The Diet Begins
The diet begins. The misunderstanding with Chaewon and Mijin had been resolved beautifully. It felt as though I had taken one more step toward my family. That was why I started exercising—I wanted to live longer in this warm, harmonious home.
“Huff. Huff. Huff.”
Movements that would have been effortless in my previous life. Push-ups, sit-ups, squats, burpees—every one of them felt impossibly difficult now. The culprit was this body belonging to Han Shinwoo. I hadn’t noticed at first, but after living in it for a week, I honestly had no desire to acclimate to its massive weight. Mother would smile and call it “plump and cuddly,” yet to me it was nothing more than a walking slab of fat.
“Looks like the original owner of this body spent all his time cooped up inside.”
One hundred eighty-two centimeters tall, yet weighing one hundred eighty-two kilograms. It was a miracle he had survived this long. The sheer obesity made me fear for his health; in my eyes, it would not have been strange if he dropped dead at any moment. So I decided to fix it. Obesity is the root of all disease. They say the greatest unfilial act a child can commit is forcing the parents who raised them to hold their funeral. To avoid such impiety, I needed to diet.
“Son, are you sure you don’t want a late-night snack? If fried food worries you, I can order grilled instead. That has fewer calories, at least…”
“Mother, I must decline this time.”
It pained me to do so, but I first refused Mother’s overflowing kindness. It was midnight. The moment she learned the son-exclusive card had not been used, she came sprinting into my room in a panic. When I handed the card back, she collapsed on the spot. Having experienced similar scenes before, I remained calm and explained myself slowly.
“Uwaaah. Son, please don’t abandon Mommy!”
“It’s not like that, Mother. This is purely for my health. I’m going to try dieting.”
“D-dieting?!”
Worry, tears, then wide-eyed shock—Mother’s expressions flipped in an instant, making her look like an adorable child.
In this world with its catastrophically skewed gender ratio, male appearances fell into two broad categories. The first was a physique where height and weight were nearly identical. On the original Earth such men would have been called pigs and ranked as women’s number-one avoidance target, but not here. Their rolls of fat were affectionately termed “blessed bellies” and celebrated as a charm point. Countless women fell to their knees, desperate to bury themselves in that soft abundance.
The second type weighed roughly half of half their height. On Earth they would have been mocked as twigs and avoided just as fiercely. But in a world where men were so rare that women across the globe starved for them, skeletal frames were praised as “sleek.” Women adored this type just as passionately as the blessed-bellied ones.
Simply put, in this world any breathing male made women lose their minds. As a result, men never bothered to dress up or groom themselves. From the moment they were born male they were already first-class citizens. There was no need to strive for handsomeness; being born a man made them inherently attractive.
Furthermore, men received special “species preservation” subsidies from both international organizations and the state. The sums were generous. Aside from the occasional hospital visit to donate genetic material, a man could spend his entire life playing and eating inside his room.
That was why my family could not hide their astonishment. A man choosing to exert himself? Historically, such cases were vanishingly rare. Had the world learned of it, today might have been declared “Shinwoo’s Diet Day” and turned into a national holiday.
“Brother only ate one bowl again today…”
“He really intends to go through with it… the diet.”
“What if he dies?!”
From the day after I declared my diet, the entire family worried in earnest. That enormous blessed belly no longer appeared. Everyone trembled at the thought that his organs might emerge instead of fat.
“Shinwoo is still just exercising in his room, right?”
“Yes. I went to give him the late-night card again and found him drenched in sweat. He refused it…”
“W-wait! Mom, does that mean you alone saw Brother covered in sweat?!”
At that moment Chaewon, who had been quietly thinking, joined Mijin in glaring at their mother. Feeling the sharp stares of her daughters, Mother cleared her throat and feigned innocence.
“Ah, Mother.”
“S-soooon?!?!”
“I must decline the card.”
The memory of her son with his upper body bare, belly fat jiggling with every movement, still made saliva pool in her mouth no matter how many times she recalled it.
“Ehehe…”
“So you really did see it by yourself!”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Ahem. I only went to hand him the card. How was I to know? It was purely coincidental.”
Mother spoke casually while facing her daughters. Only half of it was a lie. She had secretly visited after noticing he exercised every time he finished eating, curious to witness the rare sight of a man working out. The harvest had exceeded her expectations, and while she felt sorry for her daughters, she could not yield. Before they were family, they were rivals as women.
“Brother is probably still exercising, right, Sister?”
“Yes. He bought a lot of equipment recently, so I imagine so.”
On the very day he resolved to diet, Shinwoo used the special support funds he normally received to fill his room with fitness machines. The twenty-pyeong space had been his alone; once the original Han Shinwoo’s displayed figurines, plastic models, game consoles, and other items were cleared out, the room transformed into a compact gym.
“Sorry to the original owner, but I am the master of this body now.”
And so it continued: eat, exercise, eat again, exercise again. He followed a steady, non-excessive routine, striving to reclaim the body he had possessed in his previous life.
“Sister, let’s go.”
“Okay.”
“Brother… seems he’ll stay shut inside his room again today.”
“It does, doesn’t it? It’s already been nearly a month.”
“I’m worried.”
“Me too…”
Once he had shed a certain amount of fat, Shinwoo decided it was time to enter the second phase. Before the even harsher training began, he regretfully announced that he would lock his door for a while to avoid disturbance.
The moment she heard those words, Mother collapsed on the spot and burst into tears.
“Son! Why?! Why in the world?!”
“I’m sorry, Mother. Please understand, just for now.”
“Brother…”
“……”
Mijin trembled, terrified that her brother might be reverting to his old self. Eldest sister Chaewon felt the same dread. Being hit again would have been fine; she could endure the blows in her little sister’s place. What frightened her most was the possibility that he would lock himself away forever and become a hikikomori. She had heard of many men who found women so repulsive they spent their entire lives inside their rooms.
Recent events had also weighed on her mind. Because of that worry, Chaewon had barely slept for days. The dark circles beneath her eyes proved it. A bruise-like mark also lingered on her right cheek.
“Sister, are you all right? You really don’t look well.”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry. More importantly, let’s hurry to school, Mijin.”
As always, Chaewon took her younger sister’s hand and left the apartment.
Her name was Han Chaewon. Korean age nineteen. Even at the nation’s top prestigious high school, which only cultivated the most promising talents, she stood out as a genius. Upon entering her third year she had surpassed the daughters of conglomerates to claim the vice-presidency of the student council. In a world where men were considered mythical creatures, she had received countless love letters from girls who formed couples among themselves. She had rejected every one. Her heart had already been stolen by the most wonderful being among those fantastical creatures.
“When will Shinwoo come outside…”
Han Shinwoo. The first boy she had ever known as male. Though they shared only half their blood, he was undeniably her younger brother. Having a male in the family was both an enormous blessing and a curse in this world—especially between siblings. Regardless of whether it was an older or younger brother, after their parents, siblings were the people children saw most during their early years. In other words, when Shinwoo was young, if he was not with Mother, he encountered either her or Mijin.
This was a world where a man was the law and everything could be forgiven. A world where, if a family member displeased him, it was perfectly legal for a boy to commit honor killing upon the offending female relative. Boys in their early years were especially sensitive. For the sake of species preservation and to ensure they grew into fine men, global institutions accommodated male children as much as possible. If a boy who disliked his older or younger sister grew up to hate women, it would be an international loss.
Besides, honor killing was a family matter; there was no need for complicated external approval. It could be resolved internally without troubling outsiders. Killing the mother who had raised him would be different, but older or younger sisters were merely Female Number One and Female Number Two—beings whose deaths would not particularly affect a boy’s life. The international consensus was that it was far more beneficial for the boy’s mind if the siblings were eliminated.
Therefore, from early childhood Han Chaewon had lived torn between attraction to Shinwoo and the terror of being killed by him. In fact, including the beatings meant for Mijin, there had been several times she had nearly died. Yet after his memory loss, her younger brother had become an entirely different person.