My Friend’s Little Sister is Special

“…Hey, so what happened?”

“What do you mean ‘what happened?'”

“I’m asking why you came to our house with Ye-rin? Don’t tell me you two knew each other already?”

“How would I know her? I just met her today.”

“But why…”

Seo Jin-hyuk looked back and forth between me and Seo Ye-rin as if he couldn’t believe it.

Is it really that surprising?

…Hmm, I guess I’d react the same way if my sister suddenly came home with Seo Jin-hyuk one day.

But I felt uncomfortable explaining how we met.

If I said “your sister was crying on the street,” I was afraid of how this guy would react.

And since Ye-rin had been gently holding onto the hem of my uniform since earlier, it felt like she was asking me not to say anything.

If it were my sister, I would have snapped “Where do you think you’re putting your dirty hands?” But since it was Ye-rin, even that small gesture made me feel like I could keep it a secret forever. Just between the two of us.

“I just met her on my way home. She caught my eye. You know, like you said, because she’s special.”

That’s not a lie. It’s not.

“…Am I supposed to believe she accepted that?”

“What’s so hard to believe? She seemed quite kind.”

“Hey, say something that makes sense. Ye-rin is so…”

“…So what?”

“…Kind.”

When Ye-rin coldly asked back, Jin-hyuk’s immediate flinching made me understand the power dynamics between these siblings.

I could also guess what Jin-hyuk was trying to say.

Thinking back to her reaction when we first met, “kind” doesn’t quite cover it, does it? Yeah, I had a hard time approaching her too, honestly.

As Jin-hyuk and I exchanged knowing glances, I felt the fingers holding my uniform tighten their grip.

“…What are you doing?”

“…I was just agreeing with Seo Jin-hyuk. Because I’m an F.”

“You’re a T thoug—”

“Hey.”

“I guess Han Woo-jin is good at empathizing because he’s an F.”

Ye-rin looked at me with a blank expression, as if displeased with our nonsense.

Why, why are you directing that at me? Jin-hyuk was the one who brought it up.

I looked at Jin-hyuk with indignation, and the damned guy suddenly spoke up urgently as if he’d just remembered something.

“Ah, are you guys thirsty? I’ll bring some drinks and snacks.”

“Hey, I’m not thirsty ri—”

“…I’m thirsty, oppa.”

“I’ll bring them right away!”

You damn…

Watching that bastard’s back as he hurriedly turned toward the kitchen, I wanted to shout “Take me with you…!” but.

I couldn’t move an inch because of the gray gaze being directed at me from beside me.

“…You didn’t think I was kind?”

“…No, not at all. I thought you were kind from the moment I saw you. Like Mother Teresa, you know?”

“…Then why are you avoiding my eyes?”

“Because I’m a bit shy…”

“…You didn’t seem shy when you first talked to me.”

“Because you reminded me of my sister…”

“‘She’s like my daughter, she’s like my sister’… I heard that’s what bad men usually say.”

Gasp. What are you saying, Ye-rin Ye-rin?

I felt wronged that she would compare my pure heart (not really) with such guys.

As I sharply turned my head in indignation to say something pointed,

“Hee, I’m just joking.”

—This is cheating.

When our eyes met, seeing Ye-rin smiling with satisfaction as if finally getting me to look at her, I felt my indignation melting away.

I was wrong, yes. What a bad man I am.

“So you do think I’m kind, right?”

“Ah, of course.”

“How kind?”

“…As kind as my sister?”

“…Didn’t you say earlier that you fight with your sister all the time?”

Wait. You remember that?

My mouth suddenly shut as the casual ball I had thrown unexpectedly came back as a tightly packed curveball.

That’s strange. I thought the mood was good until just now? Is it my imagination?

Why has this suddenly turned into a horror movie?

I should have just gone with a straight face, but when I was too surprised to continue speaking, Ye-rin’s gaze began to turn into a deeper gray.

“Hmm….”

Jin-hyuk, I’m really sorry…

Please save me…

**

Fortunately, as if my prayers were answered, Jin-hyuk soon came back with snacks, allowing me to escape from the suffocating atmosphere.

Of course, Ye-rin did glance at me once with an unsatisfied look.

But when I smiled as if asking for forgiveness, she finally smiled softly and started eating the snacks.

“Since you’re already here, want to stay for dinner?”

“Wouldn’t that be too much trouble? Your parents will be home soon, right?”

“…Our parents come home late, so it’s fine.”

Their parents must both work too.

Seo Jin-hyuk spoke with a slightly dark expression, making me wonder if it was really okay to stay for dinner, so I glanced at Ye-rin and immediately met her eyes.

…Was she looking at me?

Unlike me, who was slightly flustered, she slowly nodded as if to say it was okay, which put me at ease.

“Then I’ll stay for dinner. Should we make something like fried rice?”

“You know how to cook?”

“My parents both work too, so I often cook at home. We have a pig at our house.”

“Oh, you too? At our house, only I know how to cook, and Ye-rin is co-ARGHHH…!”

Seo Jin-hyuk, as if being punished for revealing the truth, suddenly grabbed his thigh mid-sentence.

The situation, which I had seen many times somewhere, seemed to overlap with my own experience at home, almost bringing tears to my eyes.

But since there was nothing I could do to help, I could only pretend not to notice and look away.

We finished dinner with simple kimchi fried rice and some jangjorim that was in the house.

Kimchi fried rice is a miraculous dish that can’t fail, you know.

After finishing the meal, I was unconsciously moved and applauded when Ye-rin stepped forward saying she would do the dishes.

I wanted to tell the two people looking at me as if wondering why I was clapping.

That somewhere on this earth, there lives a pig who neither cooks nor does dishes.

That being able to divide roles itself is a great blessing.

After finishing the meal, Seo Jin-hyuk went to the shower saying he would clean up, and Ye-rin went to the kitchen to do the dishes, leaving me alone in the living room.

What is this? Where am I, who am I?

Thinking it was getting late and I should go home soon, I decided to say goodbye once one of them came out, and turned on my phone.

As I was mindlessly browsing social media,

“What are you doing?”

“Whoa, you startled me!”

I almost threw my phone, surprised by the small creature that approached quietly without any sound.

“…Were you looking at something dirty?”

What kind of tremendous misunderstanding is this all of a sudden?

“No, what are you suddenly saying? Why would I look at such things in someone else’s house?”

“You were so surprised…”

“That’s because you approached suddenly. I don’t look at such things.”

“You don’t?”

“…I rarely do.”

“……..”

“…Seo Jin-hyuk probably does though. Probably.”

“…………”

I’m sorry, Jin-hyuk…!

It would have been easy to close my eyes tight and lie that I don’t look at such things.

But for some reason, I didn’t want to lie to Ye-rin in particular.

And honestly, it doesn’t make sense. A 14-year-old claiming never to have seen dirty things.

I wanted to say “You’ve probably seen them too,” but Ye-rin’s cold gaze made me shut my mouth unwittingly.

“Uh, look at this.”

To change the subject—no, to survive—I urgently held out my phone screen.

“Cats vs. dogs…?”

“Yeah, I was looking at this. They’re both cute, right?”

When I pulled out my trump card, Ye-rin also seemed to like it, as her cold eyes gradually softened.

“…What do you like?”

“Hm?”

“Between cats and dogs…”

I’m originally a dog person.

A dog that greets me wagging its tail when I get home. Even just imagining it is nice.

“Dogs.”

Droop-

“…Less than cats, that is.”

But for today at least, I felt like becoming a cat person.

No, maybe. Continuously from now on.

“…You like cats?”

“Yeah. They’re cute because they’re aloof.”

“Hmm….”

Ye-rin made a sound through her nose as if satisfied with my answer.

…I don’t need to ask which one she prefers.

“But actually, I’d like a mix of half cat and half dog.”

“Half and half…?”

“Yeah. Usually… no, cold and aloof to others, but wagging its tail for me, something like that…?”

I closed my mouth mid-sentence, thinking it might be too much TMI, and noticed Ye-rin staring into my eyes.

“Yes…?”

“…I understand.”

“…What?”

“You don’t need to know…”

Wait, didn’t you just say you understand…?

I wanted to ask more about what she meant by speaking like a riddle.

But seeing Ye-rin’s eyes tinted pink, I couldn’t ask more.

That eye color, according to my guess, surely meant… she was feeling embarrassed.

I wondered what there was to be embarrassed about in what I said…

But then something occurred to me. Something I’d felt all day but had been awkward to ask about.

However, if I didn’t ask now before going home, I felt like I would miss the opportunity.

“Can I ask you one more thing?”

“I won’t tell you…”

“No, not that, something else.”

Of course, I’m very curious about that too.

Seeing Ye-rin with a > x < expression and her mouth tightly shut, it seemed she would absolutely not tell me.

When I said it was something else, she looked at me as if curious and wanting me to try asking, so I opened my mouth.

“Why don’t you call me oppa?”

“…? I do call you that.”

“No, not Jin-hyuk. Me.”

“……”

“At first I thought I might have misheard, but thinking about it, I don’t remember you ever calling me that.”

“Th-that’s….”

“Do you dislike calling me oppa?”

If so, that would make me a bit sad.

Even though it’s a word I hear plenty when I get home.

I wanted to hear it from Ye-rin’s lips. That word, while looking at me.

“It’s not like that…”

“Then why don’t you call me that?”

“……”

“Hm?”

“I said it’s embarrassing….”

Huh?

“But you call Seo Jin-hyuk oppa just fine…?”

“It’s different…!”

…? What’s different? Appearance? Don’t tell me only someone on Seo Jin-hyuk’s level of looks can hear it? What kind of difficulty level is that?

Just as I was about to ask what was different, as if to say that was all the hint I would get, Ye-rin abruptly stood up.

Then she ran to her room with rapid steps and closed the door with a bang, disappearing from sight.

…So why won’t you call me that?

In the end, with my question still unanswered, I gathered my things to go home, wondering when I might see her again.

Soon after, I heard the sound of a door opening carefully with a click.

Looking in the direction of the sound, there was,

“Come visit again………oppa.”

A cat with deep pink eyes peeked out, said just what she wanted to say, and closed the door again.

…This is a problem. The corners of my mouth won’t come down.

I approached the door that had been briefly opened and rested my forehead against it slightly as I spoke.

“…I’ll come again.”

Perhaps. Even if you tell me not to come anymore, I might just come anyway.