Chapter 8 Part 2

“I already said I’m sorry, okay? Surely you are feeling fine now.”

“I dunno… I still feel my legs are a bit weak.”

“You’re just pretending, I’m sure of it! The manual said people can recover in just five minutes!”

Tsk. She caught on fast.

It had been about fifteen minutes since my sister Sunhi decided to play her best electric eel impression and tased the heck out of me. Fortunately, it wasn’t fatal or anything, but I did lose control of my leg muscles and needed both of their assistance to crawl up to bed and lay down as I recovered. Honestly, I had been fine like five minutes after, but seeing my sister panic like that over her own bad decisions was never not going to be amusing.

My sister was, shall we say, just a little bit stuck-up.

“Okay, I admit I’m feeling fine now,” I said as I got up.

“Great, so now it’s time to explain what the hell is going on here,” my sister retorted, as she sipped a bit of tea she had prepared while I was lying down.

“Before any of that, I want some explanations from you. How did you find out about Mana in the first place?”

“Obviously, I saw her on your account.”

That makes perfect sense—

“Wait a second. You’re following my account? I thought you didn’t care about my work.”

“And I don’t,” Sunhi immediately spat out. “But Mom asked me to keep an eye on you, and so I occasionally go check your account to see what sort of depravity you are… drawing.” I bit my lip. “Imagine my shock when I noticed you had suddenly started posting pictures of a real girl in there!” She said as she turned around, pointing a finger at Mana, who was just kinda there watching our family feud like a kid seeing his friend’s parents fight.

“Guess you were stalking me—”

“I’m not stalking you, for the record. I have better things to do than keep an eye on my loser little brother!”

What could you possibly be so busy with when you aren’t married or have any kids?!

My sister Sunhi had the potent combo of being fiercely feminist and quite a bit conservative. She dove into her work like it was her entire reason for existing, and apparently there weren’t any men of her caliber out there, so she had stayed single for decades now. Meaning that I, who went on a different path from her and the rest of the family, was the black sheep among all my siblings.

“For the sake of my sanity, I’m going to ignore that blatant attack on my person. So, what do you want to know about us?”

I had to open up the game for her. If I tried to keep even a shred of information about Mana to myself, she’d sniff it out like a hunting dog.

“First of all, how did you two meet? I thought you spent all your days holed up in this man cave.”

“Hey! But I guess we—”

“No mansplaining while I’m here.”

“Huh?”

Sunhi turned to my “girlfriend,” who was still trying to comprehend what was going on here. “Mana, right? So, how did you two meet? And be 100% truthful to me.”

Aww, shit.

It was one thing to feed my sister porkies—I became quite adept at that over the years—but Mana had the lying capacity of a three-year-old.

Does she even understand that she can’t tell she’s literally my OC incarnate?

Under our watchful eye, Mana looked between my sister and me and cracked that nasty, curled-up smile of hers.

“Ramen!”

That’s all she said.

Uh-oh.

“Ramen? That’s way too vague…”

I mean, it’s technically not wrong.

“Yeah! Ju went to this ramen vending machine and—”

“Mana was there buying ramen too,” I added.

“And so you started talking, and one thing led to another? That’s like… surprisingly normal for you.”

Phew, did I dodge a bullet?

“So what do you see in him, Mana?” Never mind, she still has the machine gun loaded and ready! “Not to disparage my brother, but it’s not like he’s exactly… you know.”

“Hey!”

I turned to Mana, trying to mouth my intentions silently.

Don’t. Say. Anything. Stupid!

“He gave me life!” She blurted out with the smile of a goddess.

And my life’s over!

“He… gave you life? What’s that supposed to mean?” Then Sunhi looked at Mana—or rather, onto her stomach—and covered her mouth in disgust. “D-Don’t tell me he got you preg—”

“Stop it right there, Sunhi. Even for you, that’s completely unnecessary speculation.”

“Phew,” she said. “Yes, you’re right. I cannot imagine my little brother ever being capable of such a feat.”

That’s just— Argh, whatever, just ignore her.

“So? If not that, then what the heck does she mean?”

“Ah… huh… well… She was in a difficult situation, you see. She had been kicked out of her home and was out of a job. So we bonded over cheap ramen… I guess?”

“You guess?” She sighed. “I guess men do find it difficult to understand women’s tastes… And so I suppose you put her to work as a model to promote your account?”

“Yeah, something like that. It’s not like she could do much else.”

Then Sunhi turned to Mana again. “Look, I’m not about to disparage you for your tastes or life choices. But there are alternatives out there, you know? You don’t need to stay with my brother. If you’re being forced—”

Mana turned unusually serious. “No, you got it all wrong. Ju gave me all I have. I’m not being forced into doing anything. I was the one who had the idea to model for him.”

“I… see.” Knowing my sister, I’m sure she ‘saw’ the wrong thing there. “Whatever the case, I cannot allow this living situation to continue.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“For starters, this apartment is far too small for two people. How can you possibly be living like this all the time?”

“It’s not like I have no other choice,” I said. “My income isn’t exactly enough for anything bigger.”

“That’s your own fault,” Sunhi retorted. “If you had started working for Dad's company like you were supposed to, none of this would happen.”

I bit my lip again.

Bringing up past trauma is unfair, o’ sister of mine.

“It’s one thing for you to be living alone,” Sunhi continued. “But now that you’re supporting two people, I cannot allow something like this to go on unchecked. Shackling a woman you supposedly love with your own poor life choices is about as sinful as you possibly could.”

“B-But look, since Mana started posing, I’ve been getting more commissio—”

“Sure, that might work for a while. But you’re basically exposing her body to the world to get ‘engagement’, right? That’s one step away from selling her body.”

“Hey, that’s taking it way too far! All her pictures are completely safe.”

“So far,” she said. “Even if Mana is okay with it, I’m not.” And what do you have anything to do with this? “The novelty will eventually die down, and your work along with it. And then what? Would you still be willing to stay within the ‘safe’ pictures? And even if all that was fine, it seems you two are just living off junk food all the time. That’s not healthy for either of you. You have to eat proper food.”

“But you know I don’t know how to cook. Neither does Mana.”

Sheesh. And imagining Mana handling a knife is about as scary as my sister with her taser.

“You’re so useless,” she said. “You can just learn it, you know?”

“But—”

“No buts.” Sunhi got up and grabbed her jacket. “Look, Juwon. I’m just worried about you both. It’s one thing if you were on your own, but with someone else living with you, it’s not only you being affected by your bad decisions. Can you really say you can support the two of them with just your commissions? Pulse, imagine if she gets pregnant.”

“P-Preg—”

“Is it that shocking to you? No matter how safe you are, it can happen, you know. And then what? Could you support all three of you? I imagine not.”

My mind just stopped. I looked at Mana, and likewise she had this strange look on her face like she hadn’t even considered that possibility.

Obviously, that would never happen. Mana and I didn’t have that sort of relationship. Her being my “girlfriend” was just a ruse. But my sister had accidentally opened a Pandora’s Box I don’t think she had any idea about.

“Seems like you truly haven’t thought any of this through,” she said with a sigh. “Well, if you go back home and apologize to Dad—”

“I’m not going back,” I retorted.

She sighed. “I expected that. Stubborn until the end, aren’t you? Anyway, I’m going home. I’ve done what I wanted to do. And I think you two have a lot to think about as well. But don’t think this will be the last time I visit.”

“You’re coming back?!”

“That’s my duty as your sibling and as a woman. Take care, Juwon. And you too, Mana.”

And with no further words, she vanished from my apartment, with the door softly closing behind her.