An eventful evening

"So, how's your new place like, Ed?" Dahlia asked while I was driving.

"Far bigger and more luxurious than I expected. Seo-Yun has a whole bedroom she uses exclusively as a closet. It made my head spin with how many clothes she had."

Dahlia giggled. "I very rarely saw her wearing the exact same outfit twice, so I can imagine. Did you take the time to admire yourself in some of these clothes~?"

I shook my head, blushing slightly. "It was very tempting, but no. I can't let her narcissism influence me constantly."

"You at least explored your new body in more detail, I hope?"

My cheeks reddened more. "I have..."

"I told you, hmm~? Female pleasure is so addicting~" Dahlia proudly and teasingly replied, caressing my arm with her finger.

"You told me, yes..."

We didn't have to drive too long to reach my flat. I parked and we got inside, Dahlia sitting on the couch while I grabbed us something to drink. I also texted Claire to tell her we were already there.

"How did you find college so far?" Dahlia asked as I joined her with two cans of soda.

"It's pretty nice, I'm glad to finally have a chance to experience how it's like, even though economics isn't what I would have liked to study."

She raised an eyebrow, opening her can. "What would you have preferred?"

"Well, I wanted to try getting into law. I wanted to become a lawyer and help people. I've always known how rigged the system was and believed I could help change it."

For a brief moment, I saw Dahlia wince but she quickly went back to a more neutral expression, taking a sip of her soda. "I've been a lawyer once... It wasn't all that fun, to be honest. The way you probably picture the job is fairly different from how it is in reality."

"Got some bad experiences?"

"My fair share, yes." She simply replied.

I understood that she didn't want to elaborate any further and dropped the subject. She leaned on my shoulder and held my hand as I turned on the TV.

"I've been wondering of what we should do to allow me into your group of friends." I said. "I suppose I could try to apologise to Laura the same way you did, but I don't know how strange it'd be."

There was a short moment of silence before Dahlia took a deep breath. "Actually... What I wanted to talk about with you and Claire is related to that..."

"Ah, I see. We'll just wait for her, then. Want to play some games in the meantime? We never got to have a proper match at Tekken last time."

She smiled at me, still a bit tense even if she tried to hide it. "Sure, but remember that I'm a novice, so go easy on me."

"Tekken is a great game for beginners, actually." I replied while booting up the game.

I gave her a controller and taught her how to play, the different button combinations and other subtilities. She picked Lili again, she was apparently the character she found the cutest. She played a few matches against the CPU to get used to the controls and then we did a few matches against each other. She was learning fast, some of our matches were close. She even won once.

After some time, we heard the sound of a key being inserted into the lock and paused the game. Claire walked in but froze when she saw me, she had to do a double take. I was starting to feel nervous.

"Hey Claire." I said, walking towards her and giving her an awkward smile, the sound of my heels resonating in the otherwise silent room.

"Huh... Are you okay?" I asked, scratching my head.

Claire blinked a few times before speaking, observing me from head to toe. "Wow... You're... You're so beautiful..."

I blushed at her comment. "T-thanks."

Claire continued to examine me, circling around me. "I can't believe it's really you... I can't see any trace of Ed in you... I... I would never have guessed hadn't I known... Even your posture is so different... So... feminine..."

Dahlia chipped in. "I told you last time, it's part of being a skinwalker. Imitating others is second nature for us, it's instinctual. Although I admit that it's impressive how quickly Ed adapted considering that he became a skinwalker very recently."

"I don't know if it's that impressive... Anyway, I can cook us something while we discuss?" I said, feeling weirdly flattered by Dahlia's remark.

Dahlia and Claire accepted and I got to work. With what we had in the fridge, I decided to make some rice with a white sauce and a steak.

Claire approached me to help, but she was still examining me from time to time. "How are you feeling, Ed? Or should I... use another name now? She was called Seo-Yun, if I remember right?"

I smiled at her. "When we're in private, you can keep calling me Ed, it's fine. And yeah, that's her name. You can just use Yun if you prefer, though. And I'm good."

I looked back at the pot, my smile more shy as I stirred the rice. "It's weird, I was comfortable being a man before, I liked my body and my style... But I... I honestly don't think I've ever felt better than now..."

"It's alright, Ed, I told you. I'm glad to see you happy." Claire said before giggling softly.

"What's funny?" I asked.

"Just thinking of how strange it is for my big brother to be a lesbian now." She replied with a kind and yet teasing smile, making me blush even more. "Ed, it was obvious what the two of you did yesterday. There's not a lot of explanations as to why two people would be in their underwear with smudged make-up and messy hair. But I won't judge, I know you've been holding back a lot since I had to move in with you."

I heard Dahlia giggle while I became more shy.

"I-I see... About that... Dahlia and I, we... decided to try going out." I said.

Claire seemed a bit surprised but smiled at us. "I'm happy for you. I hope things will go well."

"Thanks." Dahlia and I both said almost at the same time.

After a few minutes, I spoke again. "So, Dahlia, now that Claire is here, what did you want to say?" I asked while making sure the cooking was going smoothly.

Dahlia went silent for a moment, as if she was trying to find her words, her insecurity from yesterday resurfacing. "Well... Ever since I met you and Claire... I've been thinking..."

"Thinking about what?" Claire wondered, noticing Dahlia's discomfort.

"About Laura... I've been wondering... how she'd react if I were to reveal the truth to her..." She paused for a bit before continuing. "I always kept it to myself, persuaded that no one could ever accept our kind. I never managed to trust anyone, not even those that were close to me. But you accepted me, you accepted your brother. And I've been wondering if Laura could also accept me..."

Claire gave Dahlia a hug while I replied. "Hmm, that's hard to say."

"You've been her twice, how do you think she'd react?" Dahlia asked, her voice shaking slightly. "Do you think we should tell her?"