The Smile That Sealed My Fate
I smiled at her. I smiled at her. I smiled at her. I smiled at her. I smiled at her. I smiled at her. I smiled at her.
In English it’s called a smile. In Korean, a laugh, a grin, a beam. At first glance it might seem like nothing special. But the moment a man smiles at a woman—when a man smiles at a woman instead of the other way around—the story changes completely.
What kind of gender is a man, anyway? Simply because he was born with a stick between his legs, it’s considered common sense that women should love him, protect him, worship him. Men are weaker than women, so they must be protected. Men are fewer in number than women, so they must be treasured. And…
“If a man smiles at you, you must never let him go.”
These were the “common sense” facts of this world that had been drilled into every girl’s head since childhood. Because it was common sense, men never smiled carelessly at women. And she—thirty years old, still working part-time at a convenience store, mocked as a pathetic “conbini girl”—had never once seen a man smile at her. She had almost given up.
But then…
“I’m not really looking for anything. You just looked like you were working hard, so… This was a 1+1 deal. Thought you might want one~ Oh, and there’s only one can left on the shelf. Do you have more in the back? I’ll pay for it too, hehe~”
A smile. A grin. And even a kind gift of an energy drink.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump…!!!
Her heart pumped like it was broken. A smile! A real smile! Just looking at it makes my lower belly go all tight and fluttery—this is the perfect smile!
The instant she met that man’s smile, her instincts screamed one word.
Love.
Yes. If this wasn’t love, what could possibly be love?
Just from looking at each other, her lips curled up on their own. That fairy-like face. Those long, slender, beautiful legs that were clearly meant to seduce her. Maybe she was imagining it, but… a man who smiles at a woman he doesn’t even like? There’s no way such a man exists in this world. A man who gives gifts to a woman he doesn’t even like? There’s no way such a man exists in this world.
Aah, so this man loves me too!
She reached her conclusion. Both she and that man.
We’re in love with each other♡
Her back, which had been hunched for thirty years of unemployment and mockery as a “conbini girl,” suddenly straightened with pride.
Since we’re in love…♡
The way she looked at him changed completely. The male body parts she had only ever secretly watched in hidden baseball videos inside her “bird-watching” folder. Gulp…!
Those beautiful legs exposed beneath his shorts that were making her vision swim. The pale, soft skin hidden under that thick padding that she would soon rip off with her own rough hands.
Since we’re in love, it’s only natural to confirm that love, right? Hehehe♡
I need to confirm it right now♡
“Aah~ Only one can left, you said? I think we have some in the warehouse… Would you like to come look for it with me…♡”
Her pupils began to fill with dark, lustful intent…
The atmosphere just flipped.
“Aah~ Only one can left, you said? I think we have some in the warehouse… Would you like to come look for it with me…♡”
…What the hell?
The mood had changed in an instant. It was like someone had flipped a light switch from on to off—an extreme, jarring shift. The first impression had been gloomy but still carried that awkward, loser vibe of a typical convenience store part-timer. But after she saw my smiling face once, glanced at my exposed legs under my shorts (thinking I wouldn’t notice, but it was blatantly obvious), and then looked at the energy drink I’d kindly pushed toward her…
It’s sticky…?
It wasn’t the seductive, playful gaze of Kim Seon-a. This was the dark, viscous atmosphere of a black spider waiting for prey in a dim cave, surrounded by sticky webs. Even though the bright lights were on to make the products on the shelves clearly visible, the space somehow felt darker.
Of course, “atmosphere” isn’t something you can measure with the five senses. I could have just dismissed it as a delusion. But this feeling…
It’s the same as back then.
Back then. This morning, to be exact. The same instinctive alarm I felt when I stepped out of my room following the system message and came face-to-face with Kim Arin holding a sharp spike and a rope.
But the convenience store clerk is just a normal extra character, right?
Every time I encountered a captureable heroine, the system had always kindly informed me whether the woman in front of me was a captureable heroine or a regular extra. For the system to be broken…
> The other party is not a captureable heroine.
> ☆Tip. If the other party is not a captureable heroine, affection points will not be displayed.
I didn’t know the exact mechanics, but if I focused on the person in front of me, the system would tell me whether they were a captureable heroine or not. And affection points still weren’t showing up, so what was it even saying? Well, it seemed like a system that only unlocked after capturing a heroine, so I’d ignore it for now.
Judging by that message, she’s just a background extra who’s supposed to walk by…?
In big-budget dating sims they might have voice acting, but in most mid-tier or smaller company games, extras were exactly that—faceless, illustration-less NPCs. So why was an absolute extra giving off this kind of vibe…?
Wait…?!
Suddenly, one of the cautionary messages the system had occasionally shown me flashed through my mind.
※Caution. Even if the other party is not a captureable heroine, they can still affect gameplay.
At the same time—
The diary…
Don’t answer. Don’t smile. Don’t stay in the room too long. Don’t look at other women.······
The diary’s last page, which had recorded three more deaths after the “Don’t answer” warning.
Don’t tell me the “Don’t smile” part was referring to this exact situation…?!
> As a reward, one <Memory> will be replayed.
<Memory>
It was the same message I had seen just this morning. It felt like an out-of-body experience—my body’s control had been stolen, and I was watching myself from the outside.
I knew it was possible, but I can’t believe the second death happened in less than half a day!
And the other party wasn’t even a captureable heroine?
If it had been a heroine I could at least understand, but to die to some random extra character…
All kinds of negative emotions churned inside my head, but the system didn’t care. It simply began replaying the memory.
“Aah~ Only one can left, you said? I think we have some in the warehouse… Would you like to come look for it with me…♡”
The convenience store clerk stared at me with a sticky, damp gaze as she invited me into the warehouse with her. I already knew the first part of the scene, so I skipped past it. As time passed, we finally reached the last moment before I lost consciousness.
Seeing it from a third-person perspective… that woman’s eyes are definitely dangerous.
Before losing consciousness, the shift in mood had only been at the level of vague suspicion. But watching from an out-of-body third-person view, the sinister gaze was blatantly obvious.
If it were me right now, I would have run away immediately. But the me in the memory was still only at the suspicion stage.
“Is it really necessary to go in together?”
At first, pure doubt.
“Hehehe… Even the way you play hard to get is cute~♡ I guess the woman should take the lead here, right~♡ Come on, come on. I turned off the CCTV, so don’t worry and just follow me. There are lots of delicious things inside, you know? Slurp~♡”
“…? Why did you turn off the CCTV? You’re not even the owner. Can you just turn it off like that?”
The second time, suspicion had begun to set in. The memory version of me frowned and took a small step backward.
“Haa… So you’re going to act according to your face value, huh? My darling♡ Stop playing hard to get and just come inside with me, okay? After all, my darling loves me too, right♡”
She lifted the simple counter gate and approached the retreating me, spouting complete nonsense.
“My darling? I love you? What the hell are you sudd—ugh?!”
When I noticed her eyes starting to look strange and tried to take another step back to create distance, the crazy bitch grabbed my shoulder and pinned me so I couldn’t escape.
“If you keep acting like that it won’t be fun anymore, darling~♡ Come on, stop wasting time. I’m in a hurry right now♡”
“What do you mean you’re in a hurry?! Let go of me! Grk… H-how is a woman this strong?!”
There wasn’t even that much difference in our builds, yet I couldn’t move an inch, as if I’d been caught in an industrial press.
Don’t tell me… Is this what the caution messages kept emphasizing? That the physical abilities of men and women are reversed?!
I had thought that even if physical abilities were reversed, the difference couldn’t be that extreme. But this was serious.
Yeah, now that I think about it, I’ve heard somewhere that even an average adult woman who exercises a bit can overpower an ordinary male high school student in terms of raw strength.
Having lived my whole life as a man with a man’s body, I never realized it. But now I could see that the physical gap between men and women in this world was so severe it was downright unfair.
“Ugh! If strength won’t work…!”
The me in the memory seemed to realize it too. He gave up on trying to pry her hand off with brute force and—
Thud!
His perfectly timed low kick slammed into the convenience store clerk’s leg!
“Aack?!”