Buying Home Appliances
"Ugh..."
I opened my eyes to a room that wasn't mine at all. With nothing in it but a bed sitting there all by itself, the place felt bare. I couldn't blame anyone else for that. I was the one who had wrecked the room I'd had before.
So this was entirely on me.
Today was special. We were going out. I went into the bathroom and gave my face a halfhearted splash — a cat's wash, same as always — and rinsed my hair under the running water while I was at it. I'd cut it only yesterday, and yet by morning it hung all the way to my waist again.
How did women live with hair this long? Washing it took, no exaggeration, far longer than it ever had when I was a man, and drying it was worse. One towel couldn't begin to manage it. I needed at least two just to keep water from dripping off my head. There'd been a time when a single towel was more than enough for hair and body both. A woman's body was nothing but inconvenience.
I got my hair as dry as a towel would allow and stepped out of the bathroom. Bora was waiting, already dressed neat and tidy — nothing like me, standing there in nothing but my underwear. Ghost-hair and all, I shuffled over to her.
"Bora, dry my hair."
There was a hair dryer, but doing it alone was a hassle and a half, so I asked her for help. She let out a little snort of a laugh.
"Come here, Hana."
Pat-pat-pat!
I dashed over to where she stood with the dryer in hand. Her fingers moved with easy practice, working through my hair. Maybe because she was a woman too, she was uncannily good at it, and every so often she pressed her fingertips into my scalp in a cool, firm massage.
"Ah! Ah!"
I learned the hard way that too much pleasantness can tip straight into pain. My delicate scalp mistook Bora's massage for torture. Still, cool was cool, so I endured and gave myself over to her hands.
Once my hair was dry, she scooped clothes off the floor, dressed me in whatever was handy, and picked me up to carry me off somewhere. A familiar somewhere — the room with the closet where all my clothes lived. I went stiff in her arms, suddenly tense.
"What should we put on Hana today?"
All winter I'd gotten by with a long-sleeve shirt, pants, and a puffer jacket, so Bora's fashion coordination still felt utterly foreign, no matter how many times I'd been through it.
"Just put anything on me..."
I said what I wanted. Bora didn't so much as pretend to hear it. Somewhere in her head, I was sure, stood a version of me drowning in pink.
"Gyaaah!"
Dragged along by her hands, I was reduced to a dress-up doll. I lost count of how many outfits I changed into.
"Ta-da!"
After several dozen minutes of being her plaything, we ended up right back at the very first outfit: a pink pleated skirt, a brown sweater that looked warm just to look at, and stockings. I walked around feeling awkward. Women's clothes never got any easier to get used to, no matter how often I wore them. The skirt was comfortable enough while I stood still, but the moment I walked, a breeze slipped up from below, and that was very much not my style.
Holding Bora's hand, I headed for the elevator. Every time I stepped out of the building my heart started pounding. Exploring an unknown world was always a thrill.
"Have a good one!"
I threw a hand up high and greeted the building's security guard. If he learned my face, it would help later, whether I was sneaking out or coming back in. He smiled and waved in return. Kids really were the best. No matter what you did, people dropped their guard and took a liking to you.
We went down to the parking lot and climbed into Bora's car. I was a well-behaved child, so I buckled my seat belt properly, and Bora fussed with the seat this way and that so I wouldn't be uncomfortable.
"Hana, you're not uncomfortable, are you?"
"I'm good!"
Once we were more or less ready, the engine rumbled and the car slid forward.
The research institute sat well outside the city, so we still had several dozen minutes of driving ahead. From high up in the building you could see the city, faint and hazy, but still...
"Where are we going, Bora?"
I hadn't actually been told the destination. All I'd heard was that we were going outside. Bora smiled.
"We're going to buy a new TV and computer monitor. The ones you broke."
"Ah!"
Right. We had to replace the appliances I'd killed myself. The old TV and monitor had both died from water damage. I'd heard they were pretty expensive, and knowing I was the one who'd broken them made me want to crawl into a hole. I'd done something a little kid would do, and I was not a little kid.
"It's fine. The company's got plenty of money. Worst case, we use your card."
"I'm fine with that!"
I'd broken them, so using my card was fair. But Bora only said that. She seemed to have picked up a company card on her own. I pulled mine out of my teddy-bear wallet and offered it to her, and she wouldn't take it.
We passed the drive talking about delicious pudding and the dalgona toffee I'd made yesterday, and before I knew it we'd arrived. The destination was an enormous appliance store. Across the front, in huge letters, it read:
Starlight Appliances
Bora took my hand and we went inside.
"Welcome."
A neatly dressed clerk greeted us. From the uniform alone, an aura of someone who knew appliances inside and out practically rolled off them.
"Hello!"
I gave the clerk who'd spoken first a deep, formal bow. Greetings were supposed to be as polite and proper as possible if you wanted adults to like you. I still had no idea what was so great about a bow like that.
"Oh my! Hello to you too, little lady!"
The clerk waved at me and smiled. My greeting clearly possessed tremendous power. Nine times out of ten, whoever received it let their guard down and answered with a bright hello of their own.
"Hehe!"
Smiling, I stepped farther into the store. Gorgeous appliances filled my view, and I poked around this and that until I lost all track of time. What I'd had in my room before had been nice, but nothing here fell short of it.
"Hana, you have to stay with me."
Bora was following along behind. I dodged her hand like we were playing tag, but that only worked a few times. There was no truly escaping an adult's stride. Soon enough she caught me, and I was towed this way and that.
"Is there anything you especially want?"
Hmm. Bora seemed ready to buy me whatever I asked for, but I didn't really know TVs. If there was a TV, I watched it. That was the whole of my expertise. Pixels, inches — those things mattered, I supposed, but they didn't interest me. Something else, though, had my full attention.
"I want to buy this monitor!"
I'd found a replacement for the one the splash of water had ruined. The screen was neither too small nor too big, and the design was decent. While Bora had been talking with the clerk earlier, I'd given the monitor section a quick once-over, and this one had won me over.
"Yeah? Then for the TV, anything's fine?"
"Yep!"
She really didn't do things by halves. Not knowing she was using a corporate card, I built up an image of Bora casually swiping through purchases worth thousands of dollars. Watching her day to day, she seemed pretty rich anyway. The car, the clothes she usually wore — all of it looked expensive.
We bought a monitor that ran into the thousands, and one enormous TV whose price I couldn't even guess. I felt the staff's treatment of us improve sharply. Just how expensive a TV had she bought, for them to fuss over us like this? I thought I caught them climbing toward ten thousand dollars. Most TVs I'd seen sat around a few thousand, so Bora had definitely gone for something pricey.
"Please deliver these here."
While she paid, Bora gave the clerk an address. The clerk glanced at what she'd written, hesitated a moment, then spoke.
"Ah... yes!"
The address was strange, no question. It wasn't an ordinary home. She'd written down the company building. I did want to live on my own someday, but not now.
In the building, meals showed up right on time, I slept in comfort, and the heat was cranked nice and high. I wasn't going to find anywhere better out in the world. I was living there stuck on like a freeloader, but I knew perfectly well they couldn't do without me, so I roamed the building as if it were my own house, bold as anything. Good for me, good for the company. Two birds with one stone.
If I lived alone, I'd have to handle all the annoying housework myself, so I wanted to put moving out off until later. Still, once I got older, I'd become independent eventually, wouldn't I?