"It didn't splatter there!"

"Someone who provides medical services must be clean."

At first it seemed like he'd been rubbing with one hand, but before I knew it both hands were rubbing beneath both sides of my chest as if cradling them. Honestly, given the volume of my chest, could blood that had burst from slightly above, from the front, really have gotten into such curved places?

This was truly a scam, I thought, and snapped my eyes open, nearly crying out. The doctor had come far too close.

"You're, you're getting wet. A lot of it's been cleaned off now, hh, already..."

"So it seems. But there's still some left."

He'd come into the shower stall with me to wash me, but I hadn't thought about the doctor getting wet. His temperature alone wasn't normal body heat. I'd half-wondered if water wouldn't even wet him.

But the clothes the doctor was wearing were getting soaked too, and before he deliberately produced that steam-like effect to remove the bloodstains on me, the stream of water ran down his body.

The temperature of his hand, which seemed to carry just the faintest flush of color, began to rise. It no longer felt chillingly cool.

"Hup."

It would have been better if he'd just scrubbed roughly. Like saving the strawberry on top of a cake for last, he rubbed the underside of my chest, then moved up to the top, leaving only the stiffened centers untouched.

The anticipation of what was about to happen made me tense instead. Finally, that hand cupped my entire chest and rubbed, crushing the rigidly upright nipples. I was grateful I'd been clenching my teeth to keep any sound from escaping.

"Ugh. Hh...hup."

"..."

The same thought that had crossed my mind when the underside of my chest was being rubbed came back to me. No, there was no way blood had gotten on my nipples like that. But if I opened my mouth to protest, I was sure strange sounds would come out. I only trembled, clutching the wet towel covering my lower half as my last line of defense.

"Staff Kang."

"..."

"Staff Kang."

"...hh."

Don't call my name. Just finish quickly. The only thing I was counting on was the lunch break that had supposedly almost ended. It felt like I'd already been in here for over twenty minutes, and the work hours still hadn't started?

His hand rubbed my chest so slowly that the sensation of my compressed nipples being rolled around in his palm was vivid. When I didn't respond to being called, the doctor's other hand snaked up to wrap around my waist.

It came up along my back where I'd been pressed flat against the shower wall, creating a gap, then slowly traveled up along my spine.

"Your muscles are very tense. Has the work been hard?"

"..."

"You haven't been at it long, so you're probably still tense from not having adjusted. I understand."

What was this? Why was he suddenly being soothing?

The steam-like smoke that had been filling the small shower stall stopped. The hand tracing my back withdrew, and the water was turned off. When the sound of the water ceased, a suffocating silence filled the space between us.

"Pl, please step ba-..."

"I'll give you time off."

Was it all over? I worked up the courage to push away the other hand still cupping my chest, and it yielded without resistance. Relieved, I tried to move away, but I was trapped between the wall and the doctor's body.

The hand that had released my chest came up and lifted my chin.

When I met those deepened gray eyes, I realized it was the first time I'd made eye contact with the doctor since entering this shower room. I might have been instinctively avoiding it.

I'd been too busy flinching away from his approaching hands, and I'd been afraid to meet those eyes that, unlike him, seemed to hold emotion.

"Time off?"

"You're coming up on two months of work, so it's time for a rest. Would four days be enough?"

Why wouldn't it be? Of course it would! Even trapped naked against the body of a male monster, I nearly broke into a grin. Time off? Time off! What an incredibly sweet thing to say.

Four days, and I could spend a day or two resting without a thought, and use the remaining days to gather information on how to get back. Since falling into this insane monster world, I hadn't had a moment to collect my thoughts, but if I could just get time off.

"There is a condition, however. Four days away from the hospital would mean losses."

"Is more debt being added?"

A breathless voice slipped out. I'd spent just a brief moment mentally planning what to do during the time off, and now I asked anxiously.

My emotional debt had already been piling up because of the doctor finding fault with everything. So what if it piled up a little more. I could pay it back, couldn't I? And if I happened to find evidence that I could escape to my original world or some other safe world, the debt and everything else would stop mattering anyway.

I'd already made up my mind that it didn't matter how much debt was added. I just had to get the time off.

"It is a debt, but one you can repay immediately. Letting it keep accumulating is not good for me or for Staff Kang."

"How do I repay it?"

I reflexively moved toward the doctor, then realized it was close enough for our chests to touch and pressed back against the wall. The cold wall against my body, which had grown warm, made my shoulders shudder. The doctor released my chin, took hold of both my shoulders to hold me in place, and bent slightly at the waist to meet my eyes.

"Sleep with me."

"Pardon?"

At first, I took it literally. That he was asking to lie down and sleep together. Even though I had clearly read desire in those gray eyes. Even now, in this shower stall with water still dripping everywhere, being touched with my bare body, I hadn't grasped the sexual implication.

"Sleep with me and share the emotions and sensations you feel, and I'll count the losses as settled. Even if the amount falls short, the four days off are guaranteed."

It was because, in my mind, the doctor was defined as a "monster." He was beautiful enough to make eyes turn involuntarily, and despite not threatening my life, the being in front of me was not human. He was a different kind of monster from me.

I had judged that the reason he didn't harm me was because he regarded my existence as less than an insect and was simply tolerating me, and I had decided I would willingly be his small worker bee and keep wriggling along.

Because if I could endure that way and survive and find a way back, that was enough.

"Don't think too deeply about it. It's nothing much. Isn't it a proposal that benefits you?"

The weight of the hands on my shoulders felt strangely heavy. It brought a coldness and a sense of constriction, like being locked inside one of those iron maiden torture devices from the Middle Ages.

He's a monster. He's not human, so how would he sleep with me?

"...You're asking for sex?"

"That's right. You'll be given four days off."

He kept mentioning the time off, as if trying to hypnotize me. My vision seemed to spin. What was he saying? Could a monster and a human actually sleep together? Was that even possible? And even if it was, was that... something a person should do?

Without realizing it, my eyes drifted to take in the doctor's whole body. A beautiful face with little pigment. But unlike me, who was standing there undressed, the doctor still had his coat on. I'd never seen what was underneath.

Monsters who looked perfectly normal often turned out to be horrifying once they came in for a consultation and showed their insides.

What if he led me to a bed for sex and then suddenly ate me? He'd said sleep together, but I had no idea whether it would be a human-style "sex," a bestial "mating," or something else entirely beyond my imagination.

"I, I don't want to."

I was trembling without realizing it. Cold. Scared.

"I don't want to. I won't do it."

I wanted to escape from those gray eyes that kept trying to snare my gaze. But was I even in a position to say I wouldn't, that I didn't want to? What if he got angry and killed me on the spot? Then I would...

"I see. Understood."

But the doctor didn't get angry. He accepted it simply, removed his hands from my body, and stepped back. As his large frame exited the shower stall, the empty air wrapped around me even more coolly.

"Lunch break ends in five minutes. It would be best to dry off and change as quickly as possible."

"Pardon...?"

"Prepare for the afternoon shift, Staff Kang."

"Pardon? Oh, yes!"

There was no coercion. As if he had simply made a good offer once, purely for my benefit. The gray eyes that had been watching me with such lingering intensity returned, as if it had all been a lie, to a gaze like glass beads.

I was so flustered I stumbled around and even dropped the towel covering my lower half, but the doctor had already stepped out the door.

Confirming that, I let go of the towel and sank straight down to the floor.

My upper body, which the doctor's hands had been subtly rubbing and kneading, was blotchy red. Now that all the bloodstains had been removed, the marks from my own frantic scrubbing had been revealed.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Yes! Yes! I'll get ready!"

I was sitting there in a daze when knocking came from beyond the nearly-closed door, as if offering some consideration. There was no time to reflect on what had just happened.

"Since there's no time off, you'll need to move more briskly."

The low voice from outside the door was composed. Even so, I felt that mixed into that flat, even voice was a hint of amusement, saying I would regret this.

My trembling hand reached for a dry towel and dropped it to the floor.

***

"One hour left..."

I'd almost said one whole hour left until the end of my shift, but I quickly changed it to try to run a positive circuit. On top of being humiliatingly washed only to get dirty again almost immediately, my hair was a mess too. Why was the ratio of difficult patients so high today? I was exhausted.