246. A Three-Way Face-Off
246. A Three-Way Face-Off
***
7:24 p.m.
Seoyun, having arrived in front of Serin's officetel, checked her outfit before pressing the buzzer.
Swish, swish.
She fidgeted with the hem of her clothes a few times, and once she decided there wasn't a single thing out of place, she figured this was good enough.
'Meeting my sister and worrying about how I look is ridiculous, but...'
When that thought suddenly struck her, Seoyun smiled faintly and thought, so what.
Ever since she'd entered university early, she hadn't been able to see her sister as often as before, and even when they met quickly, it was only about once a week, so she'd felt an unfamiliar awkwardness and found herself reflecting a little.
In truth, ever since their parents' accident a few months ago, there'd also been a part of her that had been trying to see her sister noticeably more.
Because the preciousness of family had only hit her with overwhelming force after losing it.
"..."
She glanced away and looked up at the sky outside the building; it was dark, as if steeped in deep shadow.
She'd booked a ticket right after getting in touch, but in the end just getting here had taken over three hours, and before she knew it, night had fallen.
Letting out a small breath and collecting her thoughts, Seoyun pressed the buzzer.
Ding-dong.
Barely any time passed after she pressed the buzzer before the front door clicked open. Naturally expecting Serin, Seoyun turned her gaze with a bright expression.
And then found herself face-to-face with a stranger.
"...?"
Wondering why someone she'd never seen before was coming out of her sister's place, she quickly scanned the woman's appearance as if sizing her up.
A light, flowing cardigan over casual clothes, brown hair reaching her waist, a height that looked to be in the mid-160s, a face anyone would call beautiful, and an age that seemed to be around her early twenties.
'...I feel like I've seen her somewhere.'
Feeling like she'd seen this person somewhere before, Seoyun wondered who on earth this woman was.
While Seoyun was studying Sua's appearance like that, Sua, who had opened the door, was also greatly startled.
A small frame that didn't even look 160 centimeters, short black hair, mixed-race features.
'Han Seoyun... is it really that Han Seoyun?'
When she'd heard the name, she'd thought it might just be someone with the same name,
but now that she was seeing her like this, she couldn't help but recognize her at once.
Her cute face looked a little different, as if it had matured, but overall it wasn't much different from the image in her memory.
—Yale Foreign Language High School's undisputed first-ranked student. Han Seoyun.
From her looks to her personality to her grades, there wasn't a single thing lacking, so she was someone who'd always been talked about as the so-called "perfect daughter," and especially because of her mixed-race background and cute appearance, she was someone who'd always had people buzzing around her.
She'd been the most famous person at Yale Foreign Language High School, so of course there was no way Sua wouldn't know her.
Because when she'd been crafting a mask like a second personality, she'd thought Han Seoyun would be the most helpful reference, and so a mask modeled on her existed.
Master of both pen and sword, a woman of all talents.
Truly, when it came to performing perfection, there was no one quite like Han Seoyun.
"Han Seoyun..."
When Sua opened her mouth in a daze like that, Seoyun could only give her a bewildered look.
A stranger had casually come out of her sister's place, and on top of that was even saying her name, so it would've been stranger not to be bewildered.
"Who are you?"
When Seoyun asked cautiously,
"If I say Yoon Sua, would you happen to know?"
When Sua calmly gave her name, Seoyun blinked blankly.
'Yoon Sua...?'
After muttering it over in her head a few times, a scene soon flickered through Seoyun's mind.
One of the names she'd often seen in passing whenever exam results came out and she checked the rankings posted on the hallway bulletin board.
Along with that memory, Seoyun's eyes, which had been looking at Sua for a moment, instantly flew wide open.
'Fourth-ranked Yoon Sua?'
They'd had no particular connection, so she'd only seen her in passing a few times, but the appearance she was seeing now was a complete 180 from back then.
She'd thought Sua was plainly pretty, but the appearance she saw now was dazzling beyond measure, like a flower in full bloom.
Yoon Sua had changed so completely that the name didn't even come to mind at first glance.
She'd originally been pretty, but she was someone Seoyun had known as having an easygoing personality and moderate popularity. Moreover, she'd stopped paying attention to her after hearing she'd gotten into a prestigious university.
Half-convinced, Seoyun finally spoke.
"Really, are you Yoon Sua?"
When Sua gave a small nod in acknowledgment of Seoyun's question, Seoyun spoke again, as if something about the situation was strange.
"Hold on, so Sua, why are you coming out of my sister's place?"
"That's... I'm acquainted with Serin too. I never imagined her younger sister would be you, either."
While Sua answered with a somewhat awkward expression,
Serin slowly appeared as well.
Seoyun, who had been staring blankly at Sua, turned her gaze and soon took in Serin's appearance.
A frail impression. Her condition looked bad enough to be clearly comparable to the last time they'd met.
"Sis!?"
Startled, Seoyun approached Serin as if she'd forgotten Sua was right there, and without hesitation grabbed Serin's hand.
Then she looked at Serin with a gaze that was sharp at a glance.
"Seoyun. No problems on the way here, right?"
Serin, whose hand had been taken, spoke awkwardly and avoided that sharp gaze, and Seoyun raised her eyes as wide as she could.
"Nothing happened. So, sis... what's with how you look right now?"
At those cold words, which felt like a fastball driven straight into her chest, Serin laughed awkwardly.
"What do you mean, it's just... I've been resting because I'm a little sick, so I look like this."
Even as she spoke calmly, Serin felt embarrassed.
Because the expression Seoyun was showing right now looked deeply angry.
"No, you clearly told me you were fine. On the phone, you told me you were fine... But right now, sis, are you really okay looking like this? Shouldn't you at least go to the hospital?"
Seoyun, who'd opened her mouth as if scolding in great anger, ended up fidgeting restlessly while holding Serin's hand, as if she were too worried.
Because no matter how she looked at it, Serin's condition seemed worse than she'd imagined.
"Seoyun...? I-it's really getting better. I just need to rest and I'll be fine. It's not that serious."
At the sight of her worrying so much, Serin hastily shook her head, but Seoyun's face crumpled as if she were about to cry even at that.
"No. When you're this sick... why did you have someone else over? Sis, seriously... were you actually resting properly? I'm really worried, that's why I'm saying this."
Seoyun turned her head and looked at Sua as she spoke, as if scolding her too.
Sua, who had been silently watching that scene, was a little dumbfounded.
'Han Seoyun, was she this kind of person?'
She'd clearly come over to take care of Serin, yet she was being treated like some suspicious person.
But even with those thoughts, Sua quietly watched the situation.
The way Seoyun spoke with an anxious air seemed somehow abnormal, and was too different from her memory.
The Han Seoyun she'd seen at school had only ever been composed or cheerful; she'd never once seen her angry or anxious like this.
Serin, who'd glanced at Sua, slowly took Seoyun's hand in both of hers and met her gaze.
"Seoyun, still, what you just said could hurt Sua's feelings. And strictly speaking, Sua came over because she was worried about me too. I really have been resting properly."
Unlike her flustered start, Serin spoke calmly, and at her demeanor, Seoyun blinked before realizing her mistake.
"Is that how it was? S-Sua, I'm sorry. I got overwhelmed with emotion and spoke too harshly."
At the immediate apology, Sua, who'd been feeling displeased, let go of her feelings in an instant.
"No, it's fine. That can happen. Um, Serin, how about we go inside and talk first?"
When Sua looked at Serin like that, Serin nodded.
"Yeah, let's go inside and talk."
......
Clink.
One more glass of water was set down on the living room table, and Seoyun now occupied a spot in the space where only Serin and Sua had been sitting.
"...So, both of you are streamers?"
When Seoyun spoke blankly, looking back and forth between Serin and Sua, Sua and Serin nodded at the same time.
"Actually, I'm the one who encouraged Serin to become a streamer, so after that I helped with her streams and we got close."
Sua explained various facts to Seoyun.
"We also live near each other, so we meet up like this sometimes."
Serin added nonchalantly.
After they'd come inside a little while ago, Seoyun had asked how the two of them knew each other, and just answering that had led to a whole exchange of words between them.
And at the end of it, the fact that they were both streamers had come out, which was how things had reached this point.
"What a coincidence."
Seoyun muttered flatly, and as she gradually understood the situation, she felt a little dumbfounded.
A classmate from the same school was acquainted with her sister.
No, beyond that, they even did the same job, so it was hard to believe.
On top of that, as proof, they'd even shown her a NewTube channel, saying she was a fairly famous streamer, which drew a hollow laugh from her.
It was even more surprising because the Yoon Sua that Seoyun knew hadn't seemed like the type to have that kind of job.
'I thought her real personality was pretty cold. But she streams.'
Even as she thought that to herself, Seoyun looked at Sua again.
Her polished appearance, the way she'd glamorously styled herself, and so on. In some ways, her looks had changed so much she could pass for a celebrity or an idol.
'Is that her true self?'
But for some reason, looking at that appearance, Seoyun instead felt wary.
Back in school, Sua had been someone in the same top-tier grade bracket who'd deliberately kept her distance.
Seoyun had just felt an inexplicable uneasiness about Sua.
Whenever they'd crossed paths, Sua had always seemed to smile and speak pleasantly on the surface, but for some reason Seoyun had always felt a huge sense of dissonance from that version of Sua.
Seoyun glanced at Sua like that.
Sua was also glancing at Seoyun.
When their eyes met, Sua, seizing the moment, casually spoke up.
"Seoyun, you really love your sister, don't you?"
She'd said it partly to break the awkward atmosphere.
Seoyun nodded without a moment's hesitation.
"Yeah."
When she answered without the slightest hint of denial, Sua, who'd brought it up, was the flustered one.
'Why is she answering so calmly?'
She'd expected her to get embarrassed or deny it or something along those lines, but since she admitted it so matter-of-factly, Sua felt like she'd spoken for nothing.
In the space where a silence that seemed close yet not close lingered,
Serin, who'd been watching the two of them, spoke up as if she found something fascinating.
"What, I was hoping you two would meet and get close, but I guess there's no need. Considering you're both twenty-three, you would've been classmates, right?"
"Right..."
"Well. I suppose so."
Even at Serin's question, both Seoyun and Sua answered awkwardly.
Because back in their school days, they'd been thoroughly indifferent to each other or kept their distance.
Whether it was Seoyun, who'd kept her distance out of instinctive aversion, or Sua, who'd deliberately marked her as a model for a mask and kept her distance,
the two of them had never been close at all.