Chapter 5
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: The Line Between Tragedy and Comedy Is a Single Sheet
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“Hey, what’s with the password 0111? Isn’t that way too easy?”
The moment the front door swung open, a familiar voice barged in. Footsteps followed, filling the room.
Thud, thud, thud—
“Ugh, it reeks of night-blooming flowers in here! Clean up and live like a human, will ya?”
Normally, I would’ve fired back without missing a beat, but right now, all I could do was burrow under the covers and hold my breath.
I could feel heat rising to my face.
A voice came through the blanket. There was no more avoiding it.
“No matter how much you hole up inside, at least take care of yourself.”
Si-woo sniffed around, grumbling. The rustle of a plastic bag reached my ears.
“I’ve got a diffuser at home, I work out, you know? I take care of myself. Keep this up, and you’ll end up dying alone for real.”
Si-woo strode right into the room without hesitation and plopped down in the computer chair.
“Anyway, why’d you tell me to come in? You could’ve just opened the door yourself.”
“……”
“So what’s up? Why’re you hiding under the blanket like that…? Hey, say something.”
“……”
“Why aren’t you answering?”
I sensed footsteps approaching the bedside. I gripped the edge of the blanket tight.
My fingers poked out, feeling the cold air.
“W-wait a sec…”
I wasn’t ready yet, but Si-woo grabbed the corner of the blanket without a second thought and yanked it back.
“Lemme see, just your face at least…”
“Ah… hold on…!”
But no matter how hard I clutched it, I couldn’t match Si-woo’s strength.
With a whoosh, the blanket—the only barrier between me and Si-woo—flew aside indifferently.
“Lemme… see…?”
Cold air rushed over my body in an instant. It happened in a flash.
“Uh…?”
“Ah…”
A brief silence fell. It felt like every sound in the world had frozen.
Si-woo and I locked eyes, blinking a couple of times.
I couldn’t tell what expression was on my face.
Si-woo’s eyes slowly widened. The soda bottle in his hand slipped limply to the floor.
It bounced lightly once before rolling onto its side with a clunk.
And at that moment.
“Wha—huh?!”
I learned that day that people really do fall backward when they’re shocked out of their minds—it’s not just cartoon nonsense.
Si-woo, who’d been staring right through me, toppled over like he’d been kicked, letting out a weird yelp.
The sound of his butt hitting the floor echoed through the room.
“…Um.”
By the time I barely managed to speak, Si-woo was already in full panic mode.
“No way… this can’t be… no…”
He muttered something under his breath too quiet for even me to hear, then started crawling around frantically, scanning the room.
Si-woo flung open the bathroom door like a madman, rummaged through the closet, and even checked under the bed where I’d just been lying.
“Huff… huff…”
His ragged breathing filled the room. His head must’ve been spinning with worst-case scenarios.
Si-woo spat out bluntly.
“Hah, this is what you meant by ‘don’t freak out’…?”
He dragged a hand down one cheek with a huge sigh, then grabbed both my shoulders.
It hurt a little.
“You okay? Y-you’re really okay, right? Nothing bad happened to you?”
“No…”
“You weren’t kidnapped or anything, right?!”
“I said no…”
He let go of my shoulders, then yelled into the air. I sat on the bed, staring blankly at the spectacle.
“That crazy bastard finally screwed up big time! Hey! Baek Eun-hae! Get out here! Right now!”
It hit me that his shouting might leak outside.
I raised a finger to my lips to shush him, but Si-woo didn’t even notice.
“Shh, quiet down—! Be quiet!”
“That crazy bastard—!!!”
“It’s me, I’m telling you…! Shut up already…!”
“Oh, right. Do you know where the person I brought is?!”
Even while cursing me out, Si-woo kept glancing at me with worry in his eyes.
Irritation started bubbling up. I clamped my hand over Si-woo’s mouth to shut him up.
“It’s me, me! You fucking idiot!! Just shut your mouth!”
Si-woo froze, staring at me in shock from the curse exploding out of my small, slender voice.
“It’s me…!”
His gaze lingered on my face for a long while before he gently pulled my hand away from his mouth with one of his.
“…?”
“I’m Eun-hae… Baek Eun-hae.”
Only now did Si-woo seem to sense that something was seriously off.
His face screamed disbelief, but he didn’t go berserk like before.
Plastic bags, lunchboxes, and soda bottles lay scattered around the room—
The spice scent wafting from a slightly opened lunchbox stung my nose from the drop, but for a while, we just stared at each other in silence.
A strange tension hung in the air.
Si-woo let out a sigh and scratched his head.
“Okay, okay… so you’re saying you went to sleep, woke up, and suddenly… this happened?”
“Yeah…”
“And I’m supposed to believe that?”
“Then what am I, sitting right in front of you?”
Si-woo pinched his own cheek a few times, made a dumb face, then shifted his stare to bore right into me.
“…What? What is it?”
“Fair point.”
He propped his chin on his hand, studying me intently, then suddenly started grinning.
“Man, this reminds me of so many stories. Ah— I’m jealous—”
“…What? What’d you say—”
Si-woo cut me off, excitedly rambling on.
“Anyway. Isn’t this a total life reversal? I’m jealous, dude. If it were me, I’d be thanking my lucky stars and bowing down.”
Si-woo’s mouth wouldn’t stop.
“Pretty face and all. Honestly, I was kinda shocked when I first saw you. Oh, right. Have you tried it yet? You know, that thing people always do in these stories—”
Anxiety gripped me. I had a bad feeling about what he’d say next.
“Tried what?”
“What else? Jerking off, obviously. Right after the body swap—”
Something deep in my chest snapped with a faint pop.
“Hey…”
The one friend I thought would understand me, at least a little.
The only person I believed would share even a fraction of this hellish fear and despair.
I was truly grateful that he believed me, but in Si-woo’s eyes, I was just in an enviable spot.
No consideration for how I’d react, how much I’d agonized and feared.
All those days staring into the mirror, hesitating, trembling at the sense of my existence being denied—
All that time, negated by Si-woo’s casual positivity.
If he’d believe me this easily, why had I suffered so much?
Was I the weird one for not taking it lightly?
The back of my neck burned. My fist clenched with a crunch.
“…Cut it out…”
“Huh?”
I tried to snap back confidently, like it was no big deal. But my voice wouldn’t cooperate.
My throat tightened harder than I expected. I couldn’t relax it no matter how I tried.
This sensation I was getting used to—it felt like tears were about to burst out.
My heartbeat thrummed in my ears, dragging my emotions every which way.
I was going to cry.
“I-I didn’t call you here for that…”
My lips trembled. The harder I fought it, the worse the shaking got.
“You think… this is enviable? To you, this looks… good? Do you have any idea how much I’ve…”
I bit my lip hard, determined not to cry in front of someone. It didn’t help.
My mind screamed to stay calm, but my body wouldn’t listen.
Hot tears welled up in my eyes and trickled down my cheeks.
Were all those worries I’d holed up in my room for utterly pointless?
Were my agonies that trivial, just fodder for jokes?
“…Huh? Hey, hey… Eun-hae?”
A flustered voice rang out. The playful look on his face vanished.
Si-woo approached me.
“Hey, what’s wrong…? Did I go too far? Sorry, I was just joking around like always, really sorry…”
A shadow fell over me. Up close, cigarette smoke wafted from him.
That scent, once no big deal, now felt nauseating, stabbing my lungs.
I tried to hold back the sobs.
I already knew how weak and fragile my cries would sound in this body.
Just imagining it gave me chills.
These tears felt so stupid.
Things weren’t going how I’d feared.
He wasn’t rejecting me, denying me, grossed out, or trying to touch me.
On the contrary, he was treating me like the old me, just as I’d hoped.
So why.
Why did my stomach churn like this? Why did I want to scream and run away right now?
‘What did I even want?’
But this small, fragile body was spilling out sorrow far more honestly than my rational mind.
My vision blurred with tears, my breath came in gasps.
“Ughhh…”
“Hey, s-sorry… I was just messing around like usual, I really am sorry…”
Si-woo’s hand hesitantly rested on my shoulder.
I knew it was meant to comfort me—but his bulk loomed larger than before, the weight of his palm felt heavy—and my body flinched.
And the first words I barely managed to choke out were.
“…I’m scared.”