That's Enough...! I Surrender!
In the darkened room, a completely one-sided beating was underway. Only after I finally dragged a surrender out of her did the “proper education” come to an end. Breasts? What the hell do you mean breasts— I was the one who felt like I was going to die. With my little sister properly subdued behind me, I turned away.
‘…Maybe everything that happened today was just a dream.’
A fleeting thought brushed through my foggy mind. Escapism, born from having way too much thrown at me at once. When I opened my eyes again…
“Lee Hyunwoo, Lee Hyeonseo! It’s already been twenty minutes, get up!”
Mom’s ear-splitting voice shattered my escape, and reality itself flatly rejected my attempt to run away from it.
The weight of my upper body, the hair sliding over my shoulders, the slender fingers, and the tail swaying at my waist. ‘There’s no way.’ I hung my head and muttered to myself. The whole “wake up and it was all a dream” thing wasn’t going to happen.
This was the second morning since I’d turned into a fox beastkin.
Eat, wash, get dressed, go to school. Even though my species and gender had changed, the things I had to do stayed exactly the same. The routine was so unchanged it almost felt wrong.
While I was sluggishly grabbing my bag, Mom called out.
“Lee Hyunwoo.”
“Yeah?”
I lifted my head by reflex. Mom’s face was blank as she continued in a flat tone.
“After school, we’re going straight to buy you clothes.”
Her unilateral announcement made me freeze mid-motion. Mom wanted to take me clothes shopping right after school? I hadn’t felt particularly uncomfortable, so I asked back.
“Why clothes all of a sudden?”
“Why? You were planning to keep wearing your old ones?”
Mom’s eyes widened like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“…Isn’t it fine?”
“Fine? What’s fine about it? Come straight home after school ends.”
When I asked if it wasn’t okay, she looked at me like I was pathetic and delivered the order anyway. Dermatologist yesterday, department store today. Just commuting to school was already exhausting enough to kill me, and now she wanted to drag me into a crowded place. Maybe I really should buy a mask to hide behind. I was still too embarrassed to show my face in public.
“I’m heading out…”
“Yeah. Call me the second you finish.”
Even my lifeless goodbye got the usual send-off from Mom. I pulled the cover off my tail, hung it on the shoe cabinet handle, then twisted the doorknob open. The April air felt both cool and lukewarm. I let out a silent sigh and headed for school.
It was 7:43 a.m. The moment I stepped out of the apartment complex, the stares locked onto me. Orange hair standing out among a sea of black heads, big perky ears, and a fluffy tail that wouldn’t stay still. If I were them, I probably would’ve stared too. My brain understood why they were looking, but my body still hadn’t caught up and kept shuddering.
This wasn’t just self-consciousness. If I turned my eyes even a little, I met someone’s gaze every single time. ‘Aaaaaagh!’
In the end I couldn’t endure the rising shame. The second the crosswalk light changed, I broke into a full sprint. The only thought in my head was getting to school as fast as possible.
The walk that normally took a good twenty minutes was over in five.
“Heu… hek…”
I arrived in the classroom completely out of breath. I found my seat and collapsed into it. After hanging up my bag and finally regaining my senses, I realized I’d been unconsciously sticking my tongue out. I gulped down the saliva in a hurry and shoved the offending tongue back inside my mouth.
A question suddenly crossed my mind. ‘Did I always have a habit like this…?’
I felt like something was off about my own unfamiliar behavior, but I brushed it aside for now. Between yesterday’s shower and everything else, strange things kept happening with this body anyway.
This was the second day of school since becoming a fox beastkin. Things with my classmates were still awkward.
“A new character dropped, right? Did you pull it?”
“Uh… not yet.”
They let me join the conversation if I spoke first, but there was a strange distance that hadn’t been there before. We used to talk about the same mobile game every day just a few days ago, yet now the words wouldn’t flow. I couldn’t tell exactly why, but I got the strong feeling that everyone was hyper-aware of the gap between us.
Had the homeroom teacher said something to them yesterday? The question lingered as classes and breaks repeated.
Time passed, and right after third period ended, my classmates all stood up at once like they’d planned it. But they couldn’t quite move on to the next step. An odd tension and atmosphere filled the all-boys classroom. Soon, uncomfortable male gazes began gathering on me.
‘Ah.’
Only then did I realize what the strange air meant and stood up. Fourth period was PE. They couldn’t change clothes because I was there.
I walked straight out the back door. Behind me came the sudden clatter of hurried movement. The boys who had been hesitating because of me started changing like a storm. I headed to the playground first without changing. The gym uniform I’d prepared didn’t fit over my chest anyway, and I’d come to school in my regular clothes.
As I walked down the stairs to the first floor, I ran into a group of boys from another class who had just finished their own third-period PE and were heading up. Their eyes kept flicking toward me. They passed by pretending nothing was wrong, but I heard them murmuring behind my back.
“That kid earlier…”
“It’s the one from Class 3 who caught that disease.”
Even though they were pretty far away, I could hear every word clearly. My rumor had apparently spread to the other classes. They knew all about me even though I didn’t know any of their faces.
“If it’s that kind of disease, isn’t it a total win?”
“Agreed.”
“But we’re all guys. Is that okay?”
“Dunno. Maybe she’s transferring?”
Once I was out of sight, they dropped the hushed tones and talked normally. Stuff like how it was a benefit, or whether I’d transfer. Their voices still reached me from the stairs I could no longer see. My hearing seemed to have gotten sharper than necessary.
Still, one word stuck with me. ‘Transfer… I don’t want that.’
I rolled the two syllables around in my head. No matter how much I hated to admit it, biologically I was now closer to a girl. I had to consider the possibility of transferring schools. It wasn’t that I treasured my current relationships. It wasn’t some edgy middle-school syndrome reason, either. I just didn’t want my environment to change.
A pebble got caught under my sneaker and rolled away. Lost in thought, I reached the playground before I knew it.
“Huaa… aheu…”
I yawned while waiting for my classmates to arrive. I was sitting under the plastic-roofed stands. Warm April sunlight poured down. The languid feeling made me lean against one of the pillars and zone out completely. If I had my way, I would’ve taken a nap right there.
“Claaass—”
The class president’s drawn-out shout reached me a little later. I pulled my head away from the pillar and stood up. It was the unbreakable school rule for PE: outdoor activities were basically free, but everyone had to do at least one lap around the track, even if they walked. Korean high schoolers sat in classrooms all day, so PE class had to include at least some exercise. That was apparently the PE teacher’s personal belief. Of course, even that was hard to enforce because of complaints from certain parents.
The PE teacher soon came out clapping his hands and addressed us lined up on the field.
“Alright, only run if you can run properly. If it looks too hard, just walk. After that, you’re free!”
Tanned skin, sports cut, sunglasses. It was our PE teacher, Kim Gil-young.
“Oh, and…”
Right after telling the others to run a lap, he looked at me with a troubled expression. It must have been awkward for him. If I were in his position, I wouldn’t know how to handle it either—a male high school student who had suddenly become a girl.
“Hyunwoo? You can just rest.”
He trailed off and told me to rest. Even the way he said my name sounded hesitant. It seemed calling me by name felt strange to him. But it wasn’t like I couldn’t run just because I looked like this.
“I’ll just run it.”
“Oh, you will? Don’t push yourself.”
The excessive consideration felt burdensome, so when I said I’d run, the PE teacher brightened and told me not to overdo it. Without answering, I started jogging around the track.
My start was about thirty seconds behind everyone else. The clear air of the open field brushed my cheeks. I began overtaking the kids who were walking slowly, then passed those who were only pretending to run. My legs didn’t get tired at all, and the feeling strangely excited me. From the middle of the lap onward I stopped looking around and gradually picked up speed.
After circling the large track once, I let out a refreshed breath, enjoying the strange sense of exhilaration.
“Why are you so fast?”
“Huh? Eh?”
I looked around after seeing the PE teacher’s wide, startled eyes. The starting point was completely empty except for him. No one else had arrived yet. When I came to my senses, I realized I had taken first place.