If Only Their Faces Were Swapped (1)
If only their faces were swapped. Mom definitely told me to use Dad’s card. She said it was Dad’s card, no question. I knew that. I knew it was Dad’s card. So why didn’t I buy more? I should’ve bought way more. A wave of regret hit me as I carried the shopping bags home. It felt like such a waste. I should’ve grabbed three more bags of chips. I should’ve bought that monitor. That computer too… I should’ve just bought everything. Ugh… I should’ve thought of all this while I was still in the store instead of coming up with it like an idiot in the taxi. Too late now. It wasn’t like I could turn the taxi around. “Hmm… what a shame.”
“What’s wrong? What are you regretting?”
“Nothing. It’s fine.”
“If you say it like that, it just makes me more curious.”
Raming stared straight at me. But I couldn’t tell her. It was too embarrassing. I couldn’t say something that shameful to a friend!!
“I’m curious. Tell me.”
“It’s just… I was thinking I should’ve bought more when Dad gave me the card…”
“What else would you even buy? I’ve never seen anyone spend seven hundred thousand won at a supermarket before. Who shops like that?”
“Me.”
“Uh… right.”
I’d just given Raming a brand-new experience. I was a good friend. Heh heh. I glanced at her. Raming was something else. How did she manage to use her phone in the car like that? I always got motion sick the moment I tried. I watched her the whole way home. Every time I stared at her screen too long, nausea would surge up and I’d whip my head away… then once it settled I’d sneak another look. It was honestly impressive how she kept scrolling through the café app without a single complaint. Raming, victorious over motion sickness. Amazing!!
“We’re here, so let’s get out. Grab your stuff from the trunk,” Moddeok said.
I hopped out right away and popped the trunk. There were so many bags. Did we really buy this much? I started pulling them out one by one, filling both hands. Raming was… technically an adult, but still, asking her to carry things felt wrong. It was better if I handled it. Moddeok took the last two bags.
“Give me one too. I’ll carry it.”
“No!! Raming, just go on ahead.”
“Huh? Why? I can take one.”
She was just a little kid getting in the way. If I told her to go, she should go… but she was my friend, so I couldn’t exactly scold her.
“Just go. Hurry up!!”
“No, I can do it.”
“Hmm…”
Was there any winning against a little kid’s stubbornness? I handed her the lightest bag I could find. “Here.”
“Okay. I can carry— whoa. This is kinda heavy.”
“That’s the lightest one. Is it too much? Want me to take it?”
“…No. I can handle it. Don’t worry.”
Don’t worry… but I was worried. Could she really carry it? Even I thought it was heavy… and my friend, who was way smaller than me, was claiming she could manage it no problem? She was lying. I was really concerned, but if she said she’d do it, I had to trust her. I knew exactly how that felt. When I was capable of something, I hated it when people fussed over me from the side. “Then let’s hurry.”
It was heavy. I just wanted to get home fast. Right now!! I rushed ahead, opened the door, called the elevator, and headed up. Raming, walking beside me, kept glancing around like she’d never seen an elevator before.
“Wait. You actually live here?”
“Me…? No.”
“You don’t live here? Then where do you live?”
“I live in my own place!!”
“Why? Why not live here?”
The story was long. Because… before I moved out, I’d tried streaming a little at home too. My parents thought I was just playing games all day. So there was constant nagging, they’d drag me out of bed if I slept in, I had to eat every meal on schedule, and I wasn’t allowed to order delivery food much… That’s why I left. It took a lot of convincing. To get permission, I fasted for two or three days… locked myself in my room and did a five- or six-day silent meditation retreat. Dad finally gave in after a lot of struggle.
“It’s a long story.”
“What is? What’s long?”
“The story. I have to keep a regular schedule… At home…”
“Ah. Got it.”
“The nagging is intense. Mom’s the worst.”
“Oh… okay.”
“That’s not true.”
“What… what do you mean?!!”
Moddeok jumped into our conversation. She stroked her chin and tilted her head. “When I met her before, she seemed really kind and knowledgeable.”
“She is. My mom studied really hard. She almost got into the math education department but messed up the exam, so she was going to retake it. Then Grandpa told her to just go to the College of Korean Medicine instead, and somehow she got in.”
“Why didn’t she go to medical school?”
“Ah!! Grandpa loved herbal medicine back then, so he told her not to retake the exam and just go to Korean Medicine. And it turned out to be a really good choice!! Back in Mom’s day, Korean medicine doctors made a ton of money. The house and everything were bought with money from that time. Dad got scammed out of a huge amount once. His business partner convinced him to build a big hospital together, but it was all a fraud. Mom paid it all back.”
I’d accidentally blurted out way too much information. Well, it was all facts, so it didn’t really matter. But the way they were both looking at me felt different now.
“So… you’re from a doctor family?”
“Me…? No!! That line ended with our generation!! I only graduated high school, and my little sibling is in the humanities track!!”
Unfortunately, it really had ended. My sibling was supposed to continue it, but they gave up on science and that was that. Mom and Dad didn’t have high expectations either. Just live well. Don’t get involved in anything bad and live an ordinary life—that was the warning.
“Why don’t you study? It’d be nice to carry on the family legacy, right?”
Raming said something painfully innocent. Studying wasn’t something you could just do if you tried. People always said studying was about effort. That was a lie. Studying was talent. Even the endurance to sit still in a chair had to be something you were born with. Someone like me could retake the exam ten or twenty times and still never get into medical school—or even score in the top percentile on the CSAT. I’d spent a long time thinking about myself. I’d become someone who could tell the difference between what hard work could achieve and what it couldn’t. I didn’t even attempt things that had zero hope, not even 0.1 percent. I only chased dreams that were actually possible. I stepped out of the elevator and said, “That’s impossible. Studying doesn’t guarantee success—”
“Aha ha ha. Exactly. If studying guaranteed success, everyone would go to Seoul University. I’m a high school graduate too. Cheer up. She just doesn’t have that bottom-tier sensibility.”
“Bottom-tier…? So you’re top-tier then?”
I looked at Raming. If she wasn’t bottom-tier, she had to be top-tier. Right?
“I went to university. Dropped out now, though…”
“Uh… huh? Which university?”
I felt a massive shock. She’d gone to university? She wasn’t the same kind of person as me? A sudden sense of alienation washed over me. I stopped opening the door and whipped my head around to stare at her. I wasn’t opening it until she answered. Seriously. I was hurt. “If you don’t tell me, I’m not opening the door.”
“Me? Hanyang…”
“Really? Hanyang University? I’ve gotten tutoring from the med school seniors there!!”
Wait, she was an elite university student? No way. An elite student. This was too shocking. Yeiljin. 167 cm. Small chest. Short skirt. Total airhead. Where did Raming go…? I felt betrayed!! Betrayed!! It was like a wall had suddenly appeared between us.
“Jjanghaem. I’m a high school graduate.”
“I’m a high school graduate too.”
“Should we cheer for high school graduates together?”
“High school grads!!”
“Fighting!!”
Thanks to Moddeok, my heart felt lighter. Moddeok and I put away everything we’d bought in the fridge. After that, we each got a moment of free time… or rather, a lifetime of free time. Raming was looking out at the living room view while Moddeok headed into my room. I wanted to rest too, but I was really busy. I’d never been this busy before. But I was happy. It was exhausting, yet I felt happy.
“Hello? Pyeong, what’s wrong?”
“Seon-a, I’ve arrived. Where should I go now? I’ve never been here before.”
“Uh… you just need to come inside? Where are you?”
“I can see a coffee shop.”
“That doesn’t help me at all… Just wait there, I’ll come get you!! Hold on. I’ll call you back!!”
I hung up and went looking for Moddeok. She was lying on my bed. “Moddeok. Moddeok.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ll be right back. I need to go get Pyeong.”
“Take your time.”
“Okay!!”
＊＊＊
Because we kept missing each other, it took ten whole minutes to find Phone Pyeong. I opened the front door and let her in. Now I understood what “leaving home is suffering” really meant. It was freezing outside. “You live here, Seon-a?”
“No! This is my parents’ house. I live in my own place.”
“Oh… ah…”
I brought Phone Pyeong inside. She kept making weird noises while looking around. “Pyeong, just drop your bag anywhere!!”
“Y-yes… understood.”
The moment Phone Pyeong saw Raming in the living room, she flinched. “Ah… hello.”
She greeted shyly. Raming immediately stood up and gave a light nod. “Hello?”
“Yes. Hello.”
They looked incredibly awkward. What should I do in this situation? Hmm… I closed my eyes and thought. “Ah!! This is Raming. And this is Phone Pyeong!! You all know each other now, right?”
I looked back and forth between Phone Pyeong and Raming. Thanks to me, they were going to become super close, right? Huh? Now that I was looking at them like this… wait a second. Whoa. This was insane. How could this coincidence even happen? Phone Pyeong was supposed to be Raming. Raming was supposed to be Phone Pyeong. Then the face swap I’d imagined would’ve been perfect. “I found it…!! I got it!!”
I couldn’t help shouting. This was huge. Seriously. If I swapped their faces, the harmony would be flawless. Incredible. “Where’s Moddeok? Moddeok! Moddeok!”
Moddeok would definitely agree. Definitely. I dragged Moddeok out of my room and whispered to her, “If we swapped their faces, they’d be a perfect match, right? Don’t you think?”
Moddeok just smiled. Of course. She was thinking the exact same thing. If only their faces were swapped, it would’ve been perfect. What a shame. “You mean their faces, right?”
“Ah! Faces. Yeah. But my idea’s correct, isn’t it?”
Moddeok quietly nodded.