Want to Take Her Place, Sis?
Min-ah hung up with her father, Eun-hyeok, and let out a long, heavy sigh. The anxiety that had climbed to its peak had mostly unraveled over the course of the call. He hadn't ignored a ringing phone — he simply hadn't heard it. There was no trace of someone who'd snatched it up in a panic, and he'd even stayed on the line with her for a good while.
And yet, somewhere inside Min-ah's heart, a strange discomfort lingered. Not quite relief, not quite fear — a peculiar feeling, as if she were standing on a borderline where nothing could be confirmed either way. A sensation of being anxious without being anxious wrapped itself around her. She had definitely gotten the sense that her father was with a woman. But he had said he wasn't. So she had no choice but to believe him. He had always been honest with her.
Was I just overreacting?
Min-ah was always composed. It wasn't because she had a laid-back or easygoing nature. That composure came from the simple fact that her surroundings flowed according to the predictions she herself had laid out. She seemed indifferent, a good-natured people-pleaser — but that was only the surface. She was the type who found her peace by moving the pieces on a board of her own making.
Min-ah knew that not everything went the way she wanted. So she had set the bar at eighty percent. If even eighty percent of her predictions came true, she was satisfied. Even that, in truth, was no easy feat. What made it possible was keeping the board itself small — narrowing the territory she operated in as far as it would go. Setting up a board took a great deal of effort. Having entered university, she needed to construct a new one suited to that world. But Min-ah hadn't had the time to invest that kind of work.
She had become an adult this year. She had been accepted into the most prestigious university in the country — the one her father had graduated from. And Min-ah had a dream. The one thing she had wanted so desperately. To make her father hers. She had poured every resource she possessed into becoming his lover. And she had failed. Catastrophically.
Every last one of Min-ah's nerves had been trained on her father, so the university board hadn't even crossed her mind. That was precisely why she had told Eun-hyeok she wouldn't attend orientation. Min-ah always suffered the worst stress when something she hadn't predicted came bursting out, and walking into orientation without her board prepared had been a massive source of it. But Eun-hyeok had wanted his daughter to go. He himself had been uncomfortable for skipping his own orientation, and he didn't want her to feel that same discomfort. Min-ah couldn't refuse a request from the person she loved.
In the end, the unexpected had erupted all at once. Her lust had exploded like mad, some scumbag of a senior had latched onto her, and on top of it all, she had the distinct feeling her father was with another woman. Stress began to crush down on her.
Ah... my head......
A migraine. The symptom that arrived whenever the stress piled too high. She had packed emergency medicine for exactly this. She glanced around, searching for her bags, and couldn't help a faint, deflated feeling.
Ah... my stuff was on the bus.
Kim Tae-min. Min-ah had been all but dragged here by the College Student Council President. She had felt, from the start, that he was similar to herself — overwhelming physique, overwhelming looks, and a man equipped with psychological warfare he could wield at will. Because he was like her, she could more or less predict what would follow.
If I stay here, that bastard is going to devour me.
His true intentions were obvious. Sex with Min-ah. That was the goal, she judged. Booking an expensive lodging separate from the orientation dorms, in a place where no other students or student council officers would be seen — that was so he could do something filthy. It was a practiced craft. The girls on the receiving end wouldn't even realize they were being used. After all, they had been deceived into thinking he was their boyfriend.
Min-ah prepared to leave the lodging Tae-min had booked. Quite a bit of time had passed. Everyone would be coming out after dinner by now. Tae-min would probably be back soon with food, ready to try taking her again.
To think even Hankuk University has a guy like this......
Back in high school, she had understood there being delinquents. It had been a standardized school in the northern Seoul metropolitan area, and not a particularly competitive one — an incompetent place that couldn't even properly send its students to universities in Seoul. Failure, after all, steered people in other directions, so there had been plenty of thugs. Min-ah had hated the sight of those types, so she had aimed for a good university, and she had succeeded. But watching the College Student Council President act like that left a thoroughly sour taste in her mouth.
Maybe that's what happens when the cutoff is lower.
Min-ah felt a pang of regret. What she had wanted was medical school. She hadn't been good enough. There was even a flicker of remorse that she should have gotten expensive private tutoring.
Still... it was worth it, being with Dad.
After school let out, Min-ah had studied at home. That way she could always be with her father, Eun-hyeok. That time was precious to her — not something she could throw away by going to some cram school.
Dad was happy about it too. That I got into Hankuk University without a single tutor or academy......
The look on Eun-hyeok's face when she told him she had been accepted to Hankuk University was a gift she would never forget. She had done something remarkable. A feat built from nothing more than schoolwork and online lectures.
Yeah. This was the right call.
Min-ah finished everything she needed in order to leave. Not wanting any strange rumors trailing after her, she even neatly arranged the bedding she had been lying on. She pulled on her sneakers and stepped out the door. It was a low-rise private villa, so there was no elevator.
Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. Her steps felt lighter already. It hadn't been her period to begin with — just a psychological problem.
Kim Tae-min. She needed to join the other students before he got back. That way he wouldn't be able to lay a hand on her so freely. If she refused, he would accept the refusal. But then he would set up a board of his own — spreading ugly rumors about her, that sort of thing. She had no intention of becoming a piece on his board. She needed to set up her own and use him as a piece instead. She didn't have enough time for that. To do it, she would have to break the board Tae-min had already built.
She came down to the front entrance. Beyond it, a tall resort building rose into view. If she made it there, she would succeed.
"You. You're a freshman, right?"
A sharp woman's voice froze Min-ah in her tracks. Her face went stiff as she looked toward the sound.
"W-who are you?"
A woman in an off-shoulder dress stood there. Black hair. Black eyes. A cold, composed figure. But one bewildering thing flooded Min-ah's mind to overflowing — her face.
...Why does it look like Dad's features are mixed in?
"Why are you staring like that? That's pretty rude."
"I-I'm sorry."
At the woman's icy reply, Min-ah had no choice but to bow her head.
"So. Did you, or didn't you?"
Min-ah knew exactly what she meant. She was asking whether Min-ah had slept with the student council president. Min-ah was incredulous. No matter how much older she looked, asking a complete stranger — in casual speech, no less — whether she had had sex or not? And yet the woman had presence. Her words carried weight, a sense of justification. She knew the student council president and called Min-ah a freshman, so she was probably someone from the student council connected to him. She seemed to already know everything, which meant there was no point pretending otherwise. That would only make her angry.
"I did not, sunbae."
"I figured......"
The woman let out a sigh, though her face said she had more or less expected it. Then she gave Min-ah a brief once-over.
"You... something... never mind."
A flicker of surprise crossed her features, then the cold mask slid back into place.
"A woman's body is her asset. You must never just hand it over because some handsome guy suddenly comes onto you."
A remark looking out for Min-ah herself.
What... so she didn't come here to chew me out?
Min-ah felt a quiet rush of relief. She had realized this woman's target wasn't her — it was the president.
"There's already someone I like."
"A woman... no. You look like a girl who already knows the score, so I probably don't need to lecture you."
"Thank you for your concern."
Min-ah bowed to her. Watching that, the woman let a faint smile touch her lips.
"Anyway, I'm glad nothing happened. The freshmen are on the tenth floor of that building. Get over there before Tae-min comes back."
"Thank you, sunbae."
Min-ah bowed once more and started walking toward where her classmates would be. The woman watched her go for a long time, a single thought turning in her mind.
She looks like someone......
"The hell?"
"Watch your mouth. That's no way to talk to your big sister."
Thirty minutes later, Tae-min showed up at his lodging with dinner for Min-ah in his hands. The black-haired woman with the cold face had been waiting for him.
"Did you swipe my food again?"
"Some things never change... that vulgarity of yours."
A voice thick with contempt. The way she had spoken to Min-ah had been cold enough, but the way she spoke to Tae-min was colder still. Scratching his head, Tae-min chucked the food into the flower bed.
"Ah, fuck, seriously... listen here, Miss Kim Eun-ha. We're not even real siblings anymore, so how about we each go our own way, yeah?"
"I wasn't planning on coming to find you over this kind of crap either... but what can I do. I got a call asking me to put a stop to your disgusting behavior."
"Which bastard was it......"
"You don't need to look. I told them I wouldn't take their calls anymore. I explained, you see. That we're not real siblings anymore, so I can't control you."
A smile began to fill Tae-min's face.
"Yeah, that's what you should've done. So why are you here now? You said you weren't coming, right? Then how about you get lost?"
"Still, helping out one last time before we end it — wouldn't that make for a beautiful goodbye?"
"It's a shitty goodbye as far as I'm concerned."
Tae-min stepped in close.
"If you wanted a beautiful goodbye, you should've left something for your little brother to eat. You just threw it away?"
His hand slid up onto Eun-ha's off-shoulder.
Slap!
With that same ice-cold face, she struck Tae-min's cheek without a shred of mercy.
"Ah... you fucking bitch!!!"
Tae-min swung a fist at her, but she slipped it with ease, caught his arm, and twisted it back.
"Gh... aaaaagh!!"
"Everything that's happening is your own fault. Getting slapped. Having your arm twisted right now. All of it."
"Ah... okay!! I'm sorry!! So let go!! It hurts!!"
"A last piece of advice, as your sister. Keep playing the thug like that and someday you'll pay for it. And... I have one last thing to say."
"Aaaagh!! I get it!! I get it, so please let go...!!"
As Tae-min bellowed in pain, Eun-ha leaned in and whispered against his ear.