Jangmak
Jangmak
[Yuhyeon-ah, can you come pick me up from school?]
[?]
[Help me. Noona's too scared to come out.]
[What happened???]
[I don't know, just hurry up and come. Oh, and make sure to bring a towel when you do.]
I got a call from noona and headed to her school.
Noona and I went to different schools, both about 30 minutes away from home.
I took the bus to the university campus and found the secluded building where she was.
Noona was hiding in the dark bathroom inside.
"What happened? Why are you hiding in a place like this?"
It was the women's bathroom, so I couldn't go in and just called out to her from in front of the door.
She cracked the door open, peeked out, and checked my face.
Her expression relaxed completely, and she stuck her hand out the door.
"Did you bring the towel? Can you hand it over? Don't come in."
"Towel? Got it."
I handed her the dry towel.
Cha Hye-rin closed the door, spent some time inside, then came out.
"What were you doing in there? Why'd you need the towel?"
"I don't know. F-for now, let's just get out of here quick."
Because she was urging me on, I left the university campus without knowing what was going on.
On the bus ride home.
Cha Hye-rin crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the window.
Her face was pale, like something had happened.
"Noona, you okay?"
"Yeah..."
"What's going on? What happened?"
"I'll tell you at home."
"......"
She cut me off, like it wasn't something to say here. I sat next to noona and just stared ahead quietly.
Had Cha Hye-rin ever called me to her university before?
She'd asked me to run errands for her now and then, but telling me to bring a towel to school and wait in front of the bathroom? That was a first.
What on earth had happened?
I looked at noona with worry.
She was hugging her chest protectively, her knit top and cardigan buttoned up tight.
I used my clairvoyance to peek inside her knit and cardigan.
Noona was going braless.
"......"
Wait, had my noona lost her mind?
Walking around outside without a bra? She wasn't some slut getting off on her nipples showing through.
What kind of disgrace was this?
"Noona, you're not wearing a bra right now, are you?"
"Kyaa! D-don't look, you idiot."
Caught without her bra, she punched my arm lightly with her fists.
Shrinking back in embarrassment.
It didn't seem like she was doing it on purpose.
Holding onto my curiosity, we got home.
"So what happened? Why'd you call me to school so urgently?"
"Yuhyeon-ah, don't freak out when you hear this."
She stared at me, arms still covering her chest.
Gulp. She swallowed hard and finally opened her mouth.
"I... b-breast milk came out."
"What?!!!"
I was fucking shocked.
Breast milk from noona again.
Hard to believe.
"It started aching weirdly in my chest every time I went to school, and today breast milk came out. A ton of it. And... it was so hard to hold back that I went into the bathroom to milk it out, but I think someone might've peeked..."
"Someone peeked? Tell me the details."
"No, it's not certain, but the bathroom door was open. I definitely locked it."
Noona told me what happened to her.
But she was rambling so much and speaking so softly that she didn't sound confident.
Noona telling her little brother about gushing breast milk.
Cha Hye-rin's face flushed with shame, like it was about to explode.
"Calm down and tell me. I get it even if noona leaks breast milk. So, real breast milk came out, and you think someone saw you milking it?"
"The b-breast milk coming out is real. So much soaked my bra that I took it off, and I wiped up the breast milk I spilled in the bathroom with the towel before coming out. But whether someone saw me milking... that's uncertain. No one was there, but the door was open..."
The more she talked about it, the more agitated Cha Hye-rin got, her voice starting to choke up.
Sudden breast milk. And the bathroom door open while milking.
Everything was making her anxious.
"Common sense says noona can't lactate. You're not trapped in that weird room or anything."
"Th-that's why..."
With noona's permission, I sniffed the breast milk stains on her bra.
It really smelled damp and sticky. White liquid still stuck to it.
Noona, you really leaked breast milk.
"Hey—I'm gonna wash the bra. Stop sniffing it if you've confirmed!"
Unknowingly, I'd buried my face deep in the bra's inside, sniffing away, so noona snatched it back from me in a panic.
The mix of noona's body scent and breast milk smell had stolen my reason for a moment.
"Hmm, so breast milk really comes out? What do we do then?"
I pulled myself together after the bra hijacked my mind.
Noona lactating was a big problem. We'd been trapped in [The Room You Can't Leave Unless You Milk] before, and we were worried we might get kidnapped again someday without knowing it.
Last time we lucked out and escaped that weird room just by milking, but who says it'll always be that easy?
Some strange phenomenon might grab us and demand something else.
Even if that something straight-up tries to kill us, we had no countermeasures right now.
"I don't know. What do I do..."
She sat on the living room floor, head down, body curled up.
Her voice dripped with worry.
Noona seemed so down. I had to do something.
"How about we eat some chicken and think it over? We were gonna have chicken for dinner tonight anyway."
"Chicken?"
Normally, no matter how down a girl is, she'll eat chicken.
Even if it's not chicken, eating something tasty lifts the mood—common sense.
I ordered chicken for noona and me.
Nom nom nom.
Like her gloom from earlier was a lie, she tore into the chicken energetically.
With greasy meat in her belly, she seemed more spirited than before.
But breast milk from noona? What the hell was going on?
When we were trapped in [The Room You Can't Leave Unless You Milk], noona lactated. This time she wasn't in that room, but still.
"Only your chest gets uncomfortable when you go to university?"
"Yeah."
"Fine other places?"
"Yeah."
"Then something at university is triggering the breast milk?"
Noona, mid-chicken bite, widened her eyes. Her gaze urged me to explain more.
"Noona, this feels like when we were trapped in [The Room You Can't Leave Unless You Milk]—not a normal situation."
Breast milk from a virgin. If Cha Hye-rin had some special constitution for lactating, maybe, but she was a normal college girl who'd never leaked breast milk in her life.
But after that room, now this—had to suspect something unreal happening.
"First off, if you don't go to university, it'll be fine, right? It only happens when you enter school, so just don't go."
I suggested she skip classes herself as a college student.
"Hey—it's finals period now. I already paid tuition this semester, and midterms went great. How can I give up the semester? If I ace finals, I could get a scholarship. I have to go to school."
Noona was worried about the weird stuff but firm on attending classes.
Finals in less than a month. Semester almost over.
Crucial time for college students. Especially for scholarship hunters like noona, who had to attend every class diligently for exam prep.
"Can't you ask friends to cover classes for you?"
"I could, but it's best to attend consistently. Bugging friends every class during finals for notes and stuff is a hassle for them..."
Yeah, even I'd rather go myself than beg friends.
"Then what if breast milk leaks while you're in class next time?"
"It'll happen again?"
"Symptoms worsen every time you go to school, right? It'll happen next time too."
"What do I do then, Yuhyeon-ah?"
"What do you mean? If you gotta go to class no matter what, milk the breast milk beforehand and go, or milk after class."
"Argh, why do I have to lactate... This sucks..."
Noona pouted, covering her chest with both hands.
Looked like she'd have to steel herself to milk if it came, just like I said.
"I looked it up online—there's maternity breast pads. Use those to prevent leaks, and for the breast milk building up, sneak off somewhere private to milk it out."
We brainstormed breast milk prevention together.
"Maternity breast pads... I don't even have a kid yet."
Cha Hye-rin grumbled while searching maternity stuff online.
A girl who's never even had sex forced to buy maternity breast pads because of lactation.
"Oh, and noona. You said when you went to that secluded building's bathroom today to milk, you thought someone peeked. Seems dangerous, so how about avoiding that bathroom from now on?"
"Huh?"
Noona said the locked bathroom door was open, and she saw some shadow there.
Not sure if it was a person or something else, but it creeped me out, so I told her not to go back.
"Got it. That building creeped me out a bit too. If breast milk comes, I'll milk somewhere else."
Noona resolved to use the lactation room next time so no one catches her milking.
And so, countermeasures for the bizarre lactation were set.
After consulting with me, Cha Hye-rin looked much relieved as she browsed maternity products on her phone.
"Wait, noona."
"What now? More to say?"
"What are you gonna do with the breast milk you milk out?"
"What do you mean? Flush it down the toilet."
Thinking about it, it seemed such a waste to just toss noona's milked breast milk.
"Noona, don't throw out the breast milk—instead, collect it and give it to me? I'll take responsibility for why it's coming out and research it."
"Cut the bullshit—why the hell would I give you my breast milk again? N-no breast milk for you!"
"It's a waste. It's precious breast milk from noona's boobs."
"You just wanna drink my breast milk again, don't you? Y-you pervert! No! Absolutely not!"
Noona's face turned beet red as she kicked me with her foot.