010. Interrogation (1)
010. Interrogation (1)
"...No."
...It has to be no.
I know it's true, but even knowing that, those words just slipped out of my mouth on their own.
Because if I really... failed to regress, then what I did last night becomes 'fact'.
That shouldn't have happened.
There's no way.
The sun hasn't even risen yet.
5:37 AM.
Maybe I just woke up too early.
If the regression check doesn't happen at midnight, but only applies after we both sleep soundly and wake up to a new morning.
Maybe when I close my eyes again and wake up properly, it'll be the 16th again.
"......."
It was a ridiculous hope.
I closed my eyes, even knowing that.
The alcohol was still in my system, and the fatigue from the past few days was piled up all over my body.
So, falling asleep wasn't difficult.
This time, without even dreaming, I fell into a deep sleep while hugging my sister again.
I opened my eyes again.
July 18th.
Saturday.
9:11 AM.
"...Fucking hell."
As expected, I didn't regress.
...Licking my sister's collarbone didn't disappear as if it never happened either.
Fuck.
**
Yeonju was the same as usual.
She got up sluggishly, drank some water, washed up, and sat there blankly with a hunched posture.
She asked me what kind of poke I wanted to eat, ordered a late breakfast, and then just flopped onto my mattress, fiddling with her phone.
As if she had forgotten everything from yesterday, my sister didn't act awkward around me at all.
She didn't even avoid eye contact.
She didn't bring up last night either.
She didn't ask why I licked her neck and collarbone.
So, I'm the only one acting suspicious in this house.
Even when Yeonju just turned her head, I avoided her gaze for no reason.
When she came near me, I flinched.
...I don't know if she doesn't remember, or if she's just choosing not to bring it up.
There's no way to know.
She's the type who vaguely remembered the events before the regression like a dream, so maybe she just brushed it off, thinking it wasn't something that actually happened.
"...."
...If that were the case, it would be a huge relief, but there was a problem.
The fact that I'm a being who shouldn't be staying in this timeline.
To go back, I eventually have to commit a similar act once more.
No matter how much Yeonju accepted it as something like a dream, if I commit a similar act today, will she understand it as a dream again?
I feel like she'd notice it wasn't a dream, no matter how I think about it.
Getting her drunk again tonight.
Lying on the same mattress.
Hugging her body.
If I try to lick somewhere.
What on earth would Yeonju think?
...Would she even be able to fall asleep?
If I were Yeonju, I think I'd stay awake all night out of fear.
But there was no option of not going back.
If I regress tonight, I go back to the morning of the 17th.
The domestic market doesn't open on Friday, but the US or Japanese markets did.
I remembered the volatility of that day almost perfectly, and with that, assuming the future doesn't get twisted like last time, I can easily earn about 5 times the amount.
That alone is 5 billion won.
...An amount that doesn't really require me to cling to regression.
Besides.
I have to go back to the 17th to erase the fucked-up thing I did last night.
Because if I let today pass, that act will remain as 'fact'.
**
After repeating dynamic days for several days, even if I committed some fucked-up act, I didn't really lose my appetite anymore.
I guess humans really are animals of adaptation.
Is it like the feeling where if you spend time lying on a cliff, your fear of heights disappears?
I stared blankly at the leftover delivery containers after dinner, then turned on the calculator.
...6 billion won.
One chicken is 24,000 won.
That's enough money to buy 250,000 of them.
Even if I spend 100 million won a year, that's 60 years.
It's enough money to buy a house not just for me, but for my parents and my younger sister, with plenty left over.
"...Ha."
...Is there anyone in the world who could give that up?
No.
Same for me.
But I didn't think I could try what I did yesterday again while sober.
But if I ask Yeonju to drink with me again today, my intentions would be too... obvious.
Right now, she didn't even drink beer today, saying we've been drinking too much lately.
I took out the whiskey bottle left in the corner of the kitchen.
The alcohol left over from making highballs.
I put a large ice cube in a glass, filled it up, and took a gulp.
My throat burned hot.
"Tonight."
I'll wait until Yeonju falls asleep.
Somehow make an excuse about being drunk and sleep in the same bed.
This time, I'll make sure to meet the conditions properly.
Yeah, the problem yesterday was that I actually made her drink too much.
Because she drank that much, she woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
Conversely, there won't be any problems today.
...There must not be.
I shouldn't even assume a case where there's a problem.
Because this is already a wrong world line.
"...Fuck."
At that moment, as I was downing 40-degree hard liquor on the rocks, which didn't suit my alcohol tolerance, and enduring the heat in my esophagus and stomach.
...The bedroom door I was planning to sneak into opened.
"Oppa, what are you doing?"
"......."
Yeonju walked out to the living room, shuffling along.
A thin tank top.
Short dolphin shorts.
An outfit that revealed a lot of skin in many ways.
...Actually, that's better.
If she's dressed like that, it's fine to lick her shoulder.
I felt disgusted with myself for subconsciously thinking that.
Now..., I don't even see my sister as my sister.
Treating her like a tool, you crazy bastard.
"What is it, why are you drinking alone so miserably?"
"...Who knows."
While I was self-deprecating in my head, Yeonju took water out of the fridge and looked down at me, who was sitting at the dining table.
"...Did you lose some money?"
...Then, having guessed correctly, she walked over lightly and sat down next to me.
"A little."
"Aha."
She didn't really worry about me.
Because she thinks of me as a multi-billionaire.
She probably thinks I lost at most a few hundred million, just a few percent of my assets.
That amount is just..., the right amount to be bitter about while drinking.
"...Did you lose it yesterday already?"
"...Yeah."
"Ah, no wonder."
Yeonju fiddled with the rim of her water cup and examined my face.
"In the hundreds of millions?"
I nodded instead of answering.
"Even if you have a lot of money, do you lose your mind when you lose that much?"
"Of course."
"You said you have tens of billions."
"No matter how much money you have, it's hard when it goes over a certain amount."
I smiled bitterly.
It was funny to bring up tens of billions that didn't even exist, but I didn't have the energy to correct her.
...I actually earned a few billion, so it wasn't exactly wrong.
If I could at least get some sympathy, wouldn't it be much easier to go back today?
Since I'm bitter about losing a few hundred million today, if I drink heavily, and then sneak into bed with her, saying I couldn't help it because I was drunk, she wouldn't push me away, right?
"So whiskey on an empty stomach? Why didn't you drink it when we had chicken earlier?"
"I asked you to drink beer, but you didn't drink with me."
"Ah, no wonder. You kept asking to drink again."
I pretended to be as pitiful and miserable as possible, mixing half-sincerity and half-acting, and smiled bitterly.
Seeing my face, Yeonju stared at me quietly, then got up from her seat and slowly approached behind me.
"What were you going to do with that money?"
"Who knows."
"Well, wasn't there something you wanted to buy?"
"Buy a car. Uh..., ah. Change my computer."
"And?"
"...Should I have gotten a girlfriend? I can't really think of anything else. Ahahaha."
When I answered jokingly in a bitter tone, Yeonju chuckled.
"Pfft. You're going to buy a girlfriend with money?"
"Then do you date without money?"
"Usually, don't people meet person-to-person? Money is a secondary issue."
"Who doesn't know that."
"Doesn't seem like you do."
Yeonju leaned her body slightly against my back and pressed her chin firmly onto the top of my head.
"To be honest, having a lot of money doesn't make a person look cool. ...It's actually burdensome."
"Why are you acting like you've experienced it somewhere?"
"Ah, my fan story. ...Just because they donate a lot doesn't mean I like the person more. Rather..., I like the fans who support me without putting pressure on me better. ...Like Oppa."
"...We're family."
"Right. We're family. Biological siblings."
My younger sister, who was talking gently while sharing her own experience, now even wrapped her arms around my neck and tilted my chin up.
She confessed with expressionless eyes while making eye contact with me upside down.
"But Oppa."
"Why."
"...Why did a person like that do that yesterday?"
...As expected.
The fact that she remembers yesterday.
"......What."
"Why are you acting like you don't know."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Yeonju's chin left the top of my head.
Instead, her face came down close to my ear.
"Why did you bury your nose in my chest and rub against it while sleeping? ...I'm your sister, not your girlfriend or a female friend."
"......."
Unlike last time, definitely.
She was perceiving it as reality, not a dream.
...Well, because I didn't regress this time.
"...Didn't you dream it because you were drunk?"
"I'm not at the level where I can't distinguish that. ...In the first place, if it were a dream, I wouldn't have remembered it so vividly."
"...."
"Did you not see your sister as your sister because you were drunk? ...Why did you do that?"
Yeonju, who was looking down at me coldly, watched me with my mouth shut tight, then lightly let go of my chin and returned to the seat next to me.
Even while pointing out her own brother's misdeeds one by one, ironically, there was no contempt, disgust, or even fear in her eyes.
Purely curiosity.
The question of why on earth this person did that.
"You haven't been able to meet a girl until you're 28, so did you finally get horny for your younger sister after holding it in?"
"Stop saying crazy things."
"Then why did you do it?"
"I... don't know, fuck. I told you I don't remember what I did because I was drunk?"
"You do remember. You've been acting all awkward all day today."
Yeonju swatted away every single word I said, rested her chin on the table, and spat out words in a listless tone as if I were pathetic.
...As if interrogating me to just be honest instead of denying it.
Standing on top of my head.
"...I told you I was drunk and it was hazy."
"You did it because you were drunk?"
"Yeah."
"Then since you're drunk now, is it a similar feeling?"
Yeonju took the half-empty whiskey glass, wet her lips with it, and asked calmly.
"...Are you horny looking at me right now?"
"Hey, fuck. There are things you can say and things you can't."
"Not things you can do and things you can't?"
"...."
...Words that should absolutely never be asked calmly between siblings.
Instinctively pissed off, I pushed the chair and jumped up, but I had nothing more to say other than shouting.
Because..., I'm the sinner, and Yeonju is the victim.
No matter what I hear, I have nothing to say.
I couldn't regress, and it remained a fact.
"Well, true. It was weird from the beginning."
"What."
"The Oppa I know, Lee Yeonwoo, is originally someone with zero social skills. Doesn't care about others. Only thinks about himself."
"Look at the way you talk."
"That kind of person suddenly comforts me. Earns money for me. Hugs and pats me."
"That's because you looked like you were in a bad state—"
"So that was the reason."
Yeonju continued calmly without teasing or mocking me, then misinterpreted my feelings and labeled every action.
"It's not like that."
"Then did you really just try to comfort me at first, but then went a little crazy after drinking? ...Was it true that you haven't met women? I naturally thought you went to places like hostess bars. Because it doesn't make sense that you earn that much money and don't spend it."
"Don't talk bullshit."
"Guess it was true. ...You're surprisingly wholesome, Oppa."
I had no idea how to explain it.
I did it to regress.
I needed your sweat to go back to the future.
I hugged your sleeping body and licked your collarbone to get back the 6 billion won I lost yesterday.
...The moment I say that, my sister will call Mom and say Oppa is crazy and needs psychiatric treatment.
Since I couldn't bring up words that were true but that the other party could never believe, there were no excuses left to make.
Only words of admission, wandering in the air but ultimately no different from what my sister said, hovered in my throat.
Since there was no point in spitting that out, I bit my lip hard instead of speaking.
"That's why you should've spent some money instead of just earning it. ...Getting horny for your sister, what kind of behavior is this."
"...Stop saying fucked-up things. I told you it was because I was drunk."
"Where in the world is there a person who buries their nose in a woman's chest and rubs their face if they aren't horny? ...Even if you weren't, I feel like you would be?"
"......."
Yeonju, who was denouncing me while sitting, stood up when I denied it to the end, poked my chest with her index finger, and spoke only the truth.
"But, you know it's because it's me that I'm reacting like this, right, Oppa? ...Do you know what would have happened to you right now if I were a normal younger sister, and that's why I'm angry?"
Poke.
"Since I've experienced worse things every day, I'm letting you off because you're the less disgusting Oppa. ...I'm understanding it because I know why men are like that. Why are you getting angry instead of being grateful?"
Poke.
"...Yeah, fuck. I'll admit I made a mistake because I was drunk, but I didn't do it with those thoughts."
"Really?"
"Yeah, really. I'd bet everything on it."
Unable to endure that cheeky lecture, I trembled with my fists and denied that fact until the very end.
...Even if the act was real, I couldn't admit that part.
It wasn't my intention in the first place, and I had no such thoughts at all.
Getting cursed at for what I did for regression is my karma, but...
Fuck, there's no way I'd be horny for Lee Yeonju.
"...."
Yeonju, who was staring at me as I felt wronged with veins popping on my forehead, chuckled and got up from the table.
Then, she gently slipped in between the table and me.
With her upper body leaning slightly toward me.
"...You said it was nothing, right?"
"...."
"Hugging me while sleeping, burying your nose in my chest. Constantly wrapping your arms around my waist. ...You're saying it's purely sleep talking, right?"
Because she was sure I was lying.
Looking up at me intently as if to strip away my mask until the end.
"...Get lost."
"Why."
"Don't stick to me."
One step.
Yeonju came closer.
The soft sensation through the thin tank top pressed firmly against my chest.
A lump of fat with no meaning.
In my life, really not even once...,
My sister's chest, which I had never been conscious of.
"...."
It was just that our bodies touched.
Lived together for over 20 years.
Standing next to each other in every family photo.
My younger sister's body.
And yet.
...My body, broken by the regression, reacted on its own.
"......."
Did she feel that?
Yeonju's body slowly pulled away from me.
Then she stroked her neck, where a few drops of sweat had formed,
...My sister also rinsed her dry mouth with cold water.
As if,
Like she was flustered.