Why Is That Your House
This was a disaster!
Sirin, leaning against Seolrin's shoulder, rolled her head back and forth in a frantic little spin.
She had promised to take her home after work today! And Seolrin didn't even have a house yet!
Seolrin had even said she could stay the night! How on earth was anyone supposed to turn that down?!
A promise! Her very first promise!
Not brainwashing, not a common-sense rewrite — this was Seolrin's own free will! Something she suggested herself! The genuine relationship Sirin had been longing for all this time!
She could not, absolutely could not, let this first invitation slip away…!
'Somehow, somehow, I'm getting a house by the end of today!'
Seolrin had started staring intently at Sirin, who was still draped over her shoulder. She hadn't answered for quite a while now.
"…Why aren't you answering?"
"Ah, well, you see, sunbae…."
"Is today inconvenient? Should we make it tomorrow?"
"No! Today is fine, today is perfect!"
The reply boomed out loud enough to rattle the cafeteria. Around them, people turned their heads toward Seolrin and Sirin again.
"…Why are you suddenly shouting?"
"You have to come today, sunbae! I'll even cook something delicious for you!"
"You know how to cook?"
"No idea!"
"…?"
"But isn't delivery, in a sense, also a form of cooking? Pressing the button is a step in the culinary process…!"
Wearing an expression that plainly said I don't understand you at all, Seolrin lobbed the stir-fried eggplant off her tray and onto Sirin's.
Sirin finally lifted her head from Seolrin's shoulder and turned to her again.
"Sunbae! I just suddenly remembered — I left some urgent business unfinished!"
"…Huh? What business?"
"The Facility Director said it was a very important external assignment…!"
"There's an assignment I don't know about? I'm the Team Leader here?"
"Th-that, the Director entrusted it to me personally!"
Sirin briefly considered using her rewrite on Seolrin again, then immediately abandoned the idea.
If she touched that head of hers right now… it looked as though Seolrin's sincerity — the feelings that had finally, finally begun to sprout — would be swept up in the edit along with everything else.
"Hmm. Fine, then."
"I'll report back in detail when I return!"
"Sure."
Sirin shoved her tray onto the return rack and bolted. Her golden ponytail bounced along with every stride.
Left alone in the cafeteria, Seolrin watched her retreating back for a long moment, then let out a deep sigh.
"Ha… so this is what happens the moment she gets a little more useful."
After all, Sirin's aptitude ratings had been climbing at an abnormal rate lately. The Director was clearly scheming to cultivate another Team Leader-caliber asset with his own hands.
Seolrin dumped the rest of her rice and the untouched eggplant dishes straight into the trash and got up.
With Sirin gone, there was no reason for her to linger at the table. It wasn't as if the food was any good, anyway.
The instant Sirin stepped out of the cafeteria, she lit a sparkle into her star-shaped pupils!
The goal: to freshly implant a piece of common sense into every researcher and guard she passed.
"Researcher Lee Sirin will be performing a special assignment outside the Facility today!"
Everyone who met her eyes blinked blankly for a moment, then nodded along.
Lee Sirin's ability wasn't creating a new reality from nothing — it was laying an exquisitely detailed illusion over the reality that already existed, camouflaging it.
True creation ex nihilo was a stretch even if her true self descended in person.
Outside the Facility entrance, Sirin hopped on a bus heading downtown, pulled out her phone, and began searching real estate listings.
Criteria: close to the Facility. Clean enough that Seolrin wouldn't wrinkle her nose. Roomy enough for one bed the two of them could share comfortably. And priced reasonably — anything too lavish would raise suspicion!
Somehow, she had to move in by the end of the day.
Every condition she added shrank the search results. Even if she found a room available immediately, cleaning and furniture delivery would eat up more than a day.
Grrk.
She bit down hard on her lip.
Should she just tell Seolrin that today was a bad time? Any normal person would have.
But Sirin was not a normal person.
'…Sunbae said, with her own mouth, that she wants to come to my place first!'
Freely! Without any rewrite at all!
Giving that up over something as trivial as not owning a house was out of the question.
Off the bus, Sirin immediately started weaving through a commercial district thick with real estate offices.
'Faster…!'
Scrolling listings on her smartphone, she scanned the storefronts around her with her other senses.
"Excuse me, miss."
Someone called out to her. A wave of instinctive disgust washed over Sirin, and she did her utmost to ignore the man entirely.
"Hey, miss. You got a minute? I've never seen anyone as pretty as you."
"Busy."
"J-just your number, then—"
"No."
"Ah, do you maybe have a boyfriend?"
A boyfriend?
She did not care for that word choice.
Sirin stopped walking.
"…There are too many people around here."
"Huh?"
"Let's go somewhere quiet."
Sirin smiled at the man and beckoned, and he followed her with a face full of expectation.
A narrow alley between buildings. A place where the sunlight barely reached.
When they arrived at the gloomy little dead-end piled with trash bags and empty boxes, Sirin finally dropped the act.
The man glanced around and broke into a light sweat.
"W-wow, you're more forward than I expected. I was really just going to ask for your number and go…."
"Oh, were you."
Sirin seized the back of his head.
CRACK!
His forehead hit the wall. The man's knees buckled, and Sirin, never letting go of his hair, drove him back into the wall a second time—
CRACK!
He crumpled to the ground and passed out on the spot.
"That pathetic little shit…."
What Sirin wanted was not something light and casual.
Affection won without ever resisting the rewrite — every gesture rubber-stamped without a thought — that was not what she was after!
She was a gourmet! Love came in varieties, and each one carried its own distinct flavor!
Winning a human heart was easy. Catch someone's eye, trade a few words, and they'd love Sirin on the spot.
But love like that was boring. And flavorless.
Manufactured hearts. Fleeting hearts. Hearts drawn in because you were pretty, because your figure was good, because it felt nice — for a thousand shallow reasons, people loved shallowly.
She hated it. She absolutely could not stomach that weightlessness of love.
Someone who kept resisting the rewrite. Someone who doubted even when her head was touched directly… Yes. Only Seolrin could satisfy Sirin.
Only Seolrin, with her freakishly strong will, could teach Sirin what a heavy, genuine heart truly meant.
Sirin wiped the blood and dust off her palm, carelessly, on her sleeve.
.
.
.
No rooms available for immediate move-in. Too far from the Facility. Crushed one agent's head for the way his eyes crawled all over her hair and short skirt….
One listing after another disqualified for one reason or another, until at last — the final candidate.
Three bus stops from the Facility. A small living room and one bedroom. A brand-new officetel unit. The previous tenant had left his furniture behind when he moved out….
'It's perfect!'
The real estate agent unfolded his calendar and said,
"Ah, the contract can start next week."
"I see."
"We'll be scheduling a move-in cleaning too, and I still need the landlord's paperwork, so today is a bit—"
"Mister. I've been living in that apartment for six months now."
"Excuse me?"
Sirin locked her star-shaped pupils onto the agent's eyes and held them there for a long while. Repeat the contents. Rewrite.
"A breathtakingly beautiful blonde woman named Lee Sirin has already been living in that unit for six months. She paid the entire deposit in cash, and the contract is sitting in your drawer."
"Ah… that's right! Why did I forget? Here it is!"
The agent rummaged through the desk drawer and handed over a blank sheet of paper. In his eyes, it looked like a perfectly normal lease.
The landlord was dealt with by a suitably vague phone call.
'Thank goodness his willpower is weak! I didn't even need the eyes — he was caught the moment I started!'
She had a house!
A smile curling at the corners of her mouth, Lee Sirin ran straight toward her new home.
And was devastated.
An empty house. A barren fridge and skimpy furnishings….
'If I invite sunbae to a place like this, she'll be so disappointed.'
roughly five hours remained until Seolrin clocked out.
She had to renovate the entire place within that window.
Sirin sprinted to the nearest interior design company.
"Top priority! Renovate this apartment right now, this instant!"
"Er… what kind of atmosphere were you hoping for?"
"Like a home where a woman lives alone!"
"A little more detail, please."
Sirin pictured Seolrin's apartment. Furniture in muted grays… clean, easy-to-mop floors… a plush, comfortable sofa… one big bed in the bedroom.
"Make it clean and stylish, use your judgment. And the bed has to be a double. Non-negotiable!"
"Of course…. But isn't this for someone living alone?"
"Who knows? Do you need to know?"
"No, ma'am."
Sirin poured in every last bit of the salary she'd saved!
She had at least a shred of conscience left, so she didn't try to rewrite her way through the payment.
She had, after all, more or less adapted to the human world by now.
After wiring the deposit to the interior company, she dumped what little money remained at a furniture store and a supermarket.
Two toothbrushes! Two pairs of house slippers! Two sets of pajamas!
'Ah.'
Having been vividly reminded of just how enormous Seolrin's chest was, Sirin bought Seolrin's pajamas a full two sizes up.
Beer and sodas to stock the fridge — ready. She had Seolrin's favorite menu memorized by heart, so if Seolrin walked in the door after work and Sirin placed a delivery order right then… it would be absolutely perfect!
And so the hours slipped away until quitting time.
Sirin passed through the Facility entrance and ran straight toward Seolrin, seated at her desk!
"I'm back!"
"…Huh."
"Cutting it close, but I made it! Sunbae!"
"……."
"Well then — shall we head home once you clock out?"
Ba-dump, ba-dump!
Today! Seolrin was coming to her house!
Drrring!
Seolrin's phone rang.
"Ah, hold on. The Director's calling me in."
Sirin had preemptively severed every last drop of lust directed at Seolrin — preparing for any possible disaster — and had rendered everyone inside the Facility something close to eunuch-hood….
But she couldn't manage her facial expression.
"……."
"I'll be right back. Wipe that look off your face. Who dies from a boss making them a few minutes late, honestly?"
"Please don't use such strong language, sunbae. It makes me feel gloomy…."
