“Ah… ah!! That’s a sensitive spot, you can’t…!”
“Hana, don’t resist!”
“Ah!!! No!!!”
“Eek!”
“Noooooo!”
I let out a sharp scream, unable to resist Yumi’s hands pressing against me. Yumi’s hand movements were so good that even as an adult, I couldn’t help but admire them.
*Creak*
With the sound of the door opening, I had no choice but to step outside wearing monkey-shaped pajamas.
I pouted, making a dissatisfied face about the pajamas Yumi had handed me to wear. They couldn’t even compare to the dinosaur pajamas we had at home. A monkey? It didn’t suit me at all. The only pajamas that suited me were the dinosaur ones.
“It looks great on you, Hana!”
Yumi and Jiyu were already wearing familiar animal-themed pajamas. Yumi was in an adorable cat pajama that made you want to give her a “nyan-nyan punch,” and Jiyu was wearing dog-shaped pajamas.
“Why do I have to wear monkey pajamas?”
Are there no cute pajamas? Monkeys just didn’t feel like an animal that matched me. I’d rather wear something like a sparrow or penguin—something cute.
“If you lost rock-paper-scissors, you have to wear it quietly!”
Jiyu, still in her dog pajamas, said that. Honestly, a dog would suit me better…
Jiyu brought over a table and set it up in the middle of the room.
“Let’s play a board game!”
Jiyu pulled out a box filled with board games from who-knows-where. It was surprising to see such games at home. Usually, you’d find them at game cafes, right?
Is this what they call a generation gap?
“Let’s start with the board game first!”
It was the classic real estate game—buying land, building on it, and mercilessly charging others who land on your property.
Back in the day, when I was a kid, the most expensive land in the game was Seoul. But thinking about land prices nowadays, it kinda makes sense. Seoul’s land is incomparably expensive compared to other regions.
“I’ve played this before, and it was super fun!”
Jiyu and Yumi started setting up the board game like excited kids. As they said, board games are more fun with more people.
But they really picked the wrong person to play with. I’ve been alive for over 20 years. I wasn’t so weak that I’d lose to kids who haven’t even lived a decade yet. Today, I decided, I’d show them the dignity of an adult.
The setup was done. I picked up the dice with a confident smile. Today was the day to show the power gap.
“I’ll go first!”
With that, I rolled the dice onto the board. And so, it began.
———————————————-
“Ugh!”
I could only watch helplessly as my character became mercilessly bankrupt. My character was standing on Jiyu’s property, which had a hotel built on it—prime Seoul land.
Even with all the real estate and cash I’d gathered so far, I couldn’t afford the rent on Jiyu’s land. I was eliminated way faster than Yumi.
Frozen in place, I could only sit there. But Jiyu, as if she couldn’t tolerate my defeat, took all my assets and real estate laid out in front of me.
“Hana, you’re really bad at this! Is this your first time playing?”
Yumi ruthlessly scratched at my pride. I’ve played this game so many times… and when it came out on mobile, I even spent a whole month’s salary on it, playing passionately.
But whether it was bad dice luck or my skills being all about money, I got completely wiped out.
I collapsed to the floor. My character on the board had long disappeared. It had become a beggar because it met the wrong owner.
“My character…”
In real life, I’m a rich person who doesn’t need to worry about money, but in the board game, my character was penniless. I couldn’t even afford to pay.
I sat quietly and watched Yumi and Jiyu play. In the fierce competition, Jiyu emerged as the winner. It seems everyone has their own special talent. In Jiyu’s case, it was being good at board games.
“Let’s play Jenga!”
The next game was Jenga. It’s the game where you stack wooden blocks and take them out one by one. I was confident in this one too. It was time to show off the skills I honed during MTs. I helped stack the blocks, burning with determination.
“Ugh… please!”
But it seemed the gods weren’t on my side. I reached for a block on the tower that looked like it was about to collapse. Even my delicate, artistic hand movements couldn’t save me.
Halfway…
When the blocks were pulled out, the tower, unable to withstand the shoddy construction, began to crumble. It was the end of the tower that hadn’t been reinforced properly.
“Ahhh!”
I screamed at the sight of the collapsing tower. But the fallen tower didn’t return to its original state.
“Hana is really bad at board games!”
What the heck! I can’t believe I’m being treated like this! It didn’t feel like me, the one who won all sorts of mini-games during the MT. With a gloomy expression, I was tidying up the Jenga. It was the etiquette of this duel for the loser to clean up.
As I was tidying up with a somber face, I heard Jiyu’s mother calling from outside the room.
She told me to tidy up the table and then go get the delicious snacks we talked about earlier. I was about to jump up and go, but Jiyu and Yumi stopped me.
“Hana is a guest today, so just relax and rest in the room!”
It seemed like they were treating me since it was my first time at Jiyu’s house. The fact that I didn’t have to deal with the annoying dishes or bring snacks made me happy. The gloomy feeling from losing the board game earlier was starting to fade.
As Jiyu and Yumi went out of the room, I sat down and looked around. The room of a third-grade elementary school student was cute. The pink wallpaper and a pretty character from some anime decorated the bookshelf.
I leaned against the bed and tried to use my mobile phone. But my hand, which had briefly gone under the bed, felt like it hit something. It felt like a book.
Curious, I reached under the bed and fumbled around. The gap under the bed was so narrow that my arm barely fit. If I had an adult’s body, it wouldn’t have fit at all. It was a gap even a vacuum cleaner would struggle to get into.
I pulled out the book from under the bed. It was so clean, without a speck of dust, as if it had just been bought. The cover showed two women holding hands.
“Is this a comic book?”
I had a feeling I shouldn’t be looking at it. But curiosity kills the cat, so I boldly held the book on my lap and slowly flipped through the pages.
Since I didn’t have much time, I just skimmed through the pictures. But gradually, I started to feel something was off. Two women appeared, and at first, it seemed like they were fighting, but then suddenly they got along too well.
“Fighting and growing closer, right?”
But the problem was they got along too well. The two women looked at each other, and one of them planted a deep kiss on the other’s cheek. By then, I realized this wasn’t a normal comic book. My face turned bright red, and I quickly put the book back in its place. Shouldn’t books like these have a red “19+” label on the cover?
As an adult, I knew such books existed. But finding one in a friend’s house was a different issue. Maybe Jiyu had some special views on relationships. In my opinion, women should be with men. Of course, I was an exception. There probably wasn’t another case like mine in the whole world.
In this transformed body, I had never felt any romantic attraction to anyone, male or female. And I probably never would.
At school, Jiyu mentioned seeing strange books, but I never thought they’d be like this. Maybe Jiyu was talking about comic books? In fact, Jiyu’s bookshelf had a lot of comic books. But from the titles, they seemed like ordinary ones. Yet, hiding a comic book filled with such desires…
I shook my head to shake off the lingering thoughts. What era is this? It’s a time of freedom of expression. We don’t get tied up like in the past. And it might just be a passing phase. Kids change all the time. Maybe she’ll look back on this as a dark chapter.
I had my share of dark chapters too, so I could understand. I’ve done many things I’m too embarrassed to talk about. I didn’t realize it when I was young, but as I grew older, I understood.
Anyway, maybe because my head was still hot, I didn’t realize I had placed the book in a different spot than before.
