Little Sister (1)
"Se-ah! You free? We should hang out together…!"
"Sorry. I've got plans today."
"Aww. Oh well, then. See you!"
"Yeah. Take care."
Se-ah took her friend's goodbye with the same bright smile as always. The girls from her class watched her retreating back and quietly put their heads together.
"Is it just me, or is Se-ah a little off today?"
"Okay, so it's not just me. She seemed kind of… rushed?"
"…Does she have a boyfriend?!"
"Yeah, right. Lee Se-ah?"
You could fill a truck with all the guys she'd turned down. They'd once gathered in complete seriousness to debate whether Se-ah might be a lesbian.
"True. Then what's going on?"
"Family stuff, maybe. There's got to be something."
"Should we ask her tomorrow?"
Meanwhile, the subject of all that whispering was sprinting as if her life depended on it.
Oppa is acting weird!
That single thought was the only reason Se-ah was running like this.
People who knew her tended to reach for the same word. Perfect. At eighteen, the girl named Lee Se-ah seemed to lack nothing at all.
Looks? She was sick of being told she was pretty. Grades? She wasn't quite a genius, but she was always fighting for a spot at the top of the school. Character? That, more than anything, was supposed to be her greatest strength.
Of course, Se-ah herself never thought she was perfect. She had secrets no one else knew. One of them was the almost excessive love she carried for her family.
"Dad. Why don't I have a mom?"
She had asked it before she was old enough to know better. She had never forgotten the look on her father's face. After that day, Se-ah never put the word mom in her mouth again.
But that, too, was in the past now. She had a real family at last—a stepmom, and an older brother. They didn't share blood, but they were the real thing: people who truly loved her.
Her brother had been in the elementary school graduation photo, so it had to have been about five years. Had it already been that long? The thought left her unexpectedly full.
If there was anything in her life she would never trade away, it was family. And of course that family included her brother—even if he lived on his own now, a whole apartment away from them.
So when that text arrived, a scream tore out of her before she even knew it—right in the middle of homeroom.
She couldn't have helped it. A brother who had never once messaged her first in his entire life had suddenly written to her in that cutesy, familiar tone. Any little sister on earth would have reacted the same way.
Luckily, no one caught her looking at her phone, and she managed to fumble her way through it. Even the stares of the whole class slid off her without much trouble.
She agonized over how to reply, then sent something as natural as she could make it.
She tucked a private wish into the second message, then sat there waiting for him to write back. It had been so long since she'd actually talked with her brother that she caught herself humming under her breath.
Naturally, her classmates noticed.
"Se-ah. Did something good happen?"
"Hm? It's nothing!"
"Yeah? You just look extra bright today."
It didn't take long for that mood to flip a full hundred and eighty degrees. The reason was simple: no matter how much time passed, no reply came. The unread mark had even vanished—meaning he'd actually read it.
In the end she couldn't wait anymore and tried calling him herself. He didn't pick up.
Honestly, she was angry at first. The thought that he was ignoring her on purpose came first, and why wouldn't it? He'd been texting her just fine a few minutes earlier. Not being able to take a call after that was strange.
But as the minutes stretched, the anger slowly curdled into something else.
…What if something's wrong?
It was a vague, creeping dread. The more she turned his message over in her mind, the worse it got. Even that light little sentence she'd first laughed off now felt frightening, because it was so far from the way her brother usually talked.
Hoping the fear was only in her head, Se-ah started texting again.
She kept sending them. And still, he didn't even open the chat.
By the end of that whole miserable sequence, Se-ah was sure.
Something's happened to Oppa!
Her guess, as it happened, was right. What she failed to predict was that her brother was currently shaking in terror because of her.
Chewing her nails without realizing it, Se-ah made up her mind. She hammered out a short message without a second of hesitation.
Then she ran.
The distance from school to her brother's apartment was considerable, but Se-ah's athletic ability more than lived up to that reputation for perfection. For a high school girl who spent most of her day in a chair, her stamina was outrageous. She made it to his door in fifteen minutes flat.
She steadied her ragged breathing, then pressed the bell.
Ding-dong.
A long moment passed after the chime before the door eased open a crack. Through the gap, a pair of huge brown eyes—wet and shining—looked out at Se-ah with a gaze so pleading it almost hurt to meet.
Se-ah reeled, took a step back, and checked the nameplate. It was, without a doubt, her brother's address. So then who on earth was the woman inside his apartment?
Se-ah narrowed her eyes and stared. The fragile-looking girl in the doorway began to tremble so hard it was almost pitiful.
"Who are you? This is my brother's place."
"…Wa-watashi."
Watashi?
Se-ah tilted her head. Japanese, maybe? Or just someone who wasn't all there? The girl looked lucid enough, so it was probably the former—though the latter couldn't be ruled out either.
The Japanese girl's pupils darted in panic. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and burst out,
"…What?"
I explained everything from the beginning.
I left out the Status Window, of course—that part was far too absurd—and told her I'd simply woken up like this. Se-ah didn't say a word the entire time. She just listened, quiet and still, and from that silence I drank in a fierce little hope.
I knew it! Se-ah would believe me no matter what I looked like!
When I finally finished, she closed her eyes for a moment, gathered her thoughts, and then exploded.
"Do you actually think that makes any sense?!"
"Eek…!"
"Where's my brother?! You crazy woman!"
"Th-that's mean! Watashi isn't crazy…!"
"So you're saying that's the truth? And you expect me to believe it?!"
A complete, miserable failure. I'd expected as much, but facing it for real hurt far worse than I'd imagined. Still, I tried, stubbornly, to get through to her.
"P-please believe me! I really am Se-ah-chan's Oppa!"
"…Think about it. If a total stranger you'd never seen before started begging you to believe they were family, would you buy it? And they're a different gender, on top of that?"
The logic was so airtight I could only fidget before I managed an answer.
"…I-it would be hard, I guess?"
"Right. That's my situation right now. And stop stammering."
"Hiiing…"
"Don't make those weird noises, either."
Se-ah-chan. You're so cold. So heartless. I'm sad.
This wasn't the little sister I knew. She'd always been so gentle with me, of all people!
"Then at least give me some evidence I can actually believe."
"Evidence?"
"Yes. Proof that you really are my brother."
Yes! I knew Se-ah was smart!
If I just produced the right evidence here, she'd have no choice but to believe me. And once she understood I really was her brother, she'd respect my choice too, wouldn't she? The happy future blooming in my head was already tugging a smile onto my face.
"What are you doing? Standing there grinning like an idiot."
"…Hidoi."
"What's hidoi supposed to mean? That better not be a swear."
"I-it means you're being mean! Watashi doesn't use words like that!"
"Fine, whatever. Just give me the evidence already."
Evidence. Right. Evidence.
…Except what was I supposed to offer?
The moment I tried to speak, everything felt slippery. Anything too basic wouldn't land—anyone could know those things, not just me. Basic personal details, for instance. Especially since she'd already found me in this apartment; she wasn't going to accept anything that obvious.
But something too private and specific was just as risky. We were family, yes, but we hadn't been that close. There was a real chance I'd name some intimate little fact and Se-ah simply wouldn't know it.
"Well? Are you going to talk or not?"
I kept turning it over until I finally landed on a strategy. If I couldn't win on quality, I'd win on quantity. I'd just keep talking until she had to admit it!
So I grabbed hold of Se-ah and poured out everything I had—from utterly useless trivia to pieces of my past no one else had ever known.
"Stop."
If she hadn't cut me off, I might have gone on for over an hour. I looked at her anyway, hope written all over my face.
She'd acknowledge me now, right? And she would sincerely cheer me on as I started a new life.
Se-ah watched me for a moment with a complicated expression. Then she finally opened the mouth she had kept so firmly shut, and spoke.