My Younger Sister Was My First Love

49. You’re Mine

It’s already mid-April, and we’re heading towards May.

The weather is clear.

The warm weather continued.

After class, I sat on a bench in front of the school tennis court, watching a match between unknown students.

The green tennis ball bounced back and forth, creating a strange rhythm.

I didn’t know the rules of tennis, nor had I ever held a racket, but I wanted to savor this peaceful atmosphere a bit longer.

‘Home’ was no longer a space that provided me with comfort and tranquility.

The reason, of course, was Jihee.

It was because of our beautiful teacher, Jihee, who was too kind.

Jihee said she liked me.

It wasn’t just an empty phrase; Jihee had told me herself.

When I asked her why she liked me, why she did such things, her answer was always the same.

“Because we’re family.”

We’re family, so we love each other.

We’re family, so we like each other.

We’re family, so we can hold hands.

We’re family, so we can kiss.

It was a line I couldn’t help but accept, no matter how hard I tried.

I was forced to jump over that line every day.

The frightening fact was that I had grown accustomed to this lifestyle, and Jihee’s behavior had become a part of my daily routine.

At some point, Jihee’s actions started to feel normal, and even her putting her arm around my waist or hugging me began to feel cute.

No one criticized me for this.

To be exact, there was no one to witness and scold me.

All incidents took place in the extremely private space of ‘our home’.

Except for Minju, no one had seen that side of us.

Not even my mom or dad, nor anyone in the world knew.

If I assumed this would continue, my worries would enter the realm of conscience.

It was a problem similar to “If I became a transparent person, could I do whatever I want without getting caught?”

Jihee and I continued to do these things without anyone knowing.

So, was it okay for me to keep doing these things with Jihee?

In the past, I would have answered “no” without hesitation, but now I found it difficult to give a clear answer.

I imagined us living like distant siblings.

Jihee, who no longer welcomed me home.

Jihee, who would shut the door with an indifferent gaze and not come out.

If I thought about Jihee doing the same things with another guy…….

I bit my lip hard.

I knew that my current feelings were not right.

I was a person who got upset when Jihee was distant, yet I told her not to get close to me.

When I thought about it, it was ridiculous.

Was I originally a two-faced person like this?

Trying to align my outward appearance with my inner self only led to more questions.

The moment we’re being honest, what’s waiting for us isn’t a door, but a wall.

……Dating my younger sibling?

Just thinking about it is exhausting.

What’s waiting for us is clearly a cliff.

Even in a situation where I’m letting out a sigh, I think I should head home soon.

-Weeeeing

I put my hand in my pocket to check my vibrating phone.

After checking the caller ID, I quickly slid my thumb to the right to answer the call.

[Hello?]

It’s time for Jihee to study hard now.

The call meant that there was a high probability of an urgent situation, no matter how small it seemed.

[Oh, oppa.]

[Yeah, what’s up?]

[Oppa, do you know a lot about electronics?]

Electronics?

[Why suddenly? Do you need something?]

[No, it’s not that. My tablet screen just stopped working.]

[Your tablet?]

[Yeah, I was watching online lectures, and it just stopped working.]

[Did you download a malicious file or something?]

[I did drop it once, but could that be the reason it’s not working now?]

[Hmm…….]

I wasn’t an expert in electronics.

But it was clear that there was a cause-and-effect relationship between dropping it and the screen not working.

If I hadn’t dropped it, nothing would have happened.

[Can you watch your online lectures on something else?]

[You can watch it on your phone, right?]

[Then just use that for now, and I’ll take a look when I get home.]

[Okay. When are you coming?]

[I’m leaving now. It’ll take about 40 minutes.]

[Come quickly.]

[You’re going to study alone in your room, anyway.]

[But it’s still lonely to be alone.]

Even if I tried to brush it off, the fact that being alone at home was lonely was hard to ignore.

That’s why experience is scary.

[I’ll go. I’ll check if there’s a repair shop nearby, so I’ll take it out beforehand.]

[Okay!]

I got on the bus and hurried home.

For Jihee, who didn’t attend a separate academy, online lectures were extremely important.

If anything went wrong, she could fall behind in her studies.

A student’s study schedule being delayed is unacceptable.

If there’s anything I can help with, I want to solve the problem as quickly as possible.

– Knock, knock, knock –

After putting my bag down on the sofa, I knocked on Jihui’s door.

“Are you in?”

“Yeah. Where’s the tablet?”

“Over there.”

Jihui tilted her head towards the dining table.

On the table, the tablet and case were neatly arranged, but the screen wouldn’t turn on.

I pressed the button several times to check, but there was no response, no matter how hard I pressed.

What had happened to make it malfunction like this?

“I’ll go and come back.”

“Okay. Tell them to fix it so the screen comes back on.”

“If they say it’s hard to repair, I can lend you my tablet. You can use that one.”

“But I really want to get it fixed. It’s not just for online lectures; there are other things stored in there too.”

“Ah… I see.”

Thinking about it, I realized that I was probably the only one who used the tablet solely for watching online lectures.

Others played games or took pictures with it, but I had hardly ever used it for anything else.

“What’s inside?”

“Private stuff.”

“Is it locked?”

“Yeah.”

I put the tablet in my bag and turned my back to Jihui.

“Do you want to eat something?”

“Why? Should we go buy it outside?”

“We don’t have much time to eat if we go out now.”

“Hmm… then… pizza.”

“Okay.”

“Get the kind that Oppa likes.”

“Don’t pick some weird flavor and complain about it later.”

Jihui chuckled and came over to me, patting my butt like she was comforting a baby.

“Little siblings always eat whatever Oppa gives them.”

“Don’t touch me weirdly.”

“Huh? Don’t you remember when Oppa touched your butt while we were sleeping together?”

– Cough, cough –

A dry cough erupted.

Did I really do that? Could I really believe it?

As a rational person, I wouldn’t do such a thing, but I couldn’t trust myself when I was asleep. I had no data on my sleep habits.

It was the first time someone had stayed that close to me from the beginning.

“……Did I really do that?”

“What would you do?”

“Ah, don’t look and hurry up.”

“It’s a secret.”

Jihee, who had made a shh sign with her finger, pushed me out the door.

“I have to study now. I’ll be back soon.”

“Didn’t you touch it?”

“The pizza is pineapple pizza.”

“That’s still a bit much.”

My younger sibling’s previous remark had crossed the line.

“A student wants to eat it, so buy it for me.”

I sent a signal with my eyes, as if asking if they were really going to do that, but Jihee turned her back on me as if it was impossible.

Haa…… Pineapple pizza…….

I never thought I’d have to buy it with my own money.

The place I headed to, carrying my bag, was an electronics repair shop located in a nearby complex shopping mall.

“Ah…… Um…….”

The employee, who was checking their phone, finally stood up at my call.

“Ah, yes. Please go ahead.”

“I, um, this tablet screen won’t turn on, so…”

I opened my bag, took out the tablet from its case, and handed it to the employee.

The employee pressed various buttons like I had, and then repeated the process of plugging and unplugging the cable.

“……Can’t you do it?”

“Just a moment. Let me try one more thing. If this doesn’t work, we might have to replace the entire LCD.”

The moment they connected another cable.

“……Hmm?”

“Ah! It’s working now.”

It was a relief to see the screen turn on.

But the window that was open was… what on earth was this?

“Is this unlocked right now?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Thank you. I’ll pay with my card…….”

Only the cable was taken out, and the cost was almost zero.

What I couldn’t take my eyes off was the image on Jihee’s tablet screen.

I sat quietly, staring at the tablet screen, on the long chair next to the elevator.

It was a black-and-white webtoon featuring one male and one female character each.

Judging by the art style and atmosphere, it seemed to be a Japanese women’s manga, not a Korean webtoon.

But the dialogue was a bit…

[You know we can’t do this as siblings, right? Oppa.]

The female protagonist, who looked like a character from a tragic love story, was pushing away the approaching man.

[Sayaka.]

A man with a warm visual approach, unaffected by anything.

His eyes seem hazy.

[Oppa! You’ve been caught! You’ve been exposed!]

Even as Sayaka’s character says she’s been caught, she doesn’t refuse the lips of the person called Oppa.

A small speech bubble with the words “It can’t be…….”

As I looked, it felt strange, as if the genders of me and Ji-hui had been reversed.

Was this what it meant to read a private comic?

I thought that if I got caught, I’d be quite embarrassed.

It was an Ince#stuous work.

Recently, such incidents had happened, so I thought I might have watched it out of curiosity.

Not that I was interested, but it was like occasionally watching a video that suddenly appeared in the algorithm.

But the problem was what came next.

It was the moment I carelessly clicked the back button.

A list of folders filled to the brim.

Each folder’s name had genres marked, with keywords dangling from them.

The endless scroll that wouldn’t end no matter how far I scrolled down.

It was a bit too much to diagnose after seeing this.

Ah. Yeah.

Had I downloaded a collection of them all at once?

Yeah. That could be possible.

My fingers trembled as I clicked the properties button.

I checked the creation dates of each folder.

[202X.03.12]

[202X.03.17]

[202X.04.21]

[202X.05.09]

[202X.06.02]

[202X.07.11]

[202X.07.14]

The remaining download traces from long before I became a family with them.

The list I’m looking at now is not a collection or anything.

Each and every one of them was directly searched and downloaded individually.

It seems they were collected quite regularly and steadily.

That means…

“……Iji-hee.”

You’re talking about me.