episode_0153

“Hey! What are you doing standing there so absentmindedly!”

The voice of a woman snapped Juha out of his daze. The softness that enveloped him, along with the fresh citrus scent, tickled his nose.

He realized he was sitting in a chair in the classroom. Slowly turning his head back, he found a strange woman’s face uncomfortably close to his, almost touching noses.

Startled by the sight, Juha jumped, shoulders tensing.

“Eek!”

“What are you doing? Were you reading a webnovel again?”

Her eyes, under long eyelashes, were fixed on the smartphone she held in her hand.

Juha quickly got up from his seat. He backed away from the suspicious woman, leaving the room. Occasionally, the chair in the classroom bumped into him, but he ignored it.

Now, looking closely, she wasn’t a complete stranger. Although he didn’t recognize her up close, she was clearly a fellow student in the same department.

However, as a man, there was no connection between her and Juha, so her close proximity felt extremely awkward.

“Ha… Eunseo?”

Juha muttered her name, trying to recall. Eunseo began to approach him. Juha tried to turn and run, but she quickly grabbed his hand.

“What’s wrong, Seoju! Why are you acting so cold!”

Eunseo said, holding Juha’s waist. Juha’s voice rose an octave at the touch of her soft flesh against his back.

“Oh, no. Wait! It’s not like that, why are you doing this!”

“That’s what I want to ask! Seoju, why are you acting so strange all of a sudden?”

Startled by Eunseo’s sharp voice, Juha froze in place. Having had little experience talking to women, Juha found himself stiffening in response to Eunseo’s raised voice.

Eunseo’s fingers began to playfully touch Juha’s body through his clothes.

“Seriously… Today is weird, Seoju. You’re scared of this? Anyway, let’s go eat quickly! Today’s menu is chicken galbi for the second meal! I’m hungry!”

“Um, wait, wait!”

“What wait! If you keep acting like this, ugh!”

In an instant, Juha felt a familiar sensation in his chest. However, her touch was playful and different from someone’s affectionate touch, causing Juha to let out a yelp.

“Hey! What are you doing!”

“Hehe, you’re the best, even better than the others, Seoju!”

“Hey, wait! Don’t touch me like that!”

Despite her innocent voice, Juha couldn’t understand why someone was clinging to his chest.

The clattering voices echoed in the classroom as Juha’s classmates, whose faces he recognized, approached him.

“That crazy girl, causing trouble again.”

“Hey, Eunseo! Stop bothering Seoju!”

In the midst of the commotion, a classmate with short hair, Park Chaeun, rescued Juha from Eunseo’s embrace. Startled, Juha found himself in Chaeun’s arms once again.

“What the heck! Why are you taking my Seoju away!”

“Why is Seoju yours? Did you ask for his opinion?”

“We don’t need to ask for every little thing!”

Amidst the drama unfolding, Juha finally regained his composure.

“Um, sorry about that.”

“Yeah, Juha.”

Look at this, Juha’s face! You turned pale just because I made a weird noise. Oh, Juha. Were you really scared? Come here and hug me!

Looking at the calm Juha in her arms and the nonsensical babbling of Haeunseo, Park Chae-eun alternately looked at them and blurted out the words that Juha had held back.

“Why are you two acting like this towards me? We’re not even that close.”

And the surroundings froze coldly.

Juha, walking on the street after leaving the classroom. The sound of boots echoing and a woman’s voice murmuring behind her tickled Juha’s ears as she walked.

“Seriously… Seoju, why are you like this today?”

“Are you upset because I bumped into you earlier?”

“Does Seoju really get upset over something like that?”

The two women who had just been fighting with Juha were now whispering behind her, glancing at Juha, thinking she couldn’t hear them. Juha let out a small sigh, clearly hearing their conversation.

Right now, the situation itself was ridiculous.

Surely, when she finished her part-time job at night and returned home, she was in a man’s body. And when she came to her senses, she found herself sitting in the classroom like this.

Glancing, Juha’s eyes turned to her reflection in the large glass window of the campus building. Under the sunny spring sky, the woman’s figure reflected in the glass was not very clear, but the outline was distinct.

Her short black hair, dyed several times in a yellowish color that reached her shoulders, was neatly styled. And her sky-blue eyes suggested she was wearing circle lenses.

The gray knit dress that exposed her shoulders slightly accentuated her modest chest. Due to her slender figure, the volume was more prominent.

The pressure of the bra squeezing her shoulders and back was awkward, and the feeling of the stockings wrapped around her legs was indescribable.

What was even more amusing was that, unlike her head, her body was accepting the current situation. If Haeunseo hadn’t groped her chest, she probably wouldn’t have known she had flesh on her chest.

As if she had always been a woman, the woman reflected in the window was walking leisurely under the sunny spring sky.

However, the two women behind her, who were unaware of this fact, cautiously approached Juha and surrounded her.

“Juha… Are you really upset?”

“I’m sorry… I didn’t pay attention to touching your body…”

“Seoju said she’ll buy lunch… So, relax, Juha.”

It was more of a surprise to her why they were acting like this. But she couldn’t explain the fact, so Juha chose to nod her head.

At the crosswalk, Juha stood still holding the two women by the arms, looking at them alternately. Like rain-soaked puppies, the two women with drooping eyes looked at Juha.

Juha let out another sigh.

It was truly strange that her female colleagues, who had never touched her properly, were now touching and clinging to her. She felt awkward, but she didn’t feel any particular emotions.

The fact was truly bizarre. The current situation was confusing, and she didn’t know what was going on.

Finally, Juha relaxed her stiff expression and looked at the two women.

“No, it’s okay. I’m sorry too. I might have gone a little overboard. I had something on my mind.”

“Yeah.”

“Then you’re not upset?”

“I’m fine.”

At Juha’s words, Eunseo and Chaeun heaved a sigh of relief as they looked at each other.

“Are you coming to the gathering tonight then?”

“Gathering?”

“Yeah. It’s not really a big deal, but since the semester started, we decided to get together with our classmates for a drink.”

Eunseo, who was unusually holding onto her arm, brought it close to her chest. Juha couldn’t help but feel sorry, thinking about why she was so touchy-feely.

“But I think I have something urgent to do at home today.”

“Huh? We agreed to have a drink today!”

“That’s right. The guys were so looking forward to you coming today.”

Ignoring the request, Juha lifted her leg under her dress. The traffic light changed just in time.

Guys.

She didn’t really enjoy drinking gatherings in the first place. And with her current condition, ugh…

And then, a moment.

The honking sound of a truck.

Braaaake-

In that moment, Juha’s eyes met the truck driver’s. The driver’s expression changed slowly, almost in slow motion, from drowsiness to shock.

Ah…!

Come to think of it, back then, it was definitely!

A familiar sensation swept through her mind. The memories that surfaced were clearly not her own life, but they were hers.

Having tea under the warm sunlight with a childhood friend with ivory hair.

Spending sweet time in the arms of her lover with black hair.

And a tear rolled down under her sky-blue eyes.

“Juha!”

“Seojuha!”

Juha’s slender body swayed backward. Her friends who held her arms pulled her back, preventing her from moving forward, and she ended up sitting down on the spot.

“What the hell is wrong with that crazy guy! Where did he get his license!”

“Juha, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

Beside the sitting Juha, Haeunseo cursed loudly towards the truck that was moving away, in line with her personality.

In contrast, Park Chaeun sat in front of Juha, looking at her with worried eyes, asking if she was hurt.

Memories that had been momentarily forgotten began to resurface in Juha’s mind.

Surely she was hit by a truck on her way back from the convenience store part-time job. When she woke up, she was in the novel’s world. And I am… I am Eleanor…

As the thought reached there, Juha suddenly stood up.

“Hey, guys. I have something urgent to do, so I’ll go home first!”

“Juha, wait!”

“Seojuha, where are you going!”

“Sorry! I’ll explain in detail tomorrow!”

Eunseo and Chaeun stood there, staring blankly at their friends who were moving away.

At the familiar entrance of her studio apartment, Juha pressed the door lock’s password. 0715, her mother’s birthday. She wondered what she would do if it didn’t open, but with an electronic sound, the lock clicked open.

Fortunately, her studio apartment was as it was.

There were unfamiliar shoes at the entrance.

The pastel-toned sneakers, despite their size, did not match her preference for monochrome, and the black high heels neatly placed on one side were enough to make her sigh.

The scent wafting through was also slightly different.

Instead of the familiar smell of daily life, a soft cotton scent lingered in the entrance.

However, what was important right now was not that.

“Ow! Why won’t this come off!”

Sitting on the front steps, she absentmindedly kicked off her enamel ankle boots and approached the full-length mirror hanging on one side of her cramped studio apartment.

Staring at her reflection, she remembered feeling uneasy when she peeked through the glass window before, but now that she had regained her memories, this appearance was undoubtedly hers.

Golden blonde, flowing hair. Jewel-like sky-blue eyes nestled within large orbs. Clean, transparent skin without a speck of dust. From the sharp, high bridge of her nose to her thin lips.

“Eleanor…”

This appearance was undoubtedly hers from not too long ago. And the faces of the people she had forgotten began to resurface in her mind.

The Baek couple.

Her precious parents.

Albris and Eteros.

Her cute, annoying, and somewhat troublesome, but precious brothers.

Dominic and Hildegarde.

Her first friends she made after inhabiting Eleanor’s body.

Ozenei Loelseara.

A precious friend who had crossed time for herself.

And…

“Dmitri…”

Eleanor, who had been the owner of this body until the end, had told her that if she saved Ozenei, her body would fall into eternal slumber, and she would return to her original reality.

That’s right.

That story had simply become a tale from a novel, and she had returned to reality.

Faced with this fact, she was at a loss for words.

Unnameable emotions overwhelmed her. Returning to her original reality seemed good, but the feeling of not being able to see those people anymore also weighed heavily on her heart.

Or rather, to be precise, her heart was leaning more towards sinking, so she just stared blankly at her reflection in the mirror for a while.

“If that’s the case, at least turn me back into a man!”

With a thud, she approached the bed and threw herself onto it. The cheap single-sized mattress that once supported her body now felt awkward.

She lifted her head slightly and examined her body. The chest that fit perfectly in Dmitri’s rough hands, the flat stomach, the hips that widened significantly from the chest, it was undoubtedly Eleanor’s body.

“Ha… What’s going on?”

She picked up her smartphone. She needed to assess the situation first. The smartphone, with its outdated notch still intact, was covered in a rabbit-shaped case that didn’t suit her original self.

“My Face ID… it’s the same.”

The first thing she checked was the messenger app.

As she tapped on the yellow icon, the first thing she saw in the profile picture was herself, Eleanor, smiling brightly.

She sighed softly and swiped to the messenger conversation.

The conversation on her smartphone, which used to be filled with initials more than actual words, was now filled with messages full of concern.

– Are you really okay?

– Juha, don’t worry about the promise, just rest well.

In addition to her friends and family, the messages she exchanged were now filled with emotions rather than initials, unlike when she was a man. The current Seo Juha was so different from her original self.

She gently placed the smartphone she held in her hand beside her. Suddenly, the hair brushing against her ear felt itchy. Unintentionally, that itchiness was now just annoying.

“What should I do…”

A small sigh filled the room. The cozy scent of cotton lingered in the air, but it couldn’t calm her restless mind.