It turns out that if you spend the night browsing the Internet for any and all mentions of a specific person like a creepy stalker, you’re gonna sleep in late the next day. And if you got kidnapped and threatened by said specific person the day before, your roomie would get worried about you, thus barging into your room and waking you up early.

“Sorry! I was just really worried after yesterday!”

How sweet. Almost as sweet as my dreams would have been if you hadn’t mercilessly murdered them before they could have even been born.

Okay… I needed to turn down the grump. I was being too harsh. It was my own fault I’d gone to sleep so late, and I couldn’t fault him for being worried.

“I couldn’t sleep last night… but that’s it. Stop worrying so much.” I waved him off and set off to hunt for food in the fridge.

Of course, I hadn’t mentioned my potential romantic interest in the very same person who made him so worried about me. I was already trying to wrestle with that reality myself, I didn’t need others being weirded out too.

Jeez, what was I going to do about this? It was basically like a celebrity crush, right? Except unlike celebrities, she didn’t have any social media accounts, websites, or a public phone number, so I couldn’t contact her in any way. Not that you could ever hope to get in contact with other celebrities that way.

I would have to luck into meeting her during one of her outings… which was unlikely. And, well, even if I did meet her again, it would be as the boring guy Cain, not the cute damsel Aster. She wouldn’t recognize me, wouldn’t call me cute… not that, uh, I needed her to call me cute or anything.

Anyway… methods of meeting her aside, if I wanted to meet her again, I would have to become Aster. Right, I had no choice but to pretend to be a girl again. As a man, that would be tough, but this was important.

But there was a problem… I had no idea how to do my make-up; I didn’t bother paying attention yesterday. I either had to binge some YouTube tutorials or ask Kelly for help again. And, uh, also the bra. I needed help with that too.

But I couldn’t just ask her to help, could I? The punishment game was over, and there was no reason why a guy like me would want to voluntarily dress up as a girl. I needed to come up with an excuse.

I mulled over it as I ate my breakfast, and as expected of my genius brain, I came to a groundbreaking realization. The thing was… I didn’t finish that punishment game; I didn’t take the selfie. Yup, that meant I still had to do it. You see, as a man, I couldn’t back out of the punishment for losing a bet just because I got held hostage by a dangerous supervillainess. Psh, real men would never take advantage of some minor interruption like that!

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Yes, that meant I would become Aster again, go to the statue and take a selfie, and… uh, hopefully, Iron Pack would show up again?

Ah, dammit. I was back to this again. Even if I became the person who could meet her, there was no way to assure that meeting. It wouldn’t make sense for her to hit the same place twice in a row, would it? Even if I went ahead with the punishment game, there was basically zero chance I’d get to meet Iron Pack again today.

Ugh…

Well, I should still go ahead with that punishment game though. Just to say I didn’t skimp out of it, and also to pay attention and learn how to put on make-up myself this time.

Alright, baby steps. I would figure out how to meet her later. For now, since I needed to be Aster to even meet Iron Pack, I first needed the ability to freely transform into my female alter ego. All of this was necessary.

And so, after I was done eating my breakfast, I told Troy about finishing the punishment game proper.

“What? No! It’s fine! You don’t need to do it anymore!” But for some reason, he denied me. What the heck had happened to my roomie? Had aliens replaced him when I hadn’t been looking?

“I have to! It’s my duty as a man to go through with this!” I insisted.

His expression shifted from incredulity to confusion and then to concern. He then put a palm over his face and took a few deep breaths before facing me again. “In what way would dressing up as a girl again protect your manly pride?!”

“It’s… I… Just let me do it! I would feel dirty if I left it unfinished!”

He groaned into his hands. “Okay, fine. Kelly and Miranda are coming over soon anyway. Let’s do this shit again, I guess.” He sighed in defeat.

Definitely aliens. The Troy I knew would enjoy the heck out of the prospect of dressing me in girl clothes again. Well, I kinda liked this version of Troy more, though. It was nice that he was concerned about me instead of being an ass for once. I guess I should give my thanks to those aliens.

Just as promised, the two girls arrived and we explained the situation to them. Kelly winced but Miranda stared at me with a contemplative frown for some reason.

Their attitude did a complete U-turn from yesterday. Instead of making fun of me, they kept asking me whether I truly didn’t mind being turned into a girl again. Yes, I’m fine, now please help me with this stupid bra.

The transformation didn’t take as long the second time around. Mostly because my legs were still beautiful, so there was no need for the torture segment, and because I insisted on wearing exactly the same outfit as last time. It had gotten a bit dirty from yesterday’s shenanigans, but dusting it off did the job for the most part.

I also made sure to pay close attention when Kelly applied make-up on my face again. I even asked her several questions about it. She seemed a bit bewildered to see me suddenly be interested in make-up, but didn’t push the issue.

And then, finally, it was done; there was a cute girl in the mirror again. God, it felt so weird. I didn’t stop breathing or hyperventilate like yesterday, but I was still stunned. The reflection was just so nice to look at. I mean, who wouldn’t love seeing a cute girl in the mirror instead of an ugly guy?

“Hello, I’m Aster,” I said to the resident of the mirror world.

“Um… are you really okay?”

I turned to face the alien-replaced Troy and gave him a bright smile. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

All of them winced at that for some reason.