The Crossdressing Girl of the Swordsmanship Department (1)
Thirty minutes after Do Yoonchae threatened to kill me if I set foot in the bathroom while she was in there.
Creeeeak.
"……"
She must have realized I'd returned to the dorm room, because she hastily finished her shower and cautiously cracked the bathroom door open, stepping out.
She'd stayed hidden in there for nearly twenty minutes after the water shut off — no doubt taking her time putting her clothes back on. She'd have had to rewrap the bandages concealing that enormous chest of hers, too.
For now, I left her alone, if only out of respect for how earnestly she was still trying to hide her identity. Poking at her now, while her guard was at its peak, wouldn't get me anything worth having.
"Oh, you're done?"
"…Yeah."
"Then it's my turn."
Rustle. Rustle.
"……"
I stripped off my clothes right in front of her, freshly out of the bathroom, and she frowned at me before quickly looking away.
It was an awkward performance, like she was making a show of it. That was probably what Do Yoonchae imagined typical male roommates were like.
"Ugh, damn it. Quit flashing your gross beer belly and go get naked in the bathroom."
"We're both guys, what's the problem? We'd see everything anyway if we shared a bathhouse."
"I-I just don't feel any particular need to see another dude's body on a regular basis. You got a complaint with that?"
"Then stop looking this way. Changing clothes in the bathroom just means everything gets soaked — it's a pain in the ass."
"……"
Two days since I'd started sharing a room with Do Yoonchae.
Thanks to my poorly chosen persona, she grumbled and muttered every time she saw me, so I was matching her energy with an appropriate level of griping back. Since we were supposedly two guys, one of them acting overly friendly would seem strange in its own right. As long as I was maintaining the pretense that I didn't know about her crossdressing, I had to keep this awkward, slightly prickly dynamic going.
After all, she was a woman I'd be sharing a dorm with for the next four years, and all it would take was one well-placed opening to make her my office wife… no, my academy wife. It would hardly be any trouble at all.
"……"
Whip!
"P-put some clothes on already!"
"Got it, next time."
Enjoying the way Do Yoonchae kept awkwardly averting her eyes as I wandered the room in nothing but my underwear gathering clothes to change into, I sauntered into the bathroom.
For now, simply playing the part of an ordinary male roommate — letting Do Yoonchae grow used to my presence — was more than enough. Starting tomorrow, I'd begin her conquest in earnest. If she wouldn't willingly talk to me, I'd manufacture the situations myself.
Creeeeak.
"……"
Her dorm roommate, Lee Seonho — the man who had calmly strutted around in his underwear in front of another person before strolling straight into the bathroom.
Something about him seemed off for the second-ranked student of the year, and Do Yoon-sung — no, Do Yoonchae — was beginning to grow suspicious.
'Someone like him is the runner-up of the entire year? And first among the men, no less?'
From the start, she hadn't believed that a Support Department student could be second overall. Traditionally, the top spot on the academy entrance exams went to the Magic Department for the written portion and the Swordsmanship Department for the practical — that much was simply the baseline.
So naturally, she'd assumed this year's top two would come from those departments as well. Yet somehow, the valedictorian was a woman from the Archery Department, and the salutatorian was that man from the Support Department.
'Even giving a hundred paces of leeway, I could accept the Archery Department.'
They were a combat track, after all. It was a little odd that the Swordsmanship and Magic Departments split the top two spots every single year.
But a Support Department student — a department whose score distribution sat stubbornly in the lower ranks — taking second place was another matter entirely. Even the professor teaching her swordsmanship lectures had said this was the first time such a thing had happened since the Support Department's founding.
…Which was why she, the actual top scorer of the Swordsmanship Department, had been told to reflect on herself as the department's representative. Despite having done nothing wrong on the entrance exam in the first place.
'The exam was clearly judged on the total value of materials collected. That's why I deliberately hunted nothing but orcs, taking down ten of them all by myself…'
She needed to find out what kind of trick that man had pulled to earn second place. If his ranking hadn't come through proper procedure — if cheating was involved — then it was only right to correct it.
People who extorted the achievements and efforts of others as their own, living fat off stolen credit — that was the breed of human Do Yoonchae despised most in this world.
Just as her younger brother, one year her junior, Do Yoon-sung, had done to her.
'If only I had been born a man…'
If she'd been born male, she would never have been discriminated against by her clan for her sex, and never have needed to steal the household registration of a dead brother to enroll in Cheonmu Academy as a man.
When Yoon-sung was alive, the people who had worked her like a servant suddenly declared, the moment he died, that the family line had been cut off — and began scheming to dress her in men's clothes and send her to the academy. She'd thought they had all collectively lost their minds.
…Though when this half-doubted enrollment actually succeeded, it had felt more absurd than anything. Had someone bribed the academy officials? Or did the Illusion Talisman the clan elders had given her as an "artifact" genuinely work?
The one blessing, at least, was that no one had seen through her yet.
The Illusion Talisman, capable of concealing her identity completely, could only be used for two hours a day — but her features had always leaned androgynous to begin with.
Day to day, so long as she kept her chest properly bound, hiding who she was wasn't impossible.
Creeeeak.
"Phew, that hits the spot."
…So thoroughly hidden that even Lee Seonho, the very roommate sharing her room, hadn't noticed.
If the year's second-ranked student couldn't tell, then all she had to do was quietly endure for four years. Once she graduated from the academy and returned to her clan, she'd never have to lay eyes on him again.
'Honestly, it'd be even better if his exam fraud came to light and he got expelled midway.'
Then she could at least relax within the dorm itself. Resolving not to loosen her guard around Lee Seonho — not when such an opportunity might yet present itself — Do Yoonchae steeled her heart.
The next morning, as she was getting ready for class, Lee Seonho's voice came out of nowhere.
"Yoonsung, you've got Monster Ecology this morning, right?"
"……"
She had never shared her class schedule with him, so Do Yoonchae's eyes naturally sharpened with wariness as she glared at him.
"How do you know that?"
"Your notebook was out on the desk with your schedule written on it."
"Why were you going through my—!"
"I didn't go digging. I came back to the room and it was just lying there open. And you were in the shower at the time, remember?"
"……"
At his matter-of-fact tone, Do Yoonchae carefully retraced her memory. Last night, she had been organizing the next day's schedule right before heading into the bathroom.
Her memory also turned up the fact that, deciding it was better to wash before her roommate returned, she'd hurried into the bathroom and forgotten to clear the desk.
"Fine, I get it. But don't look next time. Like I said before, even in an all-male dorm, I'd like some privacy."
"Yeah, sorry about that. Anyway, it's Monster Ecology this morning, right?"
"…Yeah."
"Then let's walk over together. I have Monster Ecology this morning too. Kinesiology and Physical Training in the afternoon."
"……"
"We'll be stuck together for four years anyway — no harm in getting along. I'll apologize for poking through your desk. I didn't realize it would bother you that much."
…He was going to be sharing this dorm with her for four years regardless.
No matter how strongly she suspected him of cheating on the entrance exam, she couldn't prove anything yet. Better to plan for a situation that continued than to act on the assumption he'd be expelled midway.
Besides, she didn't really understand the social distance between men — if she kept her guard up too high, it might only invite suspicion instead.
"Fine. Do whatever you want."
"Oh, and one of the students in our morning class is a friend of mine — Han Sora. The Archery Department girl who took first among the new students. You know her?"
"…The one who gave the speech at the entrance ceremony is your friend?"
"Yep. We happened to end up on the same team during the practical exam. She has Monster Ecology Wednesday mornings too, so I'll introduce you."
It was strange enough that a Support Department student ranked second in the year — but he was also personally acquainted with the valedictorian.
Do Yoonchae was beginning to get a rough picture of what kind of fraud Lee Seonho had committed during the practical exam. He'd probably latched onto that valedictorian friend and submitted the materials from powerful monsters as if they were his own achievements. Something like that.
"Suit yourself."
Do Yoonchae didn't refuse the introduction either — it might, after all, yield a clue for driving Lee Seonho out of the dormitory.
…Not that she had a single friend to attend class with anyway.
One of the first things I noticed walking outside with Do Yoonchae for the first time was just how spectacularly she drew other people's gazes.
Leaving the men's dormitory and walking side by side, I could feel the eyes of every passing female student swinging our way. Or rather — not at me, but at Do Yoonchae walking beside me.
'Well, he is absurdly handsome for a guy, I'll give him that.'
Technically it was because she was a woman and not a man, but with looks like those, even after the truth came out, no small number of women would probably come running declaring it was even better this way.
Still, I was fairly desensitized — I'd long since gotten used to beauties like Cha Eunju, Choi Mari, and Han Sora. The main heroines' looks all differed from one another, but the one constant was that every last one of them was gorgeous.
"Hey, you're in the Swordsmanship Department, right? A first-year this year?"
"…Yeah."
Right on cue — a first-year girl suddenly hitting on Do Yoonchae, starting from her very third morning at the academy.
I didn't know her name, so I'd just call her Extra #1. Her face looked utterly average, so she probably wasn't a conquest target.
"I'm a new Swordsmanship student this year too. We're in the same afternoon section of Understanding of Weapons — remember?"
"…I don't."
"Aww, playing shy? That's cute~."
…But what was with this Extra, popping up out of nowhere and fussing over my woman?
She was openly sidling up and courting Do Yoonchae without sparing me, standing right there, so much as a glance. Naturally, I supposed — to anyone watching, it would look like two guys walking together.
If it was only because I, looking like his friend, was attached at his side that just this one girl dared approach, then I could only imagine how many women would swarm Do Yoonchae whenever she walked around alone.
'I don't remember this happening back when she hung around Seo Woojin in the original story, though.'
…It had to be the face. Seo Woojin's personality might be pathetic, but on the outside he was undeniably handsome.
And right after enrollment — fresh off slaying the Owlbear and taking down the amusement park terrorists — would be exactly the point where his confidence was soaring and his personality actually tolerable. Thanks to that, the two of them had probably warmed up to each other quickly.
When a handsome guy and a squid-faced loser walked around together, one of them inevitably became the designated punchline. But when two handsome guys stuck together, even the boldest girl thought twice before approaching.
"You haven't eaten yet, have you? Since we ran into each other anyway, want to grab breakfast together~?"
"No, I'm fine."
"Aww, why, is it shyness? You don't have to worry about…"
"Sorry, but Yoonsung already promised to eat with me and head to class. He's clearly uncomfortable too — couldn't you take the hint and back off?"
"……Excuse me?"
Extra Girl #1 made a face of pure incredulity at my sudden intrusion.
Then, face flushing red, she closed the distance and started raising her voice at me.
"W-who even are you?! Butt out! I was talking to him!"
"I just couldn't stand by and watch my friend being bothered, that's all."
"Ha! Hilarious! You're just jealous, aren't you? Typical — a face like a squid and nothing but pride to show for it."
The Extra opened with an unprovoked personal attack, immediately going for my looks.
A living, breathing demonstration of the old truth that people insult others precisely where they feel their own inadequacy.
The squid comment didn't sting much either. After all, anyone standing next to Do Yoonchae — Seo Woojin excepted — was bound to look like a squid by comparison, man or woman.
"Anyway, you've got the face of a guy who's never so much as held a girl's hand, and your ego is somehow the size of a house. Isn't it embarrassing, groveling like that…"
With her pride clearly wounded by my rejection on Do Yoonchae's behalf, Extra Girl #1 was openly broadcasting hostility at me first thing in the morning.
And yet her mouth sealed itself, naturally and inevitably, without me lifting a finger to stop it.
"S-Seonho! Good morning…!"
Because the moment Cha Eunju spotted me from the direction of the women's dormitory, she came sprinting over, waving her arms and clutching her chest.