Chapter 1 - The Last Wish
“Why were you born a girl, Soo-bina? Why?” I wailed. “You’re so unfair! Grow eight inches between your thighs and become a man now, so I can date you!”
I screamed at the top of my lungs, crying dramatically as I grabbed Soo-bin by the shoulders and shook her drunken body in the middle of the BBQ restaurant, while struggling to keep my own completely drunk body balanced on the chair beside her.
She laughed, tried to stand, failed three times, and collapsed back onto her chair. Leaning forward, she jabbed a finger at me. “Gae sekiya! It’s your fault. You’re a year older than me — why didn’t you tell me you were already born before me?” She dropped her hand onto my shoulder and burst into fresh, dramatic tears. “That jerk, that motherfucker — my boyfriend won’t answer his phone. I bet he’s cheating on me with his boss. She’s prettier than me.” She collapsed against me, weeping.
“Gae sekiya? No, no, no — I’m gay sekiya…” I wailed. “Soo-bina, why was I born in Korea? Thank god I was born rich, but what’s the use of it when I’m stuck in a family where I’m closeted and can’t tell them? My father was an officer and now he’s a taekwondo teacher — he’ll beat me to death. My mother will disown me the second I say it.”
“I’m done with this life.”
I stood, swaying, and looked up at the ceiling like it owed me an explanation. “Are you happy now? Just kill me and make me straight. I’m done with this boring, closeted existence, done with the jerk boyfriend who dumped me and married some girl right after.”
I collapsed back down, crying hard, clutching Soo-bin, who held me just as tight and matched my rhythm sob for sob.
Once she matched my pace, I cried louder than her. She paused, then came back even louder. What started as pain turned into a full performance for the tables around us, who were now laughing uncontrollably — because it was no longer two friends crying together, it was two drunkards yanking each other’s hair, locked in an all-out competition over who could cry the loudest.
We’d been best friends for twenty-eight years. This was nothing new.
After thoroughly entertaining the entire restaurant, Jung Si-woo arrived and scooped Soo-bin into his arms. Her boyfriend — handsome, rich, and sharp in every possible way — he was the kind of man who made even a gay guy like me drool a little.
But he was off-limits, forbidden fruit for every reason that mattered: he was Soo-bin’s boyfriend, my distant maternal cousin, and — most infuriatingly — straight.
He lifted her effortlessly. I gathered my own drunken body off the chair, grabbed my bag in one hand and my phone in the other, and watched him pay the bill. He looked at Soo-bin. “Let’s go home.”
“Shibal, I called you a hundred times! Were you cheating on me?” she sobbed.
“I was cheating on you. With our car. It got stuck in traffic and wouldn’t let me come to you sooner.”
She cursed him out again. “Take me to the car. I’m going to beat the shit out of her the second I get in.” He laughed, dragging her toward the car while I trailed behind. He’d parked across the street, so we waited at the crossing for the signal to change.
When the light turned, Si-woo pulled Soo-bin close and started across. I watched them go — and felt sick, the way I always did around couples, because I was alone and always would be. My head was still spinning, alcohol pumping hot through every part of me, when I remembered I was supposed to be crossing with them.
I started forward. My phone slipped out of my hand. I bent to grab it — and looked up to see the signal had gone red, and a truck was barreling toward me at full speed.
The only thing I could see was the blinding glare of its headlights and the blare of its horn, pressed down and never letting up. I spun back around, searching for Soo-bin.
I saw her — drunk one second, stone-cold sober the next — sprinting toward me, screaming my name, Si-woo lunging to catch her. Then the truck hit me, and I was thrown sideways, rolling across the pavement.
It felt as if Dad had slammed me onto the floor during one of our daily taekwondo training sessions. The only difference was that I could see red blood clouding my vision, and I could taste the metallic tang of it in my mouth. My body and head slowly began to go numb.
A whirlwind of memories spiraled through my mind—my tough father; my actress mom, who always cared more about her looks and public image; my annoyingly handsome jerk of a brother, who somehow had a girlfriend a hundred times prettier than he deserved; and his equally annoyingly handsome male friends, whom I secretly wanted to devour, one each day, just like Jungkook’s song: “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday......”
My eyes were closing when I saw Soo-bin and Si-woo drop to their knees beside me, sobbing. Soo-bin grabbed my hand and held on like she could keep me there by force. I let my eyes fall shut.
If this is the end, I thought, then please — let me be born straight in my next life.
When I came back to consciousness, my body felt heavy, drained, wrung out. A bell rang somewhere deep in my ear, and then a voice spoke inside my head.
Congratulations! I am the Universal System, and your wish has been granted — you are straight now! The previous owner of this body has left this world and now rests in eternity. Your soul is bound to this body; you are its new owner, free to enjoy this second life, granted by your own wish and the final wish of the body’s former owner.
The voice faded before I could ask a single question, and then memories flooded into my head — horror-movie memories, the kind of scenes I actively avoided in dramas — and my blood boiled just from the flashes of them.
I tried to move. I barely had the strength to shift an inch in this unfamiliar body. I opened my eyes to total darkness, a pitch-black room. I reached out and felt everything around me — soft, silk-covered pillows, the smooth edge of a nightstand against the bed — and I froze.
Adrenaline shot through me. I bolted upright.
Was I born blind?
I burst into tears. “It’s better to just die than be gay and blind,” I sobbed. “Now I can’t even stan my kpop idols, or drool over hot actors in dramas — what kind of miserable life is this?” I cried until the door opened and someone flipped on the light switch, and brightness flooded the room. I realized my own long hairs had fallen thick across my face, blocking my view — I pushed it back, and what I saw in front of me left me speechless…
