Training with My Little Sister (1)

Another day came and went, and morning arrived once more.

Lee Na-young, dressed in a neatly pressed suit, slipped on her heels ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the shoe cabinet with demure care, then glanced back at me.

"I'll be taking my leave, then."

"Yeah. Take care."

"Please look after your health, do not skip your meals, and should anything happen—anything at all—I would ask that you contact me."

If I'd had my way, I wouldn't have let her go at all. I would have kept her here as a human body pillow. But apparently another day of absence would tank her performance rating. Even if the world had flipped itself inside out, and even if I now held all the cards, I didn't want to mess with her life any more than I already had. She was still a functioning human being with a career of her own.

I swallowed my reluctance and waved.

"Sure. I'll text you even if nothing's going on."

"...Yes."

Lee Na-young's face had settled back into that same blank expression she'd worn the first time we met. She hesitated for a beat, then bowed her head once more and stepped out the door.

"Hrm..."

I kept waving until she disappeared into the elevator, and only once the doors had fully sealed shut did I turn back inside.

"Quiet."

One person gone, and the apartment had gone dead silent in an instant. I'd been used to this kind of solitude once. But maybe that was before I'd gotten a taste of someone else's warmth. A faint loneliness settled over me. Couldn't be helped, I supposed.

I scratched my head and headed for the kitchen, determined to eat something like she'd made me promise. And the thing my hand reached for was a pack of instant ramen.

What she'd meant, of course, was to eat something actually healthy...

Too much work.

For a guy living alone, cooking a real meal was a serious hassle. Times like this, ramen was king. Still, a twinge of guilt made me crack two whole eggs into the pot. Plenty of protein. That counted as a balanced, healthy breakfast, right?

I slurped down the noodles. Ramen after a thoroughly satisfying round of morning sex tasted incredible. I was draining the last of the broth when the electronic chirps of someone punching a passcode into the front-door lock cut through the quiet.

I'd never had a girlfriend, so the only people who knew this apartment's passcode were my little sister and my older sister.

Unnie would be at work by now.

Working professionals would already be at the office grinding through their day, which meant the only candidate who'd show up at this hour was my little sister.

"Mmm..."

She'd always had a habit of barging in unannounced, mooching off my groceries for a few days, then vanishing. So this wasn't exactly a shock. The problem was that common sense in this world had gone completely off the rails. My little sister's sense of normal had to have gotten warped too, somewhere...

I waited, a little tense, and then—

"I'm here."

She announced herself in a voice that sounded pretty much like always, and in she walked. Pretty ponytail, small face, cute as a button—Lee Ye-seul, the little sister I'd been stuck with on the family register for twenty years, padded around the apartment taking stock. Then she sidled up to me as I sat there eating ramen.

"Sniff sniff... you eating ramen?"

"Yeah."

She could obviously tell I was eating ramen, but she asked anyway. I already knew what was coming next. She rubbed her rumbling stomach—hadn't eaten, apparently—and clung to me with practiced ease.

"Oppa..."

A second ago her eyes had been half-lidded with boredom. Now they sparkled, and her voice dropped into a honeyed whisper.

"Yessie... can she have just one bite?"

She knew exactly how much damage that pretty, cute face of hers could do, and she was deploying it to steal my ramen. But she had hands. She had feet. It wasn't even a hard dish. How difficult could it be to boil a single pack of ramen? If I caved on stuff like this, her habits would only get worse. I shut her down.

"No. Make your own."

"Uughh... Yessie likes Oppa's ramen the best in the whole world..."

"That doesn't work on me anymore."

"Tch."

There'd been a stretch where that cute act had me grinning like an idiot and waiting on her hand and foot. That guy and this guy were not the same person. I firmly refused to be her sucker, and she pouted, lips pushed out in displeasure.

"All my friends' older brothers are sweet and gentle and put their little sisters first, you know."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"And?"

"Aahh... this is why you've never even held a girl's hand in your entire life. Who's ever gonna take our Oppa off the market, honestly."

"What about you?"

"I don't date because I choose not to. That's different from can't."

"..."

I knew for a fact she'd been confessed to a ridiculous number of times, so I couldn't even argue. Infuriating. Still wasn't making her ramen, though.

"Tch."

I held my ground, and she finally gave up, pouting and grumbling her way into the kitchen. She pulled out the same brand of ramen I'd been eating, then—with practiced ease—opened the cupboard for MSG and grabbed kimchi from the fridge.

"Wait, we had rice cakes?"

"Yeah, I bought them."

"Okay, but why are you putting those in—"

"Because they're for me."

She even fished a bag of sliced rice cakes out of the back of the freezer—ones she'd apparently stashed there ages ago. I hadn't even known those rice cakes existed. She moved around my apartment like it was her own place.

"Hmm-hmm~"

She even put on an apron so she wouldn't get her clothes dirty, then started boiling ramen just like I had. The pot bubbled away, and the smell of ramen filled the kitchen—the kind of smell that made you feel good just breathing it in.

I dumped my pot in the sink and sat back down at the table. Dishes only got more annoying the longer you put them off, so I usually washed them right after eating. But right now I needed to figure out why my little sister had suddenly shown up. The dishes could wait a bit.

"Done..."

A little later, she brought over a steaming pot, set it down, sat across from me, and started vacuuming up ramen with gusto. I watched her inhale noodles like a vacuum cleaner, and once the pot was nearly empty, I casually spoke up.

"Hey, so why'd you show up out of nowhere? Another fight with Mom?"

She piled kimchi onto her remaining noodles, took a bite, and glanced at me.

"What? I'm not allowed to visit without a reason?"

"No, I mean, I don't really care, but..."

"I just came to check if you were still alive, okay? You don't have any friends. Somebody's gotta make sure you haven't keeled over."

"That so..."

Okay, that was actually kind of touching. A little sister who dropped by because she was worried her lonely older brother might die alone in his apartment.

Even if the world's gone insane, family's still family, huh.

A faint warmth was just starting to bloom in my chest when—

"Anyway, do the dishes for me~ I'm gonna take a nap."

"..."

She'd demolished the entire pot. Then she popped up from her seat and vanished into the bedroom where the bed was, leaving behind the ramen pot and the little dish she'd used for kimchi. Untouched.

"Aigoo..."

Couldn't even let that warm feeling last a full second before she killed it dead.

I could take her in a fight. One punch, easy.

I grumbled, but I started cleaning up after her anyway. No matter how annoying she got, wasn't that just what older brothers did? You let your little sister win the small stuff. Besides, I'd been starting to feel lonely, and she'd shown up at just the right time to put some life back in the place. Call it the price of admission.

I popped a leftover piece of her kimchi into my mouth and headed for the sink to actually do the dishes, when the bedroom door swung open. The little sister who'd just announced she was going to take a nap reappeared, somehow not asleep at all.

"What."

No way a sudden burst of virtue had made her want to help clear the table. So then why...? I gave her a suspicious look, and she scratched the back of her head, looking vaguely awkward.

"Ah, there's something I forgot to mention."

"...What."

"Ahem... I have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a favor to ask you, Oppa..."

"..."

A bad feeling crawled up my spine. This was a girl who spent every waking moment looking for ways to sponge off her older brother. And now she was acting this awkward—beyond even her usual cute act? This was definitely not a normal request. Best move here was to run.

"No."

"Awwngh... I actually need help, okay?"

"...With what."

She toddled over, pulled out her phone, and showed me something. Looking at the screen she held out, I felt a faint chill run down my spine.

"Huh...? Academy?"

"Huh? I got into the academy, remember?"

"Ah... uh... right... yeah, you did."

In the original world, she'd gotten into Hankuk University. But with the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠world having gone completely sideways, Hankuk University had apparently been rebranded with the bizarre name Seoan Academy.

"So, I need a favor from you because of the sports festival."

"If it's a relay race, I can help."

"No no, I don't need that."

"..."

"I need you to be my partner for this."

She scrolled down and showed me the detailed description page.

"You've gotta be kidding me..."

The chaotic announcement made the back of my neck go tight, and then my little sister, glancing at me a little nervously, quietly pressed herself against me.