“Wow, you just brought the dog treats… Khet!”
“Don’t just shove the galbijjim, you crazy man.”
The remaining three days of holiday.
Spending time with the mascots and finishing up the leftover festival food.
Holding the crazy Gomtaengi by the hair as it only picks at the galbijjim, I stare at an empty space on the calendar and suddenly think.
“Shiyeon’s birthday…”
Birthday.
Unlike this body of unknown origin, Shiyeon certainly had parents.
Just like how my current human self, Kim Mari, is set with a default date of January 1st, Shiyeon has a more plausible background.
A date of October 2nd.
About two weeks after Chuseok, Shiyeon’s birthday.
Naturally, a birthday cake is necessary, and fewer days are suitable for delivery food, so that can’t become anything special.
While eating is important, the real problem is the birthday present.
I shouldn’t be feeling frustrated about this, but Shiyeon hardly asks for anything.
Whether it’s a toy or a doll, at the very least something like a game console or electronic device that everyone else has.
Kids usually whine for something, throwing tantrums and wrestling with their parents on the supermarket floor…
“Shiyeon.”
While eating, I call out to Shiyeon, who turns her face buried in a bowl towards me.
“Yes?”
“Don’t you want anything?”
“Nothing!”
Even when I ask if she wants something, a quick reply almost as immediate as an instinct.
That’s why choosing anything, let alone a birthday present, is a hassle.
At least when I ask about food, there’s a clear answer, but when it comes to items or toys, she seems to have almost no desire.
Therefore, as a result, she often uses the items I bought first.
And since my mental age doesn’t match her playing with toys like dolls or robots, we immediately head towards activities on the smartphone and computer.
“It’s about time to buy one…”
With nothing specific that Shiyeon wants, I start considering the first smartphone purchase.
It’s quite early for a first grader, but I can’t just not buy one.
Looking around the same class, unless one has extremely strict parents regarding education, more than half the kids have smartphones.
Even if it is early, it’s better than not being able to join conversations with friends, so with determination, I place a large order.
While 50 chickens could easily disappear, I no longer had to worry about the birthday present.
“Maria, let’s go play!”
“Uh, mm… I should go out.”
As autumn gradually cools down.
Hearing the sounds of kids playing outside, Shiyeon almost reflexively pulls me out behind her.
Even though it’s an apartment in a somewhat out-of-the-way place, I guess it doesn’t matter since it’s still the metropolitan area.
Even the slightly worn playground from the festival attracts kids.
With the monster not appearing, Shiyeon has become inadvertently more relaxed nowadays, so we try to fill in the physical exercise by playing at such playgrounds.
When I think about it, among other magical girl seniors, while they might be skinny, I haven’t seen many who are chubby.
Boys playing soccer using discarded rice sack recycling bins as goals.
And then there are kids still playing on the same slide without being aware of gender boundaries.
While the world is in the great smartphone era, there are still so many kids playing outside.
When the neighborhood kids and Shiyeon repeatedly climb the steep incline and slide down, I’m just running around them in circles.
Occasionally, a flying spark shot by Han-gwon comes my way, but dodging it counts as a bit of exercise too.
Getting hit would make me quite unlucky.
“Jaehyeon, let’s go in!”
“Noooooo!”
“Even Gangwon, let’s go in. I made hamburg steak.”
“Really?!”
As the darkening sky causes kids to be led home by their parents one by one, Shiyeon too detaches herself from the kids she was playing with.
Shortly after that, she toddles over to me while I’m resting from running.
After promising to wash up as soon as we get home, I think about a menu suitable for a darkening evening while Shiyeon washes up.
Today, I suddenly crave a hamburger.
For no particular reason. Sometimes there are days like this.
Even two of the smallest bulgogi burgers would feel substantial, so my fingers hover over the set menu.
However, as soon as I enter the app, the message displayed causes me to hesitate in ordering.
[Due to an unexpected disruption in the supply chain, we are temporarily unable to provide French fries. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and will make every effort to resume sales promptly.]
“Ah.”
I wondered what French fries were, and that turned out to be potato fries.
The idea of eating a hamburger without fries was a significant matter.
But I still want to eat the hamburger.
In the end, I stepped out of the frequent hamburger shop and looked for another hamburger place.
In a world where even joking about hamburgers being cheap isn’t possible anymore.
Single items start at 5,000 won, and it’s hard to find anything below 3,000 won now.
Not even handmade burgers, so seeing a hamburger that exceeds 10,000 won first makes me think ‘With that money…’
Nevertheless, I ordered a bulgogi burger set and a shrimp burger as a single item from another hamburger franchise.
I can share the shrimp burger.
As soon as the order was completed, Shiyeon, having dried off, came out of the bathroom.
Now it was my turn to go in.
Slowly rising my body, I pick up the damp panties and white Mary Janes draped lazily over the drying rack and roll them up into my arms, telling Shiyeon in advance.
“I ordered hamburgers, so when it arrives, please bring them in?”
“Hamburger!”
As soon as I step into the bathroom, I lean against the wall, take off my clothes one by one, and toss them onto the closed toilet lid, placing the clothes I had prepared right next to it.
I try not to be aware of my own body as much as possible, even though it belongs to a different gender.
I can’t just wash while not looking at my own body, after all, I have to carry it like this.
Still, having memories of being a man makes it unavoidable to feel a strange sense of guilt.
I still feel as if this body doesn’t belong to me, a sense of alienation.
That thought only lasts for a moment.
Now, I’m so used to washing my long hair that I don’t get surprised when it brushes against the back of my neck.
As the soft bubbles envelop my body, the dust and sweat are covered with the smoothness and artificial scent of body wash.
I pick up a dry towel and let my long hair hang forward.
Then, using both hands, I scrub from the top as if to squeeze it out, then shake it off with a light clap.
This way, at least the water droplets don’t drop from my long hair onto the floor.
Sitting on the toilet lid, I dry my body with the towel.
Then, I put on the clothes I had placed next to my already peeled clothes, wriggling my small limbs.
“Ahh.”
As I step out of the bathroom, I let out a sigh of refreshment.
After emerging from the bathroom, covered in warm water and steam, there’s no way the world could feel so cool even during summer.
Moreover, now it’s slightly fall, after the heat has passed.
The instant chill that envelops my whole body was refreshingly indescribable.
It feels like after working in the middle of summer, taking my time in the shower with hot water and waiting for personal maintenance…
With nothing to worry about, it’s a refreshing feeling.
Beyond such refreshment, a troublesome thought suddenly pokes its head out.
“Surely, it won’t happen again…”
A thought that shouldn’t exist crosses my mind, and then there’s a loud knock.
“Hamburger!”
There aren’t many people who would knock on this house’s door.
After all, it’s usually just the delivery person, so I quietly sit still until Shiyeon jumps up like a rocket.
Looking at the smartphone I had with me in the bathroom, I see an alert that the delivery has been completed.
Some impatient riders tend to hit the delivery completion button from the first floor, and it seems this one was like that.
As soon as I open the door, I see the paper bag containing the hamburger in a plastic bag.
Carrying the rustling plastic, I bring it to the low table.
Inside the paper bag, small hamburgers, which an adult would finish in just five bites, were stacked.
Meanwhile, there were scattered fries that had fallen out of their paper bowl.
After tossing the plastic bag aside, I pulled out the hamburgers from the paper bag and ripped the paper bag open to use it as a bowl for the fries.
Then, as I squeeze out ketchup packets packaged in plastic, I finally finish preparing for the hamburger.
“Is it delicious?”
“Yes!”
Perhaps because our bodies are small, the bulgogi burger looks especially large.
That macaron-like hamburger, which I could finish in four bites if I put my mind to it, felt unusually big today.
One bite of the burger, one bite of fries.
Continuing to repeat this, my stomach filled up sooner than I expected.
I somehow managed to finish the hamburger, but there were still leftover fries.
At times like this, I call upon something hearty like soup.
Looking into the Gomtaengi’s eyes.
“Leftovers disposal team, mobilize.”
“I accept the orders!”
