Going Out
When I opened my eyes, my phone was lying on my stomach. I must have set it there last night, closed my eyes, and fallen asleep just like that. I lit the screen to check the time. 2:31 p.m.
"Mm..."
A few messages had piled up on the lock screen. One from eleven in the morning.
One from noon.
And one from two.
I sent a reply without even getting my eyes all the way open.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
Does this person even sleep?
I pushed myself up in bed.
"I should wash up."
I washed in a hurry, came out, and dried my hair. Getting hair that fell well past my waist completely dry still took ages. I wondered if I ought to cut it, but the moment I looked in the mirror, it felt like a waste. It really was that pretty.
"...Maybe I should eat something."
I got hungry before I even turned the computer on. I opened the fridge. Nothing inside but bottled water.
They weren't wrong, but I didn't want to order delivery. I'd eaten nothing but delivery for days, and nothing on the menu sounded good right now.
A moment later, a reply came.
In the end I closed the delivery app and changed. A thick gray hoodie and black pants. It was cold, but this ought to be enough. Come to think of it, tying my hair up was already taking less time than yesterday.
Once I was ready and standing at the front door, my feet stopped.
...Right. It's daytime.
Unlike that dawn run to the convenience store, this was an hour when plenty of people would be outside. Still, I'd made it to the convenience store a few days ago. There was no reason today had to be the day I couldn't leave.
I started to argue, then let it go.
"They're not wrong, though."
Outside the apartment, the day was clearer than I'd expected. Someone was pushing a stroller, people were coming home from the grocery store, and more than a few students in school uniforms passed by.
So they're still going to school. I'm jealous. Brother... no. Sister's a fossil now.
As I walked, the looks around me started to get under my skin. There were more people than at dawn, and I could feel the stares for certain. I couldn't tell whether they were looking at my face or at the snow-white hair. I tugged the hood a little lower and hid my face. It wasn't bad enough to turn around and go home.
My phone buzzed halfway across the crosswalk.
I turned down an alley and walked into the first Japanese rice-bowl place I saw. Standing at the kiosk, I scanned the menu.
"Gyudon, karaage-don... oh, they have katsudon too."
What should I get. I had gyudon a few days ago.
After a brief hesitation, I chose katsudon.
...Which means I ended up with the tonkatsu Limit suggested in the first place.
I took a window seat and waited for the food. It was the first time I'd walked into a restaurant alone since becoming a girl. A convenience store, and now a restaurant. It felt like my range was growing by a few meters a day.
When the katsudon arrived, I centered it, took a photo, and then stopped.
Why did I even take this?
I had no intention of posting it anywhere. I didn't even have an account. It wasn't a picture for my family, either. After a moment's thought, I sent it to Limit.
Satisfied, I picked up my chopsticks. A few bites in, another message arrived.
"Huh?"
I checked the photo again. A few strands of snow-white hair had been caught in the lower right corner. They must have slipped forward when I leaned down to take the picture.
"...Ah?"
I hurriedly zoomed in and looked it over from every angle. Thankfully my face wasn't in it. My hands barely showed, either. All that had been caught were the ends of my hair. No one could piece together what I looked like from that alone. Still, I had no reason to tell the truth.
I glanced down to the side. The ends of the hair that had fallen forward hung all the way beneath the chair.
A cat. Hmm...
The conversation stalled for a moment.
"They don't believe me."
That much was obvious. But Limit didn't dig any further. They didn't ask me to send the photo again, and they didn't call me out for it being hair. I played along, set the phone down, and finished what was left of the katsudon.
Going straight home afterward felt a little disappointing, so I wandered the neighborhood at an easy pace with nowhere in particular to be. Then a household-goods store came into view, and I stepped inside.
A bell chimed.
I browsed slowly, looking for something worth buying, and things I wouldn't have spared a glance until a few days ago kept catching my eye. I stopped in front of a display and picked up two small claw clips, one black and one white. The one from the convenience store had been too cheap anyway, and I'd been meaning to get a proper one. Good timing.
I held one in each hand and looked back and forth, but I couldn't tell which was better. In the end I took out my phone and carefully framed a shot of nothing but the clips.
That's what I said, but I put the black clip back where it belonged and carried only the white one to the register.
"What are they even saying."
The moment I got home, I took the clip out in front of the mirror. I gathered my hair into a loose twist and fastened it, and it actually looked pretty decent.
"Oh... this isn't bad either."
I raised my phone to take a picture, then stopped when my hair and face came through exactly as they were. Covering every strand and shooting only the clip was impossible, too. In the end I set just the packaging on the desk and took the photo.
"..."
Why are they so quick to notice?
I went to my room and turned the computer on, but I didn't log into Marblecraft. Limit seemed to be on some other game, and I was flipping between Cheongram Gallery and Nutube. Even so, the DMs kept going — whether I'd live in a dorm once I got into college, when I'd get my driver's license, what I'd do with the three months left after the CSAT. None of it amounted to much, but the conversation hardly ever broke.
Then, naturally, it turned to where we lived.
No reason to give the exact neighborhood.
"What are they talking about."
I glanced around for a moment. The apartment my parents had bought me. The expensive computer on the desk. I'd never once run short on living expenses.
...That still doesn't make me rich.
When night fell, a message came from ☆.
I answered casually.
The hand that had been tapping the keyboard paused.
How did they know? Did Limit tell them?
I wrapped that conversation up and switched back to Limit's DMs. A short they'd sent a little earlier was waiting for me.
Not much of a short. I watched it all the way through and sent my review.
I glanced at the clock. Somehow it was already one in the morning. I had no intention of staying up all night the way I had yesterday.
"Haaah..."
I was getting sleepy, anyway.
I answered without thinking much about it.
The next day.
I opened my eyes, came back from the bathroom, and checked my phone. Nine in the morning. Earlier than I'd expected. A few notifications had piled up, but I was too lazy to look at them. I opened DiscoChat instead, and Limit was still offline.
I went into our DMs and left a short message.