Chapter 47 – My Childhood Friend Suddenly Started to Look like a Woman One Day

There was a familiar-looking woman in front of the male dormitory when I came outside.

Why didn’t she go straight to the bus?

I called out to her, who was standing there holding her cell phone.

“Yoo Hayeon. What are you doing there?”

“Han Sijoon. What’re you going to do if you’re late? Is your phone for decoration?”

“Ah…”

I checked my phone while letting out a surprised sound.

–7 missed calls.

It was a pile of missed calls from Hayeon.

It appeared that she had been impatiently waiting for me here.

How cute.

She could’ve just gone inside the bus and waited for me there.

Hayeon showing her cuteness today wasn’t a bad thing to see.

While I was having such thoughts, we walked towards the bus that was waiting for us.

She glanced at me then tapped my hand, sending a signal.

“Hey.”

“What.”

“Grab it, will you? You’re not supposed to make a woman wait. Idiot.”

Hayeon appealed to me to hold her hand.

There’s no one around us, right…?”

I slightly turned my head to check if anyone was around.

It appeared that since I came out a little late, there were no students.

I held her hand as she wished. 

“I think we were like this too when we went on a school trip before.”

“Oh, Sijoon. So you do remember? I assumed you were a fool.”

“…I don’t want to hear that from you.”

Was it during middle school?

It was the day Hayeon and I went on a school field trip.

We walked to the bus, hand in hand.

The reason was because we had a fight the day before. 

We got into an argument over what the packed lunch should be for the field trip. While I was for kimbap, Hayeon was for fried tofu rice balls.

“Field trips mean fried tofu rice balls…! Han Sijoon is so stupid! He’s not a person!

She yelled at the top of her lungs that it had to be fried tofu rice balls no matter what.

In the end, our verbal quarreling dredged up all of our past dark history.

We had quite the salty relationship.

Then the next day, when the time for the field trip came… Our parents packed us half kimbap and half fried tofu rice balls, and came up with an idea.

“You two. Hold hands until you get to the bus.”

My parents said, with the intention for us to make up no matter what.

Hayeon would’ve dropped dead if her parents had said that, so I was forced to grab her hand and drag it to the bus.

Thinking about it, that’s also a memory too.

The memory of us not looking at each other because we were both sulking, yet the warmth we felt in their hands gently melted away the cold atmosphere.

It was a memory I couldn’t pay with money to experience; I only experienced it because I had a childhood friend.

I jokingly said to Hayeon, “Fried tofu rice balls make no sense. No tastes. You don’t know how to eat.”

“Dummy. It’s better than you who didn’t know that the curry was full of capsaicin…”

”…“

I couldn’t argue there.

I sealed my lips so she wouldn’t pry any more.

Hayeon also sensed that I didn’t want to talk, so she walked without saying a word.

In the heavy silence, we felt each other’s warmth and were able to reach the school trip’s bus without a hitch.

“1-A, right?”

I nodded indicating that was correct, and got in the vehicle.

Fitting of a bus from the Hero Academy, the interior was painted in a classy white, with seats of two.

So Yoona couldn’t make it in the end after all.

Unfortunately, due to the Black Dawn’s theft of the core, the corporation was in a state of crisis which she seemed to be preoccupied with. She normally did not skip out on the academy’s events, but because of the loophole in NAVI’s magic detection technology, I could surmise that she was busy.

After looking around at the remaining seats on the bus, I spoke in an indicative manner to Hayeon.

“I’m sitting in the front seat.”

She followed me to the front and sat next to me. 

Due to her acute senses, she tended to get motion sickness so the back wasn’t a good seat for her.

Hayeon sat down as she quietly mumbled, “T…Than…ks…”

“Come again? Say that one more time.”

“Ah, I said thanks…!! Did you really have to make me say it again when you clearly heard it…?

Hayeon shouted fairly loudly as her face reddened.

Just as I thought, it was fun to tease her.

We were in a practice dating relationship.

But was it because things didn’t feel any different?

We didn’t know what to do with this relationship since we became so comfortable around each other that we acted the same as usual.

As the bus moved to the field trip’s destination, I decided to ask Hayeon what had been bugging me.

“Hayeon. Do we have to practice dating?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, I was wondering if there was a need to. We act the same as usual, don’t we?”

“…”

Responding a tempo slower, Hayeon didn’t say anything as if my question about the “need” for us to practice dating rendered her speechless.

She hadn’t said a word, but then said one thing.

“Sijoon. When we get off a little later, follow me. I have something to say.”

“What?”

Hayeon whispered to me in a serious and low tone.

Why was she so serious? 

I didn’t know why she became serious, but I could sense a strange chill coming from her.

While we were like that, Hayeon quietly pulled my hand towards her.

It was like a seat belt, which wouldn’t let me escape anywhere.

Did I slip up my words somewhere…?

I couldn’t read the air at all.

I just quietly peered out the window.

The sky was blue and clear.

***

“Now then, Students! We’re here!”

Kang Suho, the training instructor for the hands-on combat class, shouted at us.

He was substituting for Shin Sihwa, who couldn’t come because she had to look after Hana.

“You have free time until 4 p.m.! There’s time tomorrow too, so you can get a good look!”

As soon as we heard that, Hayeon unbuckled her seat belt while holding my hand, and started to drag me off somewhere.

I hastily asked her, “Hey, where’re we going?!”

“You…  You just asked me to break up, didn’t you…?

“No, I didn’t mean it like that…”

It seemed that I somehow gave her the wrong impression.

I asked her about the need for us to practice dating, and it appeared she interpreted it as breaking up.

As I was dragged by her, I looked around the field trip’s destination site.

When you went on school trips, you always heard of the place, Jeonju.

If it was Jeonju, then it’s Hanok Village.

Where we were at was the Jeonju Hanok Village, which had been newly implemented by V. AGE.

With the advent of the gates around the world, our country’s traditions had been destroyed and became impossible to preserve. Among the areas, scientists proved that there was the lowest probability of gates appearing in Jeonju Hanok Village.

As such, it was a fitting destination for a school field trip since it was safe from the gates.

When a gate didn’t appear, it meant it wouldn’t break in normal circumstances. Because it was much larger in scale than the original world; it was huge enough that it would take two days just to explore it.

As I was browsing those hanoks, Hayeon dragged me to a small hanok house and started to pull me to a secluded corner.

“Just how far are we goin…”

“Hey, Sijoon. I can’t take it anymore.”

She cut me off and called my name in a cold voice.

She was looking at me like she was full of complaints.

She grabbed my hand and asked me, “How do you feel when I hold your hand?”

“…It’s warm.”

Her hands were warm.

Among the hands I’d held, I never met anyone who had warmer hands than her.

She looked around, and after seeing that there were no people, she hugged me tightly.

”Then, how do you feel when I hug you?”

”…“

“Sijoon. Answer me.”

Hayeon rushed me to answer.

But I couldn’t explain this feeling easily.

My heart was beating somewhat faster, and there was an alluring scent coming from her black hair which stirred the hearts of men.

Hayeon urged me to answer quickly, so I decided to be honest.

“I think it feels good.”

“W…What?”

When I said it felt good, she pulled her body away from me for a moment.

She spat out abusive words towards me, “Pervert. Pervert Sijoon. You’re vulgar.”

I mean, she was the one who did it yet she’s calling me a pervert.

After seducing me, Hayeon seemed to be saying, “You’re enticed by something like that?”

Her face briefly reddened, then she approached me again.

“You. You said to me that I was family. But why do you feel good?”

“That’s…”

Yoo Hayeon was definitely family to me.

It was a fact that my childhood proved, and a truth that no one could dispute.

“Then, why do you feel good from someone who’s family? Why are you getting into it? Are you a pervert? Did you throw away your humanity?”

“…!”

Checkmate.

In chess, we call a situation like this a checkmate.

For some reason, Hayeon was showing the qualities of an S-Rank hero right now.

A perfect logic which was uncharacteristic of her.

An irrefutable remark.

“Admit it, Han Sijoon.”

“…Admit what.”

“That you see me as a woman.”

After she told me that she “saw me as a man”, she grabbed my hand and pushed it up to her chest.

“Do you feel my heart beating? I’m being serious.”

I could feel Hayeon’s heart beating hard in my hand.

It was thumping as if it was about to burst.

She blushed, embarrassed by the situation.

Hayeon confessed her true feelings to me, and I knew she was being sincere.

It was a situation with no way out.

I, who had tried my best to feign ignorance, had to admit it.

The family and gender she was talking about. 

My reaction in response to the situation.

This was all a biological response from me seeing Hayeon as a woman.

I’d be a lunatic if I didn’t admit this…

Unlike in the past, I admit I saw Hayeon as a woman.

That was the fact I’d been trying hard to deny.

The fact that I had to deny.

But when I admitted it, it cleared my mind.

I didn’t make excuses and told her, “That’s right. Right now, in my eyes, I see you as a woman, not family.”

“Now you admit it. Stupid Sijoon.”

Hayeon looked invigorated as if she had unclogged her heart.

She seemed to want to go further after I admitted that fact.

“Like you said, I don’t think we need to practice dating anymore. Is there a need to practice?”

“No. It wasn’t even practice in the first place.”

Hayeon and I acted the same as usual and never behaved as couples did.

She had also felt that.

She pushed me to the wall, and locked me with her arms so I couldn’t escape.

Is this the kabedon1 that people talked about…?

Seeing me unable to move, Hayeon smiled.

She struggled to wear a composed smile. 

“T-Then…now, practice is over… Shall we get to the real thing…?”

My childhood friend was suggesting we should do something that we have never done before.

“Ha…Han Sijoon. Stay right there…? I’ll take care of it…”

Hayeon said she’d take the lead while she pinned me to the wall and puckered her lips at me.

My childhood friend was showing me that life was about the real thing, and that was my forte.

“What do you mean, you’ll take care of it?

Having experienced the real thing many times with Hana, I was one step ahead of her.

“You… Stay…! Mmph!!”

Because we locked lips, Hayeon couldn’t say anything.

Putting my practiced skill into play, I put my tongue inside her mouth and violated her.

That was Yoo Hayeon’s first kiss.

At a hanok where no one came.

Having come to see her as a woman, I tasted her lips.

I didn’t have any taste buds, but her lips were sweeter than I thought.

Footnotes:

1He’s referring to what Japanese call “kabedon”. It’s where a person pushes another to a wall and slams their hand(s) onto it and pins them in.