It's Not a Kidnapping, It's a Transfer

"......"

The taxi driver gave up a fare—even in a recession like this—and drove straight to the police station. There, Hyunwoo was arrested on the spot by officers preparing to go on patrol.

After spotting me lying in the back seat, bound so completely that anyone could tell something was suspicious, they hurriedly rescued me. While Hyunwoo was taken inside the station, a policewoman held me in her arms and looked after me.

"It's not a kidnapping, I told you...! It's a transfer...?! We're friends!"

And so, that brief, memorable final cry...

Hyunwoo was dragged inside, boldly saying exactly the sort of thing a kidnapper would say. Thanks to his enormous build, it took two officers to finally make him disappear from my sight.

'...I should've just died yesterday.'

Watching him go, I reminded myself once again.

If I'd opened the window and jumped yesterday, no one could have stopped me, and I could've easily left this world.

Then the taxi driver wouldn't have panicked and given up the income from a whole group of passengers.

The police wouldn't have had one more thing to deal with.

And Hyunwoo wouldn't have been arrested over a misunderstanding...

'This is my fault. I missed the last chance the world gave me because I let myself get lost in a brief, happy delusion.'

Come to think of it, that stillness back then... that quiet, that place cut off from the world...

Maybe none of it had been meant to give me a moment's rest. Maybe it had been my last chance to die.

How had I failed to think of something so simple?

Why, after shouting that I wanted to die, had I begged to be saved and insisted on following Hyunwoo home?

I closed my eyes for a moment and realized the answer without much difficulty.

It felt like looking up at a pitch-black starry sky.

It was so dark I couldn't see a thing, but if I widened my field of vision and searched for anything at all, countless lights sparkled across it. I could make them out without having to think for long.

I...

'I didn't want to die. I was scared.'

I wanted to live. Even when my neck was caved in and blood was pouring out.

No. Maybe even before that. When I looked in the mirror just before I died.

Back then, I had a frightened look on my face.

It would've been more accurate to say I'd given up and resigned myself to what had happened, rather than accepted it.

That look was much like that of a madman consumed by madness, determined to offer up even his own life.

Like a madman who calmly chooses death, convinced that everything is meaningless anyway.

In truth, my thoughts back then had been very much like that.

So why hadn't I died?

If I'd tied the knot a little tighter. If I hadn't struggled. If I hadn't asked for help. If I hadn't fallen asleep that night and had jumped instead...

I'd had so many chances.

If anything, I'd only survived such a critical situation because my resistance had continued, time and again.

'So, I wanted to live.'

The inexplicable feeling I'd had when Hyunwoo spoke was relief that it was still okay for me to be alive.

If anything, my desperate attachment to the meaning of life had manifested itself in reverse, as the words and thoughts, 'I want to die.'

The situation was completely insane, with Hyunwoo arrested on the spot, but that only gave me a reason to save him.

If I wanted to keep living, then, for whatever reason, he was the only one willing to take me in.

Hyunwoo couldn't become a criminal.

Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle, wriggle.

The soft, cushiony sensation against my head right now.

I struggled to get away from the owner of that slightly soft, springy object.

While I'd been lost in thought, the policewoman must have assumed I was frozen in shock. She'd brought me over to a bench, sat me on her lap, and was stroking my head and hugging me.

'This body is great and all, but I can't multitask...'

"What's wrong? Do you suddenly need to use the bathroom? Wanna go pee-pee?"

When she noticed me struggling desperately to get away, she began speaking in a childish tone, as if she were talking to a little kid.

...It was embarrassing to think she was treating me like a baby a bit too much, but I figured it was a good excuse to get inside the police station, so I nodded.

"Um, could you put me down...? I can walk..."

For some reason, she was still carrying me around as if I were a cat in her arms, so I asked to be set free.

At this rate, there wasn't much difference between this and being tied up.

Actually, maybe it would've been better if I just stayed still. At least then I wouldn't have been uncomfortable.

"...Tsk."

The policewoman clicked her tongue, then set me down on the floor.

Even though that soft, cushion-like sensation was something I'd never had the chance to experience as a man, that wasn't what mattered right now.

Holding the policewoman's hand, I followed her inside the station. In the distance, I saw Hyunwoo being questioned in handcuffs.

He had his head bowed, looking completely different from his earlier confident self. He looked almost like a real criminal.

As the policewoman was about to lead me past him, I quickly pulled my hand free and opened the door to go in.

I could feel everyone's attention turning toward me in an instant, their faces full of surprise.

"Hey! What are you doing? Get that kid away from the perpetrator, now!"

At the shout from a frightening-looking man who seemed to be at least a team leader, several officers began slowly approaching me, closing in from all sides.

'...This is way scarier.'

Even as an adult man, I'd found it terrifying to be surrounded by three enormous men approaching me. How much worse would it be for an actual child?

Just as I was about to be dragged out all over again, I came up with a brilliant plan and used my ultimate move to stay inside.

"W-waaaah... I'm scared..."

The moment I started crying in the most childish voice I could manage, all the police officers around me looked completely flustered and unsure what to do.

Only then did I realize that none of them had much experience dealing with children, either professionally or personally.

In other words, they were all watching me so cautiously, as if they might believe anything I did without question. I figured this might be easier than I'd thought.

'Though acting like a little kid is chipping away at my dignity...'

"Minseo...?"

Hyunwoo looked at me with slightly wavering eyes.

It was as if life had returned to his eyes, which had lost their light. They began to sparkle again.

Then, to make absolutely sure Hyunwoo was cleared of suspicion, I went over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist in a conspicuously tight hug.

Like a little kid throwing a tantrum to protect what's theirs.

"He's a friend I'm close to, a-a... an oppa! I wasn't kidnapped. This oppa just doesn't have any common sense...!"

'Aaaaaaaaargh!'

The moment I heard myself say, perfectly sane, something a girl with an oppa might say, my heart hurt as if I were vomiting blood.

I said it just once, but the words made me want to die of shame. The commotion around us fell silent in an instant.

It seemed to have worked perfectly.

"O-oppa...? Oppa? You called me oppa...?"

Except for Hyunwoo, who kept asking the question over and over, his cheeks flushed red for some reason.

Maybe even in this situation, hearing something like that from another grown man was that infuriating. Seeing his face turn bright red made me feel a little guilty.

'I just treated him like an idiot out of nowhere, then got called oppa by one of my closest guy friends. If I were him, I might've thrown up.'

I made a firm mental note to apologize when I got to Hyunwoo's place later.

"No, but, Officer Park. Doesn't that contradict what the suspect said earlier...?"

"Yes... When we asked him about his motive, he confessed, 'She was so cute that I couldn't help wanting to take her home right away.'"

After a quick fact-check, Officer Park looked back and forth between Hyunwoo and me with a confused expression.

'Why the hell did he admit to that...?!'

Of course, that statement couldn't have been true.

Hyunwoo had told me he'd brought me along because he thought it'd be hard for me to walk in this body.

He must've been subjected to some high-level police gaslighting and, under pressure he'd never experienced before, made up something he didn't mean.

Since he'd only recently left the military, it was likely he still had the habit of obeying forceful authority.

Most importantly, Hyunwoo knew who I really was, so kidnapping me just because I was cute would have been insane.

That was why I could trust Hyunwoo.

'Because Hyunwoo isn't a gay bastard.'

"H-Hyunwoo-oppa just cares about me a lot! He had a head injury a while back, so..."

I figured Hyunwoo would scold me twice as hard when we got back, but being an idiot was better than being a criminal, so I kept going.

"He's basically like a real older brother to me... We absolutely! Absolutely don't see each other as romantic prospects...!"

Hyunwoo stared at me with an expression of despair, as if his country had fallen.

His face was strange, filled with an indescribable sense of betrayal, probably because I'd turned him into an idiot in an instant.

And perhaps moved by my performance, the officers exchanged a few words and, surprisingly, unlocked Hyunwoo's handcuffs.

"A real older brother... Basically a real older brother..."

Hyunwoo kept murmuring the same words, looking completely out of it.

I grabbed Hyunwoo's arm and gave it a long tug, trying to get us out of there somehow.

"O-oppa! Let's hurry up and go now, okay?"