Everyone knows the scene where a girlfriend asks, 'Oppa, is that celebrity on TV prettier, or am I?' and the guy breaks into a cold sweat, even if they've never witnessed it in person.
I had laughed at it a few times on TV myself.
But now it had become a situation I couldn't laugh at.
Watching it, I had thought it was just a comedy bit, but now it had gone from comedy to documentary.
'Oppa. Is this face of mine better now, or was my original face before I reincarnated better?'
It was a question that knocked the breath right out of me.
Worse, the comparison wasn't even with some other woman.
Herself before reincarnation, and herself after.
In a way, Sia was about to wage a battle against herself.
And I was the shrimp caught between two whales, getting its back broken for no reason in that brutal fight.
'What on earth am I supposed to say?'
First, let's think about it as objectively as possible.
The human Sia before reincarnation had definitely been pretty.
It wasn't just in my eyes, either; most people who knew Sia agreed.
But Sia's current looks were simply overwhelming.
So overwhelming that even actresses famed for their beauty wouldn't want to stand next to her.
Right. To be honest, the answer was already clear.
Her current face was much prettier.
But what if I said that straight out?
'Oppa, then what about the old me? You're saying my face back then wasn't good enough?'
And what if I said her old look was better instead?
'Don't lie, oppa. You think I wouldn't know?'
Caught between a rock and a hard place, I quickly racked my brain for an answer that would satisfy Sia.
What should I do? If I said they were both pretty, would that seem too half-hearted?
No, given the state Sia was in right now, she might actually be happy with that, but it was a gamble.
'It's not a sure card, so should I steer the topic a little?'
Maybe that could be one way.
Or.......
Right, let's try thinking from Sia's point of view.
'If I were Sia, what answer would I want to hear.......'
Let's assume I'm Sia right now, and think of the answer I'd want to hear from the boyfriend I love.
Having quickly sorted out my thoughts, I swallowed hard and opened my mouth.
"Sia. Oppa doesn't mind either way. They're both really pretty, but if I had to choose, the old you is more familiar, so from where I stand maybe the old look is a little better. But."
"But?"
Sia pricked up her ears.
"Oppa recommends you stick with whichever of the two would make other women even a little more jealous."
"A look that would make other women jealous? What does that mean, oppa?"
Perhaps because it was an answer she hadn't expected, Sia tilted her head.
Good. Muddying the waters with an out-of-left-field but intriguing angle: success.
Now all I needed was the finishing blow.
"I want you to pick the prettier look, so pretty that other women think, 'I'd never be able to steal a guy who's dating a woman that pretty.' I'm a guy, so I don't really know what kind of face women find pretty......."
"Oppa."
Before I could finish, Sia cut me off.
For a moment I worried that she didn't like my answer, but that ecstatic voice and Sia's eyes, curved deep like crescent moons, told me it was quite the opposite.
"Oppa, you're a total genius."
***
'Is this face of mine better now, or was my original face before I reincarnated better?'
Sia had asked Min-jun with a truly innocent intention.
She didn't care which one Min-jun picked.
No, even a third option would have been fine.
Sia simply wanted to live in the form that best matched Min-jun's ideal type in looks.
After all, she was a dragon who could cast spells like Polymorph as casually as eating a meal.
'So if I'm going to do it anyway, it's better to live in the form oppa will love more, right?'
But contrary to Sia's intention, Min-jun gave a somewhat offbeat answer.
'He wants me to keep the face other women would be more jealous of?'
Not the one oppa likes better, and not the face I think is better either, but a face other women would be jealous of?
Sia couldn't make sense of it at all.
'What is oppa getting at? Is he telling me to make myself pretty on my own?'
But as soon as she heard Min-jun's next words, a thrill ran through Sia's whole body.
'Keep a face that's pretty by women's standards, not men's. That way other women won't dare to wag their tails at me.'
That was how Min-jun's words sounded to Sia.
'Why didn't I think of that?'
Oppa's right. I have to keep those sly-fox bitches from getting anywhere near oppa.
Oppa didn't forget me for 1 whole year and even packed tteokbokki himself on my death anniversary, and I'm going to let other bitches wag their tails at him?
Absolutely not.
With that one remark from Min-jun, Sia could be certain of his feelings.
However.
There was one thing Min-jun had overlooked.
Namely, that on the contrary, the more beautiful Sia looked, the more it changed the caliber of the women who would covet him.
'Depending on how I look, the caliber of the bitches who throw themselves at my oppa will change.'
Sia had no interest whatsoever in what other men thought of her face.
They could find it ugly and that was fine; they could find it pretty and she didn't care.
But other women would gauge Min-jun's worth by Sia's face.
If she was too pretty, they might think, 'If a woman like that is sticking to him, there must be a reason, right?' and take an interest in him.
She couldn't let that happen.
If a woman still made a move on him even with the current Sia clinging to his side, chances were high she would be just as pretty or attractive.
'But if I look like I did as a human...... no bitch that impressive would throw herself at him. Yeah, this is right.'
The moment her thoughts were settled, her eyes curved like crescent moons.
'But this alone isn't enough.'
Look at who my oppa is.
'Someday, sooner or later, no matter what I do, there's bound to be at least one bitch who seduces my oppa.'
Her intuition as a woman was telling her so.
'I need more countermeasures, more. Changing how I look? That's nowhere near enough to feel safe. Think of more ways, Jeong Sia. More, more. Rack your brain harder.'
Did Min-jun have any idea that Sia was waging a silent, desperate battle with herself?
No, he probably didn't.
***
The operation was a huge success.
I had apparently slipped past the sudden crisis; Sia smiled, seemingly pleased with my answer, and planted a big kiss on my cheek.
As soon as her lips left my cheek, Sia incanted a spell.
[Polymorph.]
I still wasn't used to seeing her incant spells without any formula calculation.
The moment she incanted it, a dazzling light wrapped around Sia.
Then the light faded.
As soon as it faded, Sia stood before my eyes, back in her human-era form.
Not the intense red hair and the bewitching look of a goddess.
It was the woman I had loved, with her innocent air, long hair, and round, kind-looking features.
"Oppa, am I pretty?"
"Need you even ask? Is there any woman in the world prettier than my Sia?"
But.
I had answered on reflex, but I couldn't help having doubts.
Of course, I didn't care what she looked like.
Human-era Sia or the Sia of now, in the end, all that mattered was that Sia had miraculously come back alive.
But at least as far as I could tell, if I were a woman, I would have been more jealous of the unrealistically beautiful red-haired Sia than of this look.
Then why did Sia choose the look from her past life?
'Do dragons judge looks by different standards than humans? Or did she honestly feel that the face she had back when we first fell in love was prettier?'
My doubts weren't fully resolved, but I decided not to argue with Sia's choice any further.
Whatever she looked like, she was the same Sia, my girlfriend, pretty in every form.
Anyway.
"This really brings back old memories. Right, oppa?"
We held hands quietly and took each other in with our eyes.
For a very long time.
And only after the warmth in each of our hands had passed wholly into the other's did we go to buy tteokbokki as planned.
As we had said while eating tteokbokki earlier, 2 or 3 servings of tteokbokki weren't enough to satisfy Sia now that she was a dragon.
Holding my hand, Sia used Teleport.
In the blink of an eye, the view changed.
"Wow, it's been so long since I was here."
A secluded, shady alley in a Seoul neighborhood full of studio rentals.
As if lost in memories, Sia looked all around.
To anyone else it was an unremarkable gray neighborhood of studios, but for Sia and me, this place held a great many memories.
Just as we used to back then, we shared a light peck in the shady alley.
And after that kiss, we came out and started looking for a decent tteokbokki place.
If we'd had a regular spot, we would have headed straight there, but because Sia had always loved tteokbokki so much, we never stuck to one place; we used to order it from all over.
I took my time walking, thinking I'd show Sia around the old neighborhood for the first time in a long while.
Let's see, I was pretty sure a new tteokbokki place had opened around here not long ago.
After wandering the streets for ten-odd minutes, we found a tteokbokki place that had recently opened.
"How can I help you with your order?"
As if the menu of a modern restaurant felt unfamiliar after so long, Sia scanned the menu board on the wall.
With her body pressed tight against mine.
Then, after going through the items on the menu one by one, Sia said to the part-timer.
"We'll just take 10 servings of tteokbokki to go."
......Did I hear that wrong?