Chapter 3 : Dad, I’ll Borrow It  (2)

[Web Message]

Hello.

This is the recruitment officer from Unicol Co., Ltd.

Unfortunately, Mr. Joo Yeonho, you are not on the list of successful candidates.

We will strive harder to become a company that can hire more people.

Thank you.

Have a good day.

A gloomy 18-pyeong (about 59.5 m²) one-room apartment.

After reading the rejection text, I slammed my fist on the table.

A framed photo I had taken with the high school drama club almost jumped off.

“Whoa, almost dropped it.”

I usually wipe off the dust, but this time, I just blew on it and put the frame back in place.

For my wife’s sake, I decided to think positively.

At least they notified me properly.

It’s a relief I didn’t waste energy waiting uselessly.

It’s already been three months since I quit my job.

My body felt refreshed from an alcohol detox after being free from drinking sessions.

But my mind started to get restless.

I’m sending resumes to every company I can find.

Companies that want full-time men my age are rare.

If they hire a man, it’s usually so he can stay home and take care of the kids.

Besides, I didn’t leave my previous job on good terms, so I can’t even dream of a referral.

“Well, I don’t regret calling Manager Kim a chicken coop. Felt good to say it.”

Her face turned as red as tandoori chicken.

It was quite a sight.

I left, ignoring her screams, walking out calmly.

Thinking about that makes me chuckle a little.

I feel a bit better.

Yeah.

Just wandering around job sites feeling sorry for myself won’t get me anywhere.

I decided to surf the internet to change my mood.

Maybe I’ll find a new path.

“Self-employment… was tough from the start.”

If I had spare money, I might have thought about a café, flower shop, or nail salon.

But with my current finances, that’s impossible.

I sighed.

I’m at the age where expenses pile up.

 Asking my mother-in-law, who’s raising my sister-in-law alone, for money is disqualifying as a husband—and as a person.

Jobs suitable for single men, then.

An ad popped up: [Men-Only Loans Miju Love♡] with a clown character grinning widely.

I almost got tempted, but the terrible loan interest rates scared me off immediately.

I refuse to end up stuck in some salty fishing village inn dealing with collectors.

So I left self-employment to my imagination.

“They say streaming is hot these days…?”

Since I thought of it, I logged onto YouTube.

A video trending rapidly caught my eye.

It was a live broadcast by a female YouTuber with 3 million subscribers.

She was playing subculture songs arranged on the piano.

I wondered if I could follow that.

But not with a piano—some other instrument.

I clicked on [Healing content – Is the order a bunny? OP – Pon Piano] with anticipation.

A man dressed in a blatant reverse bunny costume was pounding on the piano keys.

His body was pretty fit, but the outfit was over the top.

Apparently, it was a cosplay of a character from the anime the song came from.

It was supposed to be healing content, but why was he wearing a reverse bunny outfit?

I really don’t get it.

“Wait. Why does he keep taking off clothes while playing the piano?”

“Jot Piano Master, what a hornball lol”

“Whoa, the content level is really high???”

The live chat was a frenzy.

Super chats from bored girls were flooding in.

The man got more excited and shook his butt with a bunny tail.

My appetite completely vanished.

I sighed and closed the window.

No matter how much money they offered, I’d rather not have my reverse bunny video spread all over the world.

Then, how about a virtual female YouTuber who doesn’t have to reveal her face or body?

They say virtual YouTubers (VTubers) are trending these days.

Of course, unlike the previous generation, overwhelmingly male VTubers are more popular.

Electronic pretty boys smile widely, dance, and sing.

Maybe if I hid my identity and started as a VTuber… perhaps…?

But after looking into it, it didn’t seem so simple.

There was still the risk of revealing the “red pill.”

Recently, the faces of some VTuber company crew members who gathered at a “Ttungkaron” (a snack) house were leaked.

They all wore glasses, had acne, turtle necks, and a sturdy build.

Even in this gender-reversed world where men are rare, their awkward appearances must have been uncomfortable.

The entire community was ablaze, to the point even I knew about it.

It’s weird to expect pretty boys behind pretty boy facades.

“No, why am I talking about streaming when I’m nothing special?”

I bitterly smiled and mocked myself.

My storytelling isn’t very entertaining in the first place.

Even the schoolgirl I recently met didn’t really play along with my topics.

I judged myself too harshly, not really cut out for streaming.

My face… probably average.

Not very ugly, but just average.

I sold out early, so I haven’t had much objective feedback from women.

Since I don’t date, I don’t bother dressing up like a teenager or someone in their early twenties.

When I grow a beard, I just shave it off with a razor.

I’m too lazy to do more than slather cheap moisturizer as my skin care.

I felt a pang of shame about my lazy life.

I pinched my belly.

Luckily, no extra fat had gathered.

In the end, there’s no easy way to make money.

Especially for a vague middle-aged guy like me.

No, there’s one.

Remarriage.

In this world where men are rare, the government actively encourages men to get married.

Economically successful gold-diggers compete to snag a man.

Wives pay off debts with the money they earn and enjoy life carefree.

All you have to do is put in a bit of effort at night.

Manager Kim also joked he’d “take me away.”

A disgusting chicken coop woman, but she posts refined and elegant lifestyles on Instagram.

But I vowed never to marry again.

Though it may sound frustrating, I have no intention of breaking that vow.

I was dreaming a futile daydream.

Back then and now, my best bet is to overwork myself by flooding my body with caffeine.

Deciding to diligently look for a job again, I turned off YouTube.

Ding.

On the monitor appeared a site I’d never seen before.

It wasn’t a proper domain website.

Probably an ad site that popped up automatically when I clicked on [Miju Love♡].

Like attracts like, so it probably isn’t very good quality.

Just as I clicked my tongue and was about to close the site.

[Dad, I’ll borrow you <Papacats Helper> ▽]

The site’s name stuck in my mind.

Since being reincarnated into a gender-reversed world, it was a word I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Papakatsu? So it exists in this world too.”

Papakatsu.

From the Japanese words for “Papa” (father) and “katsudou” (activity).

It’s a term that shortens “dad activities” in Japanese.

Middle-aged men pay high school or college girls for dates.

There’s a big age gap between the buyer and the provider—like a father and daughter.

That’s why it’s called papakatsu.

They claim it’s platonic and a WIN-WIN, but broadly speaking, isn’t it prostitution…?

Whether in my past life or now, I have no desire to get involved in illegal things.

Ding.

Without even clicking, a chatbot window popped up by itself.

Papakatsu is not an immoral act.

It is certainly not prostitution.

The chatbot defended itself as if it was reading my mind.

[Dad, I’ll borrow you].

Commonly called Rental Papa, it matches “fathers” to female customers in their teens and twenties.

It aims to give special experiences in a society lacking paternal love.

Matching fathers to female customers…?

Amid the chatbot’s rambling explanation on [Rental Papa], my eyes suddenly opened wide.

I had always defined papakatsu according to the original world’s common sense.

But in this gender-reversed world, the definition of papakatsu must be completely opposite.

In the gender-reversed world, the woman pays.

“You can earn money just by eating with a high school girl?”

My head started spinning.

The sex ratio is 8 women to 1 man.

Most families are single-mother households.

Children raised by widowed mothers would long for a father.

Papakatsu satisfies that.

And it’s not a dating or sexual problem.

Daughters do not lust after their fathers.

That is certain.

Parental love and romantic love are different.

I act as the father, and she deeply feels the love I provide as “papa.”

Of course, it’s not dating, so I am a husband who can be proud in front of my wife.

It’s neither cheating nor anything else.

“What am I going to do?”

My throat burned dry with tension.

I was still trapped, unable to find a job.

But… is papakatsu really the right choice?

Could I even play the role of a good father, and would anyone even choose me?

Would you like to register for a trial on the [Rental Papa] site?

A trial registration?

A sweet offer came to my hesitant self.

The chatbot encouraged me to try it out first and decide later.

“Alright. Just one time.”

In the end, I couldn’t refuse the temptation of the [Rental Papa] site.

That’s how I met my first daughter in this gender-reversed world.