Work Text:
It felt almost anticlimactic how things turned out. So-a thought that she needed to find all the beads of the magic wish bracelet to fix it and turn the boys back into girls.
However, she woke up one day to her panicked sisters calling her name. “It’s Jaehee!” they said. Despite being groggy and half-asleep, So-a dragged herself out of bed and into the living room.
There, she saw Jaehee back in her girl form. “So-a,” Jaehee whispered. She had always been blunt and never seemed overly emotional, but So-a could tell. Jaehee’s hands were shaking. It was clear that she was afraid about what this meant for their relationship.
They had only finally started dating and So-a remembered their first date, where Jaehee wished that he would be a boy forever just so their relationship would last.
So-a rushed to hold Jaehee’s hands. “Let’s walk to school together.” So-a put on a reassuring smile.
With this, Jaehee let out a sigh of relief she didn’t realize she was holding.
So-a still needed time to get ready so she rushed back to her bedroom while Jaehee waited in the living room. She was in the middle of changing into her uniform when a glitter caught her eye. The bracelet was on her desk. There was a gap of noticeable string in the middle of the beads.
She never did find where that one last bead was, even though she and her friend, Tae-yi, searched for so long. As she stared at the bracelet, she felt the urge to bring it with her for some reason. So-a tucked the bracelet into her pocket and grabbed her backpack.
The walk to school was uneventful and So-a held Jaehee’s hand the entire way. They had been keeping their relationship a secret because it’d be a hassle to deal with everyone talking about them.
However, now that Jaehee was a girl again, the other girls were probably not going to be as interested in her, not as much as they did before, anyways. So-a secretly felt a bit happy at that. Well, she was going to tell her friends but she still preferred to keep the fact that she was dating Jaehee on the down-low from the rest of the school.
When So-a walked into the classroom with Jaehee, everyone had already been in a ruckus. There had been other classmates who returned to their previous bodies. However, there were still a few boys in the class.
So-a spotted her friends, Jeongwon and Tae-yi. Tae-yi was pinching and stretching Jeongwon’s cheeks. “Why are you still a boy?” Tae-yi shouted in frustration.
“Why are you mad?” Jeongwon shouted back in a whiny tone. He spotted So-a and Jaehee and waved at them. “Hey, you two! Oh, Jaehee’s a girl again?”
So-a was confused. If Jaehee reverted back to a girl, why were there still classmates who were boys? Maybe the magic bracelet malfunctioned because she never found the last bead? “How are you still a boy?” So-a asked.
“Eh, you too?” Jeongwon sighed. Tae-yi stopped her pinching as Jeongwon continued to talk. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I like being a boy. I like this body and how light it feels.” Jeongwon flexed his arm with a toothy grin.
The grin faded as he scratched the back of his head. “I only kinda wanted to be a girl again because everyone acted differently around me after I changed. I’ll… probably talk to my family later about that. Especially since by then, they’ll likely hear the news that some of us changed back to girls.”
So-a nodded. “So we’ll keep calling you a boy?”
Jeongwon unexpectedly refuted. “Nah, I don’t care if you call me a boy or a girl again. I just like this body.” He puffed out his chest. “I did some thinking and looked it up on the Internet but I don’t care about what pronouns you use for me! He/him, she/her, they/them, it’s all good!”
Tae-yi poked his cheek with a teasing smile. “Wow, I didn’t expect you to do some research. Thanks for letting us know, though.”
So-a was glad that her friends were okay with this new situation. While glancing around and overhearing other classmates’ conversations, she realized that the ones who remained boys had beaming faces.
She turned to Jaehee, who had been quiet this entire time. So-a tugged on Jaehee’s sleeve. “Are you alright?” she asked.
Jaehee nodded, but her eyes were unfocused like she was staring at something else in the distance.
So-a didn’t want to push so she turned her attention to something else. She could still feel the weight of the bracelet in her pocket.
--------------------
During lunch break, So-a went to the school courtyard to visit the stray cat, Dongpal, and her kittens. She placed the opened can of tuna on the ground and the cats dashed over. The kittens ate first as their mother watched over them. So-a wasn’t sure if she should bring another tuna can for Dongpal since someone else was also feeding them.
“So-a.” Ah, speak of the devil. She looked up and saw the president of the student council, Semin. He was still a boy. Semin crouched down and put some fancy cat treats on the ground for Dongpal. “I figured that we’d run into each other again like this.” He had a knowing smile and a glint in his eye.
“You never did find that last bead, right?” So-a nodded, unsure of where this was going.
“I had it all along.” Semin took a shiny bead out of his pocket. “Sorry for lying to you.” He didn’t sound apologetic at all.
So-a wanted to shout in frustration, to scold him. Why did he never tell her? But it’s not like it mattered anymore. The whole reason she wanted to fix the bracelet was to turn everyone back to girls.
Anyone who had been turned into a boy and wanted to be a girl again had returned to being girls. Those who wanted to be boys, remained boys. It seemed their high school, Danhwa, would also stay a co-ed school.
But that also meant…
“So you wanted to stay a boy?” So-a asked. She wasn’t too surprised, though. A while back, when Semin had accurately determined that the bracelet was the cause of everyone changing, he had told her that he enjoyed being a boy. He said himself that he didn’t really want to turn back into a girl.
Semin smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s just amusing how my family reacts. Besides, it’s just so much easier to be a boy.”
“So it’s because of your family? Is this what you really want, though?”
“I’m not in a situation where I can think about something like that right now.” Semin gripped the bead in his hand.
So-a already knew what he meant. Semin was the daughter of a rich family that ran a chaebol. She remembered that rainy day long ago when she found out Semin’s secret, a stepbrother who wanted to be the heir too. Although she didn’t fully know Semin’s family situation, she could easily take a guess and it made her heart ache. She reached into her pocket.
“Here.” She put a hand out to Semin, albeit maybe with a little too much force. The magic bracelet glittered from the sunlight as it rested in the palm of her hand.
“Why are you giving me this?” Semin asked, his eyes wide.
“I don’t know if it works anymore. But on the off chance that it can still grant wishes, I think you’ll need it more than me.” She smiled, thinking of Jaehee. “I already have everything I want.”
Semin paused, speechless. After a moment, he whispered, “Thank you.” He gently took the bracelet. So-a only felt a brush of his fingers against her palm. Semin held the bracelet to his chest, near his heart. He opened his mouth again with some hesitation. “So-a, truly, thank you. Not just for this but for everything. For keeping my secret too.”
So-a smiled. “Of course. I hope you find happiness too, Semin.” The two of them lingered in the garden, watching over the cats in silence. Then, they both left to get to their own classes.
--------------------
After school ended, So-a and Jaehee said goodbye to their friends and walked together back to the apartment. When they were getting closer, Jaehee stopped. “Could we talk?”
So-a twiddled with her fingers. “Not here?”
Jaehee looked around. “I’d rather do it somewhere more private.”
“Let’s go to my room then. My sisters won’t snoop on us… hopefully.” So-a took Jaehee’s hand and led her inside the apartment. So-a’s older sister, Yu-a, was sprawled on the couch with the TV remote, watching some drama show. “Oh, you’re back.” She paused when she heard Jaehee greet her.
Yu-a whirled her head to them, her eyes flashing with excitement. She called the rest of the family over. “Mom, come look! Hyun-a and I told you already. Jaehee turned back into a girl!”
So-a knew her family would be in shock and make a scene over this. It wasn’t enough that her older sisters had already been shouting in a frenzy in the morning when Jaehee first came. She inched closer to Jaehee and gave her an apologetic look. Jaehee didn’t seem to mind, though, as So-a’s family flocked over. Even Hyun-a’s husband was here.
So-a’s mom hovered over Jaehee, doting on her. “Oh my, I’ll cook something special tonight. Jaehee, you should stay for dinner. I’ll make your favorite.” Jaehee’s eyes lit up at that.
“Alright, alright. We’re going to my room now.” So-a tugged Jaehee away. She couldn’t stop wondering what Jaehee wanted to talk to her about.
Yu-a smirked. “Don’t do anything too rash, lovebirds.”
Hyun-a chuckled. “You two are so cute together.”
So-a blushed and ran the rest of the way back to her bedroom, grabbing Jaehee’s arm in tow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Her family had joked about how she and Jaehee should date since they’ve always been close, but she didn’t think they’d catch on. Were they that obvious?
So-a closed the door and stared at Jaehee. “Um, let’s sit down.” She motioned to the bed. They sat down with a little distance between each other. So-a squirmed in the silence. “So, what did you want to talk about?” She couldn’t look at Jaehee so she stared down at her lap.
“I actually like being called your boyfriend,” Jaehee blurted out.
So-a was surprised and looked up. “Really? Even though you’re a girl now?”
Jaehee rubbed her arm. “I mean, I had just gotten used to my new body and being called a boy. It feels weird to instantly go back.” Jaehee paused. “After what Jeongwon said, I did some thinking too. Unlike him, I missed being a girl because I missed my old body. But I don’t mind being referred to as he/him. I like it.”
Jaehee blushed. “I like when you call me your boyfriend and I think it’d be nice to be called handsome and… other boy compliments.” Jaehee fumbled towards the end, not knowing how to phrase what he meant, but So-a got the gist of it.
She leaned her head on his shoulder. “I think I get it. I’ll do that, then. Jaehee, I’m really lucky to have such a handsome boyfriend like you.”
Jaehee had a small smile and a slight flush to his cheeks. “Thanks. I’m really lucky too.”
They held each other’s hand and stayed together on the bed until So-a’s sisters called them to help get dinner ready.