was to stay put.

The only slight measure they took was to install a safety line on the first floor below the decorations.

“To fix that, we need to call equipment and specialized personnel, and it will take quite a bit of time.”

“Then the losses won’t be insignificant, right?”

“You can say that again. That’s why I even received a call from the head of the headquarters.”

“The head of the headquarters called you directly?”

“Don’t even mention it. I was so scared.”

“But if this gets out later, won’t we have to pay a huge fine or something?”

“That’s true, but I won’t pay the fine even if we get caught.”

“Yes? Why?”

“Why? Because we pay so much in taxes, the governing agencies turn a blind eye to most things.”

“Money is scary. But one of the cables is loose, right?”

“What are you talking about? It’s completely snapped. What have you been listening to?”

“I’m sorry. Which one is it?”

“The long glass piece that’s about 1 meter long in front of the big crystal. I’m talking about that one.”

The people who visited the department store didn’t know because the snapped cable was short and hidden by other decorations.

“Ah! That one. Then shouldn’t we at least deploy some staff there?”

There were people who occasionally came close to the safety line and took pictures of the ceiling with their cell phones.

“The higher-ups told us not to do that either, saying it would only attract people’s attention. They said it would be a headache if it made the news.”

“People are important. Is money more important?”

“Of course, money is more important to the higher-ups. Anyway, we can call people at night and fix it by dawn, so we just have to hope that nothing happens until closing time.”

“It looks like nothing will happen since it’s been okay so far. Then should we at least deploy one staff member nearby?”

“No, I don’t think there’s any need to do that.”

“But just in case.”

“It’s okay. Nothing will happen.”

“Yes, I understand.”

That’s how the staff members just worried without any concrete solutions and left the scene. But there was something that even the staff members and the executives, who were busy keeping their mouths shut due to the record-breaking sales every day, didn’t know.

Squeak-

The fact that as one cable snapped, the other cables were also slowly loosening.