Why So Often
My defenseless body ended up surrendering completely to those hands that came at me so haphazardly.
The hands stretched out as if it didn't matter because it was his own body anyway, freely groping my armpits and waist without the slightest hesitation. This body of mine was ridiculously ticklish, and it plunged me into a hell where I had no choice but to laugh.
The stimulation kept coming until I was exhausted from laughing. A tingling sensation that made me feel like I might wet myself forced me to bite down hard on my lip.
"Haa… haa…"
It was so overwhelming that tears nearly sprang to my eyes. I heaved my upper body up and down as I gasped for breath.
Those hands that mercilessly explored every inch of me were no small burden.
We hadn't even been that physically affectionate before, but it felt like it had only increased after the body swap.
Given that we'd already done that sort of thing, it was hard to think of it as something simple.
Still, putting my foot down and telling him not to touch me was complicated—because the owner of this body was Song Haneul.
With each of us occupying the other's body, there might be times when he wanted to check on its condition himself, so I couldn't just flat-out refuse.
Even so, this felt like a bit much.
"That's… enough now…"
"Hoo, fine."
At least he backed off without a fight, which was a relief.
Lying there drained and staring at the ceiling, I realized my stomach felt a little empty.
"I'm kind of hungry. Want to get something to eat?"
"Order delivery?"
"Nah, I'm not that starving. And it's not like I can eat a ton anyway."
"True. My stomach's tiny as hell. But if you leave leftovers, you can just eat them the next day, right?"
"Is there anything you want?"
I could see right through him. After watching him from the side for a while, his insides might as well have been transparent.
He didn't even try to hide it—he just broke into a smile right away.
"I'm craving jjamppong. How about it?"
"Weren't you into malatang?"
His tastes might have changed while I was in the military, but I still remembered how his diet had mostly consisted of things that looked terrible for you—malatang, tteokbokki, that sort of thing.
I'd always thought Song Haneul only ever went for food packed with spice, carbs, and oil, so hearing him bring up jjamppong first caught me off guard.
"Ah, malatang? I mean, I still like it, but my palate's kind of shifted, I guess. Doesn't really hit the spot right now. What are you getting?"
"…I'll take jjajang."
"Large?"
"No, regular."
"And tangsuyuk?"
"I don't even know if I can finish a regular jjajangmyeon right now."
"Then I'll get a regular too. Scoop half of yours over for me."
Was his stomach getting bigger by the day?
"You're not even working out, so don't just ramp up the eating, okay? I barely got those muscles on there—watching them all turn to fat would be a real waste."
"…Working out is hard, though."
"If you keep this up, I'm going to start stuffing myself with high-calorie crap and skip exercise too. We'll get fat together, nice and friendly."
He looked like he'd just run into a problem he hadn't anticipated, his face twisting with reluctance.
For someone who'd lived without ever working out, suddenly inheriting a body like this and having to keep up the training must have felt overwhelming.
"Ugh, maybe I just won't eat."
Hesitating at my words, Song Haneul set his phone down.
If he was willing to put away the delivery app he'd been scrolling through, it didn't seem like a total lack of willpower.
Though I also had to wonder if he was just so unwilling to exercise that he'd rather starve.
"Don't even think about starving yourself to lose weight. You already wrecked your own body—now you're trying to wreck mine too?"
"Not eating is the simplest way, isn't it? You barely gain weight no matter what you eat, so I figured I'd take the chance to pig out."
"It's not that I don't gain weight—it's that my basal metabolic rate is high. Either work out or live a regular lifestyle or do something. You keep living like that and one day you'll just drop dead out of nowhere."
"…That's a cheap shot, hitting me with facts. You bastard."
Song Haneul shot me a glare, clearly stung.
My body flinched a little, but I'd only said what was right, so there was nothing for me to feel guilty about.
Why was I getting scared, anyway?
The fact that I'd been intimidated by Song Haneul made something hot and angry rise in my chest.
We'd always bickered, sure, but nothing like this had ever happened before. Just because our bodies had swapped, I was flinching at every little gesture and glance, like some punk who'd been swaggering around on pure strength.
Whether it was instinct or something else, the situation was humiliating either way.
Maybe it was because guys didn't usually exchange looks like that. I didn't know how it worked between women, but between men, glaring at each other was almost unheard of unless someone had really crossed a line.
The unfamiliar experience must have set off warning lights in my head.
Nothing else could explain a reaction like that.
"Just go work out."
I spat out something suitable to hide the way my chest was trembling.
"What kind of workout am I supposed to do?"
After demolishing that jjamppong the night before, Song Haneul had put it off, claiming he was too lazy—only to come looking for me the next day.
"What?"
"You told me to work out. It's your body, so you've got to tell me what you used to do if I'm going to do anything."
"So you actually plan on doing it?"
"Eh, depends on what it is."
Was that a yes or a no?
The way he said it, like he was just testing the waters, left me speechless.
My motivation to explain anything nearly evaporated on the spot, but he was at least saying he'd try something, so there was no reason to stop him.
"First, sign up for a gym."
"…Uh."
"You've already got a decent base of fitness, so just go on the days that work and use the machines. That'll be enough."
"A gym? Gym…"
It was obvious he didn't want to go. If he'd had even a shred of interest, he wouldn't have reacted like that.
I hadn't expected much, but I hadn't realized he was this lazy.
Not working out was a matter of willpower in its own right, so I couldn't just call him lazy and leave it at that.
"If you hate that, do it with a game or something."
"A game? What kind?"
"Consoles these days are pretty solid—there are plenty of ones that make you exercise."
"Oh, I know those. I've seen them."
"You know how to play?"
"Nah, I've only watched."
Games had tutorials.
Even if he didn't know a single thing, there would be friendly little helpers to walk him through it, so there was nothing to worry about.
"Go to the place where I used to buy games and pick one up. Then work out with it at home. You don't even have to leave the house—perfect."
"…I'll give it a shot, but what about you?"
"I'll decide after I see how you do."
"Tch."
If he just ate whatever he wanted in my body and packed on the flab, I'd have no choice but to fight fire with fire.
If I couldn't stop him with strength, this was the only method left. Call it cowardly and petty all you wanted—it was the best I had.
For a guy who'd starved himself enough to wreck his menstrual cycle just to manage his weight, looking at his own body after it got fat would be pure agony. He'd have no choice but to listen to me.
Song Haneul grumbled the whole way, but in the end he went out and bought the game and the equipment.
"Will I actually lose weight working out with this?"
"It's better than doing nothing."
"How do I connect this? I just hook it up to the console, right?"
"The cable's already attached. Just press this."
Since I always played on the big living-room TV, getting started was quick.
The setup took a while, but the tutorial was simple.
It was all basic stuff you just had to follow along with—unless you were an idiot, there was no reason you couldn't do it. And compared to the workouts I used to do to build my body, there was nothing difficult about it at all.
No heavy weights, no annoying people next to you.
Exercises you did alone with just your body couldn't possibly be that hard.
"This is nothing."
"I've already put in the work. Starting from scratch is the hard part. Once the muscle's there, it gets easier."
"You try it."
"Your body doesn't have a single muscle on it."
"Exactly—so let's see just how pathetic it is."
Song Haneul undid all the settings he'd struggled to put in place and hauled me to my feet.
Dragged off the sofa before I knew what was happening, I stood there blankly clutching the controller and staring at the screen.
"How about this one? Engage your core. Having abs was always my dream."
"For a woman to get abs, you'd have to go through hell…"
"So you get them for me."
"You're insane…"
The demand was so outrageous that a curse slipped out on its own.
My intention had been for us to exercise just enough to keep from gaining weight, but Song Haneul was treating this as an opportunity to make me work out in his place.
I'd always been taught that you couldn't do someone else's exercise for them—but apparently a body swap made even that possible.
"You're terrible at this."
"That's because… your body's the problem. Nngh! And—huff—you set everything up—huff—to your standards from the start…!"
Just putting in a little real effort made the world spin in front of my eyes.
No matter how hard I pushed, willpower and mindset couldn't bridge the basic gap in physical ability.
I couldn't even finish a single set properly before the strength drained from my arms.
My trembling hands could still grip, but putting force into them had become nearly impossible.
"Then just make your own settings."
"…I'm not building muscle for you. I went through all that trouble just to keep the fat off and grow my chest, and this body doesn't have a single good thing going for it. That's why it falls apart in places you can't even see. As long as it doesn't hurt, the price is right."
"Ugh. You're really asking for it."
A solid thwack rang out, and it felt like my back had caught fire.
The searing heat that flared up made my vision swim.
"Aaagh! That really hurts—why'd you hit me so hard?"
"I just swung it normally."
"That's exactly why it hurts like hell. My back… is it going to bruise? The last time I got hit, it turned all purple."
I put a hand on my back where I couldn't see and groaned.
Then, out of nowhere, my shirt was yanked up.
"It's just red. You're fi—oh, wait, there's a handprint."
He left my shirt hiked up, stared at my back, and then started laughing, which left me speechless.
Look at this complete bastard—hitting me, inspecting the damage, and then laughing about it. That was pretty much what little sisters were like.
I didn't know why, but that was usually how it went.
"Put my shirt down."
"Yes, yes."
"Ugh, seriously."
I yanked the half-lowered shirt the rest of the way down and started exercising again.
I was determined to keep up with the workout volume Song Haneul had set as the standard.
And that evening, the muscle soreness hit.
"Song Haneul, you crazy bitch…"
I lay in bed and poured out complaints about how unfair it all was.
Even lying still, the pain of muscles that felt like they were tearing made me writhe.
No matter how much I tried to relax, the ache wouldn't go away.
"Geez, what a drama queen."
"You're the drama queen."
"This little shit—you talking back again?"
"Wait, don't come over here. I said don't come over—!"
"Whuzzat?"
Even as he said it, he grabbed my waist in a firm grip.
It was already a weak spot, and with the muscle soreness on top of it, a scream-tinged sound slipped out of me.
"Hyeek…?"
This bastard—why did he keep touching me so often?
Wait, that spot's kind of sensitive—ah.
"Hey, hey! Don't grab my armpit—the side of my chest, ah—ah!"
I flailed and tapped at him, trying somehow to wriggle free, but Song Haneul's big hands made escaping nearly impossible.