Choosing the Superpower Pill
Blue Pill (Teleportation): Instant teleportation anywhere you want
Red Pill (Immortality): Never get sick and live forever with eternal youth
Green Pill (Invisibility): Become invisible at will
Yellow Pill (Passive Income): Automatically deposits 2,000,000 KRW into your account every month
Purple Pill (Mind Reading): Able to read other people’s minds
Pink Pill (Sexual Attraction): Sexual appeal increases, gaining favor from the opposite sex
“Ugh……”
While reading the comments attached to a community post, I muttered to myself.
“What kind of people actually take this stuff seriously… They really must have nothing better to do.”
As I scrolled further down, a few overly invested users had already started a full-blown keyboard war. Comments spawning more comments in an endless chain—it was their own little league. Just another peaceful day in the gallery.
“Came here because it was a best post, but… only managed to waste my eyes.”
I scrolled back up to the top. There was a picture of the pills along with a description of the superpower each one granted.
“…Hmm?”
Just as I was about to hit the back button, one pill in particular caught my eye.
Pink Pill (Sexual Attraction): Sexual appeal increases, gaining favor from the opposite sex
“Hmm……”
I lifted my cursor off the back button and fell into thought.
“What does sexual appeal even mean, specifically?”
Face? Body? Voice? Aura? There were all kinds of elements that made someone likable to the opposite sex, yet the post didn’t specify which one would actually increase.
“They really phoned this one in.”
Honestly, the same could be said for the other abilities. It was obviously made as a joke, so analyzing it was stupid…
“Still……”
Out of all of them, the Pink Pill was the one that pulled at me the most. Gaining favor from the opposite sex. It was something I had never experienced in my entire life and probably never would. Just once, I wanted to know what that felt like.
My name is Lee Hojin. I’m twenty years old. Ever since I was young, my ugly face, short height, and acne-covered skin had made me a constant target for ridicule. Thanks to that, my school years had been nothing but darkness. When I entered university last spring and scattered away from my old classmates, the teasing finally stopped… but my appearance was still repulsive, and no one ever approached me first.
I kept failing job interviews until I barely managed to land a part-time position at the nearby convenience store that was urgently hiring. If I hadn’t gotten even that, I would’ve been worrying about next month’s living expenses already. Even though the bullying had disappeared, my looks remained the biggest obstacle in my life.
If handsome people lived life on easy mode, I was stuck on what people called hell mode.
But……
“This could change my shitty life?”
My eyes were already completely glued to the pink pill. I had no idea how exactly the sexual appeal would increase. But if it truly guaranteed favor from the opposite sex, my life would definitely become better than it was now.
I wasn’t hoping to become a breathtakingly handsome man. Just enough to live a normal life like everyone else would be plenty. A life where I could meet people normally and they would treat me normally in return.
“……”
Before I knew it, my hand was already on the keyboard.
“……Sigh.”
After typing it out, reality hit me like a truck. When I came to my senses, I realized I had gotten overly invested too.
“It’s not like writing it here will change anything.”
Feeling pathetic for having entertained the fantasy even for a second, I deleted everything I had written, typed exactly six characters, and hit upload.
“It’s all just delusion anyway.”
I turned off the computer and lay down on my bed. Once again, the ceiling of my shabby studio was the last thing I saw before falling asleep. Waiting for another day that would change nothing, I drifted off.
That night, I had a strange dream. I was falling from an incredibly high cliff for what felt like forever. A dream of endlessly plummeting through a pitch-black abyss where even the ground was invisible.
“Ugh……”
Thanks to that, my whole body felt stiff when I woke up. People say falling dreams mean you’re growing taller, but that didn’t apply to me—my growth plates had closed long ago. What the hell was that about?
“Haaam……”
The clock read 7:53 a.m. I was seconds away from being late for my convenience store shift. On days without classes I usually worked the morning shift, but because of that weird dream I had woken up later than usual and didn’t even have time to wash my face.
“…Huh?”
When I got out of bed to hurry and get ready, my field of vision seemed higher than normal. What was that about? Was I still half-asleep? Or… had the falling dream somehow given me a placebo effect despite my closed growth plates?
Feeling strange, I picked up the clothes that had fallen on the floor and threw them on. I drank a glass of water, ran my fingers through my hair, slipped on my shoes, and left the officetel.
The place I lived in was an old officetel with an elevator. Since it was a high floor, taking the stairs took forever, so I usually waited for the elevator.
“……”
A woman was already waiting in front of the elevator. I kept a polite distance and browsed the gallery on my phone.
“…?”
But I kept feeling her eyes on me. When I turned my head, she was looking in my direction.
“Ah……”
She quickly looked away and pretended to be interested in something else.
…What was that?
A moment later the elevator arrived and we both got on. There was no one else inside, and we waited in awkward silence for it to reach the first floor.
“……”
Yet I could still feel her stealing glances at me.
…Seriously, what is it?
Did I have something on my face? There was no mirror in the elevator, so I had no way to check.
“Um……”
The woman hesitated, then spoke.
“…When did you move in?”
“Sorry?”
She seemed shy, unable to meet my eyes properly as she fidgeted. I thought it was strange—having a woman speak to me first inside an elevator—but answered politely.
“I moved in a month ago.”
“Ah… I see……”
She smiled with her eyes and tucked her hair behind her ear. She looked oddly happy.
What the…? A woman smiling at me? Weird things really do happen.
The elevator finally reached the first floor and the doors opened.
“H-have a nice day.”
She greeted me as she left, so I gave a slightly dazed bow in return. She walked away quickly, as if embarrassed.
What on earth was that about?
“Oh right, this isn’t the time……”
I hurried out of the officetel and headed toward the convenience store. I stopped at the crosswalk by the intersection and waited for the light to change. There were more cars than usual today, so the signal was taking forever.
This… I might actually be late. Getting written up for tardiness and possibly fired would be a problem……
“Excuse me……”
Right then, a woman beside me suddenly spoke up.
“By any chance……”
She held out her phone with a shy smile. I looked back and forth between her face and the phone, then instinctively understood.
Ah, right. I do have a face that looks like an easy mark.
With my ugly, gullible-looking appearance, I was often the main target for scammers and cult recruiters. They’d ask for directions on a map, start with “You have such a kind face,” shower me with compliments, and slowly steer the conversation toward their agenda. I had fallen for it so many times that I no longer got caught.
I turned my head and said firmly, “I’m not interested.”
“Huh…? No, that’s not……”
The light changed just in time, so I quickly crossed the street. I thought I heard her calling from behind, but I ignored it.
“Hmm……”
That was strange, though. Normally I wouldn’t have been able to refuse so decisively. And back in the elevator too—I didn’t feel nervous at all even though a woman was right in front of me. Between the dream and this weird morning, today was turning out to be pretty bizarre……
While thinking about all that, I arrived at the convenience store. The current time was 7:59 a.m. I had really cut it close.
I opened the door and stepped inside. The female worker from the previous shift had her face buried in her phone and said in a bored voice, “Welcome.”
Without a word, I grabbed my staff vest, put it on, opened the counter partition, and stepped behind it. Only then did she look up—and she jumped in surprise.
“……Wh-who are you?”
“Sorry?”
“O-only employees are allowed b-back here……”
“……I am the employee.”
“Huh…?”
What? Why doesn’t she recognize me? We’ve been working together for a whole month and she already forgot my face? Well, if my looks were so catastrophically ugly that she wanted to erase them from her memory, I guess I couldn’t blame her… but still, coworkers should at least recognize each other, right?
I sighed and said, “……I’m Lee Hojin.”
“H-Hojin…?”
She was staring at my face so hard it felt like her eyes would bore holes through me. Why was she acting like this too?
“Did you… by any chance……”
She touched her own face as she asked me,
“get plastic surgery?”
……
“Sorry?”
That was when I finally realized something was seriously off. The higher field of vision. The noticeably deeper voice. And…… the way women were reacting to me.
In my head, the image of the pink pill I had seen in the gallery yesterday floated up.
Sexual appeal increases, gaining favor from the opposite sex
No way……
I rushed to the bathroom in a panic. The moment I stepped inside and looked in the mirror, I froze on the spot.
Inside the mirror stood an incredibly handsome man with a shocked expression on his face.
“!?”
I slowly approached the mirror. The handsome man approached too. I pinched my cheek. He pinched his too. I gave a crooked smile. He gave a crooked smile back.
“……”
I stepped back from the mirror and touched my face. It was my face. My body.
“……Haha.”
Laughter spilled out of me. I couldn’t stop the corners of my mouth from twitching upward. The superpower pill selection post I had seen in the gallery yesterday had been real—at least for me.
The incredibly handsome man in the mirror… No. I, Lee Hojin, had become an alpha male with sharp, strong lines, as if drawn by an artist.
“This… is me?”