Chapter 2
2.
“Fuck….”
I barely managed to stop myself from screaming.
I couldn't stand hearing that nauseating girlish voice come out of my own mouth and straight into my ears.
No, more importantly...
Why was this real?
Why hadn't I changed back?
Why?!
Wasn't this supposed to be a dream?!
‘Could something like this actually happen?’
I looked at my grotesque reflection in the full-length mirror.
Goosebumps covered my entire body.
My hair was still platinum blonde, like when I was a man, but now it fell past my shoulders, and my eyes were blue even though I wasn't wearing contacts.
My breasts were large and full, my waist distinctly curved, and below that were smooth legs.
It was the exact kind of figure I'd liked best in women when I was a man.
No, I was a pretty woman—the kind any guy would look at at least once.
If a woman like this were standing in front of me, I think I'd hit on her without hesitation.
Of course, that was if she were a different person from me.
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck....’
No matter how much I cursed under my breath, nothing changed.
The women I'd preyed on.
I'd never even imagined that I would become one of them.
‘Maybe if I hit my head hard enough again, it'll turn me back?’
My gaze shifted to the corner of the bedside table.
I swallowed.
But then I let out a sigh.
I couldn't do it.
Maybe I'd just gotten lucky yesterday. If I messed up, I could actually crack my skull and die.
Even if I survived by some stroke of luck, there was no guarantee I'd turn back.
‘What am I supposed to do?’
My head began to throb.
I went over to the refrigerator, grabbed the door, and pulled.
The refrigerator door, which I usually opened and closed without a second thought, felt heavy.
‘Was our fridge always this big?’
It must have been because I'd gotten shorter after becoming a woman.
I'd been 185 centimeters tall, but now I was barely in the low 160s, at a glance.
Naturally, the fridge looked bigger.
I hated every little thing about this.
Anger kept surging up, ordering me to smash everything in sight, but I barely managed to hold it back.
As usual, I tried to lift the 1.5-liter bottle of water with one hand and gulp it down.
The bottle hit the floor with a thud.
‘Ha, fuck...’
My hands had gotten smaller and weaker, so I couldn't even lift a water bottle with one hand.
I had no choice but to hold it with both hands and drink.
After wetting my parched throat, I felt a little better, and my head gradually began to clear.
Now I needed to calm down and take a cool, objective look at myself.
[Ding-dong]
Just as I was thinking that, the doorbell rang.
The intercom screen, which I'd always looked down at, was now about eye level.
Damn it.
[H-Ha-won... It's me....]
A familiar face appeared on the intercom screen.
Seo Geon-woo.
Back in high school, he was my personal errand boy.
Even now, at twenty-one, I still used him as my personal gofer.
Of course, I paid him fairly.
I gave him a hefty monthly salary, plus bonuses—better pay than most jobs.
Anyway, that wasn't the issue right now.
The problem was how I was supposed to show him what I looked like now.
‘Damn it, I'd forgotten for a moment. Everything except me was still the same.’
My finger hovered over the door-open button.
When there was no response, Seo Geon-woo looked at the screen again and spoke.
“Ha-won... D-did something happen? Are you mad because I got here five minutes early?”
I bit my lower lip as I wondered what to do.
‘Ah, screw it.’
I pressed the door-open button.
A moment later, I heard the entry code being punched in. The door opened, then closed again.
I sat on the living room sofa and waited for him.
For no reason, my heart was pounding.
How would he react when he saw what I'd turned into?
Would he laugh and tease me?
Or would he look down on me now that I had a frail woman's body?
Or maybe...
A very impure, lewd, grotesque, and disgusting scene briefly flashed through my mind.
I shook my head hard to clear away the thought.
“Huh? W-who are you?”
As expected, that was his first reaction.
I slowly turned toward Seo Geon-woo, whose eyes were bewildered behind his black horn-rimmed glasses.
He let out a gasp and clapped a hand over his mouth.
I guess this face really was pretty.
Should I be happy about that or what?
“Um, maybe... Is Ha-won still asleep?”
Seo Geon-woo seemed to have reached a conclusion quickly.
He apparently decided that the woman before him was the one I'd been with last night.
I would've been glad if that were the case.
I shook my head at Seo Geon-woo, who was fidgeting nervously.
“Ah... then did she go out somewhere for a bit?”
I shook my head.
“Um, then... maybe she's taking a dump—no! Is she in the bathroom?”
I shook my head.
I was starting to get annoyed.
I was angry at myself, not Seo Geon-woo.
I wondered why I had to be in this situation.
“No! Fuck, I'm Jeong Ha-won!”
My sharp voice burst from my mouth.
Goosebumps sprang up along my arms and spine, and my face burned.
“Huh?”
Seo Geon-woo made a strange sound and tilted his head.
‘I'd wanted to avoid talking as much as possible.’
I sighed and stood up.
“I'm Jeong Ha-won. Don't you recognize me?”
He blinked in confusion, his lips moving.
Thoughts like What is happening? Why is this woman talking nonsense? Is she crazy? must have been swirling through his mind, throwing him into chaos.
I walked over to Seo Geon-woo, whose mind must have been in turmoil, with all sorts of thoughts tangled together.
I tried to hit him on the head with all my strength, but...
‘What...’
Had this bastard always been this tall?
As I approached, I had to crane my neck to look up at him. Smacking him on the head was never going to happen.
‘Well, he was only a little shorter than me, so of course he'd look tall compared to me now.’
I had no choice but to punch him in the stomach.
But I couldn't get any reaction out of him.
“Um... did I do something wrong?”
“Huh?”
He didn't feel a thing?
Had he gotten tougher from all the times I'd beaten him?
Or was it, as I thought...
I stared down at the tiny fist of a little girl.
Even I could tell it was a pathetic little fist.
I was certain there was no way something like this could hurt.
“Excuse me, but I'm going to look around the house for a bit.”
Of course, I didn't expect him to believe me just because I said so.
No one with even a shred of common sense in this day and age could believe a man had turned into a woman overnight.
I simply let Seo Geon-woo search the house.
It took him several minutes to check every corner of my penthouse, which was over a hundred pyeong.
Seo Geon-woo returned to the living room where I was, a bewildered look on his face.
For someone who knew my personality well, this had to be incomprehensible.
I would never leave my house in the care of a one-night stand and go out. I wouldn't even go to the convenience store nearby.
Seo Geon-woo knew that, too.
So the fact that I wasn't in the house would be about as likely as a natural disaster.
“Um, do you know where Ha-won went...?”
“I'm Jeong Ha-won.”
Seo Geon-woo's bewildered expression slowly hardened. It looked like he was getting angry now, too.
“Don't joke around.”
“I'm not joking, you bastard! I'm really Jeong Ha-won. I changed like this overnight.”
Seo Geon-woo tipped his head back and let out a deep sigh. Then he trudged over to me.
“W-what the hell, man!”
Seeing his bigger frame stride toward me, I instinctively shrank back.
‘Am I actually scared of this bastard?’
Seo Geon-woo came right up to me and grabbed me by the shoulders without warning.
His grip was pretty strong, and I couldn't help but let out a sound.
‘Y-you bastard... why are you so strong?’
I could hardly believe this was the Seo Geon-woo who used to grovel before me and take my beatings.
His murderous glare was a first, too.
I shrank back without meaning to, unable to say a word.
“Miss, I'm not in the mood to joke around with you. Tell me where Ha-won is, now.”
“I-I told you... I'm Jeong Ha-won...”
“Oh, seriously, you little miss! Do you want me to teach you a lesson?!”
His hand tightened further around my shoulder.
“Ah!”
A pain so intense it felt like my shoulder was breaking shot through me.
Was this damned body really made of Styrofoam? Why was it so damn weak?
“I-it hurts...”
Seo Geon-woo flinched at the words that escaped me before I knew it.
I felt his grip on my shoulder loosen.
“I-I'm sorry. I guess I got too worked up.”
Clutching my throbbing shoulder, I glared at him. Tears welled up in my eyes despite myself.
‘Fuck, this is so fucking shitty...’
Rather than being angry at Seo Geon-woo for hurting me, I was overwhelmed with rage at myself for becoming so pathetic.
“For now, please sit down. I'll try contacting Ha-won. I'm sorry.”
Then, as if he were used to it, he took some juice from the fridge, poured a glass, set it in front of me, and pulled out his phone.
[Tara-ran~♪ Tara-ran♬]
Soon, my phone started ringing.
Seo Geon-woo slowly turned his head toward the sound.
Our eyes met.
Naturally, my phone was in my hand.
Seo Geon-woo looked back and forth between my face and the phone in my hand, as if to ask why I had it.
“I told you. I'm Jeong Ha-won.”
Seo Geon-woo ended the call and stared at me silently for a while.
He looked dumbfounded, then suddenly started calling someone else.
“Yes, I'd like to report something.”
At his next words, I leapt to my feet and lunged at him.
“Hey, you bastard! How can you just call the cops out of nowhere?”
I rushed over and grabbed on to Seo Geon-woo, but he twisted his waist and flung me aside as if brushing off a fly.
This was why you couldn't ignore the difference in body size.
With this pathetically frail body, there was no way I could stop that bear of a man.
“Seo Geon-woo, you absolute moron!”
At my scream, which sounded like a shriek of despair, Seo Geon-woo froze.
He met my eyes again.
He pressed the end-call button on the phone he'd lifted to his ear.
“H-how do you know my name?”
“Of course I know. I'm Jeong Ha-won.”
“Oh, did Ha-won tell you?”
“Why would I go out of my way to talk to someone else about you?”
“That's true. Ha-won wouldn't...”
Seo Geon-woo paused, then turned to look at me with widened eyes.
“What on earth is going on...”
“I don't know either. I don't know anything, and my head feels like it's about to explode. Don't make this harder for me.”
“Y-you really are Ha-won... you?”
I watched Seo Geon-woo's confused face, let out a deep sigh, and continued.
“Would I be the kind of person to leave my house in a woman's care and go out?”
Seo Geon-woo shook his head.
“And in the first place, would I bring a woman into my house?”
I shook my head.
“Jeong Ha-won, 21. You and I were in the same class all three years at Jungyeong High, and you were my errand boy. You still are, as of now. I'm on leave from college, and we recently talked about your military deferment and other things. You never went to college, and you're enlisting next year.”
I wondered if I really had to spell out even this kind of thing, but first I had to convince at least this one guy, Seo Geon-woo, completely.
I had no choice if I was going to keep living with this changed body, at least for the time being.
As expected, Seo Geon-woo froze in place, looking unable to believe me.
“Do you believe me now?”
Seo Geon-woo, who'd been wearing the expression of someone facing an unknown terror, seemed to come to his senses and let out a faint breath.
Then a smile suddenly spread across his lips.
“Really? You're really Ha-won?”
He showed me a sly smile that revealed nothing. A sudden chill ran through me.
“D-don't come any closer...!”