NOVEL WEB Chapter 6
It felt a bit strange, to say the least.
Usually, I don’t leave my room much.
The reasons for that are twofold, but mainly, there’s simply no need to go outside my room.
Meals are either brought to me by my mother or a maid, and I even have a customized bathroom in my room where a wheelchair can easily fit.
Above all, my lifestyle—primarily gaming from night until dawn—was quite different from the rest of my family, meaning I seldom ran into anyone other than my mother.
That’s probably why I hadn’t felt out of place until now.
Because everything seemed normal.
However, thinking about what had just happened to me, I clearly shouldn’t have just treated it like a typical day.
“I thought mom would’ve told them by now…”
Of course, I couldn’t blame her for that.
I fully understood the emotional turmoil she must have felt not wanting to share my situation with the family.
“In the end, this is my fault.”
After all, I was the one who had been indulging in gaming when I should’ve been addressing everything.
It’s a bit much, but I think I really lack a sense of urgency.
Time had crept to 2 AM.
Considering that tomorrow was a weekday, and my father and sister had work and school to attend, it felt incredibly premature to drop such a massive bombshell.
“Can we just wait until tomorrow? It’s still a perfect time to sleep…”
“No. We need to do this now.”
My mother was firm.
“The wheelchair… it’s not needed anymore, right?”
“Yeah. I can walk.”
At my response, a hint of moisture gathered in my mother’s eyes.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Knock, knock—
“Wake up.”
All the lights in the house flicked on, and my mother started waking my father and sister.
“What’s going on?”
“Get up. I have something to discuss.”
Noticing something off in my mother’s tone, my father got up without a word and sighed.
“Yeah, what time is it?”
“Two o’clock.”
“Two, two o’clock? Why didn’t you wake me sooner?”
“Um, it’s two AM.”
“…Huh?”
“I have something to say. Get up.”
My sister fiddled around for a while before finally getting up.
“Everyone, sit here.”
“…Mom, why? Waking me up suddenly like this. I have my first class tomorrow.”
“What’s going on?”
It had been a long time since our whole family had gathered at the table.
“I have something urgent to say.”
And as my mother subtly gestured, the eyes of my father and sister naturally turned toward me in the corner.
“Um… who’s this? If we have a guest, you should’ve said something.”
“Wow… uh, hi. Hahaha.”
When my father and sister noticed me, they froze for a moment.
Then again, I completely understood that feeling.
Even now, every time the black screen of the monitor would reflect my image, I’d jump in surprise.
“It’s Yujin.”
“…Huh?”
“What does that mean?”
Before long, my mother dropped the bombshell, leaving my father and sister with bewildered expressions.
“This is Yujin.”
With that emphatic proclamation from my mother, my father and sister’s gazes shifted to me one after the other.
“Yujin? What does that even mean?”
“Why is my brother’s name coming up?”
“Ugh…”
As my family pressed her, my mother took a deep breath.
“I’ll explain everything from the beginning.”
And slowly, her lips began to move.
“Yujin had a seizure.”
“…What? Where’s Yujin? Is she in the hospital? Why didn’t you tell us earlier!”
“Uh, what about my brother? Is he okay?”
“Yujin’s fine. …Probably.”
“Probably? What’s that supposed to mean—”
My mother interrupted my father.
She shifted her gaze toward me.
“Are you okay?”
Wait, why are the arrows pointed at me?
“Uh… um, yeah.”
That bizarre scene also left my father and sister looking equally bewildered, unable to hide their surprise.
“What’s your connection to Yujin… Ah, are you perhaps her nurse?”
“Nurse? You look younger than me! Aren’t you a foreigner?”
My mother replied.
“This girl is Yujin.”
“…What are you talking about? Speak clearly.”
There was a stern tone in my father’s voice.
It seemed he found the entire situation immensely displeasing.
I mean, being woken up in the dead of night with no warning followed by strange claims would irritate anyone.
“I’m saying it clearly. You may not believe it, but this girl is Yujin.”
“So what does that even mean—”
“Honey.”
My mother spoke, her voice trembling.
“This is Yujin.”
“Uh, so this lady is my brother Yujin? Hahaha.”
“Right.”
“Wow.”
With that, my father glanced at me, shaking his head as if in disbelief.
“Why? There must be a reason you think that.”
My mother took a moment to compose herself and began recounting what happened a few hours earlier.
“When I got home, this girl was collapsed in Yujin’s room. Yujin wasn’t there.”
“…And then?”
“I woke her up because I didn’t recognize her, and she said she was Yujin.”
“…You believed that?”
“At first, I found it hard to believe. But… she’s definitely Yujin.”
While my father was baffled, he also made an effort to listen carefully to my mother.
“Did you search for Yujin?”
“I didn’t find her at home. It’s not like she could go off somewhere alone…”
“What about the front door security cameras? Have you checked? Someone might have taken her out.”
“No one went in or out. The windows were all locked from the inside.”
“That’s…”
At that moment, my sister chimed in, unable to stay silent.
“Why don’t we just ask the person directly? Excuse me, pretty lady. What’s your relationship with my brother?”
What relationship? I’m the one.
Of course, I couldn’t just blurt that out, so I took a moment to think.
“What should I say?”
Introducing myself to others was a rather daunting task.
Here I was, expected to present proof of my identity as “Yujin” to people I had never met.
But despite that, it wouldn’t be too difficult.
After all, I had the most reliable ally beside me.
“Yuri.”
My mother quietly called my sister, placing a piece of paper on the table.
It was a lethal weapon that could end this boring debate in one blow.
[DNA Test Result Report]
The moment my mother presented that to my father and sister, the house erupted in chaos.
“Uh… what is this?”
“It’s the paternity test results confirming Yujin and me. I just got it a little while ago.”
“No way, are you saying that Yujin is this lady?”
“Correct.”
“What?!”
A booming exclamation exploded from my father, who had been quietly observing.
The power of that one piece of paper my mother presented was devastating.
“Are you saying… this person, I mean, this lady is my brother?”
“Yep. Just to be sure, I had several tests done, and they all confirmed she’s Yujin.”
…Well, I hadn’t been aware of that.
As expected, things were actually more meticulous than I thought.
“Uh, so… you’re my brother?”
“That’s me.”
My brief response seemed to delight my sister, whose face lit up with shock.
“Ha, haha… this was quite the surprise. What kind of surprise is this?”
“Yuri.”
“Mom, no matter how I think about it, this doesn’t seem right. Shouldn’t we be looking for my brother? Did you report it to the police? No, he must be hiding in his room, right? I’m going to check!”
Even with tangible evidence like that DNA report I held, convincing them wasn’t easy.
“Yuri.”
As I called my sister’s name, she flinched, realizing my room was empty.
“What? No, why…?”
“Remember that time you went on a trip to Gapyeong with those girls? Were there boys there too?”
“Uh, how did you know… No, that’s something even my brother wouldn’t know!”
“I just acted like I didn’t know.”
“……”
My sister turned her gaze away.
“Mom, I still don’t think that’s my brother. Our brother wasn’t like this—a different person on the outside but the same on the inside.”
“Yuri…”
My mother looked at my sister with a sad smile.
“Can we talk about the Gapyeong trip tomorrow?”
“…This is a disaster, a total disaster.”
After a brief tug-of-war, my father, who had been watching silently, stepped in.
“Ahem. So… you had a seizure and woke up to this?”
“Yeah. I remember clearly that it felt different than my usual seizures.”
“So you found this girl… I mean, Yujin, and woke her up?”
“Exactly.”
“Hmm.”
And with that, my father nodded.
“We have circumstantial evidence and direct evidence… Well, then we should be fine.”
“Dad!”
“You stay quiet. I heard you went on a trip to Gapyeong with boys?”
“Uh, there were girls too. If you want to argue, the girls were more in number—”
“Shut up!”
“Hmph…”
My father turned his gaze to my mother.
“Oh, and I’m going to have a paternity test done too. You don’t mind, right?”
“Uh? Why?”
My father said that jokingly.
“What if this girl is a daughter you’ve hidden away? Since we’re at it, we should clear it up once and for all.”
“What?!”
My mother’s voice grew sharp.
My father, sensing something was off, tried to backtrack, but it was already too late.
“I was just kidding. Why are you being so sensitive?”
“Is this the time for jokes? And that test? Make sure it happens. It’s not optional. Got it?”
Our father is great and all, but he just has to add that one extra comment.
“That sounds like a three-year, or maybe even five-year sentence.”
That’s what it meant to be the type that brings trouble upon oneself.
“Um, honey? I messed up. It was a mistake. You know me, I’m just playful.”
And so, the emergency family meeting came to an end.
Naturally, both my father and sister still seemed somewhat doubtful, but I believe time will ultimately resolve everything.
For these past few hours, it felt like a whirlwind between heaven and hell.
At long last, I had returned home, truly and fully.