This is a Boss?! # 9
This is a Boss?! # 9
Truth be told, even as I was laying down the law, I was so confused I wanted to scream.
A creature claiming to be Si-hoo.
I could just ignore it, but some tiny part of me couldn't shake the thought that she might be the real Si-hoo, so I knew I had to confirm it here and now.
And if she wasn't... I also felt an obligation to tell the truth to this slime monster that had copied Si-hoo's personality and memories. What could possibly be more important than that?
This was critical.
The verification process to prove Si-hoo's identity. If I walked away without settling it, I'd spend the rest of my life in doubt. Whatever the case, there was less than a ten percent chance she was real. There was nearly a ninety percent probability this guy was a slime monster.
"Begin!"
I glared at Slahu, my eyes wide, cutting off any possibility of cheating.
"Ugh...! Fine!"
Slahu reacted like a real girl, face flushing as she yelled in irritation. At a glance, she really did look like a girl.
But then again, didn't Si-hoo give off that vibe too?
Still trying to trick me!
"Fine! I'll do it! I'll just do it, okay! But when it turns out I'm the real Lee Si-hoo, you are dead, Geun-cheol! Dead!"
"If my death is all it takes to prove a friend's identity, I'll die as many times as I have to! That's the kind of man I am!"
"Gahk! Stop playing up your beautiful friendship like that, Geun-cheol!"
"Go!"
"Fine!"
And so.
—fwip!
Slahu undid the bindings wrapped around her chest.
What emerged was a genuinely voluptuous bosom. A truly incredible ability, absurdly impressive. To replicate a woman's breasts that perfectly?
I was getting mesmerized.
"This is too painful...!"
No!
That was definitely a pair of breasts attached to Si-hoo! Sure, I'd thought she looked a bit feminine! But even so, Si-hoo was a guy!
My friend had breasts!
Still too hard to accept!
"Wh-what are you staring at...!"
The bosom-bearing Slahu muttered as she fumbled with the bandages. Her eyes were swimming with chaos, practically spinning in circles. And then, to top it off, I was looking at her face, flushed as she was steeped in shame.
The undeniable thought hit me: she looked like a woman.
—fidget.
And then, something astonishing happened.
"Uh? Huh? Wha?"
—squeeze!
—clench!
Slahu wound the bandages around her breasts, then pulled them insanely tight! Her huge breasts began to compress with remarkable efficiency!
They can... compress?
I could only stare blankly at the sight. Those soft breasts were compressed and bound until they flattened into nothingness. Once she'd finished compressing them with the bandages, Slahu pulled her coat over the top.
Ta-da.
The breasts were perfectly hidden.
"Now."
She... kept her head down.
"Are we done now?"
—tremble tremble.
She said it in an utterly cold voice, trembling all over... Why? Why was I feeling such fear right now? An incomprehensible terror washed over me.
—flinch.
Could it be... was the person in front of me really my friend Lee Si-hoo?
"N-no, this is..."
"Geun-cheol. You got something to say?"
Her voice was still ice cold.
"I hope it's not a topic about my breasts."
"W-well... you see..."
I'd never imagined this level of compression was possible. The thought briefly crossed my mind that maybe her chest could have a different elasticity because she was a slime.
But I realized it instinctively.
That this being before my eyes.
Was my friend Lee Si-hoo.
"You believe me now, right? That I'm your friend Lee Si-hoo. You said you'd believe me if I showed you directly. It'd be kinda messed up if you tried to backtrack now."
"I-I have no choice but to believe... Are you... really Si-hoo...?"
—chatter chatter.
My teeth were chattering even though I don't have dentures.
—wobble wobble.
My legs wouldn't stop shaking. What was I even supposed to say here? It felt like I was staring down some ridiculous boss monster.
"Can't you tell by looking?"
An ice-cold remark.
"Of course I can't tell by looking, you bastard!"
"Excuse me?"
I decided to be brave!
"You son of a bitch! You were actually a girl?! You were hiding your gender?!"
"What about it?"
"I'm feeling betrayed too, you know! You just showed me your... your breasts because I told you to! You look furious, but I'm also furious, man! It's your fault for hiding your gender in the first place! And now you're blaming me!"
"What the hell?!"
Si-hoo stomped right up to me!
Of course, I was also pissed off! This bastard was actually a girl! She'd been hiding it while hanging out with me this whole time!
"I'm so damn shocked and thrown-off, I can't take it, you piece of shit! You were actually a girl! This is extreme shock, an inhuman level of trauma!!!"
"Th-that's!"
The moment I pointed that out, heat returned to Si-hoo's cold voice. Cold rage, shifting to hot rage. And that hot rage transformed into confusion, not knowing where to direct itself!
Good!
I gotta work this out!
"So, Si-hoo!"
"Huh?"
"I thought you were a guy too, so let's just call it even!"
We both screwed up, so we can just bury it here!
—thump-thump, thump-thump!
My heart was pounding like it was going to burst. If I couldn't resolve this properly, I had no idea how it would end! I had to smooth this over, no matter what!
"Y-you think a ridiculous excuse like that's gonna fly?! After you saw my breasts like that!"
"I said I thought you were a guy!"
"How the hell do you see that and think I'm a guy?! You idiot!"
"Before that, I thought you were a slime, jackass! The thought that you might be a girl never once crossed my mind!"
"Th-this bastard...! It never crossed your mind?!"
Why was she so hung up on that part?
—crackle!
Si-hoo glared at me.
No, but seriously.
"Holy shit...!"
Lee Si-hoo—the real, female Lee Si-hoo—was glaring at me.
Normally, this would be the time for a joke like, "What's this bastard's deal?" or "Wanna start something?", but now that I knew she was a girl... didn't it seem way too natural?
That's right.
Now that I knew she was a girl, it was so natural. Honestly, I'd thought she gave off a real girly vibe at the very start of the semester.
That question had been answered here.
Wait a second. If she really was a girl... didn't those big breasts look pretty damn good on her? Up until a moment ago, I'd found the image of breasts attached to a same-sex friend to be viscerally repulsive, but now that I knew she was a woman and thought back on it, I had to admit they were fairly impressive.
If I had to describe it, it was like rereading a mystery novel already knowing the killer, so you can scrutinize their every word and action and go, Ah, so that's what made this bastard the killer.
"Whatever the case, you—you're dead, Geun-cheol!"
"Calm down!"
At this rate, forget who was right and wrong, Si-hoo was literally going to beat me to death!
"First, calm down! Let's head back to the dorm! We can talk there! I've got a ton of things I want to hear from you right now, Si-hoo!"
"Talk? I'm the one who needs to talk! I'll have to tell you everything that happened, from beginning to end!"
"You're the one who needs to explain first, dammit!"
"Fine! Once it's all over, I'll listen to your story too, Geun-cheol!"
"Deal! You bastard! Let's go back to the dorm and settle this!"
"Prepare yourself!"
And so, Si-hoo and I agreed to head back to the dorm and finish this.
* * *
But.
"..."
"..."
It was awkward.
"..."
Awkward as all hell.
I mean, just before we got on the train, we'd been snorting and huffing, muttering all kinds of things and blaming each other. But that gradually died down... and finally, we had no choice but to avoid each other's eyes and shut our mouths.
No... I mean, seriously, what could I do? The girl thing was a shock, and I'd gotten a real good look at her chest. Once I cooled my head a bit and processed that, it was just too damn embarrassing.
"..."
"..."
Both Si-hoo and I... were just really fucking embarrassed.
So, the earlier angry agreement to hash things out was completely forgotten. We were just sitting across the table from each other, silently sipping coffee.
—sip.
But I couldn't just stay like this forever.
—waaah.
My back wasn't just hot; sweat was shooting down my spine. My face was heating up to the point of itching. At this rate, I was going to spontaneously combust from sheer embarrassment.
As a man.
Yeah, as the man here, I should be the one to speak first.
"S-so, Si-hoo."
"..."
This bastard wasn't saying anything.
She was just sitting there with her head down, sipping her coffee.
"First off, I'm sorry... I was just really suspicious, and I wanted to confirm for sure, so I did that. That's what that was..."
As soon as I broke the ice,
"Geun-cheol."
She answered, in a bit of a calmer tone.
"Yeah?"
"I was, you know. I was secretly following you because... I was worried you'd get caught up in something strange... and end up in danger. Your whole vibe was off since yesterday. I thought you might be getting blackmailed by that monsterkin. That's what I was thinking."
"...!"
Felt that one like a knife in the gut, fuck!
She'd tailed me purely for my own sake, and then saved me in a crisis! And I had the nerve to suspect her!
"I'm really sorry! I didn't know it was like that...! I genuinely couldn't imagine you were actually a girl because of that Doppelganger Slime I saw back then! So I couldn't believe it, and that's why I did that!"
That was my honest feeling.
"Put yourself in my shoes. If I suddenly said I was a girl... you wouldn't believe it, right? It's like that. And I seriously thought that slime might have copied your personality or memories."
"..."
"Anyway, so... if it had my friend's memories and personality. I figured I should at least let it know the truth properly... It was a sort of consideration..."
Ah.
Seriously.
My back was burning, and I was so humiliated I kept tripping over my own words.
—sip.
I lowered my head and took a sip of my own coffee.
I seriously felt like I might die.
How the hell do I fix this? Honestly, I was still struggling to accept that Si-hoo was a girl. I understood the fact that she'd always been a girl, but... I was genuinely confused.
Still, I needed to pull myself together.
"Si-"
The moment I tried to say something.
"Geun-cheol."
Si-hoo looked straight at me and spoke.