Chapter 14
Since the walk that day, there really hasn’t been anything interesting to talk about. I suppose thanks to that, time flew by really quick. Though I think that was mostly thanks to me forgetting everything that happened…
How depressing, I’m no different from a dementia patient…
Ah, that’s not the point though. I did say that there wasn’t anything interesting, right? So that means there’s something interesting to share now?? Well, not really. Though, my appointments are finally over, at least!
As for the results, to no one’s surprise, the hospital couldn’t find anything out in the end… No one could identify the cause or any related to this weird transformation, so in the end, it was half-scrapped.
Fortunately, there is good news too. For one, there are no underlying complications, so I can live on normally, which is nice. And for two…
Well, I don’t know if I can consider it good news…
“Eh, hello there! I’m a bit lost here, hehe! You seem familiar around this part of the neighbourhood? Can you guide me?”
I met up with an old acquaintance.
…
Well, it was an accident, really.
Ever since that day, I frequently kept going on walks around the neighbourhood. It wasn’t really for any reason, I just did it because I could.
I can’t say I enjoy it that much, but it’s not like I had anything better to do. As such, I’ve been doing it even up until now. Well, I can treat it as light exercise so it’s not really a big deal.
Today was no different than any other, so I went out for a walk as usual, and stumbled across an interesting scene.
Up until now, the scenery of the neighbourhood has always been the same; the same old trees, same old people, same old actions, and well… just the same old everything, really.
A new person, someone who I had never seen in the area, appeared in that meaningless routine.
A girl who looks about my age is standing in front of the nearby temple, looking quite clueless. If her action wasn’t enough, the fashion that she was rocking was totally out of place too. In the first place, why would someone wear a jacket under the scorching sun? I don’t get it, but that’s not really the surprising part…
Pink-Dyed hair… You don’t really see that often in just about anywhere. The district here is mostly occupied by the older folks, so seeing new people around my age is already rare enough, but to think that it’s one of those types of people who does ‘those’ kinds of stuff?
Ah, by ‘those’ I meant the trendy girls or whatever they are called, honestly I don’t understand it myself. Even then, isn’t pink still a relatively uncommon colour to use as hair dye? Well, it’s unique and stands out… I suppose if that’s the intent, it works very well.
Pink hair, jacket in hot weather, and short pants to complete the fit for some reason… It’s all over the place, no? Is this the kind of fashion trend these days?
Well, I wouldn’t know… so let’s just drop it at that, yeah? The more important thing right now is that she looks really lost, which means…
‘No choice I guess, it feels wrong to just ignore it…’
“Hey, looking for something? You don’t look like you’re from around here.”
“...?!”
“Ah, sorry did I startle you? I just saw you earlier, and you looked quite lost, so I wanted to help? Was I being too presumptuous?”
“...Ah, no! Sorry, I was just out of it for a bit!”
It seems that she was just confused, which is normal I suppose, but…
Stare…
Isn’t she staring a bit too hard…? While I’m used to stares, being stared up and down so closely like that is umm…
“Ah…”
“...?”
“Eh, hello there! I’m a bit lost here, hehe! You seem familiar around this part of the neighbourhood? Can you guide me?”
I think it’s a bit too late for that now…
“Yeah, sure… That’s what I was going to do.”
“Yay~ You’re the best, senpai!”
Sen—What…? Why the sudden Japanese?
“Yes…?”
“Ah, sorry hehe, I’ve been studying abroad in Japan for so long it just randomly slipped out, ahaha…!”
Miss, I don’t think that’s how it works, but I’ll take your word for it…?
That being said, studying abroad, huh? I thought she was a new face, but she’s a local who went abroad… I’m surprised.
“That’s okay… Where are you trying to go, anyways? Are you visiting your family?”
“Eh? No, I’m not trying to find my family’s house address! I’m here for something totally different!”
“What is it?”
“I’m finding a classmate!”
“...?”
Do people come to their classmate’s hometown to visit them? That’s quite the dedication, wow…
“It’s for a reunion party, you see? We have planned this one since forever! Even got our homeroom teacher to pitch in on this, really cool right?!”
“Yeah, I’m envious you all get along so well. What kind of reunion is it, anyways? I might be able to help, though I don’t really know the locals well myself.”
“Ah, it’s nothing too special, we just kept in touch since elementary, though most of it was online, and we never had a meet-up like this, so we just did it for this week!”
Elementary, huh? That’s so long ago… To think that there’s classmates that kept in touch for so long when it’s normal you’re unlikely to get in contact with your high school friends… That’s amazing.
“But not all of us got in touch of course! In fact, the person I’m trying to find here is someone who has been silent ever since! How rude, right? Can’t he at least meet up like once?”
“Ahaha… Yeah, that sounds rough…”
I think that’s actually the normal thing here, miss…
“Right?! I’ve met up with everyone else already! It’s only this person who’s been missing!”
“Ugh…!”
“Eh, what’s wrong?!”
“N-Nothing…”
A class where the normal one seems abnormal? For some reason, I really pity this guy. Well, a reunion like that doesn’t sound bad at all, so maybe I should say he is lucky to have such classmates? Though I have no clue if it’s because of this girl or if the whole class is just naturally like that.
“Well, that sounds nice, I can help with that. Let’s start with names first? It would be easier to find this person if I knew the name, so can you tell me his name?”
“Oh yeah, you’re right! I totally forgot about that! Wait a second, let me find it…!”
Saying that, she quickly rummaged through her handbag for her… phone? Actually, do people keep their phones in handbags? That’s… not something I can tell.
“Let’s see… teacher… teacher… Ah, here! The person I’m supposed to find is uh… His name is Jia Lin, yeah! Hua Jia Lin!”
“Pffft…! Acck! Haah…!”
“Eh? What’s wrong?! Did I say something wrong?”
“Pardon…? Can you repeat that again…?”
“Ah, sure? The person I’m looking for is Hua Jia Lin, family name, Hua. Do you know him?”
Miss, I do know him alright… He’s me…
Wow, that is uh… just wow… How am I even supposed to react to this information…
“Y-Yeah…”
“Oh…! That’s really great! I found the right person after all~! This is the best of luck, aha! Can you lead me to him?”
“Y-Yeah… I can, but…”
“But?”
“Can you tell me your name first?”
“Oh, sure? I don’t know why you need that, but I’m Hui Xin, nice to meet you, uh… helpful person!”
“J-Jia Lin…”
“Eh? What about him?”
“Hua Jia Lin… That’s my name, nice to meet you too… Hui Xin…”
“...Huh?”
Don’t you ‘Huh?’ me… You’re the one who asked to find ‘him’…
“But you’re a… Wait…”
…
She intensely stared me down yet again…
“...”
“...”
“Ahaha… That’s a really good joke! Sorry, but Hua Jia Lin is a man, you know?”
“Yeah… he was a man…”
“Was…?”
“Y-Yeah…”
I could only blush as I panicked, wondering what I should say… Damn it, why is it so hard to just tell her everything…
“Don’t tell me…!”
Oh no… Here it comes…
“You’re his girlfriend and you’re afraid I’m here to steal him?!”
“No, I didn’t get a gender re-assignment surgery.”
“...”
“...”
“What?”
“Uh…?”
Sigh, this is going to be a pain to explain… Can I just skip it?
◈
Turns out… No, you can’t just skip an explanation, how cruel…
Anyhow, it took quite a while to explain things to this Hui Xin girl… Honestly, I don’t really remember her that much… I want to say that it’s normal since who would remember their classmates from elementary school, but seeing as how everyone aside from me kept in touch… I have no words…
“So you’re really Jia Lin…?”
“Yeah…”
“You woke up as a woman, and you don’t know why…?”
“Yeah…”
“You had a check up in a high-end hospital and still couldn’t find out why even after several weeks?”
“Yeah…?”
“Are you a manga protagonist by chance?”
“Pardon…?”
I have no idea how you suddenly come to that conclusion, but I can assure you that I’m not…
Ah, I think I’m supposed to say that second part…
“Ah, no umm.. Sorry… So uh… those… ‘things’ are… real?”
Hui Xin pointed at my chest, clearly showing disbelief. I can understand her shock, really. Even I was shocked at first, despite how dull my reaction was.
“Yeah, they are.”
“Woah, can I touch them?”
“Huh? Do girls do that with each other?”
“Haha… No, I was just joking…”
“I see…?”
I really don’t understand her at all, it’s not like she's small either. I’d say they are plenty large… Sigh, what am I even thinking? No crude thoughts, Jia Lin. No crude thoughts.
“So uh… this is awkward…”
“Yeah…”
“Umm… Hello?”
“It’s a bit late, but yeah… Hello, Hui Xin, long time no… see?”
“Idiot… it’s been more than just a long time…!”
“Ugh?!”
Suddenly getting hug attacked like that out of nowhere is surprising, but I guess I can’t really blame her.
“I missed you, idiot… Couldn’t you have at least reached out…? Not even the teacher could find you, you know…”
“Sorry… I just had a lot of things going on…”
“It’s fine… As long as you’re here, that’s good enough, idiot… A lot has happened, I can see that, but that’s still not justification to just ignore us…”
“S-Sorry…”
“Hah… It’s fine, don’t be too sorry. It’s weird to suddenly see someone you haven’t met in a long time, right? I know most people don’t meet up after elementary too…”
“Ah, no… It’s not like that.”
“I get it, most of our classmates were like that too… I went through a lot trying to get them into this reunion party too, it’s fine…”
“I see… But you managed to get everyone on board for this, right? That’s really impressive…”
“Pfft… You’re still the same as ever…”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing, really.”
“Is that so…? Well… can you get off me now…? It’s getting a bit hard to breathe…”
“Ah.. Sorry!”
“T-Thank you…”
I definitely couldn’t tell her that I couldn’t hear what she said halfway through because I was suffocating…!
Ugh, anyways…
“That being said, it's nice to meet you again, even if I don’t really remember… this reunion party that you said… everyone is going right?”
“Y-Yeah… It’s fine if you forgot everything, there wasn’t much to remember anyways! And… yeah! Everyone will be there, even our old homeroom teacher!”
“Oh, I see… Yeah, sure, I don’t see why not.”
“I-Is that so… I see no worries—Wait what? You’ll really come?!”
“Well, yeah? Everyone else is coming, right? I don’t see why not?”
“Ah… Thank you!! Thank you!!”
“U-Uh, slow down…!”
“Thank you!! Thank you!!”
Why is she so thankful for this? Ugh, she’s spinning me around?! How did she pick me up? Surely I still weigh a bit?! Being picked up by another woman and swung around is—Ahhh?!
Ugh, I might puke…
“S-Stop…”
“Ah, thank you, really! I was worried that you might not come! Ahaha…! I’m so happy!”
“Y-Yeah…”
After a while she finally put me down… Ugh, my stomach is acting up…
Nevermind, I’ll just forget that ever happened…
“Anyhow, Hui Xin… when is this reunion party? And are you going to go back after inviting me?”
“Ah, that… Hehe…”
“...?”
“It’s part of the reason I’m thankful, ahaha…?”
“Why…?”
“Well you see… My parents live in Guang Dong… and I was staying there for the time being, so…”
“All the way there?!”
“Y-Yeah…”
Isn’t that almost an entire day’s worth away? She would have to stay overnight in a hotel to have… Oh…
“If I hadn’t found you or got rejected, I’d have to stay overnight in another hotel and go back with nothing… You’re the only one who’s so far away and without any contact…”
“S-Sorry…!”
“N-No…! It’s okay, it’s not your fault!!”
“Umm… if you want you can stay overnight at my place…?”
“Eh, really?!”
“Well, I’ll need to ask my family for permission first, but they probably would allow it?”
“That would save me so much trouble, Jia Lin!! Thank you!!”
“W-Wait… please no… Don’t spin me again—Ahhh!!”
“Thank you! Thank you!!”
…
Well, my family wouldn’t mind I think… Either way, this is unlike me. To think I would invite her over to my house… Even if it’s out of guilt, isn’t that too presumptuous? It’s not like I know her that well, we were just classmates in elementary school, and even I had forgotten that…
Oh well, I hope nothing goes wrong because of this…?
Ah, though my current self is already going wrong…
Using my superhuman strength, I fortunately avoided the throw up ending…
Phew.
