Turning Trash into Trees...
Spun through every examination they could think of, I opened the door and had no choice but to collapse, limp, onto the cold floor. I couldn't take another second of this. It was my own private declaration of strike.
They'd moved me out of the isolation room into yet another room that might as well have been isolation—except this one, at least, had a bed and a TV. I liked it anyway, because it sat close to the lab. If they'd sent me back to the isolation room a thirty-minute walk away, I'd already made up my mind to lie down on the ground and resist to the death.
I was just about to climb onto the plush-looking bed in the middle of the room when someone seized my arm. I turned my head, and there was Kim Bora's face. Right—Kim Bora had been assigned to trail me like a manager and keep me under constant observation. She scolded me the way you'd scold a child caught doing something forbidden.
"Hana! You can't climb up there while you're filthy!"
She had a point. I didn't think I'd washed even once since I got here. They'd done nothing but run me in circles through tests, and my clothes and my state of cleanliness were exactly as they'd been inside the gate. But so what if I was dirty? Even if I soiled the bed and the pillow, I wouldn't be the one cleaning them—the researchers would! I hadn't done a single thing!
That settled it. I shook off the arm holding me and bolted for the bed. Through every humiliation of those earlier exams, all I'd been waiting for was the chance to get up on it. A bed that existed for me alone.
Pat-pat-pat-pat!
Sadly, my short legs were no match for Kim Bora's long ones. I hadn't taken more than a few steps before she caught me, hoisted me up, and left me dangling from her side. I couldn't overpower that strength. I had no choice but to be hauled off somewhere, and for one thing, my feet weren't even touching the floor. With my feet off the ground, there was nothing I could do.
I kicked in a wordless plea to be put down, but Kim Bora subdued me with a single word.
"Tsk!"
"Eeeeeeng!"
I wailed with all the heartbreak I could muster, but Kim Bora didn't so much as flinch. She dragged me straight out of the room. No—my cozy bed! My fluffy pillow! My healing life!
"Hana. You have to close your eyes, okay? Don't open them until I say you can!"
Kim Bora apparently had the nerve to think I was a child she could reason with. In my current state, I had no desire to act like I understood a word. If I let on that I did, she'd only pile more annoying chores on me. So, out of pure rebellion, I opened my eyes. Life was meant to be lived like a rebel.
Hot water poured over my head, and the shampoo foam on my hair washed straight down with it.
"Eeeeeeeeng!"
Shampoo had gotten in my eyes, and I had no choice but to scream in agony. If I'd known this would happen, I would have kept them shut! My eyes burned, and tears leaked out in streams. It was an unavoidable phenomenon once shampoo got in them. Sure enough, rebels took the iron hammer.
"I told you not to open them!"
Even as she said it, Kim Bora massaged my scalp with her shampoo-slick hands, and it felt wonderful. The relief was so good I thought my soul might leave my body. Somehow, having someone work my scalp directly with their hands felt sharper and more refreshing than any rubdown of the back or shoulders.
When she poured water over me again, I squeezed my eyes shut this time. Thankfully, the shampoo didn't get in them again.
Kim Bora was washing me in a white T-shirt and pants that were... dolphin shorts? Something along those lines. When she'd first tried to take my clothes off, I'd dodged for dear life, but in a cramped space, with a body this small, it was a fight I couldn't win. So I had no choice but to let myself be caught. If I had to wash anyway, better to wash with a pretty woman. Washing with that muscle-bound Park Deokgu I'd seen before was absolutely out of the question.
"Why is Hana so cute? I wish you were my kid~ I just want to snatch you up and take you home."
Hearing a child-kidnapping remark delivered so vividly right beside me, my whole body trembled. Kim Bora was probably only saying it because she was fond of me, but I was not fond of it at all. The test results from earlier had already told me I wasn't human. I had no idea what she'd do if she took me home. The reverse side of a kind person always hid a cruel nature.
"Okay, you can open your eyes now~"
The warm water pouring from the shower stopped, and I got my eyes back. Fortunately the mirror was clouded with steam, so my reflection didn't show. This body was dangerous in more ways than one. I had to be careful.
I tried to make a break for the door, but Kim Bora, who'd seen it coming, caught me. Every time I tried to run, she nabbed me with uncanny precision. I was starting to think she should have been a police officer, not a researcher.
"Now we wash your body~"
Right. I'd only washed my hair. I hadn't washed my body yet. Kim Bora picked up the bath towel draped over the shower and went to squeeze out some body wash.
Tuk. Tuk.
"It's all gone."
With that, she picked up the empty bottle and headed for the door. There was only one door, so my escape routes were limited. If there'd at least been an open window, I might have aimed for that. The window here had iron bars set into it, and this body was F-rank in strength. To exaggerate only a little, I didn't even have the strength to crumple a piece of paper properly.
"Get in the tub first and play with the duck."
Kim Bora stepped out of the bathroom to fetch more body wash, opened the door, and vanished somewhere. My gaze went bleak. I was someone who'd been brought here by force. I had every right to escape.
I poked at the duck toy floating in the tub and thought about how to get out. Fetching a new bottle of body wash would probably mean going a good distance from the bathroom.
Tuk, tuk.
This was... actually kind of fun?
When I squished the duck, air hissed out along with a quack-quack. It was secretly addictive. How had anyone managed to make a toy this fun? I played with it without even noticing the time pass, and while I was lost in it there came a rattle, and Kim Bora appeared.
This couldn't be. My plan to slip away in the gap while she was gone! My escape had been reduced to nothing by her wicked, attention-stealing artifact. She was a master of bewitchment magic. Otherwise there was no reason my eyes would have been stolen by a rubber duck like this.
"Come on, out of the tub. Time to wash~"
I fought desperately not to come out, but I couldn't beat Kim Bora's strength. And so I got body-washed into a complete mess. As the hot water sprayed over me, I swore that next time I would absolutely not lose. Taking that spray, I also noticed, oddly, that my thirst was easing. I hadn't drunk a drop, so why was my thirst going away...?
I still didn't understand my own body. I'd have to figure it out slowly, as I lived.
"Huh? Was there always this little water in the tub?"
Once she'd finished washing Hana, Kim Bora came back to the tub to clean up—and the water in it was wrong. She'd filled it nearly to the brim, and already close to half of it was gone. It wasn't as if Hana weighed enough to make it overflow, so water vanishing like this was strange. Kim Bora reached in and checked the plug. It was probably loose, or worn out with age.
She'd even told the department head last time, and still it was money, money, money. Who knew why they were pinching pennies over a single plug. She was sorely tempted to just buy one with her own money.
It's fine, though?
Contrary to what she'd expected, the plug was doing its job. The water wasn't draining because it was loose. And the color of what remained was a little strange, too. Water was supposed to be clear, wasn't it? Right now it seemed to carry a pale green tint, as if bath salts had been dissolved in it. Was it the bathroom lighting? Uncertain, Kim Bora decided to let it go. The examinations were finished, anyway. It could be some peculiar ability they simply hadn't found in Hana's body.
Or maybe, because the girl hadn't washed in so long, some greenish something had come off her. For the sake of Hana's dignity, Kim Bora pulled the plug and let the water drain. She also had the thought that this might be grime that had come off Hana's body. The girl had looked like someone who hadn't washed in months. There hadn't been a foul smell, but dirt and soil had been caked on her skin.