My Sister Is Not Normal
"My affiliated club...! I don't have one... I'm unaffiliated. I'm Han Se-ah..."
Lee So-hyun looked up.
It was the girl she had seen this morning.
She had known the girl was extraordinary even from her photos, but seeing her up close in person was on a completely different level.
The pre-interviews conducted in front of the camera were scheduled to be pre-released on the official website and official YouTube channel before the show aired.
Since this was their first introduction to the public, the contestants so far had all dressed up in their own ways. But Han Se-ah was different.
That "difference" meant she was beautiful on a completely different dimension, but more than that, it was the fact that she didn't look styled at all.
Was it some extreme makeup technique that made it look natural?
No. Seeing her up close made it clear.
She was as vivid as if she were standing under natural sunlight, completely unfiltered.
Yet, she was breathtakingly beautiful.
"..!"
As So-hyun stared blankly at her face, Han Se-ah's head began to droop lower and lower in direct proportion to the duration of the stare.
Lee So-hyun cleared her throat awkwardly.
"Are you unaffiliated?"
"Yes."
"Any youth club experience?"
"None..."
Her voice trailed off at the end of every sentence, whether because she was naturally shy or just incredibly nervous.
She practically screams 'no broadcast experience' and 'unaffiliated.' Her variety show potential is lower than I expected, Lee So-hyun thought.
"Your estimated rank is..."
Before So-hyun could even finish her sentence, Han Se-ah's eyes suddenly changed, and she answered instantly.
"First place."
Lee So-hyun's hand froze.
Earlier, Jeong Yu-ah had also claimed she would take first place. But Jeong Yu-ah was a pure-blooded youth product of Pohang IC. She had a solid foundation for her confidence.
An unaffiliated trainee with zero youth club experience claiming first place was as different as heaven and earth.
"Why do you think so?"
"Because I think I'll have the best vocals among all the contestants."
The clumsy, nervous expression she wore when she first entered the room was completely gone, replaced by a face brimming with absolute self-assurance.
"I heard dancing is your weakness, though."
Han Se-ah paused. Then, she began to shrink back again.
"Um... ah...!"
She wore a thoughtful expression for a moment before speaking.
"In any industry, a person who is incredibly good at just one thing commands a higher market value than someone who is just decent at everything."
"And besides, even Messiah didn't start out shooting well."
Lee So-hyun tilted her head.
"Messiah? You mean Leona Messiah?"
"Ah."
Silence.
Han Se-ah cleared her throat.
"It's nothing."
Lee So-hyun set her questionnaire down and looked at Han Se-ah.
"What is your reason for participating in Pick Yu-Ah?"
Han Se-ah looked directly into the camera.
"There's someone I want to stand on stage with."
"Who is it?"
"Heheh... you'll find out later."
It was a fleeting smile. Though it lasted only a fraction of a second, Lee So-hyun felt as if she had just gazed upon a masterpiece painting.
That momentary smile, the very definition of refreshing, seemed incredibly bewitching.
"Uh... well, that concludes the interview questions..."
Temporarily dazed by that smile, Lee So-hyun realized she had accidentally skipped the self-PR segment.
Well, who could interview a hundred people without making a single mistake? So-hyun quickly rationalized to herself.
"Then, please use the remaining time for your self-PR."
At those words, Han Se-ah seemed to steel her resolve. She opened her eyes wide, stared straight into the camera, and bowed.
"Hello! I am unaffiliated trainee Han Se-ah!"
"I am the star of the legendary Gijang Middle School festival video! My hobbies are gaming, soccer, and singing. Out of those, I love soccer the most. To make myself easy to remember, I'll share my nicknames!"
Han Se-ah took a deep breath.
"I am the Siren of Gijang Elementary School, the Orpheus of Gurae-dong, the second coming of Farinelli born in the Geundae Apartments, the Gijang Elementary Messiah, the Widowmaker of Gijang Middle, the Executioner of Gijang Middle, the One Who Brings Despair to the Soccer Club, and the One Who Sinks the Adjacent Karaoke Room into the Abyss!"
"Lastly, please vote for me!"
She bowed deeply.
The moment her tempestuous self-PR ended, she scrambled to her feet, bowed again, and practically fled the room.
Lee So-hyun stared at the empty chair for a long while.
She had seen ninety-nine contestants today. There were perfectly prepared trainees like Jeong Yu-ah, and calm, collected ones like Seol I-an.
But Han Se-ah was unique.
Or rather, bizarre.
She had never seen anyone squander this precious pre-interview—their very first opportunity to appeal to the viewers who held their voting rights—in such a ridiculous manner.
"Why was half of that about soccer..."
At this rate, So-hyun thought, it might be more appropriate for her to join a professional soccer club instead.
So-hyun wrote at the very bottom of the questionnaire:
Person of Interest: Han Se-ah.
After a moment's hesitation, she drew three stars next to it.
Living as Han Se-ah's younger brother was an incredibly exhausting ordeal.
Han Sae-jun. Rising second-year middle schooler. Born in 2002.
In other words, he had lived under the same roof and shared the same meals with Han Se-ah for about thirteen years since the moment of his birth.
To put it bluntly, his older sister was not normal.
She never had been, ever since they were young.
Let's start with his earliest memory.
It happened back when Sae-jun was still in kindergarten.
Naturally, a kindergartener's morning was supposed to begin with Pokemon or Power Rangers.
However, the remote control was never allowed in his hands. This was because his sister would always be coiled up right in the middle of the living room every single morning.
"Hmm... has Tesla not gone public yet..."
"Ah! Noona, I want to watch Pokemon!"
She would merely glance at him before moving the remote control to a spot completely out of his reach.
Watching the economic news every morning.
That was what an elementary school kid in her early years did.
There was an endless list of his sister's eccentricities, but the top three were singing, her obsession with Messiah, and soccer. Her acting like a quiet, well-behaved girl outside only to turn into a tyrannical keyboard warrior the moment she stepped through the front door didn't even make the cut.
His sister loved soccer. No, "loved" was an understatement.
She was obsessed.
She talked about soccer as naturally as breathing, brought up tactical formations over dinner, and would even wake up in the morning completely hyped up, claiming she had scored a hat-trick in her dreams.
The real problem was that this obsession translated directly into actual skill.
His sister had never formally learned soccer. She had never attended an academy, had no club affiliation, and simply kicked the ball around with the neighborhood kids.
Yet, she was good.
Absurdly good.
He first realized this when she was in the fourth grade. Some older boys were playing soccer in a vacant neighborhood lot, and because they were short on players, they suddenly called his sister over to join.
Usually, people only let skilled players join their games, and seeing a girl naturally blend into a soccer match was not a common sight.
But the moment his sister touched the ball, the atmosphere of the field shifted.
The older boys, who had been running around casually just moments ago, grew strangely tense, and their momentum changed.
When she dribbled, the ball seemed glued to her feet, and she bypassed the defender blocking her path in the blink of an eye.
Then, she took a shot.
The ball, struck perfectly with the top of her foot, flew forward with a sound like a cannon firing, making the goal net ripple violently as if it were about to tear.
"I knew it... I guess I should give up on my dream of becoming a soccer player..."
The older boy guarding the goal, who looked well over 180 centimeters tall, stood frozen in place like a lifeless scarecrow.
The jaws of the other boys watching dropped, and the entire lot erupted into chaos.
"It's true... Hey, where did she learn to play like that?"
"She's never learned."
"..."
From then on, strange nicknames began to stick to his sister around the neighborhood.
At first, she was just "the girl who's good at soccer," which later evolved into "the Ruler of the Empty Lot." By the time she entered middle school, she had earned the terrifying moniker of "the Executioner of Gijang Middle."
This was because she had utterly demolished the boys on the school soccer team on more than one occasion.
From Sae-jun's perspective, this became a problem starting in his first year of middle school.
"Hey, are you... you know, the Executioner's younger brother?"
A classmate approached him during recess. He was a kid famous for being a bit of a troublemaker.
"Yeah..."
"You know our class is playing against yours in soccer this week, right?"
"I know..."
"But honestly, we're at a bit of a disadvantage. Are you good at soccer by any chance?"
Sae-jun had answered honestly.
"I'm not very good..."
"Still, you're the brother of the Goalkeeper Crusher. I figured some of that blood must run in your veins."
"Even so..."
It would have been best to reject him flatly right then and there, but Sae-jun couldn't bring himself to do it.
Ultimately, that Thursday, he found himself playing in the inter-class soccer match.
The result was an absolute disaster.
He didn't touch the ball once during the entire first half. In the second half, the ball finally hit his foot, only to ricochet in the completely opposite direction. His teammates didn't say a single word. That silence was far more terrifying.
On the way back after the match, the kid who had pressured him to play spoke quietly.
"I guess the bloodline didn't carry over. But hey, could you give me your sister's number?"
From that day forward, Sae-jun resolved to reject any soccer-related requests without exception.
Yet, he was dragged into playing twice more after that.
All thanks to his sister.
Though he was a bit embarrassed to admit his sister's influence, Sae-jun also had a passing interest in idols.
It was only natural for a hot-blooded, adolescent boy to be interested in cute, pretty girls singing and dancing.
He wasn't a passionate fan. He just kept up with club match results and listened to new songs whenever an idol he liked released something. He was a casual fan, enjoying it lightly. Just about the average level of a middle school boy.
Then, he found out about a show called Pick Yu-Ah.
Pick Your Idol. Shortened to Pick Yu-Ah.
It was a survival audition program where viewers voted to select 6 members out of 100 trainees. It was the talk of the town at school and all over the internet. Even before the first episode aired, pre-interview videos were uploaded to the official channel, sparking a fierce competition for views.
Sae-jun hadn't really planned on watching it, but his school friend kept prattling on about it next to him to the point of annoyance, which spoke volumes about its popularity.
"Hey, did you see the Pick Yu-Ah pre-interview videos? They just dropped, and Jeong Yu-ah is seriously legendary levels of pretty."
"Who?"
"She's from the Pohang IC youth system. If you watch her interview, she's seriously, insanely gorgeous."
Without much expectation, Sae-jun opened his search bar.
Pick Yu-Ah pre-interviews.
A flood of videos appeared. He sorted them by view count.
1st Place: Jeong Yu-ah.
He clicked the video.
His friend was right. Her eyes didn't waver as she looked into the camera. Her aura practically radiated confidence.
She possessed the boldness to claim first place without a moment's hesitation when asked about her estimated rank. When asked for her reasoning, she stated she had trained the longest, meaning her skills were undoubtedly formidable.
Her gaze was not one of empty bravado, but of someone stating a simple fact.
Ah, so this person is the most popular, Sae-jun instinctively realized.
2nd Place: Seol I-an.
He clicked the video.
She was the complete opposite of Jeong Yu-ah. She was a girl of few words. When asked about her hobbies, she answered "practicing," and said she spent her rest periods stretching.
She felt almost inanimate, or perhaps cold. She seemed like a somewhat scary person.
Yet, at the very end, she looked straight into the camera and said a single line.
"I can do well. Please watch over me."
Strangely, those words lingered in his ears.
Second place is no joke either.
3rd Place: Han Se-ah.
Sae-jun clicked the video absentmindedly.
"My affiliated club...! I don't have one... I'm unaffiliated. I'm Han Se-ah..."
Sae-jun's hand froze.
"...Huh?"
He stared at the face on the screen.
For a long moment, his mind went completely blank.
The video continued to play.
She claimed her estimated rank was first place.
Then, she brought up Leona Messiah, only to ramble on about soccer dribbling. Crucially, what she said during her self-PR segment was an absolute spectacle.
"I am the Siren of Gijang Elementary School, the Orpheus of Gurae-dong, the second coming of Farinelli born in the Geundae Apartments, the Gijang Elementary Messiah, the Widowmaker of Gijang Middle, the Executioner of Gijang Middle, the One Who Brings Despair to the Soccer Club, and the One Who Sinks the Adjacent Karaoke Room into the Abyss!"
"Lastly, please vote for me!"
Sae-jun turned off the video and stared blankly at the ceiling.
You said you were going to a boarding academy.
You said you got into the SKY prep class.
That's why you even got extra allowance from Mom.
Including the tuition fees, that must have cost millions of won.
Sae-jun set his smartphone down and thought deeply for a long time.
In truth, he had known something was off. When she left for the boarding academy, there hadn't been a single textbook in her suitcase.
On the morning of her departure, he had peeked inside her suitcase out of curiosity, only to find clothes and random miscellaneous items.
And above all, why was someone supposedly going away to study humming songs in front of the mirror the night before she left?
Sae-jun picked up his smartphone again.
He hovered over his mother's contact info, then stopped.
He looked back at the Pick Yu-Ah video. On the screen, his sister bowed and scurried out of the room.
[Upload Time: 1 hour ago]
In just one hour since its upload, the view count had already reached a whopping 100,000.
He opened the comment section.
Sae-jun set his smartphone down.
Then, he picked it up again.
Then, he set it down once more.
What on earth do I do?