Alone with Si-hoo # 4
Alone with Si-hoo # 4
"Whoa!"
It was a spectacular sight.
The Suit-Lancer, who had leaped straight up, kicked off the empty air and shot forward like an arrow.
—FWOOM!
Demonic-tinged blue mana streamed from that lance, enough to give anyone the chills. Is that what a field-active hero looks like?
The outcome was a given.
"Keeeeeeeee!"
The moth monster, the size of a mid-size car, was skewered in a single blow. Taking that as the signal, Si-hoo, who had been fighting hard, started retreating. Then, spotting me, he charged over at a terrifying pace.
"Hey! Si-hoo!"
"No! Geun-cheolaaaaaaa!"
"Oh boy."
"I told you to run! Why are you still here?! I said you could get hurt!!!"
Enraged, Si-hoo jabbed a finger into my chest and yelled.
"Hey, hey. Calm down, man."
"How can I calm down?! Geun-cheol, you could've died!"
"I didn't die, I'm fine. Besides, I came up here after killing an F-rank monster to assess the situation. Relax. What am I, a kid? Do you think I'd just stand around and let myself get killed?"
"That's not the point...! Huff! Anyway, Geun-cheol! Be careful! Untrained people can die easily!"
"Yeah, yeah. I value my own life too, so chill out a bit. Okay?"
Of course I have to be careful. I reassured him with that implication, and Si-hoo looked at me and sighed. What a worrywart.
"So, Geun-cheol. Did you say you killed a monster?"
"Yeah! I'm telling you, I killed one! It was seriously awesome! A performance worthy of a hero!"
"Just stop lying...!"
"I'm not lying. Actually, I picked out an isolated one and killed it. More importantly, listen, Si-hoo. I think I might have reached the realm of Sword Aura."
"Sword... what?"
Si-hoo tilted his head.
"I can use sword aura. I killed it with that."
"Geun-cheol can use sword aura?! No way! You liar, Kim Geun-cheol!"
"No! It's true!"
Visibly shocked, Si-hoo shouted out in disbelief!
"Okay! Then show me!"
"Right now...! I'm out of mana, no can do! Next time!"
"This is suspicious. Frail little Geun-cheol would need at least another month of practice to project sword aura."
"Oh, so you've been betrayed your whole life?! You can't trust your own friend! You wanna bet a meal ticket on it? Huh?"
I grabbed Si-hoo's shoulders and shook him to deliver immediate justice!
"Ah! Okay, okay! I'll believe you! It was a joke, just a joke! Hah! Ahahah! Aaah! Stop grabbing my shoulders!"
So, chit-chatting with Si-hoo like that on the rooftop, we watched the hero totally wreck the monsters.
A truly overwhelming display of skill.
"Haa... Geun-cheol. I think that person is 'Lancer.'"
"Lancer?"
"It's an alias."
Why pick an alias that's such a death flag.
"A hero who wears a Hyper Suit and uses a cavalry lance. He's pretty famous."
"Oho... Is that so."
I'll have to look him up later.
"Anyway, Geun-cheol. The soldiers and heroes are both here now, so it's fine. Let's head back."
"No, wait! Si-hoo! Shit, that thing!"
That girl from earlier!
"I saw a girl earlier...!"
"What? A girl?"
I quickly explained to Si-hoo what had just happened. About the blonde girl who suddenly appeared, and how she vanished while I was trying to rescue her.
"What do you mean... How could a girl be walking around by herself with monsters showing up..."
"Really weird, right?"
She was strange no matter how I looked at it.
Blonde hair and red eyes.
"And on top of that, you said she just disappeared."
"Hmm. That is definitely strange. Just vanishing all of a sudden. Ah. Geun-cheol, are you sure you weren't caught in an illusion or something?"
"No. It wasn't like that. I'd know if it was an illusion."
"True. If it was an illusion, I'd have heard you scream, too."
"What?!"
"No, no! Anyway! If she suddenly vanished, she might be Awakened. Kids can Awaken too, you know."
Is that so.
"Yeah, that's a possibility. Anyway, Si-hoo. Still, I'm a bit uneasy, so let's look around for a bit. A kid wandering around a battlefield—we should rescue her."
"Ooh, Geun-cheol. Aren't you being super righteous?"
"It's just what you do."
"Right! If a child is isolated, of course we have to save her! It's a bit suspicious, but let's look together, Geun-cheol!"
—Beam!
Si-hoo said that, flashing a really refreshing smile. See, he's got a great personality. I never doubted that Si-hoo would help out in rescuing a civilian girl.
"Let's go-go!"
"Geun-cheol. That sounds so boomer-ish."
"Then, whiz-bang?"
"That's the same thing!"
Man, high schoolers these days are so damn picky.
Anyway, Si-hoo and I jumped across the rooftops and searched the area. If I can't find her, I'll be so anxious I won't be able to rest.
"Geun-cheol. Don't worry too much. The soldiers have all arrived now, right? The F-rank monsters should've all been cleaned up by now."
"I hope so... But wow, the soldiers looked pretty reliable."
They were armored infantry in powered suits. Against Sorez, which are vulnerable to modern firearms, they'd be turned into Swiss cheese in seconds.
"How do they use those jetpacks?"
"They're Defense Force mobile infantry. Their job is usually to use jetpacks to get onto rooftops, set up anti-tank weapons, handle machine guns, and then support the regular infantry."
"Perfect."
So, we kept searching like that.
"Haa."
Si-hoo sighed.
"But what is this."
"What."
"A gate, when we finally went out to hang out together. Talk about bad luck."
"Why worry about something like that? We can just go out again next week."
"Huh?! Next week?!"
Why so surprised?
"Ah! Right! We still have time next week!"
"Yeah. Let's go out again then. We still have more places to scout, anyway."
"Hehehe! Then let's do that!"
And like that, Si-hoo and I kept looking for that blonde girl. But nothing came of it. Even though we kept searching, we couldn't find a single trace.
And as we did, the sun started to set.
Not only that.
"Ah, over there! Cadets!"
A soldier wearing a second lieutenant's insignia came over and called out to us.
"Yes? What is it?"
"You're the cadets who fought alongside us! Can I talk to you for a moment?"
I glanced at Si-hoo's face.
"Let's go, Geun-cheol. In these situations, you just need to give a simple account of what happened."
"Oh. Really? Then I guess we tell them that and leave the search to the soldiers."
"Yeah... I guess we should? It's getting late."
We still hadn't found her.
Time was getting late, and once it's night it's hard to search anyway, so let's just pass the buck to the soldiers. I was worried, but they'd probably search better than us.
After giving our statements to the soldiers and leaving, night had completely fallen.
"Haa, it's already dark."
"Tell me about it."
I'd planned on shooting some pool and eating Chinese food with Si-hoo while we were out, but we ran out of time.
"And I wanted to play some pool, but it's already night. Let's hit the pool hall next time. If we're late, we'll get demerits from the dorm supervisor."
"Yeah. Oh, a pool hall... I'm looking forward to it. It'll be my first time."
"Man, you're like a guy who's doing everything for the first time. Ah. Right, Si-hoo."
Should I make my move here?
"You worked up a sweat fighting, right?"
"Hmm...? Ah, no?!"
—Flush!
Si-hoo's face turned red.
"Geun-cheol's going to ask to go to the baths again, isn't he!"
"They're in the dorm, anyway."
"N-No! I won't go! How can I go there!"
"Why can't you?"
"Well, that's...!"
"Si-hoo."
I looked him right in the eyes as I spoke.
"I've said it before, even if you've got something you're dealing with... you don't need to sweat the small stuff in front of me. We're friends."
"That's why...!"
"You don't need to worry about trivial things in front of me. Haven't we already moved past being friends into being the 'Real Men Crew'?"
"Real Men Crew?!"
That's right.
Si-hoo and I are already soul-brothers, spiritually connected.
"You and I are already connected by soul. What did we do today? We fought monsters together, right? That makes us comrades-in-arms. Comrades. Literally a double-shot of real manliness."
"Ugh, uugh...!"
At the words 'real man,' Si-hoo looked embarrassed and hung his head. For Si-hoo, who has a complex about his feminine appearance, the term 'real man' must be the highest praise.
"So, shall we go hit the baths together?"
"So that was your whole setup! Ah, anyway, no! Geun-cheol, go to the bathhouse by yourself!"
"Shit, emotional damage."
"A real man shouldn't take damage from something like that...!"
"Oh. True."
Well then.
Let's head back.
Today's Operation Drag-Him-to-the-Baths is a failure.
* * *
Back in the dormitory, Lee Si-hoo let out a sigh and took off her clothes.
"Haa."
She sighed, but a smile still lingered on her lips.
Today was the first time she'd gone out into the streets with a friend and had fun so freely. It was such an enjoyable day that just thinking back on the memories made her happy.
Kim Geun-cheol, her precious first friend. Just thinking about him made her laugh. And he was a friend who treated her so casually, like it was nothing.
She'd made friends before in her life, but things never really clicked, so they could never hang out. Compared to them, Geun-cheol... just clicked perfectly.
"Hehehe."
Thinking that, Lee Si-hoo untied the bandages wrapped around her chest.
—Bounce.
—Bounce-bounce.
"..."
Simultaneously, her mood grew complicated.
The joy she'd felt just moments ago subsided.
Now completely naked, Lee Si-hoo walked over to the full-length mirror and looked at her body. Her body was growing more and more feminine by the day.
Just a year ago, there were no noticeable curves, but recently her body had suddenly started developing. Her breasts were growing heavy and swelling, her waist was narrowing, and her hips and butt were growing, embarrassingly so.
Almost as if declaring she was female.
As if she could never live as a man.
"I can't let them find out I'm a girl..."
She murmured quietly, clutching her swollen breasts.
She was binding and hiding them with bandages, but if they got any bigger, it would be hard to conceal. Even now, they were considerably large. Bracing herself against the embarrassment, she'd measured once... was it a G-cup? It was a size far exceeding the average.
If she was ever found out.
"Will he be mad that I deceived him?"
Thinking about it made her depressed.
Guilt washed over her. Geun-cheol treated her like a real friend without any hesitation, but she was hiding a huge secret from such a precious friend.
"Ngh."
A pang of guilt stabbed her in the chest.
She'd never imagined it would be so hard to deceive a kind friend who treated her sincerely. Guilt. It was guilt. The guilt of deceiving her friend was pricking her heart like needles.
"I'm sorry, Geun-cheol..."
She couldn't go to the bathhouse with him. Of course, as a friend, she wanted to go with him, but they were different genders from the start. Even if she could say she covered her lower half with a towel, she could never hide her heavily swollen breasts.
Therefore, she would have to live deceiving her friend forever.
—Shhhh.
Feeling depressed, Lee Si-hoo stood under the hot water of the shower.
"..."
Her family was strict. She had to live as a man. That was decided from the very beginning. She had to hide her gender for life and live as the family dictated.
Even when she got married, it would be the same. An arranged marriage. A predetermined partner. The partner would, of course, be a woman. But it would be a marriage only on the surface; a child to continue the bloodline would be born through someone else in the family.
Because a woman and a woman cannot make a child.
She was just going to live her life playing a man.
—...
She finished showering and dried herself off roughly. The feel of her full breasts against the towel weighed on her mind.
She had no energy left for anything else.
—Thump.
Lee Si-hoo flopped down naked on the bed.
"..."
A life as a man.
"...I hate it."
She hugged the blanket and buried her face in it.
Maybe it was okay when she was young.
But in the end, she is a woman.