Caught!
Caught! @@ Tick! “Ah...!” The doctor flinched as she botched the Polymus weld. Already the fourth time. She had made four mistakes while trying to build an important device. Even during yoga class the instructor had scolded her for losing focus... She wanted to pull herself together, but yesterday’s events kept replaying in her mind and she simply couldn’t.
“You okay? Want to head back and rest?” Jihyeok’s gentle voice came from beside her. The doctor’s face flushed crimson as she stammered, “N-no... I’m fine.”
“You’re making too many mistakes. At this rate we’re just wasting Polymus.”
“.....”
“Yuria just messaged me anyway. Let’s call it a day.”
The doctor’s ears perked up. Yuria had contacted him? She must still be bothered by what happened yesterday. But why reach out to Jihyeok instead of her? By any measure of closeness, the doctor should have been the more natural choice. Feeling a pang of disappointment, she asked, “What does Yuria messaging you have to do with us stopping?”
“She wants to meet. Here, take a look.” Jihyeok held out his phone, showing their chat.
Because of what happened in Argentina, could we meet alone at Handae Street right now?
The message was so plain it revealed no emotion whatsoever, yet the phrase “alone” nagged at her. Still, there was nothing overtly suspicious, so the doctor agreed. “All right. Let’s stop here for today. Are you leaving straight from here?”
“Yeah. You should go home and rest properly, noona.”
“.... Okay.”
The doctor rose obediently and stretched, only to suddenly hunch forward. A dull ache pulsed in her lower abdomen. “Ah...” It wasn’t pain. If anything, it was pleasure. The lingering traces of yesterday’s intense sex. Her face flushed again. Never before had she felt so thoroughly filled; yesterday had been the first time. At this rate, pregnancy might not be a dream. No—conception might already have occurred. Jihyeok’s seed had been that vigorous.
“Huu...♡” A heated breath escaped her lips unbidden. Seeing it, Jihyeok grinned. “If you’d kept working, you might have ruined the device frame we finally got right.”
That smile was dangerous. Every time she saw it, desire surged through her. Lips trembling, the doctor managed, “Y-you’re right... I think I need to go home...”
“I’ll drive you.”
“Okay...”
Inside the car with Jihyeok, the doctor seriously considered pushing for another round, but decided against it. He had already exerted himself so much yesterday. He deserved rest, at least for today. They chatted idly on the way home. After giving him a goodbye kiss and watching him leave, she stepped inside.
The empty house felt cavernous with just one person missing. Depression threatened to swallow her whole. She decided to simply sleep. After a quick shower she collapsed onto the bed without even drying her hair properly. “Haa...” If she carried Jihyeok’s child, should she change her surname to Song? Would he be happy if she suggested registering their marriage? What would they name the baby? She needed to stock up on nutritious ingredients for prenatal care too... Lying alone in bed for the first time in a while, all sorts of thoughts flooded in. Shaking her head to clear them, she closed her eyes with the thought that Jihyeok might be there when she woke. Between the lack of sleep and the warm shower, drowsiness came quickly. She drifted off almost at once.
@@ An endless, bottomless abyss. Edward Parsons was falling into it. “Aaaaargh!!” His screams became a twisted melody as the doctor and Jihyeok stood at the abyss’s edge, locked in a passionate kiss. Both wore smiles—wicked, malevolent smiles. Edward’s screams faded as he plummeted. The doctor paid her ex-husband no mind whatsoever, surrendering completely to the pleasure Jihyeok gave her.
Watching the scene from a third-person perspective as she floated in the void, the doctor tilted her head. The other version of herself kissing Jihyeok had noticeably paler skin. Not just a little—much paler. Pale enough for blue veins to show through. “What...?” That was definitely her. Same hairstyle, same features, same body. So why was only the skin so different? Deciding to get a closer look, she naturally flew through the air and circled behind Jihyeok. At that moment—flash! The other her’s eyes snapped open. Crimson irises and vertical slit pupils. The doctor who met that ominous gaze head-on swallowed hard.
“Hrk!” She bolted upright. Looking around frantically, she saw only darkness. Realizing she had woken from a dream, a sudden chill swept over her and she trembled. Her hands were soaked in cold sweat. Grumbling about the ridiculous dream, she wiped her palms on the blanket, then grabbed her phone and turned it on.
[10:23 PM]
Seeing the time, she realized she had slept for quite a while. But where was Jihyeok? At this hour he should have been lying beside her. “Did he go to the convenience store...?” she muttered, unlocking the screen. She was about to call him when she noticed a new message and paused.
I might be a bit late. Go ahead and sleep first.
It had been sent around 4 PM, and there were no follow-up messages. Normally he would have called too, yet there were no missed calls. Puzzled, she tried calling him. The line rang and rang with no answer. She tried twice, then three more times—still nothing.
“.....” She wet her lips with her tongue and opened the location tracker. She had checked it often enough lately that the guilt felt somewhat dulled. “Handae Street...” Seeing his location there, an uneasy feeling crept over her. The message Yuria had sent—the one Jihyeok showed her at the lab—had specifically asked to meet at Handae Street. Combined with Jihyeok’s single message and subsequent silence... anyone would find it suspicious.
His exact location turned out to be a bar on Handae Street. Acting on instinct, the doctor got out of bed and dressed. She threw on a simple T-shirt, long training pants, and a long cardigan, then left the house, started the car, and gripped the wheel. Only then did she stop to think. “Should I really go...?” No matter how many times she asked herself, she knew it was wrong. What if she got caught? The mere thought made everything go dark. Yet a woman’s intuition kept poking at her brain. Go. There’s something there. It was the same feeling she had before discovering Jihyeok and Chae Bo-young tangled up on drugs.
The doctor squeezed her eyes shut. Was Jihyeok doing something indecent with Yuria in a bar room? Was Yuria plying him with alcohol to seduce him? Or were they both racing toward some grand finale...? All sorts of wild fantasies flooded her mind. She opened her eyes, resolve burning in her gaze, and slammed the accelerator. “Let’s go.” Better to see for herself than sit here anxiously sucking her thumb. Without realizing it, she ground her teeth as her right foot pressed harder on the pedal.
@@ Arriving at Handae Street, the doctor parked in the farthest corner of the public lot. It was now 11:05 PM. Jihyeok’s location was still the bar. She got out, nervously chewing her nails as she headed toward it—then stopped. “Ah, right... a hat...” She couldn’t believe she had come out without one while trying to spy. Cursing her own stupidity, she ducked into the nearest shop and bought a hat. After also grabbing a mask from a convenience store, she ordered coffee and cake at a café across from the bar. Pretending to fiddle with her phone, she kept glancing at the building’s entrance.
An hour passed like that. Finally she spotted Jihyeok and Yuria emerging from the bar. The doctor swallowed hard, pulled her hat lower, and watched them. Both looked rather cheerful. Their faces were flushed—probably from drinking—and smiles lingered on their lips. Convinced that something was definitely going on, the doctor left the café once the pair slowly exited Handae Street and began tailing them at a distance.
They soon entered a park. What business could they possibly have in a park with such dim streetlights? Whatever it was, it had to be suspicious. The doctor suppressed her rising anger again and again. If her suspicions proved correct... Jihyeok was a dead man. Deep inside the park, the two sat on a bench and began chatting quietly. The doctor wanted to get closer but held back—Yuria’s senses far surpassed a normal person’s. If an ordinary woman like her approached any nearer, she would surely be noticed. In the end, she could only watch their actions while desperately calming her burning heart.
After roughly ten minutes of conversation, the pair stood up. They seemed ready to leave. The doctor hurriedly tried to slip away—then her eyes widened as Yuria wrapped her arms around Jihyeok’s neck. “Wh-what is she...!” Shock crashed over her. That was no comforting hug. It was the deep, full-body embrace people gave when they had feelings for each other. What the hell were they doing? Disgusting. The very thing she had feared was happening. Clenching her fists, the doctor glared at Yuria as though she wanted to kill her. Yuria currently believed Jihyeok was meeting with Sehwa. More importantly, no matter who Jihyeok was seeing, Yuria knew he already had someone. Yet she was still acting like this? The doctor realized she had overestimated Yuria. She had thought the woman was chaste and proper, but she was nothing of the sort. Just a vulgar, shameless bitch.
Of course, the doctor herself was no different. She had known Jihyeok was involved with Sehwa and had still wanted to steal him away. Granted, Jihyeok had approached her first, but her failure to coldly reject him had been her own fault. “No! If I start thinking like that, there’ll be no end to it!” Shaking her head violently, she leaned against a tree and pressed both hands to her chest. It burned. It felt as though someone were stabbing her heart with an awl. She had worked so hard to obtain Jihyeok... and now a sudden rival had appeared. She surrendered herself to the fury that had clawed its way through all her negative emotions. She was so angry. If she didn’t get an explanation right now, she felt capable of murder. Without even trying to steady her ragged breathing, she looked back toward the pair—only to freeze. “Huh...?” They had vanished at some point. While she was glancing around in confusion, a voice called out from a distance. “Noona...?” Startled, the doctor’s body jerked and she turned toward the sound. “Ah...” The world spun and she staggered. Jihyeok was standing at the park entrance, staring straight at her with a knowing gaze. He began walking toward her with confident strides. “I’m screwed...” The doctor felt as though she were plummeting into an endless abyss of despair. Completely, utterly screwed. How on earth was she supposed to explain this? Her head felt fuzzy, but she had to force herself to stay alert. She needed to stay calm. There had to be a way out of this. Telling herself that, she crossed her arms and watched Jihyeok approach, her mind racing for a solution.