Five Centimeters Taller
[Y / N]
Nnh... On any other morning I should have come to with a hangover hammering at my skull, and yet I felt so clear-headed I had to wonder if I'd ever woken this refreshed in my life.
Yesterday's status window. It hadn't been a dream. More than anything, it was still hanging right in front of me.
12:45:12
I didn't even have time to think the window through.
"Unca!! You up?"
"You didn't drink much last night, huh? I can't smell any alcohol."
They must have heard me stirring. My niece and my sister came into the room.
After the divorce, I'd moved in with my sister. My brother-in-law had died in a sudden accident, leaving her behind when she was ready to give birth any day, and she had been raising their daughter, Yeju, on her own.
"Come live with me for now. Try living alone and you'll do nothing but stew in your own head."
I'd accepted without a second thought. Clearing out the apartment I'd shared with Lee Somin and finding a new place on my own would have been more trouble than it was worth, and part of why I said yes was Yeju. She was at the age when a child ought to be drowning in love, and I wanted to fill even a little of the space her father had left empty.
"Uncle! Play with me today!"
"Haha, sure. What do you want to play?"
"Um... let's play house!"
"House?"
"Yeah! We're married, and then we go to the courthouse and get divorced!"
I shot my sister a look. She coughed twice, the way a person does when embarrassment has gone all the way to her toes.
"Ahem. Don't get the wrong idea. She saw a scene like that on a drama last night."
"When Yeju's around, don't watch stuff like that. Put something decent on."
"But the drama's fun! Yesterday the lady cheated, so they got divorced!"
Another jolt. My sister dropped her eyes.
"Come eat first. I made bean-sprout soup. Yeju, stop pestering your uncle, wash your hands, and sit at the table."
"Aww. I wanted to play house."
"Haha, you really wanted to play house?"
"Yeah! I even wrote the whole script so I could do it with you!"
House was fine. A divorce reenactment, though, felt like a good way to get far too invested. What if I got so into it I grabbed Yeju by the collar?
"Yeju, how about after we eat, instead of house, we go to the kids' café and you play with your friends?"
"Yeah! Yeju loves the kids' café!"
"Then go wash your hands. You have to eat well if I'm taking you."
"Okay! Yeju's gonna eat two whole bowls!"
Patter-patter—off she went to the bathroom on those short legs.
I stared blankly at the status window floating in the empty air.
12:35:51
......
Chaos. Absolute, unfiltered chaos.
"Whoa! Uncle, this place is huge!"
The moment we reached the kids' café, Yeju was off, eyes sparkling, racing between the slide, the dinosaur maze, and the ball pit.
"Yeju, easy. You're going to fall."
"Hehe!"
She couldn't hold still for a second, darting from one thing to the next.
I claimed a bench where I could see her at a glance and sat down with my coffee.
Bzz—right then, messages came in from last night's friends.
That was when it happened.
"I was playing with it first!"
"No! I was first!"
Two little voices climbed. Yeju and a boy about her age were shoving each other over a tiny toy kitchen.
"Hey, don't push me!"
"Why! Yeju had it first!"
Thump—Yeju put everything she had into the shove, and the boy went down flat.
His mouth twisted into a pout. He backed away as he spoke.
"I'm telling Mom and Dad!"
Scarlet to the ears, he ran straight to his parents. His father—a solid, broad-built man—listened, and an ugly look crossed his face as he stood.
"You. Were you picking on my son?"
Yeju's eyes had gone red. She pressed her lips tight and bowed her head.
"Where are your parents? They raise you to act like that?"
She didn't answer.
"When an adult talks to you, you're supposed to—"
"Is there a problem?"
He hadn't even finished. I was already beside Yeju. She ducked behind my hip and clamped onto my hand.
"You that little kid's dad?"
Dad... If I said uncle now, I could already see the next question coming. Where did you leave her parents?
"...Yes. I'm Yeju's father. And who are you to raise your voice at my daughter?"
The man's eyebrow twitched.
"Your daughter shoved my kid first..."
"Before my daughter shoved anyone, your son tried to take the toy from her. And why are you shouting at a child over a squabble between children?"
One by one, people started to look. The man worked his lips like the words had stuck.
I went on, quietly smoothing Yeju's hair.
"A parent can step in when something happens between kids. But if the first thing out of your mouth is whether her parents raised her wrong, it looks like you're the one with a lot to learn."
"Wh-what? What did you just say!"
He grabbed me by the collar. A short laugh escaped me.
"Talking doesn't go your way, so you go for the collar? Your parents teach you that?"
"You little—"
A murmur ran through the café. The woman who had to be his wife raised her voice and caught his arm.
"Stop it. Don't do this here. Take the kid and go. This is humiliating. What kind of scene is this?"
"Damn it... I've got your face. Just you wait."
"Look all you want right now. What are you saving it for?"
I'd never once seen anyone who said just you wait actually do anything.
The two of them vanished in a hurry with their son. I bent my knees until I was level with Yeju, who was on the verge of tears.
"Yeju, you okay?"
"Yeah! Yeju's okay. But... Uncle, why did you lie and say you were Dad!?"
She was only seven, but I could feel it—the moment the word dad came out, her face tightened, just a little. She wasn't a child who showed her feelings easily, either.
Growing up that fast, that young, wasn't entirely a good thing.
"When we're out, I'll be your dad. If anyone gives you trouble, you tell Uncle anytime. All right?"
She buried her face against my chest.
"Thanks, Uncle!"
We spent the rest of our time at the kids' café and headed home.
Soft, even breaths—Yeju had played herself out, announced that she was sleepy the second we walked in, and gone straight to sleep.
"Thanks for looking after Yeju."
My sister said it as she set her glasses down on the table.
"You should take it easier on the weekends too. Spend a little time with her."
"Sorry. Next week is the Naver launch..."
My sister wrote web novels. Not a famous writer, not by a long shot.
Her income usually landed around two and a half thousand dollars a month, and because the work itself was unstable, the stress never really let up.
And the money it takes to raise Yeju is only going to get worse...
She was fighting her own fight, in her own way.
"It's all right. I'll watch Yeju whenever I have the time. You focus on the work."
"Thank you."
I washed up quickly, went back to my room, and checked the status window again.
[Y / N]
Cooldown's up...
I swallowed once, dry, and pressed Y the way I had yesterday.
Flash—light rippled again, bright as a flare.
And a new window opened in front of my eyes.
Grow, grow...? I was still tilting my head when another window unfolded beneath the first.
What is all of this...
I could only stare. So if I picked one of them, it would actually happen?
I went through the options slowly.
First, the hair. Mine was already thick, and baldness didn't run in the family. Pass.
Next, the precious... Honestly, that one was a little tempting.
The problem was, I'd just gotten divorced. How many chances was I going to have to use it? Unless I remarried, maybe.
More than that, I was confident I had nothing to feel small about next to the average man.
Plenty of guys at the public bath had done a double take when they saw me. Pass on that one too.
Which left a single choice?
Grow, Big and Strong. Five centimeters, at that.
I wasn't short, but clearing 180 centimeters had always been a wish of mine.
[Y / N]
Real or not, what was there to hesitate over? I reached straight for Y.
177.2 cm → 182.2 cm
23:59:59
Light flashed in front of my eyes once more.
And a moment later—
......
Nothing had changed?
I stood in front of the mirror for a long time, just standing there. Then I laughed at myself.
What was I expecting, like an idiot...
A rustle.
"Uncle! Mom says come eat!"
Yeju came in and woke me.
"Yaaawn! Everybody's so diligent around here, I swear."
I stretched long and hard and stepped out—
Huh?
Something felt off. A strange feeling kept circling me.
I looked down.
Was the floor always this far away?
When I still hadn't come out of the room, my sister came in herself.
"How long are you going to sleep? You're a grown man, and—wait. Do you look taller today?"
She stared at me, eyes gone wide. Beside her, Yeju shot a thumb into the air.
"Uncle got super tall!! Mom said you grow if you sleep a lot, so Uncle must've slept a whole lot!!"
"What is going on? Did you get that surgery where they put metal rods in your legs?"
"...I don't really know either."
"Yeju's going back to sleep too! Yeju wants to be tall!"
The pajama pants that used to cover my ankles now hung at the line of my calves.