Chapter 40
We stepped inside the house, still awkward from our first meeting.
The inside of the house was remarkably neat for a place where someone lived alone in a situation like this.
But a strangely alien sense of discomfort brushed against my skin.
It's dark.
Even though it was broad daylight, blackout curtains were drawn without a gap, and thin sheets of paper had been taped over the ceiling fluorescent lights, making the lighting itself very faint and dim.
It was an interior that seemed designed to avoid strong light.
At that moment, something she had casually let slip when she first contacted me about the gallery issue flashed through my mind.
'Because my body can't go outside in the morning.'
Her pale skin, her pure white hair, and this gloomy atmosphere inside the house all seemed somehow connected.
"Um, please have a seat on the sofa, though it's a little shabby, Choo-Choo."
"...Yes? Ah..."
Lost in thought, I almost didn't realize she was calling me when that title slipped from her lips.
My gallery nickname was Choo-Choo, but hearing it spoken aloud like this in such a serious atmosphere made my face burn with embarrassment.
"Ah, um. About that nickname..."
"Oh. Then may I ask your name...?"
I was momentarily speechless.
My name? Of course I had a real one. A pretty masculine one, at that.
But my current appearance was that of a girl who had just graduated from high school.
And since I had no intention of revealing right away that my gender had changed—
'Let's just make up some name.'
A brief moment of hesitation.
My main skill, Train Summoning, flashed through my mind.
Train summoning... Cha summoning... Cha So-won.
"I'm... Cha So-won."
It was a fairly plausible name, inspired by the skill's name.
I had blurted it out without much thought, but she gave a small nod and a faint smile played at the corners of her lips.
"Oh, I'm Do Ha-seon...."
'Do Ha-seon.'
After lightly exchanging introductions, we sat facing each other on an old sofa beneath the dim light.
Ha-seon spoke cautiously.
"Um... So-won? What on earth happened on the Yeouido side, and why was there a tracker hidden in the thing I bought..."
"Ah..."
In response to her question, I told her everything—the information I’d heard from gallery posts and from the people in the Awakeners’ Alliance.
I also laid out every last thing I’d overheard with the reconnaissance drone.
Because these were the things she herself, as the person involved, needed to hear most.
That the politicians were targeting her, the one who had the most influential skill, in order to control both people and Awakeners.
"Your skill is the only information network the survivors can rely on, Ha-seon. I thought I absolutely had to protect you too..."
There was a reason I had rushed over to protect her immediately.
If she fell under someone’s control, it would likely cause a great deal of harm.
At my words, Ha-seon’s clear eyes trembled ever so slightly.
It was a complicated look, mixed with fear, relief, and a strange sense of guilt.
She clenched both hands resting on her knees, then lowered her head with a sigh.
"Thank you so much for saying you'll protect me... But..."
She raised her head again and looked straight at me.
Since she had kept avoiding my eyes until now, I could feel determination in that gaze.
"Since you've said that much, I think it would be best if I told you too, So-won."
Strangely, the air inside the house grew heavy with her solemnity.
I swallowed hard and prepared myself.
They say that with great power comes great responsibility.
After all, I had sacrificed my precious masculinity and changed sexes in order to obtain the train.
In that case, I assumed she had also paid an enormous price in exchange for obtaining the skill called Gallery.
'Maybe, like me—'
Just as my imagination started running that far, Ha-seon parted her heavy lips.
"When I first awakened this skill... I gained a great deal, but I also lost a lot in return."
"What did you lose... exactly?"
"My... normal daily life."
At that, I thought it over carefully.
A normal daily life?
"If you keep me by your side and protect me, So-won, it might become incredibly... troublesome for you. As the price of this skill, I ended up developing countless phobias."
"Countless phobias...?"
At my question, she gave a bitter smile and counted them off on her white fingers one by one.
"I don't even remember all the phobias I got... acrophobia, social phobia, heliophobia... hemophobia, and androphobia... and that's only what I can remember, there are more besides..."
"...Androphobia?"
She said androphobia literally meant feeling fear when seeing the opposite sex.
In other words, she felt fear whenever she saw a man.
So much so that even seeing the image of a man posted in the gallery sometimes made her inhale sharply.
She said that besides the phobias, she had gained several other things too.
"I don't know why, but my hair also turned this pure white... And honestly, my appearance changed far more noticeably than before. Someone might think that's a good thing, but when I imagine running into male survivors outside with this face, I start getting this weird paranoia that something horrible might happen to me..."
She patted her chest and let out a long sigh.
"So when I opened the door and first met you, So-won, you have no idea how relieved I was that you were a woman. If you'd been some rough-looking man..."
I shut my mouth tight.
This was a rather awkward situation.
I looked like this, but my mind was still that of a man.
I wondered how she'd react if she found that out.
'I sacrificed one big thing, while Ha-seon seems to have gotten a bunch of small penalties.'
So that kind of option had been possible too.
I found myself wondering, pointlessly, which would have been better.
Even though it was already in the past.
"Even I feel awkward saying this about myself, but... I might just become a heavy burden for you, So-won."
At how thoroughly intimidated she looked, I swallowed a short sigh and asked calmly,
"Do you find me scary too, by any chance?"
At my question, Ha-seon flinched in surprise, then gently shook her head.
"...No. Not at all. The spear and the drones are scary, though..."
"I'm scared of those too."
Well, they were my weapons and my drones, after all.
Even I would be scared if a stranger was holding a spear or if I were faced with a drone armed with a gun.
That was a slightly different issue from a phobia.
"Then it's fine."
She was an important figure to many survivors right now.
And to me as well.
A bit of discomfort was no problem at all.
At my answer, she opened her eyes wide like a rabbit, then softly whispered, "Thank you..." in a trembling voice.
'I should keep the fact that I was a man hidden.'
I didn’t know how far her androphobia would extend, but it didn’t seem like something worth revealing.
That was the moment another secret was added.
We waited in silence in the living room for evening to come.
Ha-seon was afraid of the sun, and she also said those birds tended to become less active at night.
So we decided to move after the sun went down.
And finally, night had fully fallen.
We carefully slipped out of the apartment with only the bare minimum of luggage.
Her belongings were sparse.
Most of it was just a laptop, peripherals, and clothes to wear.
"That's the train."
"Ah... that's the famous..."
"...Famous?"
"Yes..."
In the middle of the darkened station, the train revealed itself.
The moment Ha-seon faced the train’s menacing exterior, complete with spikes and turrets, she bit her lip nervously.
Had one of the many phobias she suffered from been triggered?
...Or maybe she was just scared, plain and simple.
"It's okay. It only looks like this on the outside; the inside..."
I led her, still thoroughly frightened, and hurriedly opened the door to Car No. 1.
"Ah."
A small gasp escaped Ha-seon’s lips when she saw the scene beyond the door, which opened with a soft whoosh.
A comfortable, cozy interior completely unlike the harsh exterior.
Aside from the cockpit area, there was a sofa, a bed, and even the tank with Donggeuri in it.
It even felt a bit like a luxury hotel.
To accommodate her, I adjusted the cockpit panel and changed all the lighting in Car No. 1 to a soft, warmly glowing orange.
"Wow..."
Under the gentle orange lighting, Ha-seon, perched on the sofa, looked around the inside of the train with eyes full of admiration.
Seeing a faint flush return to her previously pale cheeks put me more at ease too.
"Would you like me to show you around a little?"
At my words, she nodded readily.
For Car No. 1, there wasn’t much to explain.
I gave a brief additional explanation about the cockpit and Donggeuri, then moved on to Car No. 2.
When Ha-seon saw the armory, drone hangar, disassembler, and storeroom, she widened her eyes and kept exclaiming in amazement.
"It feels like something I’ve seen in a movie."
By the time we finished the tour of Car No. 3’s passenger compartment as well, much of the tension on her face had melted away.
When we returned to Car No. 1, Ha-seon’s gaze, after finishing her sightseeing, was fixed on the bathroom door set off to one side.
"...Ha-seon. Would you like to take a shower, by any chance?"
"Ah... yes, actually, a little..."
I told her that if she wanted, she could wash up, and showed her where the towels and the various toiletries I’d packed as spares were kept.
Her face slightly red, she grabbed a towel and some clothes to change into, then slipped into the bathroom.
Click. I heard the door lock, and a moment later.
Ssssshhhhh-
I could hear the shower water beginning to pour inside the bathroom.
I hadn't thought much of it, but hearing the water made me weirdly self-conscious.
'...Hmm.'
I cleared my throat for no reason and turned my face away.
Because my imagination was too vivid, hearing the water kept making me think about things.
I was trying not to think about it, but it was big—
'No, I need to focus on something else.'
I hurriedly took out my smartphone and logged into the gallery.
I had to divert my attention somewhere else, somehow.
Even today, the gallery’s free board was ablaze with pointless bait.
---
[Title : The menu I'd want to eat if I could go back just one day before the apocalypse.]
Chicken, without a doubt.
The price went up like crazy, so I didn’t buy it for a while, but damn, if I’d known the world was going to go to hell, I should’ve ordered it...
[Comments]
Gukbap Freak: I want a bowl of piping-hot, hearty pork gukbap with all the kkakdugi broth poured over it
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Freshly fried Golden Olive chicken with a 500cc draft beer downed in one shot—that's sex, man;
Pink Ade: I really want Yopgi tteokbokki, mild flavor, with Coolpis...
ㄴ 스윗 : You a girl?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Forty-Ham... Even with the world like this, you still haven't changed, have you.
ㄴ 스윗 : I’m only like this because the world’s turned out this way.
---
"Yeah, chicken... chicken is good."
I pretended not to hear the rushing water behind me and sank into the gallery.