Roommate ①
I got fired from my job and my engagement was broken off at the same time.
The only support I had was friendship.
So I went to this guy's place.
I've been dropping in and out almost every day for nearly two weeks now.
I'm shameless, but I have no choice. He's the only friend I have.
“Hey, Seol Siha.”
Lee Sehyun, an S-rank hunter and my ball buddy, called me.
But I roughly ignored him. Ah, team fight.
“No! You keep intruding into our house without permission and playing games on someone else's computer, and you even ignore what the house owner says?”
“Shut up. Later. Later!”
“It's already been over two weeks! You took over my computer without permission!”
It was a game where the outcome of the match decided everything.
Clickety-clack. Druk-druk. I was in total concentration mode.
One teammate after another was dying. Only I remained.
It was a desperate crisis. I had my ultimate weapon ready...
At that moment, the monitor went black.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
I protested to Sehyun, who had shut down the computer.
I grabbed him by the collar and shook him violently back and forth.
Even with a woman's strength, it had no real power.
“That's what I want to know. What the hell happened?”
“Something a little bitter happened. It's fine, right? It is, right?”
“So what exactly happened?!”
“...I don't know either. Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you.”
I kept my mouth shut in response to Sehyun's question.
I didn't want to talk about it. I needed to prepare my heart.
“You think I haven't been asking you this question for days?”
“I don't know.”
“At least dozens of times, you stubborn mule!”
“What can I do?”
I answered vaguely and flopped onto the bed.
“Hey, don't just lie on my bed like that. I've told you that several times!”
“Stop acting so petty, you brat. You're my ball buddy. When are we going to have a bed territory dispute? Your mood swings are getting worse lately.”
“...”
“Oh? Your face looks displeased. What's so bothersome?”
“You're a woman now.”
The answer was absurd. What did that have to do with anything?
I rolled around on the bed in retaliation.
“Idiot. Do I care what my body looks like now that I'm a woman? Even with this figure, I still get excited?”
Since becoming a woman, Sehyun has been fussing over me more than ever.
After all, the real thing is my close ball buddy.
I enjoy teasing him because he reacts entertainingly.
“Hey, hey! Siha, please stop acting like a crazy person.”
“Want me to stick my tongue out with my mouth?”
I made a V sign with my right hand,
and stuck my tongue out playfully between my fingers.
A natural performance that would come to mind for any guy—chuuuup.
Sex talk has been my specialty since I was a man.
“Crazy bastard.”
“AHAHAHAHAHAH-! This guy is scared! He's a total wimp!”
I burst out laughing, clutching my stomach and giggling.
“I have to warn you, though. Don't do that in front of the woman you're going to marry. You'll ruin the mood.”
“Ah.”
Then I hit a sore spot with Sehyun.
His smiling face quickly filled with tears.
“Ugh. I've been holding it in so far. This guy's mouth is the problem.”
Sehyun covered his mouth belatedly after letting a slip.
Sehyun had probably already noticed.
That I had done something with that woman.
He had just been holding it in until I said it first.
“Well, it's fine. Since it's come to this, I'll spill everything.”
“...”
“Hey, Siha. What exactly happened?”
Answering Sehyun's question was scary.
I had to lay bare the end of our relationship.
Like tearing down a tower I've been stacking up myself.
“...Alcohol.”
The words that came out after much hesitation were a liquor-fueled chance.
Once alcohol was involved, confessing would be easier.
“What?”
“I want to drink. Buy me some alcohol.”
“Drinking in broad daylight? And with your condition, can they even confirm your identity...”
“You brat-! Would you say that even after seeing this?!”
I tossed the resident registration card I pulled from my wallet.
It was like a detective showing a warrant to a corrupt official—cha-ching.
“I knew you'd say that, so I got a new one issued. What can I do?”
The back of my resident registration number starts with 2.
The attached photo was of a woman.
It was the ID issued after the breakup.
A memento marking the end of my will to return to being a man.
“You have an ID from when you were a man too? Doesn't that look funny side by side? How can these two be the same person?”
Whether I became a woman or not, I was still me.
Gender was secondary and I was hungry for alcohol.
That's why I hurriedly renewed my ID.
“You're something else.”
“Yeah, my finger is longer than your dick. Good job.”
I gave my ball buddy the middle finger.
“Hey, this...! Stop it. Did you see?”
“I saw it once or twice. It's smaller than mine, so it somehow boosted my self-esteem a little. It's a minor secret.”
We had pushed each other's backs in the bathhouse.
“Crazy guy. Your mouth is going to drive me insane.”
The face of the guy who had lost his cool was funny.
Even the gloomy feelings had faded.
As expected, being with this guy made my heart feel at ease.
It was different from being with that woman.
“The bar probably isn't open at this time... Hey, is there alcohol in the fridge?”
“There should be a few cans of beer.”
“Can I drink? I can't talk with a clear head.”
“Go ahead. By the way, I don't drink.”
“Oh yeah. I'll drink it all. Hhehehehe~”
The moment I got permission, I headed to the fridge.
I returned holding a full pack of cans against my chest.
“I always feel like this, though.”
“What?”
“You have it, but none of the contents have changed.”
“...Really?”
“Yeah, you shitty bastard.”
“Uhet. Thanks for the praise.”
Even though my appearance was that of a woman, I was still me.
My ball buddy who treated me as myself was grateful.
She had always treated the changed me as a woman.
She no longer looked at me as a man.
She treated me coldly, like a broken object.
Somehow, all the big talk about returning to being a man is now meaningless. The engagement is over.
I gulped down the can of beer.
I wanted to forget the gloomy feeling quickly.
“Heh, hic.”
“Siha, you... are you okay? Your face is bright red.”
Only after drinking did I realize a fact I had overlooked.
Drinking alcohol had been a first for me since becoming a woman.
My tolerance was different from when I was a man. Quite a bit.
“U, uuuu...”
“Hey, hey!? Why are you crying all of a sudden, you crazy bastard?!”
With the alcohol, it was hard to hold back my emotions.
Showing tears to someone was a man's shame.
But right now, with my heart weakened, it crumbled instantly.
“I broke up with her. The engagement and everything is over.”
I confessed in a tearful voice, sounding pathetic.
“What? What do you mean? You were being treated as the son-in-law and even visiting the guild's hunter guild.”
“I basically quit the company. Now I'm just unemployed.”
It was the reason I kept coming to Sehyun's house every day.
Because I no longer had anywhere to stay.
“...So that's how it was.”
Sehyun couldn't continue, his face pained.
He hesitated on what comfort to offer me.
“That's right. Everything was my fault.”
“What nonsense. What did you do wrong?”
“It was because I arbitrarily touched the ability awakening.”
Ability awakening is the basic condition for dungeon hunters and hunters.
There are humans who are born with abilities.
But I wasn't.
So I had no choice but to use the twisted method.
The acquired ability awakening that requires a price.
Both the price to pay and the ability gained are unclear.
The risk is high, but so is the potential reward.
“If I awakened an amazing ability and became an S-rank hunter, I thought that woman would recognize me.”
The desire I saw from that woman was clear.
Raising her hunter guild to the major leagues.
To do that, an S-rank hunter was needed.
I thought it was worth trying.
If I succeeded, that woman would look back at me.
“It was too greedy. I lost everything.”
The price of the sacrifice was horrific. Because I became a woman.
I became a body that couldn't maintain the engagement relationship.
“Don't blame yourself too much, idiot. If it were that, wouldn't you have asked me for advice!?”
“...What?”
“I'm an S-rank hunter too. If I had joined that guild, I wouldn't have thought of that...”
Sehyun was also a witness to becoming an S-rank hunter through acquired ability awakening.
Moreover, he had no affiliated guild. He was a freelancer.
If I asked, he would definitely join the guild.
That woman had looked down on me dozens of times.
But I didn't.
“Idiot. Why would I be your ball buddy for nothing?”
There were two reasons.
The guilt of not being able to draw him in to fill my own desires.
And Sehyun's trauma.
“What S-rank hunter? You room-bound loser. If it weren't for me, you couldn't even speak properly to others.”
“No-!”
“That's right-!!”
Sehyun couldn't refute me.
At least, this was an improvement.
In his childhood, he had been much more timid.
“A guy like that would endure the murderous schedule as the guild's flagship. The stress would be insane.”
“...”
“Who knows you better than me. It's obvious. How long have I been watching you.”
I could boldly claim that.
From childhood, he was the close friend I raised.
“I wouldn't be able to do that much for you?”
“Yeah, I couldn't. And well, it was my love business. I wasn't trying to drag you in unwillingly.”
It was for the engagement relationship.
It wasn't a field that would exploit male friendship.
Ah, my heart feels lighter. Talking about it made it better.
Since it's come to this, I might as well confess one more thing.
“Hey, do you know what ability I gained as a price for becoming a woman?”
A mischievous impulse struck.
Using the fact that I became a woman self-deprecatingly,
I opened my mouth to tease Sehyun.
“How would I know how you did it?”
“T-then guess.”
“I don't know.”
“Tch, it came out boring. Total no-fun.”
Then I'll make it fun.
“Want me to tell you? I'll tell you. Come closer?”
I adjusted my voice delicately.
I approached him like a woman teasing a timid man.
With the alcohol making me bolder, the teasing became more daring.
Appealing with the bewitching figure of a sexy model from a photoshoot,
“The ability I gained is...”
I whispered affectionately into Sehyun's ear.
“The more I like you, the stronger you become.”
It wasn't entirely wrong. I had added a little twist, though.