My Sister's Boyfriend (2)
Twenty years old. Right in the bloom of it.
Even I, killing time at a cafe part-time job, am starting to think it might be about time I had a boyfriend.
"The count's definitely right, yeah? Nothing like shorting the change."
"Yep, yep! I think you're good to clock out."
"Mm... hang on. I feel like there was something else I was supposed to hand off..."
Not that I wanted a boyfriend from the very start. My parents always said that once I got to college, someone like that would come along in no time.
This feeling... should I call it envy?
Jealousy isn't quite right. It's fainter than that. Much fainter.
Oh. Fascinating?
Yeah. I think that's the word.
Lee Jiyoon.
It's been about two months since I started working with her.
Whenever our shifts overlapped, even briefly, the same thoughts used to cross my mind. Jiyoon really doesn't know how to smile. And then, still, she's pretty, so maybe it doesn't matter.
This girl.
These days she smiles at the drop of a hat.
...And I think I know why.
"Oh, right. The boss asked us to be a little more careful cleaning the second floor. Said dust piles up strangely on the window frame across from the stairs."
"Ah. Okay. I'll be careful. I think I've completely forgotten to do it lately..."
"It happens. There's a lot to clean."
Over there.
There's a guy sitting in the corner of the cafe.
I hadn't seen him for a few days, and now he's back after all that time. Last time, from the way he and Jiyoon walked out of the cafe laughing together...
Definitely not an older brother.
Not a younger brother either.
No way he's just some ordinary guy friend.
A boyfriend.
Right?
From the day Jiyoon started this job I never once saw him, and then a few days ago he suddenly appeared. So he has to be a boyfriend she got recently.
Which means the reason Jiyoon started smiling lately, the reason she looks so much prettier, is obviously that guy... isn't it?
"Other than that, I don't think there was anything."
"Got it. Good work today!"
"Yeah. Then I'll just clock out..."
Mmmmm.
But isn't it strange?
All she did was get a single boyfriend, and now Jiyoon's grinning like an idiot.
He is good-looking, I guess, but considering Jiyoon's face, it just seems like they found someone on their own level.
Is he crazy rich? She doesn't seem like the kind of girl who'd fall for that.
Can a person's whole expression really change for no reason but got a boyfriend?
"Hmm..."
Oh. Now that I look, his body is pretty...
......
...Aha.
So that's what it was.
"Woojin."
I was idly stirring a flavorless americano with my straw when Lee Jiyoon's voice reached me, back in her own clothes after the uniform.
A pitch-black ball cap pulled low. A baggy khaki jumper. Exactly the same as last time. At most, the shirt and pants underneath were a little different.
The base was already pretty. She could stand to dress up a bit when she went out... Once we were closer, I ought to buy her some clothes. Stuffed full of my taste.
I pointed at Lee Jiyoon with the straw.
"Woojin? You're actually saying it to my face now?"
"Saying it while looking at someone is different, okay? I have to psych myself up."
"Is it?"
"It is. Anyway. Just wait."
Ahem. Lee Jiyoon cleared her throat as if she were preparing for something enormous. Her eyes went to the americano, a couple of sips left, and then to my face.
"...You know. The treatment."
"Yeah."
"Rather than doing it in the alley, I think it'd be better somewhere with no people."
"Yeah?"
"It's embarrassing. Everyone who walks by stares."
Fine by me.
I'd wanted to suggest it myself and hadn't, afraid that if I brought it up she'd get wary and pull back.
I'd figured it would take a month at least. Things were coming undone more smoothly than I'd expected.
Chin propped on my hand, I let a faint smile show and asked, teasing.
"I don't mind, but... you sure you're okay going there with me?"
"There?"
"Somewhere with nobody around."
"...It's not like it matters. We're friends."
"Hmm..."
"Getting self-conscious about every little thing like that is weirder."
"Is it?"
"...You're just going to think of me as a friend too, aren't you? You're dating my sister."
No.
I think of you as a woman.
"Right. More precisely, Hayun-noona's little sister, and a friend."
"Same for me. My sister's boyfriend, and a friend."
"So where are we going? Your place?"
"My place? Don't cross the line."
As expected. She still didn't think we were that close.
Didn't matter.
Going home alone with her behind Lee Hayun's back was the final course. Until then, we played outside.
Somewhere she'd like, for instance. A PC bang.
Or the new place I'd signed a lease on because of Yozora and then had no use for. It didn't have every little thing, but most of what you actually needed was there.
A bed, say.
"We've already been once, so what's the problem? Doesn't seem like crossing a line to me."
"If Unnie ever found out the two of us were home alone, what do you think she'd assume."
"Wow, those two got pretty close?"
"...What a pure little idea..."
Under the cap pulled low, Lee Jiyoon frowned, then folded her arms tight beneath her chest.
"Anyway, I've already got a place in mind, so follow me."
Surely not a motel.
Was there anywhere else an adult man and woman could be alone together?
The question didn't last. I got up and followed Lee Jiyoon out of the cafe.
Noisy evening air brushed my cheek.
Pint-sized schoolkids, done with cram school, drifting home in twos and threes. A digital sign beside the building, busy announcing the latest Transcendent crimes. An airplane gliding down through a glitter of colored lights. A motorcycle weaving hard between cars and pedestrians, chasing a little more money.
Under the blare of horns telling the world that if you wanted to die, you could die alone.
"Okay. Here."
"...?"
Lee Jiyoon stopped in front of some large building, opened the door on the first floor, and stepped inside.
And where was this supposed to be. All I could see nearby was a cosmetics shop and an optician's...
...Ah.
Looking closer, a small sign caught my eye.
3F — Coin Karaoke
That had to be the destination.
"The nice thing about this karaoke place is the doors are pretty much covered, so you can't really see inside from out here. Obviously if you stare right at them, you can."
Lee Jiyoon tossed it back as we climbed the stairs. From the way she said it, one part-timer watching whatever the two of us did on a CCTV screen was apparently acceptable.
Fair enough. Better to be caught by a single person than to look like we were canoodling in an alley in front of a pack of middle-aged men.
I answered with a light shrug, and she soon pushed open the door to the karaoke on the third floor. I followed her in. From deeper inside, every variety of pig-slaughter shriek leaked out in a noisy mess.
A hobby I would never understand.
"Crowded again today... Maybe because school starts soon."
"Again? You come here a lot? I thought all you did was game."
"Unnie drags me sometimes."
"...Ah. So Hayun-noona likes it."
"Yeah. Today we use it for the treatment, and later you can use it as a date stop with Unnie."
"I can't sing. I don't even like doing it."
And I had plenty of bad memories on top of that. When Yozora got pleasantly drunk, she used to drag me to a karaoke room and give me an hour-long private concert of Japanese songs.
Well. Looking back, it had been fun. She sang every bit as terribly as I did.
Did I want to hear it again? Absolutely not.
"Unnie isn't exactly good either, so don't feel pressured. And didn't you say you'd go along with whatever she wants?"
"The difficulty of that varies wildly."
"Is this really that hard?"
"If all I had to do was sit and listen, maybe. But sitting there doing nothing while Noona sings would be weird too."
"Then just sing."
"No. I won't. Unless Noona drags me there by force, karaoke is something I'm only doing with you."
"......"
A song only looks like anything when someone with talent sings it. A song from someone without talent never rises above a joke.
Why would anyone do something that embarrassing...
Setting the talk of her sister aside, I stood beside Lee Jiyoon, who was fussing with her hair, and pointed at the room tucked farthest into the corner.
"Let's take that one. The corner should be best."
"......"
"Jiyoon?"
"Y-yeah...! Let's go..."
Seo Woojin is a friend.
I came to karaoke with a friend.
There is nothing strange about that.
I have no intention of going to karaoke with Unnie, and he said he'd only come with me.
Not particularly strange.
He said he hates singing.
Coming here just for the treatment doesn't matter at all.
Nothing about it is strange.
What's strange is me, tense for no reason, busy stomping every imagination to death.
Coming here alone with my sister's boyfriend. Keeping it a secret from Unnie.
Anyway.
Dumb shit like that.
"If we don't pay, you think the part-timer comes and kicks us out?"
"P-probably? I've never seen it happen, so I don't really know."
"Then I'll put in a thousand won for now... We can just throw on some song and do it."
"Any song..."
"Should I put on the national anthem?"
"W-wouldn't the mood get way too solemn?"
"Then I'll just pick something off the popular chart."
"...Okay."
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
He said he hated karaoke, and yet, strangely, Seo Woojin knew how to work the machine. After a brief series of jabs at the buttons, the lights inside the booth went out, and the backing track of some song buried in the chart began to spill from the speakers.
Ah. This song.
I knew it. One of the ones I used to groan along to when my head hurt. The crisp guitar-and-bass accompaniment was pretty...
And the awareness I'd been forcing around in circles dropped, just like that.
"......"
Beside the big window with a clear view of the street, Seo Woojin sat down next to me, rigid in my seat.
...Hey.
Friends or not, this was too close...
O-of course the sofa was narrow, so it couldn't be helped.
Then we could just stand and do it...
I only had a moment to suffer through that thought.
"...Wait. You..."
"It's cramped, so my posture's a little off. Sorry."
I was drawn in against Seo Woojin, almost an embrace, and stroked, gently.
"...No. It's fine. I know the reason too."
"I'll finish as fast as I can, so even if you hate it, bear with it a little."
A friend.
A friend.
A friend.
My sister's boyfriend.
A friend.
My friend.
I swallowed the fluster trying to hiccup out of me and pretended to be calm, tilting an ear toward the karaoke track.
My body wouldn't move, as if it had frozen solid. All I could do was bury my forehead against Seo Woojin and sneak glances at the booth door from the corner of my eye.
Fortunately, there was no human shadow.
Of course, even if there had been, it wouldn't particularly matter.
They'd think something like a couple getting all cuddly in there, for fuck's sake, grumble, and leave.
A misunderstanding like that didn't matter at all.
The people involved knew perfectly well this was treatment.
Misunderstand.
Or don't.
Whatever idiots wanted to think, what was I supposed to do about it.
But still.
Even if there were no eyes around us, being held lightly in a friend's arms, in my sister's boyfriend's arms... honestly, awkward was awkward.
"...Hey."
"What?"
I spoke up for no real reason.
"You do this to Unnie a lot too."
"...Sometimes?"
Sometimes?
Yeah, right.
As if.
I knew perfectly well Unnie had been packing a lunch every morning lately. No way they weren't even hugging. They weren't little elementary school kids.
"For real? Sometimes?"
"...Every day. But why are you suddenly asking?"
"Just. The way you hold someone feels weirdly familiar."
"Mm..."
Come to think of it, Unnie really was devoted.
Every morning, a lunchbox crammed with meat for Seo Woojin, of course. And now that it was break she'd had the shower to herself and had been throwing on underwear all sloppy, then suddenly started matching pretty sets, top and bottom. Sometimes, passing her door on the way to the bathroom, I'd even heard what sounded like her on the phone with Seo Woojin.
...Especially number two. The matching underwear.
Whatever was going through Unnie's head was so obvious it was cute enough to kill me.
Getting ready in advance, so that if something happened with Seo Woojin she'd be fine.
Even though this was Unnie's first relationship, and the furthest they'd gotten was probably a kiss.
"......"
"......"
...So.
I should help a little.
Being held by Seo Woojin behind Unnie's back was awkward on top of awkward, and the truth was I felt a little guilty toward her.
"...Hey. There's something I'm curious about."
"Yeah."
"How far have you and Unnie gotten?"
"How far, you mean..."
"Have you kissed?"
"......"
The moment I asked outright, Seo Woojin's voice vanished.
...As expected. So they had kissed.
Well, they were both adults. That much could happen. Yeah.
Thinking of Unnie the way she usually was, they probably hadn't gone past that.
"I asked if you kissed."
"...The treatment's almost done. Let's head out. It's hot."
Embarrassed, Seo Woojin dodged instead of answering.
From that reaction, they were one hundred percent stopped at a kiss.
So if I just gave them a little push from here...
The small guilt toward Unnie.
And this restless feeling of mine.
I could erase both.
"...Hey. Seo Woojin."
"What."
I caught the coat of Seo Woojin as he started to get up, and went on in a stiff voice, pretending it was nothing.
"......"