A Place of a Different Dimension

A place of a whole different dimension.

Is this even possible?

Momoji's apartment was only ten minutes from my house.

Not ten minutes on foot—ten minutes by bus.

The second I got her call I wanted to fly over there and body-check her like the manga hero I'd just been reading about.

"Not 'going over.' Invading."

It was already closing in on six in the evening, so I accepted Mom's concern without a fight.

It absolutely was not because chicken stew was on the dinner menu tonight.

If I left now I'd have to turn right around again, which would be a hassle.

More importantly, tomorrow was the weekend—I could take my time. So I changed the plan, polished off a delicious dinner, and crashed hard.

I woke up early, scrubbed myself squeaky clean, and finished getting ready.

Nothing missing?

Clothes for easy movement: shorts, short sleeves, and a little bag at my side.

The bag was a bit of a nuisance, but girls' clothes were so tiny they barely had pockets. No choice.

Was this why girls went crazy for handbags?

IRL-fight prep complete, I headed out.

I played it cool in front of Mom and Dad, but for me this was Challenge Day.

First challenge.

"This way, I think."

I had never ridden a city bus.

Well… when you live glued to a computer, you don't exactly go out much.

Past life or present, I hated leaving the house and never had a reason to. What middle-school first-year homebody would ever need to pay her own bus fare?

The only buses I'd ever been on were the big ones for school field trips.

Had past-me ever ridden one? I racked my brain until it ached and still found zero knowledge of how to board a bus. The feeling that whole chunks of memory had simply vanished left me a little depressed.

I trudged along, and before long—

"Oh, is this it?"

—I reached the bus stop. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Luckily no one else was there, so I sat comfortably on the bench and reviewed everything I'd researched online.

According to the internet: you need a transit card for the youth fare, otherwise you pay adult price.

I flipped that logic. Better to save the money I'd spend buying a transit card in the first place. The card alone cost four thousand won. The discount was only two hundred won—how long would it take to break even? If you didn't ride often, it was pure loss. Adult greed at its finest.

"Heh heh~"

I felt pretty smug about it. I pulled out the cash Mom had given me ahead of time and swung my legs.

About five minutes later a bus appeared in the distance. I stood at the curb and waved the way the internet said, and the bus stopped right in front of me.

My heart pounded.

Okay. Here we go.

I climbed aboard exactly as I'd simulated, gave a light "Hello," and held out a thousand-won bill.

Perfect!

The driver gestured that the money went over there.

Uh… where? Where is it?

While I flailed, a warm chuckle floated over.

"Little miss."

"Y-yes? Yes yes."

"Right there—drop it in the box in front. Take your change too. You're a student, right? Student fare."

"Y-yes yes yes yes."

I stammered, but thanks to the kind driver I got through it safely. Saved two hundred won without a transit card—nice!

"Hahaha, look at that, we've got a cute little passenger today."

"……"

That last part felt loud enough for the whole bus to hear. Everyone now knew I was riding for the first time. Embarrassing.

After that I focused every nerve on the announcement, waiting for my stop's name.

Nothing left to worry about after this. Momoji said she'd come meet me.

And yet—today's second challenge.

This is gonna be awkward…

I'd boldly set the meeting so I could give her a knuckle sandwich, but after a night's sleep my anger had cooled. Now it was just a kid visiting an adult woman's place.

I'd been to Siyeon's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠house before, but her parents were there and we'd known each other forever. Momoji was basically a stranger. We hadn't known each other long at all.

The closer we got, the more my legs trembled and regret flooded in.

What if she's a total whale or some muscle freak?

What if she smacked both my cheeks left-right-left for talking back so casually?

"Hic."

It's fine. Me? I once cracked the self-proclaimed top dog of Eunha Elementary. And when I go to the PC bang I know the local thugs—well, regulars. I won't lose. Yeah. Yeah.

The stop was way too close for proper mental prep. I pressed the stop button, waited, and the bus halted. I checked both ways and carefully stepped off.

*Gulp—*

"Not here yet?"

Whew. Honestly a relief. A little more time to steel myself—

"Oh? Wait, are you Chaechae?"

"Hyeek!"

Someone popped out right behind me at the stop. I spun around and faced a woman whose eye level sat a full head above mine. She looked far more normal—and prettier—than anything my imagination had cooked up.

Her outfit screamed "I'm an adult": jeans and a light cardigan, yet the curves were so pronounced it felt rude just to stare. You know the type—everything that should stick out stuck out, everything that should tuck in tucked in.

My honest reaction?

Boring.

I'd hoped for more of a twist from a no-cam streamer. Scary would have been fine—even a hundred-kilo surprise.

While I blankly entertained those rude thoughts, she stepped closer, eyes going round.

"Y-you're really Chaechae? Holy crap."

"W-why? Whyyy?"

She'd probably been imagining something similar about me.

"No… ugh, what is this, you're so……"

Momoji blinked rapidly at me, then—

"You're too cuteee—! What's with the twin tails!"

"Urgh, eek, let—let gooo—"

She hugged me right there on the street and rubbed her cheek against mine. Contact. Actual contact! Eek.

Wait—she smelled nice. Heh.

I went soft for a second before hurriedly shoving free.

Momoji, you terrifying woman. Did she have zero sense of shame? Doing this in public!

"Aww, what is this. You're pretty. Ah, hungry? Let's hurry to unnie's place. I'll buy you something tasty."

She held out her hand.

"……"

Does she think I'm in kindergarten?

I glared at her the same pouty way I did when Siyeon got on my nerves.

She grabbed my hand anyway.

"Come on! Let's gooo~"

"Uweh?"

Completely ignored, I was dragged off.

"Sluuurp— mmmmm."

"Good, right?"

"Mm-hmm, chomp. Tasty, nom nom."

On the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠way home she'd stopped at some ramen place and gotten takeout. "Something tasty," she'd said—and it was just ramen? But then Momoji disappeared into the kitchen and came back with all sorts of upgrades. Still full of doubt, I took a bite.

"Holy crap this is good."

This is a whole different dimension from boiling instant noodles at home!

Ramen was food from another plane of existence. Even the aroma was nothing like the instant stuff I sometimes cooked.

I thought ramen was just Japanese instant noodles. I was wrong.

"You eat well. Next time want to go to Japan with unnie? Eating it there is another dimension again."

"What? No way. It gets even better than this?"

I couldn't easily believe an upgrade from here was possible—but then again, I'd doubted this bowl at first too. I decided to trust her.

Did they have chicken-broth ramen? That would probably slap.

After clearing every drop of soup I patted my belly and, out of habit, went looking for somewhere soft. We'd eaten the second we arrived, so I hadn't properly toured the place, but a quick look showed Momoji's apartment had three whole rooms. Of course—successful streamer.

I flopped onto the sofa in the little living area right next to the kitchen. There happened to be a plushie perfect for hugging, so I scooped it up by reflex.

*Sniff sniff—*

Nice smell. The same faint scent that had been on Momoji at the bus stop clung to it. It made me feel good, so I kept sniffing without thinking—

"Heeeeh~?"

"…!"

Momoji approached with a wicked little smile. Why, why why. What now.

"This cheeky little brat. You were so shy earlier, and now you're burying your nose in it?"

"N-nose… burying…?"

"There are things little kids don't know! Let me smell too!"

"Aaaaah! Wh-what are you doing!"

She dove onto the sofa to hug me. Reflex took over—I swung my hand.

*Thwack—*

"Urgh."

Momoji went sprawling.

"Uh… you okay? Sorry, I got startled."

"Chaechae… your hand's a little… sharp… Do you work out…?"

"Nooo."

I did have pretty good motor skills. Back in the lower grades of elementary the boys used to let me join soccer. For some reason I started hating sweating and quit, though.

After the violence incident we sat down with simple drinks and talked.

"Like I told you before, I'm Kim Naeun. College student, twenty-two. What about you, Chaechae?"

"Mmm."

I'd come this far. Might as well say it. We were friends.

"Lee Chaewon… fourteen…"

"Whaaaat?!"

She shot upright, looked me over every which way, and started rattling off.

"I knew it—your skin's so pale and you're all cute and young-looking. But then again for fourteen you also look mature. You must be super popular at school. You've gotten lots of confessions, right? Wait—or are you a delinquent…? That punch earlier was no joke."

Apparently still thinking about the earlier incident, both her hands reached for my cheeks, then froze and quietly withdrew.

I knew that move well. Dad used to do it all the time when I was little. The day I started biting him, he stopped.

"Not a delinquent. Ahem. I am pretty popular, yeah."

Not a lie. Popularity was relative; some people could live a lifetime satisfied with a speck of attention. In my case I'd been class president all six years of elementary, and so on and so forth.

Anyway, I was confident.

"Wow… I'm so glad I agreed to meet today. Feels like I just got the cutest little sister ever. You were so annoying on stream, but one look at your face and it all melts away."

"I was annoying?"

"Yep."

Huh? I'd taught her with pure sincerity and this was the ungrateful thanks I got?

"The viewers would agree. You just don't know."

"……"

Ah. Viewers.

The moment stream talk came up, some of the locked-away memories unlocked.

"How much of that got shown?"

"Huh?"

The whole reason I'd come here. To punish this bad friend who kept dropping axes on her own feet whenever she got bored.

I still wouldn't use violence. We were civilized people.

And it wasn't because she was bigger than me and ridiculously feminine in person that I was chickening out. As a twenty-first-century intellectual it was only natural—

"W-wellll… hehe… all of it?"

*Squeeze—*

But I still lacked the education to be a proper intellectual, so never mind.

"Aaaang eeeek Chaewooon! Unnie hurts! It huuurts!"

"Wanna die? I barely even remember what I said and you tried to socially murder me?"

I clamped down on her shoulders.

"Eep. Sorrrry. But I was basically bawling too so we were both embarrassed, right? It's fiiine—aah!"

"How is that fine. I'm quitting streaming, so do whatever you want."

"Aaaah. But the fans are waiting—!"

I let go and retreated to the corner of the sofa, hugging the plushie again.

"Even if I turn the stream on I don't have anything to do. I only streamed to show Deadzone. Now it's meaningless."

Was this how it felt checking an ex's mini-homepage? I just didn't want to look.

Sniff.

"Really? That's such a shame."

Momoji didn't push me to come back to streaming after that.

…Back then the downgraded fake version of Lee Chaewon had bawled her eyes out and become a laughingstock, and she probably understood I really had nothing left to stream about.

Since I've already decided to leave, black history or whatever—just forget it.

I'd come all this way to hang out. Might as well have fun.

Being a game streamer, Momoji had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tons of game stuff.

"Whoa, a PlayStation 3?! A Nintendo?!"

"Heh heh~ Wanna try?"

Devices I'd never even touched. Symbols of the rich.

I played the PS3 for three straight hours without moving.

"Ah, Chaewon-ah, unnie has to start streaming now."

"Huk already? I haven't tried that character yet. Shame."

"Yeah? Hmmm."

Momoji toyed with her lip for a second, then clapped.

"Then Chaewon can keep gaming here. Unnie'll stream. When you're done you can just head home."

"Uh… is that okay?"

Normally I wouldn't get greedy and would quietly go home. But I'd just found a character that was perfect for me. When would I get another shot at a PS3? Fighting games were fun too.

Greed swallowed me whole.

"Yeah, of course. No big deal. But you have to be quiet, okay? People might think unnie has a boyfriend."

"Mm-hmm. Obviously. Not a peep."

Yay. Awesome.

With permission granted, I dove happily back into the game.