Nightmare 1
"Tsk..." Jang Mansu clicked his tongue as he returned to the desk. His insincere attitude was blatantly obvious, matching his imposing appearance. "Ah, this is annoying. Why does the hospitalization have to be at least three days? Looks like I'm stuck with all the night shifts."
Jang Mansu kept grumbling to himself about having to pull night duty because of the patient admitted today. He had no sense of duty or enthusiasm for wearing the pure white uniform that symbolized a nurse. It was all because his father, the Hospital Director running this clinic, had forced him into the job to make him at least act like a decent human being instead of living like a spoiled delinquent.
"That damned old man. Does it make sense that he'll cut off my card if I don't do this crap?!"
Thanks to his father, who held authority and prestige in academic circles, Jang Mansu had lived without financial worries. That only made him more reckless, wasting his life on impulses without any thought for the future. Unable to watch any longer, his father had started forcing him to reform. [Get a nursing assistant or nurse license so you can at least do odd jobs at the clinic I run. If you can't even manage that, I won't give you a single penny!]
Following his father's orders, he had gritted his teeth and barely obtained his nursing assistant license—after failing multiple times and scraping by on the last attempt. Since then, he had avoided proper shifts, only showing up for grunt work or night duty when there were inpatients requiring supervision.
Jang Mansu ground his teeth and checked the chart to see what condition this latest inpatient had that required such a long stay. "What kind of illness makes someone need long-term hospitalization... huh? Narcolepsy?"
Curiosity stirred as Jang Mansu reviewed Lee Hyeonju's chart. The fact that he was only checking a patient's chart after all explanations were finished already proved his negligence and shaky work ethic.
"Wow. I've only heard the name narcolepsy before. So there really are people who have it?"
Narcolepsy was a rare condition, and cases severe enough to require hospitalization for close monitoring—like Lee Hyeonju's—were even rarer. The odds of such patients coming to this small sleep clinic were astronomically low.
"Hmm..." For once, Jang Mansu examined the chart in detail. Most of his night duty involved guiding inpatients through upcoming tests and staying at his post until morning. Cases like Lee Hyeonju's, where he had to monitor in real time and check her condition periodically, were extremely uncommon.
"Completely unresponsive even if you slap her cheek? Is that even possible? This really is severe."
He knew narcolepsy symptoms varied widely from person to person, but this was the worst case he had ever seen. His father had clearly not wanted to miss such a rare case and had steered her here for inpatient diagnostic testing. Regardless of his father's intentions, Jang Mansu felt a strong surge of interest in the woman named Lee Hyeonju.
"She looked pretty hot..."
Jang Mansu licked his lips, recalling how he had stolen a glance at the upper curves of her chest visible beneath the loose patient gown. Her pale skin was already to his taste, but the way her breasts swayed so softly suggested they would feel incredible in his hands. Stuck in the hospital for several nights with nothing to do, he figured he might as well find a little "entertainment."
"The problem is that husband of hers..."
He could tell from the monitoring equipment when her narcolepsy symptoms kicked in and she fell into a deep sleep. If he timed it right, he might enjoy more than just a little fun. The only obstacle was, of course, the husband keeping watch at her side.
"This could be interesting for a change."
Having grown up with financial security, Jang Mansu's attention had naturally turned elsewhere—specifically to women. With plenty of money, he could easily have any woman he wanted, and over time he began craving more extreme thrills. He had run wild like a dog in heat until his father put a leash on him, forcing him to suppress his urges for a long time. Now, faced with this new stimulus, he was extremely excited.
"First time I've actually looked forward to night duty."
Jang Mansu quietly stroked his swelling lower body and waited for the right moment.
I was killing time in the hospital room with my wife. "It's more boring than I expected."
At my muttered words, my wife, who had been lounging on the bed, agreed while leaning against my shoulder. "Right? When you think about it, people usually get hospitalized because something hurts, but that's not the case for me."
"True. It's more like you need to rest quietly. Want to go for a walk or something?"
"Hmm... That might be difficult."
In response to my suggestion, my wife pointed at the monitoring equipment attached to her body. The machine beside the bed continuously displayed incomprehensible numbers and graphs, apparently recording her condition in real time.
"It looks like when the machine breaks and they call a technician. Right?"
"Yeah. Normally she collapses without any warning, but today she just can't seem to fall asleep."
"Maybe she's nervous. Worried the symptoms might trigger while she's sleeping."
Just like how bugs never appear when you're waiting to catch them, and machines work perfectly when a specialist is called to fix them, Lee Hyeonju's narcolepsy symptoms hadn't manifested all day. The change in environment and the unconscious tension seemed to be keeping her body from relaxing.
"Want me to give you a massage?"
I gently kneaded my wife's arm as she clung to my shoulder. She let out a bright laugh near my ear, sounding pleased, but declined. "You're the one who has to nurse the patient, Oppa. I should be the one giving you a massage."
"Nah. I'm not tired at all."
If anything, the boredom made chatting like this a welcome distraction. While we were passing the time, the door opened and that unsettling nursing assistant entered the room.
"Lee Hyeonju-ssi. It's time for you to sleep."
Lee Hyeonju looked apologetic, as if she had forgotten. "You mentioned there's a minimum time that needs to be measured, right? But what if I can't fall asleep?"
My wife lay down obediently on the bed, looking troubled. "Normally it's best if you fall asleep without any external factors, but since recording your sleep pattern isn't the priority here, let's use this."
With that, the nursing assistant lit an aroma diffuser. The scent was fresh, reminiscent of a forest. "Even if you don't feel sleepy, please keep your eyes closed and stay comfortable."
After checking the equipment attached to my wife's body once more, the nursing assistant looked at me. "Please don't talk to the patient out of boredom, and avoid any light from phones or similar devices as it can disturb sleep. The best thing is for her to sleep quietly."
"Ah... Yes, I understand."
Contrary to his first impression, Jang Mansu gave very thorough instructions. I felt even more embarrassed for having been wary of him due to his appearance. As I moved to lie down on the simple bed beside the hospital bed, he quietly offered me a drink.
"This is...?"
"It's a beverage containing a sleep inducer. I recommend drinking it if you can't sleep. It's to prevent the guardian from making noise and affecting the patient."
"A sleep inducer? Can they hand those out without a prescription?"
When I asked, having never taken such medication before, Jang Mansu answered curtly. "Yes. Inducers are available at pharmacies. They're different from prescription sleeping pills."
"I see..."
I wondered if they really needed to go this far. But thinking it might interfere with my wife's examination, I figured it would be better to take it and sleep quietly. At the same time, one reason I was staying here was to keep an eye on whether this nursing assistant tried anything suspicious—and taking it would prevent me from doing that. So I tucked it away without drinking it for now.
"Thank you. I'll take it if I really can't sleep, as you said."
"Understood."
Jang Mansu left the room without a trace of lingering, as if he had finished everything he needed to do. His cold demeanor made me feel uneasy again, wondering if I was being overly suspicious of an innocent nurse.
'I should just sleep.'
I placed the drink he had given me on the table and lay down. Thanks to the blackout curtains, not a single ray of light entered, and only silence filled the room. Even my wife's steady breathing sounded too loud, strangely irritating.
'It's so quiet that it's actually keeping me awake.'
I was starting to understand why white noise helped people sleep. After lying still for who knows how long, trying to fall asleep, the hospital room door quietly opened and the nursing assistant stepped inside. In the darkness, a massive shadow that appeared to be Jang Mansu stood beside my wife's bed. When he operated the machine next to the bed, the monitor lit up faintly. In that light, part of Jang Mansu's face became visible.