The Unexpected Patient
"Uh...."
The doctor seemed utterly flustered by the unexpected patient. After a brief greeting, he couldn't find the words to continue. Still, unwilling to pry into the patient's personal history, he turned his gaze toward Mom, who looked easier to talk to.
"Ma'am, um... who is this patient?"
"My son."
Mom pointed at me politely, but her answer was curt and offered no explanation. The doctor's carefully composed expression hardened. The conversation wasn't clearing anything up—it was only sinking deeper into confusion.
"Ah... then what seems to be the issue?"
"Can't you tell just by looking?"
To the follow-up question, Mom replied that it should be obvious. Our eyes met for a brief second. The doctor probably understood at a glance. That this wasn't a skin problem, but a head one. It felt like I could hear his inner scream—that I'd shown up at the dermatologist's office when I clearly needed a psychiatrist.
If things kept going like this, I'd obviously just be written off as crazy. I couldn't take it anymore and finally spoke up myself.
"It's me. Hyunwoo."
"Huh? You mean... Hyunwoo?"
The doctor hovered on the edge of casual speech, caught between friendliness and awkwardness.
"Have you heard of the Beast Disease?"
I explained what I could about the Beast Disease and asked if he'd ever come across it.
"Beast...? Ah, that illness they catch overseas."
He let out a short sigh and parted his lips slightly. Thankfully, being a doctor, he seemed familiar with it.
"Wow, so it happens in Korea too."
Only then did he realize this wasn't some elaborate cosplay. He looked at me in my current state and spoke with clear discomfort. It was apparently his first time seeing it in person.
"Doctor, isn't there anything you can do?"
"Ah, ma'am. Yes... this isn't something we can handle."
The doctor shook his head at Mom's question. Of course not. I'd told her coming to the dermatologist was pointless. I thought as expected to myself and felt a small surge of vindication.
"Then where should we go?"
"That's the thing. There are no precedents for this..."
The doctor looked genuinely troubled by Mom's follow-up. He scratched the back of his head with a helpless expression.
Of course there weren't. Where would you even take a case like this?
"Hoo... uh...."
Unable to go forward or back, the doctor drew a shallow breath through his teeth. After that, only awkward sighs followed, trying to fill the silence.
A doctor's job was to solve the patient's problem. But no matter how he looked at it, there was no answer, so he couldn't bring himself to speak. Amid his long sigh, our eyes met briefly. In the end, he let out a hollow laugh and dropped his head.
"What should we do? I can't exactly refer you to an animal hospital."
"Animal hospital... heh."
They say a laugh that isn't really a laugh is for moments like this. I knew he was joking because he was completely stumped, but since it was my life, I couldn't laugh along. Still, please at least send me to a hospital for people.
"For now, I'll write you a referral. It would be best to go to a university hospital for a full examination."
After much deliberation, the doctor decided to write the referral. He must have realized this was beyond his scope, because he recommended detailed testing at a larger facility.
Right. This was never a dermatology issue to begin with. It was a simple fact even I understood—only Mom seemed oblivious.
The moment we left the hospital, I grumbled at her like I couldn't hold it in.
"See? I told you going to the dermatologist was useless."
"We got the referral, didn't we? So that's that."
Mom brushed off my complaints indifferently. She didn't care about the humiliating process; as long as the result was decent, it was fine with her.
Then who was going to make up for this humiliation?
On the way home, still simmering with vague resentment, I felt the uncomfortable stares all around me. Men who glanced over, then whispered among themselves. Couples who pointed me out to each other before bursting into giggles and walking away.
It looked like it would take a long time to get used to these eyes.
"Sigh...."
All I could do was let out heavy sighs that felt like they were sinking the ground under my feet. I hadn't done anything special, yet my energy was completely drained today. I'd already hated the idea of school, but now it had become a place I wanted to avoid even more.
How on earth was I supposed to explain this to Dad?
The second I got home, I flung myself onto the blanket.
"Ugh."
The moment I dove down, a sharp pain shot through me. I'd forgotten about the parts sticking out. In the end, I gave up on lying face-down and rolled onto my side.
"Hey, what did they say at the hospital?"
An unpleasant voice scraped against my eardrums and nerves at the same time. It was my younger sister, Lee Hyeonseo. She already seemed used to my new look. I turned my head just enough to glare at her, then faced forward again and answered grumpily.
"What could they say, damn it... they said there's no answer."
"So you have to stay like that forever?"
She kept asking questions even though she knew how awkward this was for me. The ridiculous question made me snap.
"Ah, I don't know."
If I knew the answer, would I be in this mood? My irritated reply earned a sharp comeback.
"Then just say you don't know. Why are you getting so worked up... jeez."
"You'd know if you used your brain for even a second, you idiot."
Our conversation stopped right before it turned into a full-blown shouting match of curses. I rolled over to face the wall and fiddled with my phone. Lying down was uncomfortable because of my curled tail, and lying face-down was uncomfortable because of my chest. The best compromise I'd figured out was lying on my side.
While I lay there with my back to Hyeonseo for a while, a suspicious click echoed through the room.
"What are you doing?"
My head whipped around at the sound. I asked the girl who was pointing her phone camera straight at me.
"Gonna post it on the community I use."
"Cut the bullshit and delete it right now!"
Hyeonseo had taken my picture without warning and was talking about uploading it to SNS. At the insane suggestion I yelled at her to delete it, but she ignored me completely and walked out of the room like she was making a getaway.
I scrambled up from my lying position and chased after her, but Hyeonseo had already thrown open the front door.
"Hey! If you actually upload that, you're dead!"
"Yeah, no~!"
My voice rang loudly down the apartment hallway. I could have run out and caught her, but I didn't want to go through all that hassle for one stupid photo. No matter how dumb she was, she wouldn't upload a picture of our actual house... right? Though I'd heard crazy people could pinpoint your exact location from window reflections alone.
I closed the front door while still glaring after Hyeonseo. Mom, who had heard the commotion late, asked with a blank stare.
"Why the sudden screaming?"
"...It's nothing."
If I told her, she'd just lecture me about fighting with my sister again. I brushed off the quarrel like it was nothing, grabbed my phone, and trudged back to my spot. I lay down on my side again.
Just let her try posting it anywhere. I'd tear up every single one of her photo cards.
While Hyeonseo was out playing with her friends, I skipped my usual game and started searching for more information about the Beast Disease on the computer instead. Phones and PCs weren't that different these days, but a proper screen was still better for research.
But no matter how much I looked, nothing changed. If even famous overseas doctors couldn't cure it, what could an ordinary patient like me possibly find?
Above all, there were barely any Korean documents. They said there were almost no cases in Korea, and every news article I found was about incidents overseas. Even among those rare cases, ones where the person's gender had changed were practically nonexistent.
In other words, a rare case among rare cases.
I'm going to lose my mind.
I hadn't even turned on my usual game. I was just searching for information on the Beast Disease, but nothing useful came up. Even sitting in the chair, my squished tail was incredibly annoying.
Why does this tail have to be so pointlessly big and long...
I swallowed my complaints and reached behind me. I pulled my tail out from between the armrests and leaned back comfortably. That was a little better.
I should just play games.
After dozens of minutes spent digging through search results even after giving up on the game, I decided nothing would change no matter how hard I tried. In the end, it was just another day of booting up my usual game.
What was I supposed to tell Dad? Those worries and thoughts—for now, I let them all drift away beyond the monitor.
While I was deeply immersed in the game for a while—
"Hyeeeek—!"
Suddenly Mom's startled cry pierced my ears. The moment I was yanked out of the game and back to reality, I saw her standing right behind me.
"What? What's wrong?"
I was startled by Mom's sudden fuss for only a second.
"What do you mean what's wrong? Look at the floor!"
"The floor...?"
At her scolding I looked down. Piles of fur were scattered everywhere. It was obviously from my tail. There was so much of it that even I was momentarily speechless.
"This won't do. Don't move. Stay right there."
Mom was practically panicking. She kept telling me not to budge, then headed for the kitchen. What she brought back was a large tear-open sanitary bag. She ripped one open with a loud rrrip and promptly covered my tail with the plastic. But she didn't stop there. She tore open another one and pulled it over my head too. A stuffy feeling covered my ears like I was wearing earplugs.
What on earth was this supposed to accomplish?
"...Mom, I can't hear properly."
"Just stay like that while you're home."
She ignored my desperate plea that it was uncomfortable and kept rolling the lint roller under the chair. There was no way to shave off all this damn fur. In frustration I reached toward my tail, but the only thing that happened was the crinkling plastic sound tickling my ears.