The Pride of Our Village!
"Should I grab us something to drink?"
"No, I'm fine."
Woo Dan-wol and Woo Ri-na were riding the KTX. They hadn't even realized a photo had been snapped as they made their way to visit their parents. It was a relief that the settlement payment had come through right on time.
He wasn't the type to spend lavishly. Still, since they were traveling in public, he had booked special-class seats. Lee Hye-ri had offered to drive them, but after Woo Dan-wol turned her down, the trip home became a sibling affair. Woo Ri-na seemed a little fascinated by it all.
It wasn't as if he were wearing a blatant black mask and sunglasses. Yet there was something about Woo Dan-wol's current aura that surprised even his younger sister. He was unmistakably the brother she knew. His appearance matched, and when they spoke, he was the same person. But if she spaced out for a moment and then looked at him again, the atmosphere around him felt somehow different from the brother she remembered.
Was that the reason? In the past six months he had appeared in two dramas and was steadily gaining fame. She had worried that being surrounded by people might cause chaos, even imagining scenarios where she would have to fend off overzealous fans. In the end, it all turned out surprisingly uneventful.
Whatever. Good things were good things.
The train sped along. Gazing out the window, Woo Ri-na let out a small sigh. She was remembering the days when her brother had fought bitterly with their parents.
When he hadn't reached out, she had assumed his old memories had returned. Otherwise, what possible reason could he have for ignoring their parents?
Woo Dan-wol fiddled with his smartphone, his expression perfectly calm. He didn't look worried in the slightest. Then again, he was the kind of man you might suspect was an idiot about anything unrelated to acting.
Time passed, and the train made a stop. It wasn't their final destination, but an intermediate station.
Passengers began boarding the sparsely occupied special-class car one by one.
"Oh, a soldier."
"First time seeing one?"
"Probably...?"
Woo Dan-wol's eyes sparkled with interest. And for good reason. A woman in military uniform had taken the seat beside him, separated only by the aisle. Still, he watched her with open curiosity. Even at Seoul Station, the only soldiers he had seen were at a considerable distance.
It made sense. The female soldiers he remembered from his original world had all been officers at minimum. The one before him now was a private first class.
So even female soldiers have that unmistakable new-recruit smell... The thought came from his own past military experience, not in any sexual sense. Was this her first leave? Curiosity stirred, but he didn't pry.
Woo Ri-na shot him a strange look, and he was about to turn away when—
"Huh...?"
The soldier who had been about to sit down stared straight at him. A brief silence followed. Woo Dan-wol mentally defined these three seconds as the classic "fan spotting a celebrity" moment. At this point, any hope of staying incognito was gone.
"W-Woo Dan-wol...? Are you the actor?"
"Ahaha... Yes, I am. Hello."
The woman had a slightly clumsy, flustered air about her. Whether it was because she was only a private first class, or because she was meeting a celebrity in the civilian world for the first time in a while, he couldn't say. Still, at least she hadn't shouted. Since it was the special-class car, the other passengers didn't pay him much attention. Who would expect to see a celebrity on their way home for the holidays?
In any case, the private first class looked utterly flustered. She knew him from Forest of Flowers, the drama her seniors had forced her to watch.
To think she would meet him on her very first leave. Who could have predicted that?
"Would you like a photo?"
"Y-yes, please..."
"Is this your first leave?"
"That's right. How did you...?"
"Heh."
Everyone has an awkward phase. Especially in the military, a world completely cut off from normal society. It was even harder in a place like that. So Woo Dan-wol offered her his sincere gratitude.
"Thank you for protecting our country."
"Ah..."
Even in this gender-reversed world, the treatment of South Korea's soldiers remained the same. The 6.25 War veterans who still weren't properly honored. Young people in their twenties fulfilling their duty, only to face mockery and dismissal in online spaces. They already suffered enough.
To the woman who had been genuinely lost and full of doubt, his words sounded different.
"Thank... you."
A man. Moreover, an actor. A celebrity who seemed to live in an entirely different world was thanking her—a mere soldier. He took a photo with her, expressed genuine gratitude, and smiled warmly.
It was awkward, yet the lump of emotion in her chest loosened. So this was why they protected the country. No matter how much scorn or hatred they faced, they carried rifles to protect people like him.
As Woo Dan-wol returned to his seat, the private first class on her first leave sat with a dazed expression. More precisely, she was deep in thought.
"Hey, you. Ever think about signing on as a career sergeant?"
The administrative supply officer—shortened to "admin officer." The private first class recalled her words. Normally she would have refused and shaken her head. But a soldier whose "blood was up," as the slang went, was prone to irreversible decisions. I'll plant my flag here! Those were the words she would shout upon returning from leave.
After getting off the taxi, Woo Ri-na and Woo Dan-wol stood speechless. Hadn't it only been a day? He had called on Friday, and today was Saturday. Barely twenty-four hours had passed.
Yet—
"There we go! Perfect! Oh! Dan-wol! Ri-na!"
They wanted to ask who this person was.
The sight before them was more than enough to inspire that question. At the village entrance where the taxi had dropped them hung an enormous horizontal banner—the kind used for election campaigns or school events, with large lettering across it.
This had been done in a single day? Woo Dan-wol was genuinely impressed by the adults' efficiency. Especially the heart of parents who wanted to brag about their child.
Woo Hyeon-jeong, mother to both Woo Dan-wol and Woo Ri-na, laughed and gave a thumbs-up to the villagers for their hard work. Then she turned to her children, who had traveled so far, and welcomed them with a bright smile.
"Ahaha! You're here!"
"Yes..."
Woo Dan-wol offered an awkward smile. He recognized her face dimly, but this was only the second time he had seen her since possessing this body. Even so, when she stepped forward and hugged him, he returned the embrace a bit stiffly. A middle-aged woman.
Still, he had to do what was expected. He handed her the shopping bag he had brought.
"What's this?"
"It's liquor. I'll talk to Father nicely, so..."
"My son is the best..."
Life as a married woman was tough. Of course she had chosen it out of love, but for a woman who enjoyed drinking and relied on allowance money, it was a difficult daily reality. For Woo Hyeon-jeong, who had to sneak just one bottle of soju while watching her husband's mood, this was the finest gift imaginable.
"There's some spending money in there too. Use it secretly. I'll give Father his share separately..."
"My son..."
I raised him well. I really raised him well. People said that once women reached middle age, male hormones started to appear. In her younger days she had been a rock-solid mother who fed her children without shedding a single tear. Now she was simply a middle-aged mother easily moved to sentimentality. Her grown son had succeeded and was giving her pocket money. What greater happiness could there be? Today was a feast. A true feast!
"Ahaha..."
Once inside the village, Woo Dan-wol didn't head to the house. He went to the community center instead. Most of the villagers had gathered there, and a full-blown festival was already underway. Plenty of food and alcohol.
The elders, already quite drunk, were dancing. They flocked to Woo Dan-wol like penguins, telling him how much he had grown. He sent Woo Ri-na a pleading look for help, but she was a wise middle-schooler. She knew exactly what price came with all this attention, even if it might spark jealousy that the crowd only seemed to welcome her brother.
"...Sorry."
Woo Ri-na genuinely felt sorry for him.
Anyway. Once the frenzied audience had calmed down—
In truth, they would have found an excuse to drink and celebrate even without Woo Dan-wol. After enduring it for about an hour, the interest finally faded. The villagers entertained themselves, leaving Woo Dan-wol with some breathing room.
"Have you been well?"
"Yes, Father."
In this gender-reversed world, it still felt strange to hear his father speak in such a gentle tone. According to Ri-na, he had always been somewhat aloof.
After lunch, as the sun began to set, the two of them talked alone in a quiet spot.
"Is the acting life treating you well?"
"I'm happy."
"I see."
"About the past..."
Woo Dan-wol shook his head. Moments like this always left him feeling conflicted. He had been Woo Dan-wol in his previous life, and he was Woo Dan-wol in this world too. Yet among his family members, he was the outsider. Even though he had grown close to Woo Ri-na, the odds were high that he wasn't the same Woo Dan-wol that Woo Hyeon-jeong and Kang Jin-hyo remembered.
He couldn't figure out what to say. In the long silence, his father spoke first.
"Dan-wol."
"Yes..."
"You were always such a stubborn child."
"Was I?"
The middle-aged man's face was filled with bittersweet emotion. It was truly sad not to be remembered. Even if those memories were painful and something one would rather forget.
"You were so bright, I don't know who you took after. Then around high school..."
Woo Dan-wol's father continued speaking at length. To his quietly listening son, he recounted the story from a parent's perspective. The fights, the running away from home, even the part where he had stormed into Daehak-ro declaring he would become an actor.
Woo Dan-wol couldn't say a word. It had all happened before the possession, when that other Woo Dan-wol—who was also himself—had done those things. But one truth remained the same: the desperate longing for acting.
"Heh, we're terrible parents, aren't we?"
"No, you're not."
Having worked in the entertainment industry, he knew how brutal and unfair it could be. So he understood at least some of a parent's feelings.
"Still... you've succeeded on your own now. What more can we say?"
"......"
"Just be happy, Dan-wol. That's enough."
"Ah..."
Woo Dan-wol's eyes widened. Different face, different name, different world. He never imagined he would hear those words again. The same words the parents in his previous life had given him when he had thrown away a perfectly good university education to chase acting.
Be happy. That's enough.
"I love you, Father."
So Woo Dan-wol poured the word "love" into this new body. A word he had wondered if he even had the right to use. He said it with confidence.
And then—
"Ah, this."
It was a thick white envelope. The kind normally used to give allowance money. His father accepted it.
"It's spending money. The settlement payment came through."
"W-what... you didn't have to..."
One hundred 50,000-won bills. Kang Jin-hyo peeked inside the envelope and saw the yellow color of the notes. Husbands and wives really did resemble each other—his grin was remarkably similar to the one Woo Hyeon-jeong had made when she received the liquor.
"Th-thank you..."
"It's nothing."
South Korea was a capitalist society. And no one was more honest about that fact than Kang Jin-hyo.