Borrowed Clothes
Fortunately, time kept moving. No matter what was done to you, it meant there was an end. Even if it wasn't a place where I could rest easy the way I once had in my own world, in my own home.
I supposed the most comfortable thing left was the short conversations I shared with Dahyun. At least she didn't seem to harbor any sexual desire toward me.
Minseo and Jiwoo had grown fairly close to me as well, and in their own ways they did try to look out for me, but…
Still, it was a little… you know. With those two, there was always this sense that they were watching for an opening, so I had to be careful about how I carried myself. Even when resting, I couldn't just lie down freely — I'd pull the blanket over myself and the like…
My eyelids opened. My body felt heavy.
The day before, Minseo and Jiwoo had tormented me again starting from evening. The two of them clinging to me at once, that pleasure that felt like I was literally melting — it wasn't exactly bad. Pleasure was pleasure, right?
So I'd collapsed exhausted, fretting over whether it was all right for a relationship like this to continue, and after falling asleep like that, several days later, morning came again.
Even though we were inside a sealed ship, somehow when morning arrived the air felt fresh. I didn't know whether the climate control actually fretted over each person's sense of crispness.
Anyway, I got up unsteadily, rubbing my eyes, and opened the cabinet.
"……Ah."
Inside sat a clump of clothes, wrinkled as if they'd been compressed into a single mass.
Laundry. I'd forgotten.
More precisely, I'd forgotten to dry them.
The tops, towels, underwear and the rest that had sat overnight in the laundry bag, thoroughly stewed, gave off a foul smell…
"…"
I fidgeted. After a moment of hesitation I turned to look behind me, and there was Minseo still half-asleep, fiddling with her PDA. Jiwoo seemed already ready to go wash up, waiting on us, and our eyes met.
"…What is it?"
"Ah, um, that is… I, I forgot to dry the laundry…"
"Ugh… so dumb…"
Minseo, still lying in bed looking at her PDA, said it in a thick, sleep-clogged voice.
"I told you to get up already."
"Take it slow… there's still an hour until the meeting…"
Jiwoo shook her head at Minseo, who was instead pulling the blanket up over her head, then came over to me and saw the damp pile of clothes—
"Ah. Um… what about a towel?"
"…Uh, I can use yesterday's…"
"I'll give you mine. Want me to lend you clothes too?"
"Ah, th-that's, f-fine—"
Just as I was about to say it was fine, Jiwoo turned and opened her own cabinet, pulled out a towel and a white shirt, then after a moment of thought took out a pair of shorts and handed them to me.
I couldn't refuse in the first place — I couldn't go around wearing those. Well…
"They're a bit big, but they're elastic so it should be fine. Want to try them on?"
"…Ah, yes, yep."
As I stood there blankly holding the clothes, Jiwoo tilted her head to one side. She seemed to be asking why I wasn't changing.
"…R-right now…?"
"Yes."
"Ah…"
When you thought about it, it was strange to still be hiding my naked body at this point. We already used the gender-neutral shower room together, and I'd gone too far to still be embarrassed about being bare.
So I fidgeted. After a moment of hesitation I took off my top—
"Euk…! D-don't look at other places…!"
"…Hehe."
Startled by Jiwoo's gaze boring straight into me, I covered my chest with my arms for a moment. Looking again, Minseo was also watching me even while half-asleep.
Wanting that even half-asleep? Well, it wasn't incomprehensible.
"…"
Since I had to change anyway, I picked up the white shirt I'd received from Jiwoo and set on the bed for a moment, and put my arms through—
Just putting the clothes on. Just sliding my arms in was enough to tell they were so big they wouldn't fit properly.
"…"
Eventually, once I had everything on, the shorts' legs felt impossibly wide. At least the waistband kept them from falling down, but honestly they were a bit precarious — perched on my hip bones, you could say.
"…Puhah…! What the. Look at that fashion. Super unique, huh?"
Minseo, who'd gotten up at some point and been blankly watching me, laughed like that.
I couldn't understand why she slept without clothes on. From morning there was nowhere to put my eyes.
"…I-is this… okay…"
I muttered quietly. Never mind the shirt sleeves constantly riding up over the backs of my hands — I'd seen Jiwoo wear these shorts before.
They hadn't looked this big then.
And the precarious feeling that they'd slip down if anyone so much as tugged them with a pinky was giving me a sense of resistance.
"Hmm, yeah it is a bit… Hmm. Should we try borrowing from the others? Ah, that one on the security team — isn't her build pretty similar?"
Jiwoo looked back as if seeking an opinion. Minseo seemed to be thinking, recalling that woman's build in her head—
"Ah, no!"
"Whoa."
"I-it's fine! The legs are w-wide so it's comfortable…"
"…"
Come to think of it, the two of them still didn't know about my relationship with the security team. Of course they might unconsciously know to some degree, but they wouldn't know I was being tormented that badly.
Because I hadn't told them. Even when I'd been tied to the chair a few days ago, I'd just made the excuse that I wasn't feeling well and was resting.
"Really…?"
"Yep! L-let's go wash up!"
So I roughly glossed over it. Even if I talked about that sort of thing, nothing would change, and it might look like I was stirring up trouble for no reason.
We headed to the shower room. Washing at this hour meant a lot of eyes on me, which was uncomfortable, but.
And so, back to the security room.
"…"
"Ah, euk…"
By now they didn't even bother speaking to me. When they needed me they'd just drag me over, grab my forearm and move me around, or seize my chin and make me look at the camera lens.
"Hmm… ah, this isn't easy…"
"…Let's try once more for now."
Hyebin typed something again, stroked the screen this way and that, then approached me, grabbed my wrist as-is and made me press my fingerprint—
"…Yeoreum."
"Y-yes…!"
The answer shot out fast.
"Do your clothes fit?"
"…Ah! No…! I, I. Um, I f-forgot to do laundry… so I borrowed them."
"Hmm…?"
So far the atmosphere was okay. No cursing, no violence, so if it just continued like this…
"Well. Doesn't matter. Can't you just wear only this from now on?"
Just as I was about to reply, Hyebin cut me off, grabbing the topmost button of the shirt and tugging it a little.
"Looks good. Hmm!"
"…!"
Without thinking, I covered my chest with my hands. I didn't know whether it was right to feel shame about showing my chest to others, but shame was shame.
Maybe it was simply something like a habit my body remembered, so fortunately it didn't deal a major blow to my masculinity.
"Uh-uh. You can't move? Again."
With a beeep and a white light lighting up on the fingerprint scanner, I could feel several people sitting behind looking at monitors staring at me.
Soon Hyebin grabbed my wrist again and firmly pressed my thumb and index finger to that machine.
Even though I'd shown my body every which way, showing it in everyday life like this was still embarrassing, so I hung my head low trying somehow to reduce the gap between the shirt and my skin.
Tap.
A finger touching the pants.
"Hkieek…?!"
The pants that had been held up by that weak — that is, because my body was smaller than their owner's, only a faint pressure was felt — band dropped with just that little finger play.
Naturally, from here on it was shameful regardless of gender — so I curled up and plopped down on the floor.
This time too, a beeep and a white light visible.
"Ah, come on…"
The voice from behind cut off weakly. Had they seen me?
"Ah, aah…!"
I hurriedly grabbed the pants and stood while pulling them up. My face was burning hot, so it must have gone red.
Without thinking I glanced behind, and everyone was looking my way.
"…"
"Puhah…! So they do fall down. Did you borrow the pants too?"
"…"
Hyebin's voice came.
I barely held down the anger that surged for a moment. If I got angry, that side would definitely pull out all the anger they'd accumulated so far.
"Y-yes—"
"But, you keep moving? If you do this I'll send you to the thinking chair again?"
"Th-the clothes… please don't t-touch them…"
Grab — my wrist was seized again.
"Cover yourself? You've only got one hand, so choose carefully?"
"D-don't, please…"
"Don't wanna?"
"……"
It was this kind of thing. Clear harassment was this kind of thing, so the atmosphere was completely different from dealing with Minseo or Jiwoo, whom I could somehow stop.
Just yesterday, while scanning my heartbeat, they'd tied my hair dozens of times so it took forever to undo—
Thinking about it now, that kind of thing seemed far better.
At least they hadn't played these shameful pranks, so I'd let my guard down a bit.
"…"
Of course, wearing oversized clothes was a fault if you called it one…
"If you pull them up again this time, I'm stripping you completely."
But wasn't this a bit too much.
"Doing it again. Put it there now."
At the voice from behind, regardless of my will my wrist was grabbed and led, my fingertips touching the cold glass—
While rolling them left and right a little, this time Hyebin used her toes to catch the hem of the shorts and pull.
"Kyaak…?!"
"Ah. Stay still."
The atmosphere was too obvious not to predict, so my body instinctively crumpled toward the floor again, but…
The pressure on my wrist. Hyebin was gripping my wrist tight as-is and applying force so my fingers wouldn't come off.
"Ah, ah…!"
Even if I flailed my hand back to cover my butt, it was impossible with one hand. So I spread my hand as wide as possible to cover the center—
"Ah, aah…! W-wait…!"
"Hmm! I can see your bra from here. Do you not grow armpit hair originally? Or do you maintain it?"
"Kyaeuk…!?"
Whoosh. Hyebin blowing air — wind coming into the inside of the sleeve — was proof that the inside was clearly visible.
Raising my hand — then lowering it again, from behind the busy clatter of keyboards typing away.
In other words, it was an ordinary scene.
Except for the difference that I was standing there with my pants off in just underwear, it was ordinary, so Hyebin herself didn't take any further action and just firmly pressed my thumb.
And that was so humiliating I couldn't stand it.
It was a completely different shame from showing my naked body in the shower room. The more I accepted the fact that I alone was exposing my underwear here, the more so.
"W-wait a moment…!"
"Hey."
"Y-yes…!"
"I told you to stay still? Want me to strip everything? I'll take off your underwear?"
Hyebin was standing still like a stone statue. So the moment I slightly shook my hand wanting somehow to pull the pants up, that voice came.
Our eyes met for a moment. In them — huh. There was sexual desire.
Goosebumps. Goosebumps rose at the fact that it wasn't simple teasing.
If someone asked how I could tell a gaze held sexual desire — I didn't know the method either. It just felt that way.
Hyebin's pupils moved little by little. Looking at my thighs, then my chest, then my nape, then back down to my lower body.
At least the shirt's length was long so it partially covered my lower body, but…
"Kyaak…?! D-don't look…!"
"Why. I can look a little. Ah, this won't do. Hey, wait a sec."
I shook my hand again. At some point the machine was shining white light again. Natural, since I'd shaken so much.
"Take off the shirt."
"…What?"
"I said take off the shirt. Hmm. I told you, right? If it doesn't work one more time I'm stripping everything."
Then Hyebin's free hand came up and in an instant grabbed a button of the shirt and succeeded in undoing one.
Honestly it was undone in a flash I didn't even notice, so at first I didn't even know it was undone—
"Euk…! N-no…! Th-this is a crime—!"
"Eh. A crime is making everyone here starve for three days each, no?"
"……"
Urgently curling up with my hands on my chest and opening my mouth, Hyebin rattled off words.
And those happened to be words in the direction I always thought about.
I looked behind. One person was looking this way, and two had their eyes fixed on the monitors typing away hard.
The fact that no one was stopping Hyebin from crossing the line was so sad I couldn't stand it.
Why. No matter how much it was harassment, on the surface at least the reason was teasing, wasn't it.
Even though this seemed to have crossed the line enough, no one was stopping her for me. No — more precisely, there was no one who worried about me.
"Gotta have something for the eyes at least. Mm-hmm."
Saying that, Hyebin reached out again and undid another button.
"Keuk…?! N-no…!"
"Ah, come on. Can you not ruin the mood?"
"Auk…!"
When she gripped my wrist a bit harder, an indescribable pain washed over me.
So my body gradually headed toward the floor, gradually becoming a lying-down posture, and later she completely lifted my legs and firmly pushed my calves, and with both arms I was blocking the approaching Hyebin.
It became a posture like the people I'd seen on TV sometime — in the octagon or pentagon or whatever, the stage.
Unfortunately, I'd never learned martial arts. Just like that my ankle was grabbed, and her hand even went to my underwear.
…Wait. This—
"…Kyaaaaak…! D-don't…!"
"Ahahahaha! That's right that's right! Ah for real this is fucking hilarious~!"
The moment I felt the hand grabbing my underwear trying to pull it down I screamed like that, but Hyebin shouted in a much louder voice, forcing a laugh.
No — at least it wasn't a forced laugh. Hyebin was shouting as if something forced-exciting — like having a fun conversation.
But that smile alone was absolutely not something that could come out forced.
So with one hand I grabbed the underwear and with one hand grabbed that wrist.
But it was already half down. Between the two forces pulling opposite ways, only the underwear stretched pitifully.
"Heuk…! Heup…!"
"Not fun?"
"N-nooo…!"
My underwear was taken. Even though I diligently carried out every order afterward to get back the thing that went into Hyebin's pocket, I couldn't touch that bulging pocket.
"Ah, that's it for now. Feels like my head's gonna explode. Ah."
"Tada."
"No. Fucking noisy. Hyebin."
"Hmm! Cute right. Look at the ribbon on it."
"Crazy bitch. You think I'd look at women's panties and say cute?"
"Gonna jerk off so fucking hard later. Hmm. Ah, no. Should I give them to someone else."
"Me me!"
I had the pants and top back on, but that wasn't what mattered. That is, the wind freely coming into my lower body was fine for all I cared. Just — the fact that my thing — my underwear — had been taken was shocking.
The sight of her turning around and showing it off to people, taking it out of her pocket.
I hated it so much. I didn't feel good.
"Heup."
"Ah. Fuck. Do it when I'm not looking. Did you look at me with those eyes?"
"What're you talking about. Hmm. How many days have we showered together."
The woman sitting in the chair opposite making a rotten expression… judging by how she spoke I guessed she was a woman, expressed her displeasure that way.
But the rest all either laughed moderately or were indifferent or actively went along.
"Ah, wanna come find them tonight? You know which room we're in right?"
I just stood there making a give-them-back expression, unable to even bring myself to say give them back.
Somehow my lips kept sticking out poutily, a different feeling from when tears were coming.
So what could I do. I had no choice but to go back as-is.
Hiding the fact that I had no underwear while changing clothes wasn't easy.