A Good Sister, a Bad Sister, Someone Else's Sister
A Good Sister, a Bad Sister, Someone Else's Sister
"Come see me after class."
"Hey, hey. Your tone!"
Since the lecture was about to start, quite a few students were already seated.
Most of them were minding their own business, looking at their phones or chatting with friends, but that was only true when there was nothing interesting going on.
Not to brag, but I had looks that drew attention.
And the same went for Seo-yeon, who shared my blood.
There was no way a man and woman like us, clinging to each other, sniffing each other, and whispering, wouldn't attract attention.
And if anyone overheard and a rumor started going around like, "Seo-yeon must be close enough to Si-hyeon to speak casually to him"?
Just imagining it made me sick.
And she probably felt the same way.
"Ahem. Anyway, I have something to say, so please make some time after class, Si-hyeon."
As expected, Seo-yeon glanced around, then reset her expression and tone as if nothing had happened.
The fierce look that had reminded me of a lioness just moments ago had already softened into a gentle smile.
It was a terrifying sight every time I saw it.
One, that no one else knew this side of her.
And two, that this girl who played innocent so well in front of others showed her hostility only to me.
What on earth had I done wrong to her?
"May I have an answer, please?"
"Ah, um. You want help researching assignment materials? Got it. I'll be waiting at the library during lunch."
I deliberately raised my voice so others could hear.
All I needed was to set a meeting place, and Seo-yeon wasn't dense enough to miss what I was doing.
Even I thought it was a decent move.
Seo-yeon seemed to catch on too, and she nodded as she answered.
"Yes, I'll see you then."
As I waved and backed away, people gradually lost interest and went back to their own business.
If we'd looked like something special, that would be one thing, but this much was common at university.
As I left the lecture hall, my brain, which had been groaning with drowsiness, finally remembered something.
"Aria said she was coming today too..."
The recent incident had reminded me.
We'd had that thing happen in the morning, so we were both too embarrassed to face each other, and Aria had apparently been tired from yesterday's duel, so she'd said she'd rest a bit before coming to practice.
Even though I was a layman who knew nothing about music, I knew the fatigue Aria must have felt was far from small.
She hadn't even held a violin in a long time, and on top of that, while the violin was supposedly top-quality, it was someone else's instrument.
There was no way composing a new piece on the spot to counter the opponent's performance, the moment she heard it, on an instrument that hadn't even been adjusted for her, wasn't exhausting.
No matter how much of a genius she was.
So I'd said okay, but now that I thought about her actually coming, worry came first.
Last time the two of them ran into each other, it had been a disaster, and I didn't even want to imagine what would happen if they met again today.
'I absolutely have to keep the two of them from running into each other today.'
* * *
How wonderful would it be if everything in the world went the way you wanted.
Inside a cafe near the university, four people sat at a four-person table, including me.
Me and Aria on the sofa inside, and Seo-yeon and Victoria on the two chairs across from us.
Aria was clinging to my arm as if showing off, and Seo-yeon, sitting across from me, was glaring at us with murderous eyes.
For reference, Victoria was just sipping her coffee.
How had it come to this?
It had definitely started with Seo-yeon.
After meeting again at the library, we'd started talking behind the academic building, a place few people visited, just like last time.
"Still sleeping with your little sister. Real classy."
"I told you, there were circumstances?"
"Circumstances? What circumstances."
"Well..."
After the concert, I'd carried Aria on my back because she was tired and started dozing off, and she'd fallen asleep in her dress, so I'd taken it off so it wouldn't get wrinkled—
Hmm, long and pedantic.
And I hadn't thought much of it at the time, but put into words, it did sound kind of perverted.
"Older brother taking off his sleeping little sister's dress" sounded pretty bad, didn't it.
The moment I hesitated, Seo-yeon's eyes narrowed.
"Why can't you answer? Don't tell me those 'circumstances' mean..."
"Mean what?"
"If you meant it that way, I'll seriously kill you."
Seo-yeon's face turned red.
Only then did I understand what she was talking about.
"You've got a dirty mind."
"How about you explain the circumstances properly so there's no misunderstanding in the first place? Is this my fault?"
I had nothing to say to that.
In the end, after much deliberation, I cut out all the important details and summarized only the essentials.
"Aria was tired on the way back from the concert, so I gave her a piggyback ride and she fell asleep. So I laid her down on the bed, but she grabbed me and wouldn't let go—maybe sleep-talking—so I just slept with her."
Even summarized, it was long and pedantic, but at least this way Aria's and my dignity were preserved. And it wasn't exactly a lie.
But Seo-yeon snapped back as if she couldn't easily believe it.
"Really? With that much of a size difference, you couldn't shake off a girl grabbing you in her sleep, so you had no choice but to sleep with her?"
"Shaking her off alone would've been easy. But then she might've woken up when she was finally sleeping well. She was already exhausted—I had to let her sleep comfortably."
On this point, there was no fabrication or lie.
The reason I'd only taken off her dress in the first place was that sleeping in a dress that constricted her body was far from comfortable.
"Fine. Let's say that's true. Then why couldn't you sleep a wink? You could've just slept next to her."
"Because it was uncomfortable. I'm sensitive—I can't sleep unless it's an environment I'm used to."
This was a lie.
I just couldn't sleep because of Aria being half-naked.
But I couldn't exactly say that.
"Hmm. A person that sensitive sure dozes off fine in lectures, huh? Chin propped up and all."
"To be more precise, my fuse blew. Do you know how long I'd been awake before my fuse blew? Twenty-seven hours. Twenty-seven. That's force majeure."
"Fine. Anyway, nothing happened while you slept together, right? Since you put it that way, I'll believe you."
"Yeah, thanks a fucking ton for believing me. I'm so moved I might cry."
In fact, nothing had happened after we lay down on the same bed.
Taking off the dress had been before I lay down, and that little incident in the morning had been after we were both awake.
"But did you really call me here just for that?"
"Why, can't I?"
"It's not that you can't, but we weren't exactly close enough to interrogate each other about this kind of thing. Weren't we?"
I'd come because she'd called, but honestly, being summoned for this was strange.
Even if the fact that I'd slept with Aria got out, the Seo-yeon I knew would've just looked at me like I was a bug and avoided me.
"Mom's birthday is coming up. I have to at least pretend we're close in front of her. So she won't worry."
"That's true."
Mother's birthday was the only day I ever showed my face anyway, and I'd rather die than hear "Did you two fight?" there.
And besides, I didn't really have any hard feelings in the first place.
"I'll have to practice again for a while."
"Practice what?"
"Calling you ‘big brother.’ It's been so long that if I don't practice, I might slip up when it counts."
"Ah..."
How many years ago was it?
Before I started high school?
Back then, Seo-yeon had at least called me “big brother” when Mother was around.
It had been for the same reason as now.
So Mom wouldn't worry.
In short, we were siblings for a day. No, even "for a day" was generous. The moment Mother's eyes were off us, the address went back to "hey" and "you."
"What do you need practice for? You always did fine."
"That's because you—no, big brother—showed your face regularly back then. We haven't seen each other in so long now, right? I could slip up."
I didn't know how Seo-yeon had come to hate me.
But even as dense as I was, I knew one thing.
Even now, Seo-yeon played the perfect person in front of others.
She said she was worried about slipping up, but when it came to Seo-yeon, that would never happen.
If her mask were so fragile, it would've cracked and fallen apart long ago.
It was a complicated and subtle feeling.
On one hand, I was happy that my biological little sister was calling me “big brother” of her own accord. At the same time, thinking of Aria made me resist the idea.
If I really had done something wrong to Seo-yeon, and despite that she was reaching out to me first, I could gladly take that hand.
If Seo-yeon was okay with it, we could be family again.
But I couldn't be sure I could treat Seo-yeon as a little sister.
Because my little sister was only Aria.
"Do whatever you want."
Reconciliation or whatever was still just my own thought. Seo-yeon might have no intention of that at all, or she might genuinely just need practice.
"Okay, big brother."
But Seo-yeon looked oddly pleased.
She'd looked so upset earlier.
"I'll keep calling you that in front of others, but when it's just us, I'll call you this for a while. Oh, right. And give me your number."
"What, you didn't have it?"
"I changed phones when you were in the army. My old phone got smashed, so I couldn't transfer the data."
She'd mentioned Humanstar, so I'd assumed she still had my number, but apparently she'd lost it.
Well, with Humanstar, as long as she logged in with her original ID, her followers would still be there.
"What did you do to smash your phone like that?"
"Nothing. I dropped it."
Whether it was true or she just didn't want to talk about it.
At least she seemed to want me not to pry further, so I shut my mouth and typed in my number.
"Done."
"I'll save it. You have to answer when I call later, okay?"
"If my number hasn't changed, I will. I've had your number saved this whole time."
"You didn't block me, did you?"
"Would I? Maybe if you'd blocked me."
Seo-yeon smiled at that.
It was the first time since we'd reunited.
A natural smile like that.
"Why are you smiling?"
"No reason. Because you're an idiot."
"Who's an idiot?"
"Obviously you, big brother. Why would I block you?"
So even if she hated me, she didn't hate me enough to block me.
It was a complicated feeling. Was I supposed to like that?
"What did you save me as?"
"Han Seo-yeon."
Her smile vanished instantly.
Why was she being so scary?
"I see. Then what about her?"
"Her? Who?"
"That Aria woman. The one always going ‘Brother, Brother.’"
I wondered why she was suddenly asking about Aria, but it wasn't something to hide, so I answered honestly.
"I saved her as Aria."
"Yeah? Then that's fine."
Seo-yeon backed off surprisingly cleanly.
Why had she asked?
Suddenly, I remembered what Aria had said during our date.
That Seo-yeon liked me.
Nah, no way.
No matter how much women understood women, I'd known Seo-yeon longer.
When it came to her, there was no way.
"Well, anyway, thanks. I have something else to do, so I'll head off first."
"We should at least walk partway together. What's there to do if I stay here alone?"
"True, that's fair."
There really was nothing behind the academic building.
Usually a place this empty would become a smokers' den, but there was a separate smoking booth and smoking was strictly prohibited elsewhere, so naturally people rarely came here.
As the two of us walked side by side, I suddenly wondered what Seo-yeon's business was.
"There's still plenty of lunch break left. What's got you so busy?"
"Maybe because of what happened last time, I was asked to guide the exchange student who's arriving today. If it were an ordinary exchange student, sure, but this is the first time someone's coming at this point in the semester."
"That's not usually possible."
Exchange students normally came to Korea before the semester started. They had to register for classes, after all, so that was only natural.
Even if they were late, they had to arrive by the course registration correction deadline, but right now, quite a bit of time had passed since the start of the semester.
It was April.
Coming as an exchange student now, she wouldn't earn any credits, and both course registration and the correction period would already be over, wouldn't they?
"This time it's a special case. If it hadn't been arranged at the foundation level, I wouldn't be going through this trouble..."
"What about credits? You can't register for classes at this point."
"A few major courses are being specially processed. Apparently the credit shortfall isn't a big deal."
Wait.
Someone who could pull that off and had recently come to Korea as an exchange student?
An ominous premonition flashed through my mind.
No, I tried hard to ignore the ominous premonition.
There were so many universities in Korea—surely, out of all of them, she wouldn't have come here of all places?
But I couldn't shake the anxiety, so I voiced the name that had come to mind.
"Is the exchange student's name Victoria, by any chance?"
"What? How do you know that, big brother?"
"No reason. Something came up recently."
"Something? With a young lady from Austria? With you?"
She seemed baffled.
Honestly, I thought the same.
If it weren't for Aria as a connection point, we probably would never have crossed paths in our lives. If anything, it would've made more sense with Seo-yeon, who was also a conglomerate heiress.
"That young lady is also famous in the classical music world. I ran into her last time when I went to see Aria perform."
"Ah, I'd heard. I don't know much about classical music, but when I was assigned to guide Victoria this time, they told me that both she and Aria were incredibly accomplished and famous."
"Aria's far more famous, though."
The sister-bragging slipped out before I knew it.
But it was true, so what could I do?
Victoria would surely have been called the greatest genius if not for Aria, but unfortunately, Aria was just too overwhelming.
"Yeah, yeah, good for you that such an amazing person is your half-sister."
Seo-yeon said it curtly.
I was about to say something, but then I saw something in the direction we were walking and quietly backed away, shutting my mouth.
Because she was too eye-catching to miss.
The blonde young lady waiting at what looked like the meeting spot.
"I'm gonna head off now."
"Wasn't she someone you know? Don't you need to say hi?"
"I have plans to meet a friend. And no, I don't need to."
No matter what, she wouldn't have changed the university she was coming to as an exchange student in a single day just because she saw my face.
No matter how much of a conglomerate heiress she was, the administrative procedures required were numerous. It was physically impossible in one day.
So that meant she'd come here by an incredible coincidence, but I didn't want to reveal more about myself, if only for Aria's sake.
If she found out I went here, she'd try to win me over to persuade Aria.
"Oh, and don't mention me to Victoria. I'll tell her myself later—"
"Oh my, Mr. Si-hyeon!"
Too late.
Emerald eyes fixed on us.
"...Mr. Si-hyeon? Big brother, what's your relationship with that woman?"
Seo-yeon's eyes narrowed again.
What was with her today, seriously.