Armpits, sides, lower back, ribs, soles of feet, groin… Won thought of examples when she was suddenly overcome by a wave of arousal.

‘Why am I doing everything this asshole tells me to do?’

Turning to face Dr. Madison, the corners of the man’s mouth moved up.

“It’s your belly button, though I’m sure you’ll get some other ‘trouble’ instead.”

“Psychotic asshole.”

“You want me to do it quickly because you’re getting horny just thinking about it? Okay.”

Pulling her top up to just below her breasts, Dr. Madison pressed the drug-dipped brush into her concave canal. The sensation of the drug dripping from the tip and pooling into her navel was vivid. Just as she thought the drug seemed to be absorbed faster, perhaps due to her mood, the brush moved.

A delicate sweeping stroke dug into her navel. Won tightly bit her lip to keep from making a sound. It didn’t tickle like crazy, so she knew it wasn’t a lie and that it was a relatively less ticklish area, but a strange sensation made her head grow foggy.

Was it the shame of being helpless as her navel was molested? Or is it just the way the inside of her belly feels when touched?

Ash Won struggled to find the answer, her bladder began to tickle and a new sensation overcame her.

‘What is that?’

Won tried to raise her legs, but the restraints kept her limbs splayed out in front of her. She tightly bit her lip as her stomach and legs twitched. A cold sweat trickled down the back of her neck.

“Hmph…”

“I take it that some ‘trouble’ has come up?”

Dr. Madison’s flirtatious voice made Won jump.

‘What the hell is this asshole talking about?’

“When you touch your belly button, sensory fibers in the lining of your stomach send signals to the spinal cord, but the part of the spinal cord that processes those signals is also responsible for signals to your bladder and urethra, so it’s hard to tell the difference.”

Continuing to gently rub the inside of her navel with the brush, he adds.

“I’m going to give you a choice, and you can choose what to do. One, stick a catheter up your urethra. Two, put on a diaper. Three, try to hold it in. Four, make a confession that satisfies me.”

Faced with impossible choices, Won chose silence. All sorts of curses were running through her head, but she didn’t see any advantage in proking her opponent. She’s having a hard enough time just biting her tongue.

“If you choose the first option, it’s going to hurt a bit when the catheter passes through your urethral sphincter. The second option, well, it might be a bit humiliating for an adult. I don’t recommend the third option because you might get cystitis if you hold your bladder for too long.”

He explained as if he were helping her. Won ignored him, inhaled, and lifted her butt. She contracted her pelvic muscles to inhibit the detrusor reflex. It was the only thing she could think of to do while her limbs were tied.

‘Hang in there. This isn’t a real problem. It’s just nerve disruption.’

‘I can handle it.’

‘I must endure.’

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to control her mind as her consciousness faded.

Dr. Madison took pleasure in her desperation.

Her bound, pitifully quivering body couldn’t have been more adorable. The way it squirmed and whispered made him feel like she was a poor puppy; he wanted to take her in his arms and soothe her. But he wouldn’t stop the brush strokes that tickled the inside of her belly button. A spoiled bitch needs to be punished until she behaves.

“After all, isn’t the fourth option the best?”

He suggested, just as Won gritted her teeth and her mind filled with the word ‘limit.’ Faced with the prospect of wetting her pants if she let her guard down, Won grasped at straws and asked.

“What are you, uh, asking me to confess?”

“I’m asking you to tell me why you are suspicious, why you bother me more than necessary? Why can’t I stop looking at you? Why is your every move gnawing at the back of my mind all day?”

Won looked up at Dr. Madison with a puzzled expression as he gave his dry reply. Perhaps it was the absurdity of it all, but even the bitterness that had plagued her had vanished in an instant.

‘Isn’t this bastard just missing me?’

“That’s… enough.”

Won started to answer but stopped. She was tired of his self-righteousness and didn’t want to engage him in conversation. She didn’t want to have to remind him of it by nicely pointing it out.

“Enough?”

Dr. Madison raised his eyebrows, repeating Won’s words. There was a hint of impatience in his tone as he rushed through the rest of the riddle.

Won laughed for the first time she’d gotten into this damned situation.

“I’m not your teacher, realize that.”

He stood there for a moment, like a machine with a screw missing, then narrowed his eyes.

“I guess you’re still alive, huh?”

“I haven’t heard of anyone who died from a belly button tickle, yet.”

He looked annoyed at Won’s suddenly relaxed demeanor, but it wasn’t any of her business. The distraction of having his attention forcibly focused on a single point was a welcome relief. It wasn’t unbearable.

He was going to catheterize her, diaper her, or shame her into incontinence, but his excitement waned and he took the brush away. He tried to break her by making her pee herself, but it didn’t seem to work.

She’s a bitch who can’t be controlled. It makes it all the more fun.

Chuckling, he dampened the brush with the drug.

“There are still plenty of places to tickle, so let’s have some fun, Won.”

***

All the patients felt thick tension in the silent room. There was a ticking time bomb that could go off at any moment.

The man lying on the largest couch in the main hall stared at the clock on the wall. Every time he lifts his hand to snap it, the long sleeves of his scrubs slide down, revealing the snake tattoo that curves around his left arm.

The unusual vibe, unruly behavior, and beggarly rumors.

The outlaw that everyone feared, who wasn’t a doctor or a nurse, looked very uncomfortable. It had been two hours since lunch. The atmosphere in the main hall was frozen.

For two hours now, the absurdity of one man’s attention had prevented the rest of everyone else from easily breathing. Except for one person.

While everyone else was stiff, there was one person who seemed to be acting as usual. A man who would look good in a suit, but in a different sense than the man on the couch. He looked like an actor playing the role of a competent, but cranky team leader in a soap opera.

The reason he is an actor instead of a team leader was simple. No team leader is that handsome in the real world. He was the glorified version that could only exist in fiction.

Of course, if he was described that way, then the man lying on the couch is also a ‘back alley executive’ who only appears in fiction… but he is a real worker, so it would be awkward to say he only exists in fiction.

In any case, the man with a mole in the corner of his eye, the team leader, also looked more sensitive than usual. It is an anomaly that a person who rarely appears in the main hall is just sitting there and checking his watch.

There was a part that made everyone wonder what the two men were doing. A woman had entered the stabilization room and they had become that way, side by side.

It was nothing out of the ordinary for the patients in the ward. There wasn’t a patient in the facility who hadn’t been to the stabilization room before, but unless they caused a major incident, normally patients just stare at the wall. If there was a major accident, the patient will be pinned to the bed and look at the ceiling.

Dropping utensils during lunch doesn’t count as a major incident, but the two men’s reactions were severe.

That’s what happens when you fall in love.

Inwardly, the patients in the main hall were all thinking the same thing, since both had confessed to the woman in the stabilization room. The newest patient, a woman named Won, is a rare beauty. She wasn’t gorgeous, but her simple appearance and quiet demeanor were impressive.

She had a pale face, mysterious lake-like eyes, gently wavy hair, and a long, slender neck.

If the phrase ‘first love’ were to be a person, she would look like it.

It’s understandable that they are distraught but… what about the patients?

As the patients inwardly grumbled and endured the uncomfortable atmosphere, their eyes met. The gaze of the “back alley executive” lying on the couch and the “team leader” sitting in the chair.

The patients held their breath.

The two lovers of a single woman looked at each other as if investigating. The patients’ hearts were pounding in anticipation of what was about to happen.

“Hey.”

It was Rock who spoke first, lying down on the best couch in the main hall, claiming it as his own.

“I’m feeling a little under the weather. So, do you want to fight?”

The patients gulped at the unexpected remark. They knew he was a jerk, but they were stunned. How could he be so straightforward about wanting to fight without even a prelude?

The patients looked to the other side at the man in the chair.

He opened his mouth with a grim expression.

“I was just thinking about something similar. I don’t have a good feeling about this, and I’m wondering if I should punch you.”

The patients were stunned by his rational outburst.

Something was about to happen!

As the patients looked at one another, Rock stood up from the couch. Gyeom did as well as if he were waiting for him and kicked his chair out of the way. The patients looked back and forth between the two men in confusion.

First, they met in the center, stared at each other for a moment, and then, without warning, threw a punch.

Screams erupted from the others in the room at the violence.

“Stop! Stop it!”

“Hold him down!”

“Guard! Get the guards and a nurse!”

***

The main hall was in chaos.

“Dr. Madison.”

Dr. Madison, humming and brushing, raised an eyebrow at the sound of his name being called from the doorway.

“What’s going on?”

“There’s been a fight between patients in the main hall.”

Dr. Madison’s eyes narrowed at the nurse’s report.

“Who?”

“‘One’ and ‘Two.’ The guards have now intervened and separated them, but since they broke the rules, I think they should be punished accordingly.”

“Please do.”

He replied nonchalantly and resumed his brush strokes. Normally, he would be intrigued as to why they were fighting, but his attention was now elsewhere.

“Hmph… Ugh…”

He lovingly gazed down at the woman sobbing as the brush dug between her inner thighs. Her reddened body was obscenely glistening with drug stains everywhere.

Her cheeks were wet with tears, her pupils were dilated, unable to withstand the repeated stimulation…

Her eyes blinked. The light had returned to her pupils, which had been completely sunken and unhinged only moments before.

What was that? Was she alive?

As he puzzled over the sudden change, he heard the nurse’s voice from outside the room.

“I think we need to send ‘one’ and ‘two’ to the CR.”

“Ah.”

He grunted, looking dumbfounded. Hindsight washed over him.

There are only two safe rooms.

He needs to get this woman out of here to lock down the two men.

He stared off into the distance as Won held a triumphant look in her eyes as if she won the battle.

Kofi