128) Chapter 19. M-Me Too……! (6)

*

*

*

It feelt like her heart was going to burst.

No, actually, maybe it already had burst?

No, if it had burst, it would be impossible for Jinwoo to still be standing there like this, so it probably hadn’t really burst.

Her chest hurt.

But because it didn’t hurt from sadness or anger, Jinwoo felt incredibly strange.

That’s right. Her heart was simply beating absurdly fast and hard to the point it hurt. Rather than that, she actually felt so happy and delighted that her mind was becoming hazy.

It’s not as though Jinwoo had lived as a guy because she wanted to.

In a way, that had just been something close to a family circumstance.

It’s not that living like this wasn’t uncomfortable…… Well, no, it was uncomfortable, but it wasn’t unbearable to the point she couldn’t live that way, so she had simply continued on like that.

“Heheh, hehehe.”

A laugh slipped out unintentionally.

It sounded so gloomy and creepy that even she startled herself, making her shoulders twitch. Honestly, that was partly why she deliberately let the sound out.

Because she couldn’t laugh like this in front of Rua.

Rua already probably thought of her as a gloomy and creepy person, so if even her behavior was like this, that would be a bit—

Ah, if Rua already thought that because of her behavior, was it already too late?

Still, her mother had said that you should try your best regardless. Even if something seemed impossible to stop, there was no reason to give up right away.

……Though Jinwoo wasn’t sure what that had to do with dressing as a guy.

Uh, but wait, did she really have to keep dressing as a guy?

Still in a hazy daze, Jinwoo thought about it.

She didn’t really know. Honestly, her brain wasn’t functioning properly right now anyway.

Right now, she was just happy because of this enjoyable feeling.

“I wish she’d picked out underwear for me too……”

Soi and Chae-yi had stopped it midway through, so it hadn’t happened, but if things had gone well, maybe Rua would’ve chosen them for her too?

Would that happen if they became closer than they were now?

Of course, she’d still have to keep dressing as a guy at school.

For now, Jinwoo put on the clothes.

And looked at herself in the mirror.

She didn’t know whether she was pretty. Maybe she was? She only believed that because Rua had told her it suited her well.

Today, she’d be spending the whole day wearing clothes Rua had picked out for her.

Just that alone made her happy.

And at Rua’s house—

“Ah.”

Her thoughts abruptly stopped there.

The inside of her nose hurt a little. She hurriedly wiped beneath it with her hand, but thankfully nothing seemed to have come out.

The reason her thoughts stopped there was because she had no “data” beyond that point.

Her mother had said this:

As much as possible, don’t become close with boys. Even if you make friends, going over to their houses would be a problem. If you get found out, there’ll be no turning back.

The same goes for girls. You might be able to get close to them at school, but they’re actually even more dangerous. Because they’ll notice something strange immediately.

Her mother had been absolutely right. She’d really been found out immediately.

But, Mom, Rua didn’t think I was strange though.

Because she couldn’t clearly remember the reason why, Jinwoo simply tilted her head in confusion.

“Hehe.”

Anyway, it felt good. Since she was wearing clothes Rua had picked out, in a sense, wasn’t she entrusting her body to Rua’s touch for the entire day?

Even while looking at her reflection in the mirror, Jinwoo herself couldn’t really tell. Because people usually don’t notice changes in themselves very well.

Of course, even aside from that, Jinwoo wasn’t exactly in a normal mental state right now.

If the others waiting outside the fitting room had seen her at that moment, they would’ve tilted their heads at the strange sense of incongruity.

*

And in reality, they did tilt their heads.

However, Rua had always been oblivious. So even if she felt that something was a little different, it only amounted to, ‘Did her atmosphere change a bit?’

Instead of Rua’s loose clothes, Jinwoo was now wearing a perfectly fitted blouse and a slightly short skirt, giving her an impression that could only be described as completely girlish, so Rua assumed that was the reason.

The ones who reacted far more sensitively were Soi and Chae-yi.

The two already didn’t think kindly of Jinwoo.

Of course, not as some enemy that had to be defeated, but simply as someone they needed to be wary of.

They knew Rua’s tastes. At least when it came to girls, Rua liked girls who were very voluptuous. Strangely enough, she didn’t particularly like male characters at all, so they had no idea what her tastes in men were.

So under normal circumstances, Jinwoo should have been someone very far outside Rua’s preferences compared to Soi and Chae-yi.

“……!”

The moment they saw the shy-faced Jinwoo step out from the fitting room, both girls were horrified simultaneously.

A heavily flushed face, slightly moist eyes.

And the gaze with which she slightly raised those eyes to look up at Rua was truly—

To put it vulgarly (and with plenty of emotion), she looked utterly “female.”

The two quickly exchanged glances.

What is this?

That emotion was plainly written in their eyes.

Unlike oblivious Rua, Soi and Chae-yi had spent a long time beside Rua, who had never been honest with her emotions. As such, they were fairly confident in their observational abilities.

And because of that, they doubted whether someone’s impression could really change this much from “just changing clothes once.”

What is this?

Yet despite all their objective observation, they still couldn’t clearly pinpoint exactly what had changed or how.

If they had to say it, it felt as though Jinwoo’s frame, facial shape, eyes, skin, hair texture, and hair length had all changed ever so slightly overall, becoming somehow “less androgynous.”

But could a person even do that in the first place?

So in the end, the conclusion the two could reach wasn’t all that different from Rua’s.

That makeup and clothes alone really could change someone this much.

And maybe they should take notes for themselves too.

“……?”

And that sense of incongruity felt even stronger to Hyeonji, who could observe Jinwoo more objectively than the other two because she had no particular feelings toward her.

That’s right. To Hyeonji’s eyes, the difference was extremely obvious.

But there is a huge gap between seeing something and believing it.

Because, as mentioned before, it’s impossible for a person’s entire body shape to change in the time it takes to simply change clothes.

Besides, the Jinwoo Hyeonji had always seen until now wore a male school uniform with bandages tightly wrapped around her chest.

She had only ever seen Jinwoo walking around without makeup or anything like that.

Objectively speaking, it was more reasonable to think that Hyeonji had simply been experiencing a sort of visual illusion all this time, rather than Jinwoo’s body literally changing.

She only thought, Her chest line is more feminine than I expected.

And even that was only to the extent that it could still be hidden with bandages, so it was still within the range of plausible error.

In the end, no one became convinced that something about Jinwoo had actually changed.

There were only two girls becoming inexplicably more wary, and one girl doubting her own eyes.

*

*

*

I felt better.

Now that I knew Nam Jinwoo was actually a girl, it felt like a huge blockage in my chest had cleared away.

I quietly thought about what exactly this refreshing feeling was, and in the end, the biggest thing was obviously this:

At least Soi and Chae-yi would never fall for Jinwoo now.

Well, if we assumed Jinwoo had been a girl in the original story too, I’d still have to worry a bit.

Because there’s an enormous difference between “finding out someone’s gender after already falling for them” and “liking someone while knowing from the beginning they’re the same gender.”

To begin with, Soi and Chae-yi weren’t the type to show much affection toward girls—

“Huh?”

Then I suddenly stopped walking.

Uh, wait a second.

Don’t those two play bishoujo games too?

Games where not even a single male character appears.

And even though the player gender was selectable, as far as I knew, both of them had chosen female characters.

Hadn’t they liked putting characters that resembled me in the lobby too?

……Could it be?

“Rua?”

“Uh, yeah.”

While I’d paused for a moment, the others had taken a few more steps ahead and were now looking back at me.

Soi and Chae-yi tilted their heads.

At the very least, their gazes weren’t lingering on Jinwoo.

Ugh, no way, right?

I wanted to believe that wasn’t the case.

“It’s nothing.”

I hurriedly shook my head, brushing away my thoughts, then smiled and approached the others.

“Oh, it’s Rua.”

And then I froze stiff.

Huh?

When I turned toward the voice, I saw a twin-tailed bishoujo.

That’s right. One of the original heroines whose name I still hadn’t figured out.

“Fancy running into you here.”

“Uh, uhh.”

Since there weren’t any other Academy students living in our neighborhood, I’d let my guard down a little.

But thinking about it for even a second, the fact that there was a shopping mall like this nearby obviously meant this was a fairly busy district.

And if it was a busy district, naturally other kids would come hang out here too.

“W-what are you doing here?”

“Hm? Obviously I came to buy clothes?”

The girl tilted her head as she spoke.

There were friends beside her too. Had I seen them at the Academy? Maybe not? I wasn’t sure, but since they waved cheerfully at me, I waved back too.

When I glanced beside me, Soi and Chae-yi looked surprisingly calm. Hyeonji was expressionless as usual.

And Jinwoo—

Jinwoo had completely frozen in time, her face fully reddened.

“Huh? But this girl’s someone I haven’t seen before. Hmm?”

The girl tilted her head.

“No, have I seen her before?”

“N-no, I don’t think you have.”

I hurriedly opened my mouth.

“S-she’s my c-cousin.”

“Oh, really?”

The girl blinked.

Then she stared directly at Jinwoo and asked:

“But does she have a cold or something? Her face is really red.”

“……”

Cold sweat ran down my back.

No, well, this was my idea, but—

Was this idea way more dangerous than I thought!?

Edit

Pub: 17 May 2026 08:17 UTC

Views: 22