Beware of Mom

"Haah... what am I supposed to do about this..."

Men's Protection Center, Special Examination Room No. 2. In the small office tucked away at the back, a woman sat with her head clutched in both hands, plainly at her wit's end.

The most famous teacher at the Center, and lead researcher of the Anomalous Male Observation Team—Noh Byunghun. She was in the middle of inventing a way to get her research subject, Inkyu-gun, home in one piece.

Why? Couldn't she simply send him on his way?

Absolutely not.

A little on the lean side, perhaps, but warm-featured and tall. Far from hating women, he showed them genuine fondness, and he could carry a conversation with the opposite sex without a single stumble. He was nothing like the petite, pretty men of the present day.

One strange stone, laid by itself inside a box of nothing but pretty jewels. There was no way it wouldn't catch the eye.

Turn that human ovulation inducer loose outside—the kind that set a womb stirring—and there was no telling what would follow. A nightmare in which every woman in the district transformed into an egg dispenser. All the more reason to be careful.

But news of Inkyu-gun's discharge had already leaked onto the staff bulletin board, and women had even begun loitering around the front gate. She had to get him out during the hour when as few eyes as possible would be watching.

—Click.

As if her mind were made up, Teacher Noh lifted the receiver from the desk.

The hour was 3:00 a.m. Leaving Special Examination Room No. 2, Noh Byunghun first woke Ryuah, who had been stealing a nap in the staff lounge. Next was Seo Do-hwa, waiting on her son in the family waiting room. Last of all was Inkyu-gun himself. Every step of it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had to be carried out in secret, before dawn.

Five minutes after my discharge. In the end, I was packed into a black van and on my way home. Escort ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cars clung to us front and back, with support-team staff at the wheel on top of that. They said the world outside was dangerous for men, but did they really need to go this far before dawn...?

I'm just going home...

And thanks to the two women seated on either side of me, my arms were in imminent danger of being torn clean off.

Teacher Ryuah had my right arm hugged into her chest, and the happiness on her face showed no sign of fading.

"Teacher Ryuah. I've even got my seat belt on. Don't you think you could let go of me soon?"

"This is part of my duties too, so I can't help it. Please understand~"

The right arm, I surrendered. I was just about to ask Mom, who had hold of the left—

A face white as snow pushed in from the other side of my vision. Close enough that I could feel the breath she let out.

"Why didn't you ask Mom first? Hm? My son?"

"Um... Teacher Ryuah was squeezing so tight it felt like the blood had stopped."

Mom whipped her head aside with a faintly sulky look. Even so, she pulled my arm in and hugged it harder.

My poor arm, swallowed whole in the soft cleft of her breasts. Skin against skin with nothing but a single thin dress between them—the thought alone made me warm.

She's Mom. She's Mom. She's Mom.

Not about to be outdone, Ryuah announced that she was hot and shrugged off the cardigan she'd been wearing, baring her own cleavage. A sweet body-scent tangled with the heat of three people and filled the car.

Torture. What was a man supposed to do in a situation like this? I could hardly throw myself on the both of them like the lead in some dirty comic. Bear it. Bear it.

How many times did I run through the national anthem just to keep my head on straight? The home we finally reached was an apartment I had never seen before.

"Haaah...♥ ... P-please... watch your step getting out..."

Maybe the car had grown a little warm. The support-team staffer at the wheel spoke to us with a flushed face.

Hm...? Someone I'd seen somewhere... And the instant a bright, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠familiar scent, fresh as a tangerine, touched the tip of my nose, the memory came back.

Ah!

"Oh, you're the one who covered night duty last time, right?"

"Do you remember my face? I'm Arin, from the support team!"

"Of course. You worked so hard—how could I forget?"

I offered it with a small smile.

"Ah...♥"

"Thank you for looking after us so late. Get home safe~"

I meant to step out on that light goodbye, but the arms latched onto me from both sides wouldn't move. The air in the car felt a little colder than it had a moment ago.

"All right, time to get out, you two..."

At that they finally stirred, and I took them up to the apartment.

—Whirrr.

Mom pressed the button for the eighteenth floor.

"There's a room we used to use as a study sitting empty, so I think that one will do for you, Protection Officer."

"Yes. I'll be imposing for a while."

"And a rule of our house. No one enters my son's room without permission."

Hearing that only made me more curious about the room that had been mine.

"My son, and you as well, Protection Officer. You've both had a hard time since before dawn. Let's each rest in our own rooms."

It was still the dead of dawn even after we'd arrived, so we agreed to go back to our rooms and try for sleep.

"Sleep well, then, Inkyu!"

Ryuah, given the room beside mine, scooped up a travel bag with underwear spilling out of it and slipped inside.

All right. Shall I go in too?

—Creak.

I opened the door, and the scene inside was worse than I'd imagined. Three locks mounted on the inside of the door—the traces of someone who had tried, desperately, to keep women out. Blackout curtains sealed the window so completely I couldn't tell day from night, and not a single thing in the room had been properly put away.

"What the hell is all this..."

On the desk sat a smartphone, a diary, and a computer. I dropped into the creaking chair first and opened the diary. The entries began in November of last year.

The line written at the very top caught my eye. Let's see... I wrote it, so I was allowed to read it, wasn't I?

"November 15... mm... Mom... why... ah.... huh?"

Good God.

I'm jealous!!

No—what the hell is wrong with this guy.

"· · · · ·"

"...Ah. But a trench-coat flasher was waiting in the alley, and she got him."

Damn it! That's horrible!

So every man in this world was living in fear, carrying around an unfairness just like this?!

Any day now, this kind of thing would be coming for me too... hehe.

"There are more volumes, but I'll read those later..."

—Click.

I turned on the computer in the room. The pretty-boy character goods arranged around it grated on me. My old favorite, no doubt. But had I liked men, too?

The sight from when I'd first opened my eyes at the Men's Protection Center came back to me. Those petite, pretty young men in that room, trading a sticky kiss...

"But... the me of right now likes boobs better... Sorry, past me..."

A moment later the desktop rose on the monitor, and a dizzying wallpaper met my eyes.

"Oh, hell."

A muscular man lay nude on snow-white sheets, both hands bound. A black silk blindfold covered his eyes, and vivid red kiss marks were left all over his body, not sparing what lay between his legs. Sweat beaded along the broad shoulders, the full swell of his pectorals, the sharply raised collarbones, and the openly bared armpits, staging the whole dizzy, breathless air of him.

Right-click. Personalize. Background. Solid color. The bra I'd glimpsed through the collar of Mom's dress had been black, so... black.

"I'm you! And you're me."

Somehow, it felt like I'd won.

Since it was already on, I ought to check that too.

"Little hiding spot~ where aaare you~ Or maybe it's the browser history~"

Found them.

I just turned the computer off. Why would I look at any more of that? I'd boot it up later, if I ever actually needed to...

—Whump.

Even so, the bed smells nice...

"Hnn... mmph... Inkyu... ♥"

Through a single wall, my name reached me.

"What's wrong, Ryuah~"

The sound beyond the wall stopped for a moment. Then, a little later, breathing—more urgent than before—came through, very faint.

Did I mishear?

Writing it off as sleep-talk, I fell asleep.

—Clack.

Once she heard Ryuah's door shut, Do-hwa was left alone in the living room. Her son had come home. The wish she had murmured to herself day after day had come true at last, and still it refused to feel real.

She sat at the dining table and waited a long while, until a small stir reached her from the room across the way. A chair dragged. A drawer opened. Now and then a mutter slipped out, and even a laugh.

Haah...♥ How long has it been since I felt my son's breathing from this close?

A darling child who neither hid nor ran. The Inkyu of before had rarely made a sound, even at home. Once he had fitted the locks to the inside of his door, he had gone quiet as if he meant to conceal the very fact that he was alive. Do-hwa knew, of course, that she herself was the cause.

She had only rested a hand on his shoulder. She had opened the bathroom door only because she was afraid her son might collapse. Changing the bedding, tidying his rumpled clothes, gazing a little too long at his sleeping face—every bit of it was something a mother might do. And yet Inkyu had reported her.

Even on the day the police led her away, Do-hwa looked at no one but her son. A face rigid with fear. Trembling lips. Beautiful eyes filling with tears.

You needed me that much. So why did you try to push me away...

"....Even so, I love you."

Even that face of yours, shaking with fear.

—Whump. From inside Inkyu's room came the sound of the bed shifting. As if she had been waiting for it, Do-hwa rose and went to her son's door. She set slender fingers on the handle and quietly looked in through the seam where the light leaked out.

Three locks. The hideous lumps of iron that had split her from her son—tonight, not a single one of them was fastened. Do-hwa's eyes curved, thin.

Does it mean I'm allowed to open it? Allowed to come in? Allowed, as before, to stroke his hair, to cup his cheek, to fill my arms full of that warm body?

Open a single door, and my son is there. He'll be asleep beneath the blanket I washed clean with my own hands, his face buried in the pillow that still holds my scent.

The day before the visit, I lay on that bed myself, thinking of no one but my child, and poured my love out until nothing was left. None other than my scent. My very existence.

"Hhh... Inkyu... ♥"

A stifled moan leaked from the next room, and Do-hwa's smile stopped.

"What's wrong, Ryuah~"

Across the back of the hand wrapped around the knob, blue veins stood up. Just like that, Do-hwa slowly turned her head and glared at the room beside his.

A protection officer. Nothing but a protection officer. A voice that tender had no business being given to a sow dripping filthy desire while her son slept.

Should she switch the rooms tomorrow? Before that—should she make it so her son could never say that name? No. She had to put that woman out. The thoughts caught one another by the tail and swelled, but a gentle smile spread over Do-hwa's face once more.

No need to rush. Her son had come home, the locks were open, and the time left to live together in this house was as much as she could want.

Do-hwa drew close enough that her lips nearly touched the door, and whispered.

From inside, instead of an answer, there was only her son's even breathing. That alone was enough.

Do-hwa took her hand from the knob and laughed, quietly. And today, she did not open the door.

Because my son had left it unlocked himself, for me.

It would be open tomorrow, too.

And someday, I would make it so there was no longer any need to close it at all.