Ch.109109. Curiosity Kills the Cat

The moment I realized that fact, a chill ran down my spine.

The absurd situation where the person my friend expressed romantic interest in turned out to be the same gender.

No wonder… something seemed a bit off. For a woman, the jawline was strangely thick, and the palms were quite hefty.

“Ah, I… I see.”

Normally, this would be followed by an awkward, uncomfortable silence… but I’ve been through all sorts of situations. I’m not the type to just stand there dumbfounded in this kind of situation.

“Um, well. I, yes. I apologize for the misunderstanding. Sorry about that, and have a nice day.”

“…What? Excuse me? No, wait. Is that all…?”

Without waiting for their response, I muttered to myself, turned around, and walked away. I could hear a confused voice behind me, but I completely ignored it.

Almost half-running, I opened the terrace door and quickly returned to my seat.

“Oh, that was quick. How did it go? Did you get the number?”

The buzz-cut guy brightened up when he saw me, but I couldn’t readily answer.

How do I tell him that the woman he was attracted to wasn’t actually a woman but a man? Not a boyish-looking woman… just a slender man. How do I say that?

“Well, um. About that…”

If I told him the truth, he’d probably be shocked. I absolutely can’t tell him.

This fact… I’ll take it to my grave. With that thought, I changed the subject.

“What is it?”

“Well… it didn’t work out.”

“Huh? It didn’t? Really? What did they say?”

“Well, you know. …They said they have a boyfriend.”

“Oh, I see… Well, can’t be helped then.”

I thought he’d be more persistent, but he gave up surprisingly easily. I sighed and asked the buzz-cut guy:

“Are you okay with that?”

“I’m disappointed, but… what can I do? If they have a boyfriend, I can’t say ‘Just because there’s a goalkeeper doesn’t mean you can’t score,’ right? That would make me look pathetic. Better to give up.”

The buzz-cut guy nodded decisively. It was just moments ago he was asking me to introduce him to women, and now he was stroking his non-existent beard and muttering like a completely different person.

“Oh, and Siwoo, thanks. Seeing you gave me courage.”

“…Courage? What are you talking about?”

“The fact that you failed to get a number means that even someone who looks like you doesn’t have a 100% success rate, right? That’s comforting to me.”

I thought about it for a moment before understanding his meaning.

So this jerk… is saying he found comfort in seeing me get rejected. Have you ever seen such an ungrateful person? There’s no point in explaining further—it just means there’s something wrong with his character.

“…What? Are you messing with me? If you were going to say that, why did you make me do it?”

Thanks to him, I’m now the crazy guy who asked a man for his number. I confronted him in disbelief, but the buzz-cut guy just grinned and waved his hand.

“I’m just joking, why so serious? Hey, this won’t do. For my friend Siwoo who got rejected after asking for a number, I’ll buy you a coffee. What would you like? Take your pick.”

“What do you mean ‘I’ll’? Hey, let go! Why are you putting your arm around my shoulder? …Hey, stop it!”

*

About ten minutes later. The buzz-cut guy who had been chatting with me at the cafe suddenly stood up, said his train was about to leave, told me we should meet again sometime, and left just like that.

Really, he’s as self-centered now as he ever was.

“Sigh…”

Anyway… what happened at the cafe earlier was still nerve-wracking to think about. Both the buzz-cut guy and I had assumed we were asking a woman for her number, but it turned out to be a man.

I’m not joking—I’m genuinely afraid of running into him again on the street. I vowed never to return to that cafe as I headed home with the cooking oil Hwa Nabi had asked me to buy.

“Phew.”

Arriving at the front door. Before entering, I quickly checked my appearance. No stains, and my outfit looked neat.

“…Good.”

It might be a bit awkward seeing her face since I left while we were in the middle of setting the mood. But if I coax her a little, she’ll probably pretend to give in. With that thought, I tapped my key card and opened the front door.

Creeeeak.

“I’m home.”

I called out cautiously while holding the doorknob. But there was no answer from inside.

The living room light was on—was she doing housework? After taking off my shoes, I headed to the living room.

“Nabi, are you here?”

But in the living room, only a soft light was on, and Hwa Nabi was nowhere to be seen.

I immediately wondered if we had missed each other, if she had gone out somewhere… but that seemed unlikely.

We had an unspoken rule that if either of us needed to go out alone, we would tell the other our destination and who we were going with. Besides, Hwa Nabi wasn’t the type to leave things unfinished and go out.

She was meticulous about housework, so there was no way she would leave the lights on and go out.

“…Where did she go?”

So where had she disappeared to? She was clearly in the house, but I couldn’t see her. If not this or that, could she be asleep? I put the cooking oil on the table and was about to head to the bedroom.

-Hop.

“…Oh.”

I would have done so if Nabi hadn’t suddenly jumped out from behind the dining chair.

I immediately crouched down and gently tickled Nabi’s chin.

Pleased, Nabi purred contentedly.

“Nabi, have you seen your sister?”

I asked casually, but Nabi perked up her tail and suddenly turned around, walking out of the living room.

Wondering where she was going, I watched quietly as she sat obediently in front of the laundry room door.

“…Is she in there?”

-Meow.

Nabi meowed as if answering my question. It seemed unlikely, but… nothing ventured, nothing gained.

If she was washing up, I didn’t want to startle her by barging in, so I quietly approached the laundry room door and put my ear against it.

Our house has a layout where the laundry room, shower, and bathroom are all connected, so if she were washing up, I should hear water running. But there was no sound…

-Splat, splat.

…or rather, something sounded strange? There was some kind of splashing sound, but it definitely wasn’t the sound of someone showering or bathing.

How should I describe it? It was like the sound of skin touching a puddle of water, then lifting off, a kind of wet, sloshing sound.

-Hiss… hnngh.

Listening carefully, I could also hear some kind of rough breathing.

“…”

…What exactly is going on here? With nowhere else to turn, I unconsciously looked at Nabi, but she showed no interest whatsoever, just stretching into a long yawn.

“…Hwa Nabi, are you in there?”

Maybe because our house has such good soundproofing, there was no answer to my question.

Well… I guess I have no choice. I’ll have to go in and check myself.

“If you don’t answer, I’m coming in. Is that okay?”

I issued my final warning and waited for three seconds.

Three.

Two.

One.

Creeeeak.

And so, opening the laundry room door and stepping inside, the first sight that greeted me was…

“Hnnngh…. Hnn, Siwoo-ssi…”

—My fiancée, wearing nothing but a men’s dress shirt, calling my name while burying her face in my underwear… an unbelievable sight.

After a moment of shock at this surreal scene beyond my imagination, I swallowed hard to compose myself and spoke to Hwa Nabi, who was smelling my underwear.

“…What are you doing?”

“…Hiccup.”

I heard what sounded like a hiccup, and Hwa Nabi, who had her back to me, suddenly froze.

Then her shoulders and back twitched violently once. She seemed quite shocked.

“Si-Siwoo-ssi…?”

Like a child caught in the middle of mischief, Hwa Nabi turned to look at me with her entire body stiff.

Yet she was still clutching my underwear tightly in both hands… the shock seemed so great that her words and actions were disconnected.

“Yes, it’s me… What exactly are you doing?”

Wearing just a dress shirt with no underwear—it was clearly not normal attire.

Moreover, judging by the loose fit, it wasn’t her shirt but mine… I couldn’t imagine how she’d ended up dressed like that.

“Ah, no… this is, well, um, that.”

“…”

“That… um, ah. I was… inspecting it…!”

Sitting on the laundry room floor wearing my dress shirt, she was conducting an inspection?

…I had a lot to say, but I tried to start a conversation first.

“…What kind of inspection were you doing?”

“Oh, um. Well, I heard this somewhere. They say you can tell things about a man’s health by smelling the underwear he’s worn. So I just remembered that, and I happened to come here to wash up. And then, completely by coincidence, I saw the underwear in the laundry basket. So, purely out of curiosity, to see if that information was true. So, so…”

“……”

With tears welling up in her eyes, half-sobbing as she spoke—it was impossible to press her further. I reluctantly closed my mouth and examined the laundry room floor.

I wasn’t sure where it was leaking from, but the laundry room floor was quite wet with some kind of water.

“…What’s this water?”

I crouched down slightly, trying to change the subject. Without thinking much, I dipped my fingertip into the puddle of water to smell it… but at that moment, Hwa Nabi startled and grabbed my wrist.

“W-wait a moment! Si-Siwoo-ssi?! W-why are you smelling it?”

She leaned her upper body forward suddenly, exposing her chest area, but Hwa Nabi seemed too preoccupied to care about such trivial matters.

She seemed alarmed by this puddle—what could this water be that frightened her so much?

“Huh? Why? Why shouldn’t I smell it? What is this?”

Could it be lye? I remained still, thinking such an absurd thought.

But Hwa Nabi’s face suddenly turned bright red, then gradually turned blue… and finally became deathly pale.

“Um… Hwa Nabi?”

“…Siwoo-ssi, be honest. You’ve figured it out, haven’t you?”

“Huh? Figured what out?”

“…Even this question now, you’re just pretending not to know. Right?”

“No, wait. Hwa Nabi, there seems to be some misunderstanding. I really don’t know what you’re—”

Her voice became chilling as she muttered.

Unfocused pupils, rough breathing. With a face that anyone would recognize as not being in her right mind, she hung her head low.

Her pink hair fell forward, covering most of her face…

With only her green eyes visible through the gaps in her hair, it was like a scene from a horror movie, sending chills down my spine.

“…Fine. Since it’s come to this, I have no choice.”

“After making such a mess, what more could you possibly do…?”

I muttered without thinking and immediately regretted it. The moment I said that, the already heavy atmosphere plunged into an abyss.

Hwa Nabi, who had been sitting down, suddenly rose.

-Thud.

She pushed my shoulder, making me lie down on the laundry room floor as I was kneeling. There was no strength in her hands, but I was caught off guard.

Before I could say ‘Huh?’, my field of vision flipped. While I was still trying to understand what was happening, Hwa Nabi quickly climbed on top of my upper body.

Pressing down firmly on my collarbone with her hands, looking down at me unilaterally.

Her pink lips parted languidly.

“…I’ll have to kill Siwoo-ssi, and then kill myself.”