Angelina's Embrace
I heard a soft voice from above.
“Oppa? Did you read my diary?”
“D-don’t come near me.”
“Oppa?”
“I… I can’t breathe… I feel like I’m going to die, so please…”
My heart was pounding like it had gone insane. I couldn’t calm down at all.
“Oppa, calm down. I’ll explain everything—”
“Explain what?! What is there to explain?!”
I screamed with a throat that had gone raw.
“Oppa…?”
“I hate it… I hate it… I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. Seeing Betty like this… it’s too… I hate it.”
“…”
Betty slowly approached me.
“I already retrieved the listening devices. I only put them on the windowsill where voices could carry. I didn’t put any inside the house. I’m not trash enough to commit unauthorized entry.”
Betty pulled a camera out of the drawer by the window.
“I took secret photos of you with this camera. It’s ridiculously expensive, oppa. Because it uses magic. I did it because I love you. I really did.”
“Th-that… you call that love…?”
“I’m sorry, oppa. There’s more I have to confess.”
Betty knocked over a box stacked in the corner. With a loud clatter, countless photos of me spilled out like an avalanche.
“This one is when you wore those pretty pants, this is when you wore a skirt… and this is when you were eating with that woman, this is when you were cooking at home…”
“Stop… please stop…”
My heart began to ache. My fingertips and toes went numb, and my vision started to blur.
Looking at the photos… most of them were of me as a woman, and even the ones of me as a man were all recent. There were photos of me reading a book, of me hugging my older sister… photos that weren’t the ones stuck on the walls. In such a short time… she had taken this many pictures of me…?
“Ugh…”
My stomach churned and I felt like throwing up.
“Oppa…!”
“Don’t come near me!!”
“…”
Betty stopped in her tracks.
“I’m truly sorry. But… my greed to capture every single moment of you…”
“So you stalked me, took secret photos, bugged the place, and spied on me with a telescope?!”
“…I’m sorry.”
“I’m really scared… I’m so scared I feel like I’m going to die…”
“I’m sorry.”
“H-how long… exactly have you been taking pictures…?”
“Since not long after I moved here. It was around… two days before you turned into a woman, I think.”
“From that time… you’ve been listening in, spying through a telescope, taking secret photos, and stalking me?”
“It’s because of you!!”
Betty suddenly shouted, and I nearly stopped breathing. Tears began streaming from my eyes.
“Oppa, you promised to marry me. I was the one who liked you first. But you… you…”
“That was a promise we made when we were about fifteen, Betty. I just… I just said okay so you wouldn’t be disappointed, that’s all.”
“Am I… not pretty?”
“What…?”
“I asked if I’m not pretty.”
“No, you are pretty. You’re really pretty… and incredibly attractive. So go love someone else. Not a married woman with a kid like me.”
“I don’t want to!!”
“I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I said I hate it. There’s only you, oppa. I told you, didn’t I? I asked you to let me stay by your side. Right?”
“I’ve come to hate you, Betty.”
“…What?”
“Right now… right now… no.”
“…”
“I’m leaving.”
I quickly descended from the attic.
“Oppa, I’m sorry. Oppa? Oppa?!”
Betty came running after me, calling my name. I went into the master bedroom, scooped up the two adorable creatures sleeping soundly, and held them tight in my arms before standing at the front door.
“Oppa, it’s cold outside. Are you going back to your wife’s house?”
Betty’s voice carried suppressed emotions.
“That’s none of your business.”
“I won’t stop you. I’m sorry. But… later… could you please come back to me? I don’t have to be first. I’ll be okay being however many-th I am… If you could just let me stay by your side, even a little…”
“I’m not in the mood for this conversation right now.”
“Oppa, I’ll always be waiting. Once your anger subsides… please come find me. This house… will always be open to you.”
Just before I stepped out the door, Betty shouted one last time.
“I won’t stalk you anymore… I won’t take secret photos… I won’t spy on you… I won’t listen in… so please… don’t worry.”
The last voice I heard before the door closed.
“Oppa, I love you.”
It was a voice thick with sorrow, tears caught in her throat.
Bang.
The door slammed shut. The wind blew fiercely.
“Oppa left.”
I climbed back up to the attic. And then… I destroyed everything. The camera, the listening devices, the diary—I tore it all apart. I ripped up every single photo. I peeled off all the pictures plastered across the walls and threw them away.
“Oppa, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“Zwell oppa… hic… the person I love most in the world… Zwell oppaaa…”
I was broken. Shattered into pieces.
“Hic… sob… hic…”
Somewhere deep in my chest… something had been torn apart beyond repair.
“Huk… heuk… sob… ugh… sob… hic…”
Even as I beat my chest, my whole body trembled as if I were drowning in tears. Enduring that pain, I cleaned the attic until it was spotless.
What remained now… was exactly as it had been before. Just one telescope sitting by the window.
Swish—
I turned the telescope away from oppa’s house and pointed it toward the sky.
“Now it’s exactly the same as when I first moved in.”
After restoring the attic to its original state, I sat down inside it. And I waited. For oppa. Endlessly.
Inside the attic, one crumpled heart beat faintly.
My breath still wouldn’t stop shaking. I staggered forward. The sky had already darkened into late evening.
“I absolutely… can’t go to Serwen noona’s house right now…”
I absolutely, positively could not go. If noona saw Rumiru… and right now, I needed a space that could calm my heart.
There was only one house visible. A house close enough to Betty’s that it could be called next door.
I walked toward Angelina auntie’s house. The house I had lived in before moving in with noona. The house where Angelina auntie, who had always wrapped me in gentle, motherly warmth, lived.
Knock knock knock knock knock.
“Who is it…?”
Ah, that longed-for voice.
Creak— The door opened and Angelina auntie stepped out. Soft brown hair… warm olive-green eyes. Even in her forties, she had a lovely face and fair skin. It had been quite a while since I last saw her, but auntie’s face was still incredibly beautiful.
“Hic… sob… Auntie…”
“Wh-who… Ah, a-agagi?”
Auntie recognized me too. She had always called me “agagi,” after all.
I buried myself in her arms and began to cry.
“Agagi… is it really you, agagi?”
“Auntie… sob… Auntieeee…”
Auntie gently wrapped her arms around me and held me with tender care. It felt different from Serwen noona and Betty. Auntie simply patted my back without saying a word.
How I had become a woman… who the cat and rabbit in my arms were… why I was crying—she asked none of it. She simply comforted me first. She must have been so shocked… so confused… yet she chose to comfort me first… sob…
Only after I had soaked the clothes she was wearing with my tears did I finally calm down.
“Agagi, would you like to come inside first? It’s cold at the entrance. I happen to have blueberry pie and stew inside.”
Auntie whispered to me in a gentle, soothing voice.
“Y-yes…”
As soon as I stepped inside, a warm, sweet scent enveloped my entire body.
“Those… animal friends… why don’t you leave them in that room for now…?”
“Okay…”
The empty room with the bed… Ah, it was the room I used to use. I laid Servi and Rumiru down on the bed, then tightly held auntie’s hand as we headed to the dining table.
Passing the warmly burning fireplace, we reached a cozy wooden table and chairs lit by candlelight. I sat down carefully.
Auntie soon brought over a steaming brown stew and two slices of blueberry pie on a plate.
“Eat as much as you want, agagi. There’s plenty.”
With those words, auntie gave me a little kiss on the forehead, then sat across from me with a loving smile, watching me.
The meat stew carried the fragrant scent of herbs and the mouthwatering aroma of rich broth. I scooped up a piece of meat along with the broth, blew on it gently… and then took a big bite.
The hot, deep flavor coated the inside of my mouth. I chewed the tender chunks of meat, which were oily and perfectly fall-apart tender, and they slid smoothly down my throat.
Inside the warm pie, blueberry chunks were melting softly. The savory smell of butter and the sweet aroma of blueberries. I carefully pierced a piece with a small fork and bit into the flaky crust and the soft, sticky blueberry filling. The sweet scent of butter and sugar exploded in my mouth.
Can I really be eating so peacefully like this? The thought crossed my mind, but the pie and stew were simply too delicious. So… slowly… very slowly… I ate everything on the table.
Even so, auntie waited for me patiently. Sitting across from me, she smiled as if to say don’t mind me, just eat. I had definitely eaten dinner earlier… yet the food went down so easily. When the table was finally empty, auntie asked me carefully.
“Agagi, if you can… would you tell me what happened? If it’s uncomfortable, you don’t have to.”
“I-I’ll tell you everything.”
“Really…? You don’t have to push yourself, agagi.”
“It’s okay. I’ll tell you… I’ll tell you all of it.”
And so I told auntie everything. How I had suddenly turned into a woman one day… how Serwen noona had grown a penis and raped me while I was handcuffed, getting me pregnant. How I then went to Betty’s house. How I gave birth to Servi there. And how Betty had also grown a penis, impregnated me, and I gave birth to Rumiru. And how I discovered all the disgusting things Betty had done to me in the attic…
“Hic… sob… So… I was so scared… I ran to auntie’s house… I’m sorry…”
Auntie pulled me into a tight embrace. She held my fragile, broken self gently, melting me into her chest as if cradling a baby bird. It was filled with maternal love, warm and protective. A sanctuary that quietly covered my wounded soul. In that embrace that asked for nothing and simply held me in silence… I fell asleep.