Chapter 4 : There’s no such thing as a fool

Anyway, for that reason, my sister dragged my dazed self to a women’s clothing store.

My weak imagination, which had pictured a bustling traditional market, was mocked by the sight of a store painted pink from the outside.

Fresh dresses and skirts greeted us at the entrance.

It was clear this place was meant to deter men from entering.

“Ye-eun, I think we’re in the wrong place… Hey, don’t push me.”

Pushed by my sister’s insistence, I stepped inside.

Ding-ding-

“Welcome~”

The store clerk greeted us with a friendly smile.

I awkwardly looked around the store.

My gaze wandered from the lingerie displaying significant s*x appeal at the entrance.

Turning my head, a new world unfolded.

What?! Is that a legendary garter belt..?

Goodness, there’s even a bunny girl outfit.

Why do those panties have a hole at the end?

What is that thing?

Oh my goodness. People actually wear this stuff?

Sneaking glances.

The amazing world of women.

While I was lost somewhere between instinct and reason, my sister boldly approached the store clerk.

“Excuse me, do you measure lingerie sizes here?”

“Yes, of course.”

While they chatted away.

Unable to resist my curiosity, I did something daring.

I lifted the skirt of a mannequin.

“Eh, there’s… something there?”

Why would they put underwear on a mannequin?

Wondering why they violated the purpose of advertising clothing, I came up with a plausible theory.

‘Ah! They put corrective underwear on to maintain the fit of the clothes!’

But can mannequins really have their figures corrected?

Maybe they wanted to recommend the underwear style that goes with the clothes.

Wait, then could it be that other mannequins have it too?

My curiosity led me to reach out to another mannequin.

“Customer?”

“No, I didn’t touch anything!”

“Huh?”

Panicked, I blurted out an excuse, and the store clerk looked at me strangely.

She had approached me quietly and said.

“I’ll measure your underwear size. Please follow me.”

“Me? Really?”

The store clerk nodded.

Confused, I looked at Ye-eun, who gestured for me to follow.

“Weren’t we just buying clothes?”

“What are you saying?”

I felt the betrayal one might experience when taken to a urology clinic instead of a pork cutlet restaurant.

With a teenager-like expression, my sister glared at me and snapped.

“The store clerk is waiting. Go quickly!”

I was caught between the store clerk’s awkward gaze and the terrifying look of the joint-locking monster.

It was truly a rock and a hard place.

In the end, I chose the store clerk, where I felt less physically threatened.

“Don’t hold your breath and exhale comfortably.”

“Whoooo….”

“Now lean your upper body a little. No, that’s too much. Yes, that’s better.”

Wobbling…

The employee, measuring me with a tape, soon handed me a piece of lingerie.

“Go to the fitting room and try it on.”

Blankly staring at the fabric in my hand, I hesitantly headed for the fitting room.

Inside was a full-length mirror.

Reflecting back at me was a thoroughly miserable face.

“Is this a dream?”

This couldn’t be reality.

Han Jeongho, the manliest of men.

Finding himself holding women’s underwear in a fitting room like the protagonist of an erotic manga.

What is this?

What in the world happened in just that short time?

Not only did I suddenly turn into a woman, but my little sister saw me like this, I was hit on by a guy on the street, and now I’m even trying on a bra in a women’s clothing store.

It couldn’t be happening unless the world was playing a hidden camera prank on me.

Ah, that’s right.

This is a hidden camera.

Any minute now, a bunch of people with cameras will rush out from somewhere and shout, “Ta-da! It was a hidden camera!”

And then I’ll react like this: “Wow! You really got me!”

Along with a heartwarming scene where my sister, the guy who hit on me, the sales clerk, and the countless people who passed by all clap and congratulate each other, and a close-up of me

receiving my confiscated manhood back and sighing in relief, that’s how the show will wrap up…

…But no such trick show happened.

All that greeted me was my little sister’s impatient voice from beyond the changing room divider.

“Are you still not done?! Hurry up!”

“…….”

The illusion I had conjured myself shattered.

The time had finally come to face the reality before my eyes.

I took off my clothes and gathered my breasts together.

I grabbed a bra, put it on, and fastened the hooks in the back. With a ‘snap,’ I felt the stiff support.

“Is this it?”

Looking closely, I could see it was slightly crooked.

I pulled on both ends to level it.

“Ah, damn it. Just damn it…”

Whether it was from self-loathing or the pressure of the bra, I was finding it hard to breathe.

In the mirror, I saw a lingerie model straight out of a men’s magazine, blatantly displayed.

A woman with a body that would make any red-blooded man’s blood boil at just the silhouette alone was undressed from the waist up, wearing only underwear.

A body with nothing out of place.

But since it was my body, it didn’t evoke any special feelings.

Feeling psychologically broken, I muttered.

“Seriously. This is ridiculous.”

I lamented my situation once again.

From someone who barely used sunscreen, here I was putting on makeup and a bra by myself.

It was a perfect display of cross-dressing, without even the excuse of it being a mistake.

It was truly disheartening.

I sighed deeply, as if expelling all the sighs I would ever take in my life.

After adjusting the hook one last time, I put on my clothes and left the fitting room.

“Does the fitting feel okay?”

“It’s tight.”

“Feeling tight is normal.”

“Feeling suffocated is normal too?”

“Well… that could be because the size is small. There might be errors since you were measured with clothes on. To measure accurately, you need to take off your top.”

I couldn’t possibly bare my chest to an unfamiliar woman.

I just asked for the same size in different colors.

I also picked out a few clothes, but all of them were chosen by my sister.

I lost count of how many times I changed as the employee and my sister fussed over how well everything suited me.

“Sister, what is that in your hand?”

“Oh, this is a skirt. You wear it instead of pants.”

At her confident reply, I cursed her silently with my eyes.

You’ve truly crossed the line.

Taking a short breath, I prepared for the final battle.

Even though I knew I’d likely lose, having a brawl in front of so many people would be just as embarrassing for her.

Skirt or die.

Sensing my determination, Ye-eun put down the unholy item, saying it was just a joke.

Shopping was still a tiring activity.

Now that I was the one trying on clothes, it was even more exhausting.

Though it felt like I hadn’t done much, my body was weighed down with exhaustion, as if I had done two shifts of logistics work.

“That will be 578,000 won.”

“Pardon? How much?”

Did I hear that right?

My eyes widened as I asked the clerk to repeat it, and she looked at me as if wondering what the problem was.

“It’s just, the price….”

What were these pieces of cloth to be so expensive?

I couldn’t comprehend why a few clothes required 58 visits from King Sejong.

Three pairs of underwear, two T-shirts, and two pairs of jeans.

Even with simple calculations, it meant each item cost nearly 50,000 won.

Unless a hidden luxury item was slipped in, this price range was impossible.

The clerk’s smile, which seemed kind earlier, now looked like a sneer, as if she’d caught a sucker.

If she was trying to cheat me, she picked the wrong person.

While I glared suspiciously at the POS system, my sister suddenly pulled out a card.

“Please charge it to this.”

“Huh? Why are you using your card?”

“It’s a discharge gift. Aren’t you grateful?”

“But where do you get the money?”

“I have plenty.”

Han Ye-eun, 22 years old.

The age for lots of bravado.

She might think she’s rich, but the world still considers college students economically weak.

Though I wanted to go along with my sister, spending so much on a few clothes seemed unreasonable.

“Ye-eun, let’s ask for a refund now. We can get these for half the price at Dongmyo.”

“I really have plenty of money. Besides, expensive underwear lasts longer. Buying cheap ones will just cost more in the end.”

Is that so?

Then shouldn’t we just buy the underwear here and get the outer clothes at the market?

I tried to reason, but my sister was adamant.

Never in my life had I spent 500,000 won on clothes except when I bought that dark Ye-eunmon’s padded jacket during her middle school syndrome.

Today, that record was broken.