“...Mm.”
I’d planned to sleep in to my heart’s content, but maybe because I’d gotten used to waking up early, my mind was perfectly clear before the sun had even risen.
Normally, I only opened my eyes when I heard the alarm.
Even then, I’d been so tired I’d staggered to the bathroom.
Maybe it was because, unlike back then, I had no worries now.
My job? Unemployed.
Then, my assets? 500 billion.
On top of that, I was in the perfect situation where no one knew me.
If there was one problem, it was that my body wasn’t my body.
“I’m still a woman...”
I threw off the blanket, got up, and looked down at my body.
What shouldn’t have been there was there, and what should have been there had disappeared.
There was no point thinking about it any further.
Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I stopped thinking.
“Haaaah...”
Good grief, even my yawns sound elegant now.
This is driving me insane.
“Let’s just get it together.”
Muttering to myself, I walked to the bathroom.
The first thing I saw when I went in was the mirror.
Looking at my soft skin and blemish-free face even right after waking up, I let out a short sigh.
“...I really am getting used to it.”
Barely any time had passed, yet it was starting to feel like my own face.
Was I just quick to adapt? Or maybe it felt so unrealistic that my mind was treating it like a dream.
I didn’t know.
I squeezed toothpaste onto my toothbrush and started brushing my teeth.
After brushing my teeth and lightly washing my face, one concern came to mind.
A shower.
Should I?
I met Yeonbi’s eyes in the mirror.
My pupils trembled slightly.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to wash.
I was someone who showered morning and night to begin with.
It was just... a little embarrassing.
After staring down the Yeonbi in the mirror for a moment, I made up my mind.
“Let’s wash...”
I had to go out today anyway.
And from now on, I would have to keep living like this.
This woman’s body wasn’t the body of some stranger named Choe Yeonbi. It was mine.
It was my body, so it was fine.
It would be fine.
Probably.
“Phew...”
Letting out a long sigh, I took off my T-shirt.
Then I slipped off the underwear I’d been forcing myself to wear by tying it with a rubber band because it didn’t fit.
With my eyes slightly closed, I stepped into the shower and turned on the warm water.
Holding my pounding heart, I lifted my head and let the warm water fall over my whole body.
Water ran down my face, tracing curves as it flowed.
“...It still feels good.”
The sensation was different from usual, so it bothered me a little. Still, the feeling of warm water enveloping my body was nice, and the sense of strangeness soon disappeared.
The process of lathering up with the shower puff was a bit... difficult, but in any case, I safely finished my shower.
After coming out of the bathroom, I spent a long time drying my long hair with a hair dryer.
“So there’s a reason it takes all day.”
I could understand a little why it took women so long to get ready.
####
I have a lot to do today.
First, I’m going to buy a car.
I heard the cars I wanted would take a long time to arrive even if I ordered them, so I decided to pick up one car I could drive around casually until then.
Then I’d stop by a real estate office and look for a new place to live.
A fresh start like this.
Not as Choe Minhu, but as Choe Yeonbi, the owner of 500 billion in assets.
“...Is that too grand?”
I gave a small laugh and looked around my room.
This place I was in now.
Well, it was a studio apartment rather than a house, but still.
I’d only ended up living here because I’d come all the way here for work, so there was no need to stay any longer.
It had no advantages whatsoever.
It was cramped and bad. It was even pretty far from the company.
“Still, there was nowhere better than this.”
Memories of how hard I’d gone around to real estate offices came back to me vividly.
The agents had scolded me so much, saying there wouldn’t be any places that fit my conditions.
How happy I’d been when I endured that humiliation and barely managed to find this room.
After getting a job and moving to the capital area, the feeling of finding a decent room to live in was hard to put into words.
“...Though I had no idea the company I joined would be such a ‘family-like’ company.”
They say memories become beautified with time.
Somehow, everything was starting to feel a little wistful.
“I should leave quickly before it gets any more beautified.”
No matter what, getting attached to a place like this felt a bit much.
I wanted to leave as soon as possible and bury all the bad memories deep down.
“Since things have turned out like this, should I move somewhere quiet so I can’t think about anything?”
After thinking about it for a bit, I decided that somewhere near the capital area would still be better, so I planned to find a decent apartment nearby.
Come to think of it, the contract here was probably under Choe Minhu’s name. Would that be all right?
Maybe, like my ID and phone account, it had changed on its own. If so, there wouldn’t be any problem.
“Well, the landlord was never interested in who lived here anyway, so even if it hasn’t changed, it shouldn’t matter.”
When the boiler broke, or when the internet for the entire villa suddenly went out, the landlord only showed up after a long time had passed.
I wasn’t even sure if that person was actually the landlord in the first place.
That was how uninterested he was in this place.
And yet, if I didn’t send the monthly rent in the morning, he would even text me.
“Thinking about it makes me mad.”
I wondered if I could do something with the money I had, but I decided to let it go.
If it were my team leader, that would be one thing, but spending that kind of money on a landlord I barely ever met felt like a waste.
In any case, today was going to be busy.
I’d washed up, and I’d roughly organized where I would go.
Now I just had to wait for the deliveries to arrive.
I tore open one of the few remaining coffee mix packets and poured it into a paper cup.
I put water on in the electric kettle and blankly waited for it to boil.
‘It’d be nice to buy a coffee machine too.’
There really were so many things to buy.
If I kept thinking of things I’d need to live like this and bought them all, wouldn’t I burn through 500 billion in no time?
“No matter what, that’d be impossible.”
As I was thinking useless thoughts, the water in the kettle quickly began to boil.
####
Ding-dong— ding-dong—
The delivery had arrived.
“Ah, I told them not to ring the doorbell.”
Startled, I almost spilled the morning coffee I’d gone to the trouble of making.
I had no idea why they didn’t read the delivery instructions.
Were they doing it on purpose?
Frowning slightly, I opened the front door.
Packages were piled up in a heap.
“...Maybe they rang it because they got mad.”
Looking at the height of the boxes, I decided to understand, just a little.
I’d gotten a bit carried away shopping for clothes online at dawn yesterday.
I couldn’t buy the clothes I’d had my eye on, but instead, I could buy expensive clothes that both men and women could wear without issue.
Online shopping without worrying about money.
There probably wasn’t anything more fun than this.
First, I opened the smallest box.
“Ah, these are shoes.”
Dress shoes I’d always wanted to wear.
They weren’t all that expensive, just plain dress shoes that could be worn by both men and women.
“I hope the size fits...”
Just in case, I had measured my feet with a tape measure I had at home.
My shoe size was 235. I bought the dress shoes in 240.
If they didn’t fit, I could just exchange them or buy new ones.
The problem was that it’d be annoying.
So, hoping they fit perfectly, I slipped my foot in.
“Ah, they fit.”
They felt a little loose, but this much was fine.
I’d bought the other sneakers in 240 too, so they should all fit.
“Then I’ll open the shoes later.”
Now I turned my gaze to the larger boxes.
These were the main event of the day.
First, I opened the box containing the tracksuit.
A three-stripe jersey and plain training pants.
They were clothes I’d wear when going around comfortably in everyday life.
Clothes to wear when grocery shopping, or when I had to step out for a bit.
I took off the plastic and tried them on right away.
“This feels way too awkward...”
The size seemed to more or less fit, but everything felt so awkward in one way or another.
First, the most noticeable thing was my chest.
Maybe because I didn’t have proper underwear, it felt like it was moving around as it pleased.
Since something that hadn’t been there before had appeared, it was only natural that it felt awkward.
And then, that... my groin.
“...This is a problem too.”
Unlike my chest, maybe because something that had been there was gone, it felt awkward in a different way.
This is seriously absurd.
“I guess... I need to take out the underwear.”
I’d bought underwear just in case, and I was glad I had.
I found the box containing the underwear and opened it.
“...This feels strange.”
The fact that I had bought women’s underwear for myself to wear felt unbelievably awkward.
I stared blankly at the underwear for a moment, then came to my senses.
I had a lot to do today.
I didn’t have time to worry about every little thing like this.
I tore open the packaging and turned it this way and that.
For the design, I’d chosen the plainest possible white with no decorations.
‘It feels a little big. I didn’t measure wrong, did I?’
There had been instructions on how to measure the size, so I’d somehow done it on my own, but I wasn’t sure if it was right.
The size I measured was a D cup.
No, but whether it looked a bit big or not, this thing...
“Uh... how do I put this on...?”
After struggling by myself for quite a while, I barely managed to solve it by watching a video online.
“It’s on.”
It definitely held things in place well.
It felt a little tight, but it was probably supposed to feel like this, right?
“As for the bottom...”
For the bottom, I just had to put it on.
I squeezed my eyes shut and slipped it on.
Standing in front of the mirror in only underwear felt strange, so I hurriedly moved away.
Then I put the tracksuit back on over it.
It still felt awkward, but it definitely looked better than before.
“I guess I’ll have to go around like this for a while.”
After checking my outfit, I took out the sneakers from the remaining box and put them on too.
Now I was truly ready to go out.
“...Phew.”
Going outside for the first time after becoming Choe Yeonbi.
There had been a lot I needed to do, but because I was nervous, I couldn’t really remember it all.
I didn’t know.
I’d go out first and think after that.
####
Car dealer Min Songi.
Today, she welcomed one unusual customer.
A beautiful woman who entered the showroom looking oddly hesitant.
‘She’s really pretty.’
She was taller than Min Songi, and her skin was fair.
On top of that, her long, straight black hair even had a glossy sheen.
She hadn’t dressed up at all, but there was an aura radiating from her appearance.
Slightly overwhelmed by that aura, Min Songi faced her with a bit of awkwardness.
To think someone could give off this kind of impression while looking so casually dressed.
Min Songi had worked as a dealer for quite some time, but this was the first time she had seen a customer like this.
“Welcome. Did you make a reservation?”
At Min Songi’s question, the woman jumped in surprise and shook her head.
“A reservation... Do I need one...?”
Her quiet voice sounded worried, as if she might have done something wrong.
Seeing that, Min Songi tilted her head slightly. Then she quickly realized that the woman was all looks and quietly sneered to herself.
“No. Not necessarily. I just asked because I wondered if you had one. Are you here for a consultation?”
“Uh... yes. I wanted to buy a car...”
“Please come this way.”
And so Min Songi guided the woman, who seemed to be severely lacking in social skills, to a seat for consultation.
Then.
“Something available for same-day delivery... Just give me one.”
“Excuse me?”