Nothing Good Comes of Getting Mixed Up with a Divorced Man
Ding-dong.
The doorbell to my room rang at exactly eight o'clock.
I'd known this was coming, so I'd gotten up fifteen minutes early. After last night's not-quite-overexertion, I would have liked a little more sleep — but that wasn't an option. The last thing I wanted was an earful from Dr. Baek Ah-rin, a woman who kept time with terrifying precision.
"I'll be right out."
I stepped through the door in a comfortable tracksuit.
"Did you sleep well, sir?"
Baek Ah-rin was wearing a white T-shirt and black dolphin pants. The resort was warm enough, but her outfit was full-blown summer fashion. The white tee wasn't particularly thick, and her black bra flickered into view with every shift of the fabric. It wasn't a baggy, boxy shirt, either — more like a stretchy spandex tee that laid her figure out with almost indecent honesty.
Her breasts were the product of surgery. She'd had them done while working as a pay doctor at my clinic, no less. She was well past thirty, and it wasn't as if she had a boyfriend. She didn't even seem interested in dating anyone. So why had she gone and enlarged them? I couldn't help wondering. But how was I supposed to ask a question like that? Some women had work done purely for their own satisfaction, after all — not necessarily to appeal to men.
I caught myself.
What was I doing right now? Why was I standing here appraising my junior's body?
"Let's go."
"Yes, sir."
I took the lead. If I kept looking, I was going to keep looking at Dr. Baek's body, and I had no interest in becoming a dirty old man past forty who ogled his junior.
As if the feeling of touching her when I washed her last night wasn't already enough...
The filthy little devil in my head was running wild first thing in the morning. I shook my head.
"Are you dizzy, sir?"
"No. Just still half-asleep. Anyway, I heard breakfast is a buffet at the same place we had dinner last night."
"Oh, I liked that place, sir. The food was good, and the space was beautiful."
"They probably haven't opened the terrace for breakfast, though, right?"
I'd woken to sunlight so bright it had pulled me out of sleep. The light bouncing off the ocean had been dazzling. If the weather was warm enough, I would have loved to eat breakfast in that sun.
"Eating outside would be fine too, sir."
"Wouldn't it be a bit cold?"
"I don't get cold easily, sir."
Her hand closed around mine.
"Shall we go, sir?"
"Why are you suddenly acting so close?"
"Oh — weren't we close?"
There was a considerable age gap between us. Forties and thirties. I couldn't help worrying that other people would get the wrong idea about what we were to each other. I wasn't the one who would suffer for it. Baek Ah-rin was. She was still unmarried. For an unmarried woman, a nasty rumor involving an older divorced man could be fatal.
I pulled my hand free of hers.
"Other people will get the wrong idea."
I started walking ahead. But I didn't hear Dr. Baek's footsteps following me. I looked back.
She was standing exactly where I'd left her, her head bowed.
"What? What's wrong?"
I went back to her — and stopped short. She was on the verge of tears. Why? I couldn't even ask. She was in a fragile state. I wanted to help her get better as much as I could. But this particular round of tears, I couldn't make sense of at all. What was this about?
"Sir... do you hate me?"
"What?"
The question came out of nowhere.
"Of course I don't. Would I spend this kind of money taking someone I hated on a trip?"
"Then why did you pull your hand away?"
"What?"
"Just now. You pulled away the hand I was holding, didn't you?"
Ah. I couldn't say the real reason. It was meddling. It might even hurt her feelings.
"That's... because you're young. If people see you holding hands with an old man like me, they might get the wrong idea..."
...And I'd gone and said it anyway. This damn mouth of mine. No sense of timing whatsoever.
"And what's wrong with that?!"
I flinched at the sudden volume of Dr. Baek's voice.
"Ah... that's... getting this angry..."
"I'm angry!!"
"...What?"
"I want to hold the hand of the senior I like! Who's going to say a word to me about it?!"
She was breathing hard, so fiercely it almost looked like steam was pouring from her mouth. She was radiating a strange, bristling aura — like a dragon about to roar. I had no idea what had set her off this badly, but Dr. Baek was far too worked up. Calming her down was going to be my first mission of the day.
"That's... no matter how much you like me, we're not dating, are we? We're senior and junior. Employer and employee, that's all."
She said nothing.
"On top of that, I'm a divorced man in my forties with a daughter who's already an adult. If people get the idea that you're involved with a man like that, who's the one who loses?"
"...That's... sir... I'll make it perfectly clear...!!"
"You need to put those old feelings to rest too, Dr. Baek, and meet someone you can actually love."
"...That's... I mean..."
"I don't want to stand in the way of a junior I care about."
I took her by both shoulders. Her shirt was so thin it felt as if I were touching bare skin, and my heart gave a traitorous little lurch.
"I want you to do well. I want you to be far happier than I've ever been."
"Sir...... I......."
"So let's not cross a line we shouldn't cross."
I heard her teeth grind together. I had no idea why.
"We're adults now, aren't we?"
Dr. Baek's fists clenched tight.
"Very well, sir. I understand."
"Good. That's the right way to think about it."
"You said so yourself, sir. That you want me to be happy."
"That's right."
"But you're wary of strange rumors starting about the two of us."
"Exactly. Now you're starting to understand me."
"Understood. In that case... I'll do my best as well."
She strode past me with sudden purpose. The anger on her face vanished as if it had never been there. What replaced it was a look of genuine pleasure.
"Shall we go, sir? I'm hungry."
"R-right."
I followed, still bewildered by the sudden reversal. Whatever that subtle shift in Baek Ah-rin's feelings had been, I had no idea.
Unfortunately, the terrace was closed. We ate breakfast in a stuffy indoor dining room.
"Ah, that hit the spot."
"Breakfast isn't as good as dinner, sir."
Dr. Baek looked a little disappointed — her expectations had clearly been high.
"Well, not many people sit down to a serious meal first thing in the morning... they usually keep breakfast on the lighter side."
"I was hoping for the steak they served last night... I was so disappointed it wasn't there."
Apparently she hadn't been to many places like this. She'd assumed a buffet was a buffet — that breakfast and dinner would put out the same spread.
"It'll be out again this evening, so don't be too disappointed."
"That's true, I suppose."
She broke into a wide smile.
"Anyway, sir, the weather is far too nice. How about a walk?"
The truth was, I'd been wanting a walk myself. The sunlight pouring down was so beautiful I wanted to feel it on my skin. And, of course, I'd overdone it a little at breakfast, so I could use the exercise.
The plan for today was to rest a bit after breakfast, then spend the entire day at the resort pool. Swimming was a fairly demanding activity. A light walk, a nap, and then into the water seemed like the right order of things.
"Sure. Sounds good."
"Then I'll go put something on over this, sir."
"Yeah. I should throw something on too."
No matter how warm the sunlight, no matter that this was the balmy south — even if the traditional calendar had already marked Rain Water, the first breath of spring — February was still February. It would still be cold outside.
"Wait just a moment, sir."
The door to her room clicked shut. I ducked into my own, pulled on a light jacket, and came back out. She'd gone in before me, so I'd expected her to come out first — but there was still no sign of her. Well. Her outfit had looked freezing. She was probably changing into something warmer.
The door to her room opened.
"Shall we go, sir?"
...Huh?
What?
She was wearing the same thing. The dolphin pants were still on. The only things she'd added were a black cropped puffer jacket and a pair of Crocs. Anyone with eyes could see she was going to freeze.
"Aren't you going to be cold?"
"I told you I run hot, sir. I'll be fine."
I wanted to tell her to put on another layer. But Baek Ah-rin was not my girlfriend. She wasn't my wife. She wasn't my daughter. She was just a junior colleague. It wasn't my place to interfere that far.
"I looked it up — there's a white sand beach that runs along this resort. I'd like to go there."
She'd clearly done her homework on the place last night. This trip was for her, so of course I should let her do what she wanted.
"All right. Let's go."
"Yes, sir!"
Nine-thirty in the morning. The sky was so clear it didn't hold a single speck of haze. A fierce, brilliant sun. An ocean so blue it barely looked real. A wind that was neither cold nor warm, carrying just enough salt. It was Korea, and yet it felt like another country. A clean, bracing feeling. This, I thought, was why people traveled.
"Wow...! Sir!! It's so beautiful."
Baek Ah-rin didn't seem cold at all. She was running up and down the white sand with her pale legs fully exposed.
"This...!! Running on a white sand beach has been a dream of mine."
She'd started out running in the Crocs, but they must have been awkward, because she soon pulled them off and ran with a shoe in each hand. She looked happy. And that, more than anything, put my mind at ease. I'd been a little worried earlier, when her happy face had seemed slightly forced — but that had been a needless fear.
"The ocean... it's the ocean!!"
"Dr. Baek... it's still... cold...! If you go in...!!"
Splash!
"Hahaha!!"
The February seawater didn't seem to faze her in the slightest. She started running through the rolling shallows, kicking up spray.
"Sir!! You come in too! It's so refreshing!"
Wait... what?
A sudden, violent gust of wind — and then the wave—
A large wave came out of nowhere and crashed over her.
"Kyaa!!"
It only came up to her knees, but it had come without warning. She lost her footing in it and went sprawling.
"Dr. Baek!!!"
I sprinted toward her.
"Dr. Baek!! Are you all—"
And then I saw something, and my whole body locked up.
Something that should never have been visible, showing through the slits of the dolphin pants she was wearing. A thick thatch of hair... and the flesh of her ass.
That was it.
She had put on those dolphin pants with nothing underneath.