5.
Once I was hospitalized, there was nothing I could do about it, but I was so bored.
I think it felt even worse because I had never rested this long since I ended up on my own.
An unwanted hospitalization. Restricted outings, maybe because the tests still weren’t finished.
The only way to stave off boredom was to watch broadcasts on my phone.
I lay in bed and binged all the streams I’d fallen behind on.
After watching all sorts of clips, I saved the funny ones separately to watch later.
I wandered through every community I could, and if there was a stream people were talking about, I devoured the full video.
So did I spend my whole stay in the hospital lying around watching broadcasts?
Not exactly.
After all, lying in bed all day made my body feel stiff, so I moved around from time to time.
Maybe because it was a big hospital, there was even a sky garden on the same floor.
It also had exercise facilities, so it was nice for some light movement.
The floor I was on was reserved for patients related to gate accidents or patients of other races, so there weren’t many other patients either. I didn’t have to worry about people staring.
“…What is this, a scale?”
When I wandered around the empty garden, I would occasionally find lost items… or should I say, things that were characteristic of other races.
There were scales, long hairs that looked like whiskers, and all sorts of interesting things, so it was actually fun to look for them.
And so, my fulfilling hospital life continued, together twenty-four hours a day with the broadcasts I loved.
It was quiet and comfortable, too, to the point that at some point I even found myself wanting to stay hospitalized forever.
Of course, I knew that was an impossible dream, but isn’t that what escapism is?
“Still, seonji soup for hospital food is a bit much, isn’t it?”
Just like how I entered my favorite streamer’s broadcast when the appointed time came.
Morning, lunch, and evening, whenever the appointed time came, a nurse arrived carrying a meal tray.
Grilled fish last night, ssambap for lunch today, and seonji soup for dinner.
Maybe it was because of all that talk about my constitution, but every meal had been overflowing with personality.
Thanks to the unpredictable menu, I had found myself quietly looking forward to it.
“It’s really bouncy.”
Inside the black earthenware bowl, bouncy brown chunks floated on top of the red broth.
…So this is a lump of blood, huh.
It wasn’t the sort of food that would show up in a school cafeteria,
and since my parents hadn’t liked it either, it was my first time eating it in my life.
I knew, at least, that seonji was congealed blood.
But maybe because I knew it was blood, my hand didn’t reach for it easily.
Still, I couldn’t just not eat the food I’d been given, so I mustered my courage, scooped up a big spoonful, and put it in my mouth.
Hahp.
Chew, chew.
“Mmph… Still, it’s edible.”
The slippery texture and the faint bloody smell were unfamiliar,
but if I thought of it as a slightly unusual gukbap, it wasn’t so bad I couldn’t eat it.
…Of course, I didn’t think I’d ever pay my own money to eat it outside.
“At least it looks like I haven’t become a vampire.”
I set my spoon down beside the empty bowl and muttered softly.
I didn’t know whether vampires really liked seonji or not.
But even after eating a whole lot of it, I felt nothing but fullness.
Well, I could already tell I wasn’t a vampire from the moment I was walking around under the sun, though.
“It’s already nine. I should go wash up.”
My body had changed along with my sex, but in the end, it was still my body.
Even though my sense of distance and physical balance had changed quite a bit, I got used to it quickly once I moved around.
Maybe because I’d originally been on the tall side, it did feel strange sometimes when I passed by someone taller than me.
But that, too, was a problem that would naturally be solved with time.
“Ugh, I just can’t get used to this….”
But there was one thing I still hadn’t gotten used to even after several days: my body reflected in the mirror.
When I took off my patient clothes to wash and entered the shower room, I inevitably ended up facing the mirror.
No matter how hard I tried not to be conscious of it, the curves reflected in the mirror were so embarrassing that I kept averting my eyes.
That didn’t mean I could go my whole life without washing, or wash with my eyes closed, so I did my best to look.
But since it wasn’t exactly easy, every shower became a fierce battle inside my heart.
* * *
Even though there was clearly nothing particularly wrong with my body, my hospitalization strangely dragged on, and before I knew it, I was in my second week.
Including the time I’d spent unconscious, I had been hospitalized for a whopping six weeks.
It felt like I had been there too long, even though I hadn’t undergone any major surgery.
Since my body was fine, I cautiously asked if it might be better for me to be discharged.
“There are still tests remaining, so an immediate discharge will be difficult.”
All I got in return was that there were still things left to confirm.
They had already confirmed that my constitution didn’t seem to have changed and that I didn’t have mana, so what more was there to test?
I thought they were being needlessly cautious, but since it wasn’t exactly a bad thing for me to eat, play, and sleep for free, I simply nodded.
* * *
“Please sign here as well, and read through this too….”
“Ugh, there’s a lot to sign today too.”
While I was enjoying my happy hospital life, I Runa occasionally came by with documents.
“It’s a little annoying, isn’t it? We always say it’s cumbersome too. But the procedures have gotten a lot more complicated compared to before, so there’s no helping it.”
“What should I do about this photo? Can I just take one here?”
“Hmm… For now, you can take a temporary one here, and later you can visit the Administrative Welfare Center and change it to a photo you like.”
“It’s a hassle to go change it, so I’ll have to make sure it turns out as well as possible.”
“Since we’re on the subject, shall I take it for you now?”
“I’d be grateful if you would.”
About once a week, whenever she came, she brought an armful of documents, and what she had brought today were none other than identity-related documents.
At most, it was changing the first digit of the latter half of my resident registration number from 3 to 4, taking new fingerprints, and changing my ID photo, so why was there so much to fill out?
With society in chaos and all sorts of strange tools popping up, even this so-called country of speed had become complicated beyond recognition.
“It seems you’re not planning to change your name?”
After taking a temporary upper-body photo against a white wall,
I absentmindedly wrote my current name in the space for the name to go on my resident registration card, and I Runa asked.
“After all, my name was used more often by women than men.”
If my name had sounded too masculine, I might have changed one syllable or so.
But the name Yeon Ari had been used more often by women than men from the start.
And unless it was absolutely necessary to change it, I didn’t want to arbitrarily change the name my parents had given me.
…They’d said they chose it before I was even born, hoping I’d be cute like a little chick regardless of gender.
I could still vividly remember them laughing playfully, saying they’d named me wrong when I’d grown so huge that I was turning into some monster chicken instead of a chick.
Well, it was all just old history now.
“But couldn’t documents like these be delivered through someone else? You seem like you’d be busy.”
When I first met I Runa, I’d thought she came in person because it was important.
But for some reason, even afterward, she continued to come by whenever I had to sign minor documents.
I was completely ignorant about the guild’s administrative rank structure, but just hearing the title senior administrative officer made her seem busy.
I was curious why she came in person for things that could have been left to someone else.
Was the guild short on people? Surely not.
“There’s no special reason. I think my habit from when I used to work in the field is still with me, so when it comes to gate or dungeon-related work, I feel more comfortable going in person. Occupational disease, you know. Occupational disease.”
“Ah….”
It was a question I had asked without thinking much of it, but the answer was rather impressive.
To think there was someone in the world who found going in person more comfortable.
She called it an occupational disease, but seeing how bright her expression was every time she came, I wondered if she was simply born to enjoy working.
It seemed the rumor that everyone who worked in gate-related fields had something strange about them wasn’t for nothing.
“Oh, right. Could you read through this document?”
“What kind of document is it? It’s really thick….”
As I leaned back, thinking she was a scarier person than she looked, a document was placed in front of me.
“Hmm, to summarize… it’s a kind of contract to keep the fact that you were caught up in this incident a secret from the outside world, Ari.”
“My identity, you mean?”
“Yes. There’s no one who would benefit from it being made public.”
It was true that, while small in scale for a gate-related accident, it was a mysterious case from an outside perspective.
Even the doctors and nurses, who must have met multiple patients who had gone through something similar to me, had shown curiosity more than once. How much more would ordinary people?
Moreover, even though it was obviously an accident no one could have responded to, people who disliked Baegya Guild would surely use me as an excuse to spread all sorts of malicious rumors.
On top of that, reporters who loved sensational stories would happily join in. If my face became known like that… it would become tiring for everyone involved.
The gist of the document was to prevent all those troublesome situations in advance.
It felt like: as long as you keep your mouth shut, the guild will protect you as much as possible, so let’s pinky swear.
“By the way, it looks like my face hasn’t become known?”
“Those who were at the scene may have seen your face and hair, but it’s difficult to identify a person based only on subjective impressions of appearance and common brown hair.”
“Ah.”
It wasn’t something conspicuous like red or purple, but my gray eyes were distinct enough to be seen even from a distance and would be enough to identify me.
That had worried me, but fortunately, since I’d lost consciousness right away, it seemed no one had seen even the color of my eyes.
It really did seem that, as written here, everything would be fine as long as I kept my mouth shut….
“But, um, it’s not like you’ll only pay my hospital bills if I sign here, right?”
“Hehe. Who knows? It is still under review.”
…So she was telling me to sign while she was still asking nicely.
Regardless of the truth, if she said it like that, a small citizen like me had no choice but to sign.
Well, it wasn’t like I had any acquaintances to tell the truth to anyway, so it didn’t really matter….
“Wait a moment.”
Still, I figured it would be better to read before signing, so I grabbed the papers and began reading through them point by point.
Always read contracts and insurance terms carefully. That was advice my parents had always given me.
The contents were fine.
As mentioned earlier, all I had to do was not say out loud that I was the person caught up in the accident.
If a reporter happened to latch on to me or someone tried to dig up the truth, the guild would step in and respond.
On top of that, even if I violated it, I wouldn’t be hit with an enormous penalty fee.
However, there was one single line.
“The guild bears no responsibility whatsoever for any events that occur thereafter.”
That one sentence, which held more boundless possibilities than any other wording, caught my eye.
I was an ordinary human who had merely changed sex, so what could possibly happen if I revealed my identity for them to include such a clause?
As I read the document while imagining what might happen,
“Excuse me, but this ‘financial support’ written here goes up to what extent…?”
“We plan to provide basic daily necessities and clothing. You’ll need clothes to wear when you’re discharged, after all.”
As I continued reading, I understood. I didn’t know what the guild was taking into consideration, but worrying about it was meaningless in itself.
In the end, this document had been created on the assumption that I would sign it.
What I had to abide by was extremely little, and if I just signed, they would cover my hospital fees and even provide additional support.
Moreover, if I thought about it carefully, unless someone from the guild followed me around twenty-four hours a day, they had no way of knowing where I said what.
Conditions in name only, and generous compensation. No matter how I thought about it, there was nothing for me to lose.
Grinning, I signed and handed over the documents, then set the pen down as if lightly relieved while watching I Runa review them with a smile.