The Childhood Friend Who Comes by Every Day
After Yang Dahee left for work, I took a look around the house.
One big room that doubled as a kitchen, and one small room that was mine. It was cramped, but it had everything — even a bathroom out on the veranda.
"Government rice?"
I found it while tidying up the traces Yang Dahee had left behind. The sack of rice bore a label reading GOVERNMENT-SUBSIDIZED GRAIN. Rice handed out by the state.
Right — our family was near the bottom of the income bracket.
No matter how hard Yang Dahee worked, things wouldn't be easy without this kind of support. And despite all that, her two younger siblings did nothing but lean on her.
"Noona..."
Yang Dajun's eyes were starting to sting, but I shook my head.
I just need to do better from now on, that's all.
Nothing grand was required. I just had to do the sorts of things Yang Dahee would appreciate.
So what did the women of this world like? I stepped into the small room and went looking for Yang Dajun's phone.
An old model, huh.
The worn spots fit my hand perfectly — it had been handled for a long time. Part of it was that his noona had bought it for him, but Yang Dajun had never cared about trends anyway.
The original Dajun probably never even asked for a replacement. He'd have used it until it fell apart.
The only person who ever contacted him was his childhood friend, Yurim.
Weird guy. A voluntary social outcast in a world like this.
My reflection on the black screen vanished, replaced by the unlock pattern. Thankfully my fingers knew the sequence by heart and moved on their own.
A few texts had arrived while I'd been out of it.
What's Yang Dami's deal?
She barely ever came home, and she was the little sister who lusted after Yang Dajun. That sister had texted me? It was bound to turn into a headache, so I ignored it and opened the browser instead.
The site I entered was supposedly the biggest community in the country, and true to this gender-flipped world, it reeked of a female-dominated space. I started writing a post right away.
The bait quality is rock solid.
The comments came immediately.
"Ugh..."
"Board user" didn't mean anything here. A quick search taught me that you had to call users les — apparently it started as an abbreviation of "lesju," short for "thread owner," and morphed from there.
What the hell is all this...
There was no need for this level of detail. By the time I finished learning about the world, my post had already sunk without a trace.
"Aigh, I'll just ask Yurim when she gets here."
I had a childhood friend who came by every day, and a flesh-and-blood woman was more trustworthy than the internet anyway. Sure enough, while I'd been browsing, Yurim had sent me a message.
She texted me at this exact time every day, then came all the way over to check I was still breathing before heading off. It was routine.
Happily, I was awake today, so I decided to reply. Unlike the men of this world, Yang Dajun didn't grovel.
It was an answer unworthy of a "man," but between us it was plenty. Yurim fired back right away.
Texting her, an unconscious smile crept onto my face. However wary Yang Dajun was of women, with family and a childhood friend he could let his guard down like this.
In my memory, Yurim had been a cute girl with black hair in a bob, and trading jokes back and forth had come easily.
Why does that sound dirty?
"Hold it right there" — it had a vague innuendo to it, like I was supposed to brace myself against something. I slipped a hand under the blanket, and the thick thing down there gave a reaction.
"Mm."
Yang Dajun had hated being big; I didn't. I kept stroking it, making amends for ignoring the little guy for so long.
Twitch.
"Huh?"
Twitch twitch.
"Uh... ah, what the—"
I nearly shrieked thinking the thing had moved on its own. Apparently it had flinched from stimulation after far too long a drought. A cock with a mind of its own — if that ever actually happened, it'd be terrifying as hell.
And there was something even scarier.
Did she lose her mind?
This was the little sister who treated her older brother like garbage. She'd flit off on sleepovers God knew how many times, then nag him to stay home like a good boy.
"Augh, God... get a haircut. You walk around with that baby face — you like it or something?"
"Move it. You're the moron who leeches off me, damn it."
Her shrill, bratty voice tearing into him rang vividly in my ears.
Damn. Seems she actually hates me.
I felt it in real time.
A devoted older sister, and on the flip side, a little sister who hungered for her brother. The three of us made quite the lively trio.
"Phew..."
For now, my only salvation was my childhood friend. I decided to wait for Lee Yurim, my one and only female friend.
Sitting still let the chill seep into the room, so I bundled up the blanket and plopped down on the mat.
"Warm. Nice."
It was noona's blanket.
Thud thud thud.
The ancient boiler rattled to life.
Ka-thump. Ka-thump.
Our building had lousy soundproofing too. According to Yang Dajun's memory, a newlywed couple lived in the apartment above us. And on the top floor lived the building manager — a "noona" — all by herself.
Is she pretty?
The memory was hazy.
"Oh..."
Worth the wait, all right. My childhood friend who came to my house every single day. And she was gorgeous. She was so pretty it made me happy just looking at her...
"Heeeey."
"Get in, quick."
Leaving the cold wind behind her at the door, Yurim pulled her mask down.
Holy—?
The bob cut and that springy face — she looked like an adorable puppy. A tiny mole sat at the tip of her nose. I stared straight into Yurim's brown eyes.
"Wh-what, what, what is it?"
"Ah... you looked cold."
"I'm notshh cold."
Sniffle.
Yurim wrinkled her nose.
Her eyes are brimming with tears.
A beautiful girl with red ears and a red nose. Little droplets glistened at the corners of her eyes — she must have frozen even wearing stockings. Her skirt was so short that her puffer jacket barely covered it.
"Heyyyy..."
"What."
Taking her drawled greeting, I led Yurim inside.
"No, I mean, what's gotten into you? You're usually up by now."
"Woke up early. Dunno why."
I shrugged and answered without hesitation. I couldn't exactly tell her I'd been isekai'd into her childhood friend's body.
Yurim chatted away comfortably, but knowing she'd be worried about me made me careful not to overstep. I slowly studied Yurim as she glanced around my place like it was her own.
She's taller than me too.
The air around me shimmered, and a window appeared before my eyes.
Affection, this time. There was apparently an unlock condition, because the number still wouldn't show itself.
Intimacy is about the same.
Yurim sat at 67 and Yang Dahee at 68. With no idea what the scale meant yet, I'd better not overthink it.
I waved a hand in front of my face like I was rubbing away a smudge, and my vision cleared. When I looked back at Yurim, she was still kneading her ear — apparently it was still stinging.
If I left her be, she'd bolt in no time, so I decided to strike up a conversation.
"Yurim."
"Whaaat."
Yurim gave me a little smile, tilted her eyes up, and answered at her leisure. She treated me so comfortably that I found the courage to just come out with it.
"I'm going back to school."
"Huh? R-really? Hey, hey, hey, great call!"
"Mm-hm."
Yurim cocked her head.
"But... it's still break, though."
"We've got an exam today. Class placement. Gotta go take that first, at least."
New students got placed without an exam, but since I'd been held back a year, I had to take it. Yurim beamed and clapped her hands together, giggling away — whether she was glad about it or not.
"Hhehe. Then we can go together."
Since she was heading to school for self-study anyway, we could walk in together today. As Yurim smiled, a flush spread from her face down to her ears.
Ah...
Staring at those warmed-up ears, options materialized before my eyes.
▷ Stroke her ear.
▷ Lick her ear.
?
Wasn't the second one way too much of a leap? Stroking her ear should be plenty.
Before Yurim could even react, I reached out and touched her ear.
"Hh, hhegh..."
Yurim shuddered.
Adorable, honestly...
Mischief got the better of me, and I gave her ear a playful tug, like pinching her forearm. Yurim let out a honeyed moan and squirmed where she stood.
"Hyaaang..!"
"Yurim?"
"I-I-I got startled, okay...?"
So did I, for the record.
Her moan made my lower half twitch a little, but seeing Yurim's face burn scarlet as she hung her head, I said nothing.
Then she squeezed her eyes shut and started taking deep, chest-heaving breaths.
"Hoo..."
Once she'd somewhat collected herself, she fidgeted with her fingers and spoke.
"I-it's not like I'm mad at you or anything, okay?"
"I know."
I'd been the one teasing her, yet somehow Yurim was the one tiptoeing around me. She stood there fidgeting, restless, then tried to usher me off somewhere.
"Ha, hahaha... well then, let's get going."
"I haven't even washed yet?"
"Oh, oh, right... sorries..."
At the word wash, Yurim's eyes went wide.
In terms of the original world, it would be like a man saying he'd go shower first while a woman was standing in his room.
I'm not some pubescent boy...
Should I call it typical of this world's women? By Yang Dajun's memory, women here usually charged ahead at the slightest signal, so the fact that she'd been holding back this long was practically heroic restraint. Or maybe she was just putting on airs in front of the guy she liked.
I let the corner of my mouth creep upward as I looked at Yurim.
"Yurim."
"Whaaat..."
"Take off your clothes."
"Mm-hm, sure... what?"
After all that ear-stroking, she flushed red all over again. I'd told her to take off her puffer jacket — what on earth had she heard? Yurim's blinking accelerated.
"You want me to strip... d-don't you think that's a little fast? No wait, not that I don't want to! It's just..."
"Hhehe. I said take off your puffer."
"Oh..."
Yurim knit her brows together and slumped her shoulders. She let out a long exhale before finally getting around to the jacket.
Ziiiip—
As the zipper came down, the hot air trapped in the fabric billowed out. A faint, sweet scent of vanilla. The cozy smell soaked into Yurim's body tickled my nose.
"Ah..."
Before I knew it I'd stepped toward her, and Yurim stumbled back, reaching her arms out.
"Wh-what are you doing?"
"...Taking your coat."
"I-I-I... I know that!"
Yurim bounced on her toes, waving her hands in frantic denial.
She had no idea what I was actually thinking, and assumed she'd misread the situation herself — which confirmed, beyond doubt, that she got clumsy and flustered around the me she liked. Watching her, I leaned in slightly and spoke.
"Yurim?"
"Aaagh!"
She slapped both hands over her ears and shook her head like a rattle. She was probably trying to exorcise some lecherous imp in her head, but in the end I had to drag Yurim by the wrist all the way to the bathroom floor.
"I laid out a mat. Here — wrap yourself in this blanket too."
"Thanks a bunch."
"Hey... never mind."
I started to say something and swallowed it, my eyes dropping. It was Yurim's fault.
Her crisscrossed legs I could maybe forgive, but before she'd wrapped herself in the blanket, the white fabric of her underwear had been in full view through the gap of her skirt.
Is a girl allowed to do that?
I'd assumed flashing your underwear was something only the women of my own household did without a second thought. But when you thought about it, Yurim was sitting there with her legs splayed open like any girl on the street.
My heart lurched at the sight, while Yurim just stared openly at the clean change of underwear I'd brought for myself.
She's so transparent...
In more ways than one.
I decided to provoke Yurim a little more.
"Going to wash now. Don't come in."
"Why would I come in?"
"I'm trusting you, so I won't lock the door."
"..."
Ah.
Yurim swallowed hard.
It was the gaze of a hunter.
Yurim had just turned dangerous eyes on me.