episode_0005

The next day after school, Ji-won headed to Won’s house.

She went to ask about the text from yesterday.

Ji-won clutched her chest and opened the front door.

“Oh… you’re here.”

When asked what was going on,

“I was running home quickly yesterday, and my chest started hurting.”

Although it sounded like nonsense,

Ji-won had heard that when people with big chests run, their chests hurt from the internet.

There seemed to be only one solution.

“Do you want to go buy a sports bra?”

Deciding to go buy a sports bra that fits well, they also decided to buy a second bra.

“Do we really have to go?”

However, Ji-won started asking if they really needed to go.

There was no real need to go, but still, thinking of treating her to a meal outside, Ji-won said she would buy her food. Ji-won said she would lie down for a bit, then got up, changed clothes, and started taking off her top.

“Hey!!!”

Covering her eyes, she immediately went outside.

Why is this person so careless?

Even when she was a guy, she sometimes showed her underwear in front of me.

I didn’t expect that to continue now that she’s a girl.

Ji-won came out wearing jeans, a white t-shirt, and a denim jacket.

The denim jacket made sense given the weather.

“Is that a short-sleeved shirt?”

“Yeah.”

She came out in a short-sleeved shirt in March.

It wasn’t incomprehensible, but even in March, there could be a chill in the air. It was a bit surprising to see her dressed like that.

“We’ll be back soon anyway, let’s go.”

Saying that, Ji-won already opened the front door and started heading outside.

Thinking we’d return quickly, I followed Ji-won outside.

**

“Ji-hoo, it’s cold…”

I knew this would happen.

We had to take the bus, but before we even reached the bus stop, Ji-won said she was cold and asked me to take off my outerwear.

Not sure how she would wear my outerwear over her denim jacket, but I took it off for her.

Putting my outerwear over her denim jacket, she said she felt warmer now.

You must be feeling nice and warm.

I’m freezing to death.

Even though it’s March, it’s still chilly, especially in Daegu. It’s not freezing, but it’s definitely cold.

As we waited at the bus stop, I thought about how the bus wasn’t coming quickly.

“Hey, are you cold?”

Ji-won asked me if I was cold.

“Yeah, it’s freezing.”

In response to my words, Ji-won smiled slightly and spoke.

My hand began patting Ji-won’s head.

She flinches even if you just touch her lightly.

While waiting at the bus stop, Ji-won said,

“Oh… I don’t have money on my transportation card.”

“I’ll swipe for both of us.”

I felt a bit sorry knowing she didn’t have enough for transportation fare.

Last time, she couldn’t turn on the heater because she had no gas money.

As we were waiting for the bus, our bus arrived.

The person in front seemed unsure about having enough for the fare.

Approaching them, I said, “Two fares,” swiped my card, and as the person thanked me, the bus departed.

Looking at me, Ji-won smiled and said, “Well done.”

I’m not sure what I did well.

Anyway, let’s hurry and get on the bus.

Heading to the downtown area, I decided to buy underwear suitable for Ji-won and have a meal.

Contemplating what to eat, when I suggested having beef and rice soup that we had last time, Ji-won expressed her desire for sushi this time.

Well… sushi…

It must be expensive. Sushi…

As a college student myself, I can’t afford expensive things.

Since she wanted to eat it, I was looking for a sushi restaurant nearby.

“I know a sushi place I want to go to!”

Upon Ji-won’s words, I handed her my phone and asked her to search where it was.

Ji-won then searched for a conveyor belt sushi restaurant called Gatpashi.

It wasn’t too far away, so I thought it would be fine and headed towards the sushi restaurant.

**

Walking towards the sushi restaurant, upon arrival, I placed an order at the counter.

“Have you ever used our store before?”

When I mentioned that I hadn’t used the store separately, the staff explained how to use it.

They mentioned that you could use it for about 1 hour and 50 minutes, and if you exceed the time or leave a lot of food, there would be an additional charge.

Then they assigned us a seat number, and we moved to our seats.

Sitting down, we waited for the sushi.

Since it was conveyor belt sushi, I planned to wait until what I wanted came around.

“You can order by selecting this.”

Ji-won started ordering sushi from the monitor above.

I felt like I was reading a newspaper with such a feature.

Ji-won began ordering rice cake sushi, salmon, and shrimp tempura.

While sushi plates were also served individually, if you ordered buffet-style, you could eat unlimitedly for 1 hour and 30 minutes. So, thinking that if one person ate about 20 plates, it seemed like a good deal.

I also got shrimp sushi, flounder sushi, and egg sushi, and started eating.

I haven’t had much experience with sushi, so I’m not sure how to describe the taste, but I could tell it was delicious.

As we were enjoying the sushi for a while, Ji-won had already eaten about 20 plates.

When I asked if she wasn’t full yet,

“Think about my original body; I’ve eaten a lot.”

With that one sentence, I immediately understood.

I even felt a bit envious of how she could eat so heartily.

Thinking that way, after eating a decent amount of sushi and with enough time passed, we decided to get up from our seats and head back.

From the downtown area, we took a bus back to Ji-won’s house.

While waiting for the bus at the bus stop, Ji-won talked about the sushi we had today.

She said the quality was good and suggested coming again next time.

“With my money?”

“Yeah!”

As I pondered how to eradicate this parasite,

“Jihoo… hey?”

A familiar voice came from behind.

A female voice. However, it wasn’t Ji-won’s voice.

Turning around and looking in the direction of the voice,

“Sister?”

There stood Sung-a, my senior sister whom I met in college.

She is now my girlfriend.

“Who’s the girl next to you?”

Ji-won’s expression changed as she approached me with what seemed like anger, asking about the girl next to me.

“Who is she, the girl next to you.”

What should I say?

My best friend Kim Ji-won, who used to be a guy but turned into a girl. But saying that…

She definitely won’t believe it, and I know that anyone who believes that isn’t quite right in their mind.

So, in this situation, I don’t know what to call Ji-won.

Seeing Sung-a, Ji-won seemed very surprised and started trembling behind me.

Or maybe it’s because she’s hiding behind me that the situation feels off.

I don’t know how to explain in this situation.

Right now, all I can say is this:

“She’s just a friend.”

A friend… She is a friend, but I couldn’t say she was a male friend.

Even if I did say it, she probably wouldn’t believe it.

First, I could only say that we were friends.

Seeing me like that, Seong-ah unni looked at me and said, “Okay, got it.”

With those words, she turned around and left.

What’s this? Why do I feel so uneasy like this?

I don’t know. But for now…

“It should be resolved well, right?”

That was the only thought in my mind at the moment.

Thinking like that, I gradually boarded the approaching bus and decided to go back to Ji-won’s house for now.

**

I got off the bus and arrived in front of Ji-won’s house.

Ji-won kept trembling, grabbed my hand, and asked, “Why are you shaking so much?”

I knew she usually disliked crowded places, but she had never been unable to go to this extent before. It seemed like the first time seeing her tremble like this.

After trembling for a while, Ji-won came inside, covered herself with a blanket, and said, “A woman talked to me.”

Ah… this guy… so that’s what it was.

One of Ji-won’s major flaws.

She can’t talk to women.

I thought that might have been fixed since Ji-won became a woman.

But as expected, just because someone changes, it doesn’t mean their phobias disappear.

When approached by the opposite sex, Ji-won used to have trouble talking.

It seemed like even becoming a woman didn’t fix that.

As I held Ji-won’s trembling hand and reassured her, she seemed to calm down a bit.

It’s good that she calmed down now.

But I don’t know what to say to Seong-ah unni…

She seemed really angry.

We have a university lecture scheduled for tomorrow that we need to attend together, but I don’t know what to say when we meet.

“Damn it… should I just take a leave of absence?”