I'm Glad I Was Born a Man
"Hiiing..."
Kim Jiyeon had been utterly, hopelessly crushed by Kim Hyunsoo. Sure, she'd won the very last round, but it was like a grandfather playing baduk against a novice with a record of one win and ninety-nine losses.
"Noona, let's try something else."
"Sure, why not?"
Before she knew it, Kim Jiyeon was having the time of her life with Kim Hyunsoo. She was the one who'd suggested coming to the arcade in the first place, yet somehow she kept feeling like he was the one leading her around. A noona being led around by her dongsaeng? That just didn't add up.
So they raced cars, and then tried out the other games the arcade had to offer. The crown jewel of them all was the rhythm game. The moment Kim Jiyeon saw Kim Hyunsoo standing in front of one, she spoke up.
"Hyunsoo... you know how to play rhythm games too?"
In her experience, men rarely came to arcades at all, and when they did, they'd maybe dabble at coin karaoke and little else. But Hyunsoo was clearly different. He handled the arcade games as skillfully as any woman, and right now he was lining up a rhythm game.
"Ooh..."
With practiced fingers, Kim Hyunsoo began selecting a song. This one worked by pressing buttons on the pad as the notes fell—hit each note at the precise moment and your combo climbed. It was the game from which every other rhythm game had descended. He picked a song at a very high level.
The difficulty tier determined both the patterns and the sheer volume of falling notes. The song Hyunsoo chose was the kind you'd need at least a few years of rhythm game experience just to clear, one that Kim Jiyeon herself struggled with.
At some point Kim Jiyeon had become a spectator, watching Kim Hyunsoo's back as he played. The women around them, too, were quietly drifting closer to watch. A man coming to an arcade was rare enough, but a man playing a rhythm game was rarer still—and if he was playing a song most women couldn't clear? Practically a unicorn sighting.
Tudada-da-da!
Hammering the buttons at a blistering pace, Kim Hyunsoo carved through the notes with a skill that drew audible gasps from the women watching. Admittedly, being a man worked in his favor—if a woman had played the same song, it wouldn't have turned half as many heads.
The song Hyunsoo was playing was one that dedicated rhythm game veterans could clear without much trouble. This particular scene was full of people with over ten years of experience—there was a running joke that at rhythm game tournaments, anyone with only a decade under their belt got treated as a rookie.
In this world of rhythm games, you needed a good fifteen to twenty years before anyone called you a veteran. In any case, when Kim Hyunsoo successfully brought the song to its finish, the women who'd gathered to watch broke into applause and cheers.
"You're really good!"
"You look young—how old are you?"
The women began edging toward Kim Hyunsoo, interest written all over their faces. Watching this unfold, Kim Jiyeon waved them off and shoved them back. How dare they fawn all over her Hyunsoo! Absolutely unforgivable. Reading the room, Kim Hyunsoo linked his arm through hers and spoke up.
"I'm sorry, everyone—I have a girlfriend!"
The moment those words left his mouth, the surrounding women scattered with disappointed looks. Hitting on a man who already had a girlfriend was bad form, after all. And the laws protecting men were strict enough that you could actually get penalized for it.
"Hyunsoo. Want to sing a song?"
"Sounds great."
Kim Jiyeon and Kim Hyunsoo stepped into a coin karaoke booth. Soft lighting, the faint tremble of the walls from whoever was belting out a song in the next stall over. Kim Jiyeon felt grateful just to be able to see Kim Hyunsoo from this close. And he smelled wonderful—a scent that put her at ease the moment it reached her, like he was using some expensive cologne.
"Want to pick first, noona?"
Kim Hyunsoo held out the karaoke remote to Kim Jiyeon. She took it, then hesitated.
"Hyunsoo, there's... actually something I want to ask."
She mumbled and fidgeted, but if she let today slip by, she might never get another chance to sing with a man again. Watching Kim Jiyeon squirm, Kim Hyunsoo said gently:
"Just tell me what you want, noona. As long as it's not anything weird, I'll do it."
Hearing that, Kim Jiyeon found her courage. If he was going to put it like that, then she owed it to herself to ask for what she actually wanted.
"Want to try a duet?"
So that was what all that dithering had been about. Kim Hyunsoo looked at her and nodded.
"Let's do it! You pick the song, noona. If I know it, I'll sing it."
Thankfully, the songs of this world were barely different from those of his original one. Men's and women's voices were exactly the same here as back home. If women's voices had come out deep and booming like men's, there would have been no cosmic horror quite like it.
"Do you know this one?"
Kim Jiyeon pulled the song up on the karaoke machine's screen. Kim Hyunsoo nodded—he knew it. Seeing his reaction, Kim Jiyeon beamed. Her absolute favorite duet song, and she got to sing it with Hyunsoo. What could possibly be better than this?
"Then let's go!"
An upbeat melody kicked in, and the song began. Kim Jiyeon's singing was thoroughly average—exactly the level of your typical person belting one out at karaoke. Kim Hyunsoo's, however, was on another plane entirely, far beyond what most amateurs could manage. With a little more polish and training, it was the kind of voice that could have gone pro.
Kim Jiyeon nearly forgot she even had her own parts to sing, so transfixed was she watching him. He was simply that good. When the song ended, she burst into applause.
"Hyunsoo, you sing so well! You could seriously be a singer!"
"You think? I always figured I was pretty ordinary..."
"Ordinary? You sing as well as the guy singers on TV! Hey, could you sing me another one?"
Kim Jiyeon had decided to indulge herself. She wanted to hear Kim Hyunsoo sing men's songs, and who could blame her? Finding nothing objectionable in the request, Hyunsoo launched into the ballads men favored. Kim Jiyeon closed her eyes and listened to that heavenly voice. Just listening to him sing felt like therapy.
So this is what it feels like for all those girls who go to coin karaoke with their boyfriends? She wished she had the money to rent Hyunsoo all year round. Sadly, as a convenience store girl, that kind of money was well beyond Kim Jiyeon's reach.
The next stop was a pasta restaurant with a charming old-world atmosphere. Kim Jiyeon had studied up in advance and learned that men loved pasta. For his part, Kim Hyunsoo would have preferred something more filling, but there was nothing to be done—the whole point of the date was that the woman chose the menu. Besides, pasta wasn't bad at all.
Though ever since he'd started making pasta at home, he'd more or less stopped eating the restaurant kind. Making it yourself slashed the price dramatically—he could whip up a batch for less than half what a restaurant charged, and the taste was virtually indistinguishable from the professional version.
"Hyunsoo, which pasta are you getting?"
"I'll go with the cream pasta."
"Got it. Anything else you want?"
"Hmm..."
Kim Hyunsoo mulled over the menu. Rather than ordering another noodle dish, a risotto seemed like the smarter play. All that moving around at the arcade had left him hungry, and a Korean was nothing without rice. So he made his choice.
"Let's also get a shrimp rosé risotto to share."
"Sure!"
Kim Jiyeon grinned ear to ear and set the menu down on the table.
"Excuse me~"
A young waitress in a crisp, neat uniform came over to the table where Kim Hyunsoo and Kim Jiyeon sat, flashing a bright, sunny smile.
"Have you decided on your order?"
"Yes—one cream pasta, and..."
Kim Jiyeon placed the order like a seasoned pro. All Kim Hyunsoo had to do was sit there and eat what was put in front of him. Wasn't this exactly how women back in his original world acted when dating a man? Just with the roles reversed—and honestly, nothing could be better than this.
If he made a mistake, she'd laugh it off. He didn't have to stay up all night agonizing over the perfect date itinerary. Even the car was provided by the woman's side. All Kim Hyunsoo had to do was dress well, keep himself groomed, and show up looking presentable enough to satisfy.
Granted, Hyunsoo was handsome even by ordinary standards, but stroll down any street in this world and you could easily see average men being fussed over and escorted by women like royalty. A tilted playing field truly was the best. Who knew being born a man could come with a world this good... You really never knew until you lived long enough to see it.