The Entrance Ceremony, in Real Life
It was a morning that began with the same alarm as always, and yet the hour itself was not the usual one.
Seven-thirty. Considering she normally dragged herself up at eight-thirty, that was a full hour early, but today there was a reason it had to be. Not only today, either. From now on this would be the hour, and as for why, what was there even to say?
Today was her high school entrance ceremony. Worse, beyond this single morning stretched a dreadful future in which she would have to show up at school five days a week for the next three years. Waking early was nothing new. She had been doing it steadily for two months, and her body knew the rhythm. Even so, the sheer abnormality of having to go to school left her heavier than usual. Graduating high school was already a promise she had made her father. Running away by dropping out was not a choice that existed for her. In the end, all she could do was spend those three years attending like a good girl.
"Eunha, are you up?"
The housekeeper's voice came through the door. Every part of her wanted to mumble five more minutes and burrow deeper into the bed, but—
"I'm up..."
If the housekeeper had come to wake her, it meant there truly was no time left. It meant she had to wash and get ready right now. She flung off the frilled pajama dress she liked to sleep in, peeled herself out of the blankets, and went into the bathroom.
The mirror gave her back an expressionless girl in her underwear. Once, that would have been a cold, beautiful face she could barely bring herself to meet eyes with. Not anymore. The girl reflected there was her. Two months had been enough to accept a woman's body as her own.
She took the toothbrush from the wall, brushed her teeth, and then stood under the warm water pouring from the shower, letting it strike her all over until the sleep slowly washed away.
"Haa..."
One of the things that had changed since she became a woman was that showers had grown genuinely pleasant. Stand under water this warm and the time simply vanished. For the first few weeks she had ended up shut in the bathroom for over an hour, until she finally gave up and started waking early on purpose. Half the reason she got up so soon was the shower. For the person she used to be, washing had been nothing but a chore endured for the sake of staying clean. Now it had settled into one of the small pleasures of the day.
She let the water run over her for a while, then picked through the bottles lined up around her until she found the shampoo. The housekeeper had taught her how to use the rest of them. She didn't. A shower, by her personal doctrine, needed only three things: soap, shampoo, and body wash. Drying her hair afterward, carefully, on a cool setting so it wouldn't get damaged, ate the time just as fast, and that was the other half of why she had to be up early. Once her hair was completely dry, she put on the underwear the housekeeper had laid out on the bed. At first she hadn't even been able to fasten a bra hook by herself and had fumbled hopelessly. She was used to it now. For the record, the housekeeper had been the one to teach her. Asked why someone who managed everything else just fine had suddenly fallen apart over this, Eunha had nothing she could say. Well, I used to be a man, and I woke up a woman was the same as putting up a sign that read I am insane.
Panties on, bra on, she looked at the clothes still waiting on the bed and went briefly blank.
"I really have to wear this, don't I...?"
Because what lay there was a high school uniform. A girl's uniform, at that. A white dress shirt and a black vest—fine, she could live with those. The problem was the red plaid skirt. Someone might have said, you wander around the house in princess pajamas straight out of a cartoon, so what exactly is your issue with a skirt? But she spent most of her time at home inside her room. This uniform skirt was clothes for going out. It meant that she, who had been a boy, would have to wear a skirt where other people could see her. She got the shirt and the vest on, and still stood there wavering with the skirt in her hands, until the housekeeper's voice came and shoved her in the back.
"Eunha! Come down already!"
In the end she had no choice but to clench her teeth and put the skirt on.
"Coming! Ugh...!"
There wasn't that much time.
"Mmm, it's incredible again today."
The housekeeper's cooking was excellent, same as ever. Because it was a school day, and perhaps out of worry that her stomach might act up, the table held mostly mild, gentle dishes, and even so the food more than satisfied her.
"Eat slowly. There's still time."
She wanted, from the heart, to shout for another bowl of rice, but this body ate an absurdly small amount. Having to pick at her food in front of something this good was nothing but a lament. Try to put more in and it simply would not go, so there was no room to indulge a glutton's appetite. In the end she had no choice but to set her spoon down with tears in her eyes.
"Thank you for the meal!"
"Good. Eunha, you really do need to start eating a little more. I worry about you..."
"Ahaha..."
Did the housekeeper know? That Eunha was looking at the side dishes left on the table, swallowing, thinking what a waste it was. Back when she had been a boy she would have cleaned every last bite. Sorry, little guys!
"Driver Kwon will be waiting outside. Make sure you've got everything you need to bring."
"Okay."
She slung on a roomy book bag that stirred up old memories of middle school. Inside the loose bag there was nothing much: wet wipes, a pencil case, a tumbler of honey water, and a folding umbrella.
"I'm off, then."
"All right. You'll be careful with yourself, won't you? If you get hurt, it won't be just one or two people in this house raising the roof."
"You too, ma'am?"
"Well, of course. So you'll be careful?"
"Yes."
She said her goodbyes to the housekeeper, opened the front door, and stepped out into the yard—
"Good morning."
"Eek!"
God, that startled her. The moment she opened the door, what filled her view was a man who called to mind a bear stuffed into a suit that did not suit him in the slightest. Her driver and bodyguard, Driver Kwon Seongwook.
"...Miss?"
"Ah, it's nothing. I just almost tripped for a second."
She could hardly admit that a fierce-looking man had filled her eyes the instant the door opened and scared her half to death. He might look like a machine, but the truth was he bruised easily.
"I see."
She followed Driver Kwon across the yard, and when the front gate opened, a black sedan came into view. Even she, ignorant as she was about cars, could tell it cost a great deal. According to her father, it was hers. He opened the rear door for her out of consideration, and she thanked him for it.
"Thank you."
Employee or not, he was far older than she was. Keeping at least this much courtesy seemed right. He answered with a slight nod, and once he had confirmed she was seated in the back, he got into the driver's seat.
"It should take about ten minutes. Close your eyes for a bit, if you like."
"Okay."
She had been badly carsick for as long as she could remember, so instead of looking at her phone she rested the back of her head against the seat and shut her eyes. She was enjoying a short rest against the sound of the car running when his voice reached her.
"We've arrived, miss."
"Nnnngh..... Okaaay."
It had been a rather sweet little rest, but apparently that was over now.
"Ah, and the chairman asked me to pass a word along to you."
The chairman? Her father?
"Dad did?"
Driver Kwon cleared his throat a few times, then delivered it in a firm voice.
"..."
"That is all. Of course, I am of the same mind as the chairman, miss. Boys of that age are far too full of hot blood. They are not the sort of fellows you ought to let anywhere near you. Please, do be careful."
Well, fine. She could understand a man worrying over his golden, precious only daughter sharing a space with boys. Did he really have to sweep every last one of them up and call them beasts, though?
"Yes, I'll be careful..."
Whatever she said, there was no stopping her father's fretting over his daughter. All she could do was answer yes, yes, and take it. Besides, she had already meant to get through high school quietly on her own. Even if he had never said a word, if some guy tried to hit on her, she would be the one turning him down.
"I'll head in, then."
"Yes. When school lets out, please call my number. Do take care of yourself."
"Yes. Thank you, as always."
She offered Driver Kwon her thanks, opened the car door, and stepped outside.
"Huh?"
The moment she was out, eyes crowded in on her, and only then did she realize that where she was standing was the school's main gate.
She had forgotten.
Even at high-school age, it was rare for someone to be dropped off by car. By middle school, everyone just got themselves to the gate. She had meant to ask him to let her out a decent distance away, and then she had fallen asleep and forgotten entirely. She could feel the looks, sidelong, murmuring over the girl who had just stepped out of the car. Of course they would. A car that obviously cost a great deal, and a schoolgirl of considerable looks climbing out of it. There was no way that failed to draw interest.
The sensitive ears that had served her so well at sound play in Project A, fetching her information on the enemy, were now fetching her something useless: the students' gossip about her. She knew it in her gut. The plan to live as quietly as possible for three years had already warped, right from the opening step.
"Haa..."
She clutched her throbbing head, and thought it.
I'm screwed.