The Idiot Sister
A beautiful woman looks incredibly striking when she wears a sulky expression. Lee Yurim was doing exactly that right now.
'Is she pouting?'
She hadn't said a word since we left the cafe, lost in her own quiet thoughts.
'I guess I did tease her a bit too much.'
I’d played with her heart more times than I could count. It was a relief that our intimacy level hadn't dropped—if anything, it had only gone up. But human feelings aren't something you can just measure with numbers.
'Well...'
I tugged on her sleeve and spoke.
"Yurim-ah."
"...Yeah?"
"Are you mad?"
When Lee Yurim turned around with her eyes wide, I deliberately used a dejected voice.
"I'm sorry for teasing you."
"Huh? Oh, no! I'm not mad, really."
She was startled and waved her hands frantically. She had been lost in thought, but seeing me look so down made her scramble to reassure me.
To calm her down, I half-scowled and cracked a joke.
"You look super ugly when you try to act all serious."
"Ugh, even if it's a joke, that hurts my heart..."
She placed a hand over her chest, pretending to be in pain. Her reaction was so good that I wanted to tease her even more.
"I wasn't joking, though."
"Eh."
She froze with a shocked expression. Lee Yurim cleared her throat and straightened her posture.
"Ahem, do not slander me."
"Pfft, haha."
"Ah, why are you laughing?"
Even though she tried to deepen her voice to sound like a girl, it wasn't dignified at all. It was just her cute voice chirping away—what a funny world this is.
While we were chatting, a fierce gust of wind blew by, and I shivered.
"Brrr."
We both wrapped our coats tighter, stomping our feet as we huddled closer to each other. We overheard a couple passing by.
"Haha, it's a good time to be young."
"Honey, should we get closer, too? Tonight..."
"Ahem."
Lee Yurim and I glanced at each other, our ears turning bright red, and we walked the rest of the way with a bit of distance between us.
'Nowhere to look.'
As we walked, places that only lovers would visit kept catching my eye. A comic cafe, an atmospheric restaurant, even a motel. Lee Yurim couldn't seem to take her eyes off them.
"Uh, well."
When I gave her a look, she started whistling and pretending to look elsewhere, acting like nothing was wrong.
'And she's fidgeting so much.'
She seemed to want to hold hands like before, but she was too busy staring at the couples on the street.
'Heh, I want to see her get embarrassed.'
A building flashed with red neon signs.
Since a small motel appeared right by the alley, I stopped walking and called out to her.
"Yurim-ah."
"What is it?"
"I'm tired..."
When I turned my head toward the motel, Lee Yurim gasped.
"...Do you want to rest?"
"Yeah, let's go home quickly."
Sigh...
She slumped her shoulders, so I pulled her hand.
"Let's go."
"Eek!"
Lee Yurim clamped her legs together and hit my back. She looked completely startled.
"? Why are you so surprised?"
"Yo-you don't need to know..."
Even though she was embarrassed, she didn't let go of my hand. Even in a world where gender roles were reversed, a girl's hand was soft and supple.
'It's warm.'
I could feel a pulse thumping against the back of our joined hands.
I followed silently wherever Lee Yurim led. She adjusted her pace to match my stride, so I didn't even get out of breath.
'She's a good one.'
And so, Lee Yurim and I arrived in front of my house.
A run-down building in a common studio apartment neighborhood.
We were still holding hands as I opened the front door, chatting away.
"It was freezing, seriously."
"And yet you drank an iced Americano..."
"Forget that, let's go inside and warm up."
"Okay. Let's rest for a bit..."
I stopped mid-sentence, sensing someone's presence.
'Huh?'
When I opened the door, Yang Dami was standing there with her arms crossed, glaring at us.
"...You idiot."
'When did you get here...?'
My younger sister with the short, black hair. Yang Dami looked down at me with cold, sunken blue eyes.
*
Yang Dami frowned as she watched Yang Dajun smiling like an idiot.
"You idiot..."
He was laughing away without a care in the world, not knowing how others felt. And he had his childhood friend in tow, too. Right now, Yang Dami didn't care about being a sister or anything else.
Running out of the PC cafe felt kind of unfair, though.
'Damn it... It was an important game, did I come out for nothing?'
She had jumped up right in the middle of a ranked game with her friends. It was because of a hunch that her brother might not be home.
"I'm going."
"Hey, hey, where are you going!"
"Sorry, it's urgent."
"Hey!"
She had bolted from her seat despite her friends' protests. She’d been so distracted she’d even stayed out all night last night, but not anymore.
Yang Dami grabbed her coat and ran out to the stairs. As she strode down, her black, sharp-cut bob swayed. She was in such a hurry she didn't even care that her hair was getting in her mouth.
'Yang Dajun, are you really home?'
It wasn't exactly a superpower, but Yang Dami could sometimes feel the presence of people at home.
Since the only people who would be home were Yang Dajun, Yang Dahee, or Lee Yurim, it was usually useful for checking if her brother was safe.
'Damn it, he should have told me before leaving.'
Driven by impatience, Yang Dami hurried her steps. A feeling she’d never had before burned in her gut. She couldn't wait until she got home, so she started typing a text message already.
She sent the text and rushed over, ignoring the traffic lights. She gripped her phone so tightly her hands were trembling. But Yang Dajun didn't reply.
'Damn it, what is he doing?'
Yang Dami shook her head, trying to push away thoughts of how Yang Dajun usually spent his time.
'He's probably just sleeping... He's an idiot, so he's probably sleeping in.'
Her lips felt dry. She bit into her own skin without realizing it, and the metallic taste of blood spread in her mouth.
Even so, not a single notification rang on her phone until Yang Dami reached the house.
"Damn it..."
She finally arrived. An old building. A house too cramped for three people to live in.
It was the kind of house that made her want to stay out overnight without even realizing it, because she didn't like living there.
Yang Dami kicked the front door open, panting for breath.
"Hey, Yang Dajun!"
She shouted at the top of her lungs, loud enough to shake the house. She never called him "Oppa" in front of Yang Dajun.
"Are you in your room?"
She kicked off her shoes and headed straight for the small room. Hoping he was sleeping peacefully as usual.
"Hey, I asked if you're in there!"
Bang-
She opened the door.
A familiar scent wafted from the dark room Yang Dajun used.
'Hmph, Yang Dajun's smell.'
It was a scent she didn't want to smell because he was such an idiot, but since he was such an idiot of a brother, it was a scent she sometimes had to check on.
Click. Yang Dami turned on the light and lifted the blanket.
"Stop sleeping... and..."
But there was no one in the room.
"Oh..."
She dropped the blanket irritably and left the room.
"Damn it, where did you go, you idiot."
She blurted out her inner thoughts without meaning to. She grumbled, her throat tight. Her mouth was drying up.
"Yang Dajun, are you in the bathroom?"
She knocked on the bathroom door.
"Seriously, if you're in the bathroom, say something."
She softened her sharp voice a little. Just in case she opened the door and ran into Yang Dajun. She absolutely didn't want to see the body of an idiot brother like him.
But contrary to her thoughts, her hand moved first.
'Ah.'
She didn't just knock; she opened it on her own. But...
"...He's not here?"
Yang Dajun wasn't in the bathroom either. Yang Dami closed the door listlessly and came back out.
"He's not... here either."
There was no way he was on the balcony.
"Yang Dajun, don't hide..."
She went back to the room, but it was the same.
"Ah..."
Her nose stung.
"O, Oppa."
The words wouldn't come out. It was something she wouldn't have said normally, but it kept circling in her head. Moisture began to gather on the hands she was gripping tightly.
"Oppa..."
Yang Dajun wasn't anywhere in the house. He should have been curled up in his blanket sleeping like usual. He should have been whining about not wanting to go to school.
"Ugh, damn it..."
She ruffled her hair and stomped her feet.
She gripped her phone and kept trying to contact him.
She waited for a reply.
She was so anxious she ended up being mean.
'Ugh, if I don't do this, he won't understand.'
She made excuses to herself and kept sending texts.
Her vision blurred with a drop of moisture.
Yang Dami sat down on the floor. The blanket had no warmth left in it.
'It's cold...'
Neither Yang Dajun nor her older sister, Yang Dahee, were there. Feeling the reality of being all alone, Yang Dami hugged her knees and buried her face in them.
'I don't know, you idiot...'
She was saying it to herself.
'What was so great about that game. Damn it...'
Because he was such an idiot brother, she had to watch over him. Otherwise, he'd just go around causing worry like this. She regretted realizing it too late.
"...Idiot."
Yang Dami waited like that, her nose stinging, until someone arrived.
.
.
.
How much time had passed?
Someone was walking outside. At that sound, Yang Dami lifted her head again.
"Yang Dajun...?"
He was such an idiot brother that she could tell just by the sound of his footsteps.
'You real idiot, just you wait.'
As soon as Yang Dajun opened the door and came in, she was going to give him a piece of her mind.
Asking where a boy had been wandering around without fear. Why he didn't say anything when he should have been staying quietly at home.
She finished preparing to be as angry as possible, wiped her eyes, and stood up.
"You're dead, you idiot."
The door opened with a creak.
Yang Dami ran toward it with quick steps.
'Hmph, I'm not going to let you off easy.'
An idiot like him needed a good scolding to come to his senses. Seeing the fearless boy walk in, she poured out the words she’d been holding inside.
"Hey, where have you been, you idiot!"
She shouted, glaring at Yang Dajun. And then, she noticed it a beat too late.
"...Let's go inside and warm up."
"Okay, let's rest for a bit... huh?"
'What?'
Yang Dajun hadn't come in alone.
'Lee Yurim... unnie?'
Lee Yurim, his childhood friend, was right next to Yang Dajun.
'Are they... holding hands right now?'
And their fingers were interlaced, too.
'You two, what is this...?'
Yang Dami's insides were boiling over.
She had been so worried, and Yang Dajun, being the idiot he was, had come back happily holding a girl's hand.
"Seriously..."
She narrowed her eyes and twisted her face in displeasure.
*
I stood there awkwardly, receiving Yang Dami's glare.
Lee Yurim seemed intimidated, too, and just whispered beside me.
'Hey, hey, is your sister mad?'
'Yeah.'
'What did you do to make her like that?'
'I don't know...'
Unlike Dahee, Yang Dami had a cold impression. A pitch-black bob cut and cool blue eyes. A beauty with upturned eyes glaring at me made me feel a chill down my spine.
"Ugh..."
I met Yang Dami's eyes, flinched, and looked back down. The tear mole on her left side. The small silver earring sparkling in the light felt cold.
'Ugh... why are you being so scary.'
Since we had no clue why she was acting like that, both Lee Yurim and I had no choice but to stand awkwardly in the entryway.
'I brought her all the way here.'
Leaving a guest standing there after bringing them home? I couldn't just turn her away like this.
'Yang Dami, you're glaring at your brother.'
Even though she was taller than me, I had no intention of being intimidated by my younger sister. I am Yang Dajun, a man.
I let go of the hand I was holding with Lee Yurim and approached Yang Dami.