Home Visit (1)
It was a sudden appointment, for Ari and for me alike.
I felt a little cheated that plans could get locked in like this, but in the end I was the one who'd made them, so there was nothing to be done about it. Well, Ari and I got along well enough, and being with her was enjoyable, so it wasn't that I disliked seeing her.
The truth was, making plans and actually going out to meet a friend was a fairly rare thing for me.
I hadn't waited until I came of age. I'd left the orphanage early and thrown myself into part-time jobs and construction work. The only acquaintances I had nearby were men much older than I was, and I wasn't particularly close with them either — friendly coworkers, at best.
There had been an older girl who handled serving when I worked at the chicken place, but I'd been so obsessed with the job that I couldn't call us close. I'd stayed quite close with the owner, but with the age gap, going out to hang around with her wasn't exactly the thing.
And Sehee, who I was actually quite close with? There was a six-year gap. Until recently she'd been a middle schooler — where was I supposed to take a kid like that? I was busy enough that we didn't even meet that often.
Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I'd put real effort into getting ready to see Ari. It was one of the few chances I had to actually socialize with someone. I ought to spruce myself up at least a little.
I'd even pulled out the fancy shampoo and shower things the Director had given me years ago, the ones I'd left jammed in a bathroom corner, and washed with those. For me, that counted as dressing to the nines.
The men in this world seemed to treat makeup as a baseline whenever they got dressed up… but that was still a realm far too early for me to attempt. I usually did a lot of physical labor, so I'd just used cheap body wash and the like that I bought online. If you sweat a little it all washes off anyway — a real man's man was fine with that much, I'd thought. This kind of flower-arranging only happened when something special came up.
The conclusion: the man gazing back at me with those smoldering eyes in the mirror was showing off the best looks he had. Even before I came to this world, looking in the mirror after a shower had always seemed to bump my appearance up a notch — personal opinion — but this time, to put it crudely, I looked good enough to eat a celebrity for breakfast.
The reason I could keep even a shred of composure through those Geum Taeyang-style flare-ups was thanks to this face. Of course, that damned tan, the muddy blond hair, and the savage atmosphere all covered that face over.
The appointed time was drawing near.
Most men in this world, and most ordinary women, would carefully pick out their clothes before meeting the opposite sex, but that didn't apply to me. The reason was obvious if you just looked at my hangers… plain short-sleeve tees, white or black. I hadn't dressed this simply even when I didn't care much about fashion. Was this Geum Taeyang-style fashion?
I grabbed a white tee and put it on, and a strange satisfaction settled in, as if proving my hypothesis. Sliding the leather jacket on over it doubled that satisfaction.
A pretty dry contact name. Sehee had gone and stuck hearts all over my name. Between friends, there was no need for that kind of thing.
When I picked up, Ari said she'd just arrived, so I should come down at my leisure.
"I just got here, so take your time coming down."
A glance at the phone clock: exactly 10:25. Preparations were done. I couldn't keep her waiting long.
"I'll be right down."
Ari's car was, considering her age, on the quite nice side, I thought. She'd inherited the one her parents used to drive… just handing down a foreign import like that — what kind of family did Ari come from?
Well, whatever her family was like, it wasn't particularly important for making friends.
Coming back to it, I liked this meeting, personally, but it was also quite awkward. Hadn't Ari come all this way because I'd given her orders in that weird tone of voice? The Geum Taeyang body committed the crime, and my perfectly sound mind had to clean it up.
"Right on time, huh? Pffhuhu… good girl."
Nope. The cleanup was the Geum Taeyang body too.
Is this right.
"U-uh. You asked me to… so."
Seeing how smoothly it went, maybe it was? Once we got past the first meeting, we'd be fine. The first time was the hard part; once you opened the floodgates of conversation, the awkwardness vanished in an instant.
I lightly knocked the dirt off my shoes, sat in the passenger seat, and buckled my seatbelt. Ari looked startled, then started hunting for her own. She'd had this oddly tense expression since earlier; she must have forgotten today. For someone who looked this perfect, who'd even gotten her driver's license, to forget that. Was she not feeling well?
She seemed a little flustered when she couldn't find the belt in one go, so I figured I should help. I leaned toward her and pulled the seatbelt across.
"Hold still a second."
"U-uh?"
A click as it locked into place. Maybe because it was a nice car, even the seatbelt looked luxurious.
"Be careful from now on. What if you got hurt? And if you get caught doing this again, you'll hear it from me first."
"Uh… sorry."
"Don't be sorry. I'm saying it because I worry about you."
She went to a good university, and in this Gender-Reversed World she'd even done her military service — it'd be a shame if she got badly hurt in an accident over a simple mistake like this, wouldn't it? Maybe Ari was embarrassed by the slip. Her face had gone faintly pink.
"But yeah, this car really is nice."
"Huh? You know the model?"
"Of course. I'm someone who actually cares about cars."
Come to think of it, the men in this world probably didn't have much interest in cars. Even if it was a fairly well-known model, she seemed surprised I'd recognized it. I'd walked around making a list of cars I wanted to drive when I made it. Of course I could recognize this one.
Anyway, while I talked with Ari about all kinds of car knowledge, her reactions were quite something to watch. It was the kind of conversation I'd had naturally, as a matter of course, with the older guys I worked with on construction sites, but every time I said something she reacted like it was amazing, and that felt pretty good. Was this what people online called nadenade?
I felt a little like I'd become the protagonist of a Japanese isekai light novel, but hey — good things are good things.
One of the biggest changes I felt after coming to the Gender-Reversed World was the difference in tastes between men and women. The things I'd liked had become niche hobbies for men, and if I wanted to find someone who shared my interests, I had to talk to women. Not that I had many chances to talk to people in the first place.
Anyway, I felt this most clearly at the orphanage, where I met the most people: the boys chatting about idols and makeup, the girls talking about games and internet streams. Naturally I was more comfortable talking with women who shared my interests, and talking with Ari now felt like hanging out with a same-sex friend, which was quite enjoyable.
Though, honestly, Ari's looks were pretty enough to compare with a celebrity, so looking at her face I did feel that she was a woman to me.
Thinking that, I turned my head toward her. Ari's hair caught the clear morning sunlight and shone blue. There was a difference, but maybe this was the kind of feeling you'd get if a beauty on Sehee's level grew up.
Looks like that, good at studying, making good money. Had Ari's boyfriend saved the country in a past life? If a woman like that had existed in my previous world, she'd have been enormously popular… no, Ari was already a hugely popular streamer even now. She'd be just as popular in real life.
How on earth had that boyfriend of hers thought to get angry at someone like this over such a pathetic reason? Looks like that, and the power dynamic between lovers would reverse as a matter of course. Maybe he was actually an incredibly impressive guy? They were childhood friends, so maybe his circumstances were similar to Ari's family, the kind that hands a foreign car down to their college-age daughter.
If it wasn't that, then he was just a man drowning in his own blessings. That could be called Gender-Reversed-World black comedy.
Well, whatever. Couples have their own circumstances. I don't think judging other people's love lives on a whim is a particularly good thing to do. And I'm not even sure a lifelong virgin like me has any right to speak on it.
…Damn. Thinking about it just made me feel bitter for no reason.
"Yuhan…? Is something wrong…?"
"Ah."
Crap. I'd been staring too long.
"Just… you look good."
Ugh. That line had the vibe of a girl-crazy virgin college senior. Why the hell had I even said that. Was it because I'd been single for too long.
"Umm… haha… thanks."
"Watch the road. Watch the road. You'll crash."
I deflected it reasonably. The reaction that came back had been extremely ambiguous.
Just then the navigation Ari had running on her phone announced we were about to arrive at the destination. Looking around, it wasn't a completely brand-new apartment complex, but a cluster of buildings that still looked like they cost a fair amount.
Good lord. She said she was twenty-three! Still a college student! I'd thought from the car that Ari's family seemed well-off, but I hadn't expected this.
"You… live here?"
"Yep! I got the place with the money I make from streaming plus the support my family sends."
"No, wow…"
If you asked whether I was envious… of course. Wouldn't it be weirder not to be? If you asked whether I was jealous — absolutely not. People can't always be equal, and I'm not that petty. Besides, Ari had never flaunted her money, and she wasn't the type. Our Ari was a kind person.
"That's amazing… I mean it."
Anyway, that was the biggest feeling. There'd been help from her family, but her own streaming ability had played a part too. University, looks, money, connections, social recognition. Wasn't this more than enough to call her a twenty-something elite?
…
Thinking that a woman that impressive was sitting right next to me.
…
A hazy, sly smile started spreading across my face of its own accord.
Gulp—
…Saliva had pooled in my mouth.