"Do any of you guys have any protection?"

Heechul looked up as the words were spoken. "What?"

"Female protection. You know, towels or tampons." A short girl with jet black hair explained. "Hee-unni, do you have any?"

"It's no good asking Hee, she doesn't get periods." A taller girl with long, glossy, chocolate brown hair said with a smile, rumaging through her bag before holding out the small wrapped item.

"Seriously? Hyorin, are you lying? She's lying, right? Hee-unni?" The shorter girl questioned.

Heechul shook his head. "Hyorin isn't lying, Baekha."

"You are so lucky!" Baekha exclaimed, "it's the worst part about being a girl!"

"It's not right, bleeding for five days without dying." Hyorin said.

Heechul groaned inwardly. It was at times like this that he was glad he was a boy that wanted to be a girl, and not a biological girl.

"Hee-unni, tell me what pills you take to get them to go away," Baekha demanded, stamping her foot. "I'll pay you!"

Heechul ducked his head, a faint blush on his cheeks. "I don't really like talking about it." He said, straightening his skirt before brushing a stray piece of hair behind his ear.

"Sorry, unni." Baekha said, before ducking into the nearest bathroom.

Heechul breathed a sigh of relief, his secret was safe.

~~~

Looking back, Heechul was amazed that no one had spotted it sooner, even his parents remained clueless until he actually said it out loud.

As a small child, he enjoyed playing dress up with his cousin's dolls, staging fashion shows and making the dolls fight over the best outfit. His favourite fancy dress outfit (worn to every fancy dress party when he was six) was a Cinderella princess dress, complete with blonde wig and slip on shoes with a small heel. He made friends easiest with girls, loved to experiment with makeup, and was caught by their housekeeper once wearing his mother's Versace dress and Jimmy Choo heels.

"I want to be a girl." Heechul announced shortly after his sixteenth birthday, causing his father to promptly faint and his mother to race over to him, throwing her arms around his neck in a tight embrace.

"I always knew you should have been a girl! I could feel it." She said gleefully. "Now, let's grow out that hair and go shopping!"

That summer, Heechul grew his hair into a bob, was taken on several shopping trips with his mother for dresses and skirts, tight trousers and heels, and was enrolled (by his father) at Seoul Preporatory Academy Boarding School, under the name Kim Hee.

~~~

Heechul stopped suddenly as he saw the other presence in his room, holding his pill packet in her left hand. He cursed himself for not securing the pills away, even if it would have meant he was late for class. "Baekha."

 

"Unni, I'm sorry." Rather than place the pill packet back on the dresser, the shorter girl walked towards Heechul, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling him into a hug. "I'm so sorry." She repeated. "I should have listened to you, rather than go through your things. I wont tell anyone, I promise."

"Baekha-"

"My mother is older than the usual parent, she went through the menopause when I was eight. She had the same oestrogen tablets as you do." Baekha explained, and Heechul found himself relax - she didn't realise that he wasn't actually a girl yet, she thought that he was going through early menopause. "I wont tell anyone, unni, honestly."

"It's okay." Heechul said finally, wriggling out of her grasp and taking the tablets from her hand. "Thanks, for understanding."

Baekha smiled sadly at Heechul. "You don't have to go through this alone, unni, you can talk to me now."

Heechul nodded, directing the younger from the room and securing the door behind her. His heart was beating double time. "Stupid." Heechul muttered, stepping over to his drawers and locking the pills away. "Always lock the tablets away."

 

---

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