A New Family
My new family consisted of Auntie and my new older sister.
I sat down and thought carefully about what I could do for the two of them. Auntie had insisted that she was merely repaying a debt of gratitude to the monk and that I shouldn't feel burdened in the slightest, but I couldn't simply take without giving anything back. Repaying them, even in some minor way, was the only thing that could ease the gnawing compulsion inside my chest. As for my new sister, I intended to score a few points with her so we could get along smoothly from now on. My first impression of her hadn't been great, but she was my sister now nonetheless.
Right now, the only asset I possessed was this body of mine. And the house the two of them shared was a colossal mess. That was why I chose household chores.
“Oh my, oh my goodness! Heavens above, what on earth is all this?”
“Please, have a seat. My skills are quite lacking, but I hope it suits your taste.”
“Jeongseo… oh, truly… I'm so touched!”
First, I had prepared dinner. Mother and daughter both looked like they lived a thousand miles away from domestic housekeeping, but that didn't mean the house was completely bare of ingredients. Rice was an obvious given, and the refrigerator held eggs and a few basic vegetables and condiments. There was plenty to whip up a meal or two without having to go grocery shopping.
“Aaaagh. My whole body is stiff as a board.”
“Did you finish cleaning your room?”
“Yeah. More or less.”
“What do you mean, 'more or less'? Jeongseo has to sleep in there! If it smells like anything… Mom's going up to check on it later, you hear me?”
Almost the exact second I finished setting the table, Yeo-eun came trudging downstairs. While Auntie and I had been out, she had been tasked with cleaning out her room. By Auntie's direct order, she had effectively been evicted from her own bedroom to make way for me. Even though the computer room had a separate bed, it couldn't possibly be as comfortable as the room she was used to. That was why I felt bad for her. Or, to be precise, it wasn't guilt so much as the calculation that I had incurred a debt.
“Please, enjoy your meal.”
“Thank you for the food, Jeongseo.”
“Oh? What's this?”
Mother and daughter soon buried their heads over the table and began eating with gusto. It was a modest spread—soybean paste stew, fluffy steamed eggs, and kimchi. To me, it was an incomparable feast, though I hadn't been entirely sure whether it would satisfy their palates.
“Wow… Jeongseo, who knew you had such a knack for cooking?”
“Well… it's pretty edible, I guess.”
What a relief. Watching the two women practically inhale the contents of their rice bowls, their praise clearly wasn't mere polite lip service. Auntie had to leave for Gangwon Province tomorrow. She mentioned that she had left her job unattended for far too long between my adoption paperwork and the monk's funeral. That was why I had prepared this dinner as a humble token of my gratitude. Preparing this meal was also one of the reasons I had asked to return home early today.
“Give me some more rice.”
“Get up and get it yourself!”
“No, it's quite alright. Please stay seated.”
Having emptied her bowl as if drinking it down, Yeo-eun held out the clean dish. With a warm smile, I dissuaded Auntie from scolding her daughter and rose to my feet. Once Auntie left tomorrow, Yeo-eun and I would be left completely alone under this roof. Regardless of my memories from a past life, situations were bound to arise where I would need her assistance. Besides, I needed to settle the debt I owed for the inconvenience my arrival had caused her. Judging by how she was vacuuming up her food, my cooking seemed to suit her tastes just fine.
“It's been so long since I've had such a wonderful home-cooked meal. Thank you, Jeongseo.”
“I'm glad… wait, no.”
“I'm just glad it suited your palate. Actually, there's something I wanted to ask…”
I gently broached the topic of taking over all the household chores. The moment the words left my mouth, Auntie gasped in horror and vehemently objected.
“Please consider my perspective as well. Auntie, you told me earlier that everything you're doing for me is so your own conscience can be at peace, right? It's the exact same for me.”
“That's completely different! Auntie owes a great debt to the monk.”
“Then what about me? I can't just take and take without giving anything back. The late monk would scold me from the beyond.”
There is no such thing as a free meal in this world. That was the enduring memory from my past life. Along with it came the monk's timeless teaching: Never forget kindness shown to you.
I recalled the memories that had served as the compass for my entire existence. They were the very guidelines that had allowed someone socially stunted like me to blend seamlessly into human society. As long as I adhered strictly to a few core principles, people treated me as an ordinary person no different from themselves. Consequently, the simple maxim of 'return what you receive' had calcified into a rigid psychological compulsion that held my impulses in check. Even if the weight of what was given and what was received didn't perfectly balance, an exchange of reciprocal value had to occur.
“She's right, Mom. Think about how burdened the kid must feel.”
“Sigh… When will you ever grow up?”
“Hey, what did I do?! You said you'd support me until I graduated from college!”
“You little brat! You dare say that when you're taking a leave of absence? You utterly shameless girl!”
Under my persistent persuasion, Auntie finally waved the white flag. In defeat, she handed me a credit card, strictly instructing me that all living expenses for running the household had to be paid with it. After a brief scuffle over the dishes, I ended up doing those as well. Afterward, Auntie headed down to the first-floor fitness room to work out, while Yeo-eun trudged up to the second floor. It was finally time for everyone to rest.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Sis, it's Jeongseo.”
I walked up to the second floor and tapped on the computer room door. A moment later, the door creaked open a fraction, and she poked only her face out.
“What is it?”
“I got my phone activated today. Could you give me your number?”
“Zero-one-zero… Actually, never mind. Just give it here.”
“Here you go.”
Yeo-eun reached through the narrow gap in the door, took my phone, and handed it right back a second later. Her phone number was displayed neatly in my call history.
“Thank you. Also… would it be alright if I took a look at the room?”
“Ah… right. Wait a sec.”
Slam!
Just as she instructed, I waited outside the firmly shut door. Muffled grumbling drifted from inside, though I couldn't make out the specific words. Most likely, she was expressing how annoyed she was.
“Let's go.”
Soon enough, the door swung open again, revealing Yeo-eun dressed similarly to before: a white sleeveless tank top and short shorts. However, she had apparently discarded her underwear in the interim; beneath the thin white fabric of her tank top, two prominent protrusions poked out unmistakably.
“I lived in this house first. So you're just going to have to deal with it.”
“Pardon? Deal with what?”
“My clothes! The way I dress. Even if you're a guy and you don't want to see it, tough luck. I'd be too uncomfortable otherwise.”
“Understood.”
I had no idea what point she was trying to make, but I simply nodded in agreement. Whatever it was, it seemed she intended to do whatever she pleased regardless.
“Don't touch anything on top of this desk. Don't open these drawers, either. I cleared out this one section of the closet, so only use this part.”
“Yes, Sis.”
She showed me around the room, rattling off instructions that were essentially an endless list of things not to touch and not to open.
“Would it be alright if I used the computer? There's something I need to look up.”
“Go ahead, do whatever. And don't go barging into my room without permission. I'll make sure not to do it to yours, too.”
“Understood. Thank you.”
After laying down a few more ground rules, she turned on her heel and left. I immediately pulled out the chair and sat down in front of the desk where the desktop was set up.
Though… if there's a dedicated computer room right next door, why is there another computer in here?
A minor question flitted across my mind, but I dismissed it almost instantly. Right now, a vastly larger question had been incessantly nagging at my thoughts.
Even if it was a weekday, it was definitely strange.
The clerk at the mobile phone store.
The pedestrians walking along the sidewalks.
Even the crowds wandering through the department store.
Almost every single person I had encountered today was a woman. Men were so rare you could count them on one hand—or rather, not even that. There had been precisely one. The employee at the department store furniture showroom. That lone worker was the only male I had laid eyes on all day; everyone else had been female.
It could just be a coincidence… but I need to check.
Perhaps it truly was an unbelievable stroke of luck and timing. Perhaps the way women couldn't tear their eyes away from me as I walked beside Auntie was nothing more than my own vanity and imagination. If it felt uncomfortable, all I had to do was look into it. Finally, I had time to myself. And right in this room was a computer capable of bringing the entire world's news directly to my fingertips.
Click. Whirrrr.
As the computer hummed to life, I took a moment to organize my thoughts. Keeping quiet about the uncanny dissonance I had felt seemed to have been the right call. It was in accordance with the monk's advice: Keep your ears open and your mouth shut. Auntie hadn't found the overwhelming sea of women everywhere we went odd in the slightest. From her perspective, what felt so glaringly unnatural to me was likely completely normal. Or perhaps she simply possessed nerves of steel and thought nothing of it. Either way, holding my tongue had been the wise choice. There was an old internet saying, after all: lurk for three years before you speak.
Crash! Thump-thump-thump!
The operating system finished booting, and I placed my hand on the mouse. At that exact moment, a loud crash echoed from the hallway outside, followed by frantic, heavy footsteps.
Bang!
“Wait!”
My cursor had barely nudged across the desktop when the door was violently thrown open. Yeo-eun stood in the doorway, face flushed bright red, screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Sis? Are you alright?”
Seeing her clutching one of her knees, I instinctively asked if she was hurt.
“Get out for a second.”
“Pardon?”
A faint, subtle irritation flared inside me. I tended to feel irritated whenever someone's behavior grated on my nerves, or when circumstances deviated from my intentions. Yes, this was the emotion known as irritation—the closest thing to a human emotion I ever genuinely felt.
She had broken her promise. Not even five minutes ago, she had explicitly declared that we shouldn't barge into each other's rooms without permission. That rankled deeply.
“Actually, never mind—just go wait on the first floor! I'll call you when I'm done!”
“Alright.”
Taking a slow, deep breath, I suppressed the simmering annoyance. Just as the monk had taught me, I engaged in mindful breathing to purge worldly vexations. I couldn't simply lash out and harm my sister on a whim. She was a human being. She wasn't some pest like a snake that could be dealt with without significant consequence. On paper, she was also legally my older sister. And so, steadily regulating my breath to disperse my turbulent thoughts, I walked downstairs to the first floor.
Maybe I should just look it up on my phone.
I sank onto the living room sofa and slipped the phone from my pocket. Perhaps because my hands were so small, gripping the device felt slightly clumsy. But that fleeting awkwardness was forgotten the instant I tapped open the internet browser. Like an explorer stumbling upon the great secrets of the universe, I blocked out everything else around me and focused entirely on the screen.
Meanwhile, upstairs in the room she had just booted Jeongseo out of, Noh Yeo-eun was moving her hands with terrifying, manic focus.
Clearing browser histories. Nuking several questionable programs. Scrambling to transfer massive video files over to an external hard drive.
“Phew… Is that everything?”
She was still anxious. Her eyes darted across the desktop icons, double-checking every single corner to make sure nothing had slipped through the cracks.
That was way too close…!
Yeo-eun was still profoundly bewildered by the sudden arrival of this younger brother. And of all things, he had to be ridiculously, devastatingly pretty. Yet even amidst the dizzying confusion, one fact remained crystal clear: under no circumstances could she ever let him discover the pitch-black, degenerate shame residing inside her personal computer.
Having finally sanitized the drive, Yeo-eun collapsed back into her chair and exhaled a ragged sigh of relief.
Mom is definitely hiding something from me.
Her mother had claimed she brought home a sick younger brother who had been living apart from them for years. It was an utter load of garbage. That would imply Mom had kept the existence of a whole sibling secret for practically his entire life. On top of that, Jeongseo kept addressing Mom as 'Auntie.'
Could it be…?
Suddenly, Jeongseo's face flashed vividly across her mind. That adorable, strikingly handsome face… a face that any woman, young or old, couldn't help but dote on.
Heat surged into Yeo-eun's cheeks, burning crimson as her imagination spiraled into horrifying, taboo scenarios involving her mother and Jeongseo.
Get a grip! She snapped out of it, violently shaking her head to repudiate the filthy thought. There was no way her mother would do something like that.
Why would a guy that insanely good-looking settle for Mom anyway…? No way. Ugh, that's completely ridiculous!
What Yeo-eun didn't realize was that Jeongseo's face was still painted indelibly across her thoughts. And right beneath that pretty face, her runaway imagination had begun aimlessly sketching the contours of smooth, pale skin she hadn't even seen yet.
Twenty-three years old. To a pure virgin who had gone her entire life without ever having a shred of romantic contact with a man, Noh Jeongseo's sudden presence was overwhelmingly, dangerously intoxicating.