Changing for Gym Class Is Harder Than Gym Itself
At the alarm, which rang slightly earlier than before, Yeoncheong shot upright in bed. Three snoozes were not going to happen today — that was the force of her will.
She tidied her bedding, got up, and made her way naturally to the closet. Once the neatly pressed uniform was out and laid across the bed, her next destination was the kitchen.
Slice of bread into the toaster, strawberry jam out of the fridge. Without waiting for it to toast, she headed to the bathroom for a quick wash. By the time she came out with her hair dried, the golden-brown toast was already popped up and waiting for her.
A slice of jam-covered bread and a glass of milk made for a simple breakfast. The final step was peeling off her pajamas and slipping into the uniform she'd laid on the bed.
And with that, Yeoncheong was ready for school.
"8:15."
Dressed and checking the clock, Yeoncheong nodded to herself with quiet satisfaction.
From waking at the alarm to changing into her uniform — the whole seamless sequence had, before she knew it, settled into a solid routine.
Bag in hand, she headed out the door.
Given the early hour, the road to school was quiet. Yeoncheong walked. It looked tight on paper, but it was no problem at all — this was exactly why she'd pounded the pavement until she found a place this close to the school.
She passed through the deserted front gate and reached her classroom on the second floor of the main building, and a moment later her homeroom teacher, Ms. Jisu, walked in. Yeoncheong privately considered her timing nothing short of flawless.
The somewhat chaotic atmosphere that had followed the start of the semester was gradually finding its footing under the rhythm of regular school life.
The same went for Yeoncheong.
Humans are creatures of adaptation.
She felt it firsthand in how, within just a few days, she'd grown used to the school — and to the girls around her.
The days of freezing up and losing her voice just from sharing a room with them were long gone. Being surrounded every day had worn that particular fear down to something manageable.
Contrary to her worries about being late to the opening ceremony and botching her self-introduction, her social life at school was going smoothly. Thanks to Hasol and Suyeon, who approached her first, and Seoha in the next seat, there'd been no chance for her to drift to the edges of the class. Adapted as she was, she still wasn't bold enough to walk up to others herself — but Yeoncheong was content with the way things stood.
The only flaw was that the classes were harder than at her old school, and even that wasn't a pressing problem.
After finishing an otherwise ordinary day, Yeoncheong punched in the passcode and stepped inside. Tossing her bag aside, she dove onto the bed and stayed buried there for a while. It was a kind of attendance stamp — a ritual confirming that yes, she had in fact made it home from school.
Turning only her head, she fished out her smartphone. When she pulled up her class schedule from the gallery, a small sigh escaped her.
The culprit was the two little characters for PE written in the middle of the schedule.
"Hah... what am I supposed to do about this?"
Her body may have become a girl's, but her mind was still mostly a boy's. For an experience that would have been pure torment for a boy, PE class nevertheless wore an expression of deep gloom on one side of Yeoncheong's face.
"Do I have to go change somewhere like the bathroom...? That doesn't feel right, either..."
Her feelings about PE itself weren't all that different from when she'd been a boy. That is, not until Chairwoman Yurim of the school board had said what she'd said a while back.
"There's nothing but girls in the classroom. Going all the way to the bathroom to change would be weirder."
It wasn't the class itself Yeoncheong dreaded — it was changing in and out of her gym clothes before and after it.
She'd been too embarrassed to even go buy underwear in person, and after plenty of trial and error, the entirety of her wardrobe had been painstakingly ordered online.
Showing her own body. Seeing her classmates' bodies. There wasn't a single thing about it that didn't worry her.
Even after all that agonizing, no answer came. Frustrated, Yeoncheong kicked her legs against the mattress, and the poor innocent bed thumped and thudded under the blows.
Grrrowl.
The growl of her punctual stomach clock brought her kicking legs to a halt. Her body, apparently still in its growing years, was nothing if not honest.
Pushing herself up off the bed with both arms, Yeoncheong lifted her head — and spotted the clock on her desk.
She'd only meant to lie down for a minute, and somehow it was already nearly dinnertime. Extraction from the bed complete, she headed for the fridge. Surveying what was left of her supplies, she muttered,
"Might as well just make fried rice."
She fished out the odds and ends that remained in the refrigerator.
Appetite — one of the three great human drives — shoved all thoughts of tomorrow's PE class into the far corner of her mind.
And so Yeoncheong saw to her dinner, clung to her smartphone for a good long while, and finally drifted off to sleep.
By the time class was winding down, the classroom had grown restless, and the teacher, well aware of it, began wrapping up the lesson.
Days were warming by degrees; yellow forsythia had begun to lift their heads in the calm of spring. The sparrows, having shed their thick winter coats, flitted about the school grounds on light new wings.
The mild weather had everyone enjoying a pleasant day — everyone except Yeoncheong, who gazed up at the sunny sky with an expression clouded by worry.
Should I just say I'm sick and can't do it today?
No clever solution presented itself, and PE was bearing down on her with every passing minute. She was now weighing even the option of last resort.
But I actually want to do PE, though...
For students who spent most of the day pinned to their desks, PE was a godsend in a drought. Which was exactly why Yeoncheong wanted to avoid the last resort if she could.
The bell rang to end class, and the chatter swelled louder. The teacher asked one final time if there were any questions. Hasol glanced around, then raised her hand.
"Looks like no questions, ma'am! We've got PE next, so please lock up when you leave!"
"...Very well. See you all next time."
"Yes, ma'am."
The whole class answered in unison as the teacher stepped out of the room.
With a firm click of the door, everyone rose from their seats. The sound of conversation mixed with the rustle of classmates beginning, quite naturally, to change clothes.
"Anyone know where PE is today?"
"It's the first time this semester — how would anyone know that?"
"Nayun, do you know?"
The yellow-haired friend whose name was called shook her head.
"Nope. But it's probably the field, right?"
Yeoncheong, watching the exchange as if in a trance, marveled to herself. She'd seen them wearing their gym shorts under their skirts, after all.
Oh. So that's how you put the gym pants on.
At the boys' school she'd attended, most guys just stripped first and asked questions later, so the sight was a novel one. But when the blazers and shirts started coming off next, Yeoncheong buried her face in her desk.
One by one, the students finished changing and filed out of the classroom. She hoped she could hold out until every last one of them was gone — but her classmates weren't nearly heartless enough to leave a girl face-down at her desk behind.
"Yeoncheong? Are you sleeping?"
"Are you feeling sick or something?"
The two mood-makers of the class, elected side by side as class president and vice president — Hasol and Suyeon. Having sent the other students ahead, the pair had come over to check on the transfer student. When Yeoncheong gave no answer, their eyes turned to Seoha in the next seat.
"Seoha, is Yeoncheong sick?"
"No, she was fine just a minute ago."
Hearing that, Hasol gently shook Yeoncheong's shoulder.
"Yeoncheong, PE's next. You need to change and come out."
"Are you sure you're not sick?"
Worried this would spiral into something bigger if she held out any longer, Yeoncheong lifted her head slightly. At the sight, Hasol and Suyeon both relaxed.
"Oh, she's up."
"It's PE. Come change and let's go."
"Did you forget your gym clothes, by any chance?"
"N-no, that's not it..."
Yeoncheong scanned the room. Nearly everyone had finished changing and left the classroom. Lowering her voice as much as she could, she spoke.
"I-I'm too embarrassed to..."
Even as the words left her mouth, she wasn't sure that had been the right thing to say, and hid her face again. Whether it was the unexpectedness of the answer or not, Hasol and Suyeon exchanged wide-eyed looks with each other.
Seoha, who had been observing the whole scene in her gym clothes, spoke up.
"Sounds like her old school had a changing room. You two go on ahead — I'll lock up and follow."
"Huh? You really don't have to."
"The class president and vice president should be out there first."
Since Seoha insisted that far, Hasol handed her the key. With a promise not to take too long, Hasol and Suyeon headed off toward the field.
The classroom, now empty but for Yeoncheong and Seoha.
"Take your time changing and come on out. I'll wait up front."
With that, Seoha stepped out into the hallway. In the silence that settled over the room, Yeoncheong rose carefully to her feet.
Just as she'd seen in front of her, she swapped the pants out under her skirt, then shed the blazer and shirt and changed into her gym clothes. Mindful of being seen, the whole change took seconds.
"Sorry — did I keep you long?"
"No, let's go."
Seoha said it was nothing, locked the door, and headed for the field. Yeoncheong, having changed into her indoor shoes, followed behind. As she walked, watching the raven-black hair sway at Seoha's shoulders, she thought to herself:
Flawless.
That was the impression Yeoncheong had formed of Seoha from the seat beside her.
It wasn't just the way the teachers treated her — you could hear people already calling her the next student council president. The word flawless fit her to a T.
And yet, something about the way Seoha treated Yeoncheong felt a little off. The first few times, she'd chalked it up to their teacher's request and the luck of assigned seating, but by now it struck her as going a bit too far.
"Something you've been wanting to ask me?"
Yeoncheong flinched at the voice that came suddenly from ahead.
What the — how did she know? Does she have eyes in the back of her head...?
There was no telling when another chance to be alone together like this would come. Yeoncheong carefully put the question she'd only been thinking into words.
"Why are you so nice to me? To everyone, really?"
"Hm? Isn't that a good thing?"
"It is, but... how do I put it. It's a little much, maybe. It feels like you do things you don't even need to do, like you're forcing yourself to go above and beyond."
The tangled sentence was hard even for the person saying it to make sense of.
"I mean... it just feels like you're doing it out of some kind of obligation."
The words came out more polished this time. Seoha stopped walking and turned around. The sudden halt closed the distance between them in an instant — a beat late, Yeoncheong stopped too.
Red eyes swept over blue. She was smiling, and yet a chill ran through the air. It was a side of her Yeoncheong had never once seen in the classroom. And still, she was certain — this was the real Seoha.
After gazing into her eyes for a long moment, Seoha spoke.
"Just because. People like me when I do it. Is that reason enough?"
"Y-yeah."
Swept up in the moment, Yeoncheong's head nodded on its own.
"How strange..."
"Hm? What was that?"
Seoha, who had already turned back around, glanced over her shoulder. Her usual smile, unchanged as ever, settled on Yeoncheong.
"Nothing. The PE teacher's out there. Come on, let's hurry."
Seoha broke into an easy jog toward the field. Yeoncheong followed, running after her toward the spot where their classmates had gathered.