My Sister's Little Sister
I dreamed.
It was a memory of the past I had forgotten for a very long time.
In that memory, my sister looked at the still-young me and asked, as she always did, with a warm smile.
"Jinhyun, what do you want to do when you grow up?"
"Me? I..."
As I spoke, my gaze settled on the sister standing before me.
I was still a child then, far from grown. Even so, whenever I looked at her, a quiet warmth would bloom in one corner of my heart, and I would feel my face flush just a little. The problem was that I had no idea how to put that feeling into words, or the courage to try.
So instead of telling her what I truly wanted, I said the first thing that floated into my head.
"I... want to go on adventures when I grow up. Visit cities I've never seen, have strange new experiences, meet people I've never met. I want to live free and fresh like that."
"Is that so? That sounds like a wonderful dream."
She smiled at me, soft and fond. Looking at that smile, I felt a flicker of embarrassment and carefully asked,
"Um... then what about you, sister? What do you want to do when you grow up?"
"Well... there are a lot of things I want to do, but in the end I..."
And then, as she continued, a complicated mix of emotions crossed her face—expectation, joy, and a sadness I could not name.
"!..."
An unfamiliar ceiling.
My eyes opened on their own, and that was the first thing I saw.
"What... what time is it?"
Half-expecting that cursed reveille trumpet to blare in my ears any second, I automatically started groping for my phone. Then, the moment I registered where I actually was, my hand froze mid-reach.
"Ah... right. I got discharged."
What lay before me was not some needlessly luxurious officers' quarters or a pair of women sprawled out like corpses after a night of heavy drinking. It was a modest family home. The realization brought a deep, quiet relief. Once again I felt, solid and real, that I had finally escaped that hellish place. I sat up slowly.
Sister's probably still asleep.
It was six in the morning. The café opened at eight, so the sister sleeping in the master bedroom would need a little more time before she woke. Given how much she had drunk last night, she might sleep even later.
I washed my face to clear the fog, then felt the faint queasiness of a hangover and decided to head downstairs to the café for a glass of water.
Even though I was still indoors, the cool, clean air of early dawn brushed my skin the instant I opened the door. I drew a deep breath of it and started down the stairs.
Halfway down, the conversation from last night—right before I had passed out drunk—drifted back into my mind.
Sister's little sister, huh.
In all the years I had known her, Suyoung had never mentioned blood siblings. I knew she had lost her parents young and been raised by relatives, but I had never once heard of a real brother or sister. The idea of this "little sister" she had spoken of set all sorts of thoughts spinning.
She already treats me almost like a real younger brother. Maybe this other sister is the same kind of thing?
Given everything, that felt like the natural conclusion. One thing was certain, though: if she planned to introduce this person to me for work, I had no real reason to refuse. I had said as much last night.
It's not some stranger—it's someone my sister is introducing. How bad could it be? If we really don't click, I can always turn it down later.
I had zero intention of living off my severance pay as a freeloader, so I decided to look at the whole thing as positively as I could.
By the time those thoughts finished circling, I had already reached the café. I poured myself a glass of water from the pitcher on the counter.
Then—
"..."
"Huh?"
I felt a gaze on me and turned.
And there she was.
"...Sister?"
"..."
A woman in a black suit sat at one of the tables. For a split second I thought it was Suyoung. Then the truth hit me.
...Wait. No. That's not her.
The face was astonishingly similar—so similar that if someone had claimed they were the same person, I might have believed it. But there was one clear difference: where my sister's eyes were black, this woman's were a vivid, unmistakable red.
More than the color of her irises, though, it was the atmosphere that set them apart. She carried the same quiet composure as Suyoung, yet instead of warmth there was a cool, almost cold distance.
I was still staring, half-fascinated, when she spoke.
"You are... Lee Jinhyun?"
"Yes? Ah—yes. That's right. I'm Lee Jinhyun."
"I see."
She gave a slow nod and rose, walking toward me. Even though the feeling she gave off was completely different, watching a woman who looked exactly like my sister approach made my heart give an unexpected thump.
She stopped directly in front of me, then bowed with perfect formality.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Lee Jinhyun. My name is Lee Are. I am Han Suyoung's younger sister by blood. I came at my sister's introduction."
"Ah... yes. Nice to meet you."
Lee Are. The woman who had just introduced herself as my sister's little sister.
Whatever the rest of the story might be, the blood relation part I could accept without question. Two people this identical simply had to be sisters; anything else would have been stranger.
Still... I never imagined she had a sister like this. Then again, they have different surnames, so there must be some complicated history.
Suyoung had lost her parents young. It was entirely possible a younger sister had been separated from her somewhere along the way.
While I was still piecing that together, Lee Are spoke again, a faint awkwardness in her voice.
"That said... it seems I arrived far too early, at a rather poor moment."
"Huh?... Ah—"
Her words made me suddenly, painfully aware of my own appearance.
I had just rolled off the sofa. I had washed my face and hair, nothing more. My shirt was half-unbuttoned, slippers were dragging on my feet, and I hadn't even shaved—stubble rough along my jaw.
"Ah... I... I'm sorry. Just—give me a moment—"
"Of course. I will wait."
Face burning, I bolted back upstairs.
Damn it... this might be someone I end up working with, and this is how I meet her?
She had shown up at an ungodly hour, so some of the blame was on her, but that didn't stop me from feeling far more flustered than the situation strictly warranted.
Even though we had only just met, some small, stubborn part of me wanted to look at least a little presentable in front of the woman who looked so much like my sister.
After Lee Jinhyun hurried upstairs, Are sat alone and quietly poured herself a glass of water.
At a glance she still looked perfectly composed. But the hand holding the glass trembled, just slightly. The emotion inside it was tension.
She refused to let any of it show. Instead she forced herself to calm down and drank the cold water a little too quickly.
Lee Jinhyun... nim.