“Wow, you only brought delicious food… Heck!”
“Don’t just eat the galbi jjim, you crazy bear.”
With three days left of the holiday.
While spending time with the mascots and finishing up the leftover festive food.
I grabbed the crazy Gomteng’s hair, who was only picking at the galbi jjim, and as I looked at one of the empty squares on the calendar, a sudden thought hit me.
“Siyeon’s birthday is…”
Birthday.
Unlike this body I have no origin for, Siyeon definitely had parents.
Unlike me, Kim Mari, who had the absurdity of being initialized to January 1st like some sort of date data default value, Siyeon had a sense of plausibility.
The plausible date of October 2nd.
About two weeks after Chuseok, when Siyeon’s birthday falls.
Naturally, I have to buy a birthday cake, and the days without ordered food are fewer, so it couldn’t be anything special.
Food is one thing, but the bigger problem is the birthday present.
I shouldn’t feel frustrated about something like this, but Siyeon rarely asks for anything.
No toys, no dolls, not even gaming consoles or electronic devices that everyone else has.
Normally, kids are supposed to act like kids, whining and crying while throwing tantrums in the mart, wrestling with their parents…
“Siyeon.”
As I called Siyeon while eating, she turned her face, almost buried in her bowl.
“Uh?”
“Don’t you want anything?”
“Nothing!”
Even when I asked if there was something she wanted, her reply was almost instantaneous.
That’s why getting birthday gifts or choosing anything is a challenge.
At least when I ask about food, I get a clear answer, but she has almost no desires when it comes to things or toys.
Thus, she usually follows what I use first.
Given my mental age isn’t at the level where playing with dolls or robots is suitable, I moved straight to smartphones and computers for entertainment.
“Maybe it’s time to buy her a phone…”
Since she doesn’t explicitly want anything, I started contemplating the timing of buying her first smartphone.
In first grade, it might be considered quite early, but it’s not like I could not buy her one at all.
Looking at her classmates, unless they have unusually strict parents about education, more than half of them have smartphones.
Even if it’s early, it’s better than being unable to join in on conversations with friends, so I boldly placed the order with a hefty amount.
Fifty orders of chicken flew away easily, but thanks to that, I no longer had to worry about birthday gifts.
“Marie, let’s go play!”
“Uh, um… I guess we should.”
As autumn is about to really settle in.
Hearing the kids playing outside, Siyeon, almost instinctively, urged me to follow her outside.
Even though the apartment’s a bit out of the way, is it because it’s still part of the metropolitan area?
Even the holiday playground, where the paint is peeling, has children gathering.
Since the monster hasn’t shown up, the walking exercise has been lacking, so these days, I’m filling the gap with Siyeon, who has unintentionally become more relaxed, even in such playgrounds.
Looking back, among the other magical girls, there weren’t many who looked plump; if they were lean, they were lean.
Boys playing soccer using flimsy cardboard boxes for goals.
And on the other side, kids are still mixed up and playing on the same slide regardless of gender.
Though we live in an era of smartphones, that doesn’t stop so many kids from playing outside.
While other neighborhood kids and Siyeon repeatedly climb an uphill slope and slide down, I just run around them.
Occasionally, a flying shot from Han-gwon comes zooming by, but dodging it is a workout of its own.
If I get hit, I surely have rotten luck.
“Jaehyun, let’s go in!”
“Nooooo-!”
“Let’s go in, Gang-won, I’ve made Salisbury steak.”
“Really?!”
As the sky darkens, kids start returning home, dragged by their parents, and Siyeon, who was playing on the slide, also parted from her peers.
Shortly after, she sauntered over to me after running for a while to rest.
Once we get home, I’ll remind her to wash up, and while she does, I think of a menu suitable for the darkening evening.
Today, I suddenly crave hamburgers.
No particular reason—just one of those days.
Thinking that two of the smallest bulgogi burgers would be a good amount, my finger moves towards the set menu.
However, as soon as I entered the app, I hesitated at the sight of the notice.
[Due to unexpected supply chain issues, we are temporarily unable to provide French fries. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and will do our best to resume sales promptly.]
“Ah.”
I wasn’t sure what French fries were at first, but it turned out they were just fries.
It was a major issue to eat a burger without fries.
But I wanted the burger.
In the end, I left the usual burger shop and sought another.
In a world where you wouldn’t even jokingly say burgers are cheap.
It’s rare to find anything under 3,000 won, with a single item costing 5,000 won as a basic price.
What’s with the staggering prices for burgers that aren’t even handmade? Seeing one at a price above 10,000 won makes you think, “With this money, you could have…”
Anyway, I ordered a set of two bulgogi burgers and one shrimp burger from another burger franchise.
We could always split the shrimp burger.
Just as I completed my order at that perfect moment, Siyeon emerged from the bathroom, her body still not fully dried.
Now it’s my turn.
I slowly get up, taking my panties and white camisole that were loosely hanging on the drying rack, rolling them up to cradle in my arms, and I told Siyeon in advance.
“I ordered hamburgers, so make sure to bring them in when they arrive, okay?”
“Hamburger!”
The moment I stepped into the bathroom, I leaned against the wall and started tossing my clothes, one by one, onto the closed toilet seat, while placing the rolled-up clothes I was about to change into right next to me.
As much as I could, I tried not to think about the fact that I’m a different gender.
It’s impractical to avoid looking at my own body while washing, and in the end, I’m carrying the burden of the body I must nurture.
Still, having memories of being a man brings about an inexplicable sense of guilt.
It’s inevitable to feel that this body still doesn’t belong to me; it feels alien.
For a moment, those thoughts faded.
Now, I got used to wrapping my long hair, and even when it touches my neck, I hardly feel surprised.
As the fluffy foam covers my body, the grime and sweat are overtaken by the smoothness from the body wash and its distinct artificial scent.
I picked up a dry towel and let my long hair fall forward.
Then, I used both hands to wring it gently from the top down, and with a light clap, shook off the excess water.
This way, at least no droplets would drop from my long hair to soak the floor.
After sitting on the toilet lid and drying off my body with a towel, I dressed in the change of clothes I had set aside, wriggling my little limbs as I put them on.
“Ahh.”
The moment I stepped out of the bathroom, I let out a refreshing sigh.
As I emerged from the warm water and the steam-covered bathroom, it felt unbelievably refreshing, not like summer at all.
Moreover, now that the heat has just passed, it’s slightly autumn.
The chill that envelops my body within moments is refreshing beyond words.
It felt like after working hard in the summer, waiting for personal maintenance covered in warm water in the shower…
A carefree and revitalizing feeling, with no worries at all.
But suddenly, an ominous thought popped into my head.
“No way, don’t tell me it’ll happen again…”
While such a thought that shouldn’t exist crossed my mind, there came a loud knock.
“Hamburger!”
There aren’t many people who would knock on this house.
Sure enough, it would just be the delivery person, and just as I expected, Siyeon shot out like a rocket.
Checking my smartphone, which I had with me in the bathroom, an alert appeared saying the delivery was completed.
Seems like some hasty riders hit the delivery completion button from the first floor, and that looks to be the case this time.
As I opened the door, a paper bag filled with burgers came into view inside a plastic bag.
I brought the crinkling plastic bag over to the low table.
Inside the paper bag were small burgers that, by adult standards, would be finished in five bites, stacked on top of each other.
On the other hand, there were fries that had spilled out of their paper container.
After tossing the plastic bag aside, I pulled out the burger from the paper bag, and tore the bag open to use it as a container for the fries.
Then, I squeezed out some ketchup packets to fit in the paper bag bowl…
And finally, I was ready to eat the burger.
“Does it taste good?”
“Yeah!”
Both of us looking petite made the bulgogi burger appear especially larger than life.
That burger, which could have been finished in four bites, felt unusually gigantic today.
One bite of the burger, one bite of fries.
As I kept repeating that endlessly, I filled up sooner than expected.
I managed to finish the burger somehow, but the fries remained.
At times like these, I called upon hearty dishes like gukbap.
In that moment, I locked eyes with the Gomteng.
“Leftover clean-up squad, deploy.”
“I shall heed your command!”
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