A New World
I'd escaped the packed subway car.
Apparently even a brand-new world had its own version of hell's commute.
"Noona. Are you mad at me?"
"No."
We slipped out of the station, and I kept a wary eye on Yeo-eun noona's mood.
The whole ride here, I'd had my face buried in her chest.
Occasionally grabbing hold of it, at that.
Sometimes survival leaves you no choice.
"You are mad, aren't you? I'm sorry."
"I told you I'm not. Why would I be?"
"Because I grabbed your chest."
"Huh?"
Noona stared at me with a puzzled look on her face.
"I couldn't breathe. Sorry for touching you without asking."
"Oh... no, it's fine. I'm really not mad, so stop worrying about it."
"Did it hurt a lot, by any chance?"
"Hey."
Noona's stiff expression finally softened as she looked at me.
Was she really okay, though?
Her face had clearly gone red, and her brows had been furrowed.
"It didn't hurt. And why would grabbing them put me in a bad mood? If anything... never mind."
"You're really okay?"
"I'm really okay. What about you? Did... did it not bother you?"
"Nope. It was just a little hard to breathe, that's all."
"Ah... right. I see."
She kept insisting she was fine, so I couldn't tell either way.
In fact, it almost felt like she was the one reading my mood now.
Anyway, since she claimed she was fine, I dropped the apologies.
Noona walked on, lost in thought, and I trailed along behind her like a duckling.
"We're here. Want to go check in?"
"Yes. I'll do it."
We arrived at the hospital, pulled a number ticket, and waited.
At some point Noona's expression had settled back into calm, and she was scrolling through her phone.
I passed the time people-watching.
Being a major hospital, the lobby was absolutely packed.
It was a scene not all that different from my previous life.
Aside from the fact that most of the people were women, anyway.
"I'll be right back."
"I'm coming with."
When our number came up, I rose from my seat.
Noona followed close behind.
Even while I filled out the paperwork, she stood behind me, diligently tapping away at her phone.
I couldn't tell if she found it a hassle or if she was earnestly performing her role as my guardian.
"Take this to the desk on the third floor, please."
"Thank you very much."
"Oh... um, good luck with your exam!"
I smiled and gave a polite bow to the receptionist who'd handled my check-in.
The woman flushed slightly and waved her hand.
'This world really is different.'
It felt odd for a staff member to be waving at a customer, but I waved back anyway.
Figuring that here, that might just be the way things were done.
"That little—"
"Yes?"
When I turned around, Noona had already pocketed her phone and was glaring daggers at the employee.
"Guys don't just... no, never mind."
She started to say something, but the moment our eyes met, her words trailed off.
She came over to me, tugged my cap down snug over my eyes, and pulled my scarf up to my nose.
"We need to get to the third floor."
"Okay."
Noona snatched the printed slip out of my hand.
Then, without warning, she grabbed my hand and started striding ahead, dragging me along.
"Noona."
"Hm?"
"That hurts."
"Ah... sorry."
The grip on my hand loosened slightly.
She didn't let go, though.
I had no idea why she'd suddenly taken my hand, so I studied her quietly.
"This place is confusing. Too many people."
"I see."
I'd been a bit uncertain at first, but now I'd decided: Noona was earnestly carrying out her duties as my guardian.
Like the older lady back home, she must have been worried about me.
Which was ridiculous—there was no way I'd get lost in a place like this.
It's not like I was some clueless mountain-village boy who knew nothing about the world.
Watching Jungseo's back as he disappeared into the examination room, Noh Yeo-eun let out a long sigh.
'My chest is still... whooo.'
His small hand, clutched around her breast.
The sensation from inside that subway car still felt impossibly vivid, like it had been seared into her skin.
A boy casually groping a woman's chest without a shred of fear.
The kind of thing that only happened in filthy doujinshi—but she couldn't let herself misunderstand.
The expression on her little brother's face as he'd looked up at her had been utterly, helplessly innocent.
'Then why do I feel this good? What's wrong with me.'
An inexperienced boy, finding his oversized chest an inconvenience, had merely pushed them out of the way to make room to breathe. That was all.
But Noh Yeo-eun had felt something in the touch of his hand.
For the first time in her life, someone of the opposite sex had laid hands on her body.
It was the first thrilling sensation she'd ever felt in her life.
Enough that something had trickled out down below.
Yeo-eun wanted—strangely, shamefully—to feel that electric jolt a little longer.
She'd caught herself wishing Jungseo would knead her chest freely, whenever he pleased.
That was why, when he'd spoken to her, she'd dodged and deflected.
Because it felt like her depraved fantasy had been laid bare.
Guilt. Transgression.
Those emotions swirled together in a dizzying spiral that left her head foggy.
She'd felt a forbidden thrill at her little brother's touch, and it made her feel like garbage.
'Ah... shit. The bathroom.'
Roused from the memory of moments ago, she stood up from her seat.
She needed to find a bathroom and clean herself up.
The restroom sat a little ways off from the spot where she'd promised to wait for Jungseo.
The moment Yeo-eun passed through the bathroom entrance, she came face to face with her own reflection in the huge mirror.
'Smiling? I was... smiling?'
Her reflection wore a soft, unmistakable grin.
Slam.
She bolted into a toilet stall like she was running for her life.
She'd been drowning in guilt, so why on earth was her face smiling?
An old memory, scarred into her mind like a trauma, flickered across Yeo-eun's thoughts.
"Hey, can't you switch seats with me? I'll trade you."
"Sorry. Even I'm scared of Noh Yeo-eun."
Back in middle school, at the co-ed school she'd attended.
She remembered the conversation between the boy who'd been paired with her and his friend.
She'd been pretending to sleep face-down on her desk, but she'd heard every hushed word between the two boys, clear as day.
Similar things had happened plenty of times.
Her second puberty had struck in the upper grades of elementary school, and from that point on, every boy feared her.
Her height and her chest had grown and grown, and the boys took one look at her and decided she was a pervert.
No matter how hard she tried to compress her chest and hide it, nothing worked.
Her sheer size alone was enough to make the other kids flinch away from her.
She'd cursed her own body.
Because she'd never done anything wrong.
The degrees varied, but every boy who looked at Yeo-eun carried that same fear in his eyes.
Those looks had planted a thorn in her heart that never came out.
'Ah! Not Jungseo, though. Jungseo wasn't like that.'
Yeo-eun realized at once why she'd been smiling.
She was happy.
Jungseo had looked at her without a trace of fear—for the first time in her life.
He'd even touched the enormous chest she'd resented her whole life, without the slightest hesitation.
That overwhelming joy swallowed up every other emotion whole.
For a single moment, she even forgot that Jungseo was her little brother.
She was quietly, silently basking in that happiness inside the cramped stall when—
Creeeak. Thud.
The sound of someone entering the next stall yanked her back to reality in an instant.
Jungseo's face rose in her mind—so achingly lovely from the very first moment she'd seen him.
Handsome to the point where she could barely bring herself to look at him straight on.
And she and that boy were siblings.
Siblings who could never be anything more.
'Get a grip. He's your brother.'
Yeo-eun scrubbed away every emotion she'd felt.
No—she tried to scrub them away.
The guilt, the transgression, the joy.
And even the jealousy that had flared up when Jungseo smiled and waved at another woman.
Wiping herself clean with toilet paper, she wiped those feelings away with it and flushed them down the toilet.
Telling herself she'd washed it all away, she pulled up her panties and trousers.
'I need to keep myself in check.'
She'd have to be stricter with her little brother from now on.
That resolution, in truth, came from a need to police herself.
She straightened the goofy grin melting across her face, steadied her voice, and turned her back on her own heart.
Because it was the right thing to do.
Because she refused to let Jungseo see the ugly truth of her.
But Yeo-eun didn't know.
She didn't know that the moment she stepped out of that bathroom, thinking of Jungseo, her body was already reacting.
That the lower half she'd scrubbed so clean was already growing slick and wet all over again.
We made the rounds of several floors for the basic examinations and booked my next check-up appointment.
A handful of the routine tests could be done today, but certain ones required preparation ahead of time.
Now we were on our way out after my final round of vaccinations.
As it turned out, my medical records already showed that I'd received the mandatory shots, which let things wrap up a little faster than expected.
'Where did she go?'
Noona, who'd said she'd wait on the bench, was nowhere to be seen.
She'd probably stepped away for a moment to take care of something.
Come to think of it, I needed to pee too, so I went looking for a restroom myself.
Strangely enough, the men's restroom was tucked away in the most remote corner imaginable.
After finally hunting it down and taking care of business, I headed back toward where Noona should have been waiting.
'Maybe it's not this way?'
Standing before the skybridge that connected two of the hospital wings, I conceded defeat.
The fact that I was well and truly lost.
I'd wandered around for quite a while trying to find my way.
But I had no memory of crossing any skybridge like this one.
How on earth had that happened?
"Um... are you having some trouble?"
"I think I'm lost."
Had I looked strange, just standing there frowning in confusion?
A nurse nearby spoke up to me.
"Where are you trying to get to?"
"The lobby by the elevators."
"There are three elevator banks, though...."
"It was in front of a room marked 11C."
"Ahh, then shall we go together? I'll walk you."
A woman who looked to be in her late twenties held out her hand.
I hesitated for a moment, then took the kind nurse's hand.