Family (2)
Family (2)
"Got it. You must be tired from the flight, so get some good rest."
I had seen the news earlier, and with all the chaos at the airport, she had to be exhausted.
I exchanged a few appropriate words of affection and ended the call.
"Hooo... It really is cold now that summer's over."
I trudged along, my footsteps echoing as I headed toward the car.
Inside, I could see Minji beaming as she looked at photos of Lil' One and Pipsqueak.
I opened the car door, got in, and fastened my seatbelt.
As soon as I grabbed the steering wheel, Minji, already buckled in, asked me.
"What did A-ra unnie say?"
"She said it's fine. She said to feed you lots of good food."
"Hehe, but I already ate tons of good stuff earlier."
Minji said she had already stuffed herself with good food, patting her belly.
Did she have no sense of embarrassment in front of her brother?
No, come to think of it, she was worse when she was little.
Maybe because she's a girl, I remember her running around in just her underwear.
"So, how are you planning to get married?"
"I said I'm not getting married."
"Everyone says that. I also had no intention of getting married at first~"
"Ah, that's only because it was A-ra unnie that you changed your mind."
Was that it?
Indeed, the existence of A-ra was simply too powerful.
"You never know, you might meet someone like A-ra Noona, just like I did."
"Well... for now, I want to study hard and become a doctor first."
"Well, that's your freedom."
It wasn't my place to say anything.
It's my personal conviction that the decision to marry someone is entirely up to the people involved.
"Ah, I'll go get my toothbrush."
"There are plenty of toothbrushes at home."
"Oh~ As expected of a housekeeping husband, you're different?"
"Of course. Who's your brother?"
Until I left the orphanage, I had practically taken charge of all the household chores.
Although now, the junior successor who inherited my authority—my younger brother—is handling it.
*
"H-here... I feel like I've seen this place on Qtube before..."
"Well, that's because A-ra Noona is amazing."
Our house is secretly famous online.
It seemed some people posted videos after being invited to an acquaintance's house.
For reference, that included our attention-seeker Lee Min-ho.
Anyway, looking at it now, it really was a tremendous skyscraper.
The feeling of entering a place only successful people could get into...
"What floor is your home?"
"The top floor."
"Don't tell me it's a penthouse?"
"Yeah. You know your stuff."
"....A-ra unnie really is an incredible person."
"She's a top-tier idol. And that's not even mentioning the buildings she owns...."
Whoa.
Just thinking about it gave me goosebumps all up and down my arms.
I had overheard her talking to the person who manages her buildings recently.
When I heard her say, 'Did I have a building in that area?', my jaw dropped so far I couldn't close it.
Since Minji had come in with me, we reached the front door without any hassle.
If she had come alone, there would have been a bunch of annoying procedures, but now, just having a resident's confirmation eliminated the need to issue a disposable visitor's pass.
"I had wondered what the point of a visitor's pass was if they came in with a resident in the first place."
"That just shows how thorough the security is, doesn't it? Seems incredibly impressive."
"It is impressive. They even do 24-hour patrols."
Rather than doing away with disposable visitor passes, the rule was that you now couldn't go outside without being accompanied by a resident.
I thought that might be cumbersome in its own way, but then again, roaming the interior of this kind of apartment without a resident would be strange too...
That wasn't something for me to complain about either.
They were doing it for our safety, so there was no reason to dislike it.
I pulled the ID card from my pocket and held it to the door lock.
The front door opened with a cheerful sound that was nothing short of satisfying.
"Woof! Woof woof!"
"Mmyak!"
"Huh, did Pipsqueak just bark?"
As soon as they saw me, I lifted the two little doggies who were clinging to my legs.
Had Pipsqueak, who had never once barked loudly so far, just gone 'Mmyak!'?
Was I mistaken?
"Pipsqueak, say 'woof'."
"Mmyak."
"Hmm.... It feels like something changed..."
"Woof!"
"Our Lil' One, did you miss Daddy?"
If so, I had to shower her with a baptism of affectionate kisses.
Without a trace of hesitation, I executed 30 kisses on Lil' One.
*
"Minji! Go wash up quickly!"
"Huh? I can wash up?"
"If you look down that hallway, there's a central bathroom. There's a shower booth in there, so go wash up."
Minji was sitting in the living room, petting Lil' One and Pipsqueak simultaneously, basking in happiness.
Anyway, what did she take me for?
If I brought her all the way home and didn't let her wash up, wouldn't that be too mean?
And there was no reason she couldn't wash up either?
"Ah, there's a towel laid out in front of it, so bring it in with you."
"Okay, got it."
As I dried my head and came out, I heard the sound of a door closing with a soft rustle of fabric.
She must have gone in to wash up.
"Should I do it in the living room?"
The group assignment we had planned to gather for today wasn't finished, so I had to take care of the remainder at home.
There wasn't much left, but it was a bit annoying.
I grabbed my laptop from the main bedroom and came out. Lil' One and Pipsqueak were sitting on the table, yawning widely.
Our little doggies were perfectly at peace 24 hours a day...
"Right. Tomorrow, I should send Minji home with some side dishes."
The chonggak radish kimchi and seasoned raw crab I had made this time turned out really well.
Minji liked seasoned raw crab a lot too, so she'd eat it happily.
***
"Hmm... and what else was there..."
"Oppa, give me a banana."
"Here."
I snapped off a banana—which, for some reason, was in the fridge—and held it out.
Bananas actually last longer when stored at room temperature, though?
Did A-ra Noona put it in there?
"But why is the banana in the fridge?"
"I wonder..."
Watching Minji peel the banana and put it in her mouth, I started to feel like I had forgotten something.
What had I been doing just moments ago?
"Oh, right. When you go home tomorrow, take some side dishes with you."
"Okay. Everything you make, oppa, is delicious."
With an expression that looked like she might start drooling any second...
Since my little sister said it was delicious, I should send her off with some often.
"How's the side dish subscription? Do they taste okay?"
"They're incredibly delicious? Way better than the side dish shops around here."
I had tried them once before too, and they tasted fine, not bad.
The sodium was a bit low... so they seemed healthy...
Hmm...
Come to think of it, how did they make the seolleongtang without putting salt in it?
I hoped they would fix that.
"Since I'm paying for it, you have to eat everything even if there's something you don't like? Got it?"
"You know I'm not a picky eater."
"Now that I think about it, you're right."
From the start, the concept of having food likes and dislikes didn't exist for us.
Even if we were full, there were limits; having grown up sleeping in an orphanage, how could there be such a thing?
"Oppa."
"Yeah?"
"Give me just one more banana."
"Here."
Before going to bed, Minji ate three more bananas.
Now that I thought about it, she had always really liked bananas...
*
"Oppa, are you asleep?"
"No, not yet."
As I was lying down staring at the ceiling, Minji spoke to me.
I turned my head to look at her, and she was looking this way too.
"Sleeping together like this reminds me of the old days."
"Can you even call this sleeping together?"
I was lying on one long sofa, and Minji was lying on the sofa at the opposite end.
Even roughly, we were over eight meters apart. If you tried to describe this as sleeping together, the apartment would practically be a communal living situation.
"It reminds me of when we were young. We used to sleep together in bed, remember?"
"Was that when it rained and the blanket and everything got soaked?"
"You remember that?"
"Of course... my clothes got wet along with yours that time too, oppa."
The sorrow of having to do laundry twice.
That was the first time I truly experienced it.
The clothes I had clearly washed and hung out to dry smelled of dust...
I wondered if I had done the laundry just for this to happen...
As I let out a sigh, reminiscing about that time,
Minji giggled, as if something had come to mind.
"Right. I went to the orphanage last week."
"Really? Mom must have been happy that her daughter came by."
"Tch... what's so pretty about a gross daughter like me? She probably likes you better, oppa, because you're so affectionate."
"Minji. Mom doesn't discriminate between her kids. Except for the title she uses."
That title was one only I could use.
Though I didn't know why.
"You have school tomorrow, right? Go to sleep early today."
"What about you, oppa?"
"I don't have classes tomorrow. Jealous?"
"Tsk... We don't have things like days off."
"They say med school is brutal starting from pre-med..."
If we just put together our timetable like hell, we could have three days off a week.
In that respect, medical students who couldn't even get a single day off must really be sweating blood studying.
"Minji, are you asleep?"
"Zzz...."
"She's asleep... good grief..."
She fell asleep so fast I questioned whether it had really been Minji talking to me just moments ago.
Was it possible... I was talking to a ghost?
***
The next morning.
I packed a ton of side dishes for Minji as she stepped out the front door, then threw myself onto the sofa.
At the same time, I saw two baby dogs at my feet, whining to be lifted up onto the sofa as well.
"I hear other dogs jump up on their own."
"Woof!"
"Maybe they can't because they're still young."
Lil' One was about seven months old, and Pipsqueak was... three months?
Thinking that, I lifted the two pups and placed them on my lap.
"Little siblings... family, huh..."
Since it's come to this, maybe I should take my little siblings out to watch a movie for the first time in a while?
I had bought something like a beam projector to make a setup similar to a movie theater, but it was bound to be very different from actually going to a cinema.
"I should go this weekend."
This was the perfect time for a cool older brother to step up and provide some family service.
There was no point in being hated later and having my feelings hurt for nothing, so I should diligently do my family service.