Reuniting With My Brother Is—
"Phew…!"
In the end, I fixed half a dozen of my brother's favorite simple side dishes, packed them neatly into a set of containers, and settled onto the sofa to wait for him to come home.
Somewhere along the way, I picked up my phone to check the time.
2:23 PM
"…Hm."
He's a teacher, after all. If he works at an elementary school, classes would still be in full swing right now.
Thinking back on my own school days, lunch period would already be over, and it'd be about fifth period by now. Which meant my brother still had a while to go before he could leave work….
I let my eyes wander around the living room for no particular reason before sliding them toward the bedroom door.
A quick glance.
…Maybe I'll take a peek at his room?
I'd come over to hang out once or twice a month, but it never felt right to go into his personal room, so I'd deliberately left it alone until now.
Hmm~ I wonder if he's got something weird hidden in there?
You see it on the internet all the time, don't you? Men love their naughty little secrets, but the moment they're out in society they act all proper and hide everything away. And my brother was the type who was good at everything and infuriatingly airtight besides.
…But at the end of the day, he's still a man, isn't he? If I found even one thing of that nature, I could hold it over his head and tease him about it forever.
Fufu… I can't pass this up.
I rose from the sofa and headed straight for his bedroom door. After a brief hesitation, I grabbed the handle and turned it—
Click.
The moment the door swung open, a familiar scent reached my nose first.
He never changed the perfume I gave him.
A soft lemon fragrance — the exact scent I'd carefully picked out for him ages ago because I loved it so much.
I looked around the room. The layout and atmosphere were surprisingly similar to his room back at our parents' house: a tidy desk, an organized bookshelf, even the bedding perfectly squared away.
Then, without thinking, my gaze drifted toward the bed.
"…Huh?"
A scrap of black fabric lay abandoned there.
…And it was a pair of black dolphin pants. The kind women wear.
"…A-A woman's clothes?"
My brother has… a girlfriend?
Him — the guy who wouldn't spare a woman a single glance….
…It refused to feel real, and I just stood there staring down at those black dolphin pants for a long while.
He texted me "sleep well~" on KakaoTalk just yesterday….
And not one word about having a girlfriend.
…I'm hurt.
"You jerk…."
All desire to snoop further evaporated. I decided I'd just pretend I saw nothing, go back to the living room, and quietly scroll my phone while waiting for him — but the moment I turned around—
Shaaaa— shaaaa—
A strange sound drifted in from the living room.
"Huh?"
Shaaaaaa—!
THUD!
"Owwie… why do I alwayths fall whenever I come back…."
"Pieet!"
"Hehe, darling. Hold my hand. Here~"
Squeeze….
I stood frozen in front of my brother's room, staring blankly into the living room.
One woman with jet-black hair.
And another with snow-white hair, horns, and a tail, with a tiny lizard perched on top of her head.
Both of them looked like the same category of awakened beings.
…What is this?
As I stood there gaping at the two of them, the white-haired woman seemed to sense my presence and glanced up at me.
And then…
"…Seorina——?!! What are you doing here?!"
She knew my name.
And there was only one person who drew my name out in that particular drawl…
"……Oppa?"
"Pieet?"
"Hold on, Seorin. It's me, your oppa — Kim Wolyang. Okay? B-believe me…."
I scrambled to my feet and hastily smoothed down the hem of my skirt.
Seorin was staring at me with the expression of someone who had absolutely no idea what was going on.
…If I left things like this, it was only going to get more tangled, so I hurried to dig out something only the two of us would know.
Right, that story — that'll prove it for sure!
The very incident that had earned me weeks of "You're such a brat, oppa" and "What is wrong with you, brat?" over KakaoTalk.
"That! The, the time I spent a hundred and thirty bucks on Honey Squeak-Squeak Keyboard ASMR Jump Tower so I could play Roblox Bugs with my class kids—"
"Pfft…."
Seorin snorted with laughter, then quietly sidled closer to me.
"Wh-what are you… I really am Kim Wolyang—"
Before I could answer, her face was suddenly close. Too close.
Sniff—
I heard her inhale softly, right at my hair, the breath skimming past my ear.
"Hah…… So you're still using the shampoo I sent you. Oppa?"
"…Ah. Um… yeah. You send it to me all the time, so it felt wasteful to buy anything else…?"
For some reason it made my scalp prickle, and I hunched my head down a little. Seorin's lips curled up at the corner.
"The way you talk gives it away more than anything."
"Ah…… Phew. Still, I'm glad you figured it out so fast…."
Only then did some of the tension leave my shoulders.
Just as I was starting to relax—
Oh no — Noxshia!
The thought came late, and I whipped my head around.
What if she was threatening Seorin — something like, "A wicked mortal has invaded our nest. I'll break her, darling." But—
"Aigoo~ our Gyeoul is such a clever little thing~"
"Tsk… tsk…."
Noxshia looked exactly as she always did, gazing lovingly down at Gyeoul and bouncing her gently in her arms.
Huh? She's not on guard?
Whenever we went out, Noxshia would narrow her eyes coldly and size up anyone who so much as came near us. But right now, there was none of that at all.
On the contrary, she was completely at ease — as if she'd known from the very start that Seorin was no threat.
I'd been the first to keep looking at Noxshia, and eventually Seorin followed my gaze and turned her head too. Our two sets of eyes landed on Noxshia at the same time.
…The attention seemed to fluster her a little; her hand stopped mid-bounce and she blinked several times.
"Uh, um? What's wrong, darling…? And… sister-in-law?"
"…Sister-in-law?"
"…."
Seorin stared at Noxshia, momentarily at a loss for words. Noxshia, in turn, tilted her head slightly as though she couldn't understand our reactions.
"Yes? She's darling's kin, isn't she?"
"That's true… she's my little sister."
"Yes! If she's darling's kin, then isn't she family to me too?"
Miracle logic.
She said it with such perfect conviction that, for a moment, I couldn't think of a single rebuttal.
"Oppa… who is she?"
"Ah, um… that's kind of a long story…."
I let the words trail off.
How was I even supposed to introduce her?
…Calling her my partner still made me cringe too much, but saying she was just an acquaintance seemed like it would instantly hurt Noxshia's feelings if she overheard.
"…For now, someone I live with."
Seorin gave me a slow, deeply unimpressed look.
"…You live together?"
"Like I said, for now—"
"Yes! I live with darling! Because I'm her husband!"
"…Husband."
Seorin rolled her eyes around for a moment, as if trying to somehow make sense of the absurd situation.
"I-I'll explain all of this properly later. Seorin…."
"Fine…. For now."
This is just one "for now" after another, isn't it….
"Th-then, uh, should we sit on the sofa? I need to explain a little about how I ended up like this…."
"Yeah. I want to hear it too."
Seorin leaned in toward me.
"And to think the oppa who used to handle everything on his own, flawlessly, somehow…"
Slide—
She picked up a fistful of the long hair spilling down past my shoulder, then let it slither through her fingers.
"—turned into this, and now it looks like you finally need someone else's help. What happened?"
"Hey!"
Seorin smirked, clearly enjoying my reaction.
"What? I don't know anyone with hair this long. I was curious."
"Unbelievable… ugh. Fine, listen up."
After I'd given her a rough rundown of everything that had happened over the past few days…
Streeeeetch—
"…Don' tell. Oppa scold you…?"
"Scold you how?"
Staaare….
"Mm, sorry. That was scary. There."
Seorin let go of my cheek she'd been stretching, biting back her laughter the whole time.
Pop.
My cheek snapped back into place. I rubbed it a few times against the lingering tingle…
"…By the way, are you sure you heard me right? Why are you so calm about this?"
"Why? You awakened, turned into a woman, and now you live with someone called Noxshia. That's it, isn't it?"
"…Hm."
Nothing wrong with that summary.
So she's some deputy team leader of some team at the Harang Guild. The girl can sure condense a situation.
"Sh-shouldn't you be more shocked? Or at least insist on going to a hospital first? Your own sibling suddenly turned into… this…."
"Why would I? From what you told me, only your body changed. Your memory's intact, nothing hurts. Days have passed since the awakening and nothing's gone wrong."
"…That's true?"
"Then there's no reason to drag you to a hospital right now, is there."
Tsk…. It felt too neat, too easy — but I couldn't find a single flaw in it.
"You're still you, oppa, so there's nothing worth agonizing over. Right, Noxshia?"
Seorin looked toward Noxshia as if to lend her own words some extra weight.
"That's right! Darling is darling, after all. I'm always right there beside her, doing my very best to take care of her so she's never uncomfortable!"
"Pieet!"
"See…? They're happy."
Seorin — who'd bent down to my eye level just to grab my cheek — plopped back down beside me on the sofa.
"So, oppa, does that mean I'm your oppa's big sister now?"
"Wow. Twenty-three years, and that's a first. Never once heard anyone call me 'oppa's older sister.'"
I scrunched up my face at the sheer absurdity of it.
"Hey! I might look like this, but I'm still your big brother…! I'm twenty-three, you brat."
"Oh really?"
Seorin looked me up and down once, then said with total composure:
"You're shorter than me. Going by looks alone, me being the older sister is the more natural reading, no?"
"Social convention matters more than appearances, Seorin???"
"Hmhm."
Instead of answering, she rested her hand on top of my head.
"…What? Why?"
"You're shorter than me."
"Hey!!"
I swatted at her hand with both fists, whack whack, trying to pry it off. But the damage registered about as much as an ant's eyebrow, and Seorin just smiled down at me serenely.
This little punk… I need to show her how terrifying her big brother can be—
Then, all at once, Seorin's expression shifted a little.
"Oh, oppa. Speaking of social convention."
"What."
"What does society currently have you registered as?"
…Come to think of it, I hadn't gotten to that part yet. I'd been so busy explaining how I ended up like this that I'd skipped the actually important bit.
"Don't tell me your identity changed too? Fingerprints, biometric data, all of it?"
"Technically I still have an identity — I just can't prove that this body is Kim Wolyang."
"Why not?"
"Because my fingerprints are different, my irises are different, and every bit of biometric data — blood included — has changed?"
Seorin stared at me blankly for a moment, then pressed a hand to her forehead.
"Why are you telling me this now… ugh."
"Is-Is it really that big a deal?"
"No… more like — how have you even been living like that?"
"Just… living, I guess."
"…Wow. So oppa it hurts. Unbelievable."
Seorin let out a long-suffering sigh, then glanced down at me again.
"Oppa, at this rate you can't do anything without me."
"…What was that?"
When I shot her a glare, she giggled, then turned serious again.
"Your memory's fine, I'm here, and all you have to do is honestly report that a post-awakening physical mutation occurred and get tested, right?"
"Doesn't that basically never happen, though…? Aren't they going to drag me off to a secret research facility?"
"…Hey. You planning to live like this forever?"
"…Tsk. Fair point."
Either way, I had somewhere I needed to return to. In five years, I was going to get my job back and go home.
"We'll go tomorrow morning. The Awakener Management Bureau should sort it out — they only work until lunch, so we'd better be early."
"Okay…."
There was something oddly reassuring about her.
I'd always thought of myself as the one taking care of her, but now that I was actually in trouble, it turned out help would come not just from Noxshia but from Seorin too.
…It doesn't feel bad, this.
I poked the tip of my finger against the sleeve of Seorin's shirt as she scrolled through something on her phone.
"Hey…."
"Hmm? What?"
Seorin lifted her eyes from her phone and looked down at me. I fiddled with the edge of her sleeve for no particular reason, then murmured:
"…Thank you."
"Hm?"
"I mean, I probably would've figured it out on my own eventually…. But with you here, it'll get handled faster, and you can vouch for me being family and all."
Feeling oddly embarrassed, I let my gaze slip away.
"…Just. Thanks."
…Why isn't she saying anything?
A quick glance.
…Why is this brat making that face?