Oppa, Am I Heavy?
About a month had passed since I revealed that I was a boy. On the day I came clean about my gender, Ryu-yeong had slammed her forehead hard against the floor and apologized to our parents with fierce intensity for failing to properly protect their son.
The apology felt a little excessive, so I tried to grab her and pull her back, but Mom and Dad simply nodded and accepted it without stopping her.
I later heard that Mom truly believed an apology of that magnitude had been necessary, while Dad said he hadn’t intervened because he was afraid her guilt would only grow heavier if she didn’t get it out.
After that, the extreme drop in Ryu-yeong’s physical contact with me was more or less expected, but it was still annoying how she would come sprinting over the moment she saw me lifting even the taiyaki maker at home, insisting she would carry it instead.
“Hey, Yong, you’ve been doing just fine up until now.”
“No, but you said your superpower was just from reading a lot of books… If you misjudge and drop that, it’ll be a disaster!”
“Ah! Let go~!! I said I’ll do it!!”
I had explained to Ryu-yeong that the Battle Coach I claimed to have wasn’t a superpower at all, just the result of all the books I’d read before and after my hospital stay. She had nodded in acceptance after seeing the bookshelf that filled an entire wall of my room.
I no longer had to worry about my lies being exposed, yet Ryu-yeong trailing after me every single time I did anything was becoming a real nuisance.
I had expected Seol-hee nuna—who used to hate Ryu-yeong getting near me—to block her, but after witnessing that apology, whether she had decided to forgive her or something else had shifted, she simply watched the two of us from a short distance.
Still, where she once took three steps back for every one I took toward her, now it was only two. We had gotten a little closer.
Actually, last week it had been just one step. When I asked what she had seen on the laptop that made her pull away, it snapped right back to three, and a week later it had settled at two again.
I still had no idea what she had seen on that laptop to make her keep her distance. If I asked Ryu-yeong she would just stammer and freeze solid, and Seol-hwa claimed she had already forgotten and couldn’t remember a thing.
“Oppa~!!!!”
Whoosh!
“Seol-hwa! I told you not to run around the house!”
“Ehehe, it’s Oppa~”
Seol-hwa hadn’t changed much after learning I was a boy. For the first few days she mixed up my titles a couple of times, but after that she was the same cute little sister as before—charging over and flinging herself into a tight hug just like this.
I had asked her several times whether she was disappointed that I was her oppa, but she shook her head vigorously every time and declared she was thrilled I was her oppa.
She used to feel jealous of friends who had oppas, but now, with the strongest unnie and a pretty oppa of her own, she was invincible—or so she proudly announced. When I replied that having a cute little sister like Seol-hwa would make us completely invincible, she answered with a perfectly serious face that then Seol-hee nuna and I would take care of that little sister instead of her, so she didn’t want that. I chuckled and ruffled her hair, but our parents, who had been listening, tensed for a moment before letting out small sighs of relief at her answer. That made me realize I hadn’t even considered the burden of raising children, and I offered them a quiet apology in my heart.
“Hey! Seol-hwa! What if you charge in like that and break Harang’s back!”
“Bleh~ Unlike Seol-hee unnie or Ryu-yeong unnie, I control my strength so that won’t happen~”
Ryu-yeong and Seol-hwa bickered while Seol-hee nuna, who had somehow drifted closer without me noticing, began feeding me the taiyaki I had baked, one piece at a time. Peaceful, happy days.
“Waaah~!! Oppa!! Ryu-yeong unnie hit me!!”
“You brat! What are you talking about!! Harang, no! I just flicked her forehead a little!!”
“I saw it too. Ryu-yeong hit her.”
“Sunbae!!!”
Maybe not so peaceful after all.
Lately I had developed a small worry. While browsing the internet on the laptop Ryu-yeong had brought over, Seol-hwa clicked an ad, and after seeing it I found it hard to look Harang in the face.
Ryu-yeong, who owned the laptop, had probably seen plenty of that sort of thing, so she approached Harang as if nothing had happened. Seol-hwa claimed she had forgotten, leaving only me red-faced and embarrassed.
It was supposed to be a novel-site ad!
“Nuna, have you finished your vacation homework? Want me to help?”
The moment Harang came toward me the way he always did, I reflexively retreated the same distance he had advanced. When his cute, lovable expression turned a little sad I would muster the courage to take one step forward, but the second I looked at his face I would get the illusion of that shirtless man’s body from the ad with Harang’s face pasted onto it, and I would have to flee again.
On top of that, the title “nuna” somehow still didn’t feel natural. I had heard it occasionally, but most people called me unnie, and for some reason whenever Harang said “nuna” my mouth would twitch and a smile would try to break free.
That day Mom had scolded me hard, saying this was exactly why she couldn’t buy me a phone or a computer, but honestly I felt a little wronged. It wasn’t that I had no interest—Seol-hwa was the one who had clicked it in the first place.
In the end, today too I fled into my room with burning cheeks, avoiding Harang. Mom came in and told me Harang was my little brother so I shouldn’t feel embarrassed around him, yet every time I saw him my heart pounded as if it had been electrocuted, and I couldn’t make it stop.
My pretty unnie was actually an oppa! This was huge news! I could finally brag that I had an oppa too to that girl who always went on about having one!
Not only that—my unnie, no, my oppa was way prettier and handsomer than the oppa that girl had brought. With a super-strong unnie and a super-pretty oppa, I was an amazing little sister.
If someone somewhere bragged about being strong, I could just bring my unnie. If someone claimed to be pretty… well, thinking about it, they wouldn’t be prettier than me, so maybe I wouldn’t even need to bring Oppa.
“Oppa~!!!!”
Whoosh!!
“What is it, Seol-hwa? Next week is elementary school entrance—are you worried?”
“No~? Just because I saw Oppa~ Ehehe”
Ever since unnie saw that weird naked man on the laptop Ryu-yeong brought, she had been avoiding Oppa, which meant this was my time to monopolize him to my heart’s content.
Oppa took good care of me and liked me a lot, but sometimes when he said he had to help unnie and only paid attention to her with Mom, it made me feel bad. I hoped unnie would keep avoiding him like this.
Ah. But then unnie and Oppa might not get along, so just a little avoiding would be best.
Mom told me Oppa was a boy so he was fragile and if I hugged him this tight he might get hurt, but Oppa always caught me with a smile no matter where I ran from, so it was fine.
Being in Oppa’s arms, there was a strangely nice scent too, and even when Oppa had been unnie, being hugged like this had always felt good.
“Oppa! Oppa! You’ll come to my entrance ceremony, right?”
“Mom and Dad said they’re going, so of course I’ll go with them.”
“Yay!!”
I hugged Oppa even tighter and rubbed my head against his chest. Through his T-shirt, Oppa’s scent filled my nose.
And the smell of Ryu-yeong unnie mixed in made my face scrunch up. Ever since finding out Oppa was a boy, Ryu-yeong unnie had been coming over almost every day.
Before, Se-ah unnie used to come every day and steal Oppa, but now Ryu-yeong unnie came every day and tried to stick to him all day long.
Last time I was already hugging Oppa, but she forced me off saying I was heavy! The heavy one is the tall her!
“Oppa, am I heavy?”
“Hm? Not at all. Look—Oppa’s been working out lately, so I can carry you around like old times again.”
Oppa lifted me up while holding me in his arms. See! I’m not heavy! But there had been a time before Oppa worked out when he almost fell while holding me, so I rubbed my cheek against his and slipped down from his arms.
Oppa, realizing why I had gotten down, looked apologetic, but I grinned and hugged him to show him not to feel sorry.
Don’t worry, Oppa. Even if you can’t lift me anymore, I’ll be the one hugging you.
Seol-hwa’s entrance ceremony ended without a hitch. I tried to recall how mine had gone, but while my memories from the other world remained vivid, my elementary school entrance ceremony was hazy.
Maybe because it had been such an ordinary, peaceful day, my brain simply hadn’t bothered to lock it in strongly.
Seol-hee nuna, now a sixth-grader, attended as the strongest student holding the record of two consecutive tournament wins and gave a light greeting to the new students.
On the large screen in the auditorium, footage of Seol-hee nuna fighting in the tournament and the earlier lightning incident played, edited to look extremely cool.
Ryu-yeong had mentioned it before, but seeing it on video—the blue electric deer antlers growing from Seol-hee nuna’s head—looked incredibly powerful, yet just as unsettling.
Seol-hwa and the new students simply shouted “Wow!” and sent cheers toward Seol-hee nuna, who stood blankly on the stage watching her own video.
After the ceremony, Seol-hwa hugged me and our parents tightly, then walked bravely to her classroom. Mom, once we were outside the elementary school and in the car, sobbed until Seol-hwa returned.
According to Dad, she had cried just like this without fail when I entered and when Seol-hee nuna entered. He said this time she was crying less than usual because she was hugging me while she cried.
It was a sight that showed just how much Mom loved us.
“Hwaaaaang~!!!”
Though my back was a little damp.