Kim Haseong (2)

I had gone to bed later than usual, and still I woke earlier than usual. Whether it was because today was my last day as a working man, or simply the pleasure of quitting, I couldn't tell. One thing was certain, though—the miserable reality that my enlistment was nearly upon me.

Up early, I got ready in a hurry and headed in ahead of schedule. Any other morning I would have changed and waited for the day to start, but today I went straight to the boss's office. I hadn't set foot in there many times, but the man himself was kind. I knocked without hesitating.

"Come in~"

At the sound of his voice I opened the door and stepped inside. Most of the employees hadn't arrived yet, but the boss was always the one who unlocked the factory, so he came in earlier than anyone. Seeing him at the computer, I wondered if he was already working.

"Ah, Haseong. What's the matter?"

"Well... a notice came to the house yesterday, ordering me to enlist."

"What? Enlist?"

I stepped forward and handed him the notice.

"Hmm... three months. Not much time left, is there?"

"No, sir. So... I figured I'd have to quit, which is why I came to see you."

The boss nodded as he answered.

"Of course. They're calling you up—how am I supposed to stop that? Give me a moment."

"Ah, yes, sir."

He set the notice down and peered at the computer.

"Our Kim Haseong... a year and a month. Past a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠year, so you're due severance, aren't you?"

I knew, in a vague way, that some law or other said you received severance if you worked more than a year and then resigned.

"...Yes."

"Don't worry yourself over it. I'll pay every bit of it. So with three months left, you're thinking of quitting as of today?"

"Since there's only three months, I thought I ought to see the people I know and all... quitting sooner seemed like the better choice."

"I understand that completely. Before I enlisted, I spent whole days doing nothing but drink with my friends. Mind you, drink right up until you ship out and you're in for it."

"Yes, sir."

The boss laughed once, turned his eyes back to the monitor, typed something on the keyboard, and looked at me again.

"All right. Your resignation is settled as of today, and this month's wages plus your severance will be deposited sometime next week. If anything's off, call me right away."

"Ah, understood."

He rose from his chair, came over, and took my hand.

"You've truly worked hard. And you're young, so next time, learn a proper trade instead of factory work."

"Yes, sir! Thank you for everything."

He gave my back a light pat and smiled.

"Yeah, you've done plenty. Now clock out—no. Go on home, enlist safely, and come back discharged in one piece!"

"Thank you!"

I gathered up the notice and left the factory.

Maybe it was because I had been there a whole year. It had never quite been home, but stepping out of it left me feeling strangely off.

As I came outside, an employee on his way in approached me.

"Hey, hold on. Where are you going?"

"Ah, I'm quitting as of today. I'm enlisting soon..."

At that, his face said he understood.

"Ah—if you're enlisting, you've got to quit. You've worked hard."

"Thank you."

Factory rules forbade getting friendly, so we had never once had a personal conversation, but we were still people who had worked in the same space. A familiar face disappearing felt, surprisingly, strange.

When I had arrived that morning I had meant to work through the day and resign afterward, but thanks to the boss's goodwill I was out at once, with time to spare. I went home and called the landlord right away to explain. He said he understood, and to give him a ring once I had finished clearing the place out.

As far as I was concerned, I'm enlisting soon... was a magic phrase that worked on anything.

At any rate, the call was done, and what remained was sending my things back to my parents' house.

"Heavier than I thought."

Finishing the packing the night before had been a good idea. It had been—except every last box was heavy. And there were no fewer than three of those heavy boxes.

"...What else can I do."

There was nothing for it. I hauled them, struggling the whole way to the nearby convenience store, and shipped my things out as parcels. Exhausting as it was, the walk back after sending off the last box left me oddly proud.

"I won't be able to move for a while."

I could feel my hands, my arms, my legs, all of them trembling. Hauling those loads without a break had worn me out completely, and the apartment being on the third floor—stairs only—made it worse.

"I didn't used to have stamina this bad."

My mind still remembered the days I had worked out. My body, it seemed, did not.

Back home, I looked the place over. Set aside the leftover things in the corner and what I meant to throw out, the bedding among them, and it was exactly as it had been when I first moved in.

"Call the landlord... this is the last time, isn't it?"

All I had to do was phone him and be done. But if I thought about it, this was effectively the last stretch of time I would have to myself. Once I went back to my parents' and lived with them—they would be off at work, so I would be alone most of the time anyway—their house and this place still felt entirely different to me. Above all, the things of mine sitting in the corner couldn't come home with me.

"...I'm enlisting soon. It's fine for now."

It was the weekend. This was my last while alone, so I figured it was all right to take it easy.

When I opened my eyes, it was the usual apartment. I sat up in the usual bed. Only one thing was different: tears were running from my eyes.

"......"

I remembered everything that had happened in the dream.

I dragged myself upright, sinking into the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠memory, but a headache and a smell arrived at once and forced me back to my senses.

"Ugh?"

I had only just woken, and yet my head was spinning to an absurd degree. Blaming the dream didn't quite cover it. The smell was terrible, too.

"Yesterday, I'm sure of it..."

Yesterday—not in the dream. In reality. Reality, that is. As I remembered it, I had shipped the boxes, come home, loafed around, washed up, and gone to sleep. Had hauling all that weight left me with a body ache? Or had too much time alone simply drained me?

"A cold?"

It wasn't quite my ordinary life, but being this dizzy made no sense unless it was a cold.

"More than that, the smell..."

I hurriedly reached over and opened the window beside the bed.

"Haa..."

As the stink of the room drained out and outside air came in, my head cleared with a snap. And once it did, I realized my body was soaked through. I had hauled myself up in that state, so a disaster had been inevitable.

"Ugh, disgusting!"

Looking again, it wasn't sweat. My clothes had gone completely yellow. They were sticky, even.

"Ah!"

On the off chance, I pulled the blanket back. It had yellowed to about the same degree as the clothes.

"So the smell was... what even is this..."

I knew where the smell was coming from. What I could not begin to understand was why I had leaked some yellow something all over myself. Was I sick?

"No..."

My dizzy head was slowly starting to work again, and there was no sign of pain anywhere in my body. Even so, the state I was in was one where I could say with certainty that something had been wrong with me.

"......"

No matter how I turned it over, I had no idea what this situation was.

"First, wash."

Thinking properly was only possible in a proper state. It was hard to manage while I was giving off this smell. I hurried up off the bed.

"Huh? Wh-whoa?"

Getting up felt nothing like usual. My body swayed. For a moment I thought I really was sick, but aside from the swaying, I was fine.

"W-wait a second."

At the same time I realized, quickly, that something was wrong. The apartment I was seeing, and the height I was seeing it from, were different from usual. The place hadn't changed. I had?

"What is this?"

I couldn't understand what was happening. I leaned on the wall and made my way to the bathroom somehow. The moment I opened the door, a person I had never seen was reflected in the mirror. Someone must have been in there already.

"Ah, I'm sorry."

I shut the door. Then I opened it again at once.

"This is my place!?"

I stepped back into the bathroom and looked at the figure in the mirror. Raise a hand, and it raised a hand. Stretch both arms, and it stretched both arms. The figure was none other than me.

What?

I couldn't make sense of it. Short, plain, ugly me was not this handsome, and not this tall. Who in the world was the person in the mirror?

"...Huh."

I was bewildered past words, but the foul smell made it hard to hold out.

"First... wash."

I stripped and got under the water, and that was when I noticed something else. It wasn't only my body that had grown. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Something else had grown a great deal, too.

"Incredible... no. More importantly."

A lot of thoughts came to me while I washed. Whose body was I washing right now? Who was this person? Maybe, like in a novel, someone else's body had been swapped with mine? But this was still, without question, my monthly rental. I couldn't understand any of it, so for the moment I focused on washing.

Getting the smell off me took a full hour. For the record, there had still been shampoo and body wash left. I was truly glad I hadn't thrown the remaining things out right away.

Shower finished, I came out into the room and had no choice but to cover my nose.

"The blanket..."

It had soaked up so much of that sweat that the smell was overwhelming. I needed to throw it out immediately, but almost nothing fit me, and getting dressed was a struggle. Anyway, I put clothes on, hauled the blanket out, and came back. Fortunately I had bought it myself, so there was no one to compensate. The mattress was thankfully fine, and I hurriedly set about cleaning the smell still lingering in the room.

"Ha."

Once the smell was gone, I sat in the chair, picked up my phone, and immediately searched my body changed.

"Let's see..."

The results were mostly about web novels. To be precise, the only things that came up were related to web novels, or novels.

"......"

I couldn't find the answer I wanted. But this was something that had happened to me. I needed to figure out what it was. Call a hospital, and they would probably decide I was mentally ill, so for the moment the internet was all I had.

"Let's see..."

This time, instead of my body changed, I searched my body grew. Still nothing but news articles, the names of diseases, or things about medicine.

"Hmm..."

Other portal sites turned up much the same, except for one difference.

"Where..."

Reading the post, I found an account of someone who had sweated an incredible amount, whose smell had been terrible, whose clothes and blanket had even yellowed from the sweat. It was the same thing I had gone through, written down.

"This is it!"

I hurried down to the comments, and found them plastered with the same words. Nearly dozens of them, all the same.

"What?"

I couldn't understand what was supposed to be fake. Even so, among all that spam there was a single comment that said something else: a link to another site. I clicked it, and it took me to the Hunter article on Leaf Wiki.

"Hunter?"

It came out of nowhere, but no one would have left a link in the comments for nothing. First I checked the Hunter table of contents and read straight through. It wasn't a perfect match, but it said that what I had experienced was the process of Awakening as a Hunter.

"...I Awakened as a Hunter?"

If I said it didn't feel real that I had become a Hunter, that would be a lie. I really had grown enormously tall, and my face had become far more handsome.

"......"

Even so, the reason I couldn't feel that I was a Hunter was simple. Only the outside had changed. The inside was the same.

"...Hm?"

Then my eyes caught on the text below. According to it, it varied from person to person, but the period of Awakening as a Hunter was quite long. I hurriedly checked the date, and I couldn't help but be shocked.

I had been asleep for a full fifteen days.