TS

"Thanks for your hard work..."

Today was my birthday.

Some people said things would work out once you got into college. Others said things would work out once you got a job.

“Things are supposed to work out, my ass...”

I did get into college, but was it because I studied humanities instead of STEM? Or because, even though I got in, it was barely an in-Seoul school at the bottom of the rankings rather than a top-tier one?

It wasn’t the company I wanted. I ended up at a shitty little company.

My salary was barely over 2 million won a month. I couldn’t afford to live on my own, and my parents, who were nearing retirement age, had to keep working.

I finally decided I couldn’t go on like this, took out a loan, and moved out a little while ago.

It was only a tiny basement studio, but I figured it was nice not having to see my parents all the time.

Maybe three years had passed since I started working when my father came down with a serious illness.

But I was already struggling to repay all the loans I’d taken out, and my father had given up hope.

“It’s fine.”

Then the next year passed, and my father died.

After that, my mother handed me a bankbook and said,

“This is the account your father left with me. Use it to pay off your debts.”

The first thing I felt when I got that bankbook wasn’t guilt toward my father. It was ‘relief.’

Relief that I wouldn’t have to work myself to the bone paying off my debts anymore. That relief made me burst out laughing the moment I took the bankbook.

“Ah.”

Then I ran out of the house and couldn’t even answer my mother’s calls.

“Fuuuck~”

The neighborhood park was long past the point where the sun had set and the kids had gone home. It was a place for company workers like me, drunk and clutching bottles of soju, to come whine.

“Why can’t I ever be happyyyy! Fuck... This really fucking sucks...”

Who dreams of living an unhappy life? Who says they want to live a miserable one?

But with my life turning out like this, what the hell was I supposed to do?

"Why did it turn out like this... Fuck...“

The curses that had become a habit just wouldn’t leave my lips.

I gulped down soju and stared at my phone.

The 10 million won in my bank account.

"Pfft. Fuck, even if I spent all this money, even if I hadn’t bought a house, could I still not have saved my dad? Was I just supposed to die a fucking unfilial son?! You shitty world!!!“

After hurling curses at the sky, paradoxically, reality hit me.

I didn’t feel relieved. I felt despair. Whether I went to church or a temple, the tightness in my chest wouldn’t ease.

"...I’m pretty drunk.“

I tossed my soju glass into the playground trash can and headed home.

#

Click—

The light came on, and the inside of the house came into view.

Not a dog or a cat in sight. Just a room devoid of warmth, one that felt unbearably cold whenever I was gone.

After living here for years, I felt like I was going to lose my mind.

In summer, bugs swarmed everywhere. In winter, I had to wage war against mold.

At night, I could hear drunkards shouting. And worst of all, without blackout curtains, the shop signs outside kept me from sleeping.

I turned on my phone and opened a livestreaming platform.

"There used to be nothing but female streamers, but now there are VTubers too?“

There were at least some male streamers near the top, but the farther down you went, the more you saw men using female avatars and feminine voices, along with actual women who called themselves VTubers.

“Fuck, is being born with a pussy something to be proud of...?“

I lay on the bed and blinked.

"In Korea, being born with a pussy is something to brag about. Fuck.“

A little while ago, I’d gone on Instagram.

"Ah... Maybe I should check my old account for once.“

When I went through my old account, I came across the feed of an otaku girl I’d been close with in class a long time ago.

"...A VTuber?“

Back then, I didn’t know much about livestreaming, so I searched her name online.

"...Huh, 150,000 followers and... 950 viewers?“

As it happened, she was live, so I clicked on her stream.

“Oh! Ahaha~ Shinoa, thank you for the 100,000 won donation, hehe.”

"What the fuck.“

Her voice was nothing like the one she’d used at school, when she’d speak in a low voice as if trying to crawl into a mouse hole. Now it was high-pitched and cutesy.

Her creepy voice aside, a few things on my screen caught my eye.

100,000 won donation

50,000 won donation

1,000 won donation

3,000 won donation

Donations kept pouring in.

"Fuuuck... This isn’t fair.“

Two weeks of my pay had already gone into her hands in just an hour.

“Ah! Sua... a 630,000 won donation?!! Is that because my birthday is June 3rd? Thank you so much!”

“Gyaaaaaah!!!!”

I was so jealous that I immediately shut off the stream.

No way. Just because she was born a woman, she could rake in that kind of money?

“If only... if only I were a woman, I could make that kind of money in no time...”

“Tsk.”

I kept wishing that every time I woke up, my whole life as a man would turn out to have been a dream, and that I’d wake up as a woman. But this rotten body showed no sign of disappearing.

“Sigh. Maybe I should at least clear my head.“

I sighed, opened the front door, and stepped outside.

It had been over two weeks since I started jogging. Going for a walk did make me feel a little better, but...

"...Huh?“

Then suddenly, I saw a shop in front of me.

I stopped running, hopped back a few steps, and jogged in place in front of the shop.

“...An antique shop?“

I’d never seen any construction work, and this was a place I walked every single day. Yet this was the first time I’d ever seen this antique shop.

“...Hmm. I’m curious.”

My head told me something was off, but my heart seemed to be urging me to go inside.

“Whatever.”

Scratching my head, I creaked the door open and went inside.

Jingle-jingle— The bell rang as I opened the door and entered.

The antique shop was filled with a scent that made me feel relaxed and at ease.

“Welcome.”

I’d always assumed an antique shop would be run by a wrinkly old woman who looked like a witch. But the beautiful woman behind the counter shattered that preconception.

“...Was this place always here?“

She gave a small chuckle and led me farther inside.

“Take your time looking around. If you find anything you like, feel free to choose it.”

"No, I mean, was it always here...“

Then she looked at me.

“We’ve always been here, in the places our customers want us to be.”

I shrugged at her words and looked around.

Charms to ward off bad luck, germanium bracelets, and so on. I figured it was the kind of place that sold pseudoscientific junk, when something caught my eye.

It was a potion.

“...A potion that turns you into a woman?“

She immediately looked at the potion and gave me a broad smile.

“I’ve had many customers over the years, but I think you’re the one who suits that potion best.”

"Huh?“

“You can have it for free.”

I sensed something strange in what she said and set the potion down on top of the cabinet.

“What is this?“

“Just what it says. A potion that turns you into a woman.”

“No, there’s no way something like that exists...”

Come to think of it, a lot of things were strange. A shop I’d never seen had suddenly appeared. Even though I knew something was off, I’d still felt drawn inside. And then there was this ridiculous potion that turned you into a woman.

'Could this... actually be real?‘

“Is its effectiveness guaranteed?“

“Of course.”

I looked at her suspiciously, but if I had to keep living with a dick between my legs, the life ahead of me would be worse than death.

“...I’ll take it.”

“Goodbye.”

I hurried home with the potion she’d given me for free.

“...”

A suspicious potion

I’m suddenly going to become a woman?

The thought, ‘Could this really be possible,’ and the hopeful thought, 'But maybe it could!' kept circling through my head.

“It’s not like it’ll kill me... right?“

But these days, the world was so dangerous. What would people say if I died from drinking some bootleg potion that hadn’t even been approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety? It’d even make the news: 'Man in his late twenties found dead at home. Signs on his desk indicate he drank a potion that turns him into a woman...‘

“Aaah! Even imagining that is horrible!”

But, but what if it really worked?

What if it worked? Would I really suddenly grow a pussy, get a higher voice, and grow breasts?

“I don’t know.”

Crack—

I opened the potion and poured it right into my mouth.

But even after lying in bed for an hour, staring at my phone, nothing changed. I didn’t become a woman, and my voice didn’t get any higher.

"...Was I scammed?“

My head was full of questions, but I’d already spent a few hours drinking soju and venting. Then I’d gone jogging to clear my head and gotten scammed. I didn’t want to think about anything anymore.

“Sigh, that’s just how my life goes.”

I sighed, lay down on the bed, and used my back scratcher to turn off the light.

“Work again tomorrow, fuck...”

Shuddering at the thought of another nightmare of a company dinner tomorrow, I fell asleep.

Riiing—

I turned off the alarm clock and got out of bed, rubbing my eyes.

'...?‘

I tilted my head at the sight of my room looking different somehow.

As soon as I got out of bed, I felt like my eye level had dropped. I went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror.

“...Huh?“

My reflection in the mirror was that of some girl.