The Pad Overflowed...
Dr. Baek Ah-rin and I started boarding through the gate. It was a weekday in the off-season, so the plane was blessedly empty.
"Whoa, so this is how you get on a plane. It's amazing, sir."
Dr. Baek kept looking this way and that, for all the world like someone who'd never flown before.
"Hey, why are you gawking around like that? People are going to think you've never been on a plane in your life."
"I've never been on a plane even once, sunbae."
I froze.
No way...
She was over thirty and she'd never been on a plane?
...
Alright. That was possible. She was a friend who'd barely ever needed a plane on the mainland, and she'd never even set foot on Jeju Island.
I'm the kind of person who believes you should be more considerate the closer you are to someone. Plenty of people use "we're close, so I can be honest" as an excuse to be rude. People carrying wounds didn't end up that way because they're fools. There were circumstances that left them no other choice. The one who deceives is the villain — so why should the one who got deceived be called an idiot?
That's exactly what lecturing people in pain amounts to. Treating them like fools.
I'm not anyone special. But I'm not someone who deserves to be treated like an idiot by anyone else, either. The best university in the country. Medical school. A physician. We're talking about someone in the top 0.1%. Even a person like that can fail at human relationships.
What people with those kinds of wounds need isn't advice. They need someone to hold the hurt with them, and enough support to stand back up. And that support doesn't mean handing them a concrete plan. It means waiting until they can stand again. And helping when they themselves ask for help.
Dr. Baek Ah-rin was a woman with a painful past. Beaten by her own father with soju bottles... a horrific history. She'd been trapped in that past, suffering, and only now was she trying to break free of it.
The point of this trip was to give her a comma. A single pause. To breathe a little strength into her while she was in the middle of trying. And yet right at the start, I'd gone and said something that sounded like I was looking down on her.
I'd already blown it.
"I... I'm sorry. I thought you'd been on a plane before..."
There was no clever way out of this. A sincere apology. That was all I had.
"Huh...? Why are you apologizing?"
But Dr. Baek looked more startled by the apology than anything else.
"No, I just... I felt like I'd upset you for no reason."
"Nah, that's not it, sir. You're right I haven't flown before, and you're right I was gawking around like some country girl."
She looked at me and smiled. A rare, unguarded smile I hadn't seen in a long time.
"Please don't say that. If anything, I'm grateful to you, sunbae."
"F-for what?"
"You even closed the clinic for my sake and came all this way to take me out."
"That's because you helped me with my work."
"In my whole life, of all the people who ever told me they'd pay me back someday — you're the first one who actually did, sunbae."
Her face tightened, just a little. The old memories were surfacing, I could tell.
That was the truth of it. The world was full of terrible people. The kind who took whatever served them and threw away the rest. Dr. Baek Ah-rin had been hurt by people like that.
"If I got upset over a little teasing from a sunbae like that, I'd be the bitch here."
Then Dr. Baek slipped her arm through mine.
"So don't sweat the small stuff, sunbae. Come on, let's just get on the plane."
Dr. Baek Ah-rin was used to hiding her pain. I couldn't help worrying that this, too, was her covering something up.
"Why are you agonizing over something so tiny like some little girl? If the person involved says it's fine, then it's fine."
She was right. I'd gotten far too grim in the name of being considerate. The keyword for this trip was healing. And for that, I had to set down the weight I was carrying first. How much of a burden had I taken on in the name of looking after her — of giving her that healing?
Alright. It was time to let it go. If I wasn't at ease, she wouldn't be at ease either.
"Okay... I'm sorry. I won't do that anymore."
"Thank you, sunbae."
Ah-rin started pulling on my arm.
"Hurry up and board already. I'm dying of curiosity."
"A-alright, if you yank me like that..."
Even in heels that had to be over four inches, Ah-rin was dragging me toward the plane faster than I could walk.
It was awful.
We hit turbulence and the plane shook like it wanted to come apart. At one point it even dropped out from under us. I was terrified. Dr. Baek, apparently, was not.
"You okay, Dr. Baek? God, that plane was all over the place, huh?"
"Huh? I had a blast, actually. You didn't enjoy it, sunbae?"
She took one look at my face and a grin started spreading across hers.
"Don't tell me you were scared?"
That was a woman looking to tease me, no question. I was not going to give her the satisfaction.
"W-what? Why would I be scared? I wasn't scared."
"Ehh, I think you were. Your face went white as a sheet."
"R-really?"
"And look at that cold sweat. Sweating in the middle of winter... you were definitely scared."
"S-sweat?"
I dragged a hand across my forehead, and a smear of already-cooled sweat came away with it.
Ah... damn it...
"Hahaha...! So sunbae's a scaredy-cat!"
"...That's enough, Dr. Baek."
"From now on I'm calling you a coward, sunbae."
"...Tch."
"Let's get going already. It's almost noon. I'm starving."
Dr. Baek ran on ahead of me. Even in those heels, nothing about her movement was unsteady. It was the walk of someone who'd been wearing them for years.
High heels create an optical illusion — they make the legs look longer and slimmer, and the chest look fuller. Because the heels lengthen the legs relative to the rest of the body, the torso tips back not from the waist but from the pelvis, which pushes the chest out. The weight settles into the legs, so the thighs in particular come forward, while the stomach pulls in. The extra volume in the hips is a bonus.
Why am I going on about this? Because I kept stealing glances at her body, that's why.
Clothes like that only work on a handful of people. On anyone else, they just look cheap. But on Dr. Baek they suited her so well that no matter how many times I told myself I wouldn't look, my eyes kept sliding back. And it wasn't even appropriate travel wear. The itinerary I'd put together included Seongsan Ilchulbong. In an outfit and shoes like that, she wouldn't make it up the trail — I had to get her changed, no matter what.
More than anything, I hated the way other people were looking at her. I knew exactly what was going on behind those hungry faces. Dr. Baek Ah-rin. I wasn't going to let my precious junior become material for those bastards' filthy little fantasies.
"Let's hurry. Buying you some clothes is the first priority."
"Ah... sunbae, I... this is fine as is..."
"You talking back to your sunbae now?"
"Ah... no, sunbae."
And with that, I started walking ahead of her — so I wouldn't have to keep looking at those pale, milky thighs that led up to that beautiful ass.
"Good. Wear this."
I'd taken Dr. Baek to a well-known outdoor shop nearby and dressed her in hiking gear from head to toe. Not the tight kind — the baggy kind. Hiking boots, too. The trail up Seongsan Ilchulbong was rougher than people expected. Even regular sneakers slipped on it sometimes.
Dr. Baek's face said she was thoroughly unimpressed. Distaste, distilled.
"Ah... um... sunbae. Isn't this gear for a real climb?"
"We are going on a real climb. We're doing the Hallasan trek, and Seongsan Ilchulbong too."
"Isn't that dangerous in winter?"
"This is your chance to find out how great winter trekking is."
It was an argument she had no hope of winning, and her face filled with complaint. Then something seemed to occur to her, because her eyes lit up.
"Then you wear it too, sunbae."
"Huh??"
"Excuse me! Could I get the men's version of the same model I'm wearing, please!"
"Hey, what are you... no. I don't need—"
Her long fingers pressed against my lips and shut me up.
"If we're going this far anyway, we should wear the matching set."
"I already told you, I have clothes."
"You don't want to match with me?"
Dr. Baek put on the most pitiful face she could muster.
...
Augh. If you look at me like that, I don't have a choice, do I?
"...Fine. Alright. I'll wear it."
"Good call, sunbae."
"Instead, since we're already dressed for it, want to head to Ilchulbong first?"
The sunrise wasn't the only thing spectacular about Seongsan Ilchulbong. On a brilliantly clear day like today, just seeing that enormous crater was worth the trip on its own. Jeju was an island, and island weather was fickle — tomorrow might not be this clear. Which meant we had to go today.
"Yes, sunbae. Let's do that."
"There's a place nearby that does a great braised mackerel, so let's eat there. You're not too hungry right now, are you?"
"I had juice on the plane, so I'm fine!"
"Good. Let's hurry."
Still wearing the clothes we were about to buy, we headed straight for the register.
"...That's all. Please treat me well!"
On the bus bound for the Hankuk University Korean Language and Literature Department orientation, the freshmen were taking turns introducing themselves one by one.
A round of applause went up as a guy whose face was covered in acne finished his introduction. I didn't look their way. I sat alone in the second-to-last row, on the window side, and stared out at the glass.
A wet pulse.
Another.
Every so often my lower belly clenched. And each time it did, a thick gush spilled from my pussy.
Shit... I shouldn't have masturbated...
That was the problem. I'd thought no one would use those stairs, and then someone had, so I'd had to stop in a hurry. The lust I hadn't been able to finish off kept hounding my body. Keep going. Rub your clit. Put your fingers in.
I was wearing a sanitary pad, not a panty liner. But I'd already put out more juices than a pad could hold, and everything below my waist was soaked through.
Ahh... if I keep this up... my pants are going to get soaked...
"Alright! Last one! Looks like the campus beauty crown's already been reserved, huh? First-year Cha Min-ah!"
The senior holding the mic ran the whole thing so smoothly he might as well have had a recreation-instructor's license. But every scrap of my attention was locked on what was happening between my legs. I hated being made to introduce myself at all. But I couldn't stand out. That was what Dad wanted.
I forced my locked-up face to relax as much as I could, and took the mic.
"Hello... I'm Cha Min-ah, a freshman in Korean Language and Literature. Please... treat me well."
A dry introduction, stripped of every embellishment the others had used.
Wooo!
A cheer burst out of them anyway. Of course it did. My face was beautiful. More than anyone else's here. The ones making all that noise were males, every last one of them. They were getting off on it.
"Min-ah! Do you have any resolutions for your time at school going forward? If you do, let's hear them!"
My face crumpled for a second. A few people on the bus caught it. Oh no. I can't let that happen. I ran through my options at speed — and then I simply crumpled, slumping forward over my seat as if I'd collapsed.
"H-hey? What's wrong?!"
Everyone startled at the suddenness of it.
"Ahh... it's that time of the month for me today, and the cramps... nngh....."
"Ah... you should have said something!"
The faces of the people who'd caught my scowl smoothed out at last, shifting into concern.
I'd made it.
"I'm sorry... but could we stop at a rest area?"
Any woman would have understood what I meant.
"Ah— right! Driver!! Next rest area, please!"
I let out a breath inwardly. I'd avoided the disaster of soaked pants, and I wouldn't have to keep being pestered by the people on this bus.
If I just tough it out saying I'm in pain... this should be over soon.
And then, once again, Dad's face rose up in my mind.
I want to see Dad already......