Side Story – My Friend's Girlfriend Is a Monster (2)

I got home, locked the door behind me, and burrowed under my blanket, sinking into a swamp of spiraling thoughts.

The police?

A government agency?

The internet?

Who on earth was I supposed to tell about that scene I'd just witnessed—something that felt like a dream and yet warped reality itself?

My head, refusing to stop churning, clawed desperately for a lifeline, and like a single ray of light, I grabbed my phone and started digging into what I'd seen from every angle I could think of.

The kind of nonsense that should only exist in webtoons, movies, or anime didn't feel distant at all anymore.

"Shiiiiit… seriously? Seriously?!"

Still trembling under the blanket, I cautiously peeked toward the door on the off chance of something.

What greeted me was… a silence so complete it was terrifying.

In the dark air of late night, something unnamed and unknown seemed to slither and coil its way up from below.

Look, I may be a foul-mouthed bastard who curses worse than anyone alive, but I wasn't a lunatic who couldn't tell dreams from reality.

It wasn't a hallucination I'd imagined, or a dream, or some hidden-camera prank.

It was undeniable reality—I could feel it down to the current of air moving across my skin.

Gulp.

I swallowed hard, and in my search for the clearest way to resolve this chaos and doubt, one answer surfaced: step out of my room and go knock on the door of the girl next door.

The instant that thought formed, the left side of my brain—the seat of reason—fired off a signal to the right telling it to stop spouting idiotic ideas and shut its mouth, and the debate inside my skull came to an abrupt end.

And then.

I fell asleep.

My head, soaked through with fear and dread, couldn't outlast the exhaustion, and my brain ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shut itself down before I even noticed.

Too oblivious to grasp how dangerous my situation was, I'd drifted off—and woken to the shrill ringing of the doorbell.

And then…

"…Shiiiit――shiiiit…"

The moment I saw the girl standing outside through the peephole, the right side of my brain—which had been forcibly muted last night on the left's orders—threw a full-blown seizure.

With the right side knocked completely offline, the left was forced to handle everything by itself, and for once it arrived at a perfectly rational conclusion.

Shut up and stay quiet.

"Hah."

I pressed myself lightly against the door, clapped a hand over my mouth, and pretended no one was home.

What I'd seen through the peephole moments ago was, unlike the bizarre sight from last night, a perfectly ordinary young woman.

Even that irritable, rude expression and tone of voice she seemed to reserve just for me was the same as ever.

It was a gentle, sane version of her—as if to say, believe that everything from yesterday was a lie, that it was all just a dream.

For one brief, fleeting moment, I even entertained a comforting thought: maybe it really was a hidden-camera show, and a broadcast station staffer had come by to explain everything.

…As if that were possible.

That.

All of it, fake? Made up?

Bullshit.

"I know everything. I have things to say to you, so open the door."

A scream nearly burst out of me at the voice from the other side, and I barely smothered it with both hands pressed over my mouth.

For a while the knocking and the doorbell kept coming, over and over, like the knock of a grim reaper—and then they stopped.

…Did she leave?

The thought lasted exactly until I heard the screeeeech of my own balcony's sliding door sliding open, and it corrected itself immediately.

"Y-you, Mira—"

Watching the girl slip silently into my room barefoot through the balcony of the adjoining unit, I went white as a sheet.

Scrambling across the floor and snatching up the most threatening weapon in my kitchen—the carving knife—was the single best decision of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my life.

"F-fuck! G-get back!!"

"Wh-what are you doing right now!?"

When I brandished the knife at her, the girl shrieked with a face full of terror.

But something about it felt off, and instinctively I caught a contradiction.

Her face was clearly terrified—but her body wasn't backing away.

"I—I saw everything! You got eaten by that freaky monster yesterday!"

"No, what are you even—"

"BACK OFF!"

Waving the knife to keep her at bay, I carefully retreated toward the front door, about to make my escape—

"Wha!?"

Thwap… tap.

Something lashed out and struck my wrist, and the knife tumbled limply from my hand and clattered to the floor.

"…Huh?"

Only then did I realize it: a pale pink tentacle had sprung from the girl's—no, the monster's—shoulder and whipped my wrist like a whip.

Disarmed in the blink of an eye, I stood frozen, my pupils trembling as my gaze darted between the fallen knife and that grotesque tentacle that belonged to nothing in this world.

"So you did see it."

The corners of the monster's eyes flushed reptile-red, and its mouth split into a grin so wide it looked like it might tear.

When the mask of human form slipped away and I came face to face with the true occupant beneath, real fear began to eat into me.

"A-uh, ah—"

Thud.

My legs gave out and I crumpled to the floor. In the darkness of the unlit room, a predator's eyes gleamed down at me, narrowing ever so slightly.

"Mmmm~ Yes, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I see… Hey, uh, can you calm down for a sec so we can talk?"

She wants to talk? If I can reach her emotionally, maybe there's a chance—

YOU IDIOT! You're taking that at face value?! Fight! Or RUN!

Shut the hell up, both of you, you bastards!

In the middle of this emergency, as I tried to rein in my warring brain halves, the monster suddenly furrowed its brow and began sniffing the air.

"Sniff, sniff… Ah, oppa… you jack off a lot at home, huh? You don't even notice, do you? The whole room reeks of it. Well, I guess you wouldn't. Se… se… semen, ah, yes, semen. The stuff you shoot inside a human woman's genitals."

Words no woman should ever say came spilling out of her mouth, and I had no idea how to respond.

"Oppa, a few days ago you jerked off with my panties, didn't you?"

"H-how… did you…?"

Even in the middle of all this, that small flicker of hope was crushed mercilessly by the monster's next words.

Tap, tap.

"It was in the memories of that human woman I ate. So—did you really steal my panties and do it?"

The monster tapped its own temple with its index finger and grinned.

Hearing her call the panties of the girl she used to be mine—it made me feel as though she'd stolen not just the exterior, but the entire existence: the personality and memories inside it too.

For a long moment I opened and closed my mouth, hunting for the right words, and then my brain—stuck in a total system failure—blurted out the unfiltered, honest truth.

"Ah, uh… they… they were just… on the… b-balcony…"

"Ohhh~ Then you should've just told me honestly. I wouldn't have been so annoyed about it."

The monster waved a hand dismissively, casually rewriting her own past to match the present.

At that indescribable horror—the horror of a being that devours existence itself—my face twisted, and I felt like I might burst into tears of terror at any moment.

"You… what the hell are you… WHAT are you!?"

"Don't be so loud, other humans will come. As for that question, I'll answer it."

Astonishingly, the monster dragged over a nearby chair and, taking her time, willingly and patiently explained what she was.

Even so, it was all fragmentary pieces, and she didn't seem to be lying.

Putting together what I heard… the girl was dead. Killed by the monster.

Her brain had been eaten, and through it the monster had absorbed her memories and personality as its own, then claimed the body her dead brain had left behind.

And the monster said that from now on, in order to survive—to put it bluntly, to fill her belly—she would have to eat humans.

"But I haven't been in this world very long, so honestly… I'm really weak. In human terms I'm not even elementary-school age yet? They say Pawn is the lowest rank and even Pawns count as adults—so I don't even measure up to that."

Pawn?

It was gibberish to me, but all I could do was sit there and listen in silence.

"Among the humans, there's a crowd trying to hunt us down, and they're out there baring their teeth. Someone weak like me could be killed by them in an instant. I don't have any special abilities, my strength is pathetic, and it even takes me time to swap bodies—so if they catch me, I'm dead on the spot. Even before that, just eating a human without leaving a trace behind is hard for me… Phew."

Resting her chin on her hand in an eerily human gesture, the monster sighed and poured out her troubles—then tilted her head slightly and looked at me.

"So I want you to help me, oppa."

"…What?"

Was I in my twenties and already going deaf?

"When I hunt and eat humans—help me out. I need a collaborator who knows what I am and is willing to work with me."

Something really must be wrong with my ears… dear God.

The left side of my brain, jolted awake, fired off the critical question.

"And if I… don't help?"

"Then I have to kill you."

With a lovely woman's face, the monster smiled sweetly and mentioned murder as casually as commenting on the weather.

"Th-then I've got no choice but to help, don't I!?"

"That's a weird way to look at it, though… dying is an option too, isn't it? Why do you humans always talk like your free will isn't even your own?"

Hyun-ok. My one and only friend, Hyun-ok… if you were asked a question this damn twisted, what would you say?

Obviously, the answer was already decided.

"…Fine. I'll help."

Feigning reluctance, I answered for the sake of survival—and the monster's eyes narrowed again, as if peering straight into my soul.

"Mmmmm~ But… I'm having a little trouble trusting you? What if you say that now and then betray me or run away later…"

"Then what do you want me to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠do? You're the one who asked me in the first place."

"True… hmmm."

The monster stroked her chin, thinking something over deeply—then lit up like she'd had a brilliant idea and clapped her hands.

"Then how about this, oppa? I'll let you put it in this woman's… genitals. Her pussy, in other words. As much as you want. Anytime. Anywhere."

"…What?"

Whether I was flustered or not, the monster giggled, utterly delighted with her own clever idea.

For all her college-student appearance, in that moment she looked as young as she'd claimed—as childish as the age she'd confessed to.

"I'm offering you payment. The price for helping me. A guy like you—unpopular, ugly—could never in his whole life dream of getting inside a pretty woman like me. You know that, right?"

Laughably, it was hard to argue with—and just as hard to refuse, an undeniably tempting offer.

As long as you set aside the whole part about helping her kill people.

"I'll let you do whatever you want with this body. Until you're so addicted to it you could never betray me."

With one hand, the monster put on a show of kneading her full, generous chest, and with the other she slid her palm between her thighs, rubbing slow circles as she played the seductress.

"Haa… So what do you say, oppa? And if you want… later, I can even transfer into some other woman's body—the one you choose—and let you have her however you like, too. Isn't that an attractive offer for a human man?"

Face flushed, breathing out a sultry heat, the monster whispered sticky-sweet into my ear and grinned at me.

Astonishingly, I could not refuse that devil's bargain—a pledge to abandon my humanity and swear myself to pleasure.