The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

Chu Mi-young had settled in quite well in Daegu.

With a steady increase in patients, she was incredibly busy, but this was exactly what she had longed for.

Compared to the days when she felt frustrated with no patients and anxious about their progress when they did come, her mind was now at ease.

“Great work, everyone, for this month too!”

Unlike the times when she was agonizing over deficits, she now had a substantial sum left after paying generous wages and rent.

Her father warned of a tax bomb coming next May, but that was a concern for later.

For now, Chu Mi-young was simply enjoying the daily accumulation of work.

Crack!

She particularly enjoyed performing the Chuna manipulation she had learned from Han Yeowon.

The satisfying sound of thrust correction even gave her a sense of pleasure.

“Your turtle neck has improved a lot, hasn’t it?”

With changes visible right away, patient satisfaction was high.

“That’s right! Now, sitting with good posture feels the most comfortable. Plus, I had an X-ray taken a few days ago, and it looked good!”

“Let’s continue the treatment and maintain it well with exercise.”

With over 10 complex Chuna patients a day, it was physically demanding.

Chu Mi-young managed her packed schedule while receiving personal training.

She thought she had successfully established herself in Daegu.

“I heard this place does Chuna really well~?”

Little did she expect to face such blatant territorial behavior.

“…Dr. Lee Han-sol?”

A man in his 40s, followed by a man and woman estimated to be in their late 20s to early 30s, entered the clinic.

The man in the middle, in his 40s, was Lee Han-sol – the chief director of Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic’s Daegu Dongseongno branch, located in the next block.

Though she didn’t know the other two, she recognized Lee Han-sol’s face and name.

She knew him because he had opposed when Chu Mi-young first expressed her desire to open a Daegu branch of Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic, and she had visited their website while researching the Daegu market with Han Yeowon.

“I came to see just how good it is~. My back hurts from giving acupuncture all day~.”

Not even trying to be discreet, but so blatantly?

It was a situation that would upset anyone, perfect for thinking they came to steal techniques or systems.

‘Still, they came as patients, so it might be wrong to chase them away.’

Chu Mi-young briefly considered whether to turn them away, but decided to stay positive.

She and Han Yeowon had also started by observing each other, which led to a good relationship. Maybe if she gave the best treatment possible, things would work out well?

“As you know, when standing sideways, the gravity center line should go through the earlobe – acromion – third lumbar vertebra – slightly behind the hip joint – slightly behind the knee joint – slightly in front of the ankle bone, right? Dr. Lee, you have quite severe lumbar spondylolisthesis. I’ll focus on correcting this area while treating your pain.”

Chu Mi-young showed no signs of displeasure.

Instead, she gave her best treatment to Lee Han-sol and his two companions.

“How do you feel?”

“Oh, my back doesn’t hurt?”

The companion… no, let’s just call him the Deputy Director. The young man and woman were clearly Deputy Directors of the Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic’s Daegu Dongseongno branch.

The male Deputy Director, seemingly oblivious, marveled at how his back felt better.

“Well, it still feels about the same to me.”

In contrast, the female Deputy Director folded her arms and watched the chief’s reaction.

“……”

The chief director, Lee Han-sol, glared at Chu Mi-young without a word.

Then he paid and left.

Unlike earlier when he had been sticking out his stomach, his back was now straight, confirming that the correction had worked, at least temporarily.

If he repeated this a few more times and exercised alongside, it would be maintained! But it would be odd to recommend continuous treatment to Lee Han-sol.

Chu Mi-young sent Lee Han-sol and the Deputy Directors off with a gentle smile.

‘What is this, Team Rocket?’

At this point, she only thought they were being a bit rude.

An incident worth venting to a friend and then forgetting about?

But that was Chu Mi-young’s misunderstanding, a careless oversight.

◆◇◆◇◆

The day after Lee Han-sol’s visit, a patient complained that a staff member was rude.

Although the staff apologized, she ranted at the front desk for a full 30 minutes, causing other patients to frown. Eventually, Chu Mi-young had to bow her head and personally see the troublemaker out.

Complaining about rudeness, surely she wouldn’t come back?

That was a miscalculation.

“Why isn’t there any Solomon’s seal tea?”

“Pardon? Did we run out of Solomon’s seal tea?”

“How should I know? You should manage it properly!”

The patient appeared at the clinic again the next day, picking an absurd fight about the lack of Solomon’s seal tea.

Is this a café? There’s green tea and coffee! Just drink anything!

And the next day.

“You know I like Solomon’s seal tea, so you deliberately didn’t stock it, right?”

They had ordered Solomon’s seal tea immediately after the complaint, but it hadn’t arrived yet.

The woman, who came at the start of consultation hours, caused a scene at the front desk for an hour.

And the next day, when they had stocked Solomon’s seal tea.

“Ah~ I haven’t finished drinking yet. I’ll take it to the treatment room.”

“Please take your time and finish it before coming in~.”

“It’s fine, just give me the physical therapy now. I’ll sip it slowly.”

“We can’t allow drinks in the treatment room, so please take your time…”

“I said I’m taking it in!”

After forcefully bringing it into the treatment room.

“Why did you put this where my arm can reach it? This is an expensive outfit!”

She spilled it dramatically.

She had placed the paper cup by her head and knocked it over with her elbow during physical therapy.

It was clearly not the behavior of a normal person.

This was malicious business interference, so creative that even if one tried deliberately, they might lack the imagination to do it.

Amidst all this, one of Chu Mi-young’s regular patients brought news.

“Doctor, when did you ever force Chuna therapy on a fracture patient?”

“What? That’s impossible. I haven’t even seen a fracture patient recently.”

“Take a look at this post on the local community forum!”

After work, Chu Mi-young accessed the forum her patient had mentioned.

There, Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic was actively promoting with coffee gift cards.

Chu Mi-young, who mainly managed Instagram and her blog, wasn’t familiar with café marketing.

It seemed they were paying the administrators to post promotional content, but the posts themselves were unremarkable.

The problem was in the comments.

[This place is so good~! Unlike Seongsu Korean Medicine Clinic next door, they don’t just force you to take medicine or do Chuna, they only give necessary treatments!]

└ [That’s right! They told my father to take medicine unconditionally even though he has liver cirrhosis ㅠㅠ]

└ [I had a cervical disc problem, and after they did Chuna that made cracking sounds, it got worse.]

It was outrageous.

What kind of baseless slander was this?

It was all lies from start to finish. There had never been a patient who refused medication due to liver cirrhosis since the clinic opened, and she never uses thrust techniques on disc patients.

└ [What nonsense is this? They do the best Chuna in all of Daegu!]

└ [Please stop with the fake reviews ;;]

A few patients came to Chu Mi-young’s defense, but it was hard to gauge how severe the damage to her image would be.

‘…Huh?’

But the profile picture of the person who left the first comment looked oddly familiar.

When Chu Mi-young enlarged it.

“This crazy bitch!”

It was the face of the Solomon’s seal tea villain.

A curse involuntarily escaped her lips.

“What kind of person is this? What grudge do they have against me?!”

Chu Mi-young hurled expletives into the air for a long time.

And the next day.

“Isn’t acupuncture supposed to be 20 minutes? I finished in 18 minutes today? I’ve been timing it since earlier! You’re doing this on purpose because I spilled the Solomon’s seal tea yesterday, right? Right?”

“I’m sorry. Just a moment, let me check in the person waiting behind you…”

“Where are you looking when I’m talking to you!”

The staff member burst into tears.

It was frustrating that they couldn’t stop her, knowing she would cause a scene about treatment refusal if told not to come.

Chu Mi-young comforted the staff member who said they wanted to quit because of this person, and ended up leaving work a bit late.

After finishing her slightly delayed work, she went to the public parking lot 10 minutes away where she had parked her car.

The buildings in this area were quite old, so underground parking spaces were limited.

But then she saw a familiar figure.

It was the back of the Solomon’s seal tea villain.

“Honey~ I had such a hard day today~!”

The identity of the man she called ‘honey’ was.

“You worked hard, dear.”

It was Lee Han-sol.

Crack!

The thread of reason snapped.

“What kind of petty trick is this?”

Chu Mi-young immediately ran up to the two and shouted angrily.

They’re a married couple?

Judging by how she boldly showed her face on the local community forum and how they were getting into a car together at a public parking lot near the clinic, they didn’t even try to hide it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about~?”

Despite her fierce protest, the Solomon’s seal tea villain played innocent.

Chu Mi-young was fuming. She wanted to grab her by the collar and shake her.

“Instead of playing these underhanded tricks, let’s settle this fair and square. One of us leaves, decided by a contest!”

Bang!

Chu Mi-young unconsciously hit the car body.

“A contest?”

Lee Han-sol furrowed his brow and asked.

◆◇◆◇◆

Lee Han-sol had been causing trouble at Seongsu Korean Medicine Clinic for the past few days.

Ever since that clinic opened in the next block, his income had become quite precarious.

Although Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic’s main focus was diet pills, new patient numbers had noticeably decreased, possibly due to the Instagram marketing effect of the other clinic.

He had lost all his Chuna patients who came for chronic pain or posture correction, and for some reason, there was no new influx of patients either.

He employed two Deputy Directors to maintain operations seven days a week, 365 days a year, leaving him with barely anything after paying their salaries.

Although he was narrowly avoiding a deficit for now, it was uncertain when he might fall below the break-even point.

He had to take action.

‘Let’s drive them out.’

Somehow reduce their patients and cause stress for the doctor and staff.

Lee Han-sol made this decision and utilized all the manpower he could mobilize, including himself.

And now, it seemed Chu Mi-young’s stress had built up considerably.

‘A fair and square contest, huh.’

She had proposed a bet where the loser would leave.

While he had hoped she would eventually tire out and leave on her own, this wasn’t bad either.

If the situation became entrenched, he would have to close his clinic anyway. Even if he lost, he’d break even.

Of course, he had no intention of losing. Lee Han-sol quickly racked his brain.

What area could he be certain of winning?

“That sounds good. It’s what I wanted too. What should the competition be?”

Lee Han-sol smiled, feigning composure.

“…Treatment skills?”

“What, are you going to gather difficult patients and try to cure them?”

Though she had thrown out the challenge for a fair contest, it seemed to have been quite impulsive.

When Lee Han-sol mocked her, Chu Mi-young’s face contorted.

“…That wouldn’t be objective.”

“Isn’t revenue the measure of skill? Let’s compete based on a month’s revenue.”

She had blurted out the challenge without thinking of any specific method.

Taking advantage of her anger-clouded judgment, Lee Han-sol counter-proposed a bet in his favor.

“…You operate seven days a week, don’t you?”

“We can do it for the next month. You should operate seven days a week too, Doctor. We can’t reduce our hours, can we?”

Chu Mi-young thought for a moment.

Lee Han-sol didn’t want to give her time to think.

“What, afraid you’ll lose?”

“As if. Fine, let’s compete on revenue. But delete all those nasty comments, and you, your wife, both Deputy Directors, and all your acquaintances stay away from my clinic! No negative tactics at all!”

Chu Mi-young finally accepted the proposal.

“Honey, will this be okay?”

“Of course. With three doctors, there’s no way they can beat us in revenue.”

Lee Han-sol got into the car with a satisfied smile.

“Alright, let’s do this. I’ll tough it out for a month. That’s better than constantly enduring this petty territorial nonsense!”

Chu Mi-young also walked away proudly, thinking of someone.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Maybe betting on closing down was a bit much… Should I have just sued for defamation or business interference and been done with it?”

Chu Mi-young spoke, seeming slightly embarrassed by her rash action.

“But it should be fine, right?! I’m much better than them, they must have resorted to such dirty tricks because they’re barely hanging on!”

“Hmm.”

“Revenue… of all things?”

But Kim Chun-sik, who had been angrily reacting to the story, fell silent.

Hwang Sang-hoon also averted his eyes slightly.

“Ooh~ Savage! That’s cool! You need that kind of spirit!”

Unlike them, I clapped my hands and laughed heartily.

Now that’s my disciple!

How could she just sit back after being attacked so cowardly from behind?