Chapter 108: You slept with me knowing he was a man?

“Were you sick somewhere? Or did the professor sexually harass you or something?!”

‘Even someone like Jina unnie couldn’t get a doctorate.’

‘How well can someone like me do…’

Ye-rin muttered in a dejected voice, her head hung low.

For a moment, Jina and Hyo-in quietly exchanged glances.

Soon, Hyo-in’s eyes narrowed.

It was a signal that now was the time to speak.

‘…Are you really telling me to say it?’

‘No, didn’t unnie say you would tell her?!’

‘But now that I’m actually trying to say it… it feels a bit off.’

‘Are you going to completely crush a far-younger junior’s spirit and then just ignore it?’

Sharp, unspoken words were exchanged, and Jina let out a small sigh.

After a moment’s hesitation, she managed to open her mouth with difficulty.

“Well… My gender changed overnight, you see.”

“…Yes?”

“Actually, I was originally a man.”

Ye-rin stared at Jina with a blank face, then burst out laughing, “Puha-“.

“Ah, really unnie! I’m being serious here… Don’t joke around at times like this.”

Laughter, only for a moment.

Seeing Jina and Hyo-in’s expressions remain firm, Ye-rin’s eyes gradually widened.

“…Is it true? Not a hidden camera?”

This time, Hyo-in nodded her head.

“Yeah. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true.”

Ye-rin’s face instantly turned deathly pale.

Looking back, the people in the lab, especially Byeong-jae, did call Jina ‘hyung’ (older brother).

She just thought it was an engineering-style nickname used between close friends…

“R-r-r-really, you were a man?!”

“Um… I’d appreciate it if you kept it a secret from the other lab members for the time being.”

‘They still think I’m a man.’

Jina scratched her head and added in an awkward voice.

“S-secret or whatever, does that even make sense? H-h-how can something like that happen?!”

Her head grew hot, and the effects of the alcohol wore off instantly.

The chick was properly agitated.

Hyo-in tried hard to calm such Ye-rin.

“I’ll tell you more details later, so for now, just know that it’s like that.”

Ye-rin stared blankly at Hyo-in and slowly blinked her eyes.

Then, as if remembering something, her face was dyed with horror.

“No, then Hyo-in unnie, you slept in the same bed with Jina unnie knowing she was originally a man?”

“Uh, uh?!”

At her junior’s sharp point, Hyo-in’s shoulders flinched.

As expected of a graduate student, her attacking power is no joke.

“Well… N-now she’s a woman…? A-and lower your voice!”

Ye-rin clutched her head and let out a groan, “Kkeueung-“.

“Wait, then Jina unnie…? No, oppa…? What, what should I call…”

“…Just call me unnie.”

“Then who knows that Jina o… unnie was originally a man?”

“Besides the two medical professors checking my condition, it’s just Hyo-in and you, that’s all.”

She hadn’t even told her parents yet.

Saying she’s busy with work, she doesn’t go down for holidays, and blames seasonal allergies for her strange voice.

Actually, such problems were mostly solved by sending a hefty allowance.

That’s right. Jina was a dutiful son (fire attribute).

Naturally, for the listener, it was a facepalm-inducing statement.

“…Just a moment. Then Seo-ah unnie wouldn’t know either, right? That unnie was a man?”

“Well, I guess so?”

“B-but you were going to sleep in the same bed?!”

“Now that you mention it, that’s right?!”

The glares directed at Jina instantly doubled.

“No, wait a minute. The one who made the reservation mistake wasn’t me, it was Seo-ah-nim…”

Before Jina’s excuse could even finish, Seo-ah staggered over.

“Jina-nim~ I’m back~”

Seo-ah, borrowing courage from the alcohol, tried to naturally cling to Jina.

But at that moment, Ye-rin, with an urgent expression, squeezed between the two.

Ye-rin, hiding Seo-ah behind her, glared fiercely at Jina and shouted.

“D-don’t come near Seo-ah unnie!!”

“No… I wasn’t approaching, Seo-ah-nim was approaching…”

Suddenly feeling a throbbing headache, Jina unknowingly pressed her forehead with her hand.

It seemed a little more time would be needed to clear up this misunderstanding that wasn’t really a misunderstanding.

---

What awaited Jina upon her return from Canada was 999+ unread emails.

It was fortunate that the UI could only display up to three digits; otherwise, it would have shown 9999+.

“Did I show off too much at the conference…?”

‘If I knew this would happen, I should have toned it down a bit,’ she muttered, carefully opening her inbox.

First off, not a single ad or spam email was in sight.

All were either questions about her latest paper, collaboration inquiries, or work requests.

Still, thinking she should at least skim the subjects, Jina furrowed her brow and slowly scrolled down.

She rolled the mouse wheel, and rolled it again, but there was no end in sight. Meanwhile, emails were piling up in her inbox in real-time.

“At this rate, I’ll never finish reading them.”

Eventually, Jina just skimmed through the first few pages and closed her inbox.

Getting work immediately wasn’t urgent. If they were really desperate, they’d find her number somehow and contact her.

In the first place, her smartphone’s message box was also full. Just picking from the work requests there would fill up her schedule.

Still, compared to emails, messages are enjoyable to read.

[Spring: I saw Mama presenting! You were so cool~]

[Fall: Jina Mama, that’s too much! Why did you only take Winter unnie to Canada?!]

[Summer: Mama! Is it true you slept in the same bed with Winter??]

[Summer: Say it’s a lie! Say Winter-ssi is talking nonsense!!]

[Summer: Yeoreumi’s horn is turning black Yeoreumi’s horn is turning black Yeoreumi’s horn is turning black Yeoreumi’s horn is turning black]

[Summer: Explain, special investigation, explain, special investigation, explain, special investigation]

[Summer: (Unicorn with a broken horn screaming cone)]

The Seasons members whining about why only Winter unnie was taken overseas.

[Rei: Mama, did you see the video trending on YouTube?]

[Rei: A video analyzing my solo concert and Mama’s conference presentation together went viral.]

[Rei: Thanks to that, the songs I sang are climbing back up the music charts.]

[Rei: Um… It’s nothing special, just a little! Just a little bit thankful.]

[Rei: So I wanted to meet you sometime and treat you to dinner…]

[Rei: I-if you’re busy, it can’t be helped!!]

[Rei: (Blushing Kamishiro Rei cone)]

Kamishiro Rei, wanting to see her face after a long time.

Besides that, Soyul, who said she had already watched Jina’s conference presentation video dozens of times.

And Han Ari, the gentle and dutiful daughter who consistently sends heartfelt and affectionate regards.

Even if she’d delete client emails just by looking at the subject, Jina meticulously reads every single one of her daughters'(?) aegyo-filled messages.

“It’s not for nothing that daughter-preference ideology came about, you know?”

She doesn’t show it much, but Jina is an extreme obsessive Mama.

After saving the aegyo-filled messages separately in the important messages folder, and setting aside the work requests from Cosmo Live and the follow-up project work from Project Lingerie, Jina continued to skim through her message box.

[Rosy: I’m currently working on a project to become the god of a new world.]

Among the numerous messages, the comment from what seemed like a terminal chuunibyou patient caught Jina’s eye.

[Rosy: As a fellow creator who once made a world together, there’s something I’d like Jina to see.]

[Rosy: If you have time, could we meet briefly in VR Chat?]

Actually, she was just about to express her gratitude to Rosy separately.

Because Rosy had helped a lot in preparing for this conference presentation, such as providing the latest voice learning AI model.

[Are you free now?]

As soon as she sent the message, a VR Chat private room link returned from Rosy.

As if she had been waiting all along for Jina to contact her.

---

Following the link Rosy sent, Jina connected to VR Chat, and a medieval European-style village unfolded before her eyes.

‘The level of completion is quite high?’

As she slowly stepped onto the delicately implemented stone path, the distinct sound of stepping on gravel tickled her ears.

Adding to this, the delicate sound of leaves rustling in the wind, and the sound of water flowing along the outskirts of the city.

Everything seen and heard was incredibly realistic.

Jina slowly walked towards the center of the village.

Beautiful buildings spread out in a fan shape around a circular plaza.

Wooden shop signs, charming little stalls placed here and there, and even rustic wooden chairs.

Everything looked delicate and natural, as if painstakingly carved by hand.

Of course, 99% of it would have been generated by AI.

What most intensely captured her gaze was the tower located in the center of the village.

The four-story tower, soaring high, exuded an ominous feeling mismatched with the bright and warm atmosphere around it.

Looking closely, it seemed as if this village was the final line of defense against ‘something’ in that tower.

“How is it? It’s a village I decorated moderately with the 3D object generation model Jina-nim embedded in the VR TRPG. Pretty well made, right?”

The girl in a witch costume, Rosy, was smiling brightly at Jina.

“Not bad… but there are some parts that need correction.”

“Reaally?! Which parts?”

“The biggest problem is that the lighting is only processed fragmentarily. It looks too monotonous, so the texture expression appears bland.”

“W-well, certainly…”

“Especially to bring out that building wall more exquisitely, it would be good to add point lights and utilize indirect lighting more meticulously to add shading.”

Jina’s feedback is always cold and sharp.

Her straightforward tone could hurt feelings, but Rosy, on the contrary, smiled brightly.

“Hing, Jina-nim is really merciless. Well, that’s why I like it though.”

Rosy was delighted, her eyes sparkling, as if she had been waiting for the sharp criticism.

“Anyway, what on earth is this map? Are you trying to make a new VR game or something?”

“Well~ Something similar. To be precise…”

A meaningful smile appeared on Rosy’s lips.

Come to think of it, whenever Rosy made that excited expression, something grand in planning always seemed to follow…

“I’m preparing a fantasy-style streamer RP world, with Sword Master Online as the motif.”