Don't Get Angry. You'll Wrinkle That Pretty Face.
"Good morning, Assistant Manager."
"Oh, Sihyun's here?"
The office.
Even Seonghyeon hyung used formal speech with me whenever the rest of the team was around.
"Hello, Sihyun."
"Morning, Yuri."
Seo Yuri.
She'd glanced at Assistant Manager Seonghyeon for a cue before offering her own greeting. She must have been startled by my changed appearance—but she didn't show a flicker of surprise. She acted as if she'd known me like this for years.
Seo Yuri was taller here than she'd been in the original world. Her face, though, was exactly the same. I already knew she had come over from the original world. But Seo Yuri was a fox. Sharp. Nothing like those short-haired girls from the bar, or the woman at the coffee shop. She would have studied this world thoroughly in advance. Prepared meticulously.
The rest of the team still hadn't clocked in.
"Yuri. You set up the conference room for this morning's meeting, right?"
Seo Yuri. I'd start needling her little by little. Sooner or later, her true nature would show.
"Ah—yes. I was just about to. You'll help me, won't you, Sihyun?"
So the bitch had done her homework on this gender-reversed world. Back in the original world, she would have dodged it with something like, That's a man's job, or Busywork like that isn't even your responsibility, Sihyun. But her studying had been incomplete.
You fucking bitch.
"Me? I've got urgent work of my own."
I laid it on thick—as if I were the kind of person who had never once touched a menial task in his life.
Seo Yuri's lips trembled. She bit down hard.
"Ah. Right. No, of course. You focus on your work, Sihyun. I'll have the meeting ready in a minute."
"Sure."
I answered with pure indifference and powered on my computer, driving home the point: this kind of grunt work had always been hers alone.
Whirr—
The machine booted into Windows. I clicked open Naver. Maybe I'd catch up on today's webtoons.
Click.
I opened White Mercenary.
Seo Yuri kept stealing glances at me on her way to prep the meeting. She sighed. Haa…
You fucking bitch. Pissed off, aren't you? I said I had urgent work—and now I'm sitting here reading webtoons.
You absolute dog. This is exactly what you used to do to me in the original world. While I was sweating bullets, hauling chairs and prepping document files so the meeting wouldn't start late, you were online shopping.
You piece of shit.
I laughed out loud at the webtoon on purpose—loud little snickers. The scene was an action sequence. Nothing funny about it. Pure overacting, just to get under Seo Yuri's skin.
"Sihyun. Reading webtoons?"
Assistant Manager Seonghyeon tossed the comment out casually. Seo Yuri's face lit up with a little smile.
"Assistant Manager, reading webtoons at the office is honestly a bit—"
"You read White Mercenary too, Sihyun? Man, this thing is actually great. Did you see the chapter that dropped yesterday with Kim Jangnyeo?"
Seonghyeon knew exactly what I was doing—he was deliberately winding up that bitch Seo Yuri. The same Seo Yuri who'd been about to scold me for reading webtoons at work shut her mouth.
Fucking bitch. She had to be seething inside. She was drowning in meeting prep, and the male employees were just sitting there reading comics.
"I'll go set up the morning meeting in the conference room. You two enjoy your webtoons."
Her tone was thick with irritation.
Do whatever you want, idiot.
"Oh—Assistant Manager, aren't you thirsty? Assistant Manager Miyoung said she was stopping by Starbucks for coffee, but she's still not here."
"For real? Miyoung's buying coffee? Mine and Sihyun's?"
"Yes. I saw her on the way in this morning, but she still hasn't shown up. Why are you so surprised, Assistant Manager? Miyoung does this every single morning. Buying our coffee is probably the most important part of her job."
Seo Yuri, overhearing us, looked utterly dumbfounded.
You fucking bitch. In this world, women fetch Starbucks for the men every morning and present it like an offering. That is the gender-reversed world. Now that you understand—get lost and prep the meeting.
Seo Yuri trudged off toward the conference room, arms full of materials, sighing the whole way.
I closed the webtoon tab. Seonghyeon checked the surroundings, then leaned in and whispered.
"Hey, Sihyun. Is Miyoung actually buying us coffee? Or was that just to mess with that bitch Yuri?"
"No, hyung—it's real. For sure. I ran into her on the way in. She asked me completely naturally what coffee I wanted today."
"Holy shit. That's insane. Working here is actually the best."
"Right? Could you even imagine this in the original world? That fox Seo Yuri prepping the morning meeting materials all by herself, and Miyoung casually buying us coffee like it's the most natural thing in the world."
A soft, gentle woman's voice cut in.
"What are you two whispering about first thing in the morning?"
I spun around, startled. Assistant Manager Miyoung was standing there with Starbucks cups in hand.
"Ah—Assistant Manager. You can't just appear behind people like that. You scared me."
Miyoung set the cups on the desk and bowed her head.
"I'm sorry. I won't do it again. Aigoo, really—Sihyun must have been startled. I'm so sorry."
She was being so much more deferential than I'd expected that I almost felt bad.
"Um—Assistant Manager Seonghyeon's is a Venti dark chocolate Frappuccino, and Sihyun's is a Venti green tea Frappuccino, right?"
Seonghyeon whispered in my ear.
"I don't even like sweet stuff. Feels weird to turn it down, though."
"Just try it, hyung. I never thought I'd end up liking mint chocolate either. I think crossing into this world rewired our taste buds to match the women from the original world."
"Yeah? Fine, I'll drink it."
Miyoung looked flustered as she watched us whisper back and forth.
"Did I—did I get the drinks wrong? Should I go exchange them? Aigoo, my memory's been so bad lately…"
"No, you got them right. Just hand over the coffee and get to work."
"Oh? Really? Here you go. Enjoy."
"Thanks."
"Oh, please—no need for thanks. I do this every day."
I took the Starbucks green tea Frappuccino. Venti size—huge. Damn, this thing would fill me up. Would I even have room for lunch?
Seonghyeon took his dark chocolate Frappuccino and started slurping through the straw.
Wait—I should pay her. This stuff wasn't cheap.
"Assistant Manager Miyoung. I should settle up. How much was it?"
Miyoung waved both hands frantically.
"Oh, no, no—of course the woman pays. You're being so formal all of a sudden today. Just enjoy it."
What the hell.
So the Yu Sihyun of this world had been a freeloader. Even so, I'd force the money on her later. Gender-reversed world or not, freeloading was still freeloading.
"Good morning!"
A bright, cheerful voice. Team Leader Kim Ayeong.
"Good morning, Team Leader."
Ayeong took one look at me as I greeted her—and froze. Her expression said everything. Team Leader Ayeong had crossed over from the original world too.
"Ah… yes…"
She returned my greeting awkwardly. Then her eyes landed on Seonghyeon, noisily slurping his dark chocolate Frappuccino.
"Assistant Manager Seonghyeon. What are you slurping so loudly first thing in the morning? It's distracting…"
Seonghyeon jerked his mouth off the straw in a panic. I played dumb, voice pure innocence.
"Sorry? Why, Team Leader? Are we not allowed to drink Starbucks in the morning?"
As I spoke, I deliberately pressed my own straw to my lips and sucked with loud, wet slurp-slurp-slurp sounds.
Ayeong's face flushed red and blotchy. She was still on her period, wasn't she? Emotion regulation would be a nightmare.
"Ah… that—n-no. Keep doing what you were doing. Ah… fuck…"
"Will do. But maybe watch the swearing at the office, Team Leader?"
A subordinate, lounging around, had the gall to lecture his team leader about language.
Haa… haah…
Ayeong was breathing hard. She was furious. She looked ready to hurl the bag off her shoulder straight at my face. Her hands clenched into white-knuckled fists as she fought it down.
But in a gender-reversed world, a woman losing her temper at a man was dangerous. The law protected men. She couldn't do a thing—just like I hadn't been able to, back in the original world.
"Yes. I'll be more careful from now on."
She trudged back to her desk, drained.
Fuck. It felt like a knot that had been lodged in my chest for years had finally blown open. Office life was actually fun now.
In the original world, I'd wished every week could be Sat-Sun-Sat-Sun-Sat-Sun-Sat. Now I wanted Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu-Fri-Fri-Fri. Nothing to do at home anyway—I'd rather clock in and work out my stress by wrecking these bitches.
I wasn't coming to work. I was coming to de-stress.
You fucking bitches. This must have been exactly how those pieces of shit felt back in the original world.
Who would clock in next? Assistant Manager Kim Mihui? Deputy General Manager Choi Dajeong? I was already looking forward to it.
Seonghyeon, who'd been listening the whole time, nudged my shoulder lightly with his elbow and whispered.
"Hey, Sihyun. Thanks. Seriously. Did you see Team Leader Kim Ayeong's face? Shaking, barely holding it in? Absolute gold."
"Don't worry, hyung. The rest of the bitches who clock in after this—I'll wreck them even harder than Kim Ayeong. You know what my nickname was in the military, right?"
"Yeah. Dongcheol hyung always called you Slippery."
"That nickname didn't come from nowhere. Being a slippery bastard is my specialty. Assistant Manager—watch me work this office over properly. Attention!"
"Hell yes. I'm counting on you, Slippery. Attention!"
Right on cue, Deputy General Manager Choi Dajeong walked in.
"Good morning."
I checked the clock. 9:05.
Huh. The deputy general manager was a full five minutes late.
"Deputy General Manager. Do you know what time it is?"
Choi Dajeong froze.
"Wh-who…?"
One look and it was obvious—this one had possessed into the gender-reversed world from the original one too. Seonghyeon provided covering fire.
"Ah, Sihyun, don't call her out so bluntly. She was probably just late deciding which sexy outfit to wear to work today."
Choi Dajeong's eyes went sharp.
"What! Assistant Manager Seonghyeon, how dare you! That's sexual harassment!"
This empty-headed bitch still hadn't read the room of the gender-reversed world. Time for me to step in.
I stood up from my chair.
Fucking bitch. Choi Dajeong had always been so damn sexy I wanted to break her in properly. Even now, just like Seonghyeon said, she was wearing a ridiculously short red mini-skirt with black fishnet stockings. The original-world Choi Dajeong had been sexy enough to mess with a man's head—sexy enough that she sometimes showed up in my wet dreams. And here she was even taller, with a body that put the original to shame. She looked like a racing-car model. In short: obscenely sexy.
I walked right up to her. She stared at me like a startled rabbit. I smiled, gave her firm, rounded ass a light tap, and leaned in to whisper against her ear.
"Come on, Dajeong. Don't get angry. You'll wrinkle that pretty face."