I Picked the Wrong Person to Ask
After the unforgettable experience at the Annex, the weekend had arrived.
Having finally finished cleaning her apartment for the first time in ages, Yeoncheong had thrown herself onto the bed early in the evening. She fiddled with her smartphone for a while, then suddenly sat up and opened her closet.
Staring at the drawer full of underwear, she fell into deep thought.
Should I buy some new ones...
The summer uniform meant thinner fabric and shorter sleeves. That part was fine in itself — the problem was that the person sitting next to her was Suyeon.
Mmgh... I just can't stop thinking about what she said that day.
The very first morning she'd worn the summer uniform to school, Suyeon had gone on about how her underarms looked scandalous and how her underwear was showing. Even if Suyeon had long since forgotten, for Yeoncheong — whose entire underwear collection consisted of sports bras — it was impossible not to dwell on it.
Why is she so obsessed with other people's underwear anyway...
After sitting in front of the closet drawer agonizing forever, Yeoncheong finally picked up her phone. Out of the handful of chats she had, she opened the one pinned near the bottom and sent a message.
The moment she sent it, she decided it was a terrible idea and moved to delete it — but the little "1" floating beside it flipped to "read" in an instant.
"Seriously? How did you read it that fast?"
Yeoncheong waited for a reply. But no reply came. After sitting on the hard floor for what felt like forever, she got up.
My butt hurts...
She flopped onto the bed and was killing time while waiting for a response when the doorbell rang.
"Huh...? Did I order something?"
Yeoncheong shuffled over and checked the intercom — then froze. She'd only been waiting for a text message. Instead, the woman had come all the way to her home in person.
She buzzed open the building's front entrance, then cracked her own door slightly and waited for her guest. Footsteps climbed the stairs, drawing closer and closer, until the visitor's eyes met hers and she greeted her cheerfully.
"Oh, Yeoncheong. Here to buy underwear, huh?"
Yeoncheong's eyes went wide as she glanced around frantically.
"Why do you have to be so loud!? Just come in, please, Chairwoman."
A longtime friend of her father's and of her late mother.
She was the one who had arranged Yeoncheong's transfer, who'd told her to call if anything came up that she couldn't discuss with her father — Jo Yurim, Chairwoman of Hwaryeong High School.
Yurim stepped inside and began inspecting the state of Yeoncheong's living situation as naturally as breathing.
"The mirror I bought you is still in good shape... but why is it covered up?"
"I had my reasons."
Yeoncheong trailed after her, protesting.
"You could've just told me over text what I should get. Why come all the way here?"
"Because that bastard Seonghun doesn't give a damn how you're living. Consider me here in your mother's place."
The sink was spotless, the fridge neatly organized, the bathroom free of a single water stain. Yurim ran a finger across the desk as if she'd done it a thousand times before, then let out an appreciative whistle.
"Well, well. Guess it's because you've always done your own housekeeping. The place is spotless."
Yeoncheong scratched her head at the compliment.
"That's just because I cleaned this morning."
Stepping out onto the small veranda, Yurim took one look at the drying rack and made a remark.
"Ah — if you're going to hang your underwear out here, you should cover it with a towel or something."
"Who's going to see it from outside..."
Yurim's gaze sharpened. Yeoncheong's eyes slid away.
"...I'll keep it in mind."
Yurim swapped out a half-damp towel with one of the bras and added, "They're all sports bras. Don't you have anything else?"
"That's exactly why I texted you. I don't know anything about this stuff."
Having taken a quick survey of the apartment, Yurim finally looked Yeoncheong up and down, then peered into the closet.
"Oh dear..."
Pressing a hand to her forehead, Yurim shook her head. Yeoncheong, wondering what the problem could possibly be, looked into the closet alongside her.
"It's not just the underwear — everything in here is a problem too."
Yurim pointed at the sparse contents of the closet. Aside from the school uniform, it was no exaggeration to say that Yeoncheown owned not a single article of clothing that fit her current body.
"What do you even wear when you go out, other than your uniform?"
Yeoncheong glanced silently down at the sweatsuit she was wearing at that very moment. Following her gaze, Yurim let out a groan of despair.
"Wait... don't tell me. You go out in that? In those stretched-out, saggy old sweats?"
"They're not stretched out. I bought them right before... everything changed, so they just look that way."
"Either way, you're still walking around outside in them, aren't you?"
Silence was an admission of guilt. Chairwoman Yurim let out a light sigh.
"Good thing I came. You wear nothing but your uniform at school, so I never dreamed you were living like this."
"What's the big deal? The farthest I ever go is the supermarket anyway..."
"Then what are you planning to wear on the school trip? Are you going to wear your uniform there too?"
"Ah..."
Her voice shrank smaller and smaller. Yeoncheong had been so preoccupied with who she'd be rooming with and what they'd be doing there that everything else had slipped her mind.
"Let's go. Might as well get you some underwear and clothes while we're at it."
Yeoncheong hesitated — she hadn't expected things to balloon this far.
Her father, Seonghun, only ever came back from meeting Yurim half-melted into mush. She was exactly the kind of person who, once she got you out of the house, might drag you anywhere for who knew how long.
"Are you even free? Just pick out something reasonable for me, and I'll buy it myself and wear it."
"I'll make time even if I'm busy. Yeoncheong, what exactly are your measurements? What's your cup size?"
Her mouth snapped shut.
The only clothes she owned as a girl had been bought for her by Suyeon after an exam, and her underwear had been an endless cycle of online trial and error.
There was no way Yeoncheong actually knew.
"And you were going to buy clothes by yourself with what information? Come along while I'm asking nicely. Unless you'd rather get dragged around like your father does."
"...Yes, ma'am."
Yeoncheong changed her clothes and obediently followed in Yurim's wake.
The two of them drove into town. Stopped at a red light, Yurim looked Yeoncheong up and down.
A crisp white short-sleeve tee and plain beige pants — the fruits of Suyeon's bold spending spree, bought as an apology for her blunder at the clothing store.
"Who picked that outfit out?"
"My friends did, when we went out after the exam."
Yeoncheong answered with a sullen face, staring out the window. Her reflection shimmered in the glass. Yurim chuckled softly and stepped on the gas as the light changed.
"Sounds like you've made some pretty good friends. I'm glad things are going well for you at school."
Yeoncheong turned her head and studied Yurim as she drove. Eyes fixed on the road ahead, Yurim kept talking.
Her father had fled overseas like a man running from a ghost, unable to bear looking at a face so reminiscent of his dead wife. And with no one else around to help her adjust to her new body...
Yurim said that with everything piling up like that, she'd simply found herself unable to stop worrying about her.
Yeoncheong gazed at the Chairwoman for a long moment, then asked,
"Do you... by any chance, like my dad...?"
"Yeoncheong. You know some words, once they're out, can never be taken back, right?"
The steering wheel gave an ominous creak. Yeoncheong nodded quickly.
For survival's sake, the topic changed at lightning speed.
"So where are we going?"
"Underwear first. That's fine with you, right?"
Yeoncheong gave a resigned shrug. Knowledge level on the subject: zero. She had no choice in the matter.
They arrived at the store. Unlike Yurim, who walked right in as if it were nothing, Yeoncheong came to an abrupt halt at the entrance.
Yurim looked back at her companion, who wasn't following.
"What? Forget something at home?"
"No, it's just... now that I'm actually about to go in, it feels kind of..."
A women's lingerie boutique.
The kind of place where she'd reflexively averted her eyes whenever she passed one on the street. Actually setting foot inside somewhere like that, willingly? Her feet refused to budge.
Yurim took Yeoncheong's hand.
"You're a girl attending an all-girls high school now, you know? There's nothing weird about it. Come on."
Having reminded her of her current status, Yurim led Yeoncheong into the store.
Lingerie to her left, lingerie to her right. Nowhere to rest her eyes, Yeoncheong hung her head low.
She looked like she might root herself into the floor right there, but thankfully, Yurim was still holding her hand. Yurim marched straight up to a clerk and planted the eye-contact-losing Yeoncheong in front of her.
"Hello. We'd like to get her measured for size first."
"Of course. Right this way, please."
Yurim let go of her hand and waved her on. "Go on, then."
"Alone?"
"What, feeling confident? Want me to come watch?"
At that, Yeoncheong scurried after the clerk. Left waiting, Yurim browsed through the various lingerie on display.
The clerk produced a measuring tape and called out.
"Please step into the fitting area."
"Oh, okay."
Letting the tape unfurl, the clerk asked, "Could you take off your top and bra for me now?"
"Yes— sorry, what?"
Yeoncheong flinched and stumbled backward, and the clerk patiently elaborated.
"The measurement will be more accurate that way."
"Ah... r-right, just give me a second."
The clerk waited for her to undress. Taking a long, deep breath, Yeoncheong muttered to herself.
It's better to get it done properly in one go than to mess it up and have to do it twice, right? Yeah. That's right. It's right.
As the white tee and sports bra came off, pale skin was laid bare. Exposing herself fully in a place that wasn't even her own home, Yeoncheong reflexively moved both arms to cover her chest —
"Ma'am, I'll be measuring from under the bust first. Please exhale."
The clerk smoothly looped the tape around behind her back. Adjusting its level as it traveled up her spine, she measured the circumference beneath Yeoncheong's breasts from the front.
Yeoncheong went rigid at the sudden contact — which, conveniently, let the clerk finish the measurement in record time.
"Now for the upper bust."
The loosely hanging tape drew snug under the clerk's practiced hands, creeping a little higher.
The two ends of the tape crossed over the fullest part of her chest, and at the gentle pressure, her breasts gathered ever so slightly. Unable to bring herself to look the clerk in the face, Yeoncheong squeezed her eyes shut.
While she fidgeted under the sensation of the tape gliding precisely across the tops of her breasts, the clerk finished up and stepped back.
"Will you be trying anything on?"
"Huh?"
Yeoncheong, hurriedly pulling her clothes back on, turned with a dumbfounded expression. But the answer came not from her, but from outside the fitting area.
"Yes, she'll try things on."
"Then please change into this one. You can leave your clothes over there."
The clerk, setting aside her measuring tape, gestured toward an empty fitting room. In her hand was something far better described as a scrap of cloth than as clothing.
It left her navel completely bare and covered little beyond her chest. Lace trimmed the hem, and on closer inspection the fabric was ever so slightly sheer.
A garment designed with one purpose in mind: trying on underwear and checking the fit through it. To Yeoncheong, it was more revealing than anything she could have imagined.
The clerk left first, and Yeoncheong found herself standing there clutching the scrap of cloth she'd accepted in a daze.
Ha... I should've just looked things up on my own.
A sigh escaped her without her meaning it to. It was regret that came far too late.
She fumbled the garment over her head through the gap, one arm at a time.
By then, the clerk and Yurim were already picking out underwear for her. When Yeoncheong emerged, she sidled over to the two of them, glancing warily at everyone around her.
Seeing her approach, the corners of Yurim's mouth curled upward.
"Yeoncheong."
"What?"
"You'd never need to kneel and beg for anything, would you."
It was Yurim's one-line verdict, delivered after hearing Yeoncheong's measurements from the clerk.