After about an hour since Samajak entered the Pagun Hall, I saw her return to the dormitory.
Not having much to do, I was lying on the bed reading a novel when I asked her as she walked in.
“Did you come back?”
“Yeah.”
Samajak replied nonchalantly as she entered the room.
I glanced at her and asked, “I saw you going into Pagun Hall earlier, what were you doing there?”
With a casual shrug, Samajak set her bag down and answered, “Oh? You saw that? Actually, I go there to take a bath alone.”
Hearing that, I was puzzled. “But we have a bathroom in our dormitory. Why go all the way there?”
Samajak gave a wry smile and replied, “The truth is, I’ve had a skin condition since I was young. I didn’t want to show my body to others, so I personally asked the dorm manager.”
“Really?”
Now that I think about it, Samajak had never shown any signs of undressing in front of me. The only time I caught a glimpse was when she accidentally walked into the room on the first day.
It was strange for guys to be so cautious about skin exposure, but I never imagined it was for such a reason.
“But what kind of skin condition? You look fine on the outside.”
As I said this and glanced at her wrists, Samajak hunched her shoulders and said, “Whenever I get a bit tired, I develop red rashes on my skin. It gets so itchy that I sometimes bleed from scratching it.”
From her words, it sounded a bit like atopic dermatitis.
Unknowingly, I ended up looking at Samajak with pity.
There probably aren’t any medications for atopic conditions, but she had hidden such a secret.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Um? No, it’s just I thought you’d feel uncomfortable knowing.”
“Are you an idiot? Having a bit of skin condition isn’t a big deal. You didn’t choose to have it.”
If it were a contagious disease, I might have thought otherwise, but with atopic dermatitis, it’s just her suffering.
The fact that I hadn’t known about it for a whole month made me realize my own insensitivity.
“If there’s anything bothering you because of me, feel free to tell me. I’ll help as much as I can.”
“Ah, okay.”
Samajak nodded obediently to my words.
Finally relieved, I was about to turn back to my book when I suddenly remembered to ask, “By the way, isn’t entry into Pagun Hall forbidden?”
Scratching her head, Samajak replied, “I asked the dorm manager, and apparently, the entry ban was just a rumor. It’s currently being used as the teachers’ exclusive accommodation.”
The teachers at Cheonmu Academy are composed of various martial artists, so they apparently offer rooms for free to those without a place to stay in the capital.
“……”
So it was all just a rumor?
*
Samajak felt guilty for lying to Ichilbok about being sick.
The truth was, saying she had a skin condition was a blatant lie.
This was a pre-planned excuse to prevent anyone from discovering she was cross-dressing and had entered the boys’ dorm.
Fortunately, her excuse worked better than expected, and she had also fooled the strict dorm manager.
Since she only used the Pagun Hall bathroom briefly during hours when the teachers weren’t around, she wasn’t bothering anyone.
However, even after using the same excuse with the dorm manager, seeing Ichilbok’s enthusiastic demeanor made her heart waver.
“I’m sorry.”
She muttered silently while trying to brush off the guilt as she turned her back, covering herself with the blanket.
Rustle- Rustle-
The only sound in her ears was Ichilbok turning the pages of a book.
Some might find the sound annoying, but for Samajak, who loved books, it was a soothing melody.
She closed her eyes and thought, “That guy is a good guy.”
She knew well just how annoying her personality could be.
If she were in Ichilbok’s position, she would have gotten irritated not after days but mere hours.
Yet, the reason she kept getting mad at him was that she wanted to be involved with him in some way.
“Didn’t he already say we’re friends?”
She pretended it was nothing, but honestly, when she heard that at the cafeteria, she felt overjoyed.
What if she had been the only one interested in him? Those days had her heart racing, feeling like a reward for her worries.
Though just over a month had passed, living in the same space made her develop one-sided affection towards him.
But the reason it was hard to approach him was due to her current cross-dressing state and the numerous girls around him.
Dokgorin.
Namgoong Ruby.
Tang Sosu.
Three of the prettiest girls Samajak had ever seen in her life.
In contrast, she was a short figure with short boyish hair, not pretty at all.
“My chest might be bigger, but that alone isn’t enough to win.”
As she fiddled with her flattened chest, Samajak realized that she had run away from home to avoid being treated like a girl, but here she was, constantly thinking only of Ichilbok.
“Am I just an inevitable girl?”
Nothing had changed since before.
The only difference was that she had developed feelings for someone she liked after leaving home.
She thought she should consult her cousin, Jeongalgeondam, the next time she saw him and soon drifted off into slumber.
*
The next morning.
Feeling the warm sunlight coming through the window above her head, Samajak got up from her bed.
“Yawn~”
Stretching while yawning, she somehow felt better than usual.
It felt like she had an immensely good rest?
So, as she wondered about it and looked down, she was startled.
The chest that should have been bound was now free as she slept.
“Eek!”
Unintentionally letting out a feminine scream, she hurriedly covered her exposed front and quickly glanced at the empty bed next to her.
That bed was empty as usual.
Ichilbok must have gone out for a morning workout.
‘…He didn’t see, did he?’
If he did see, then her false claim from yesterday would have been completely exposed.
However, recalling that she had covered herself with the blanket all the way up to her head while sleeping last night, Samajak began to regain her composure.
‘He’s not the type to dig through other people’s blankets.’
Thinking of that, the likelihood that Ichilbok had seen her real self was much lower.
‘Phew- I dodged a bullet there.’
Relieved, she let out a small sigh and began to mentally recite the mantra for her binding spell.
Slowly, her chest began to shrink.
Soon returning to a size not unusual enough to be called a three-headed snake, Samajak tidied up her disheveled clothes and made sure the bed went unnoticed as she got up.
‘Looks like I was too relaxed. I can’t believe I made such a mistake.’
If her true identity was discovered, it wouldn’t just end in chaos.
She might get expelled.
A woman of her age, living with guys in a boys’ dormitory while eating with them.
Of course, if such a situation occurred, she would accept it with composure, but she didn’t want to break ties with Ichilbok, whom she had gotten close to.
‘I’ll have to be more careful from now on.’
Resolving this, Samajak began moving busily to get ready to go to the academic building before Ichilbok returned.
*
‘No, something felt off, but…’
This morning.
I discovered an incredible secret about my roommate, Samajak.
Driven by curiosity after hearing about her complex regarding atopy, I pulled the blanket she had been covering herself with last night and froze in shock.
Inside was a girl resembling Samajak!
‘What’s going on? Is this a hilarious prank?’
It wasn’t like some Ranma ½ situation where a roommate you thought was a guy suddenly woke up as a girl.
It’s a situation where any ordinary person would have their brain freeze.
Of course, even I, who was well-trained by various subcultures and web novels, couldn’t help but freeze at this transcendent sight.
Having rejected the idea, I quickly returned Samajak’s blanket to its original state before fleeing outside to the gym.
Nothing beats working out to clear the mind.
While sweating for about an hour, I was able to forget the overwhelming image of Samajak’s chest right in front of me, but as soon as the workout ended, thoughts of that amazing chest flooded back.
‘Wait, that size was real?’
While Dokgorin and Namgoong Ruby definitely had big sizes, Samajak’s was off the charts.
It was something that shouldn’t belong to such a small frame.
‘It was like having three heads.’
Shaking my head to erase the word “Cerberus” that popped into my mind, I sighed deeply as I wondered how to look at Samajak when I returned to the room.
