Chapter 18
18.
“Ah, Geon-woo. Have you stopped hanging out with that Jeong Ha-won lately?”
They were chatting among themselves when my name suddenly came up, and I flinched before I knew it.
Seo Geon-woo let out an awkward laugh too, apparently surprised, and glanced at me.
“Ah, well… Ha-won is busy, after all.”
“I see. That’s a relief.”
A relief?
What was a relief?
I had a feeling they were about to start talking behind my back, so I calmed my excitement and focused on keeping my expression in check.
“Haha. Anyway, Ye-na, how’s school life these days?”
Seo Geon-woo had beads of sweat gathering on his forehead, looking flustered.
He was trying to subtly change the subject.
“School’s just… school, I guess.”
I wanted to hear what she had to say about me.
What had she thought of me?
Seo Geon-woo looked troubled, but I couldn’t help it—I was curious.
“Geon-woo, were you close with that friend, Ha-won?”
I looked at him with a smile, as if I had no idea what she meant.
I could see Seo Geon-woo’s pupils shaking violently.
“A high school friend who made things pretty hard for Geon-woo.”
I tossed out a little bait, and she took it.
‘Yeah, go ahead and tell me.’
I gave a triumphant smile, though Hong Ye-na probably didn’t see it that way.
Talking behind someone’s back right in front of them… This is getting interesting.
“How did they make things hard for him?”
At my question, Hong Ye-na seemed to drift into old memories for a moment.
Then she looked back and forth between me and Seo Geon-woo.
She looked troubled.
“Still, it’s not right to talk about someone behind their back when they’re not here. And it has nothing to do with you, Ms. Ha-jeong.”
Well, look at that.
She’d made me this curious, and now she was going to act all proper?
If she hadn’t said ‘made things hard,’ I would’ve just let it pass.
Seo Geon-woo eagerly jumped in.
“R-right! Talking behind someone’s back isn’t nice.”
Hong Ye-na smiled sweetly.
Just looking at her smile, she was pretty enough to make plenty of men fall for her. Maybe she could easily hide what she was really thinking behind that beauty.
“By the way, what did you want to see me about today?”
Hong Ye-na looked at Seo Geon-woo again and asked.
“Oh, right. Well….”
He trailed off and glanced at me.
Seeing him, Hong Ye-na seemed to catch on and clapped her hands with an ‘Ah.’
“Did you want to introduce Ms. Ha-jeong to me?”
Sharp girl.
Even though I’d suddenly asked to meet her, she showed no particular wariness or resistance when Geon-woo brought up introducing a friend out of nowhere.
Maybe the two of them were closer than I’d thought?
“Huh? Y-yeah, that’s right. Actually, Ha-jeong wants to learn about hair and makeup….”
It sounded awkward to hear him refer to me as Ha-jeong, but thankfully Hong Ye-na didn’t seem to mind.
“Oh, really?”
She reacted with just the right amount of enthusiasm.
If it had been Woo Da-yeon, she would’ve jumped around and overreacted to the point of being embarrassing.
Hong Ye-na seemed pretty good at controlling her emotions.
“Ah, yes. Honestly, I’m completely hopeless at that stuff… I feel a little awkward going somewhere to learn it, and I thought it might be nice to make a new connection at the same time.”
I told her exactly what I honestly thought.
I didn’t think there was any need to make up a lie about something like this.
Fortunately, Hong Ye-na seemed more sociable than I’d expected.
She studied my face closely, then began to speak.
“To be honest, Ms. Ha-jeong, your skin is so nice and you’re so pretty that it’s hard to believe you’re not wearing makeup.”
“Ahaha, really…?”
Before, hearing that sort of thing would’ve made me sick and brought curses to my lips, but for some reason, now I felt shy and happy.
“Still, if we did a little to even out your skin tone and touched up your eyebrows and eyelashes, it would make your features stand out a lot more.”
“Ah….”
She didn’t seem to be just slacking off, after all.
As she talked about all sorts of things related to makeup, she sounded like a real expert.
She seemed to have studied quite a bit on her own, on top of what she was learning at school.
“Hey, would you two mind talking for a bit?”
Hong Ye-na and I both turned to look at Seo Geon-woo at the same time.
“Where are you going?”
“No, I just need to use the bathroom….”
Before I could say anything, Hong Ye-na answered first.
And with an especially radiant smile.
“Sure, take your time.”
“Yeah! Sorry, I’ll be right back.”
Maybe he had a stomachache, because Seo Geon-woo hurried off toward the bathroom.
Hong Ye-na kept watching him as he walked away, then spoke softly.
“Ms. Ha-jeong.”
Something about her felt different from before.
Her voice had somehow become subdued.
More than anything, her expression had gone cold, making me uneasy.
‘What? Why the sudden change? What is she going to say…?’
She turned her head fully and looked straight at me.
Her innocent eyes suddenly turned sharp.
What the hell?
Why is she being so scary?
“Y-yes?”
“You could’ve just been honest. Was there really any need to put on this act?”
My heart sank.
‘What? Does Hong Ye-na know something?’
My hand went to my chest before I realized it.
My heartbeat grew faster and faster.
Hong Ye-na’s next words made it feel as if my heart had instantly turned to ice.
“You’re Jeong Ha-won, aren’t you?”
My eyes nearly popped out of my head.
For a while, I couldn’t say anything.
I barely managed to keep my composure and speak.
“W-what are you talking about?”
“I said, cut it out.”
“No, I think you’ve got the wrong idea….”
Hong Ye-na leaned back against the chair and tilted her head slightly.
Just a moment ago, she’d been a graceful college student who looked perfect with her long, straight black hair. Now she looked like a witch who could see right through me.
“Looks like Geon-woo knows, too. Why are you hiding your identity from me?”
It wasn’t a guess. She sounded certain.
When had she figured it out? What had given me away?
Did Hong Ye-na have some kind of superpower I didn’t know about?
Even if she did, it wouldn’t be that hard to believe. A man had turned into a woman overnight; what was having a superpower compared to that?
I let out a long sigh, feeling resigned.
“Yeah, you’re right. I’m the Jeong Ha-won you know.”
Only then did a smile bloom across Hong Ye-na’s face.
She leaned her upper body toward me again.
“When did you change like this? Did you get surgery? Were you having issues with your identity? Anyway, it’s so convincing. You look like a completely different person.”
As expected, she didn’t think I’d changed because of some inexplicable force.
Well, how many people could realistically believe something like that?
Since things had come to this, I decided to be honest.
“I didn’t have surgery, and I didn’t have any issues with my identity.”
“Huh? Then? How did you…?”
“I don’t know either. I just became like this one morning.”
As expected, she made a strange expression.
“Whether you believe me or not is up to you.”
“Ah….”
Her eyes darted around as she seemed to quickly sort through her thoughts.
Anyway, how had she figured it out?
This time, I asked.
“But how did you know I was Jeong Ha-won? I’ve completely changed into someone else.”
“That’s what you were wondering?”
“Yeah. I was even starting to wonder if you had some kind of superpower too, like how I became a woman overnight.”
Hong Ye-na’s eyes curved into crescents as she smiled.
“It’s so obvious. Won Ha-jeong? What kind of name is that? If you’re going to use an alias, at least put some effort into it. Though that’s not the only reason I figured it out….”
I held my breath, waiting for what she would say next, when I noticed someone approaching us.
I glanced over and saw a man who looked around our age, his face tense.
“Um, sorry to interrupt your conversation….”
The man started to speak to Hong Ye-na.
“I’m sorry.”
Hong Ye-na cut him off with an apology.
“Huh?”
Hong Ye-na looked at him with a smile and tilted her head.
It was as if she was asking whether he needed anything else explained.
“Ah, yes… Excuse me.”
The man turned away awkwardly.
“What was that?”
“What do you mean? I put up a wall.”
“Oh, I see. But how’d you know he came over to ask for your number?”
“You can tell from their expression, gestures, tone, and the way their eyes move.”
This girl… She had incredible powers of observation.
And could she read people’s minds based on that, too?
Still, figuring out that I was the same Jeong Ha-won she’d known as a man, even after I’d turned into a woman, felt almost supernatural.
“Anyway, I could more or less tell after exchanging a few words with you and Geon-woo when you came in.”
“Don’t be so vague. When did you become sure?”
“Let’s see… Maybe when Geon-woo was fidgeting and watching your reaction? Or when I saw the way you looked at him? I’m not sure either, but something just clicked.”
What on earth was this girl?
“Even if your gender changes, habits you’ve had for years aren’t easy to get rid of. There were all sorts of other things that gave you away, too.”
Honestly, I was amazed.
No, I was practically in awe.
I just gaped at her without saying anything.
Hong Ye-na smiled and continued.
“So that’s why you came to see me?”
“Huh? What….”
“Since you turned into a woman, you figured it’d be better to learn how to speak and act femininely, do your makeup, and style your hair. With your background, you could’ve learned from top-tier professionals, but you figured it’d be better to spend time with a friend your age and pick things up naturally, didn’t you?”
At this point, I was wondering if she had some kind of divine gift.
Like someone under a spell, I slowly nodded.
“Y-yeah….”
“Hehe, I knew it.”
She seemed to feel some kind of thrill.
She seemed to enjoy it when her deduction turned out to be right.
Her unusual powers of observation, insight, and deduction were intimidating, but I was also relieved she didn’t seem to have some other hidden agenda.
‘I need to be careful around her.’
For a moment, I wondered if it had been a mistake to come looking for Hong Ye-na, but I soon pushed the thought aside.
Still, she was beautiful enough to be worthy of my company, and I figured her knowledge would come in handy someday.
“That said, it’s hard to believe you became a woman overnight. But now that you’re sitting right in front of me, I can’t exactly deny it.”
“A moment ago, you asked if I’d had surgery….”
“I know gender reassignment surgery isn’t that easy. And there’s no way someone like you, the heir to one of Korea’s top companies, could just do something like that on a whim. Besides, the last time I saw you was around this time last year. Given the time frame, there’s no way you could’ve changed into a woman this perfectly.”
I almost felt like applauding.
Hong Ye-na was smarter than I’d expected.
I wondered why someone that clever had ended up at a university like this, but I didn’t say it aloud.
But as I listened to Hong Ye-na, something suddenly occurred to me.
“Around this time last year? Where did you see me?”
Her answer came without hesitation.
“At a club in Gangnam.”
“Ah….”
If she’d seen me at a club I’d practically gone to as often as I ate, all I could do was nod.
“I went once out of curiosity, and happened to see you that day. You were having a good time, huh? Hehe.”
“Haha….”
It wasn’t exactly something I was proud of, so I felt embarrassed.
“Anyway, now that you’re a woman, are you planning to make a move on Geon-woo?”
She still hadn’t let go of her suspicion about that.
“No! It’s nothing like that.”
“Pfft.”
“What’s so funny?”
“Maybe it’s because you turned into a woman, but you seem even worse at hiding your feelings than before.”
Hong Ye-na blinked as she stared at me as if seeing right through me, then let out a short sigh.
“Anyway, it’s nice to see you again, Ha-won.”
Only now were we finally exchanging a proper greeting.
Just then, Seo Geon-woo, who’d finished his business, came back.
“Sorry, there were quite a few people in the bathroom, so I took a while….”
Hong Ye-na’s eyes moved back and forth between me and Seo Geon-woo.
Whenever her gaze landed on me, I found myself swallowing nervously.
“How about we go out and have a drink?”
Hong Ye-na suddenly suggested that.