“Young man, can you take the red can from the top for me?”

          Ah. Here we go again. I turn to look at the middle-aged woman next to me in this supermarket and a second after I sense a realization on her face after seeing me closer, without a word I do as she said and gives her the thing from the highest shelf. “Here, Ma’am.”

          “Aigoo—I thought—I was still confused, maybe you’re a guy who wears lipstick!” she hysterically laughs, and slaps my upper arm. I awkwardly smile, and bow to quickly excuse myself.

          I pass by the clothes section, and stand in front of a long mirror for two seconds. My face looks nothing like a guy, people say it’s very feminine. But this short hair changes my image completely—combined by my towering height.

          I examine my clothes, and think it’s not manly. Fitted jeans and a soft colored blouse. I stare down at my almost non-existent chest, and sigh. Maybe this adds up to why people think I look like a guy.

          I go to school to attend classes, and in the hallway a sky-shattering scream is heard. “JO JIA!”

          I close my eyes, and turn around to look for the source of the sound. Miyeon, a classmate, is running cheerfully to my direction, and my shoulders drop.

          “Stop. With you yelling my name like that, people think my name is George.” I massage my forehead.

          Miyeon’s eyes turn round. “Oh! Jo Jia… George-ya?!”

          “Now you understand.”

          Miyeon giggles, and hugs my arm as we walk. “It has never been a problem though, right? It’s all because of your hair! Why did you cut it this short anyway? You look like an athlete!”

          I pull the sides of my mouth. “It’s comfortable. I’m trying something new.”

          “You know, Sehee from the next class thought I was walking with a guy last week when she spotted us at Hongdae.”

          I heave a deep breath. As I hear more of this kind of comment, I start to think cutting my hair short is a mistake.

          But I like the hair. I think short hair doesn’t change the fact that I’m a girl. And with this hair and height, it doesn’t mean I need to always wear a skirt to show people that I’m a girl. I like every kind of clothes.

          Maybe what I need is ignorance. It hasn’t been a month since I got this haircut, I’m still at adapting phase. Yeah.

          After classes Miyeon needs to go somewhere first so I enter the cafeteria by myself. After I finished my lunch, I see two people from a nearby table standing up, and I thought they were going to leave, but they’re heading to my table instead.

          They stop next to the chair across of me, and I look up. It’s a girl and a guy, probably juniors. They smile anxiously, and I give them a small smile. “Can I help you?”

          The girl visibly swallows hard before she opens . “S-sunbae, can we ask you for a favor?”

          “Yes?”

          “We—we’re from the photography group. I’m Jin Yeji and this is Do Joohwan. We’re currently doing the project for university profile. We need a few models for the promo pictures, and I think—I think you’d be great for it.”

          “Oh…” That’s all I could say. “Um… So, in short, what would I be doing?”

          “We need models for the sports section, one of the themes is basketball.”

          I blink once and nod, silently understanding the concept. “Ahhh.”

          The girl laughs awkwardly. The boy next to her just looks as nervous as she is, and I take turn looking at them.

          “Maybe… You guys want to sit down first?” I offer. They tensely take seats, and I laugh. “Why are you guys like this?”

          “No… We’re afraid you’d be offended.”

          I tilt my head. “Wait—am I going to model as a male?”

          “No no no! It’s not like that! The concept would be male and female teams. We’re just afraid you’d be uncomfortable.”

          I shrug. “Rather than that, it’s… I don’t know if I could pull it off.”

          Because of my height, I did get a modeling offer once… Emphasis on once, because I was very stiff and I just accepted that it wasn’t my field. But this current offer is probably going to be photographed in motion, and I won’t be alone.

          “I think you’d do a great job!” Yeji convinces me. “But Sunbae, you are really tall. How tall are you?” Yeji asks, her eyes sparkle.

          “175.”

          They both sigh of amazement. “Please consider this, Sunbae. Contact me, okay?” Yeji flashes her best smile, and Joohwan nods in support.

          “Well… I’ll think about it.” I raise my eyebrows. Yeji leaves her number, and I press my lips together. Maybe this one is going to be fun?

*

          In the end I agreed to do the photoshoot, and Yeji sent me the details. She gave me the outfit right before the photoshoot, and in the changing room I stare at the white uniform with our university logo on it. I nod to myself for self-encouragement, and wear the uniform.

          I enter the basketball court slowly, and seeing the others are already there I quicken my steps. Yeji, Joohwan and their team are still preparing the set and I scan the other models. Tall people, just like me. I’m the tallest among the female athlete models, and by appearance, I do look the most athlete-y between them with this hair while everyone else has ponytails. As for the male models, of course they’re all towering, even for someone with height like me.

          A particular someone seems to be unable to move around, and I scan him. He’s one of the tallest, with big sturdy build but his face says otherwise. His big, round eyes sparkle in excitement and the dangling curly hair gives off the feeling of a giant child. He looks very excited to be here, and a side of my mouth unknowingly goes up seeing him. For me this modeling gig is just a random occurrence, but seeing him maybe things like that makes someone happy.

          I blend myself to the other models and we greet each other. As we wait, we sit on the benches and I’m talking with my new friends, they’re mostly juniors. I’m sitting behind the guy with the curly hair, and he’s joking around with his friends quite… Roughly. He keeps hitting the person next to him while laughing, and when it may not be meant to hurt the other person, his gigantic body makes me slightly scared to be near him in case he unintentionally hits me.

          What I’m being wary of actually happened when he accidentally flapped his hand to my knee, and he gasps. “Oh my God, I’m sorry!”

          I give him a little smile, and shake my head. “No worries.”

          “Aigoo, Chanyeol, be careful.” his friend clicks his tongue. “Let’s move our seats a bit further.”

          Yeji calls us to start the photoshoot, and the guys are going to go first. She instructs us to just have fun, faux-play, and smile occasionally. Joohwan the photographer is very agile with his steps, and the guys are naturally playing with a lot of shouting and jokes, so when Joohwan wants them to play in a more serious atmosphere, they end up laughing instead. It’s just entertaining for the female models, and we laugh when the guys try too hard to set their game face on.

          It’s the female team’s turn, and my heart starts beating faster. Will I be able to do well? The guys take a rest on the bench, and I grow anxious from being potentially watched. Let’s just do this.

          “Jia sunbae, act like the team leader.” Joohwan says, and I curl my fingers in doubt. He gives me an assuring nod, and I inhale deeply.

          We started calm with slow dribbles and leisure passes, but along with Joohwan’s fiery commands for us to act like we’re in an actual game, some actually get competitive and soon ambitious throws are thrown. I even attempt a three-pointer, and when the ball hits the side of the ring, everyone else in the court cheers.

          After a few individual shots, finally the photoshoot is over. We take a group photo to commemorate the session, and the photography team thanks us for our cooperation. As the event is dismissed, I check my phone, and find out that I received a few orders for my store.

          I’m still looking down at my phone happily and slowly following the steps of the others ahead of me at the same time to walk out from the court. I look up once, and almost all of them have left. I’m reviewing the orders on the screen, not realizing a door panel is swinging right to my direction.

          My phone flies from my hand, and an audible crack is heard not long after from the floor along with a few loud gasps. I fell bottom first to the court floor and lost my balance to sit up, so my weight pulled me backwards. I’m staring at the ceiling silently in this position, too flabbergasted to move.

          After a few seconds I bring myself to get up, and sit in a confused state as the others come back to the court and surround me. “Jia sunbae! Sunbae, are you okay?!” Yeji’s panicked voice is heard.

          “I am.” I say slowly. I feel almost no pain, probably a bit sore down there because I landed on my , but overall I’m good. “I’m just a bit surprised, haha—”

          “Oh my God.” someone kneels next to me, and I turn to see him. It’s the enthusiastic guy. “Are you okay?! Where does it hurt?!”

          “See, why did you close the door? The others haven’t all exited yet! You made her fell!” his friend exclaims, and I’m listening to all of this, puzzled. He was the one who did that?

          “This won’t do. I’m so sorry! Let’s go to the doctor!” he swiftly places his hand on my back and below my knees, then raises me up like I’m a piece of feather.

          “Wait wha—”

          He starts running towards the door with me on his arms, breaking through the other models and photography team members. Due to the super fast movements I’m just at a loss of words.

          “Hang on there! You’re going to be okay!”

          I can only look up to his dead serious expression while being stuck to his chest in utter confusion, feeling my feet dangling in the air in this weird motion.