As I see Izei close the door to his bedroom behind him, I let out a sign and grab my head. I don't think he realizes just how cute he is right now. That oversized pajama made him look like a tomboy wearing her boyfriend's clothes, and I had to restrain myself to not let that affect the way I acted towards him.

The towel, however... That was just too much. Not only is he cute as heck, he's also crazy sexy! If the woman I'm now living with wasn't Izei, she'd be perfect girlfriend material. But I can't allow myself to see him that way, I'm sure that would be incredibly insulting to him as a man. I can't let anything that happens in the coming days affect the way I see and treat him. He'll be counting on me to serve as an anchor of sort, to be the one person who still treats him the same as always, and I can't betray that trust. The way I feel about his current appearance cannot factor into this.

With my resolve now rekindled, I get up and bring the dishes to the kitchen to wash them.

The next morning, like every morning, I'm woken up by my phone's alarm. I contemplate staying in bed and not going to work for a while after turning it off, like I always do, but a desire to see how Izei is doing pushes me to get up. As I leave my room, I see him sitting at the dining table, having breakfast.

He hasn't miraculously turned back to the way he used to be, so it's a shorter, daintier and cuter Izei who's eating some toasts while scrolling on his phone this time. I approach and ask:

"How are you feeling?"

"A lot less tired, thankfully, but I still ended up waking up in the middle of the night. For a moment, I hoped the last few days were just a dream, but I guess I have to accept that this is very real."

He looks pretty sad, it makes me want to hug him and comfort him, but that'd be weird I think. I choose to use words instead:

"I'm sure it'll be over soon, and then we'll go back to how things were and joke about the time you spent a few days transformed into a woman."

That gets him to smile a bit. Despite how lost we both are, I'm glad to still be able to make things better for him.

As I grab my own breakfast, I ask:

"So, what's the plan for today?"

"I'll go buy some shoes, then come back and take it easy. I want to avoid being out as much as possible, so I won't make this any longer than it needs to be."

"Are you going to be okay by yourself?"

"I think I'll be."

As he says that, he lifts one of his feet so I can see it, then says:

"I put multiple layers of really thick socks to help fill out my current shoes, that way I won't be losing them."

"Isn't that... really warm?"

"It is. You have no idea how uncomfortable I am and how much I regret putting these on now instead of later."

That gets a hearty laugh out of me, which causes him to smile in turn.

At work, Aurelia approaches and asks:

"So, how's your roommate?"

"Better. He's back home and won't work for a short while, but I think he's doing okay."

"That's good. Different subject, who was the cutie you were traveling with yesterday?"

"Eh?"

"In the subway, I saw you with a girl. Her fashion sense leaves a lot to be desired, but aside from that, she seemed like a good catch. Oh, I thought you might have been on a date, so I decided to not disturb you."

Oh. So she saw me with Izei on our way back home last evening. That's... bad, I guess? At least it confirms something I was fearing: people who don't know him will recognize him as a woman even if he's wearing men's clothes and has short hair. There isn't really a point in hiding the truth from her, it'd just put me on shakier ground in the future.

"That wasn't a girl, he's my roommate. We were on our way back from the hospital."

"That was... your injured roommate? Are you sure he's a guy?"

"Yep, he definitely is."

I still don't want people in the office to be aware of what happened to him. Ideally, they'll never know at all.

"That's... Wow, a guy looking like that? I'm so jealous. Do you think he has any skincare trick he could share with me?"

"How close did you even get to us to be able to tell what his skin is like?"

"I might have sneaked up on you two in an attempt to get a closer look at who I presumed to be the kind of girl you like."

"Wha... Why? What were you even trying to do?"

She puts her hands on her hips and lifts her chin as she proudly responds:

"I've been curious about you since I started working here. The way you think about magic circuits is unusual, you're almost 30 and you're still living with a friend, you very rarely talk about yourself, and you just generally have this aura of mystery that caught my eye. So I guess I wanted to know what kind of woman would attract your eye."

"... Don't you have a boyfriend?"

"Oh, I didn't mean it that way. I'm just attracted to knowledge I can't easily acquire."

"I'm starting to think you're even weirder than me."

"Thank you!"

I sigh at her response.

"That wasn't... Ah, whatever. Still, how did you end up thinking we were on a date dressed the way we were?"

"Well, like I said, I feel like you're a bit of an unusual person overall, so I figured that might have been how dates are for you. To be fair, I was just thinking you might have been on a date, I didn't conclude that you were."

"That's... Is that really how you see me?"

"I don't know how to see you. I want to figure it out!"

As usual, I can't tell what's going on in her head.

As the sun is getting closer to the horizon, casting long shadows inside of the office, I send out a circuit prototype to be approved, then close my computer. I received a few requests today I could take care of now, but it's almost time to leave and I'm a bit worried about Izei. How did his trip to the shoe store go? Ultimately, I choose to head back home over completing the additional tasks, I'll just finish them tomorrow morning.

The trip home goes like it always does, and soon enough, I find myself pushing open the door to my apartment. As I enter, I notice a soft breathing sound coming from the couch, as if someone was sleeping on it. Is Izei taking a nap?

I remove my shoes and walk there as silently as I can manage. As I make my way around the couch, I see him, sleeping calmly there, wearing... women's clothes!?

A pair of tight jeans perfectly fits the shape of his legs, accentuating the more feminine proportions they've taken with the transformation. A very pale yellow shirt hugs his upper body, revealing his thin waist and the shape of his chest. Covering his delicate shoulders is a light jacket decorated with abstract floral patterns on the sleeves and near the hem.

Combined with his sleeping face, he's absolutely perfect. As contradictory as that thought is, he's the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.

Izei, how am I supposed to keep seeing you as a man if you go and do things like this?