A Sister's Cold Eyes
Should I leave? It might be less awkward if I say something before she comes into her own room. As the heavy footsteps drew closer, the thought that staying put would only invite unnecessary misunderstandings kept growing stronger. …Yeah, I’ll just go out and greet her first. I wasn’t sure if Kang Juhyuk had told her my situation, but if she assumed he had, there shouldn’t be any real problem.
With that decision made, I got off the bed and flung the door open.
“Sis—”
“Juhyeoook~”
“Hey, what the hell.”
Reeking faintly of alcohol, my sister marched straight into his room instead of her own. Without so much as glancing my way, she threw her arms around him and rubbed her face against his chest.
“Hey, you said you were going to sleep.”
“Hehe… I came back early in case you were sneaking around with her.”
The “her” she meant was probably Hinami. But if I spoke up now, I had the feeling the accusation would land on me instead. …I hadn’t done anything wrong.
“…How much did you drink?”
“Just one beer.”
“You seem pretty drunk for that.”
“…I’m just pretending, idiot.”
Watching the two of them rub against each other in a way that made my eyes sting, I steeled myself and walked out to the living room, sinking onto the sofa. The atmosphere between them was far too sticky for me to interrupt, but hiding in the room would only make me look guilty. …I just had to sit here openly. I hadn’t come here without reason.
“…By the way, Haeun.”
“What?”
“Your sister’s here right now, you know?”
“What?”
Kang Juhyuk, who had been holding her, let out a long sigh when he noticed my gaze and finally spoke.
“…Why did she come here?”
“That manager bastard started acting up again…”
“…”
The moment she heard that, my sister dropped the drunken act completely. Her expression hardened as she whipped her head around and fixed me with an icy glare from across the living room.
“…Seo Yeeun.”
“…”
“What are you doing here?”
Hostility. The same level of malice Kang Juhyuk had shown me during our worst fights. Under my sister’s freezing stare—something I’d never seen from her before—my body locked up and refused to move.
…Where should I even start explaining so she’d understand? No, why did I even need her to understand in the first place? This was originally my house that I lent to her. Logically, there was no way I’d be in some weird relationship with that man.
“…The manager. He was stalking me again.”
“So?”
“Sis… I came because I thought you’d be here. The director told me not to stay alone.”
I pushed aside all those logical thoughts and simply stated what had happened. I didn’t want to start a fight with her over nothing. Whether it was her or Hinami, I just didn’t want to be alone until that manager was behind bars.
“You could’ve just left once you saw I wasn’t here.”
“Haeun, that’s a bit…”
“Why are you taking her side—”
“Seo Haeun.”
“…”
The moment Kang Juhyuk spoke in that low voice, my sister—who had been interrogating me—turned into a docile lamb. The sight of her kneeling on the floor in front of him while he sat on the bed made their hierarchy painfully clear, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
“It’s better than something blowing up. …Nothing happened.”
“…Then why didn’t you call me?”
“If I had, you would’ve canceled your plans and come back.”
“…”
Right now, the only person who could ease her hostility toward me was Kang Juhyuk. …It was infuriating, but he held her leash.
“And if you were coming, you should’ve at least called. I would’ve picked you up.”
“I just… wanted to come without you knowing…”
“That crazy bastard could’ve been wandering around outside. Ah, not that I’m blaming you—you wouldn’t have known…”
“…”
Being in this uncomfortable situation, being suspected for no reason at all—it was simply unpleasant. …That man might rape me, but there was no way in hell I’d ever seduce Kang Juhyuk and cheat on anyone.
“…You get the gist, right?”
“…Yeah.”
Even while nodding at him, my sister showed no sign of concern for me. In a way, that made her more hateful than Kang Juhyuk. When I’d been sick with a cold, she’d at least acted like a sister for once. It was ridiculous how one man could change her attitude so completely.
“Anyway, go wash up. At least you came back in one piece.”
“Okay.”
In the end, my sister barely spoke to me at all. She only talked with Kang Juhyuk, suspected me on her own, then cleared her own suspicions. The thought that even family had grown so distant from me made me want to stay here even more. If something happened while I was alone and I tried to call her, she probably wouldn’t even answer.
**
I lay on the sofa without thinking, just passing time. Meanwhile, my sister finished showering, went in and out of her room a few times, then eventually disappeared into Kang Juhyuk’s room. Whatever was happening in there wasn’t my business, but the sounds still leaked out.
“Hey, your sister’s right outside…”
“…What? She probably heard everything when she was upstairs anyway.”
…Disgusting. More than just disgusting—it was irritating. If I were simply freeloading, maybe I could understand, but this was my house that I’d invested in. I was only lending it to her. I didn’t want to sit in the living room listening to those sounds, so I got up and moved to the soundproof booth.
“…Ha.”
A bed that hadn’t been there before now sat inside the booth. Cameras, a guitar, and a computer were scattered around. Unlike the tidy living room, a single piece of clothing lay crumpled on the floor. I picked up the wrinkled garment and held it up to see what it was.
…My sister’s old school uniform from her student days. A student ID card was also rolling around on the floor—clearly she’d been planning something. Feeling disgusted, I tossed the clothes aside and tried to sit on the bed, but even that felt dirty. Instead, I sat on the floor and covered my ears.
“…”
The room was completely silent. Yeah, this was better. If I went back to the living room, I’d hear my sister’s moans. If I went to her room, she might come in to change after they finished. At least here, I could sleep without any interruptions…
“…Ah.”
The moment I thought that, the booth door opened and a man wearing nothing but underwear appeared.
“…What do you want?”
“I came to get something.”
He looked at me and froze for a second in surprise, but quickly ignored me, stepped inside, and picked up the camera. Grabbing the tripod as well, he walked back to his room half-naked.
…His complete disregard for what I’d said before annoyed me, but right now I didn’t care. After all, this was something my sister wanted.
“…”
I already knew what would happen once he crossed a few walls, so I didn’t want to think about it. I’d considered going back to my own place, but after seeing the manager’s tweet again, I was honestly scared. Feeling pathetic for being trapped by someone like that, I picked up the guitar lying nearby and plucked the strings lightly.
…My sister used to be pretty good at guitar. If back then it hadn’t been just me who debuted, but her getting scouted and succeeding somewhere too, maybe we wouldn’t have ended up like this. At least when I was in middle school, I liked her. She was pretty, acted like a proper older sister, and everyone else liked her too. Back then, I’d thought she was cool because she was a little older than me.
But that sister had only shrunk as I grew bigger. And now she was completely obsessed with a man who wasn’t even that great, sitting there without any sense of judgment. She didn’t even mind when he openly cheated—she accepted it and joined in. Meanwhile, she got jealous of her own little sister for no reason. She acted cute in front of me with that man, and now she was openly having se…x. The fact that she didn’t even mind filming sex videos made it seem like it wouldn’t be strange if they started selling AVs or having sex outdoors.
Right now Kang Juhyuk still had affection for her, so it didn’t matter, but would it be the same in a few years? Eventually she’d grow old and worn out. I couldn’t imagine the man who only used her for pleasure would stay and protect her until the end.
“…”
Rather than the clothes she wore now, I picked up the old uniform she used to wear and held it against myself, looking at the full-length mirror in the room. The outfit that would probably be too tight on me now—let alone on my sister, who was bigger than me. I couldn’t understand why she’d wear even this uncomfortable thing for that man.
It wasn’t even particularly sexy. Why did he like this kind of thing? Maybe it wasn’t the clothes he liked, but the version of my sister from when she wore them. The thought that he wanted to steal even the time when my sister had still been herself made me strangely depressed. I took off the clothes I’d borrowed from her earlier and tried on the uniform instead.
It wasn’t as constricting as I’d expected, and it actually fit me pretty well. Not long ago, before I became an adult, I used to wear something similar. People had treated even that version of me as a sexual symbol and harassed me constantly. Probably the same for my sister back then—except she was famous, so the men around her would’ve been no different.
Thinking about it that way, the uniform itself suddenly felt lewd. Maybe it was just the two of us sisters who were lewd.
“…Pfft.”
Wearing my sister’s old uniform, I found myself ridiculous and let out a laugh that definitely wouldn’t be heard outside. The thought that someone seeing me like this would be disastrous made me check every corner for hidden CCTV, but there were no cameras. Realizing this place was a perfect sealed room, I locked the door just in case and went back into the booth, hugging my knees as I sat facing the mirror.
“…”
…She’d shortened the skirt a lot too. If I sat like this, my underwear would be completely visible. The way it peeked out slightly looked even more vulgar, so I took the skirt off completely and unbuttoned the shirt as well. This way it almost looked like a photoshoot. If before it had felt criminal, now it felt more like an underwear ad. It didn’t make sense that it looked less lewd the more I took off, but I just accepted it.
Still, sitting around half-naked like this felt stupid, so I stopped the crazy act and changed back into my original clothes. After putting on the pants, I was pulling on the top with the shirt tucked under my hips when—
“What the hell.”
Click, click.
…The sound of the door opening again. Thinking it might be him coming back, I carefully unlocked it and opened the door.
“…What? You—”
…Her ears were bright red. My sister, her long beige hair tied in pigtails and wearing only underwear, stared at me in shock and quickly crossed her arms over her chest to cover herself.
“It was noisy, so I was in here.”
“…”
Whether she felt embarrassed or not, she ignored my flat remark and rushed into the booth. Grabbing the school uniform I’d just been wearing with both hands, she hurried past me and returned to his room.
“…Ha.”
I couldn’t even laugh anymore. While I was letting out a long sigh—
“…”
…My sister came bouncing back with her pigtails swinging, retrieved her student ID, and only then was able to return to his room. Her retreating figure looked genuinely happy, and I couldn’t say a single word to my brain-melted sister.
…No matter what I said, the moment he hugged her, she’d probably forget everything anyway.