Night Walk (1)
Perhaps because it was late on a weekday, Hangang Park was quiet.
There were hardly any people, hardly any cars.
After parking and getting out to walk over, I spotted a woman standing near the convenience store.
She was on the small side, wearing skinny jeans that clung to her legs, ugly sneakers, and a pink hoodie on top. She had the hood pulled low over her face, so I couldn’t make out her features well.
If I hadn’t been told what she looked like in advance, I never would have known who she was.
When I approached, she waved brightly.
“Hello, senior.”
“Oh. Hi.”
I lowered my voice and said to the girl beside me, “See? I told you I knew her.”
After confirming Jiyu’s face, Sena parted her lips slightly in disbelief.
“Whoa. It was real.”
“Hmph.”
Seeing my little sister so shocked gave me a strangely smug feeling.
Jiyu looked at Sena, who was pressed close to my side, and asked a little flustered, “Who is she? D-don’t tell me she’s your girlfriend?”
At that, both Sena and I denied it at the same time.
“What are you talking about?”
“Absolutely not!”
One of the things siblings hated most was being mistaken for a couple.
I let out a sigh and said, “She’s my little sister. She insisted on bringing me here.”
“Oh! Your little sister...”
Sena bowed neatly.
“Hello. Nice to meet you. I’m Han Sena, Miru oppa’s little sister.”
Jiyu returned the greeting in the same posture.
“Ah, yes. Hello. I’m Jiyuna.”
Jiyuna was Jiyu’s real name.
As soon as the greeting was over, Sena said, “Unnie, you’re seriously so pretty!”
“Ah, thank you.”
“All my friends are fans too.”
“Oh, really? Thank you.”
Watching her bounce around just because she’d met a celebrity, I could only think she was still a kid through and through.
“Can we take a picture together?”
She looked to have light makeup on, but not full-on celebrity makeup, and she was dressed casually.
I was about to tell her not to say anything pointless, but Jiyu nodded first.
“Sure. Let’s take one together.”
Sena immediately glued herself to Jiyu’s side.
When Jiyu took off her hood to take the photo, light-blond hair spilled out. She’d dyed it to fit the concept of her new album, and it suited her surprisingly well.
Sena pressed her face close to Jiyu’s and took selfies to her heart’s content.
After snapping pictures for a good while, she eventually handed me her smartphone.
“Oppa, take some for us.”
“Weren’t you done already?”
“Hurry up.”
I took the phone with a quiet sigh and raised it to shoot.
Just as I was settling into position to take a few casual shots, Sena said, “A little more to the left. No, not your left, my left. More, more, more.”
“How far do you want me to go?”
“Okay, stop. I look better from this angle.”
“...”
Was my little sister two-faced? Or had half her face been struck with facial paralysis or something?
Either way, I took the photos exactly as instructed.
As I was taking them, I couldn’t help thinking that a celebrity was indeed a celebrity.
Unlike Sena, who kept fussing over her expression to look better in the shot, Jiyu’s face stayed naturally composed. Of course, standing in front of a camera was probably just another everyday thing for her.
Come to think of it, from this angle they did look just a little alike... but that was probably just my imagination.
“Do you not want to take any, oppa?”
“...Huh?”
Why me?
Just as I was thinking that, Jiyu gestured to me.
“Senior, you should take one with us too.”
Well, since Sena was here too, I supposed there was no harm in taking one together.
We put Jiyu in the middle and stood on either side.
But weren’t we a little too close?
“Oppa, don’t scowl like that. Smile.”
I was smiling as hard as I could.
After taking a few pictures like that, Jiyu said to Sena, “Would you send me the photos you just took?”
“Sure. Should I send them through Linsta DM?”
“I’ve blocked that... Ah! I’ll give you my contact info.”
“Really? Is that okay?”
“Yes. As long as you don’t give it to anyone else.”
“Of course, of course.”
Sena saved Jiyu’s contact and sent her the pictures.
Even then, her mouth never stopped moving.
“Unnie, speak casually, okay? I’ll call you unnie too.”
Hadn’t she already been calling her unnie from the moment they met?
Jiyu agreed right away.
“Okay. Got it, Sena, right?”
“Yes. Unnie, I really love your new song too. And the blond hair suits you so well. I’ve been going to karaoke and singing only your songs lately.”
“I used to go to karaoke a lot too. I’d even go alone often.”
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm. I practiced a lot there.”
“What songs do you usually sing, unnie?”
The conversation kept going without end.
Listening to her talk, you’d think she’d reunited with a long-lost older sister. What was this kid, a social butterfly on quokka level?
“Can I brag to my friends that I met you?”
“Sure.”
It looked like she wanted a proof shot so she wouldn’t end up in my situation earlier.
Come to think of it, wouldn’t Loki compositing solve something like that too?
“Also, my friends say I look like you.”
Don’t say that in front of her. She might get offended.
Jiyu shook her head.
“No, not at all...”
“Huh?”
Just as my already overexcited sister started to droop, Jiyu quickly added, “You’re prettier than me. Your face is smaller too, and your skin is much fairer. I think you’re prettier than most celebrities.”
At that, Sena practically glowed.
“Ah, no, it’s not like that. I’m not pretty.”
I nodded beside her.
“Good that you know.”
In response, Sena jabbed my side with her elbow as if telling me not to ruin the mood.
Seeing that, Jiyu laughed.
“But how did you and our oppa meet?”
“Mm, well...”
She seemed a little flustered by the question.
I answered for her. “I told you already. We’re senior and junior from school.”
Jiyu nodded.
“Right. We met at school.”
“Wow! Our oppa knows a celebrity.”
Apparently, knowing a celebrity was even more astonishing to her than being flown around in a private plane or taken to a resort.
If I let her keep going like this, she’d probably talk Jiyu’s ear off all day.
My sister had time to burn, but Jiyu probably didn’t.
I said quietly, “Shouldn’t we get going?”
Jiyu pretended not to hear and said, “Ah! Right, right. There was one thing I really wanted to ask you when I met you.”
“What is it?”
“Is that recent dating rumor real? The one saying you’re seeing Juno oppa from Mukids.”
“What are you doing prying into someone else’s private life...”
I tried to stop Sena from blurting it out, but Jiyu answered quickly.
“Ah, no. That was just made up by some re... no, a reporter.”
“There were photos of you together.”
Jiyu shook her head emphatically.
“It wasn’t just the two of us. It was after-party, and there were plenty of other people there too. I’ve never even contacted Juno separately.”
“Oh, I see. I figured it probably wasn’t true.”
It really didn’t look like that.
She must have believed it absolutely.
“Yes. It’s definitely not true.”
The fact that she was saying it so firmly made it sound like she’d been put through the wringer by dating rumors.
“Just one more thing, unnie...”
“You should head home now.”
Go already. Please, just go.
“Tch. Fine.”
Sena turned to Jiyu and said, “Then I’ll head out first, unnie.”
“Already?”
“Yeah. I’m so sleepy. Have fun with our oppa!”
She even pretended to yawn and gave a little wink.
What was that? Why was she winking at me?
Then she got into the car and drove off.
After Sena left, Jiyu pulled her hood back up. Unless you looked closely at her face, you probably wouldn’t recognize her as Jiyu at all.
With the noisy one in the middle gone, an awkward air settled between us.
“Sorry. My sister insisted on coming along.”
“It’s okay.”
To be honest, since she had sounded so doubtful about me, I’d also wanted to make sure by showing her with her own eyes.
As a result, at least my dignity as an older brother had been preserved.
“She’s pretty.”
“Who, Sena?”
“Yes.”
Jiyu said it almost to herself. “I wish I had an older brother too.”
From the way she said it, I guessed she didn’t have one.
“Are you an only child?”
“No. I have a younger brother.”
“Really?”
I briefly imagined things from the younger brother’s perspective.
Wow. Having Jiyu as an older sister?
“If your sister became a famous celebrity, your brother must be thrilled.”
Jiyu waved a hand.
“No way. He’s exactly the same as before. You know what he said when I came home after winning first place on a music show?”
“What did he say?”
“If I got prize money, he wanted some allowance.”
For the record, music shows didn’t give prize money.
As she spoke, Jiyu puffed out her cheeks slightly.
“He asks me for allowance every time he sees me. Isn’t that just too much? I’m not some allowance machine.”
I nodded as if I understood completely.
“If he wants allowance, he should at least do something cute once in a while.”
“Exactly. He’s always grumbling, never answers his phone properly, gets irritated, and talks down to me.”
“Right, right.”
That was pure Han Sena.
Were sibling relationships all more or less the same?
“What’s your brother doing now? Is he in college?”
“He enlisted a while ago. He finished training and went to his unit, and I think he’s around Paju.”
“Then it’s probably either the 1st Division or the 9th Division.”
“Ah! That’s right. It’s the 1st Division. You really know your stuff.”
Anyone who’d done military service in that area would know.
“He doesn’t ask you to visit?”
If Jiyu went to visit a military base, what would happen?
Would the unit turn upside down, with all the officers rushing in on a weekend? Maybe even the corps commander would suddenly show up for an inspection.
“I want to go, but he absolutely told me not to. My parents can go, but I’m not allowed to.”
“Why not?”
“He just doesn’t want people to know he’s the sibling of a celebrity. That’s why most people around him don’t even know we’re brother and sister.”
“Really? If it were me, I’d brag about it to the whole neighborhood.”
“He says if rumors spread, it becomes a pain. He doesn’t even want his name or face known, if possible.”
“I see.”
I understood that feeling better than most.
Once the public knew your face, there was no end to the trouble. Wherever you went, people watched you; whatever you did, someone would be taking pictures. Just imagining it was awful.
I had no idea how celebrities lived like that.
Only a few people knew Continue Capital belonged to me, but it was widely known that I was connected to a number of incidents.
In business circles, there were probably very few people who didn’t know my name.
And yet the reason my name and face hadn’t shown up in the press was because the Yuseong Group was shielding me. It was similar to how the private lives of chaebol families rarely became public.
That was one of the good things about becoming close with a conglomerate family.
“This is the first time we’ve met since LA.”
“It is.”
The K-pop festival felt like the other day, and yet that had already been months ago.
“Have you been well?”
“Yes. What about you, senior?”
“Me? I’ve just been working.”
In the meantime, many other things had happened that were hard to explain in a few words.
“I still think about the O’Connor Burger we ate together back then. It was so good.”
“It is good.”
There may be people who’ve never tried it, but there’s no one who’s only tried it once.
Unfortunately, for now it only had branches in the United States...
“It’ll be coming to Korea soon.”
Jiyu brightened.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
It hadn’t been announced yet, but it was already in progress.
I pointed toward the convenience store and asked, “Want something to drink?”
“Ah! I’ll buy it.”
“No, I’ll go get it. What do you want?”
“Anything tea-related is fine.”
“Wait here.”
If we walked into a bright place for no reason, someone might recognize her and make things awkward.
I went into the convenience store alone and bought bottled barley tea and coffee.
“So what brings you out tonight?”
“I just wanted to go for a walk.”
Come to think of it, I hadn’t been to the Han River in a while.
I saw it every day from home, but I rarely came out in person.
“Then shall we walk for a bit?”
“Yes, sounds good.”
We set off side by side.
“They say you’re doing incredibly well these days?”
“No, I’m not.”
“As if.”
Right now, the K-pop market was apparently in the middle of a girl-group war. Gorgeous, talented girl groups were pouring in one after another, locked in fierce competition for the charts.
And yet through all of it, Jiyu was steadily carrying on the lineage of female solo artists.
Her popularity was, quite simply, number one.
On top of that, she was active not only in singing but in acting too.
For the record, that information came from Chairman Lee Dong-ho.
I’d told him to invest in an entertainment company, and now he had the entire industry memorized. Girl groups and female singers only, of course.
Seeing how much Jiyu had changed from the first timeline, I felt oddly proud myself.