Chapter 12

I felt like some kind of stalker. That might be related to the fact that I was, indeed, currently stalking someone.

Or two people, in fact.

Sunhi and Mana were happily walking along, going somewhere I couldn’t begin to discern, while I was a dozen meters behind them, with a hat and sunglasses, trying my best to not be seen. But I wasn’t too worried about not being right on top of them; it was nearly impossible to miss them, considering Mana’s white hair stood out in any crowd. Comparatively speaking, my sister was about as plain-looking as you could get, short black hair and a fairly petite stature. And, now that I had a distant view from Mana, I could tell just how much attention she grabbed by merely existing. Almost everyone they passed by glanced back, and some people even stopped to gawk at her.

Huh. Guess this is the first time I’ve ever seen Mana like this.

She had always been by my side ever since she was summoned, so I never had the chance to truly see her like any random person would. She was truly an oddity in this city.

Which meant that what happened next wasn’t remotely surprising.

The pair of women turned to a wider street, out of the neighborhood my apartment was in, thus exposing them to a lot more passersby. I spotted the couple of guys before they did, coming from the opposite direction of them. A couple of thugs, the sort of people you didn’t even want to risk the chance of looking wrong at. At first, they passed by Mana and Sunhi like they hadn’t noticed them, but they suddenly stopped, turned around and walked right back to their side.

Even being a fair bit distant from them, I could hear their booming voices loud and clear.

“Hey, you two,” one of them said. “Are you two alone? Where are you going?”

The girls stopped, and turned around to face them. Sunhi had the sort of face that told me she knew exactly what they were doing. Mana, on the other hand…

“Hi! Yeah, we’re alone. Just going for a stroll!” She said with a smile.

Darn it, Mana! Do you not understand the concept of being hit on?

I knew Mana well enough to tell—she most certainly understood the concept, but having never experienced it in real life, she truly didn’t connect the dots. She probably thought they were just being nice or something.

Should I intervene…? Nah, that’s a bad idea.

For once, it would blow my cover. I was supposed to stay at home, after all. And second, my sister was more than capable of dealing with these low-level hooligans on her own. I knew that for a fact.

And indeed, I could tell she was discreetly reaching for her handbag.

Grabbing your “non-lethal” weapon, eh?

“A stroll, huh. It is a nice day for that,” the other guy—Thug #2—said. “But that’s a bit boring, isn’t it?”

“Boring? Not really!” Mana replied. “I haven’t been out much, so this is plenty interesting to me. I’m seeing all sorts of places!”

“But really, a pretty girl like you ought to live her life to the fullest. Not strolling around like this.”

“Oh, I’m pretty, huh? Thank you!” Mana said with a smile. “It’s the first time anyone’s called me pretty.”

That apparently caught the guys by surprise.

“Really? Everyone must have been blind, then,” Thug #1 said. “So yeah, how about I show a pretty girl like you a place to have some real fun?”

That invitation seemingly convinced Mana. “Oh, really? More fun?! Please tell me! Where is this amazing place?!”

The two guys got a strange smile, as if they had just ensnared their prey—but they forgot one crucial detail.

“Hold it, you two,” Sunhi said, putting herself between them and Mana. “We don’t want to go anywhere with the likes of you. Make yourselves disappear, or else.”

“We weren’t talking to you,” Thug #2 said. He probably sensed that my sister was the exact type of woman they didn’t want to mess with. “Or else what?”

One swift motion was enough to strike fear even in the eyes of these guys.

“I will use this,” Sunhi said as she showed them the taser. “I’ve used it before, and I’m not afraid to use it again.”

So I was your guinea pig?!

For their worth, the thugs clearly knew this was a losing battle.

“Crazy bitch,” Thug #1 spat out. “Let’s go. It’s not worth getting zapped by her.”

The thugs left under the watchful eye of my sister. Only as they passed by me—who had since hidden so the girls wouldn’t see me—did Sunhi breathe a sigh of relief.

“I was wondering when that would happen…”

“Sunhi? Why did you react like that? They were just being nice!”

“Nice? They were hitting on us… or you, I guess.”

It seemed to make something click in Mana’s brain.

“Huh? They were?! So that explains it… Guess I didn’t notice it, huh.”

Sunhi sighed. “You’re truly a mystery, you know that?”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“Let’s go somewhere where we can sit down,” my sister said. “I don’t want to make any more of a scene here.”

That little altercation had brought even more attention to the pair, with some people stopping to see what had just happened. Clearly my sister wasn’t in the mood to deal with this any more than I was.

So she dragged Mana away from the commotion, and I followed suit, keeping to the shadows.

Just what is she trying to tell her?

⬡⬢⬡⬢⬡

“Here. Hot chocolate,” Sunhi said, (probably) handing a can to Mana from the nearby vending machine.

“Ohh, chocolate! I’ve never had it before. And it’s hot, too!”

She truly seemed content, just like a kid discovering a brand new food.

The two of them had found a place to sit in a small park nearby. There were a couple of benches around and some kids playing in a playground, with some other passersby taking their dogs for a walk.

Meanwhile, I was hiding behind trash bins, emanating the smell of garbage, with some unidentified substance sticking to my shoes. I could just about see their backs from the gap between the trash bins.

I really look suspicious… but it’s the only place where I can eavesdrop on them without them noticing.

“See? This is what I mean,” my sister began. “How is it possible that someone living in a city as big as Luhou to never have drunk hot chocolate?”

“Huh? I… huh…”

“And besides, where are you even from? Your hair is white, but it doesn’t look bleached. You don’t have Asian features, so you must be an immigrant from Europe or America or the descendant of some. Maybe you’re mixed? But your name is just so vague, it might have come from a dozen different cultures.”

Did she actually look it up? My sister is truly a force to be reckoned with.

Instead of answering her, Mana stayed quiet. It’s not like she was trying to hide something from my sister—she just didn’t have an answer for her, because I never wrote any of that in her lore.

“And then there’s your entire… vibe. You don’t know the most basic of things about the world. You can’t hold a knife, you’ve never drunk hot chocolate before, you have no concept of shame, and you’ve never experienced being hit on despite being so gorgeous. It’s like you just dropped into the world from outer space with no experience of these things.” She’s not that far off. “Clearly you’re both hiding something. There’s no way you met accidentally while buying ramen from a vending machine.”

“But it’s true!” Mana said. “Well, kinda…”

“See? I knew it was all a bunch of baloney from the moment I heard your story. So tell me the truth. Where did you come from, and how did you meet my brother?”

I started getting up almost on instinct. Even if I had to out myself as a stalker, that was much better than having Mana spill the beans on her completely ludicrous origin story.

But before I could make that decision, she spoke.

“I’m sorry. I really can’t tell you. Ju told me that I can never, ever speak about it. It could lead to an international incident… or so he said.”

That’s just gonna make her even more suspicious!

“International…? Are you some sort of kidnapping victim or something? Darn it, what the hell has my brother got himself involved with?”

I guess it’s better for Sunhi to think that than the actual truth.

“Well, where you came from doesn’t matter. Whatever thing he got involved with, that’s his problem. What I really want to know is if he’s coercing or blackmailing you in any way.”

“H-Huh? Of course not!”

“Are you sure? You’re so oblivious about these things that I truly can’t tell. I don’t want to think this about my own brother, but this situation is just so bizarre, even for him… He has never done anything inappropriate to you, right? Never been violent or anything?”

“No!” Mana said, almost shouting. “We… aren’t like that. He’s never even touched me!”

Apparently, that was more surprising to Sunhi than everything until now.

“He hasn’t, huh… I see. So if he’s not forcing you, and you aren’t actually in a relationship, is that it? Then why do you live with him?”

“Huh?”

“Like, even if you are an illegal alien or something, there are places you can go for support. The embassy of your country. Heck, just the police would be able to guide you to the right people. You don’t have to stay with him.”

Mana took a good while to answer.

“No, I want to stay with him. Because… He’s always been there for me and willing to help me out of the goodness of his heart. Not just from a sense of responsibility… he really cares for me, I feel.”

“Huh. Imagine that… my loser brother actually being able to help someone with no strings attached.”

“He’s not a loser!” Mana shouted. “He’s a great artist and is doing everything possible to support us both. I want to be there to help him as much as I can.”

“I… I see,” my sister said. “One last question, then. Do you love him?”

Both Mana and I said it at the same time.

“”Huh?!””

I immediately hid, but I just knew my sister had heard me.

“I could swear… nah, never mind,” she said. “Is it that surprising of a question? A man and a woman living together in such close quarters… feelings are bound to happen. Knowing my brother, he would be all over you if he had the chance.”

“Honestly, I…” Mana began saying. “I don’t know how I feel about him. Are we friends? Family? Lovers? I just can’t say.”

“I… I see. It’s complicated, huh?”

“But I do know one thing,” Mana said. “I don’t think he even sees me as a woman.”

For the first time since the conversation started, my sister laughed. “Ah-ah, what? That’s impossible.”

“I’m sure of it! No matter what I do, he just never cares for my body at all! It’s a bit frustrating, in a way.”

…Should I really be hearing this conversation?

“Knowing my brother, he’s just being respectful of your boundaries,” Sunhi said. “If there’s one thing I can praise him for, it's not being a creep. A loser, yes. But not a creep.”

Then she sighed, as if reaching the end of the conversation.

“Either way you feel about him, I cannot let your current lifestyle continue as is. You’re entirely dependent on Juwon as it is, and that can’t be healthy. No matter what, you must learn how to fend for yourself and be a proper woman!”

“A ‘proper woman’, huh?”

“Yes. And the first step is to learn how to cook even basic meals. And, as they say,” my sister said with a certain knowing tone, “the way to a man’s heart is through their stomach.”

“Really? I thought the fastest way to their heart was through their chest…”

“It’s a metaphor! Geez. You’re too exhausting to hang out with. Let’s just go back to Juwon’s place, okay? I don’t trust him to not have burned the entire kitchen down by now.”

Oh shit. I gotta get back before them!

And so, still feeling slightly guilty for having eavesdropped on their conversation, I sprinted the heck out of there, trying to get home and hide before they ever found me out.