Chapter 111

The woman didn’t stay close to Hwa-won for long and immediately stepped away. Then, she looked at me and asked.

“So, who is this kid, um… this person?”

“Yeah.”

Is she remembering me? Even so, we’ve never met in this appearance.

The woman, Hye-won, lowered her head and made eye contact with me. It felt a bit awkward. Although she had shrunk in height, she wasn’t a child. It was slightly uncomfortable to look up at her, but I wasn’t expecting this kind of consideration, and to be honest, it didn’t feel very good either.

However, it was true that it was somewhat more comfortable than having a conversation with someone while looking up.

“Hello.”

“Hello. It’s been a while.”

“Yes, the person from back then? Right? It’s my first time properly greeting you.”

“Um, was it when I was in my underwear?”

“…That’s right.”

“Your expression is strange.”

It seemed like I could partially understand the expression of having a blank mind during that conversation. Back then, she didn’t show any signs of embarrassment, but I didn’t expect her to mention it so bluntly.

“You’ve gotten a lot smaller since we last met.”

I didn’t expect her to say it so openly. She could consider lowering her head, but she couldn’t hold back her words.

Still, there was no malice in Hye-won’s expression. It looked like she was just saying what she genuinely thought. I had a feeling I could somewhat understand why Hwa-won had slept with this woman.

“That happened.”

“It’s really amazing, isn’t it? Oh, did I forget to introduce myself? My name is Kang Hye-won.”

“I’m Seol-guk.”

Kang Hye-won, who was smiling widely, didn’t have such a bad impression, but I found her trailing off a bit annoying. Didn’t she speak clearly with Hwa-won? Although it seemed like Hye-won wasn’t particularly concerned about my changes despite her earlier amazement.

Well, it wasn’t anything particularly strange.

The Hye-won this woman knew only saw my very brief appearance in Hwa-won’s room back then, so there wasn’t really any room for her to be bothered by the changes.

Of course, people I met after I changed naturally didn’t know my previous appearance (it wasn’t just about my looks), so they wouldn’t feel any discomfort.

Those who knew me before were limited due to my narrow social circle, and most had encountered my changed appearance after a considerable time. The only person I met right after my transformation, who could be considered an original connection, was Muk Ha-neul.

“So, what’s this place?”

“This is my company. We run an online shopping mall.”

“Are you the owner?”

“Yeah, I’m the owner.”

Ah, so that’s why? It’s an online shopping mall dealing with clothes, and since the boss knows Hwa-won, she might be able to get a pretty good deal. It’s also somewhat common for young women to start online shopping malls. When I turned my head, Hwa-won nodded.

“It’s a special favor because you asked me.”

Her tone was definitely different from when she spoke to me. Hwa-won mentioned that it had been quite a while since she met Hye-won, and I couldn’t help but worry that this might lead to some strange issues.

“Are you two dating?”

“Huh? No, no. We’re not dating.”

However, Hye-won flatly denied my question. Despite that, she seemed to be getting along with Hwa-won more closely than I expected.

“We’re just friends. Um, and Hwa-won oppa is handsome, good at night work, has money, and is nice, but…”

“But what?”

“He’s a bit of a loser, so as a boyfriend, he’s not really…”

Hwa-won, who was watching us while drinking water from the water cooler, outright spit it out. That side of Hwa-won wasn’t something you could see easily.

“Ugh, hey! What’s so loser-like about me?”

“Isn’t it that? Saying stuff like, ‘I can’t write anything these days,’ or ‘The world doesn’t recognize me,’ or ‘I don’t want to go home and inherit the company like this’? Ah, is that not loser-like but just unfortunate?”

That was unexpected. Of course, Hwa-won sometimes said loser-like things and would sometimes sound unfortunate, but he didn’t do that often in front of women. It made me wonder if their relationship was deeper than I thought, though Hye-won flatly denied it.

Well, Hwa-won was a person too. There was no rule saying he only talked to me about these kinds of things. However, thinking back to when Hwa-won expressed that Hye-won “didn’t have the brain for that” felt a little awkward.

“So we’re just friends, enjoy? Something like that.”

Whether or not she had the brains for it, she didn’t seem like that kind of person. You can’t know everything based on first impressions, so I couldn’t jump to conclusions, but that was the feeling for now.

“Enjoy? Just call it a sex friend.”

“Oh my! What are you saying in front of a kid?”

“She’s not a kid.”

“Oh, right.”

…It was likely that any kind of favor she sent my way was because of my appearance.

“And it’s not like that anymore. It’s been a few months.”

“R-really?”

She was a person I couldn’t figure out. She seemed foolish sometimes, but her jabs at Hwa-won were surprisingly sharp, and yet she showed no malice towards either me or Hwa-won. Objectively speaking, Hwa-won was an attractive and desirable man, yet she didn’t seem to regard him that way, which was fascinating.

She appeared like a silly girl out of a fairy tale and also like a pornography actress. She felt different from the women I had seen before.

Honestly, I understood the expression ‘blank’ better. It felt transparent. The way she smiled and greeted me while showing her underwear back then was no different from how she was now right in front of me.

“So, you’re here to look at clothes?”

“Uh, can you give me a discount?”

“Oppa, you have money.”

“I’m not buying them. She’s the one buying.”

“Stingy guys aren’t popular, oppa.”

“How many clothes have you asked me to buy for you?”

“Seven?”

“I didn’t ask a question.”

“Then why did you ask?”

She really didn’t have the brain for that. But now I wanted to get to the main point.

“Um, so what kind of clothes are you looking for? This isn’t a store, and we only do online shopping, so we don’t have clothes displayed or anything.”

Actually, that was a valid point. No visible stores in this building looked like that at all.

“Don’t you have clothes? There’s a fitting area.”

“We do have some, but most are in the logistics warehouse, so there’s not much.”

“Then let’s first check your site and try on what you have. For what you don’t, we can buy it, try it on, and if it doesn’t work, we can return it.”

“Refunds due to simple change of mind are difficult~.”

“You know it doesn’t matter within seven days.”

“Tch.”

Though she said that, Kang Hye-won was consistently smiling. When she spoke about looking at clothes online, I thought she would go to a desk with a computer, but instead, she opened a drawer, took something out, and approached me.

“Shall we go?”

“Where to?”

“First, we need to measure your size.”

“I already measured it before. I know it.”

“What is it?”

I told her the size from when I had measured before. Although while speaking, I thought that size had felt a bit small before.

“Um… it seems a bit ambiguous. Let’s measure again.”

I didn’t have any particular reason to refuse, but for some reason, it felt embarrassing. It was different from having a complete stranger at a lingerie store measure you. Of course, Hye-won was technically still a stranger.

“Can’t we just try it on and if it doesn’t fit, go up a size?”

“That’s true, but there’s something that bothers me.”

Your tone is bothersome.

“By any chance, doesn’t your chest feel a bit tight or anything?”

…Chest?

“…I’m not sure.”

It seemed like I felt a little of that, but also not really. It wasn’t a feeling of pressure, but I thought I felt a very slight sense of tightness, just a little. In fact, my chest had been somewhat strange recently. I thought it was due to my depression.

I meant to shrug it off as just my imagination.

“Let’s measure one more time, just in case? It might have grown.”

The notion of growing rang a bit fearfully in my mind.

The idea of growing in this small height was undoubtedly a good thing. It would be welcomed. So back then, I didn’t feel particularly bad when clothes felt a bit small. It wasn’t the right situation to feel that way.

However, hearing the words that my chest might grow brought some unknown fear.

Breasts.

No matter what you called them, the two lumps that every woman had were symbols of femininity. They were markers of values such as motherhood. At the same time, they were powerful sex symbols.

In that moment, I was hit with a strong temptation to run away, but in the end, I didn’t.

Hwa-won was next to me. I couldn’t turn my head. I didn’t want to see his expression, whatever it might be.

I felt scared. But I didn’t want to run away from the place I came to at his request.

Still, I didn’t want to be in the same space as Hwa-won. I wanted to cool down this chest, if only for a brief moment. In any sense.

So I decided not to run away, but rather to choose the best way to leave this space for a little while.

“…Alright.”

I entered the changing room with Kang Hye-won.

~

Taking off my clothes, leaving only my underwear in front of Hye-won was certainly not a pleasant experience. But still, it was better than hearing that kind of talk next to Hwa-won. Unlike how she appeared a moment ago, Hye-won didn’t say anything frivolous and neatly measured my size.

“Um, you’ve definitely grown a bit. It might have been okay until now, but it seems like you’ll need to buy new underwear.”

“Ah.”

Eventually, a definite statement emerged from Hye-won’s lips. A small sigh escaped mine, and Hye-won could hear it.

“Are you alright?”

“…Ah, I’m fine.”

Although I grew a little taller, it didn’t bring me any comfort. I dressed again and sat on a small chair inside the fitting room.

Despite appearing oblivious, Hye-won gave me a moment of stillness. My complicated mind wasn’t clearing up easily, but I couldn’t just stay like this. I took a deeper breath and stood up.

“Um, it’s a bit odd to buy underwear in front of you, isn’t it?”

“You should say that out loud….”

Ah, I shouldn’t have said that. In a moment of loss of control, sharp words slipped out.

No matter what, this situation wasn’t Hye-won’s fault. The timing was unfortunate, but it was something that had to happen at some point. Unfortunately, it was a problem that it happened to be when Hwa-won was here.

“…I’m sorry. I got a bit overexcited for a moment.”

“Oh, it’s fine. That can happen.”

Fortunately, Hye-won didn’t seem to make too much of a problem. She didn’t look angry or upset. Instead, she was being considerate even in this situation.

“Anyway, that might be uncomfortable for you, so for the underwear, um, I’ll send a few plain ones when I send you the clothes. You can try them on and if the size is right and they’re good, keep them. But if they’re uncomfortable, feel free to return them.”

…I was grateful. I was grateful, but I couldn’t help but wonder why she was treating me so nicely. Even something grateful made me feel foolish for doubting first.

“Thank you.”

“What are you talking about? It’s fine.”

…But that tone bothered me.

I sighed again.

Once because of the frustrating situation, once because of my foolishness, and once for my suffocating chest.

I was complying. Giving in was not easy.