Rummaging.
Having abruptly called out The Man’s name, The Doctor began rummaging inside her clothes, searching for something.
‘What new spectacle was she preparing?’
“……”
His mouth felt parched, a sensation he couldn’t quite attribute to the pill or the recent release of the carnal urges that The Doctor had ignited within him.
It was as though his very tongue was shriveling.
As he pondered whether to seek water to quell this peculiar dryness, The Doctor suddenly pursed her lips, mimicking a drumroll with a series of “Dugudugudugudugu……”
‘Was she starting again?’
The Man unconsciously cast a pathetic look her way, yet The Doctor remained utterly unfazed.
Indeed, she seemed to relish his disapproval, plunging her hand into her pocket with a flourish.
“Ta-da!”
From its depths, she retrieved a small, rectangular block.
Brandishing it aloft, The Doctor proudly proclaimed,
“Behold! The very essence of modern civilization, the pinnacle of technological prowess! I present to you…… a smartphone!”
“……A smartphone?”
‘A smartphone.’
‘It wasn’t an object he had many fond memories of.’
“Oh, Mob. I truly thought you were a complete babe in the woods, utterly clueless, but it seems you *do* know what a smartphone is, don’t you……?”
Upon his apparent recognition of the device, The Doctor’s eyes widened into perfect circles as she gasped in admiration.
Yet, her over-the-top reaction was so transparent that The Man, utterly bewildered, could only shrug and retort,
“Do you take me for some primitive savage? Of course, I know what a smartphone is.”
“Truly……? You *weren’t* a caveman……?”
The Doctor smiled innocently, her words deliberately grating on his nerves.
A sharp crackle. A sudden flush of anger surged within him.
“……Of course not.”
The Man retorted, his voice dropping slightly, but The Doctor merely continued, her characteristic cheerful smile unwavering.
“Heh, I recall our first encounter. You asked this tiny, genius Doctor why I didn’t fight heroes, didn’t you……?”
‘Ugh.’
‘To suddenly dredge up that particular memory now.’
A pang of conscience struck The Man, and he spoke, his voice notably softer,
“……I already apologized for that. I was so disoriented, I just blurted it out without thinking.”
“I know, I know. I’m not trying to nitpick. It’s just that, compared to back then, Mob, you’ve truly matured so much.”
The Doctor wore a satisfied expression, then tilted her chin upward as she continued,
“Therefore…… as a special reward for Mob, who has not only served as my punching bag lately but has also been helpful in countless other ways, I’ve prepared this! This is a gift personally procured by *this* genius Doctor, with *her own* funds. You’d better be grateful!”
Accompanying her words, the small smartphone was thrust forward.
Her dainty hand was nearly dwarfed by the device, half-obscured behind it.
“Ha.”
A soft chuckle escaped him, unbidden.
‘Was the phone enormous? Or was The Doctor’s hand simply tiny?’
‘……Somehow, he suspected it was a bit of both.’
“A smartphone, huh……”
Now that she mentioned it, he recalled his childhood. His family had been poor, so he’d used the same old flip phone he’d received for free in elementary school for years.
Being an antiquated device, its inconveniences were legion.
Though a wave of envy always washed over him whenever he saw his friends laughing joyfully, engrossed in games on their cutting-edge smartphones, he never let it show, keenly aware of his family’s struggles.
His longing was briefly sated by borrowing his friends’ smartphones for a fleeting moment.
However, as if privy to his unspoken desires, one day his parents had called their young son to them and made a solemn promise.
They told him that when he grew into an adult, when he matured into a capable individual who could stand on his own two feet, they would buy him a smartphone once he reached an age where he could have a girlfriend.
Of course, that promise had never come to pass.
Yet, a single phrase, uttered by his parents at the very end, strangely echoed in his ears.
‘Girlfriend, a girlfriend……’
‘Why?’
He was certain he had brushed off those words without a second thought back then.
But now, revisiting the memory, a peculiar and unsettling confusion stirred within him.
An inexplicable, throbbing sensation.
The fierce thrum of his heart, akin to what he felt during severe illness or after prolonged sleeplessness.
‘What on earth was this?’
“……Mob?”
It was The Doctor’s voice that broke The Man’s musings, which had been spiraling with unanswered questions.
“Are you still unwell, after all? You had such a vacant expression just now……”
Her face, playful moments before, was now tinged with a delicate worry.
The Man gazed at her face, a wry chuckle escaping him.
“Ha.”
Everything had changed since he’d met The Doctor.
Past memories he would ordinarily never dwell upon kept resurfacing.
His eyes kept wandering to The Doctor, a sight he would typically pay no mind.
‘Normally……’
“……”
Even engaging in acts of release he would never normally consider.
What’s more, he did so while conjuring images of The Doctor’s body, inhaling her phantom scent……
“……Tsk.”
‘Honestly, it was The Doctor who was to blame.’
She continuously exuded that delightful, unidentifiable fragrance, constantly pressing her soft skin against his virile male body.
How could a man of his age, brimming with unfulfilled desires, possibly withstand such overwhelming stimulation?
And that utterly defenseless demeanor, constantly drawing near without any awareness of boundaries.
Truly, if he hadn’t been the one present in that moment—
No, if The Man had lost his restraint, if the thread of his reason had snapped, then right then and there, he would have instantly……
‘……Hmm. Let’s stop here.’
The Man felt as though each subsequent thought drew him closer to an irreversible precipice, and so he decided to halt his train of thought.
“……I told you I was all better.”
From The Doctor’s hand, still fixed on him with a worried expression, The Man carefully accepted the phone.
“I was just momentarily lost in thought. ……Thank you for the gift, Doctor. I’m always indebted to you.”
His words held a peculiar, subtly double-edged meaning.
At this, The Doctor’s lips swiftly curved upward.
“Hee-hee, indeed, you *should* be grateful. After all, *this* genius Doctor personally prepared it for the clumsy Mob……!”
Her perpetually cheerful face.
Had that single compliment from The Man truly pleased her so much? The Doctor’s eyes sparkled, utterly intoxicated by a small, triumphant glee.
Normally, it would have simply appeared endearing.
It was a sight that, on any other day, would have elicited a weary sigh, a familiar thought of, ‘There she goes again,’ at her usual confident demeanor.
Yet, in The Man’s eyes, which had just moments ago been consumed by profane thoughts, her image now registered distinctly differently.
That triumphant face.
Her demeanor, brimming with self-assurance despite her petite frame.
Every aspect of it subtly grated on his nerves.
An impulse to mar that triumphant face, just a little, a mere fraction, began to stir.
Why? As he observed The Doctor’s slender limbs and delicate body, a desire coiled within him—a yearning to expose the vulnerability hidden beneath her childlike exterior.
This was no longer the fleeting, mild impulse he had once experienced.
This was a raw, visceral craving. His primal instincts, deep within, hungered for it.
For no matter how many inventions she possessed, her core remained that of a fragile young girl.
The desire to simply force her to confront that truth herself kept surging to the forefront of his mind.
“……”
The Man drew a steadying breath, forcibly tearing his gaze away from The Doctor.
He knew these thoughts were deeply wrong.
Yet, despite his awareness, the vivid images persisted in his mind.
Himself, pinning her small body down onto a bed.
The Doctor struggling, thrashing in defiance, only to eventually be rendered utterly immobile.
“Ah, no. No.”
The Man shook his head frantically, muttering to himself in a desperate attempt to dispel the vision.
A strange heat, rising from his very core, flushed his face crimson.
‘What, what was I thinking……’
“Ah, but still……”
As The Man found himself adrift, caught in a turbulent current of self-loathing and desire, The Doctor, beaming brightly, suddenly piped up.
“You mustn’t watch anything lewd on that phone, alright?”
Her playful tone was followed by a moment of sharp scrutiny. The Doctor’s eyes narrowed as she added,
“Hee-hee. Your face is already red. ……You really *were* thinking such things, weren’t you? What a pervert you are, our little Casanova.”
She chuckled, raising a hand to her lips in a mocking gesture.
At her taunts, another impious fantasy reared its head from the depths of The Man’s mind, but he managed to suppress it with a superhuman act of willpower.
“……I wasn’t. It’s just the lingering heat.”
“Ho-ho?”
Still playful, The Doctor’s eyes sparkled as she pressed him again.
“You just said you were all better? So why is your face turning red again, I wonder……?”
“……”
The Man’s lips parted, but no words came out. He couldn’t utter a single excuse.
“Anyway, seriously, don’t watch anything like that. Nowadays, there’s something called 2D human rights, I think? The laws have gotten stricter, and you could get caught for ‘tongmaeum’ (TL Note: A Korean legal term, short for ‘telecommunication medium indecency offense,’ referring to sexual harassment or obscenity committed via telecommunication networks.), apparently……”
“Tongmaeum?”
At the unfamiliar word, The Man tilted his head in confusion.
“Ah, of course, Mob wouldn’t know such abbreviations, would he?”
The Doctor chuckled, as if she had expected as much.
‘Tongmaeum,’ he mused, ‘what could it be?’
After a moment’s thought, The Man voiced his guess.
“……Does it mean ‘malicious defamation of a flat physique’?”
“Wh-what?!”
Perhaps his answer was unexpected, for The Doctor’s face instantly flushed crimson as she indignantly cried out,
“It doesn’t! And why would you say something like that while looking at *this* genius Doctor? That’s outright sexual harassment!”
