It Seems That the Word Cute Was a Deadly Poison to the Girls Who Were Despised as Ugly Women in a World Where Beauty and Ugliness Are Inverted
It was only this morning that his fever broke.
The ice pack by his bedside had become wet, and the ceiling, which should have been familiar, looked somehow foreign.
His joints still felt sluggish, and he put his hand to his forehead and stared at the ceiling.
His eyes slowly narrowed, and gradually, as if a foreign substance was dissolving, his face peeked out through the cracks of his memories.
It was not a dream, but a memory of another life that came back to him upon waking.
In this world, his name is Kanna Yuma. He is a second-year high school student.
But inside of him, there was clearly another Yuma.
“….Something’s not right …….”
No one answered his low voice.
But a feeling of discomfort, like a certainty, sprouted up inside him.
The face of a supposedly beautiful woman is said to be ugly.
The appearance that was praised in the previous world is despised here.
The memories of the past are mixed in with the memories of the present.
The sensations of his former life were in direct conflict with the common sense of the present world.
“A beautiful woman is ugly, and an ugly woman is …… beautiful, that’s indeed strange.”
He pushed the blanket away and with awkward movements raised his upper body.
He could still feel the lingering heat clinging to his body, but more than anything he just wanted to check out the air outside.
He tiptoed to his slippers, which had been placed on the floor, and stood up with a creaking sound.
As he opened the sliding door and stepped out into the hallway, he could faintly hear the subdued sound of dishes clashing on the floor below.
A hint of morning.
But the air mixed in with it was somehow strangely tense.
The steps down the stairs were not yet perfect, and he was still very cautious.
He descended one step at a time, pausing for a beat in front of the living room door.
Then he slowly grasped the handle.
The moment he opened the door, the aroma of miso softly caressed his nose.
In the dining room, where the morning sun shone in, a meal was ready.
None of the three women around the table wanted to greet him.
His mother, Emi, gripped the edge of her apron and looked down at the edge of the table.
She has a well-defined face, long eyelashes, and cool eyes. Her face is ageless.
His older sister, Rio, is playing with a bowl of rice with her fingertips while pretending to play with her phone.
Her chestnut hair is tied up on one side, and a hint of color is on her glossy lips. But her gaze never moved from the edge of the dish.
Hiyori, the younger sister, was hiding her face in the steam from the miso soup, her petite body hunched over.
Her plump cheeks, translucent white skin, and large eyes. She was also beautiful.
But in this world, they were considered ugly.
As if resisting this fact, none of the three of them would look up.
A heavy silence lay over the family reunion.
Yuma took a slow step forward with a face that seemed to both understand and not understand.
“Good morning, everyone.”
The air suddenly stops as Yuma enters the living room.
After a few moments of silence, Emislowly looks up.
“Good morning, ……. Are you all right now?”
Her voice is soft, but her eyes are filled with a shaken alertness.
“Yeah. I feel better after a lot of sleep.”
Yuma walked over to the table with a light laugh and sat down next to his sister without hesitation.
Hiyori’s shoulders bounced a little. She shrank back in fear and clutched the chopsticks in her hands tightly.
“Oh, it looks so delicious. Thank you, Mom.”
Yuma said smilingly and clasped his hands together.
“….No, it’s okay. I’m sorry….., it’s not nice to look at.”
Emi almost smiled for a moment, but quickly dropped her gaze and narrowed her voice.
“Eh? What?”
At the moment Yuma naively asked back, Rio’s fingers stopped twitching.
The hand that was fiddling with the phone was still there, but her eyes were averted.
In Hiyori’s hand, the finger holding the chopsticks was trembling slightly.
“Because. It’s just so beautiful. Mom, Rio Nee, and Hiyori…”
As soon as those words fell, the air froze as if time had stopped.
The three shoulders shook in unison, and they all looked at Yuma.
Surprise and confusion. Then, a hint of anticipation.
Emi’s eyelashes were swaying. Long and delicate, they made her downcast eyes tremble.
Rio was biting her lip tightly. As if trying to hold something back, but only her eyes were staring at Yuma.
Hiyori’s eyes were watery and she gently pulled her legs up to the legs of the chair.
“…… Yu-chan? What did you just say ……?”
Emi’s voice was cloaked in a smile, but she couldn’t hide the trembling beneath it.
“Yuma. What’s wrong with you, ……?”
Rio said teasingly, but there was a hint of tension in her voice. The shoulder was slightly up and down.
“…… Onii chan …….”
Hiyori’s small voice leaks out. The outline of emotion is blurred in the sound of her voice, which is mixed with tears and surprise.
(I’m doing something in this house before ……am I?)
Yuma thought so inwardly, but he did not change his expression. He just laughed softly.
“It is true. Everyone is so beautiful and cute,…… I think I’m going to fall in love with them a little bit.”
No one laughed at his joking voice.
Only silence falls.
And it was a deep and somber one, different from the awkwardness of the previous one.
“…Don’t be silly.”
Rio’s voice sounded sharp. The sound of a chair clawing at the floor runs through the room.
She stood up and grabbed Yuma by the shoulders and looked him square in the face.
“That’s unacceptable, even as a joke.”
Her lips were trying to smile, but her eyes were stained with anger and pain.
“I’ve never …… been told I was beautiful”
Rio’s hands were shaking, but she never tried to pull away.
“I had given up. No one would tell me. It was natural that they would ridicule me, so I had no choice but to hide …… it! So why now, with a face like this, you ……!”
The last part of the words was inaudible.
Tears fall from Rio’s eyes.
“……Don’t say it in such a gentle voice, don’t say it like it’s normal,……! This way, how much ……!”
A sobbing breath spills out.
But Yuma was unmoved and just stared quietly into her eyes.
“I’m sorry ……. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
His voice was quiet.
It was more like a confirmation of a fact than an apology.
“But I really thought it was beautiful. It’s beautiful. I thought so by looking at …… Rio nee”
The face of Rio is slightly distorted.
“…..If you think I’m that beautiful…”
In the middle of the words, her voice trembled.
“Then, you should try kissing this ugly face. ……!”
It was a scream. Not a provocation, but a cry of emotion.
“You can’t do it, …..you think it’s disgusting, don’t you? I know, so ……!”
Rio took one step closer.
The eyes are so close that they almost touch each other.
“Rio, stop!”
A moment later, Emi’s sharp voice cut through the air.
But Rio did not look back. Her gaze did not wander away from Yuma.
“Nee chan,…… I can’t do it anymore,…… stop it,…….”
Hiyori was shaking as she sat down. Her eyes were downcast and she was clutching her skirt with both hands.
“I can …… do it.”
It would be too much to let his sister grieve like this.
Even if the world had changed, he is still her younger brother – Kanna Yuma.
Yuma took a step forward and gently dropped his lips on Rio’s face.
He tried to be as gentle as possible, so that his own body warmth would be felt.
“….I told you, I won’t lie to you”
Yuma smiled.
It might have been just a kindness.
But there was no way he could lie to his sister, who looked at him with a sad face.
Maiasa