A Good Sister, a Bad Sister, Someone Else's Sister (2)
A Good Sister, a Bad Sister, Someone Else's Sister (2)
"What exactly is your relationship that Victoria calls you ‘Mr. Si-hyeon’?"
"Hey, the honorific. The honorific!"
"Big brother? I thought Aria was Mr. Si-hyeon's younger sister."
At Victoria's innocent remark, Seo-yeon flinched. But the damage was already done.
So how was I supposed to clean up this mess?
"For now, both of you follow me. This isn't the place to talk."
Since Seo-yeon and I had moved to a spot where people didn't come and go much, there weren't many people around.
But it was still out in the open.
I could explain about Victoria, but the matter of my relationship with Seo-yeon wasn't something to casually discuss outside.
"Just a moment, Mr. Si-hyeon. I came today to submit documents to the university. It'll be quick, so could you wait a moment? I was supposed to meet the person guiding me here..."
"That's this one."
I pointed at Seo-yeon.
Seo-yeon quickly fixed her sullen expression and greeted Victoria.
"Hello, Victoria. I'm Han Seo-yeon, and I'll be guiding you today. It's an honor to meet you."
"Yes, the honor is mine, Seo-yeon. We have much to discuss, but let's take care of business first."
"Si-hyeon, please wait here. I'll be back soon."
She had switched back to the public “Si-hyeon.”
The two of them left. She said it was just submitting documents, so they'd be back soon, but my head was throbbing.
I trudged over and sat on the bench near the main gate where Victoria had been sitting earlier.
Lately, one headache-inducing problem after another had been cropping up.
Ever since Aria came back.
Of course, I'd never once thought I disliked my daily life with Aria. No matter what happened, I could swear to that.
But still, I couldn't help occasionally missing a quiet, peaceful routine.
The kind of life where I'd game late into the night when I had free time, give the house a thorough cleaning on weekends, then laze around.
Is this how married men feel?
"Ah..."
I stared blankly at the sky.
The stillness amid the chaos felt like being in the eye of a typhoon.
After zoning out for a long while, a familiar face suddenly popped into view.
"Brother, what are you doing here?"
"Whoa, you scared me."
"It hurts my feelings that you're so startled by my face..."
Aria looked dejected.
I hastily straightened up and spoke to her.
"When the prettiest face in the world suddenly pops out, of course I'd be startled. If you did that to other guys, they'd have a heart attack. I only survived because I'm used to it."
"Hehe, really? But that would never happen. I'm your Aria and no one else's, Brother."
This was now a conversation indistinguishable from a couple's.
Aria naturally sat beside me and took my hand. I asked her,
"Can you be here? You have to go practice."
"It's fine if I skip. You saw it yourself, didn't you? I'm a genius."
I was a bit worried about my sister's arrogance, but Aria wasn't wrong.
I'd witnessed a glimpse of that talent just yesterday.
"Why are you here, Brother?"
"Ah, well..."
I had to answer, but the words wouldn't come easily.
I didn't know where to begin explaining.
In the end, I gave a concise explanation, leaving out as much about Seo-yeon as possible and only covering Victoria.
That the university she'd come to as an exchange student happened to be ours, that we'd run into each other, that Seo-yeon had gone to guide her, and that both of them would be back soon.
There was a reason I deliberately emphasized the story about Victoria. I wanted Aria to head off to practice as soon as possible.
Two of them were already overwhelming; if Aria joined in, I couldn't handle it.
Besides, Aria probably wouldn't want to run into Victoria either. If she found out Victoria was coming here to practice, she'd obviously cling even more annoyingly.
But Aria was unfazed.
"Is that so? Then I'll stay by your side too, Brother."
"You'll end up running into Victoria. If she finds out you practice here, won't it be annoying for you too?"
"That's true, but since I'm attending this university now, I'd run into her eventually anyway. Better to get it over with quickly. Besides, Victoria will try to win you over now, and if I'm beside you, I can stop that too."
She wasn't wrong.
The problem was that this eliminated any excuse to peel Aria away.
While I was agonizing, Aria stood up.
Then, facing me, she sat on my lap and hugged me.
"Aria. Doing this outside is a bit..."
"I'm doing it to show off. Because I can't let you be taken from me."
Aria smiled mischievously.
Her face was too close. At the same time, the scent of flowers and winter forest that Seo-yeon had mentioned wafted faintly.
"Of course, if you dislike it, Brother, I'll get off. Do you... really dislike me doing this?"
That was cheating.
When my adorable sister acted like this, I had no choice but to indulge her. Even if she weren't my sister, how many people in the world could coldly refuse this kind of affection?
"I don't dislike it. Not at all."
"Then it's okay, right? I'll stay like this for just a moment."
I felt like I understood what Aria was thinking.
She probably wanted to show this to Seo-yeon and Victoria.
Aria probably guessed that something had happened between me and Seo-yeon today.
After all, the topic of Seo-yeon had suddenly popped up in the middle of talking about Victoria.
Even knowing that, I couldn't coldly push her away.
'Well, this much is within the range of what a close sister can do.'
I rationalized it to myself like that.
And come to think of it, I didn't need to be scared in advance.
Victoria and Seo-yeon both already knew that Aria and I were especially close.
As we passed the time like that, the two of them eventually returned.
"Oh my, Aria came too. I expected as much, though."
Victoria spoke first.
But Aria didn't back down.
"Your thinking is obvious, Victoria. The largest organ in the area is installed here, so you guessed I'd come here to practice, didn't you?"
"Correct. And I was right."
While the two of them stared each other down, Seo-yeon approached me and spoke with a frosty gaze.
"You're certainly close with your sister, Si-hyeon. Still, I don't think it's appropriate for a man and woman to embrace like that on the sacred grounds of a university."
Setting aside the true intent behind her words, she wasn't entirely wrong. I carefully wrapped my hands around Aria's waist, lifted her, and set her down on the ground.
At that, Seo-yeon's gaze grew even colder.
"Can I hear that explanation now, Si-hyeon?"
"...Let's do it somewhere quiet, not here. I know a good place."
Even though it was a fairly secluded spot, it was still out in the open, and even if it was quiet, people did pass by.
And I'd been feeling occasional glances for a while now.
It was like that when Aria was hugging me, but now with Seo-yeon and Victoria added, it was worse.
We moved to a quiet café I personally frequented.
It wasn't a franchise, and it was slightly far from the university, so there were almost no people inside. In particular, there was no one who looked like a student from our university.
"Let's order first. It'd be awkward to just sit there without even ordering coffee. I'll pay."
"I'll pay for myself. I appreciate your kindness, Mr. Si-hyeon, but I'd feel bad letting you treat me."
"Ah, then I'll pay separately too."
"Then me too. No, actually, should I buy yours, Brother?"
Come to think of it, every woman gathered here was richer than me.
They were wealthy enough that I probably couldn't catch up even if I worked diligently my whole life, won the lottery, and struck it rich in stocks.
"...I'll pay for my own."
Still, I had my pride as a man.
An older brother getting treated by his younger sister is a bit much.
A moment later, the drinks came out.
Aria and I had matcha lattes, Seo-yeon a café latte, and Victoria Earl Grey.
We each returned to our seats and stared at one another.
That was how we'd ended up in this situation.
"First, should I talk about my relationship with Seo-yeon? Keep what I'm about to say a secret from others."
Aria had already guessed, so that was fine, but Victoria didn't know. I asked her to keep it secret before saying anything else; it wasn't the kind of thing to discuss casually.
"I promise. I will never disclose what I hear today to anyone."
If Victoria made a promise, I could trust it.
She was someone who'd knelt and set aside even her pride because a promise was a promise.
"First, Seo-yeon and I are biological siblings. Biologically."
"Wait, I heard Seo-yeon is one of the heirs of Hancheon Group. Then could it be that Mr. Si-hyeon is also...?"
Victoria's point was a reasonable one.
But I shook my head.
"I have no connection to my mother's side. My parents divorced when I was young. I stayed with my father, and Seo-yeon went with our mother."
"I'm sorry. I asked something unnecessary."
"It's fine. It's not something I go around announcing publicly, but by now it's not that hard to talk about either."
It was already long in the past.
It wasn't something to brag about, but it wasn't unspeakable either.
"So do the two of you pretend to be ordinary upperclassman and junior in public to hide that fact?"
"Well, yeah."
I couldn't exactly go around publicly announcing that Seo-yeon disliked me but I didn't know why.
And Victoria had conveniently accepted it well.
Seo-yeon, for her part, seemed to have no intention of speaking up, just sipping her café latte and looking at me.
So what did I need to explain now?
It was ridiculous that I, who'd done nothing wrong, had to explain myself, but I was the only one who could, so I had to open my mouth.
Both Seo-yeon and Victoria knew about Aria.
I'd just explained about Seo-yeon.
What remained was explaining Victoria to Seo-yeon, and that inevitably meant a long story.
"First, how Victoria and I got to know each other..."
I cut out the part about the date and started from when I'd met Victoria while walking with Aria.
The long story came out piece by piece: Victoria had provoked Aria; I had gotten angry when she dragged me into it; Aria had demanded an apology over what Victoria said about me; and Victoria had challenged Aria during the concert intermission in an attempt to bring her back to the music world.
"Honestly, it's so hard to believe it sounds like something out of a comic, but since neither of them denies it, I guess it's true."
"It's real."
Seo-yeon seemed to find it hard to believe, but she eventually accepted it.
The fact that the others weren't correcting it must have been reason enough to accept it.
To be fair, if I'd heard that story without knowing about Aria, I probably would've found it hard to believe too.
Genius or not, this was ridiculous. Composing a piece on the spot and then giving a flawless performance on someone else's instrument? And she hadn't even practiced recently?
If someone said I was writing fiction, I'd have nothing to say.
But what could I do when even the people involved said it was true?
"So why does Victoria call you ‘Mr. Si-hyeon’? That part wasn't explained at all."
Maybe because it had now come out that Seo-yeon was my biological sister, she had dropped the mask and started calling me “big brother” again.
"Now you're calling him ‘big brother’?"
Aria cut in. With a sly smile.
"There's a reason I have to. A matter between us that you, his half-sister, don't need to know about."
Why did she have to describe our mother's birthday so grandly and antagonistically? But Aria didn't back down.
"I just find it fascinating. Last time, no matter how much I pressed, you denied being siblings and insisted you were just an upperclassman and his junior. Now you're calling him ‘big brother♥’ in that syrupy-sweet voice."
"Wh-who said anything about a honey-dripping voice?!"
"Both of you, that's enough. There are other people in the café."
When Seo-yeon's voice rose, I had no choice but to step between them. As the eldest, I had to mediate.
Both Aria and Seo-yeon obediently shut their mouths at my words.
The next to join the conversation was Victoria.
"Mr. Si-hyeon, allow me to answer Seo-yeon's question from earlier. It's far more credible coming from the person directly involved, isn't it?"
I was a bit afraid of what she'd say, but she wasn't wrong, so I nodded. Even if I had a guess, it was only speculation from my perspective.
"First, I'll be honest. Mr. Si-hyeon is an important person to me."
The nuance was a bit concerning.
But I kept my mouth shut for now. I could explain later if the misunderstanding got worse.
"I want Aria to be active in the music world again. But I couldn't persuade her. It's probably because my skill is far below hers. I thought that only Si-hyeon could persuade Aria."
I don't think it was a matter of Victoria's skill.
Knowing Aria's personality, she would've quit even if Victoria had beaten her.
It couldn't be helped. The reason Aria returned to Korea in the first place wasn't because her love for music had cooled, but solely for me.
But neither I nor Aria interrupted to correct that one fact. Honestly, having Victoria misunderstand like this was more convenient for us.
If she thought this way, at least we wouldn't get tangled up in something large-scale like another concert.
"What does that have to do with calling him ‘Mr. Si-hyeon’?"
"It's an expression I learned while studying Korean. There's a saying: if you want to capture a general, start with his horse. Mr. Si-hyeon is that horse to me."
"...Do people normally say that in front of the person?"
Seo-yeon was dumbfounded. I didn't show it, but I felt the same. Didn't people usually at least pretend to hide something like that?
But Victoria, with her hand on her chest, answered confidently.
"Yes. Because I'm confident. If I seduce Mr. Si-hyeon and become his lover, wouldn't he grant his lover's request over his sister's?"
At those words, I, Aria, and Seo-yeon all stared at Victoria in shock.
I had no idea where to even begin pointing out the problems.
Why did it feel like the more I tried to resolve the situation, the more tangled it got?