Chapter 53: Entrance Ceremony (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 53: Entrance Ceremony (2)
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
A sound even more jarring than my alarm clock woke me from my sleep.
“Hey, Kim Do-jin! Mom said to come down and eat with us!”
She’s got so much energy, even in the morning.
“Ughhh…”
I dragged myself out of bed and headed for the door.
Come to think of it, has it been three weeks since we last saw each other?
To be honest, even if we hadn't seen each other for three months, it would be hard to explain this body, but what can you do?
From now on, we’ll be at the same university, so I can’t avoid her anymore.
I’ll just have to make up a plausible story.
Click!
I unlocked the door and swung it open, and there was Shin Yu-jeong.
Unlike me, who had just woken up looking like a mess, she was perfectly put together from head to toe, looking pretty.
She wore a form-fitting outfit that revealed every curve of her body, covered by a loose-fitting jumper.
Even though no skin was directly exposed, she gave off a strangely seductive vibe.
Both the Ajumma and her daughter…
You really have to give it to them for their figures.
But her expression was a little strange.
She wasn’t happy to see me, nor was she angry that I’d been avoiding her.
Her eyes were wary, as if she were on guard.
Just then, her lips parted.
“…Who are you?”
“……”
In that moment, all the tension drained out of me.
So that’s why she was staring at me like that. She didn’t recognize me.
I couldn’t say I didn’t understand.
My appearance had changed that drastically.
But in times like these, I had to act as if it were no big deal.
“Who do you think? It’s me, Do-jin.”
I said it in the friendliest tone possible, as if asking why she was acting so strange.
If I just insisted like this for a little while, she was bound to recognize me.
Although the change was on a cataclysmic level, my face was still the original, just with the fat gone. If she looked closely, she’d find a few familiar features.
“You’re crazy…”
A coarse word escaped her lips as she studied my face intently.
“Did you spend the last three weeks avoiding me to go to a hospital or something?”
“What are you talking about?”
When I asked back as if I had no idea what she meant, she pounded her chest in frustration and shouted.
“I’m asking if you got full-body plastic surgery behind my back!”
It seemed that the most realistic answer her brain could come up with was plastic surgery.
But if she thought about it a little more, that was just as impossible.
“I didn’t get anything like that…”
“If you didn’t, then how are you going to explain how you look right now?”
“I mean, even if you ask me to explain, I didn’t do anything special…”
As I protested with an aggrieved look, her sharply raised eyebrows lowered slightly.
It seemed she had calmed down a bit.
“Hoo… Fine. Then tell me what you did for the past three weeks.”
“Other than just working out harder and practicing magic…”
When I shook my head, implying there was nothing more, her brow furrowed.
She looked like she wanted to keep interrogating me, but I figured it was time to use my ultimate weapon.
“Do you hate that I lost weight?”
I asked in the most innocent voice I could muster, with a slight hint of disappointment.
Just as I expected, a flicker of panic crossed her face.
I struggled to hold back a smile.
You’re not in a position to interrogate me so harshly, Yu-jeong.
If I get disappointed and turn my back on you, the whole picture you’ve painted in your head will fall apart.
“No, that’s not it! I like it, of course I do!”
Shin Yu-jeong continued, forcing a smile.
I don’t know why I find her so cute whenever she acts like this.
“But… weight is one of those things, you know? If you lose a bunch all at once, there can be side effects, and, what was it, sometimes people take stuff that others give them and end up ruining their bodies instead!”
Her rambling went on and on.
Well, I guess I’ll let her off the hook here.
“So you were worried about me.”
“Huh…? Oh, yeah, that! Worry! I was worried, you bastard! About what would happen if something went wrong with you! See?”
“That’s a relief. I thought you hated me…”
“How could I! I was just… uh, a little upset.”
Suddenly, her eyes turned predatory, and she lunged at me, throwing her arms out.
It didn’t seem like she was using her full strength, and with my current physical abilities, I could have easily dodged it, but I just let it happen.
Her outstretched arms wrapped around my neck in a headlock, pulling me into her chest.
That soft, squishy feeling I hadn’t felt in a while.
This was a good choice…
“What did I tell you? I said I’d help you with anything you need, so just ask me anytime. Did I say that or not?”
“Y-You did.”
“Then what’s with not even contacting me for three weeks?”
“Sorry… I just.”
“Just what.”
Whether it’s a person or an animal.
There are two things needed to tame something.
The carrot and the stick.
Not seeing me for three weeks was, in a way, a stick for her, so now it was time to offer a carrot.
“I wanted to surprise you.”
“What… me?”
“Yeah. I thought you’d praise me once I lost all the weight…”
The pressure on my neck gradually loosened.
I tilted my head up slightly to check her expression and saw the corners of her mouth twitching like a ripple in water.
“So you did it because you wanted me to praise you?”
“That’s right… You’re pretty much my trainer, after all.”
I had to put the brakes on a little here.
“Well… r-right. Um, a trainer.”
Her mood seemed to dip slightly, but she still seemed to be in a good state.
“Yeah, well… you did a good job, a really good job, but!”
The arm around my neck tightened again.
It wasn’t painful, just a moderate amount of pressure.
But it pressed one side of my face firmly against her chest, which I was more than okay with…
“If you ignore my calls like that, I can’t praise you. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“Just try cutting off contact like that one more time. It’ll be the end for us then, understand?”
The end of what?
Even if I did something worse, she wouldn’t be able to bring herself to say it’s over.
No, in the first place, we’re not even in a relationship that can be ended, are we?
She’s subtly manipulating the situation as if there’s something between us to end.
“Alright, I won’t do it again.”
Still, I was in a good mood, so I decided to play along.
A 1:1 ratio of carrot and stick is best. One time, I’ll do what she wants, and the next, I’ll deliberately do something she hates to tease her.
That should work, right?
“Mom said to eat together. You’re coming down, right?”
“Yeah, go on ahead. I’ll get ready and be right down.”
As I said that, she tightened her arm in the headlock slightly and spoke in a low voice.
“I’m warning you, don’t dress up too much.”
“Uh… why?”
This time, I was genuinely curious.
“It’s, you know. Guys who don’t know how to dress up properly try too hard on a special day and end up looking like a mess. It’s happened more than once or twice.”
She wasn’t entirely wrong…
But why did it sound like an excuse?
“Okay. I don’t know how to dress up anyway, so I was just going to wear something simple.”
“Right, right. Then get ready and hurry down, okay?”
“Okay.”
I finally managed to escape her embrace.
My neck felt a little sore, but I’d gotten to enjoy her chest to my heart’s content.
“My little puppy, big sis is heading down first.”
Pat, pat!
She suddenly started patting my butt like I was a dog.
But maybe it’s not so bad…?
“No, that’s not right.”
Get a grip, Kim Do-jin.
You’re the one doing the taming, not the one being tamed!
I lightly slapped my cheeks to compose my scattered thoughts, went into my room, and headed straight for the bathroom.
After a quick shower, I dried myself off and opened the closet in the corner of the room.
“So empty.”
Since I’d lost so much weight, I’d thrown out all my old clothes.
I only bought a few things I could wear for now.
I was growing by the day, so it was obvious that if I bought a lot, I wouldn’t be able to wear them in a few months anyway.
“Just look decent, that’s all.”
Like Shin Yu-jeong said, I’ve lived my life with a wall between me and fashion.
When I was Son Si-woo, I just wore whatever my manager or other people told me to wear.
But after wearing so many different things, I learned to tell what was good and what was bad.
Using that cultivated eye, I bought simple items that wouldn’t be too polarizing.
A white dress shirt and black slacks.
Seeing this simple yet classic fashion, my manager once said:
“If you have the body and face for it, it’s the pinnacle of fashion that needs nothing else.”
He probably didn’t mean it was literally the end-all, but it meant that it would look good on anyone.
Not stopping there, I picked up a small container from my desk.
It was wax, something guys often use to style their hair.
I opened the lid, scooped a little onto my finger, and ran it through my hair, lightly sweeping my bangs up and setting them in place.
In my past life as Son Si-woo, depending on whether my bangs were up or down, I was called Kkansiwu [Si-woo with his hair up] or Deopsiwu [Si-woo with his hair down].
Borrowing that term, today’s style was Kkandojin [Do-jin with his hair up].
“There.”
I was satisfied with my overall look.
Even more so than when I was Son Si-woo, draped only in luxury brands tailored to my body.
Truthfully, it was too simple to even call it styling, but there was something this body had that his didn’t.
“Youth is the best fashion.”
Today, once again, I offer my thanks to Mr. Fake Si-woo for lending me this body.
Finally, I rolled up the sleeves of my dress shirt slightly and headed for the door.
I slipped on the white sneakers I’d bought with the clothes and went straight down the stairs to the Ajumma’s apartment one floor below and rang the doorbell.
Ding-dong.
“Coming!”
The Ajumma’s familiar voice.
Click!
“Do-jin, you’re here… Oh my!”
The Ajumma, who must have been in the middle of preparing breakfast, came out to greet me wearing an apron and holding a spatula in one hand. She gasped in surprise, covering her mouth with her other hand.
“What’s wrong, Ajumma?”
“D-Do-jin, you…”
One thing was for sure.
Her current reaction was definitely not negative.
“You look so different all dressed up…”
The Ajumma’s gaze was intense as she looked me up and down.
In comics, this is usually when their pupils turn into heart shapes.
…I should really study that sometime.
“Ah! O-Oh, hurry and come in. Breakfast is almost ready.”
“Okay.”
I followed the Ajumma’s light steps into the apartment.
“Where’s Yu-jeong?”
“Hmm… I think she went into her room and hasn’t come out yet.”
Does that mean it’s just me and the Ajumma in the kitchen right now?
“Hm-hm-hmm…”
Humming a tune, clearly in a good mood, the Ajumma was busy preparing the meal. I quietly approached her from behind, reached out, and lightly squeezed her butt.
“Oh! D-Do-jin…!”
The Ajumma’s face instantly turned red.
“Ajumma, how do I look dressed up like this?”
“It… it looks good.”
“How is it good, specifically?”
“I-It was all just good. Your hair swept back, the dress shirt…”
Seeing the Ajumma become more and more honest made my affection for her skyrocket.
She focused on preparing the meal in silence, and I passed the time by kneading her butt.
Just then.
Click!
At the sound of a door opening, I immediately let go of the Ajumma and quickly sat down in a chair at the dining table.
Nice, that looked natural.
“When did you get here… wait, what’s with that outfit…”
Her face, which had been welcoming me with a happy expression, instantly crumpled.
What’s her problem all of a sudden?
With her brow deeply furrowed, she spoke to me in a harsh tone.
“Hey, didn’t I tell you to dress down?”
It seemed she didn’t like how I was dressed.
“You don’t like it?”
“I do like it… no, I don’t!”
So which is it, you like it or you don’t?
“Haaa…”
Shin Yu-jeong suddenly let out a deep sigh.
Just then, a savior appeared.
“Do-jin looks great. What’s wrong with you?”
Ajumma…!
“No, that’s the problem!”
“Why is it a problem that Do-jin is dressed nicely?”
“It’s… anyway, there’s a reason!”
“Oh my, this child. She always gets annoyed when she runs out of things to say.”
“That’s not true!”
“Alright, alright, just hurry up and sit down. Breakfast is ready.”
Shin Yu-jeong stomped over with palpable irritation and sat down across from me.
All sorts of side dishes began to fill the table.
They were things we ate often, but the sheer number of them was different.
And on top of that, there was kimchi stew loaded with meat.
After finishing the preparations, the Ajumma sat down next to me.
“Alright, let’s eat.”
“Thank you for the meal.”
As soon as the Ajumma picked up her spoon, I followed suit.
I was about to take a spoonful of kimchi stew when—
“Ah.”
My white dress shirt was on my mind.
No matter how carefully I ate, the moment a single drop splattered, this whole look would be ruined.
“Oh, right.”
Just then, the Ajumma suddenly untied the apron she was wearing and put it around my neck.
“We can’t have red soup splashing on Do-jin’s white shirt.”
She then wrapped her arms around my waist and tied the strings in a knot behind me.
“There, all better now, right?”
The Ajumma smiled benevolently.
Is this what they call an act befitting a main wife…?