Chapter 2 : Chapter 2

"Ah, ugh, eek, ehk."

I tried to say something to explain myself, but what came out of my mouth wasn't even words.

Hearing the strange sounds I made, the maid seemed to think that my condition was quite serious.

"The food is hot. It could be dangerous if you spill it, so I will assist you with your meal."

"Oh, no, I'm fine!"

Even though my body had become that of a young girl, inside, I was still a grown adult.

I had even been working a full-time job.

But to have someone who didn't seem much older than me—perhaps even younger—feed me porridge felt uncomfortable in many ways.

Although the maid was extremely beautiful, it would still be incredibly awkward to have someone, who wasn't even a romantic partner, do that for me.

I was already feeling an extreme sense of discomfort being in a body that wasn't mine, and if things got any more awkward, each day would become unbearable.

With that thought, I opened and closed my hands toward the maid, showing her my movement.

"See? My hands work fine, and I can move my arms—"

However, I couldn't finish my sentence.

The maid was staring at me with a look as if she were observing some strange creature for the first time.

"..."

"..."

Seeing her with her mouth slightly open and a blank expression, I realized something was off.

It made sense; after all, she was a maid.

I knew this world wasn't exactly medieval fantasy.

There were ambulances, the police wore uniforms like those in Korea, and doctors dressed in suits with white coats.

Clearly, the era was modern.

However… despite that, there was a maid dressed in a very stereotypical maid uniform, working in a house so large it was absurd for just one family.

And based on the fact that the maid referred to me as "miss," it seemed she served the original owner of this body or was, at the very least, employed to do so, regardless of their age difference.

…And, of course, not everyone is like this, but there are always people who treat their employees rudely or talk down to them, no matter their age.

Alternatively, the maid and this girl might have built some kind of bond from working together for a long time.

Thinking about how the maid had touched my forehead without hesitation last night, perhaps they had formed a close, sisterly relationship.

While the maid used formal speech, this girl might have been casually speaking informally.

"..."

"..."

In the long silence, I slowly lowered the hands I had raised.

"It would still be best if I assist you with your meal," the maid said sternly.

Should I respond with 'yes' or 'okay'?

In the end, unable to decide how to reply, I just nodded instead.

It took nearly an hour to finish the porridge, with the maid feeding me one spoonful at a time, carefully cooling each one.

With my face red as a tomato, I barely finished the meal, and once the maid left the room, stepping out backward, I immediately got up.

Then, I started searching the room.

*

There wasn't much information to be gained from searching the room.

While it was spacious and well-decorated, the only area that showed signs of the girl actually living there was around the bed.

There was a bookshelf, but aside from a few pieces of classical literature, it was mostly empty.

There was a mirror on the vanity, and I sat in front of it, but the only thing I learned from my reflection was that I had long black hair and pale skin—features of a beautiful young girl.

If there was any notable characteristic, it would be that her eyes were quite sharp—sharper than the maid's.

Her red eyes were also a feature, but… how many female characters in web novels or light novels have red eyes and black hair?

Since I couldn't get any useful information from there, I immediately stood up and entered the attached shower room.

*

Coming out of the shower, I let out a deep sigh.

The information I had gathered in there had only made my thoughts more complicated.

The girl's body I was now in seemed quite frail.

It looked like a body that hadn't been properly nourished, though I didn't suspect it was due to domestic abuse.

Even though her parents hadn't come to the hospital while I was being taken there, it didn't seem like she was being starved as a form of abuse.

After all, if they were truly starving and abusing her, the maid wouldn't have brought porridge to feed her so attentively.

And there were no visible bruises, at least on the front of her body when I looked in the mirror.

However, her back…

Her back was a different story—it was utterly pitiful.

Her shoulders, arms, hips, and calves—all the parts that would touch the ground when lying down—were covered in bruises, a deep blue color.

It could be said that she was beaten, but would abusive parents really focus on such specific areas?

…Well, seeing the bruises on her hips, maybe they would.

Then again, I've never lived through abuse, so it's dangerous to judge based solely on my limited perspective.

If she really was a character who got beaten up every day, that's a serious problem.

I don't know if I'd be able to resist in such a weak body.

Even if I tried, I'd probably just get beaten more.

...

At least I'm not having any strange, inappropriate thoughts when I look at this body.

*

After that, I thoroughly searched the room.

I went through all the clothes in the wardrobe, the desk, the drawers, and the books on the bookshelf.

I even looked between the books to see if something was hidden, but there was nothing.

Inside the desk drawer, I found a thick, unmarked notebook, a sealed envelope, and a half-full bottle of sleeping pills.

The wardrobe contained a school uniform.

Judging by the large Chinese character '中' embroidered on the school emblem on the left chest pocket, it seemed to be a middle school uniform.

The name tag above the pocket had 'Ye Sara' written on it.

And that's when I realized exactly what kind of world I was in.

…I was in the world of If You Wish, a game I had watched a streamer play not long ago.

In it appeared the daughter of a conglomerate family and villainess, Ye Sara.

It made sense that I hadn't recognized her at first—the game's CG was so crude, like something drawn with a mouse on MS Paint.

It's hard enough to match 2D to 3D, especially when the 2D model is inaccurate.

I'm screwed…

…No, wait. Am I really?

I sat cross-legged on the bed, staring seriously at the clues I had laid out.

Although Ye Sara is a villainess, it's still before she becomes one.

It seems I haven't even started high school yet.

After all, when I looked through the wardrobe, I only found a middle school uniform, not a high school one.

The digital clock on the desk showed today was January 1st, meaning I had about two months and one day before the entrance ceremony.

Since the relationships in high school hadn't been established yet, I obviously hadn't become a villainess in the story.

Also, while the game's art was hard to decipher, high school uniforms would definitely have name tags.

At least that means I won't have trouble recognizing who's who once I start high school.

All I need to do is get along with the key characters from the game or stay indifferent enough that no one cares what happens with the heroine and the other characters.

That's not difficult.

Making friends might be tricky, but avoiding them?

I've got that down.

I can just hide in the corner of the classroom.

And I already had a solid track record of doing just that throughout high school!

…Not exactly something to brag about.

"Haa…"

I decided to put aside the depressing memories of my high school years and began examining the rest of the clues.

First, the sleeping pills.

…For a middle schooler to need sleeping pills, just how much stress was she under?

Wait, are minors even allowed to be prescribed sleeping pills?

And there were already several pills left in the bottle.

Would they even prescribe this many at once?

…I have no idea.

I didn't grow up in a particularly affluent household, but I never had any mental health issues severe enough to need psychiatric treatment.

I set the sleeping pills down and picked up the thick, unmarked notebook.

I thought it was a diary, but it was more like a practice notebook.

And not just any practice notebook—it was a kind of fantasy novel notebook.

It was filled with stories Ye Sara had probably written throughout middle school.

[His skin was as white as snow…]

[Haha, sealed within my left arm…]

[Even beyond infinity, naiyuta, and googolplex, I will…]

[Die die die die—]

"..."

I quietly closed the notebook.

Well, I roughly understand why she wrote these.

I had a similar phase myself.

Introverted people, unable to express their eccentricities outwardly, often release them internally like this.

Although it was somewhat uncomfortable to read, more than that, I felt like I was invading her privacy.

Even though I lacked information right now, peeking at someone's fantasy notebook didn't seem right.

Deep down inside, a part of me was questioning whether it was okay to enter the shower earlier, but I promptly ignored that thought.

Reading the notebook was one thing, but going into the bathroom or shower was inevitable if I was stuck in this body.

After all, I couldn't ask the maid to handle my shower and bathroom needs—that would be harassment.

And I had no idea how to get back to my original body.

...

Right.

In every TS (gender-swap) novel I've read, I'd grumble about why the characters even bothered searching for a way back.

Yet here I was, not even 24 hours in, already wondering how to get back.

I set the notebook down and noticed the white envelope next to it.

There were no decorations on it; it was just a plain letter envelope, the kind you could buy for a thousand won at a store like Daiso.

The envelope was addressed "To Mother."

The handwriting was beautiful.

Then again, the writing in the notebook had also been quite neat.

After reading that notebook, I felt even more reluctant to open the envelope.

This was clearly a personal letter.

I didn't know what this girl had wanted to say to her mother, but did I really have the right to open and read it?

After a moment of hesitation, I let out a deep sigh and stood up.

I picked up the notebook and the letter and put them back deep inside the desk drawer.

Maybe I was only here temporarily.

Perhaps, just like when I entered this body, I'd wake up in my original body overnight.

Maybe I hadn't even been in a bus accident but had just fallen asleep.

Even though it didn't feel like a dream.

But if I returned and Ye Sara found her letter opened, what would she think?

If I'm only going to be here temporarily, I should probably just stay quiet.

…Temporarily, right?

"Status window?"

I muttered it again, but nothing resembling a status window appeared.

I clutched my head and sighed.

I tried to recall what I knew about the game's mechanics.

There were three stats: intelligence, stamina, and charm.

Of course, since the setting wasn't a fantasy world, there was no mana, and the stamina stat wasn't HP but rather the stamina we think of in everyday life.

The stats affected the choices available, and certain options required certain stat levels.

If your stats were low, you'd fail.

You needed certain stats to woo certain characters.

I remembered how the streamer I watched had failed to manage their stats and ended up courting a character they hadn't wanted in their first playthrough.

…If this world really was that game, I'd have to figure out a way to check my stats.

Could it be that I couldn't access a status window because I wasn't the main character?

If so, that would be a huge problem.

The stats weren't the only issue—the game also had a "sixth sense" feature.

It was a kind of convenience feature that the developers included to make the game more enjoyable, even if the player's stats weren't high enough.

It wasn't an actual superpower, but in-game, it was portrayed as the protagonist's 'intuition.'

In the game, this feature could affect choices, allowing the player to see the reactions of the other characters or view their hidden stats.

It was essentially a bonus ability that helped with the romance routes.

The sixth sense didn't just exist in the game's mechanics, though—it was also part of the lore, and most of the major characters in the game had one.

Although it wasn't explicitly called a "sixth sense," it was often hinted at with humorous instances where characters seemed to break the fourth wall.

The problem was that, while I knew that major characters had a sixth sense, I didn't know what Ye Sara's sixth sense was.

…Or she might not even have one.

After all, she was a character you could romance, but not every major character had a sixth sense.

"Haa…"

Please let it be something useful.

*

Forget about being here temporarily.

It's been a month and two weeks since then.

I haven't returned to my original body in all that time.

The only consolation is that, as I suspected, Ye Sara wasn't a character who was physically abused at home.

In fact, Ye Sara's mother didn't seem to care about her at all.

She didn't even live with her.

From what I gathered through a month and a half of intense observation and internet searches, Ye Sara's great-grandfather founded the Eugene Group, and her father and grandfather had run the group until her father passed away early, leaving Ye Sara's stepmother to take over as the current chairperson.

By the way, Ye Sara's stepmother isn't her biological mother.

Ye Sara's birth mother died shortly after giving birth, and her current "mother" is the woman her father remarried.

Not all stepmothers are like this, but since this world seems to follow the rules of a soap opera, Ye Sara's stepmother didn't seem to care much for her.

Fortunately, her father and stepmother didn't have any children together, so Ye Sara's life wasn't in danger.

But her stepmother didn't seem to like her, either, which is probably why she left Ye Sara to live alone in this huge house.

Eugene Group was the number one conglomerate in South Korea in this world.

Cash, real estate, stocks… in every aspect of wealth, Eugene Group had significantly more than any other group.

Because of this, information about Ye Sara was quite easy to find on the internet.

Although all I found were a few childhood photos.

Due to her striking appearance, she had admirers, but many people disliked her because of the inconveniences caused by the Eugene Group.

…Well, at least I won't have to worry about money.

There were twelve staff members working full-time in the mansion, which was solely for Ye Sara.

Her personal maid, the one who had fed me the porridge, was a young woman named Yang Hye-in.

It seemed she was also the head of the staff.

Among the other eleven, four were men in black suits.

Of course, that was just the number of staff working at the mansion at all times.

Since everyone except Yang Hye-in worked in shifts, they could call for many more people if needed, as they had done when I was taken to the hospital.

The remaining staff consisted of three chefs, three housekeepers, and one gardener.

When I hadn't yet seen the house properly, I assumed it was just a large home in Seongbuk-dong, but it turned out to be an actual mansion with a lobby, divided into two floors—something straight out of a movie.

The house itself was even a registered cultural property or something.

The mansion was located right in the middle of Seoul, where land prices were outrageously high, further demonstrating how wealthy Eugene Group was.

The mansion alone had sparked rumors that Eugene Group was holding onto it for redevelopment.

Maybe the reason Ye Sara lived there was to serve as an excuse, like, "See? We're using this property."

"What are you looking at so intently?"

Yang Hye-in, who was sitting beside me, asked as I stared at my smartphone.

Since she was a personal maid, it seemed she had a certain level of familiarity with Ye Sara, despite her somewhat cold appearance.

"…I was looking up information about the Eugene Group."

After a month of observation, I had decided to stick with formal speech, no matter what.

I had no information about the conversations Ye Sara had had with this maid before.

I had only watched a streamer play the game, so while I knew the character Ye Sara, I had no idea she had a maid.

Even if I had played the game, I wouldn't have known unless I had followed Ye Sara's route.

I wasn't bold enough to speak informally to someone who, in my eyes, was an adult I was meeting for the first time.

There was also a practical reason.

Using formal speech when you normally used informal speech would be awkward, but speaking informally when formal speech was expected carried a greater risk.

Although Yang Hye-in seemed surprised at first, she soon got used to it and didn't seem to mind my change in tone.

"That's a good habit. One day, you'll inherit the entire group, so it's wise to keep an eye on public opinion."

She smiled slightly.

Yang Hye-in was wearing the same black coat she had been wearing the first time I saw her at the hospital.

I hadn't realized it then, but I later learned that she wore that coat over her maid uniform, which made her figure look a bit puffier below the waist.

In a way, the way her waist still appeared slim, even in such thick clothing, made her look even better.

"…Where are we going right now?" I asked.

"Didn't I already tell you?"

Yang Hye-in's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"Oh, I was just told we were resuming the canceled schedule, but what was that schedule again?"

At my question, Yang Hye-in blinked twice, as if genuinely surprised that I had forgotten something so important.

"Miss, do you really not remember?"

"Uh…"

I averted my gaze, wondering how to respond.

If it was something trivial, I wouldn't be concerned, but based on her reaction, it was clearly important.

So important that it was strange I had forgotten.

"Miss," Yang Hye-in said with a serious expression, her voice lowering slightly.

"We're on our way to meet your fiancé."

"..."

What?

It was a miracle that I didn't blurt out those words.

"…Pardon?" I asked, managing to suppress the urge to curse.

Yang Hye-in calmly repeated herself.

"We're on our way to meet your fiancé."

Oh, f*ck.

Thankfully, I didn't say that out loud either.