Informal speech had slipped out in the confusion, but the doctor’s words were just that absurd.
The girl who had been choking on her own blood in the entrance of his friend’s house, after he had visited for the first time in ages, was his friend himself.
It was the kind of story that denied head-on all the common sense Ha Gangin had built up over nineteen years, starting from the day he was born.
And so, ignoring the chaos in his head, Ha Gangin asked a question.
“Doctor, but the kid from earlier definitely looked⋯ quite different from the one I knew⋯.”
The doctor opened his mouth with an understanding expression.
“First of all, guardian.”
‘Guardian⋯?’
“Y-yes.”
For some reason, even being referred to as the guardian did not feel particularly uncomfortable.
“Have you perhaps heard of ‘AGTS’? Or Acquired Genetic Trait Transformation Syndrome?”
“Excuse me?”
What was this now?
It was a name he had never heard or seen in his life.
Moreover, the only illness Ha Gangin knew that began with “acquired” was AIDS.
When he first heard up to “AG,” he had almost asked aloud whether the doctor meant AIDS, but after hearing the words that followed, he decided to change his question.
“What kind of⋯ disease is that?”
The doctor’s answer was simple and clear this time as well.
Only this time, he continued with an expression that seemed to say, As expected.
“It’s⋯.”
‘This person really can’t control his expressions well enough to be a doctor⋯.’
The doctor paused for a moment before explaining.
“As the name suggests, it is a rare disease. To help you understand⋯ you have probably heard of cases like this.”
“Cases where an allergy you didn’t have as a child appears, or conversely, an allergy you suffered from disappears as you grow older. You can think of it as a broader version of that. Ahem.”
As if finishing his long introduction, the doctor briefly gathered his breath, then the rest of the explanation flew toward Ha Gangin, who still wore a blank expression.
“Usually⋯ it is a condition where the color of the iris or body hair changes, or one’s constitution changes, or a chronic illness that wasn’t there before develops⋯ but, depending on the person, there are said to be cases where appearance, height, and in severe cases even sex changes.”
“The cause of onset is currently unknown. What has been discovered is that all patients develop it from their late teens to early twenties, and that it is found in roughly one out of ten million people.”
“Then you mean⋯?”
“Yes, guardian. In my opinion—no, according to the test results, Lee Hoeseo currently possesses a completely female body.”
The doctor continued explaining to Ha Gangin, who still looked puzzled.
“The reason we were certain that person was Lee Hoeseo is because, though you may not know this, after the world’s first case of external changes caused by AGTS appeared, a law was enacted in the Republic of Korea requiring iris data of children aged seven or older to be stored until they become adults.”
‘Come to think of it⋯.’
Ha Gangin suddenly remembered his parents complaining when he was young, asking whether they registered even things like that nowadays.
“Lee Hoeseo is eighteen years old on paper. It was fortunate that his birthday had not passed yet.”
“Patients suspected of having AGTS can be compared against national data, you see.”
The doctor added.
“Due to the nature of the condition, the recovery period is not short, but it is not such an unstable state either, so currently, in a general ward on the fourth floor⋯.”
At those words, Ha Gangin suddenly came to his senses.
“Did you just say⋯ a general ward?”
“Pardon? Yes.”
“Does sunlight come in there? Even if it’s not direct light, by the window. You didn’t put him by the window, did you?”
The doctor answered awkwardly.
“Well, of course light does come in⋯.”
— Thud
“Guardian?”
The doctor called out to Ha Gangin, who had suddenly stood up and seemed to be in a hurry, but there was no reply.
— Bang
Ha Gangin opened the door and shouted in panic.
“Sunlight is no good!”
— Tatatat
Watching Ha Gangin’s back as he ran up the stairs the instant he finished speaking, the doctor said,
“If that’s what you’re worried about⋯ he should probably be all right now⋯.”
Naturally, the words did not reach him.
*
— Beep
— Beep
A muffled yet regular beeping sound reached his ears.
At some point, he had been moved from the cold floor to something smooth and soft.
Based on Lee Hoeseo’s experience, he was lying on top of bedding.
‘Where⋯ the fuck am I now⋯.’
His body still would not take strength properly, but compared to that sense of complete helplessness before, it did not feel like he was utterly unable to move.
With effort, though the sensation was strange, he could at least move the tips of his toes.
‘It feels similar to back then⋯.’
Whenever he had dreams about the car accident, sometimes the dream would continue all the way to a hospital room.
His arms and legs felt short, like when he was a child.
‘⋯Short?’
The sensation felt strange.
He did not know whether he still had not fully come back to himself, or whether he was still in a dream.
However, the ends of his body, felt together with a floating sensation, seemed far too short compared to usual.
‘What is it this time? If this is a nightmare, hurry up and wake up⋯.’
Now, together with a brightness like sunlight stabbing his eyes, he felt his senses slowly returning.
‘It’s bright. And⋯ warm.’
His mind was already dyed white as he felt the warmth flowing in through the closed window.
‘Should I just sleep⋯.’
But at the same time, Lee Hoeseo was curious where exactly this place was.
‘I’ll look just once, then go back to sleep. If it’s a dream, I’ll wake up.’
— Slide
What he saw through his narrowed eyes was, emptily enough, only a very blurry shape.
“⋯?”
He opened his eyes a little wider, but it was still hazy, as if frost had formed over them.
‘Ugh⋯.’
Putting strength into his eyes made the corners begin to ache, so he closed them again and decided to check whether his body moved properly instead.
— Slide
He tried turning his head as far as possible to the side.
— Twitch
He tried putting strength into the tips of his toes once.
The nerves connected throughout his body were telling her that she could at least move her own body now.
‘The situation’s better than before.’
Certainly, compared to before, when she could not see anything and felt pain like her body was being beaten even while lying still, this was better.
After lying there a little longer, she could move not only the ends of her body, but also parts a little closer to the center.
‘There’s something in my right hand. If this is a hospital⋯ then it’s probably something like an IV⋯.’
Lee Hoeseo slowly lifted her left hand, felt around her own face until she found her left cheek, and carried out the classic method of checking whether one was dreaming.
— Squish
‘U-uaaaaagh!’
Lee Hoeseo screamed.
To be precise, inwardly.
‘What the hell is this?’
‘Is it a dream?’
She had definitely tried to pinch with all her might, but there was barely any strength in her hand, so it only ended up being more like fondling her cheek.
And the texture of that cheek, just as she had already felt⋯
— Soft
‘This is really weird.’
— Squish
‘⋯⋯.’
No matter how many times she pinched her cheek again, unlike before, when only slightly sunken skin would be caught, what she grasped was a soft cheek.
— Slide
This time, she brushed around her mouth.
‘It’s been more than four days since I last shaved.’
Instead of rough stubble, all she could feel around her mouth was something like fine, downy fuzz, barely there as it brushed her fingers.
‘This⋯ Did someone go out of their way to shave me⋯?’
Even the feeling when she clenched and opened her hand was soft, as if she were touching cloth woven from microfiber.
The gradually returning sensations throughout her body made her realize the absence of the lower anatomy she had lived with as if it were one with her body—no, as part of her body—for over a dozen years.
‘⋯It’s gone. It disappeared.’
When she squeezed her thighs together slightly, both thighs touched through the fabric of her clothes without anything getting in the way.
She turned her head a little.
Even if she assumed, for the moment, that she had not been made a eunuch, it was clearly true that it had become significantly smaller than before, so she immediately grew gloomy.
And then she realized.
‘Haha, I barely dream unless it’s nightmares to begin with, so there’s no way a dream could be this vivid.’
‘Just what kind of disease would make you pass out with full-body paralysis and then wake up with your body shrunk⋯?’
Lastly, Lee Hoeseo lifted her leg, which was starting to move to some extent, then immediately lowered it again.
‘Kuaaagh, it’s cramping!’
It was the same type of pain as when you first sat down after standing frozen in one posture all day, but it throbbed at least five times worse.
‘It’s not like all my muscles were replaced.’
In truth, the actual situation was similar to that, so her intuition was good.
Lee Hoeseo cleanly gave up on moving her limbs right away.
Instead, she tried turning her head to the left, in the direction where the wall seemed to be.
When she slowly opened her eyes, something like a white wall came into view more clearly than before.
As she gradually raised her head like that, what she saw was a wall, a wall, and more wall.
‘Eeeek!’
When she finally lifted her head all the way, she could tell, if only vaguely, that the open thing over there right now was a window.
‘A window? I’m not supposed to be touched by sunlight.’
‘Well, my body shrank, so maybe that much can happen too, fuck⋯.’
That was when reality still felt faint.
— Bang!
Together with the sound of something being flung open hard came rough breathing.
“Hey! Huff, you, you⋯ are you really Lee Hoeseo?”
The voice coming from behind Lee Hoeseo, who had been looking toward the wall, was extremely familiar.
‘Why is this guy here too⋯.’
However, considering that this place was a hospital room and Lee Hoeseo’s situation, there was not exactly anyone else who would come.
Lee Hoeseo forced herself to ignore her dizzy head and spoke.
‘Hey, look at this.’
“I god fuggin’ shmall⋯?”
The words she had been croaking out one syllable at a time while slowly turning her head suddenly stopped.
‘Huh.’
“For real? You’re really Lee Hoeseo? Ha, unbelievable.”
The doctor, who seemed to have followed after him, also suddenly appeared, panting as he continued.
“S-see? I told you he was all right.”
“It’s a disease that changes one’s constitution, so when we immediately ran a blood test, the allergy symptoms he had ten years ago or so⋯ were gone.”
But to Lee Hoeseo, that was no longer very important.
The girl looked at Ha Gangin in bewilderment with small, grayish eyes.
“Uh, what? Ha, are you surprised I came, you little shit? But you really are Lee Hoeseo, right?”
‘You.’
Only now did Lee Hoeseo notice what was strange.
The problem was not that her vision was blurry.
Rather, now that he had come closer, it had become clear enough that she could see the beads of sweat on Ha Gangin’s face.
“Why aren’t you saying anything? Water, should I bring you water?”
‘You, I mean.’
There were more than one or two things that felt off.
But the greatest question was this.
“Here. Yeah, I still can’t believe it. You got this small⋯.”
‘Why⋯.’
Ha Gangin’s clothes, shoes, and the bag he had boasted about buying one day, which should have been dark green, as well as even the small flowerpot behind him, all entered her eyes.
Whether her eyesight had not actually improved, or whether she had only now come to her senses, the sudden realization made Lee Hoeseo’s stomach churn.
“You’re not taking it? Ah, can’t you?”
And only at that moment was the pronunciation she let out accurate.
“Why⋯ is it gray?”