Gi-cheol Do, the director of Ilhyeon Hospital, stepped into the VIP ward wearing a bright smile.

"Chairman. How are you feeling?"

He greeted Tak-hyeon first, then turned to offer his respects to the other members of the Ilhyeon family gathered around the room.

"Madam. Nothing troubling you, I hope? It's been a while. Vice-Chairman. Oh my—President Sang-jong is here too. And President Chang-jong as well…"

Working through them one by one, Director Do saved his warmest greeting for Seong-ho, the one face he'd grown familiar with from their recent meeting.

"Representative Kim. I've been enjoying the baseball. You've no idea how happy it makes me to see Ilhyeon holding first place—I'm a die-hard fan, you see. Every time we lost to Taehwa it about drove me up the wall. However did you think to bring the Taehwa manager over?"

The department chiefs who'd trailed in behind the director all wore looks of bafflement at this unfamiliar side of him, but not one of them was in any position to fault it.

"And above all, I hear you were the one who caught the Chairman's thyroid cancer first."

"I suppose my eyes are just a touch sharper than most. That's how I managed to notice it."

"Ha… That's no easy thing at all. Remarkable."

Director Do turned his head toward the department chiefs with a look that said, isn't that so?

Under his gaze, they all nodded at once.

Director Do drew slowly closer to Tak-hyeon as he spoke.

"They call thyroid cancer the turtle cancer, you know—because it moves that slowly and is that hard to find. And to have spotted it with the naked eye…"

He examined Tak-hyeon's throat himself.

"Goodness. Even knowing it's there, it's easy to miss. Endocrinology—come confirm it, would you? Can you find it?"

At the summons, the endocrinology chief hurried over and bowed to Tak-hyeon. Then he studied the throat carefully and shook his head.

"Even I'd have a hard time spotting this."

"Exactly my point. To find this by eye—truly remarkable."

Director Do and the endocrinology chief kept lifting Seong-ho up, praising him…