Chapter 40
A cool breeze drifts in.
A warm morning scent slips in through a window I don't know when we opened.
Cradled in the brilliant sunlight, I slowly open my eyes.
"Mmm..."
Ever since becoming this body, I don't think I've managed to wake up properly even once.
I don't feel tired, but this sweet atmosphere wraps around me, casting a magical spell that makes me want to keep sleeping.
The proof is that once I wake up, my mind clears again before long.
"...Khh..."
I look over and see Hyunwoo still sleeping soundly, oblivious to the world.
The way he's got me squeezed tight, even draping a leg over me as if he won't let go, feels so unfamiliar...
I can't help but laugh.
Have I ever seen Hyunwoo sleeping before?
Hyunwoo's face, which used to seem strange and even creepy to me, now looks almost childlike.
It must only have been a week.
In that short time, living as roommates had turned the extraordinary into the ordinary, and made the ordinary feel natural.
It's not like that much has happened.
"Pfft..."
Drip.
A little drool trickles from Hyunwoo's mouth.
It was so ridiculous...
I reach behind me for my phone, wanting to take a picture of this hilarious sight and show it to him.
...Or rather, I try to.
"...Huh?"
But my hand won't move.
More precisely, it feels like my arm is restrained.
Even if Hyunwoo is hugging me, he doesn't normally hold me so tightly I can't move at all...
It's more like a scared child who simply doesn't want to let go.
"Did you sleep well, Minseo Oppa?"
Just then, a voice comes from behind me.
A strangely warm, high-pitched, cheerful voice.
Despite being a cozy voice announcing the morning, something in my heart sinks, and I feel a chill.
"Y-Yeah... But, Hyuna, could you let go of me first...?"
"Why would I? Oppa's not getting up either, so I don't think you'll be able to get away regardless."
"No, that's..."
"Why is it okay when Oppa does it, but not when I do? Minseo Oppa's like a doll, and it's nice to hug you."
"Still, Hyunwoo's a guy like me, so it's not awkward, but you..."
"You know it's weirder for two guys to sleep hugging each other, right?"
"No, that's not what I mean..."
"And you're in a girl's body now, so it doesn't matter. Girls hug each other to sleep all the time."
Hyuna argues back at every point, making it clear she has no intention of letting go, no matter what.
There was something about her fixation that felt almost like madness, and I couldn't help but feel silently pressured.
"I don't really know about that... but normally you wouldn't sleep with someone you only met yesterday, would you...?"
"You may have just met me, Minseo Oppa, but I've known you for a while."
"Eek..."
I'm genuinely scared of her...
"Besides, that doesn't matter. What matters is that I want to hug you."
"I'm really conflicted right now..."
And I couldn't help feeling conflicted, because...
Unlike Hyunwoo, Hyuna had me in a perfect, nearly clinging embrace.
Maybe because she was pressed so close to me, I couldn't feel things clearly and hadn't noticed when I woke up.
"Still... I may look like this, but I'm a man, you know...? Isn't it weird to have our bodies touching all over?"
"Then isn't that nice for you too, Minseo Oppa? We both win."
"I said I don't like it...!"
In the end, since she didn't seem likely to let me go, I decided to try appealing to Hyuna's instinctive disgust.
No matter how much she said I was nice to hug now, if I grossed her out, she wouldn't want to be close to me.
"And I didn't wash up before bed last night, okay?!"
"Neither did I, though?"
"Ugh..."
Was that why there was a vaguely musty smell...?
Well, now that I think about it, the owner of the house, Hyunwoo, had dragged me off to bed without warning, so it would have been awkward to use the bathroom without asking.
More importantly, what I wanted to escape was Hyuna hugging me way too close right now.
Are kids these days really this uninhibited...?
I'm a kid these days too, I guess...
"More importantly, why are you on the bed...? You already came up after Hyunwoo and me... There's a blanket spread out beside it!"
Going in circles, we return to the question of common sense.
Right. Normally, people don't climb into a bed that someone's already in.
"Why should I sleep over there?"
"...Huh?"
Thinking I'd finally found an excuse to tell her to get off the bed, I was met with Hyuna's bold retort.
"The floor's hard. Why should I sleep over there?"
"No, but you're a guest... This is Hyunwoo's and my spot..."
"So you were going to make your guest sleep uncomfortably on the floor while you two slept comfortably in the bed?"
"That's what everyone normally does...!"
"Who does? If I wreck my back, are you going to take responsibility? I'm a pretty expensive body, you know."
I was wrong. Common sense doesn't work on her.
And I don't even understand the logic that sleeping on the floor would wreck her back...
I feel like I'm being overwhelmed by an argument that's pure, shameless stubbornness.
"The customer's always right. Don't you know a simple saying like that?"
"That's not what people mean when they say that..."
"No? I'm the guest here, aren't I?"
"You are... I mean, you are, but...!"
Hyuna stubbornly insists on justifying her behavior to the very end.
In the end, I don't trust myself to win an argument, so I let the fact that she climbed into the bed slide.
"Even so... you had no reason to hug me!"
"Because you're cute."
"...That's it?!"
"Yes. Do I need another reason? Is it wrong for a girl to like cute things?"
...When she puts it like that, I can't say anything.
The way Hyuna talks makes it feel as if I'm the one being discriminatory.
Am I the weird one? Huh?
"You're not thinking about how the person being hugged feels...?"
"You seem to like being hugged by my brother."
"That's not it... Hyunwoo just seemed like a scared kid, so I was comforting him..."
"Waaah. I'm a lonely baby. Hug me, Minseo Oppa."
Hyuna says something insane without changing her expression, her face completely shameless.
I don't usually say things like this, but...
Is she actually crazy?
"Ugh..."
I feel a burning ache in my stomach.
Like something's surging up from below.
It felt even more disgusting than the sauce inside that roast chicken did when I first tasted it.
No... I might be overreacting.
Still, she already knew who I was, knew my underwear color, and was making these nearly sexual-harassment-level arguments...
I was sorry since we had only just met, but I was sure I could never get close to Hyuna.
"And since my brother and I share roughly 50% of our genes, shouldn't I be able to exercise about half of his privileges?"
"What kind of insane..."
"No. If you think about it, I'm right, aren't I? If you remove all the parts where Oppa and I differ, I'm basically 0.5 Hyunwoo."
Hyuna is now justifying her actions with even more creative nonsense.
Is this what brainwashing and gaslighting really are?
I feel like my mind is going blank.
"Anyway, even if I hug you like this, I'll be leaving again before long, so Oppa will get to hug you twice as much!"
"Wait... My head hurts..."
"Are you okay? Want me to kiss it better?"
"...?"
Hyuna has a real talent for making my already aching head throb.
I don't even know what headaches have to do with kissing...
And the way she says she'll kiss me, without any explanation or context, leaves me dumbfounded.
"...Aw, that didn't work. I thought you'd say yes just to keep up the momentum."
"You... you're crazy..."
"Isn't that a little harsh?! I'm hurt."
"Huh...? Oh... sorry..."
"Maybe I need a kiss right on the chest to feel better..."
"......"
Only then do I remember what Hyunwoo said yesterday.
The words he'd said cautiously while keeping a wary eye on Hyuna and holding me in his arms.
"What are you talking about? I'm saying no because I'm worried you'll do something weird to Minseo."
...So that's what he meant.
Is this girl into some kind of... unusual thing?
Like a girl who likes girls... that sort of person?
One of those so-called pedo...
"You never know. Maybe a kiss of truth will make you start lactating all of a sudden."
"...Ugh."
In the end, I can't hide my true feelings, and my face gives away how disgusted I am.
Hyuna looks at me, freezes for a moment as if shocked, and then...
"Wow. You're so cute... Could you make that face one more time?"
She keeps making perverted demands that go far beyond anything I could have imagined.
"Ah. Just once! If you look at me with contempt one more time, I'll let you go!"
"No... Um... I..."
"Please...! It's my lifelong dream. Come on...! I'll give you a jewel! It's really expensive!"
"I don't want it... Go away..."
Now that I feel like there's no need to hide how I feel anymore, I try to push Hyuna away with all my strength.
Of course, I don't have enough strength to move her...
"You just touched my chest, didn't you? Hm? Guess I'll have no choice but to marry you..."
"Aah... Gyaaaah...!"
"Why are you suddenly yelling? Does it hurt? Maybe I should kiss you after all..."
In the end, I lose the strength to stop her and feel my body drawing closer to Hyuna's.
With no strength left to resist, I squeeze my eyes shut and turn my head away as much as I can, but her creepy voice laughs, "Hehe," as if it means nothing.
If Hyunwoo was like a sweet dream, Hyuna was a nightmare.
"Hey. What are you doing? Touch Minseo and you're dead."
"Huh... Hyunwoo?"
Just as I was about to be helplessly done in, I hear Hyunwoo's voice and see his hand clamp down on Hyuna's forehead with a smack.
"Oppa! Let go!"
"You're making her tremble! Yesterday you treated me like a criminal, but aren't you worse than me...? Huh?!"
"Minseo Oppa seduced me first!"
"...Is that true?"
Shake, shake, shake, shake.
I frantically shake my head at Hyunwoo, who turns to look at me for confirmation.
"She said she didn't, you crazy bitch!"
"Kehk...!"
In the end, Hyuna, who'd been lying on the outer edge of the bed, finally quieted down after Hyunwoo kicked her off and onto the floor.
...There's a blanket down there, so she didn't get hurt, right?