Banharin (2): The Astonishing Truth – I Was a Woman from the Start
"Eunha unnie~! This time, take one with me! Bend your waist a little more~."
"L-like this?"
After coming out to Eunbangul and Banharin about her gender.
The first thing Eunha did as a woman was take pictures.
Click—.
It was for a simple commemorative photo, and Eunha in casual clothes rather than her cafe uniform was a rare sight, they said. Since clothes don't wear out anyway, she happily went along with the photoshoot. It was strangely fun, too.
"Slurp...... Ptooey—!! Ugh, damn it...! Eunha unnie! There's salt in the ade?! This is just saltwater...!"
Becoming a woman didn't change a thing.
She was still just your average cafe employee who messed around like an idiot, got scolded by Eunbangul, and shot back at regular customer Banharin's nonsense.
Even so, this moment was precious time when she could completely forget her worries about the Black Book.
"Hang on! I'll make a fresh ade."
"Unnie's sorry~."
Eunbangul, who had chugged the grapefruit ade from earlier that she'd accidentally sprinkled flavored salt into, headed back to the kitchen amid a barrage of nagging.
Students in school uniforms occasionally stopped by the cafe to grab coffee to go.
Eunha surveyed the usual cafe scene with a lazy smile.
Nice. The cafe really is more comfortable than home.
Rustle... Rustle...
Maybe because she was the only customer, as Eunha sipped her freshly refilled grapefruit ade and fiddled with her smartphone, Banharin approached silently from the counter and plopped down right next to her.
She then pulled out her own smartphone from her apron pocket and brazenly started slacking off.
Pong pong~ Pong pong~.
Is this okay?
Curious what she was doing, Eunha peeked at the screen. It was an idle game about raising cute baby animals.
In a farm laden with colorful fruits hanging in clusters, chubby animals hopped around on their stubby limbs.
When Banharin tapped the flowerpot in the center of the screen, a winged watering can popped up and sprinkled water on it. Moments later, the bud bloomed open, and out bounced a plump, balloon cat.
The balloon cat flailing its short limbs as it bounced around was unbearably cute.
"That's super cute."
"Thank you."
"Not you, the game."
"Would you like to play too, Eunha-ssi? You can send hearts to friends' farms, but there's a special 'Ppaeng-ppong' you can only get with those hearts."
"You call it Ppaeng-ppong, huh."
"Yes. It's called 'Raising Ppaeng-ppong.'"
Watching Banharin earnestly promote the game with her icy expression made Eunha burst out laughing.
She doesn't show it on her face, but she really loves cute stuff.
Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with this cool beauty. Her heart was pounding for some reason.
The cafe apron suited her so well... It was a different vibe from her usual black suit, making it a feast for the eyes.
"......? Why are you staring like that? First time seeing a regular customer covering a shift?"
"Yeah. First time."
"Then go ahead and look your fill. I'm getting excited seeing you in casual clothes too, so we're even. Let's take another two-shot for the memories."
Click—.
"......Banharin-ssi, you make absolutely no sound when you move. I really thought you were a ghost the first time I saw you."
"Basic skill for a lowly office worker. You have to know how to erase your presence anywhere, anytime, or you'll get chewed out by your boss."
"Come to think of it, you said you were an office worker? Something hunter-related?"
"Correct. A bottom-rung employee at a company that does subcontract work for a subcontractor of a mid-tier guild."
"Ooh......"
So that's how it is. Office life is intense.
As Eunha let out a genuine exclamation, Banharin dramatically swept back her bangs, striking a smug pose. Her expression stayed blank the whole time, creating a massive gap moe.
Eunha glanced at the chick hairpin on Banharin's bangs and sipped her grapefruit ade.
......Should I add just a little salt?
"If I may ask, Eunha-ssi. One question."
"Suddenly? What is it?"
"It's about your gender."
Just then, as Eunbangul secretly sprinkled flavored salt into a grapefruit ade in the kitchen, Banharin spoke up quietly from her spot next to her, where she'd been playing her game.
"As far as I know, your Self-Regeneration skill reverts the body to its original state."
"Yeah. That's why it's even more of a problem. Why would a regeneration skill let my gender change?"
A perfectly natural question.
Banharin observed Eunha's face with her cold gaze.
"Then, Eunha-ssi... What is your 'original state'?"
"......Huh?"
Her follow-up question left Eunha's mind blank for a moment.
Eunha's skill, Self-Regeneration.
It reverts wounds or muscles to their 'original state.'
So what is the 'original state'?
What does the skill use as a baseline to activate?
She'd never thought about it deeply before.
Ding-a-ling—.
Right on cue, the cafe door opened as a customer entered.
Banharin stood, leaving the question lingering in Eunha's mind, and glided silently back to the counter.
Left alone, Eunha sipped her salty flavored-salt ade.
The Black Book, becoming a woman... With the 'hunter promotion exam' already stressing her out, new problems were sprouting up like weeds.
'Hmm... Salty.'
The ade was salty.
Was her sense of taste finally coming back?
Her mood suddenly lifted.
No matter how much she thought about it, no answers came.
It was all just speculation for now.
How long had she spent at the cafe?
Feeling like she was overstaying, Eunha started clearing the table.
It was already 12:10 p.m. Peak time was coming up soon.
Better not hog the seat.
'Ah... I don't wanna go home. What monster's gonna show up today?'
Thinking about heading home made her heart race.
A pounding heart. Was this love? Did she love her home that much?
As she wiped the scattered flavored salt from the table with a tissue, Eunha kept glancing at the carry-on suitcase propped by her chair.
The Black Book, thicker and larger than most textbooks.
Too cumbersome to carry around loose, but leaving it home meant she couldn't check the 'guidebook' in time.
So she'd stuffed it into the carry-on she used for grocery runs and wheeled it around.
Easier to pull than carry.
She'd tried a shoulder bag once, but it nearly toppled her over from the momentum.
Was her strength weakening since becoming a woman?
'Haa... I can't keep living like this. I barely survived the Red Woman, but no guarantee I'd make it next time...'
Three days since the Black Book appeared.
She'd already nearly died a couple times.
Is this right?
Sighing in frustration, she turned on her smartphone.
Articles about 'artifacts' she'd been reading scrolled up.
As if sensing Eunha's sigh, Eunbangul, who was restocking the display case with bread, looked over with a worried face.
She's the best, my Eunbangul. How can her heart be so pure...?
"What've you been looking at?"
"Eek?!"
Suddenly, Banharin hugged her from behind in a back hug, peering over her shoulder at the phone.
She really startled her. Since when was she behind me?
Eunha hurriedly turned off the screen in a fluster, but Banharin was already mulling over what she'd seen.
"Artifacts...? Were you interested in artifacts, Eunha-ssi?"
"Why're you peeking? Where's my privacy?"
"What's privacy between us? Besides, your private life is already split fifty-fifty between me and Eunbangul-ssi."
Eunbangul nodded vigorously from afar, twitching her white rabbit ears.
This is heartbreaking. No one's on my side here.
"So, to ask again. Why were you searching for artifacts? If you need something, I can get it for you."
"Haha, really, it's nothing. You know how there are all kinds of artifacts? I was just browsing for fun."
"......Really? You didn't happen to pick up some ownerless artifact, did you?"
"N-no, of course not. Why would I lie?"
She brushed off Banharin's question with a half-baked excuse.
To avoid getting caught in a lie, she mimicked Banharin's blank expression perfectly—no way she'd see through it.
"......"
As expected.
Banharin backed off without a hint of suspicion.
Poker face is my specialty.
Eunbangul once said it was all over her face, but she'd never succeeded at lying before.
Things were different now.
Her face had gotten subtly more oval, so maybe her lies were subtly harder to detect.
Look at Banharin pulling away without a doubt.
It works.
It's fine. That was natural.
No way she'd notice I'm hiding something.
Eunha left the cafe with light steps, like a girl who'd just pulled off her first successful lie.
"......Browsing artifacts 'for fun' was a lie."
"Knew it...? Super suspicious."
"Extremely suspicious."
After Eunha left, the cafe was down to just the two of them.
Banharin and Eunbangul huddled in the kitchen, whispering secretly.
"Her lying got even clumsier than before. It was the face of someone hiding something from us, beyond just becoming a woman."
"My eyes don't lie. The way she held back her words suggests it's something we shouldn't know...... Or something no one should know."
Silence fell, backed by the low hum of the TV.
"Something we shouldn't know...... What could it be?"
"Still investigating, but nothing comes to mind."
"I'm really worried... Haa. Yesterday she looked like she'd died and come back..."
"My apologies."
As soon as Eunha vanished, the air froze cold.
Eunbangul scratched at her neck with her nails, feeling suffocated as she fretted.
Banharin stood silently by the girl's side, racking her brain alongside her.
"......Are you actually doing your job right?"
"The whole team is on it—24-hour protection and surveillance. This morning, I got reports of no anomalies from the tailing squad, peripheral contacts team, and home interior monitoring team."
"How do you know those reports are real? Check your team members too."
"I'll confirm immediately."
"I only allowed your surveillance for Eunha unnie's sake... Remember that. If anything happens to my unnie, even a little, I'll go berserk and start with crushing the Hunter Association."
With that, the two wrapped up their Eunha-exclusive chat and seamlessly slipped back into their roles as cafe owner and short-term part-timer.