Somehow, This Is Embarrassing
Two days had passed since Alice's visit.
On the day of the date she had named, I stood before the mirror, picking out clothes. Not the hoodie and jeans I had lived in until now, or a plain white T-shirt—something that actually had a skirt.
"Haa…"
What was I even doing?
I had gone out of my way to avoid clothes like these, and yet here I was, choosing something to wear.
Why, of all things…!
There was only one reason I was standing here sorting through outfits.
"Ugh, it's not like I can just not wear them…!"
I looked at my reflection. A white T-shirt, and short dolphin shorts.
And these already took me forever to get used to…
"Haa…"
I had grown familiar enough with this body that stripping down and changing was no longer a problem. A skirt, though, was another matter entirely.
"What else can I do…"
I yanked off the dolphin shorts and the white tee without ceremony, then tried on the clothes I had set aside, one by one.
And yet—
It's short!
The hem didn't even reach my knees.
"…I-is it really all right for it to be this short?"
My legs felt far too bare. What I had on was a black miniskirt.
If so much as a breeze hits this, my underwear's going to be on full display…?
I lifted the hem a little. The inside showed far too easily.
This one was out. Wear it, and I would spend the whole day walking with both arms clamped over the skirt.
…Why is it nothing but pants or miniskirts?
Some secret little preference of Lee Yuhwa's? One of those gap moe contrivances?
"I really didn't see this coming…"
I couldn't remember what young Yuhwa had been wearing the one time her child form properly appeared in the story, but it hadn't been anything like this.
If there were at least something more childish…
Casual clothes a child might actually wear did exist, of course. They looked old, and a little small, but I could probably get into them if I tried.
"The trouble is, most of them are pants…"
The dress code Alice had specified was a skirt. Break it, and there was no telling what I would be in for.
"Haa…"
I sighed and dug through the closet. There weren't many clothes to begin with, and even fewer I could actually wear.
So this is how those girls felt—after the director bought them heaps of clothes, and they still insisted they had nothing to wear.
The boys had put on whatever they were given without a fuss, while the girls were always complaining they had nothing. I hadn't understood back then. I had even scolded them behind the director's back…
"I'm sorry…"
With our places reversed, I finally understood how they had felt.
"Hm…? This one… might actually be all right."
As I was flipping through them, one outfit caught my eye, and I pulled it out. A neat, long navy dress.
The skirt looks long, too. This ought to be comfortable.
Worn on its own, the top would probably show far too much, but I could fix that by putting something on underneath.
There was, however, one thing I had overlooked.
"How am I even supposed to put this on…?"
Damn it. I had to know how it went on first.
In the end, with the internet's help, I barely managed to get the thing on.
On the bus, I traded messages without so much as a moment to look at this city, so different from the one I had known.
The protagonist. An S-Rank hero. The main villain of Part One.
These were not people whose messages I could ignore, so I answered every one of them in earnest.
Han Soyeon at least keeps hers short, so that's fine…
I crossed paths with her often enough that I had changed the contact from Hero Unnie to Soyeon Unnie. I had wanted to drop the unnie as well, but we met so frequently that I just left it.
"Does Yujin… just need someone to talk to?"
The day her first message arrived, I learned the name Starlight.
I fell asleep and woke up to a letter the length of a novel. It threw me.
I had gone to bed exhausted, and by the time I woke she had already sent me a staggering string of texts about the novel she had bought me. Her conversations began with novels and, deep into the night, ended with novels. Her devotion to literary fiction seemed that deep.
"…I like it too, mind you."
Unlike me, who only liked it in moderation, she seemed wholly submerged in pure literature. Perhaps she couldn't have those conversations with her colleagues. We had met two days ago, and she had been messaging me every single day since.
But… isn't this supposed to be when she's doing her hero work? Is it really fine for her to just be texting me like this?
Beep—
When we reached the stop, I pressed the bell and got off.
The dress…
It fluttered however it pleased, swaying with every shift of the bus. It felt as if I had nothing on below my waist, and whenever the fabric brushed me like that, a chill ran through me.
With a hiss of brakes the bus stopped, and the doors opened. I stepped down and set off at a quick walk.
One look at Alice's grumbling messages and I picked up the pace.
…Damn villain.
A mere C-Rank, and he puts my life on a thread this thin? I hope he runs into Soyeon. He can just get pulverized, for all I care.
I followed the map for about five minutes before I spotted her in the distance, staring at her phone with a haughty look on her face. An off-the-shoulder blouse with a cardigan draped over it, and a short skirt.
Dressed with a mature polish, she wore an expression that had gone cold. She looked thoroughly displeased.
…Is she angry?
Scared or not, I had to go to her. Keep her waiting any longer, and there was no telling what would happen.
I approached slowly.
As I drew near, she must have sensed someone there, because her gaze turned to me. She said nothing. The look she fixed on me was ice.
"…I-I'm sorry I'm late."
I shrank in on myself as I apologized.
Is she… mad?
I lifted my bowed head just a fraction and looked at her.
A faint smile rested at the corner of her mouth. The cutting air from a moment ago had vanished without a trace, replaced by something almost gentle.
"You have a hobby of making your friends wait, I see."
"Ah, th-that's…"
"Hoh. A jest. Your reactions amuse me, so I merely teased you."
A playful smile spread across Alice's girlish face.
"In any case… thank you for granting my request."
"Yes…?"
"Your clothes. You came dressed rather cutely, did you not? I never cared for how you always went about dressed like a man. It is pleasant to look upon."
"I-is that so?"
…Being called cute to my face feels strange.
Like something inside me was curling up…
Her praise left me embarrassed for no good reason. It wasn't that I disliked it. More that I seemed to have crossed some line I shouldn't have.
But "always"…?
I had only met Alice twice…
"Is that manner of yours an attempt to seduce me?"
My embarrassment must have shown. She laughed, playful, and teased me.
"I-it is not!"
"I am one who respects the tastes of others, so do not fret."
"I said it's not…!"
Still smiling that playful smile, she caught my arm and pulled. The suddenness pitched me toward her. I lost my balance, my weight tipping her way, and with no control left I folded into her arms—and in that same instant she leaned in and whispered against my ear.
"For the record… should someone catch my fancy, I care little whether they be man or woman."
"……!"
Heat flared across my face.
It wasn't love. It wasn't romance. It wasn't my heart pounding.
"A jest. You simply have a flavor worth teasing."
"……"
This body was only too honest with its feelings.
…Th-that startled me.
Surprise, the suddenness, the embarrassment—none of it filtered. All of it rose straight to my face.
Right. Even so, I don't feel that way about someone who looks like a little girl.
I am not a lolicon.
I am absolutely not.
"Let us be off, then."
"Huh? Where to…"
Alice took my hand.
"I am the one who invited you on this date, so I have already arranged the entire course."
She led me along by the hand.
"Come, we must hurry. The time to enter is nearly upon us."
"O-okay?"
"I am told a proper date begins, as a matter of course, at the movie theater. So let us make haste."
Where in the world had she heard a thing like that? Led by her hand, I walked the street. Strange—my hand was held in hers, and yet I wasn't afraid the way I had been before. Something tickled at me. Drunk on that feeling, I walked beside her, the awkward cling of the skirt and the embarrassment both gone.