Younger Sister
Younger Sister
Once the semester started, I could really feel just how lazily I'd been living during the break.
Even driving my own car to and from school started to feel like a hassle.
"So tired... so tired..."
"Woof."
"Pipsqueak..."
Pipsqueak, who looked less like a dog and more like a stuffed cotton ball, came up to me and gave my cheek a little lick.
Just moments ago he'd been playing with Lil' One, so what was this about?
Haa... still, looking at this adorable little fluffball put my mind at ease.
So this was what it meant to be healed.
"You hungry?"
Just in case, I held out one of the kibble pieces I'd left on the living room table to Pipsqueak.
Sure enough, he buried his nose in my hand and wolfed it down in a hurry.
"Woof!"
"So that's it..."
Apparently, he was hungry.
Pipsqueak was still young, so I was giving him small meals several times a day.
Eating too much at once wasn't good for him, and the most important thing was to make sure he didn't go too long without eating.
Still, it was a relief that Pipsqueak ate well.
I'd heard that some puppies can't adjust to a new environment when they're young and won't eat, or will eat only a tiny amount.
Pipsqueak always ate well, maybe because he had Lil' One around.
Though it did sting a little.
Pipsqueak seemed to like my wife Lil' One and his mom A-ra more than he liked me, his dad.
He let himself be held and acted cute just the same,
but when he licked my cheek, it was to signal that he was hungry or thirsty.
"Alright... let's go eat."
I scooped Pipsqueak up with one hand and held him in my arms.
I pressed my nose against his fluffy cotton-ball fur and sniffed, but all I smelled was that toasty scent unique to puppies.
As expected, giving him a bath was still out of the question.
*
"Huh?"
After feeding the pup and coming out of the kitchen to check my phone,
I saw several texts from a number I hadn't seen in a really long time.
If you're going to send a text, why send one when you can send this many?
For a moment, I wondered if something urgent had come up, so I tilted my head and read through the messages.
"Wants to meet up on the weekend for the first time in a while... and she says she didn't send a single text because she was studying."
She did send a message saying she was sorry, bringing up how she'd been a student preparing for exams until last year.
But still, you're not studying 24 hours a day, so wouldn't that leave plenty of time to send a text?
"Well... I didn't call or text her either, so..."
I sent back an okay and threw myself onto the sofa.
The plush sofa caught my body without a single wobble.
"This weekend... was A-ra noona filming too?"
I didn't have anything to do this weekend anyway, so this worked out perfectly.
I'd heard that A-ra was going to appear on a variety program filmed with the Queens members.
It was one of those shows where I couldn't really tell what the appeal was, since the concept kept changing every time.
"...But should I still tell her I'm going out and what for?"
I didn't want to be weirdly misunderstood, and it wasn't like I was sneaking around meeting someone in secret.
I was just going out to see family for the first time in a while.
After that, I did the laundry, dried it, and put the clothes away.
In the past, I used to let it pile up and then do it all at once, but now just seeing a pile made me itch to clean.
Was this the habit of a house husband?
Of course, it was summer, so things started to smell quickly too.
A-ra sweated a lot in the middle of summer, after all.
"Anyway... what does she want to meet about?"
Just what on earth was she up to these days...
I got a little curious.
***
"This is the place, right...?"
The meeting time had passed, but that kid was still nowhere to be seen.
Even when we were kids, she was always late to school and the school would end up calling her mom.
Seriously, she's an adult now and she still hasn't gotten her act together.
Just wait until she shows up. I'd make her pay for the crime of making me wait one way or another.
"Should I just get in the car and wait?"
No matter how much September counted as late summer, it was still just as hot.
The car exhaust and the heat it threw off, and the scorching blast from the outdoor AC units attached to the buildings.
It was the kind of weather that was hard to endure just standing around.
On top of that, sunglasses and a mask...
Ugh, I was roasting to death. Roasting.
"Oppa!"
"Huh?"
Just as I took my keys out of my pocket to get in the car, I heard a familiar voice calling out "oppa."
It was a weekend morning so there weren't many people around, and I was the only one over here,
so that shout was meant for me.
"Now you show up. Now you show up."
The main character who'd made me wait in this heat had finally arrived.
I took off my sunglasses, tucked them into my shirt, and planted both hands on my hips.
"Kim Min-ji. Did your oppa tell you to be on time or didn't he?"
"Hehe, you did."
The girl in light clothes scratching the back of her head in front of me was Kim Min-ji.
She was my younger sister, only a year apart from me.
Of course, we'd slept and grown up together at the orphanage since we were little, and that was all there was to our relationship — nothing more, nothing less.
Still, I thought I'd treated her as preciously as a real younger sister.
"You know Mom said you didn't call her, even though you said you would a week ago? Are you really trying to get chewed out by your oppa..."
"Ehh, I talked to Seonsaengnim this morning though?"
"......Really?"
"Yeah."
Well, if that was the case, I had nothing to say to that.
She'd already left the orphanage, and this kid Minji was an adult now anyway.
So then, let's see...
What could I grill her about?
If I didn't give her a hard time right this moment, I felt like I'd go crazy from frustration.
Right, there was that.
"You're a woman and you don't even think about arriving early to wait, and you make your oppa wait for you?"
"Oh, come on, I said I'm sorry~"
She smoothly latched onto my arm and hugged it.
A sigh automatically slipped out of me, and I unconsciously patted her head.
"You heard that your oppa got married, right?"
I'd gotten married last year, so she probably heard it from Mom.
But since there was a chance this kid had just half-listened and let it go in one ear and out the other, I asked anyway.
"Of course I heard! I watch your Qtube channel too, you know."
"And a kid like that didn't send a single phone call?"
"I... I told you through text... I was busy studying..."
Minji was flustered, trying to dodge the subject.
She really did seem to feel sorry, after all.
"Get in. Let's go to a cafe or something and talk."
"I'm hungry, can't we go to Ashley?"
"Ashley? Or we could go to a hotel buffet, like Lotte or something..."
"O... Oppa... did you get rich or something?"
"I am now."
I might not look it, but I was a man pulling in over ten million won a month.
Could I not afford to buy my hungry little sister a meal?
She was probably living in poverty, so I'd come out planning to give her some allowance too.
"I see... feels like just yesterday you were saying you'd earn a lot of money when you grew up."
"Alright, it's hot, so let's hurry up and get in the car."
"Oka............wait. That's... don't tell me, is this your car, oppa?"
The moment Minji saw my beloved Porsche Cayenne that A-ra had bought for me, I could've sworn I saw her soul fly right out of her mouth.
As expected of a woman, she seemed to know her stuff about cars.
"What are you doing? Hurry up and get in."
"Uh... yeah..."
We were only able to leave that spot thirty minutes after the time we were supposed to meet.
Now that she was an adult, I really wished she'd at least show up on time.
*
"So? What have you been up to lately?"
"Mmm..."
Minji was completely absorbed in eating.
At the sight of her eating so well, a wry smile automatically formed on my face.
It was true, watching someone eat heartily just naturally brought a smile to your face.
"Eat slowly."
"Oppa, you eat quickly too."
"I said eat slowly. Want me to get you some water?"
"C... cola..."
Maybe she'd tried to swallow too much at once, because she started thumping her chest.
I should've known, she was a woman after all, I'd seen it coming from the way she wolfed her food down.
Drinks had to be ordered separately, so I called the staff over and ordered a cola.
They were charging a ridiculous price per can, but what could you do.
I popped the tab on the can and handed it straight over.
"Gulp... gulp..."
"Haa... my cute little sister turned into a total glutton..."
I rested my chin on the table and watched Minji.
The sight of her crushing the 355ml cola can as she drank was pretty much on par with A-ra.
Where did they learn that?
"Pwah... so good."
"Are you going around starving?"
"Yeah. I got fired from my part-time job so I've been starving for two days."
"What.....?"
How could she only mention something that important now?
I wanted to pounce on her and interrogate her right then and there, but it seemed like she still had more to say, so I stayed quiet.
This kid was the type to clam up even more if you grilled her.
"And I used up all the money I had, and I got kicked out because I couldn't pay the monthly rent."
"Does Mom know? Why didn't you contact your oppa sooner, what were you doing?"
"I left home all full of confidence, so how am I supposed to call Seonsaengnim? And even if it's you, oppa, how can I contact a man like that? I've got a woman's pride."
What pride was there to have when you were homeless and starving.
I wanted to knock her on the head, but I held back.
Watching Minji keep eating so brazenly, I couldn't help but smack my forehead.
It wasn't just disbelief — the fact that she was so calm while starving and homeless actually felt impressive.
"So? Where's all your stuff right now?"
"My stuff? I don't have anything like that."
"What?"
"When I got my first paycheck from my part-time job, I had a lot of places to spend it. I was at a goshiwon, and all I did was walk in with my body."
A goshiwon, not even a studio apartment.
If Mom had heard this, she would've gone straight over, grabbed her by the ear, and dragged her back.
Honestly, when I heard the word "goshiwon,"
for a split second I wanted to grab her by the ear and haul her back to the orphanage.
But she was an adult, and she'd already left, so she couldn't go back either...
Haa... all I could do was let out a heavy sigh.
She must have gotten the self-reliance support fund too...
What did she do with that?
It wasn't like her to waste money, either.
My head hurt.
And she was still going on about pride even in this state — that meant she probably wasn't hungry enough yet.
I felt a strong impulse to just leave her to fend for herself, but I forced myself to hold it in.