A Whale of a Morning

He could picture it: the plump curve of firm glutes crossed with fine cracks, the thick vein tracing down the hard inner thigh, and between them, something long, heavy, and dark red—

The suffocating silence was shattered by the crackle of static from the loudspeaker outside the public health station, and the gravelly voice of the village captain rang out across the fishing town. It was the terror of his Monday-morning address, the weekly sermon that obliterated any lingering traces of the village's peace.

No sooner had the captain finished than a crusty old chorus kicked in behind him.

Against the backdrop of the drifting tune, Yun-seo stood staring blankly at the man's unreal silhouette, like someone deep under hypnosis.

"Done gawking?"

At the low, razor-sharp voice cutting into her eardrums, her stalled train of thought screamed back to life and burst into flames.

She snatched her gaze away from the man, who was calmly hauling his trousers back up, and stumbled a step backward.

"Ah. That is…… that is…… I'm s-sorry!"

Face burning scarlet, she slammed the door and fled from the on-call room as if the building were on fire. Only after striding straight into the exam room and gripping the edge of the desk with both hands did she manage to wrangle her ragged breathing back under control.

I've lost my mind. I've seriously lost it, Ko Yun-seo.

As she scolded herself for openly ogling a man and fanned her flushed cheeks, San emerged from the on-call room with perfectly unbothered footsteps.

"Doc, you busy?"

What do I do. Deliberately turning her back to him, Yun-seo began pretending to be occupied, fussing through a chart rack that didn't need her.

"Yes! As you can see, I'm super, absolutely ridiculously busy. Haha, must be because it's Monday. Why is there so much to do?"

"Are there no other staff?"

"Haha…… as you can see."

"Serious staffing shortage."

Despite her desperate efforts, San kept lingering within arm's reach. When her eyes swung right, his shadow crept in to encroach; when she jerked her head left, the tip of his shoe was already caught in the corner of her vision.

"When's all that busy work of yours gonna be finished?"

"Oh, who knows? Whew, seems like it's still ages away."

"That's the same page you were looking at a minute ago."

"Wh-what? No it isn't. You must be seeing things."

Head cranked away, straining to dodge him, Yun-seo nevertheless ended up face-to-face with those persistent eyes after all.

"I was feeling all stiff and achy this morning, so I did a bit of cleaning. Worked up a sweat, so I changed clothes — figured the patient gowns were there for a reason."

"Oh. I see."

"Did you see the station yard and the waiting room? Squeaky clean. I gave 'em a rough once-over, but I figured the medical equipment's the kinda thing where if I touch it, I'll break somethin', so I tucked it away nice and careful in that corner over there."

"Oh, yes……! Thank you."

Without so much as glancing where San's fingertip pointed, Yun-seo stood ramrod straight and spat out nothing but robotic replies.

This is mortifying beyond belief — couldn't you just have the decency to pretend you don't notice? Is it a gangster thing, being this oblivious? Aren't people in that line of work supposedly living and dying by reading the room?

Left with nowhere to rest, her gaze burrowed obsessively into the corner of an abandoned chart.

"You know, I've been thinkin' — I seem to have a real talent for this sort of thing. The way things just fit right against my body — feels kinda familiar, if you ask me."

A knack for menial chores — that settled it. He was clearly at the bottom of the organization's totem pole. Years of serving his elders and shouldering the cleaning duties had no doubt ground themselves deep into his bones.

If I want to survive in that world, I'd better learn to read the room first. At this rate, forget climbing to the top of the organization — I might get cut loose before the week's out. The needless worry even popped into her head.

"Still a bit stiff, though. Got anything else needs doin'? Thought I heard that door squeakin' over there. Got a toolbox I could borrow?"

"Aha…… yes. Right, of course you did."

"You listening to me at all?"

"Aha."

When she went on nodding while staring into empty air, San bent sideways at the waist and locked eyes with her yet again, relentless.

"Since you keep givin' me non-answers, Doc, I got nothin' left. I'll just work the stiffness out with some exercise."

Exercise. At that single word, focus snapped back into Yun-seo's eyes like a struck match. The scene she'd witnessed through a screen just yesterday flashed through her mind — those insane push-ups, a man testing the very limits of the human body.

He's going to do that again in that sorry state? That's not exercise, that's self-harm.

"No you don't!"

Yelling before she could stop herself, she whirled around to face him.

"Don't tell me you exercised again at dawn?"

"Course not. When my doctor gives me an order, I follow it to the letter. Lay in bed nice and quiet all night long. Feet got so sore from the boredom I thought I'd die of it."

"Really?"

"Told you, didn't I?"

"You absolutely must not move around. I'm truly grateful for the cleaning, but rest comes first for you right now, above everything. Today, too — when you collapsed, I was so—"

Worried words and indignant ones came tumbling out of Yun-seo like machine-gun fire — until she faltered mid-sentence. Somewhere along the way, the man's eyes had narrowed to a slant, and the look in them overwhelmed her, sending the rest of her sentences sliding straight back down her throat.

San's thick eyebrows quirked up as he broke into a grin. That heavy, ferociously masculine mouth curved upward in a clean, sweeping arc.

"And here I was worried I'd cracked my head so bad I couldn't speak Korean no more. Good to see the language department's still in workin' order."

He took one step closer, and his face filled her entire field of vision. Harsh in expression, certainly — but there was no denying that every line of those features was flawless, not a single thing to fault.

"……I-I'll just get your medicine sorted right away. The faster you take it, the faster those wounds heal — and the faster your memory comes back."

Feeling like she wanted to scream, Yun-seo turned tail and fled. All the way to the medicine cabinet on quick little steps, her pounding heart seemed loud enough to reach the station's ceiling.

Before long, she returned with an armful of antibiotics, disinfectant gauze, and ointment, and approached San, who was sitting obediently on the edge of the bed.

I am a doctor. A professional. Chanting the mantra inwardly, she finished her mind control — act as doctorly as possible — and stepped forward.

"No need to make it such a formal husband-and-wife affair."

Despite all that effort, the voice barged in uninvited and wiped her mind white again. Playfulness brimming in his eyes, San swept his gaze over her in a slow, lazy descent — from her medicine-laden face down to her fingertips.

"And honestly — if anybody oughta be blushing, it's me. Why are you embarrassed? You undressed me yourself. Surely you saw more than your fill of everything by now."

At San's casual remark, Yun-seo's face flared red all over again.

"I did not! I-I didn't look at that! And today—!"

"Ah — so that's why. Couldn't tell what I was lookin' at. You were starin' pretty hard, though. Couldn't take your eyes off me, far as I could see."

San narrowed his eyes, reading her flustered, pins-and-needles pallor with open fascination.

"Don't tell me you went and did somethin' naughty to me while I was out."

"What? No! Never! Absolutely, categorically not!"

Shaking her head like a madwoman and springing a foot in the air, she only managed to look more suspicious. San chuckled and pressed a fingertip firmly down on Yun-seo's perky, scrunched-up brow.

"Don't get so worked up. You're makin' me think it's true."

It was the most ordinary touch imaginable — a simple attempt to smooth out her crumpled brow — yet her shoulders flinched and shuddered.

"……I really didn't. I really, really didn't. Please believe me."

As she brushed his hand away from her burning forehead and retreated, San gave a slow nod. Judging by the look of him, she hadn't been let off the hook entirely. With his gaze still withholding judgment, Yun-seo hurriedly changed the subject.

"Um — by the way, is there really nothing else you remember? Anything other than your name?"

"Nothing. 'Sides the odd skills my body seems to remember on its own."

"Oh……"

"But this is mighty suspicious, you know. The way you keep changin' the subject — you definitely did somethin' unseemly to me. Admit it."