47. One Day Suddenly My Childhood Friend Started Looking Like a Woman
47. One Day Suddenly My Childhood Friend Started Looking Like a Woman
47. One Day Suddenly My Childhood Friend Started Looking Like a Woman
When I came out of the dormitory, a familiar-looking woman was standing in front of the male dormitory.
Why didn't she just go straight to the bus?
I called out to the girl holding her phone.
"Yu Ha-yeon. What are you doing there?"
"Han Si-jun. You're late. What if we're tardy? Is your phone just for decoration?"
"Ah..."
I let out a noise and checked my phone.
—7 Missed Calls.
The missed calls from Yu Ha-yeon piled up one after another.
She must have been anxiously waiting for me here.
'That's kind of cute.'
She could have just gone to the bus and waited there.
Today, Yu Ha-yeon was displaying a kind of cute that wasn't bad.
I thought to myself as I walked toward the bus that would be waiting for us.
Yu Ha-yeon glanced at me, then tapped my hand, signaling me.
"Hey."
"What."
"Aren't you going to hold it? You shouldn't make a girl wait. Idiot."
Yu Ha-yeon was urging me to take her hand.
'There's no one around, right...?'
I subtly turned my head and checked if anyone was there.
Since I'd come out a little late, there were no other students.
I took her hand as she wanted.
"I think it was like this back when we went on that field trip too."
"Oh, Han Si-jun. You remember? I thought you were an idiot."
"...I don't really want to hear that from you."
Was it middle school?
Yu Ha-yeon and I, on the day of a field trip.
We walked toward the bus holding hands.
The reason was we had fought the day before.
On field trip day, we fought because of a difference of opinion: I insisted on gimbap, and Yu Ha-yeon insisted on yubuchobap.
Yu Ha-yeon had shouted that it absolutely had to be yubuchobap.
In the end, while arguing, we dragged out all our past dark histories, and we were both pretty sulky.
The next day, on the day of the field trip, our parents packed half gimbap and half yubuchobap and came up with a brilliant solution.
My parents said it as if they were telling us to reconcile no matter what.
Yu Ha-yeon, who absolutely melted at their words, forcibly grabbed my hand and dragged me to the bus.
'Thinking about it, that's a memory too.'
A memory of us not looking at each other because we were sulking, but the warmth from our hands softly melting the chilly mood.
It was a memory I could only have because I had a childhood friend that money couldn't buy.
I said to Yu Ha-yeon playfully.
"What kind of yubuchobap is that? You have no taste. You don't know how to eat."
"Idiot. It's better than you, who doesn't know about curry with capsaicin...?"
"..."
I had no comeback.
I covered my mouth to keep her from prying further.
Yu Ha-yeon also seemed to sense I didn't want to talk, so she walked without a word.
In the heavy silence, we could still feel each other's warmth. We arrived at the school trip bus without incident.
"Class 1-A, right?"
I nodded as if to say yes and got on.
The bus, befitting the Hero Academy, had an interior painted an elegant white, and was arranged so two people could sit side by side.
'Looks like Na Yu-na couldn't make it after all.'
Unfortunately, Na Yu-na's company seemed to be in an emergency over the core stolen by Black Dawn.
She normally wouldn't miss academy events, but a flaw had appeared in NAVI's bread-and-butter mana detection technology, so I guessed she was busy.
I looked around at the remaining seats on the bus, then said to Yu Ha-yeon, as if filling her in.
"I'll sit in the front."
Yu Ha-yeon followed and sat next to me in the front.
She gets motion sickness because of her sensitive senses, so the back seats weren't suitable for her.
Once seated, Yu Ha-yeon muttered quietly.
"Th...thank... you..."
"What? Say that again."
"Ugh I said thank you...!! You heard me, do I have to say it again!?"
Yu Ha-yeon shrieked, her face turning red.
As expected, teasing Yu Ha-yeon is fun.
She and I were in a relationship for dating practice. But maybe it was just my imagination that it felt the same as usual.
We had grown so comfortable with each other that we didn't know how to handle this dating relationship, so everything was the same as always.
As the bus started moving toward the field trip destination, I decided to ask Yu Ha-yeon about that puzzle.
"Yu Ha-yeon. Do we really need to practice dating?"
"...Huh?"
"I mean, I was wondering if it's necessary. We're just the same as usual."
Yu Ha-yeon hesitated a beat after my question about the 'necessity' of dating practice, then seemed at a loss for words and stayed silent.
Yu Ha-yeon stayed silent for a moment, then quietly said one thing.
"Han Si-jun. Once we get off, follow me. I have something to say."
"Huh...?"
Yu Ha-yeon whispered in a serious low voice.
Why is she so serious?
I didn't know why she'd become serious, but I could sense a strange coldness from her.
In that moment, Yu Ha-yeon quietly pulled my hand toward her.
It was like a seatbelt that wouldn't let me escape anywhere.
'Did I say something wrong...?'
I couldn't read the mood at all, so I just stared out the window.
The high sky was clear and blue.
***
"Alright! Students! We've arrived!"
shouted Kang Su-ho, our practical combat training teacher.
He was the substitute for Shin Si-hwa, who couldn't come because she was taking care of Ban Ha-na.
"Free time is until 4 PM! There's also time tomorrow, so you can take it easy!"
As soon as she heard that, Yu Ha-yeon unbuckled her seatbelt, grabbed my hand, and started pulling me somewhere.
I asked her urgently.
"Hey, where are we going...!"
"You... you wanted to break up, right...?"
"No, that's not what I meant..."
It seemed my intentions had been misunderstood.
I had asked her about the necessity of dating practice, but Yu Ha-yeon seemed to interpret it as wanting to break up.
As I was being dragged, I looked around the field trip destination.
Jeonju, a place inevitably visited on a school trip.
When you think of Jeonju, it's Hanok Village.
We were at the Jeonju Hanok Village, newly recreated in V. AGE.
As gates appeared in the world, our country's traditions were being destroyed and could not be preserved.
Among them, Jeonju Hanok Village was proven by scientists to have the lowest probability of gate appearances.
Thus, this place was safe from gates, making it a suitable field trip destination for students.
No gates appearing meant it wouldn't be destroyed easily.
It had been expanded much larger than its original scale in the real world, enough to take two days to explore.
While I was admiring those hanok houses, Yu Ha-yeon pulled me into a small hanok house.
She began dragging me to a secluded spot.
"Where are we even going..."
"Hey. Han Si-jun. I can't hold back anymore."
Yu Ha-yeon cut me off and called my name in a cold voice.
She looked at me as if she was filled with complaints.
She held my hand and asked.
"How do you feel when I hold your hand?"
"...Warm."
Yu Ha-yeon's hands were warm.
Among all the hands I'd held, I'd never felt anyone warmer than her.
She looked around, confirmed no one was there, and hugged me tightly.
"Then, how do you feel when I hug you?"
"..."
"Han Si-jun. Answer me."
Yu Ha-yeon urged me to answer. But I couldn't easily put that feeling into words.
My heart was beating a bit faster, and a scent that stirred a man's heart was wafting from Yu Ha-yeon's black hair.
Since Yu Ha-yeon urged me to 'answer quickly,' I decided to be honest.
"I think I feel good."
"W...what...?"
At the words 'feel good,' Yu Ha-yeon momentarily pulled away from me. She hurled abuse at me. "Pervert. You're a pervert, Han Si-jun. You're a degenerate."
'You're the one who did it, and now you call me a pervert.'
Yu Ha-yeon seemed like the type who'd seduce you and then, when you fell for it, say 'You fell for that?'
She blushed for a moment, then stepped back in front of me.
"You said I'm family. Then why do you feel good?"
"That's..."
Yu Ha-yeon is definitely family to me. My childhood proved it, an irrefutable truth.
"Then why does someone feel good about family? Why are you excited? Are you a pervert? Have you abandoned all morals?"
"...!"
Checkmate.
In chess, this situation would be called checkmate.
Yu Ha-yeon was showing the qualities of an S-rank hero right now.
Perfect logic unlike her usual self. A statement that made rebuttal impossible.
"Admit it, Han Si-jun."
"...What?"
"That you see me as a woman."
After Yu Ha-yeon said, 'You see me as a woman,' she grabbed my hand and placed it on her chest.
"Can you feel my heartbeat? I'm serious."
My hand felt Yu Ha-yeon's heart beating hard. It pounded, as if about to burst.
She blushed as if embarrassed by this situation. Yu Ha-yeon confessed her feelings honestly, and I knew it was true.
There was no way out anymore. Having pretended not to know a few things, I had no choice but to admit it.
What she'd said about family and gender, the reactions depending on the situation—all of it was a biological reaction from me recognizing Yu Ha-yeon as a woman.
'If I don't admit this, I'm insane...'
Unlike before, I now acknowledge Yu Ha-yeon as a woman. That was a fact I had desperately wanted to deny. A fact I had to deny.
Once I admitted what had to be admitted, my mind cleared.
I didn't make any excuses. I said to Yu Ha-yeon,
"Right. In my eyes now, you're not family, but a woman."
"Finally admitting it. Stupid Han Si-jun."
Yu Ha-yeon looked refreshed, as if a weight had been lifted. She seemed to want to go further now that the truth was out.
"As you said, dating practice seems unnecessary now. Is there really a need to practice?"
"No. It wasn't practice in the first place."
Yu Ha-yeon and I had always acted like usual and never done anything couple-like. That was something Yu Ha-yeon felt too.
She pushed me against the wall and trapped me with her arm so I couldn't escape.
'Is this the legendary kabedon...?'
Yu Ha-yeon smiled at me leisurely, as if to say I couldn't move.
"S-so... practice is over... should we try the real thing now...?"
My childhood friend said that, and was about to do something we had never done between us.
"H...Han Si-jun. You stay still...? I'll take care of it...?"
Saying she'd take care of it, Yu Ha-yeon kept me pinned to the wall and leaned in with her lips.
My childhood friend showing that life is about the real thing. But the real thing was my specialty.
"'Take care of it'? What do you mean?"
Having had plenty of real-life practice with Ban Ha-na, I was one level above her.
"You... stay still...! Mmph...!!"
Yu Ha-yeon could not say anything with our lips pressed together.
With practiced skill, I slipped my tongue into her mouth and took control. That was Yu Ha-yeon's first kiss.
In a hanok where no one came, I tasted the lips of Yu Ha-yeon, who had started looking like a woman.
I had no sense of taste, but her lips were sweeter than I thought.