Eleven
Eleven
"H-heavy? Who said you were heavy...!"
"Hey, don't overdo it. You're still sick. Just lie down."
"Ugh, but you're a guest in my house, I should at least do something-."
Thud.
I lightly push on the shoulder of Jeong Hae-in as she tries to get up, and she falls backward, powerless.
Her face is flushed, perhaps because of the high fever.
"Forget it. Hae-in-ssi, what would your boyfriend say if he saw this? Wouldn't he freak out that I barged into his girlfriend's house as I pleased?"
And only after Jeong Hae-in regains her senses does that thought occur to her.
"Forget it."
"What?"
"You don't need to worry about that bastard."
However, what Jeong Hae-in says next is truly surprising.
This is the boyfriend she was so crazy about, saying they couldn't live without each other, just last year.
"That bastard hooked up with some other bitch at the hospital, so I kicked him in the balls."
"W-what?"
The truth hidden behind it is fucking terrifying.
"Seeing him sprawled out, clutching his not-so-big dick, felt so satisfying, fuck. Ah, fuck, just thinking about it makes me want to curse again. Still, when I yelled, 'Hey, you fucking three-centimeter micro-dick bastard!' while he was arm-in-arm with that bitch in the hospital lobby, it felt fucking cathartic."
Thinking, 'Won't I end up like that too, fuck,' my thighs instinctively clench together.
I don't have a girlfriend right now, so I guess I'm safe, but...
"It means there's no way that micro-dick moron is going to contact me. No reason for you to feel guilty for nothing."
Perhaps because her whole body feels stiff, she lifts her upper body despite her face still being flushed.
She grabs the water bottle I brought, pops the pills, and chugs the water straight from the bottle to take them.
"Manager Young-shin's medicine is killer..."
"Can you get up?"
"My head hurts like hell."
"Then just sit there. I bought some porridge, so eat it."
Jeong Hae-in looks around the room.
Surprised by the sight of the room, which was a pigsty, now being clean, she asks.
"What, did you clean up too?"
"Because the room was fucking filthy."
"......Thanks."
Seeing her clothes neatly gathered in the laundry basket, she quietly says to me, "Pervert."
"W-what?"
"You must have seen all my bras and panties."
"I did it to clean the room. What are you going to do about it?"
"W-what are you gonna do~"
"If you didn't like it, you should have lived cleaner. Our colleague who likes sexy things."
"Yeah, our pervert colleague. Don't go home and think about it, okay?"
Still, Jeong Hae-in is Jeong Hae-in.
I feel a bit relieved to see her joking with me as soon as she regains her senses.
Judging by the alcohol, it seems she was soothing her painful heart after being cheated on with booze.
'Is that why she teased me like that?'
A medical school graduate comes to an institution with no connections, struggles to get by in society, and then her boyfriend cheats on her?
It would be hard for anyone with a normal mentality to endure that.
"But you're not asking."
"About what?"
"You saw it, my medical license."
Yeah, that was a bit surprising.
The girl who always joked about being an entry-year colleague, went out to eat, drank coffee, and dragged me to the smoking area every time even though she didn't smoke—was actually a doctor?
"I thought I could go to work in this condition, so I went out, but it was too much after all."
"Then you know how harmful it is to your health to drink that much and neglect yourself in your room, right?"
"I only self-diagnose when necessary. And I'm still in my 20s, same age as you. That much is fine."
Saying that with a face flushed from fever makes it sound so reliable.
I watch her for a moment as she eats the convenience store vegetable porridge I heated up.
"But aren't you returning?"
"They said they'd just process it as sick leave."
"You're not sick."
"Our team leader told me to, so don't argue."
"Ah, your team leader... Right, that makes sense."
I stand up.
I've seen that she's mostly regained her senses, so I think I should head home and rest soon.
"Are you leaving?"
"Yeah. I saw you're awake, what else would I be here for?"
"Stay a little longer."
I check my watch.
Jeong Hae-in lives on the completely opposite side of the institution from me.
In other words, if it normally takes 30-40 minutes to get home, it takes about an hour and a half from here.
It's rush hour, so it might be faster now, but I just sit back down.
"You'll invite unnecessary misunderstandings."
"So what? It's just you and me right now. And did you know that at the institution, rumors are already spreading that you and I aren't just an ordinary pair?"
"I don't need to live listening to bullshit."
Jeong Hae-in finishes the rest of the porridge.
Seeing her set the empty bowl down with a thud, I stand up.
She, who usually looks so strong even while cursing the team leader, looks weak today, so for some reason, I feel a bit more concerned.
"But you're really good at cleaning. I can't believe a guy did this."
"Maybe it's because you don't live clean usually?"
"You're such a pain even when I compliment you."
Click-.
The washing machine stops.
Judging by the sound of water filling, it's not finished washing, but Jeong Hae-in asks me, "What, did you run the laundry too?"
"Just your outerwear. Wash your underwear yourself."
"If you were going to wash them, you should have washed the underwear first. I just wear my outerwear again if it doesn't smell."
"That's gross. Wash your outerwear too."
"You're surprisingly neat. You always look like you just throw yourself together with that messy hair, so this is unexpected."
I sigh as I look at her, her expression one of surprise as if hearing this for the first time.
I reach out and place my hand on her forehead, and Jeong Hae-in says to me, "The thermometer is in that drawer."
Her forehead feels a bit hot, but the thermometer has gone down significantly and is pointing to 37.2 degrees.
"What the, the thermometer says it's normal, but why are you hot?"
"That's what I mean, it's not normal yet."
"Judging by how you're talking, it seems like you're all better, though."
Then there was silence for a moment.
It was because neither she nor I had ever met in a private setting like this.
And even less reason to enter each other's homes.
"Why aren't you working as a doctor and instead getting picked on at the institution?"
Even though she asked me to stay a little longer, we had nothing to talk about, so I just brought up anything.
The problem was that the topic I brought up happened to be that.
If she was willing to quit the solid path of being a doctor, there must be a reason for it, and I wonder if I asked too lightly.
"Just, I guess you could say I became disillusioned with the profession of being a doctor."
"Why, didn't you leave without even finishing your internship?"
"That's right. To be precise, it's closer to me quitting almost immediately after starting. Something happened."
She didn't seem to want to talk about it, so I didn't ask further.
I glance at my watch.
It's really time to go now.
I stand up.
The room, which I couldn't see well before, now comes into view.
A wide desk and a bed that looks like it could be a queen size, filling up the space, are impressive.
On top of that, with a large bookshelf as tall as me and a narrow square table, the floor of the room is almost invisible.
"You've decorated well."
"Really? I guess you can see it now."
"Before, the room was a pigsty, so I couldn't see it."
Jeong Hae-in laughs at my words.
If I hadn't known that she was festering inside like this, even though she looked fine at work, I might have lost my last colleague.
"Jin-man-ah."
"Yeah?"
"Never mind. You seemed to be in a bit of a hurry to leave."
That's true.
Even when Seo-na was there, I had never been in such a hurry to go home.
"Today, there's someone waiting for me at home."
"Weren't you living alone?"
"I do live alone, but today, that's how it turned out."
I lived alone until recently, so it's not entirely a lie.
"Okay."
"Take care of yourself, see you tomorrow."
"Wait a second, Jin-man-ah."
Jeong Hae-in stops me as I'm about to leave through the front door.
"Why?"
"Do you want to have a meal together? Just the two of us."
Just the two of us?
Jeong Hae-in is making this kind of suggestion?
"Are you interested in me? Do I look like a man to you just because I took care of you once?"
"What are you saying. I'm just thankful you took care of me today."
"Is that so. Set a time and let me know. I'll empty Jeong Hae-in's wallet."
She chuckles and waves me off.
The quiet engine sound of her domestic sedan, which she hadn't bought that long ago, reaches my ears.
I thought about staying a little longer, but I head home, remembering the message Se-na sent in the morning.
The road feels particularly congested today.
According to the estimated time, I should have arrived by 6 o'clock.
'Se-na must be at home.'
As soon as I thought about the person who must be waiting for me at home right now, a phone call came in, scarily enough.
- Oppa, oppa! When are you coming today? Oh, what is this. Aren't you at work? It's a bit noisy?
"Something came up, so I finished early. I'll be home by 6."
- Oh, as expected of a salaryman. Did you go on a business trip or something? That's cool!
If this counts as a business trip, then maybe it is.
Since I could consider it a task to take a sick colleague home and take care of her.
"But why are you telling me to come straight home after work?"
- I saw everything you left for me this morning. I want to return the favor too.
Is it because of the hand cream I saw this morning?
I realized on my way to work that it wasn't a very good gift.
Maybe it would have been better to give her something like a wrist brace, since she uses her hands a lot.
"Huh? You don't have to put much meaning into that. I just gave you what I received from my parents."
- Still. Anyway, you have to come home quickly.
"Alright. See you in a bit."
I drive the car and head home.
Once I get out of the city section and onto the expressway, I gain a little speed.
By the time I got off, I was stuck in traffic, but even that was less traffic than my usual commute, so I arrive home faster than I thought.
"Se-na-ya, I'm home."
However, when I enter the house, Se-na doesn't come out to the entrance like usual.
When I enter the room, she's lying on the sofa, wearing only one of my dress shirts that I don't know where she got from...
pretending to be asleep.
What is this?
Did she go crazy because she was so happy about her part-time job today?
If she were actually sleeping, I would have just thought she was tired and carried her to the room.
"Se-na-ya, are you asleep?"
I put my bag down in the room, come out to the living room, and ask her.
She, who had been rolling her eyes with slits, wondering when I would wake her up, pretends to have just woken up and sits up.
"Umm, oppa. You're here?"
But I didn't know when she was lying on her side, but the buttons of the shirt aren't all buttoned up.
Rather, as if to show it off, what's visible between the front of the shirt is a type of underwear that Se-na wouldn't usually wear, and the cleavage created by her breasts being pushed together because of it.
Should I pretend not to know for now?
"How was your part-time job today? Seeing you sleeping, you must have been very tired."
"Part-time job? It was super fun. Actually, it was my first time touching a customer's hair at a real shop, so I just watched the unnis and oppas and learned their skills, but it was totally awesome!"
Se-na gets up and stretches on purpose.
Inside the open shirt, the line from her collarbone and nape to her shoulders seems to be blatantly seducing me.
"If work was this fun, I should have done it sooner!"
"But Se-na-ya. Isn't that shirt mine?"
"That's right, hehe."
I stand up.
Fine, it's clothes I don't usually wear, so I won't say anything about her wearing it.
"It's a relief you don't look tired."
That was when it happened.
Se-na hugs my arm into her embrace.
"Oppa, with such a pretty younger sister here, surely you're not going to just get up indifferently, right?"
"We have to eat dinner."
"We can eat dinner a little later."
The front of the shirt opens, and the bra Se-na is wearing, which I hadn't paid much attention to, comes into view.
I hold my breath for a moment.
The bra she's wearing is the kind that would fall into the category of so-called "battle lingerie," made so that the part covering the breasts can be opened using a slightly large bead as a button.
"You know the classic 'Three Choices for Newlyweds,' right, oppa? But right now, there's only one choice."
Se-na licks her lips.
"Y-you, it's troublesome if you do this so suddenly!"
"It's because of you, oppa. Actually, I wanted to do it after having a drink with you yesterday, but you were on the phone with another woman."
"Ugh..."
"And actually, after doing it with you, I think I've developed a strange sense of sexual frustration."
Se-na climbs onto my lap.
"So, don't you think there's something to eat before dinner?"
The crotch of my pants, stroked by her small hands, is already bulging.
"Se-na-ya......?"
"Why does our oppa's body smell like another bitch's? Even though you're my partner."
However, above the bulging crotch of my pants, eyes like blades were watching me.