Let’s roll back time a little.
At that moment, the humans in the management office were awkwardly checking each other’s expressions in an uneasy atmosphere.
Jelly Girl kept dwelling on the thoughts she had a while ago and had thus ended up arriving at a location to resolve them. Following her were the jellies she had brought along, and also behind Daesik, part of the jelly army trailing like little chicks.
Observing the procession of jellies trailing behind her, Jelly Girl smiled faintly and directed her gaze toward Sosik standing askew in the middle of the line.
“You didn’t want to come, yet here you are.”
Recalling how Sosik had constantly taken naps until now, Jelly Girl smiled slightly as if confirming she had been correct about him.
“Looks like Sosik was sleeping all the time because he didn’t have anything to do.”
That assumption wasn’t entirely wrong. Before the installation of the TV, Sosik had only slept, but after the TV had been set up, he was completely engrossed in it.
Seeing this, Jelly Girl remarked.
“Even jellies… no, even those in the Singularity can’t resist dopamine, can they?”
“If I showed Dae some shorts, would his thought-processing part melt like jelly and leave him lying in bed, just staring at them?”
“Well, isn’t that what he’s already doing now?”
After pondering this, Jelly Girl decided that Sosik needed to be given another hobby (?).
That’s why she had chosen this place.
To resolve her nagging thoughts and create a space for Sosik and the other jellies to acquire new hobbies.
The place? The bathroom.
With a basket in hand, Jelly Girl took a step inside the bathing area, her mood slightly elevated at the thought of bathing after a while.
Slippery!
With a loud crash and splash, the floor, slippery from someone’s previous use, caused her foot to slip. Her already slippery and damp body tumbled, easily spinning once before landing on the cold bathroom floor with a thud.
A cascade of items from the basket scattered all over her as she lay sprawled on the ground.
These items were ones Han Seori and Yang Ha-na had generously packed for Jelly Girl when she had announced her intention to bathe.
“…What is this?”
While this would’ve been an accident that would’ve required a hospital trip for a human, Jelly Girl rose with a small duck perched atop her head. Her dazed expression lingered as she stood, and upon noticing the gazes directed at her, she feigned cheerfulness by shaking her arms.
“It’s all good. No harm done.”
“Seriously, why is the floor so slippery? Who used it last? Are they some kind of barbarian?!”
Jelly Girl unnecessarily bad-mouthed blameless Kim Cheon-soo. Of course, this place was meant for women.
…Perhaps.
In any case.
Unaware of this fact, Jelly Girl kept cursing Kim Cheon-soo until finally calming down enough to take in her surroundings.
And there it was—bigger than she had expected.
Compared to Jelly Girl’s living quarters (with a bit of exaggeration tossed in), this bathroom was undeniably larger. While it made sense, considering it was designed for multiple users, Jelly Girl hadn’t received any such explanation and thus found herself feeling somewhat disappointed.
It almost felt… a tad modest, didn’t it?
But she quickly rallied her spirits.
“This is my home now, right? So this is mine as well, isn’t it?”
Only then did her attention shift to the long row of showerheads. Seeing them, Jelly Girl realized this wasn’t meant for individual use, and nodded in understanding.
“Ah, so that’s why it seemed a bit off. Pretty inefficient, isn’t it?”
“Hmm.”
“Alright, what to do first?”
With the grand space before her, Jelly Girl’s mind swelled with the idea that she ought to enjoy herself. While her original purpose had been to relieve her unease with the current state of affairs and offer Sosik and the jellies new hobbies (?), she now found herself excitedly wagging her antennae in anticipation.
Though she had provided excuses like Sosik, it was undeniable that Jelly Girl, too, was in need of new stimuli.
Completely forgetting the presence of the jellies, Jelly Girl waddled over to the bathtub. Oddly enough, instead of the large communal baths one usually finds in bathing areas, a pristine white bathtub, like those found in spacious homes or hotels, caught her eye.
“Wow.”
“Nice, right?”
When Jelly Girl had lived as a human, her residence had never had a bathtub. Consequently, she harbored a strange longing for them, and the one before her fulfilled that desire beautifully.
“Seems larger than I thought?”
Unaware of her body’s reduced size, Jelly Girl entered the tub and began toying with its smooth surface.
Then, she plugged the drain and slowly turned the faucet, filling the bathtub with water.
“Well, I’d need to fill it with water if I’m going in, right?”
Given the considerable size of the bathtub, it would take a bit of time to properly enjoy it.
After some thought, Jelly Girl placed the duck floating in the bathtub before heading back out. Then, she herded the jelly cluster, who had been standing there unmoving, under the showerheads.
And…
“SHOWER!”
“!!?”
Jelly Girl directed the hot water from the showerheads onto the jellies. The stream of water cascaded down onto the jellies. While Jung-sik appeared to enjoy getting wet and began squirting jelly, Sosik gazed blankly at the falling water.
The biggest commotion came from…
…Daesik, who was wearing clothes made by Yang Ha-na. As his clothes got soaked, Daesik seemed at a loss and began clinging to Jelly Girl’s legs, panicked.
“Ah.”
It was only then that Jelly Girl realized Daesik (Ellis) was a doll, and she scratched her cheek sheepishly, thinking.
“In the end, isn’t washing laundry or taking a shower the same thing? Laundry is cleaning clothes, and showering is cleaning people.”
Mutter, mutter.
While it wasn’t necessary, Jelly Girl awkwardly averted her eyes and returned, carrying the shampoo and body wash that had fallen on the floor.
Staring expressionlessly at the shampoo and body wash in her hands, Jelly Girl contemplated.
“Do I even need to differentiate between these things? Besides, what’s the difference between shampoo and body wash? You can use soap to wash your hair, body, and laundry anyway.”
I don’t know. Who cares?
Giving up on that thought, Jelly Girl squeezed a generous amount of both shampoo and body wash onto her palm and extended her hand toward the drenched Daesik.
She then began rubbing all over Daesik’s soggy body, effectively giving it a wash. It was more fitting to describe what she was doing as cleaning laundry rather than bathing.
The blue liquid in her hand gradually transformed into white foam, which began to surround Daesik, turning him into a fluffy, foam-covered figure. Realizing it was enjoyable, Daesik wiggled his arms like a doll.
“Hey, stop moving!”
To Jelly Girl, who had been attempting to cleanse him, his movement seemed unnecessary and almost reminiscent of a water-resistant jelly she hadn’t encountered.
Feeling disgruntled, Jelly Girl saw other jellies with the tell-tale shimmer of blue eyes staring at her. Even the jelly without eyes in the Jelly Army appeared to be eagerly anticipating what would come next.
Ah.
“Seems like I messed up!”
Unable to resist the anticipation, Jelly Girl extended a tentacle from her body and coated it with ample shampoo and body wash. After working it up into foam, she applied it to the bodies of the Jelly Army.
With satisfaction, Jelly Girl exhaled a sigh of relief, then moved on to apply foam to the hovering Middle Jelly.
As the showered jelly exhaled, foam scattered throughout the bathroom, coating the room in bubbles.
Transforming Jelly Whale into a Cotton Candy Whale, Jelly Girl next extended her hand toward Little Jelly.
Little Jelly, unusually, had a sparkle in his eyes, which gave Jelly Girl a renewed sense of motivation.
“Hm.”
“Does the saying ‘Give the unpleasant one more rice cake’ exist for a reason?”
While contemplating, as Jelly Girl applied foam to Little Jelly’s body, she noticed a peculiar sensation.
It was impossible not to feel this way.
Little Jelly was essentially a smaller version of Jelly Girl herself, meaning—though human-like in form.
Recalling her past appearance before transforming into a Jelly Girl, it was a slightly strange feeling. But after so long, she didn’t feel much anymore.
Though there was a sense of awkwardness, it wasn’t enough to make her detest the task. Jelly Girl successfully applied the foam to Little Jelly’s body.
Once complete, Jelly Girl was surrounded by jellies coated in foam.
“It feels like I’m sitting on a cloud.”
As Jelly Girl internally smiled and wiggled her jelly, the jellies and jelly army who had been staring at her all suddenly surrounded her.
Not exactly running toward her—more like clinging to her, sharing the foam on their bodies.
Startled, Jelly Girl soon found herself covered in foam, and at the taste of shampoo and body wash on her skin, she gagged slightly for the first time in a while.
Waving her slippery body, Jelly Girl quickly moved under the shower, washing it off while ensuring no jelly was left unwashed by extending her tentacles to turn on every available showerhead.
After the bubbly shenanigans, Jelly Girl and her jellies finally dove into the bathtub, now filled to overflowing.
Once the water was shut off and Jelly Girl took a seat inside, she mumbled to herself.
“Why is it this huge?”
Though the tub was warm and rather pleasant, its size had submerged Jelly Girl’s face instead of just her shoulders.
Still, the warm water was satisfying enough that Jelly Girl giggled while gazing at Daesik floating nearby.
Sosik, clearly enjoying the warmth, had lain down at the bottom of the tub with closed eyes. Meanwhile, Jung-sik floated nearby the toy duck, drifting effortlessly.
The Jelly Army, also appreciating the tub, had spread out in various positions in the water.
Seeing all this, Jelly Girl realized that occasional baths weren’t all bad and spent some time wiggling her jelly before Han Seori showed up from the management office.
Until that moment, the good times continued.
