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It hurts his pride, of course it will. As a man, what else is more shameful than this? For all his twenty-nine years of being a man, he’s never been the one to care much about being masculine or anything, but still…
He too, will be embarrassed wearing a skirt.
A breeze went past his legs and he can’t help but shiver, clutching the coat from the female Stella uniform closer to his body. How does women deal with this? Doesn’t this feel like not wearing a jacket during winter?
Well, he never really said he’s good with women-ology, never will.
…he hadn’t yet explained his predicament yet, hadn’t he?
Baek Yuseol isn’t oblivious to what transmigration or isekai is. He read a fair share of novels about it in his past life. The one that happens to him has the medium of the game he’d spent a decade hyperfixating on, embarrassing at it is to admit. Sure, it took a bit of an identity crisis to accept this fact, but in the first place, he doesn’t quite have the time for it either, considering he was 1) being chased, and 2) kind of in a life-and-death situation.
He’s grateful for the privacy provided by the mages who saved him in the cart, at least he can internally scream in peace.
Now, days later, with a new quest popping up everytime he recalls the system-looking thing that looms behind him, he’s all ready for it. Entering the prestigious Stella academy, he meant.
…now why did he mention a skirt earlier, some might ponder.
Ah, did you not know?
Baek Yuseol is a female character.
He, is not. If the pronouns were to indicate anything.
This… causes a bit of a dilemma.
‘If only I could pass as a male.’ Baek Yuseol sighs in the peaceful haven of his mind, ‘Unfortunately considering this body can enter Stella from the principal’s recommendation, it meant he knew that Yuseol is a girl in the first place, it’ll be… weird. I don’t want to deal with it.’
And so, here he is, in a body of a gender he could never understand, roughly two decades younger, and can’t do anything about the bleak looking future he knew he has to deal with.
…ugh, why did he slay that stupid dragon again?
With how much time he’d spent in this world, he sometimes missed quite a few important details even without his cheat glasses. Notably, the actual genre of the game.
Yuseol has come to a realization, one quite late actually. As a player who cares about combat and messing with each characters’ unique kits and ignoring the stacking workload in his quest tab, he felt justified that he forgot about it.
This game, the one he’s inside of now, is an otome game.
…this shines to light when Ma Yuseong, one of the love interests, starts sitting next to him in classes right after Yuseol for whatever reason managed to get the staff that’s supposed to be the key to trigger the physically male teen’s route.
‘Did I ruin everything already?’ Yuseol thought with dread, ignoring the sparkling face of Yuseong’s gentle smile beside him, ‘Maybe if I just ignore him enough… there’s no way I could trigger a route, right?’
…yep, no way. After all, the protagonist is Flame, and the female lead is Aiselle, who is he to butt in thinking he’s suddenly the female lead? It’s an embarrassing thought too… ah, he should stop thinking about this.
He ended up having Ma Yuseong following behind him like a puppy whenever they shared a class, but it’s alright, it’s just a passing interest.
One day, Flame questioned him.
“Who are you?”
“…what?”
Yuseol… is really not paid enough for this. He felt like he should be compensated way more often. The things he had to deal with as a transmigrator and a woman is an ultimate combo that makes Yuseol regret he even played the game in the first place.
What’s up with Flame following her around calling her ahjumma? He’s not that old! He’s still in his twenties! And that time Wonryang questions her why Flame run away crying, and looks bewildered muttering to himself, “I didn’t know Flame was into girls.”
…what was that about! Flame isn’t into girls! She’s a protagonist of an otome game! The only time she ever came close is when that Elf King’s route got triggered, considering the elf used to have a female looking body but turned into a male halfway through because she fell in love with Flame.
And then there’s periods, yeah, what’s up with that, by the way? At this point, he might just start taking alchemy seriously to make a potion to relieve period cramps in women. He’s sure it’ll be a good product too, he should talk about it with Altelicia seriously soon.
Then, his new bundle of dilemmas.
Don’t misunderstood, at this point, nearly 70% of his problems he call is his dilemma, but this time… it’s a bit serious. He knew that Yuseong is interested in him, but it shouldn’t develop anything further than that. It seems to work, since Yuseong doesn’t treat him anything special with how he talks to people normally, if Yuseol ignores that Yuseong doesn’t normally approach people, that is.
Then Wonryang, he went into a depressive episode for quite a while. He suspects it has something to do with the muttered words he said to himself, whatever those meant. Though recently, he seemed fine enough? It’s not like they’re close perse, but at least he doesn’t look at Yuseol like he’s a gum underneath his heels? That’s an upgrade, right? After the hang-out he did with Yuseol and Yuseong (that is honestly very deathly even before they get to the dungeon), he seemed to talk more to Yuseol, albeit maintaining his snarky attitude.
…Yuseol never knew Wonryang’s personality is like this, but maybe this is how he acts when the perspective isn’t with Flame. It’s loads of fun to poke him though, Yuseong seemed to agree.
Then with Jeremy… Yuseol hadn’t seen much of him, actually. Seems like Flame is busy with her… protagonist-duties dealing with him. He’s not quite sure what she did, but considering Flame said something about driving a ‘slimy bastard prince’ away from Aiselle… it seemed like it’s a good thing?
Not that he knew the plot of Jeremy’s route, but he trusts her judgement, and if she’s not all that panicked, then it might be no problem.
–is what he said before.
“…will pretending we’re girlfriends really solve anything?” He asks in disbelief.
Flame shrugs, “I mean, it’s not like homosexual relationships are a crime or anything. Help me out, won’t you?”
He sighs, unbelievable, “Buy me meals, at least.”
“Sure, I am a good girlfriend, watch.”
The academy believes her lies.
Seriously?
“You’re really dating Flame?” Yuseong asks, looking really handsome in his surprisingly casual wear in one of their club outings.
“I didn’t know you’re into girls…” Aiselle mumbles, looking at Yuseol under her lashes. He’s not sure what’s with the sudden change of mood when Yuseong brought it up.
Yuseol shrugs, “I’m fine with both.”
“So you like boys too?”
“…maybe.”
He should still up his guard against Yuseong, how scary.