“Then, Jae-min, wait on standby and come when I call you.”
Yong-seok left to conduct the consultation, and Jae-min, left alone in the director’s office on standby, clenched and unclenched his fists. Having to deal with an actual human instead of a silicone mannequin. His palms became damp from tension.
With the feeling of skimming through summary notes one last time right before an exam, Jae-min continued practicing massage on the director’s office mannequin until he was called. It was when he’d been kneading and pressing the cold, squishy silicone chest for a while.
Knock knock, the knocking sound came again. When he answered briefly with “Yes,” the door opened and Cheol-hui entered.
“Did the consultation finish?”
“Yes, the customer changed clothes and moved to the treatment room. You can go now.”
The time had come. Jae-min nodded with a resolute expression.
Jae-min walked down the clinic corridor with muffled footsteps. It was when he passed several open spaces and reached the very end, the place in use.
“Come in.”
Whether he sensed a presence, Yong-seok spoke before Jae-min opened the curtain. When the situation he’d been worried about all along came right before him, his heart beat irregularly. He pressed down on his thumping chest with his fist.
After taking a deep breath, Jae-min finally swallowed and opened the curtain.
Yong-seok stood with his arms crossed wearing a gown, and a man was lying on the cot. Jae-min’s gaze reached him.
With his face half-covered by a large eye mask, he was clearly in a very tense state. His arms and legs were stiffly rigid, placed awkwardly.
The man’s robust upper body without a top was fully exposed under the lighting. Since he was lying down, the highest point was his chest. He scanned the pectorals that bulged up and down like round mountains.
‘Milk is accumulated there. That’s it…’
Though he’d thought all along that milk coming from a man’s chest was strange and unrealistic, somehow this chest looked like it could. Rather than looking completely hard because it was so round, it gave a fluffy feeling. It was also like a balloon inflated full of air and swollen round.
His lower body was covered with a blanket, but because the patient’s height was quite tall, the blanket couldn’t hide his feet, which stuck out into the air beyond the bed.
“The person who will give you a massage has arrived. After examining with ultrasound, this person will help alleviate your pain.”
Yong-seok explained in a gentle tone and glanced at Jae-min. Jae-min nodded and scanned the man.
‘He really… looks like Kang Hyun-woong.’
Though he couldn’t see the face, the large bear-like build and short hair were exactly like that. It was when he moved his arm to put on new latex gloves while narrowing his brow.
“You heard, right, patient Kang Hyun-woong?”
Yong-seok added a word. At that call, Jae-min sharply inhaled. Like a program that had lagged, Jae-min froze for 3 seconds. It felt like he’d been flicked from reality into space.
Having sent his soul to a weightless space, Jae-min, who barely grabbed the lifeline of reason, widened his eyes. He looked at the patient lying down once, at Yong-seok making a business smile once, and again at the naked patient once more.
It wasn’t someone who resembled him. It was that annoying Kang Hyun-woong himself.
“Kkkeok…!”
As if lightning had struck his waist, Jae-min opened his mouth wide and made a strange sound. Yong-seok, startled by it, turned to look at him and put his finger to his lips.
“Shh.”
At the signal to close his mouth, Jae-min pressed his lips tightly with his palm. Yong-seok picked up the ultrasound examination device he’d set up in advance with a relaxed movement. Jae-min backed away hesitantly.
“Right now… are you doing an ultrasound examination?”
That’s when Hyun-woong, who had been keeping his mouth tightly shut all along, asked. The voice was undoubtedly Kang Hyun-woong’s too. Jae-min, shocked, flinched his shoulders while covering his mouth.
“Yes, are you nervous? The massage therapist needs to check with ultrasound how the inside of your chest is right now to give appropriate treatment.”
“…Yes.”
“I’ll start the ultrasound examination.”
Yong-seok squeezed out ultrasound examination gel and applied it to the machine. Then he pulled over a simple chair to sit, and placed the device on Hyun-woong’s dark chest.
“Ugh.”
When the examination machine with cold gel touched him, Hyun-woong flinched and trembled.
“See here? If you look, you can see the white clumped parts, right.”
At Yong-seok’s calm call, Jae-min hastily turned his gaze. The inside of the chest was being captured on the monitor. As Yong-seok said, something like a whitish cotton ball was caught between the black background. It looked exactly like a space photo.
“This is all secretions that haven’t been discharged and have accumulated, causing pain.”
Yong-seok looked back at Jae-min and gestured with his eyes toward the monitor as if to look properly.
“In other words… ‘milk.’ The pain can be called engorgement.”
At the explicit word, he could feel Hyun-woong reacting. Jae-min glanced at Hyun-woong. His nape had flushed reddish. He seemed to feel ashamed.
‘Well. It must be embarrassing.’
A strange sensation arose like tickling below the navel with a thin thread. Jae-min properly put on the latex gloves, then checked the monitor again.
“Then, I’ll leave the rest to the massage therapist. The massage will proceed for about 30 minutes. If you’re in a lot of pain or have any discomfort, please tell us anytime.”
Yong-seok got up from the chair. Jae-min grabbed the arm of Yong-seok, who was about to lightly leave the space, and whispered with a serious expression.
“Am I really doing this alone?”
The sound was almost inaudible, so he conveyed the words only through lip movements. Yong-seok looked at Jae-min intently, then gave a thumbs up. Though there was no answer in return, his eyes were shouting ‘Yes, handle it yourself!’
Eventually Yong-seok left. Jae-min looked blankly at Yong-seok’s departing back, then turned around with a creak.
Hyun-woong was lying obediently without knowing anything. His chest, from which the ultrasound gel had been wiped, shone moistly under the lighting.
‘…Finding out I’m massaging a man’s chest is shocking enough, but that person being my ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend.’
It really was one disaster after another. But thinking about the part-time job he’d decided to do and the money he’d already received, it was unavoidable. Jae-min walked trudgingly and stood next to Hyun-woong.
Hyun-woong’s broad shoulders, fully tense, were stiffly curled. His ears and neck remained reddened.
Again, Kang Hyun-woong’s situation—lying on a cold clinic bed with his eyes covered, having to entrust his chest to the hands of a same-age man he disliked—seemed even more pitiful than his own.
Of course, he right now had no idea that the massage therapist’s identity was Lim Jae-min, a same-age person attending the same university.
‘How did this bastard end up with milk in his chest?’
Jae-min, clicking his tongue inwardly, squeezed oil onto his latex-gloved hands. He rubbed both hands to spread it evenly.
“Then, I’ll proceed with the massage.”
Though his eyes were covered, thinking he might immediately recognize who it was if he heard the voice, Jae-min deliberately raised his voice as much as possible. It was a voice and tone completely different from usual, but just in case, he immediately checked on Hyun-woong, but seeing there was no particular reaction, it seemed he didn’t care about such things.
“Please tell me right away if it hurts.”
Delivering words he’d only heard at dental treatments, Jae-min approached closely and stretched out his arms. And it was when he gently wrapped Hyun-woong’s robust chest and held it as if supporting from below.
“Ugh!”
“Does it hurt?”
Hyun-woong sharply contracted his body in pain. Jae-min, startled by the more intense reaction than expected, immediately removed his hand.
“I haven’t even pressed hard yet.”
Almost no force had gone in. Flustered, Jae-min checked on Hyun-woong’s reaction. This time he poked with his finger. The round chest sank in.
“Ngh!”
Even though half was covered by the eye mask, he could tell the face had scrunched up.
‘Huh.’
It was very interesting that he, who had been like a sturdy rocky mountain, reacted to every poke. Jae-min hesitated, then slightly squeezed the side chest again.
“Ahugh!”
Hyun-woong reacted immediately again. This time his legs also moved. Jae-min, eyes sparkling brightly, this time pressed down on the chest with both hands.
“Ah! Wait a moment!”
Eventually Hyun-woong couldn’t stand it and grabbed Jae-min’s wrist to remove it from his chest. Jae-min, whose arm had been grabbed, froze with a gasp.
‘Is he going to throw a fit?’
Hyun-woong, who on campus had acted like a growling beast, came to mind. If he threw off the eye mask, he should turn around and run away immediately; if he acted rudely, he should call someone. It was when Jae-min was going through the manual for dealing with an angry wild beast in his head.
Hyun-woong gasped and let go of Jae-min’s wrist.
