Gender Reversed Geum Taeyang - Chapter 76

Chapter 76 – Sweet Potato Human

A dark house.

Through the brightly lit monitor, a video plays.

A two-hour animated film. It’s now heading towards its climax.

The two protagonists who finally achieve love after hardships and difficulties. No, they’re still in the process of achieving it.

The work featuring the character chosen for cosplay happened to be a movie, so I decided to watch it, but… how should I put this?

I seem to be more adjusted than when I first came to the reversed world, but perhaps my training is still lacking.

Watching a pretty boy character act like that, I just can’t immerse myself in the movie.

Rolling my eyes slightly to the side, Ari is… pretending not to be, but she seems to have found the movie quite moving.

She’s blinking hard, perhaps trying to hold back tears.

As always, she’s surprisingly sensitive for a woman of the reversed world.

I tore off a few sheets from the roll of tissue paper in front of me and handed them to Ari.

“Why, why are you doing this, Yuhan…?”

“Don’t you know why I’m doing this?”

Who is she trying to hide it from?

As a woman of the reversed world, she must have her pride but… Ah. Come to think of it, that’s right. Should I have pretended not to notice?

Well, what can I do now that it’s come to this?

Holding the tissue, I wiped Ari’s damp eyes with somewhat rough movements.

“I-I’ll do it myself!”

“Do it later. I’m doing it now.”

To think there’d come a day when I’d use tissue paper like this. Since coming to the reversed world, it had lost its usefulness and was only used for wiping desks.

After finishing appropriately and turning back to the screen, the climax finally appears.

The male and female protagonists look at each other and kiss.

This is… well. If it were before, I would have tried my best to endure it, but after hearing about Ari’s breakup, strange thoughts are starting to emerge.

The feelings I’ve been holding back seem to be leaking out bit by bit. Especially since I heard the ending wasn’t good either, it feels even more so.

Turning my head slightly, my eyes meet with Ari, who was looking at me.

We stare at each other for a moment before simultaneously turning away.

What am I doing? Nothing will change just because I have strange thoughts, and having such thoughts at this timing – how would I be any different from Geum Taeyang?

Though nothing will change in my lifelong single status if I don’t do anything… I’m not sure. My head just suddenly became complicated.

I tried to focus on the movie again, but.

I felt an inexplicable heat rising in my body.

###

Should I have tried harder to prevent that character from being selected?

Watching such a movie only created an awkward atmosphere between Yuhan and me.

Though honestly, it probably wouldn’t have been much different with other characters either.

And truthfully, I didn’t want to anyway.

Firstly, I didn’t want to show interest in other male characters in front of Yuhan.

Secondly, with the most manga-like guy right beside me, there’s no way my eyes would turn to such characters.

Well… though the genre of manga might be a bit different.

Now I’m sitting on the bed in comfortable clothes after finishing my shower.

The sound of Yuhan showering comes through the bathroom door.

Feeling somewhat ticklish, I hugged a pillow and recalled what happened earlier.

I’ve made many attempts to maintain my pride in front of Yuhan, but I can’t remember ever succeeding.

Of course, Yuhan doesn’t seem to care much about femininity or masculinity, but still, what’s disappointing is disappointing.

Even so, sniffling while watching an animated movie in front of a man is a bit…

By the way, why did Yuhan look at me earlier? During that scene, of all times.

… Being in love makes me think strange things about trivial matters. This will only lead to self-loathing.

If I were to reveal my feelings to Yuhan here, wouldn’t it just make a bad impression?

It would look like I changed my heart right after breaking up with my boyfriend.

Even if I say I’ve harbored these feelings from long ago, before I realized it myself, no one would acknowledge that.

Maybe I shouldn’t harbor such feelings in the first place. Should someone like me be allowed to love such a pure person?

I hugged the pillow tighter with my frustrated heart.

No matter how much I try to calm it down, my heart keeps pounding.

It’s all Yuhan’s fault.

For making me realize how pathetic other men are. For showing off his superiority.

And then for showing such an innocent side only to me.

How could any woman not fall in love?

I looked at my phone’s wallpaper and reminisced about memories.

Though they’re memories from just yesterday. Only 24 hours have passed since I realized my feelings, but there have been so many changes in my life.

Creeak-

The bathroom door opens with a hinge sound.

Along with warm air, and a sensual aura from wet hair.

“Ugh. I should just use cold water tomorrow, it’s too hot. Ari, what are you doing?”

“Huh? Just… just sitting here.”

“Pfft. What do you mean ‘just’?”

Walking over while drying his hair with a towel, he sits on the blanket below the bed.

After arguing about who would sleep on the floor, we agreed to take turns.

As I look down at him from above, my eyes are drawn to the loose neckline of Yuhan’s t-shirt.

Today too, my sexual desire overcame my self-loathing, and while I was staring at Yuhan…

“Ari, is there something on me?”

“Huh? No…! Ugh.”

“…Hey, wait a minute.”

“Y-yes…?”

Yuhan raises his already fierce eyes even more fiercely and glares at me.

Did he notice? Wouldn’t it be strange if he didn’t notice? I was staring so obviously…

Cold sweat runs down. Yuhan’s silence is so scary.

I’m always like this.

Yuhan starts reaching his hand toward me.

###

Thump-!

After looking at Ari for a moment.

I reached for the wall behind her.

Ari flinched greatly in surprise, but…

Isn’t this better than lying down to sleep and seeing this bug?

Turning my hand slightly, there’s the bug, dead in a miserable state. About the size of the tip of a pinky finger.

I once again proved my fantastic hand movements that don’t leave marks on the wall. This is proper hand technique.

Even though bugs are rarely seen in my house because I clean thoroughly, it was walking around like it owned the place. It must have been desperate to die.

It’s a miserable death, but well, if you’re upset, you should have been born human.

“Uh… Yu-Yuhan…?”

“Hm? …Ah.”

Well. I’ve been punished.

Ari, who was awkwardly leaning against the wall after being pushed by me, looks at me with trembling eyes.

Our eyes meet briefly before we both turn away in opposite directions.

What is this? A familiar situation. There was a similar situation before when I visited Ari’s house, caused by Geum Taeyang’s sudden movement.

I don’t know how it looks to others, but at least I know that was Geum Taeyang’s doing.

But this time, didn’t I pounce on Ari entirely of my own will?

This is driving me crazy. It’s even hard enough to control my mind right now.

A water droplet from the tip of my hair rolls down Ari’s collarbone.

My lower body is starting to tense up. This is really not good.

I quickly pulled away from Ari.

“Th-the b-bug! There was a bug so I tried to catch it… S-sorry.”

I said that while slightly showing her my open palm.

“Uh, okay… It-it’s fine…”

An even more awkward atmosphere than when we were watching the movie.

Damn. How should I interpret this?

A man and woman in comfortable clothes preparing for bed in a studio apartment, both fresh from showers.

Isn’t this enough of a situation for me to misunderstand? If Ari was uncomfortable, wouldn’t she have said something to me already?

But still.

Still, we’re talking about Ari here.

A woman who… gets involved with another man the day after breaking up with her boyfriend…

No… was it even true that she broke up with Lee Junhyuk yesterday?

From the time we first met, Ari was reluctant to talk about Junhyuk in front of me.

For someone who didn’t want to talk about their lover to others… I heard quite a lot of negative comments about Junhyuk.

No matter how you look at it, Junhyuk was someone unworthy of Ari, and it seemed Ari didn’t have special feelings for him either.

From any angle, weren’t they lovers whose relationship was already ending long ago?

Then… what should I do?

Is this just delusion?

I definitely have feelings for Ari. What about Ari? Would she develop romantic interest in someone like me?

Still, she seemed to have really enjoyed spending time with me, and I’m confident she had more fun with me than with Junhyuk.

Those piercings, that hair dye – weren’t they all done on my recommendation? Is Ari the type to make such decisions easily? Wasn’t it because it was my recommendation that she made those decisions so easily?

No matter how kind she is, does it make sense to be so generous to someone she’s not interested in?

Looking back at everything that’s happened, I think our relationship was never ordinary.

But the courage of a 23-year-old lifelong single in matters of romance is pathetic.

Everything feels negative, and I’m becoming negative too.

Even though I always talk about being a manly man, I can’t change those negative feelings.

Some certainty grows, but no courage appears at all.

“I-I’m going to wash my hands.”

Though it’s a pathetic choice, I fled the scene.

Shouldn’t I have lived up to my reputation at a time like this?

Damn it.

What am I supposed to do?

If we really, really are interested in each other…

Surely. A more definite moment will come than today.

Today. Just today. Just this once. Let’s let it pass like this.

(End of Chapter)