11. Younger Sister Han Seoyun.
11. Younger Sister Han Seoyun.
***
I slowly rose from my seat and made my way to the front door.
Even as I did, I tucked a single question into my mind, my thoughts still foggy from sleep.
'Was there someone supposed to come by?'
Ever since I'd started writing "Please don't ring the bell—just leave it at the door and text me" in the delivery instructions, the bell hadn't rung once. And yet—Serin straightened herself up a little and walked slowly toward the door.
Ding-dong.
Just as I reached the intercom, the bell rang again.
'...Who is it?'
On the small intercom screen stood a woman I had no memory of.
She looked about 160 centimeters tall, with a small frame, a cute face, and distinctly foreign-looking features that made her seem unlikely to be Korean.
No—thinking about it, there wasn't a single person in my memory who existed in this world to begin with.
"Who is it?"
Using the intercom, Han Serin cautiously addressed the woman on the other side.
"Did you just... say 'who is it'?"
The woman spoke with a shocked expression.
“Serin! It’s me, me! Your sister! Han Seoyun... Don’t tell me you actually don’t recognize me...?”
The woman enunciated what appeared to be her own name clearly, continuing to speak with a shocked look on her face.
Han Seoyun.
The only contact saved by name in her smartphone.
'Younger sister...?'
Naturally, she recalled that the woman on the intercom was her younger sister.
In that moment, her head felt like it was floating. She floundered—how was she supposed to deal with this woman named Seoyun? The “self” Seoyun knew wasn’t who she was anymore.
Even as all sorts of thoughts raced through her mind, Han Serin quickly opened the door.
Creeeak.
As the door opened, Seoyun simply stared at Han Serin's disheveled appearance and spoke in a daze.
“...Serin.”
Faced with the woman looking at her as if she might burst into tears at any moment, Han Serin felt her mind go completely blank.
"S-Seoyun..."
Even saying the name Seoyun felt endlessly awkward to her.
“Did you really not recognize me just now, Serin? Is that really what happened?”
"N-No. I just woke up, so I was a little out of it."
"How does that even make sense... No, what is that state you're in right now? Are you eating properly? Have you been taking care of yourself? You told me not to worry... that you were just resting for a while. That's what you said to me...!"
With her sister pressing her relentlessly the moment the door opened, Serin was too flustered to answer properly.
The way Seoyun looked at her, as if she might burst into tears if anyone so much as touched her, left Serin wondering how she was supposed to answer.
"...I have been taking care of myself."
'What kind of relationship do I even have with my sister?'
She had no way of knowing what her past “self” had done, so seeing her sister speak with such a sad face flustered her more than anything.
"Taking care of yourself... looking like this? Look at you. This is what happens when I don't check on you... showing up looking this gaunt."
Grab.
As she spoke, Seoyun suddenly took hold of Serin's hand.
Serin flinched in surprise, but Seoyun continued talking as if she didn't care.
"...Even your hands are thinner than the last time I saw you. You promised me you'd eat properly, every single meal, on time."
But she was eating properly—ordering enough delivery food for two every day.
Even as she had thoughts she couldn’t bring herself to say aloud, Serin tried her best to answer Seoyun.
"I-I really just woke up, that's all. I'm eating fine."
“...Whatever. So you just woke up, Serin?”
"Ah, yeah."
"You woke up at 4 p.m.?"
Even Serin, with her limited experience dealing with women, could tell that Seoyun's repeated question wasn't simply asking what it said.
Her younger sister was demanding to know the circumstances of why she'd woken up so late.
"...S-Seoyun? I was tired yesterday. I fell asleep late."
“Sis, don’t tell me you stayed up late because you’ve been living in games again?”
'What is she, psychic?'
Her sister spoke as if she knew exactly what Serin had been doing, sending a chill down her spine. Serin hesitated, looked at Seoyun, and carefully parted her lips.
"H-How did you know?"
Actually, she had fallen asleep before midnight, but she figured saying she had woken up at 4 p.m. would sound even stranger, so she pretended otherwise.
“Sis, you’re such a homebody. It’s obvious. And obviously you haven’t eaten yet, right?”
Was I really the kind of person who skipped meals or something? The sister I was meeting for the first time seemed almost fixated on whether I was eating.
"Well, I mean, I just woke up."
“Then move. Let me in. Serin, seriously, this is what happens when I don’t take care of you... ugh.”
Serin blankly stepped aside as her sister walked into the house as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Only then did she notice the huge bags her sister was carrying.
Judging by the green onions and other vegetables poking from the bags, Seoyun—her sister in this world—seemed to have come prepared to cook for her.
...Seoyun in this world resembled the younger sister she’d had in her old world.
And now, seeing Seoyun like that, Serin couldn't help but think that thought.
At the same time, Serin unconsciously bit her lip and clasped her own hands.
'...'
Inside, her heart began to churn violently with a single emotion.
She hadn't wanted to think about it. She'd been deliberately avoiding recalling the memories of her younger sister, of all things.
But in the end, faced with this different younger sister who had suddenly come to find her, she couldn't help but remember the past.
Watching her sister stride confidently into the house, Serin let out a self-deprecating sigh without even realizing it.
......
Bubble, bubble.
The sound of stew boiling.
Chop! Chop! Chop!
The cheerful sound of a kitchen knife striking the cutting board rang out repeatedly, as if she were chopping vegetables.
Han Seoyun.
Her younger sister’s appearance was certainly unfamiliar, but the more Serin looked at her, the more familiar she felt.
Seoyun began to look familiar to her, like someone she had known for a long time. Not a stranger, but real “family.”
At that thought, Han Serin let out a hollow laugh without meaning to.
She couldn’t even remember her own sister’s face, yet she was calling her family.
The thought itself was absurd.
Then her sister suddenly turned toward her.
Wearing an apron, Seoyun looked back at her with sharply narrowed eyes.
As if she had found dust piled up in the kitchen, Seoyun was looking at Serin with a deeply displeased expression.
“...Serin, are you living without cleaning?”
Honestly, it just felt cute. With that small frame and adorable face, no matter how she spoke, she wasn't scary at all.
"I've been... out of it lately."
And seeing Seoyun like that, Serin unconsciously let slip words that were close to her true feelings.
Ever since falling into this world, she'd been lost in thought, blankly passing the time.
Because she was still in the process of accepting the reality that she'd fallen into this world.
Thinking that way, she'd been solving every meal with delivery food, holed up at home doing nothing but using the computer.
She'd been gradually learning about this world, but she hadn't once stepped outside this house.
Actually, maybe she was afraid of this world.
In the world called Black Ark, she'd possessed power that reached the pinnacle, enough to look down on everyone.
The fearless version of herself who had enjoyed fighting monsters and feared nothing in the world no longer existed.
Now she was nothing more than a single woman named Han Serin.
Without any of what she'd achieved over years in the world of Black Ark, stripped even of the power she'd held, she'd been suddenly sent to this world.
—You can go back now.
—You've been through a lot. You won't have to suffer anymore.
...Even now, days later, she still vividly remembered the words spoken by some unknown being as it sent her back.
“...Serin! Serin!?”
Seeing her sister waving a hand in front of her face, she realized she'd been lost in thought without knowing it.
Even Han Serin herself was aware that the time she spent lost in contemplation had increased sharply since falling into this world.
"...Huh?"
“Sis... what’s wrong? Are you really okay? I called you so many times and you didn’t answer. Seriously... why do you make people worry like this?”
Seeing Seoyun grab her hand and speak with worry, Han Serin naturally smiled warmly and shook her head slightly.
"I just had some things on my mind. Seoyun... don't worry so much."
“What’s with you, Serin? Smiling all of a sudden—I’ve never seen you smile like that before.”
"Did I not smile much?"
"No, you've never smiled like that before."