Then You'll Take Oppa's Number from Me?
How had it come to this?
Only a few hours ago, the day might as well have been ordinary. It really had. But...
"...Uuung."
Choe Haeun showed up, and ordinary was over.
"Hnnya..."
She'd been drinking without a pause, and in the end she passed out cold. Of course it ended like this. I sighed and gave her shoulder a couple of taps.
"...Excuse me."
"Hnnya..."
Calling her did nothing. This was bad. Seriously, was I about to have to call the police? I blew out another sigh and decided to think it over while I cleared the empty cans scattered across the table.
And then—
"...Agh?!"
Choe Haeun shot upright all at once. The second she saw me reaching for the cans, she made some bizarre little hup—! and lurched toward me.
"I-I'll do it...!!"
Her hand flew out. And I—
"Whoa, hey...??"
—lifted mine high, so she couldn't grab the empty beer can. I sighed and said it flat.
"Enough. Pass out again out here and I really will call the police. If you don't want that, call someone you know right now and get yourself home."
I swept the cans away as I spoke, and Choe Haeun fidgeted with her fingers, abashed. Well. At least she could still tell right from wrong. To be fair, she'd already pulled something weird on a part-timer while drunk, and then she'd gone and drunk herself drowsy out on the terrace. Even like this, if she was sober enough to sort right from wrong, she knew she'd messed up.
"...I'm sorry."
The apology finally made it out of her. I didn't bother scolding her for it. I just sat down, quiet, in one of the outdoor chairs.
"...?"
She tipped her head.
"Ah, you're not going back in?"
"Because who knows what might happen. I'm not walking off and leaving someone too drunk to move, so hurry up and call."
At the very least, I meant to see the call happen before I went back inside. So I waited.
And then—
"Oh, Oppa..."
She finally dialed.
"Where am I? The convenience store near home... Huh, what am I doing here? I was just having a little drink... Ugh, the nagging, seriously."
Mid-call, her face pinched. Plain as day, she was getting an earful from Choe Seohyeon.
"How much did I drink? Not that much. Four cans of beer...?"
"...You can't even hold your liquor. What's this about four cans."
He didn't sound truly angry, but the worry must have been getting to him, because his voice climbed all on its own. Which was why, faint as it was, it drifted through the speaker to me.
"...I'm heading over. Wait there."
With that, the call ended in a beep.
"Um, Oppa says he's coming...?"
"Does he."
"Yes. Anyway, you can head back in now, Unni..."
"I could. But I'm going to see that he actually gets you home before I do."
"Uh, that's..."
"I'm worried, that's all. There's nothing to do at this hour anyway."
It was the dead of night. There really was nothing to do around now—I usually just put a movie on my tablet—so killing time like this was fine. I said it firmly enough that Choe Haeun seemed to give up, and her mouth closed.
"Th-then..."
An odd, suspended stretch of time followed. A drunk Choe Haeun sat quietly, and I waited for the person who would take her home. Fortunately, Choe Seohyeon didn't take long.
"...Hoo. I'm sorry. Where's my sister?"
I pointed. But—
"Mmmnya..."
She'd fallen asleep in the meantime. He looked at her and sighed.
"Haa. This kid, I swear..."
She'd already made a nuisance of herself to a stranger, and on top of that he clearly had no idea how he was supposed to get her home. No wonder the sigh came out.
"...I'm sorry for the trouble, this late."
"It's fine. More importantly, take her."
When I told him it was fine and to just go, he hesitated a moment, then hoisted her onto his back.
"Uwehh..."
Dead to the world, she wore some unreadable little smile and kept grinning to herself.
"...I'll be sure to make it up to you next time."
"We're good. Get going."
And so the Choe siblings left. I watched them until they were gone, then quietly went back into the convenience store. That was that.
Shame came crashing in.
Why had I done that? Really. The disgrace I'd made of myself at dawn kept replaying in my head, and my face burned hot.
"Hoo. You up?"
My brother came out of his room, shot me a glance along with a sigh, and opened the fridge. I had nothing worth saying, so I kept my mouth shut. Honestly, the version of me from those early hours had been... a walking nuisance. That part was true. I sat there too embarrassed to speak, and he sneaked a look at me and started in.
"So. What were you drinking like that for?"
"...If I said I don't want to talk about it, would you actually drop it?"
"You don't drink like that. You're always watching yourself."
"..."
"Tell me. Isn't this what family's for?"
He said it looking straight at me, steady. I hesitated. Should I even say it? But—
"...Don't tell me something happened."
When I didn't open my mouth easily, he looked at me with worry, and that look shook something in me for a second. My lips parted before I could stop them. I couldn't help it. When he worried over me like that, some part of me surged up that wanted, for no reason I could name, to lean on him. Especially back in high school...
"Haa..."
So this was how it always went. We could bicker all we liked. It still ended here: him pretending not to care while looking after me, and me pretending to be furious while ending up unable to stop thinking about him.
"...Seriously."
I gave in, and decided to say what I actually felt.
"...I was stressed."
"Stressed?"
"Yeah."
At the word, he tipped his head.
"Have you even had anything to be stressed about lately...?"
"...Plenty."
"Huh?"
"You were in on it too, and now you're going to play dumb?"
"...No way."
His eyes went round. I sighed.
"I couldn't sleep because of what I got hit with on stream yesterday. Being teased so bad I can't fall asleep—that's a genuine first in my life."
"..."
"So I drank."
Thanks to TSGoDie, I'd been stressed out of my mind, and at two in the morning I couldn't take it anymore. I'd sat in the convenience store and drunk alone, as pitiful as a person could look. My brother's mouth opened and closed like he had no idea what to do with it. Embarrassed for no good reason, I waved my hands in a rush.
"I-I answered you, so we're good, right?"
"...Yeah."
He put on a face that said he understood, and went back to his room. Once he was gone, I tried to cool the heat that had climbed into my face. Thankfully, it faded fast. Which meant now...
"How do I even go face her..."
I fretted over how to patch up what had happened at dawn. And so...
"...I'M SORRY ABOUT YESTERDAY——!!"
Eleven at night. Choe Haeun stood there loaded down with bread and drinks, apologizing at me.
"Uh..."
I was thrown. Helping her hadn't been about wanting anything like this. She seemed to read my face as displeasure, though, because she pulled even more bread and drinks out of her arms.
"If this isn't enough, I'll give you more...!!"
She was begging me to please just take it. Before that, though.
"...This is from the store, isn't it?"
"Yes. It's from this store."
"...You haven't paid."
"I'm going to. I'll pay, and then hand it straight to you, Unni."
Buying convenience-store food and immediately tossing it to the part-timer. What was I even supposed to call that? Looked at kindly, it was thanks for the trouble yesterday. Looked at unkindly, there wasn't much heart in it. Not that I minded. At least it meant she knew yesterday had been her fault.
"...All right. We'll call it even with this."
Better to take the gesture in the spirit it was meant. Once I'd rung it up, I paid for a bag on top of it and tucked the whole thing away under the counter. I figured that would be the end of the whole mess. It wasn't.
"...Um."
She wasn't leaving.
"What is it?"
I tipped my head, wondering. And then, out of nowhere—
"...I feel like Oppa and I just keep being rude to you somehow, Unni."
"Huh?"
S-so sudden? At the swerve in topic, I looked at her, and she went on with a sigh.
"You helped Oppa before, too. When he was having a hard time."
"Ah. Back then..."
There had been a time, yes. Right here in this store, Choe Seohyeon had been looking at his phone when he suddenly started hyperventilating and collapsed, and I'd rushed to call an ambulance.
"...I thanked you then, too, but thank you again."
"It's nothing. Really, for that."
I waved it off. It was no big deal. That didn't seem to be enough for her.
"S-still. And lately Oppa and I have been rude to you one right after the other, so..."
"No, I'm really fine."
"Even so..."
Whatever she'd done to me recently was still sitting wrong with her, and she kept circling back to apologize. I was about to tell her one more time that it was fine when a mean little joke occurred to me. Honestly, I decided this much was within bounds. I'd looked after her that thoroughly before dawn. A prank at this level... I was allowed, wasn't I? So I said it.
"If you're truly that sorry, there's one thing I'd like to ask."
"...What is it?"
The moment I made a demand, she swallowed hard and went tense. I let out a short little laugh.
"A phone number."
"...Sorry?"
"Give it to me. If you black out drunk like last time, I'll need to contact your brother."
I brought up what had happened at dawn and asked for it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Her lips parted, and it wasn't long before she asked me back, heavy with implication.
"Um, but if I'm the one who's drunk, you'd need to contact my brother...?"
"Right?"
"..."
I said it so brazenly that her mouth fell wide open.
"Th-then what you're saying is, you'll take Oppa's number... from me?"
At that, I smiled faintly and nodded. Her face went blank in a way that could not possibly have gotten any blanker. The moment I saw it, I couldn't keep the laugh down.
"Pfft—ha!!"
"...?! "
She flustered the second I laughed. I waved a hand and shook my head.
"Forget it. I was only joking."
"...What?"
"I was messing with you."
At the word joke, her expression went completely vacant. I pulled her card from the reader and handed it back.
"Anyway, this settles it on my end, so don't drink and pull that again. Got it?"
"...Yes."
Maybe it was getting pranked back to back. She walked out of the convenience store looking dazed. The door sensor chimed, that thin electronic tone, and the store sank back into quiet...
The chime rang again.
"Welco... me?"
What? Why was she back? I looked, and there she was, cheeks faintly pink, holding her phone out.
"...What is this?"
"Put it in."
"Huh?"
"Your number, Unni."
"What...?"
M-my number? She wanted me to enter it? I stared, thrown, and she said it with a sulky face.
"O-Oppa's number is off limits. So be satisfied with mine."
"..."
The moment I heard that, my own face went blank. Because this was...
"...Don't tell me you thought I was after your brother..."
"...You're not?"
"I'm not?"
"..."
"..."
A beat of silence. Before long, her cheeks and the nape of her neck flushed redder than red could reasonably go. And I—
"...Pffhahaha——!!!"
—couldn't hold it, and burst out laughing.
"Haa..."
Why had I done that? No—why had I gotten drunk and pulled a stunt like that at a convenience store in the first place...
"What?"
"There's a thing."
I brushed him off and lit up my phone. On the screen was what I'd gotten last night: the part-timer unni's number.
"Ah, that's hilarious. Anyway, I just have to give you my number, right?"
"Uh, uh...?"
"Here. Call me if you need to, okay?"
It had taken no time at all. She'd used my misunderstanding and saved her own number in my phone.
"Am I supposed to be happy about this, or not?"
I couldn't tell. How, exactly, had it ended up like this...?
"Haa..."
I sighed again, and my brother sat down across from me.
"What's with all the sighing?"
"Just go."
"No. I'm asking because I want to know."
He latched on and wouldn't let go, so I had no choice but to spill it: what had happened in the middle of yesterday's apology.
"...So you gave your number to the convenience store part-timer? Not mine. Yours?"
"...Yeah."
He went quiet for a second. It didn't last.
"...In all my life, I have never seen someone give out a number like that."
"...I know that perfectly well, so could you shut up?"
"I would if I could."
"Hey."
"A little sister who doesn't want to give her brother's number to a girl, so she hands over her own instead. Wow. I don't really know that subculture stuff, but if I posted this on a forum right now, the views would—"
"Ah, I said don't———!!!"
I shrieked, and only then did he stop. Choe Seohyeon got up grinning, and from the doorway stuck out nothing but his head to land one more line.
"Anyway, I'm kind of touched. You scream at me every single day, but you still can't stand the idea of me dating a girl, huh?"
"..."
"What do you want to eat today? I'll buy you something good..."
"You bastard——!!"
I could see he was trying to get a rise out of me, so I hurled a sofa cushion on the spot. He broke straight into an evasive maneuver.
"Mm, didn't work, ju? I already sharpened this back in Painting Octopus, ju?"
"Use that voice one more time and I really will kill you."
"You say you'll kill me, but you can't, ju? You can't do a thing, ju?"
"Hey!!"
I yelled and charged, and he shut the door in a flash—and locked it, too. I rattled the knob, clack, clack, but his door never opened.
"Ah, this is so annoying..."
Nothing but things to be pissed about. Teased by the convenience store unni, and then, of all things, teased by my own brother at home.
"...Is this for real?"
I got made fun of on stream, and now I was getting made fun of in real life too. It was genuinely, completely unfair.