Discovering Family (2)

The phone connected with a soft click.

I answered, but for a few long seconds, there was only silence on the other end.

The call was clearly live, yet nothing changed. No sound, no movement.

For a moment I wondered if it had disconnected, so I glanced at the screen. It hadn’t. Everything was exactly the same.

The only thing that moved was the call timer on my phone, ticking upward with merciless honesty.

“…Hello?”

I tried again. Anxiety crept in. I wanted to run from this. But some things you have to face head-on.

I kept waiting until a voice finally came through the speaker.

Five seconds that felt like five minutes. A woman’s voice spilled out from the screen, carrying what seemed like every possible emotion in a single sentence.

“Sister…”

Why did it feel so strange?

This person should mean nothing to me. She’s only important because she’s Baek Sowol’s family. There shouldn’t be any special feelings attached. No affection, no hatred—just neutrality.

So why…?

Was it because my period still hadn’t ended? But I hadn’t felt anything like this before. What on earth was the reason?

She was obviously talking about the Live Tribe incident. And yes, that was definitely me.

There was no point in denying it. How many people in Korea looked like this?

“Y-yeah… that was me…”

My mind kept screaming at me to stay rational, but my body refused to cooperate. I wasn’t sure if this was because I was now a woman or something else ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠entirely.

“I… awakened, but… no, that’s not…”

Normally I would have carefully chosen every word and tone, but the sentences flowed out naturally, as if the body already knew exactly how to speak to her. It felt far too familiar.

There were too many things I couldn’t understand. I wanted to chalk it up to the body remembering emotions, but something still felt off.

We hadn’t been in contact for three whole weeks. Our relationship clearly wasn’t great. Yet the emotions rising inside me were longing, sorrow, and… a deep sense of being wronged.

None of it made causal sense. I couldn’t piece together what had happened between them.

There was no resentment. No hatred. But there had also been almost no contact.

I considered that the twisted relationship might have started from Baek Sowol’s side, but then the longing and sense of grievance wouldn’t fit. Guilt, maybe, but that was it.

‘…’

I should have realized something was strange the moment I saw this body’s white hair.

It sounded like Sister Soae was coming here right away.

This was clearly not a good development. If she came now, she might realize I wasn’t really her little sister.

Yet somewhere deep in my heart, a warm sense of comfort and security began to bloom.

I should have just said I was fine and found some way to send her away. That would have been the safer choice.

‘Ah…’

This body that got swept away so easily by emotions was seriously problematic.

“Open the door.”

I gently opened it to greet her.

I’d thought earlier that there couldn’t possibly be two people in Korea who looked like this, but I was going to have to take that back. She looked exactly like Baek Sowol, except for the hairstyle.

“…The room really is the same as before.”

Easy for her to say. I wouldn’t know.

I had no idea how to respond. I had zero memories of this woman, yet I couldn’t exactly ignore her either.

Thankfully, the emotional explosion from earlier had mostly calmed down. I just stayed quiet and held my breath.

“So you’ve been going outside lately. Is that because you awakened?”

Um… what was I supposed to say to that?

Nothing appropriate came to mind, so I simply listened in silence.

“You awakened, right? Can you show me?”

Soae naturally reached out and took my hand, fiddling with it. I felt a slight sense of rejection, but there was no real way to resist.

I released a swirl of blue mana. Watching the soft glow spread, Soae let out a quiet gasp of admiration.

“What’s your rank?”

“…D-rank.”

“So you’ve already been active. You really have been going outside.”

“Yeah, I guess…”

Ha… how was I supposed to fix this awkwardness?

I’d run into a problem with no clear solution.

Soae was cleaning my room. She must have been busy herself—why was she doing this?

The various memories left in Baek Sowol’s body tangled together, creating complicated emotions.

Baek Soae wasn’t my family. But she was my family.

I should be able to treat her neutrally. But I couldn’t.

“…Still, I’m glad you’re not shut up in your room like before… Does awakening change your mind somehow?”

It actually might have.

This body had already been in an awakened state from the beginning. Maybe that was why I was able to enter it.

‘…Sigh.’

The one saving grace was that she didn’t ask much about the past.

The life I was living now might not be the best, but it seemed better than whatever had come before. At least judging by how relieved Soae looked.

“Now that you’ve awakened… you’ll be able to live normally.”

Oh. They say thoughts become seeds. Since this was a thought, did that mean the thought became a seed?

I didn’t know exactly what had happened, but it was clear something bad had occurred.

Live normally? It would’ve been hard for Baek Sowol to live normally.

Unlike me—an ambiguous ‘me’ who couldn’t even tell if my mind was male or female anymore—the original Baek Sowol had been fully female. She could have married a decent man and lived happily ever after.

“Don’t worry about what other people think. Now that you’ve awakened, there will be plenty of things you can do… You can work. But you mustn’t do anything too dangerous, okay?

If you awakened, you could just use physical reinforcement ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and live an ordinary life. There are tons of places that need strong labor.”

Awakeners rarely starved. This world didn’t force all mana users to only clear Gates.

Even simple loading and unloading work became overwhelmingly efficient with an awakened body.

Of course, trash companies never paid extra for it, so most people just did the bare minimum. But even average work was exhausting for normal people, while awakeners felt almost nothing.

“And… later, with Mom and Dad… Never mind. That’s only if you want to.”

She started to say something, then stopped.

I had no way of knowing what she’d been about to say. It was from the past, after all.

She didn’t seem to want to talk about it anymore, so I didn’t press.

“I’m so relieved you seem to be doing well…”

It wasn’t just me who felt awkward. She was struggling too.

With so little shared information between us, there wasn’t much we could talk about. Filling the silence with natural conversation was difficult.

But my sister refused to give up. She kept trying to speak to me.

In normal circumstances that would have been welcome, but right now it was having the opposite effect.

“…Thank you, Sister.”

All I could do was convey my sincerity.

That gratitude was genuine. I had lived twenty-five years without family and died that way. This felt like the first time I had ever experienced anything close to familial affection.

I had no memories of it, but I believed the sincerity would still get through.

In response, she smiled. The kind of smile you give to someone precious.

She stepped closer and gently stroked my hair. It was warm. A pleasant feeling spread through me.

After some time had passed, it was time for her to leave.

Since she was older than me, she would have university or a job. She couldn’t stay forever.

“I’ll be going now.”

I stood at the front door and watched her.

It looked like she still had lingering feelings.

But those were Baek Sowol’s emotions. They weren’t ‘mine.’

Letting her go was the wizard-like thing to do.

“Oh, right! I almost forgot to give you this.”

But things didn’t go as planned. She turned back around as if she’d remembered something.

“You know Yua, right? She came back to Korea. Try contacting her later. You changed your number, so she probably couldn’t reach you.”

Huh? Yua?

Who was that?

“…? You don’t remember? You two were so close back then. You cried your eyes out the day she left for China. Yua. Hyeon Yua. Your best friend, remember?”

Baek Sowol had a friend?

Then why hadn’t she contacted her even once?

I pretended I understood.

“I’ll reach out to her later.”

“Good… Take care of yourself. If anything happens, contact me right away. At least I have more money than you do.”

“Yeah. I will.”

Goodbye.

With those short words, my sister left my small one-room apartment.

I hadn’t gained much. I’d barely learned anything about the past.

All I really got was confirmation that something unpleasant had happened.

But was that really a problem? It was enough to know that her family weren’t terrible people. That was sufficient for now.

‘Hyeon Yua…’

If we were fated to meet, we would meet eventually.

Pushing the thought aside, I turned on the internet. I still needed to continue my magic studies.

‘…Damn it.’

My emotions were too turbulent. Nothing was sticking in my brain.

I’d thought I was fine, but I was in no condition to study. When I was a man, this had never happened. A woman’s body really did have extreme mood swings.

There was no point trying to study right now—nothing would go in.

I needed to change my mood quickly and then get back to it.

I decided to visit the Hunma-gal for a bit. Reading the humorous posts there always felt like I was having fun while naturally absorbing industry information.

It wasn’t particularly helpful, but the important thing was that it eased my guilt and was entertaining.

Today’s top posts were the usual mix of nonsense.

And among them, one post stood out with overwhelming presence.

Lee Jihyun.

She was one of the people I knew.

It could have been a coincidence with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the same name, but sharing a name still created a strange sense of kinship. I clicked into the post.

From the looks of it, this Lee Jihyun person was a famous streamer.

Just to see what she looked like, I clicked into her broadcast.

‘…Huh?’

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Lee Jihyun. She was someone I knew.

Not as ‘Baek Sowol,’ but as Heo Donghyeon from my previous life.

We had grown up together in the same orphanage. She was practically my childhood friend.

‘She… became an awakener? When? She was streaming…?’

A-rank wasn’t something you could get easily. No matter how talented you were, unless you were a true genius it took years.

Which meant…

Click.

Click, click.

I immediately closed the window and started searching elsewhere.

I moved the cursor to the search bar and typed.

I entered every character and hit enter immediately. Then I grabbed the mouse and scrolled down rapidly.

If Lee Jihyun really was the person I knew, if she really had a connection to Heo Donghyeon, then surely… it would be here.

In the past I had tried so hard to ignore, telling myself there was no point obsessing over my previous life.

“…”