Didn't Shizuma's classmates mentioned at the beginning that the clinic was ran by an all-female staff though? Also, the way the other female staff treat the director makes me think more of a woman than a man. Same with how the director treats Shizuma himself. If they are really going for that plot twist then I'm thinking the author is being quite purposely misleading.
I just went over it. They remarked that yes, there were all girls and that the professor that recommended Shizuma and the other guy to the hospital even said the Director was really pretty (not that guys can't be pretty, but it's not something a het man would really say about another). Again, if they are going for that plot twist it's going to feel a bit out of left field because everything mentioned so far points to the Director being a woman.
i completely forgot about that part at the beginning so you do have a point there.
in terms of how the other staff treat the doctor and how the doctor treats shizuma though, can you explain why that part you think they treat them more like a woman? rather than being more "feminine" or whatever, to me the doctor just seems very reserved.
sorry, i didn't realize by editing the topic the comments disappear so whoever replied earlier, i was asking how you thought the way the other female staff treat the doctor and the way the doctor treats shizuma made you feel like they were a woman? im not denying that thought since your first point was very strong, but i just didn't get your 2nd and 3rd supporting points so if you see this and can reply, then by all means do
Hmm, well, when it comes to Shizuma, the dismissive way in which the director treats him and send him on errands to get like animal shaped bread and sweet stuff like that makes me think more of a woman than a guy. When the staff of the clinic found out Shizuma had a male lover they were surprised, which makes me think that they are not used to dealing with a person who is either queer or has non-binary/queer inclinations, which a MAN who wears his hair all long and eats cutsy bread and stuff would qualify as (not saying that man can't do these things without being queer, but rather that society would identify a man who does these things as queer).
Do u have raws pls?
the raws are uploaded here. scroll down past the chapters, there's a section that says raws
With the first part, i think the dismissive way the director treats him is just how they treat people in general. they're not a friendly person after all and in the few scenes we see them interact with other not including shizuma and the old lady doctor, at one point they straight up ignore the glasses guy. in terms of the cutesy bread however, you have a point there.
for the second half, this might be a cultural difference or i'm just not well informed, but i've never heard people being immediately thought of as queer for having long hair. but i'll trust your word.
to be fair there's still a possibility that if they end up being revealed as male, everyone thought they were female due to their looks and the director just couldn't be bothered to correct them.
There's nothing in the raws that indicate whether the doctor is male/female/other. The way they speak is very gender neutral, as to their name. This doesn't mean they are automatically nb or trans etc.; we simply don't know yet. it's completely natural for them to speak this way, especially given their distant personality and minus the occasional cuss word (which I saw like once), it's just professional.
However, in ch 9 Shizuma says "this is the men's [changing room]" which implies he thinks the doctor is a woman. Their response however was just "huh? yeah..." which doesn't give us any further clarification because it could be they were fully aware and there's nothing wrong with them going in, or they didn't know before but it doesn't affect them very much (the doctor isn't very expressive afterall).
This is just my own speculation but I think the story will go in the the "oh no, shizuma is getting close to a beautiful woman and since he's straight he's going to fall in love. plot twist that beautiful woman is actually a man so you have nothing to worry about, minato!" direction because of that scene that specifically shows shizuma thinks dr.onodera is a woman, and the last page of ch 11 where minato is very shocked (although he could be shocked for other reasons such as the possibility he knows dr.onodera).
Overall i think the safest way to refer to the doctor is using they/them until we are given more information because it's gender neutral; however since it isn't confirmed please don't fight with other people in the comments if they use he/him or she/her. there are no "correct" pronouns because nothing is confirmed so any pronoun is a valid theory.
Edit: someone reminded me that in the first chapter it is mentioned that the clinic was run by all-women staff so it is more likely the doctor is a woman.