Chapter 38
Beep beep beep!
The front door opened, and Hyunwoo came back in.
Carrying a black bag that presumably held ice cream in one hand, Hyunwoo came over and sat down in the middle of the living room, where Hyuna and I were sitting.
"Minseo, you pick first. I'm not picky, so I'll pick after you. She can have whatever's left."
Three ice cream bars came out of the bag.
One was a mild fruit flavor that no one could really dislike, and another was red bean, the sort of flavor older people might like.
But the last one was impossible not to notice.
"H-Hyunwoo... I'll just take whatever's left..."
"Why all of a sudden? It's fine. Pick first."
"But one of them is just so malicious..."
"If you don't pick, I'll throw them all away."
In the end, Hyunwoo's insistence forced me to choose.
So... whichever one I picked would decide what the two of them had to eat, right?
Hyunwoo wouldn't choose the bad one, so had he bought that bomb to target Hyuna?
After all, the unfair rule was that Hyuna had to eat what was left.
The only one flaunting a vivid, moldy blue color, with packaging that was off-putting from the start. Mint chocolate...
"Ugh... How can my own brother buy something like that just to make me eat it...?"
Hyuna seemed to realize the horror of mint chocolate, too, and stared at Hyunwoo in shock.
"Um... Then I'll take this one..."
In the end, since Hyuna was the guest, if I picked something else, that bomb would definitely go off in her mouth.
To ease my guilt, even if only a little, I picked up the mint chocolate.
"Then I'll take this one."
Hyunwoo followed by picking up the fruit ice cream.
"......"
Hyuna picked up the remaining red bean ice cream.
She doesn't look too happy. Must be my imagination, right?
"Ah! Why did I get this one again?! You bought that boomer ice cream on purpose, didn't you, Oppa? You know I hate it, but you still want to make me eat it!"
I thought I'd made a sacrifice, but Hyuna got angry instead.
What...? Is this a hidden-camera prank? Does red bean ice cream get that much hate?
It's my number one... I gave it up because I felt bad about passing the bomb to her on purpose...
"And Minseo Oppa got the one that actually tastes good!"
Then came the shocking news that hit me right in the ears.
"Oh... Did you want this one?"
I held up the mint chocolate ice cream in my hand and waved it at Hyuna to check.
"Of course I did! The first taste is sweet, with a slight bitterness, and then a cool, refreshing sensation fills your mouth, giving you the liberating feeling of being reborn!"
"...Hyunwoo. I don't like her."
"Minseo Oppa...?!"
Since I was closer to Hyuna than to Hyunwoo, I got up and moved over to Hyunwoo.
Even though I still wasn't used to it, I didn't think Hyuna and I were likely to see eye to eye.
"Heave-ho...!"
"You've gotten so used to sitting here now, huh?"
"Is that bad?"
"Why would it be? It's practically your spot."
I wasn't sure if it was symbolic enough to call it my spot, though.
Anyway, sitting between Hyunwoo's legs felt warm and cozy, and I liked it.
Before, I'd hated sitting there because the evidence of my manhood—something I didn't have anymore—felt uncomfortable and hard.
I guess once you get used to something like this, the resistance wears off more than you'd expect.
"And you'll have to make peace with her taste in food. She eats Hawaiian pizza on top of mint chocolate, after all."
"What! So what! Is that wrong?"
"As you can see, her personality's a little messed up, too."
"Ah, Oppa!"
"She was cute until she was fourteen..."
Hyunwoo gazed into the distance, as if reminiscing about a past that had left him forever.
The way they casually tore into each other made it obvious they really were siblings.
I'd heard that with a three- or four-year age gap, one sibling could seem like a baby to the other, but I guess that wasn't the case with Hyunwoo and Hyuna.
"......"
Honestly, I thought pineapple on pizza was pushing it a little, too...
Anyway, now that I'd successfully taken refuge, I picked up my favorite ice cream, partly to get this demonic food out of my hands.
"Then let's switch! I just assumed you'd both hate mint chocolate..."
"...Huh?"
When I snatched the red bean ice cream from Hyuna and placed the mint chocolate in her hand, she suddenly froze.
What...? Didn't she say she liked it...?
"Hehehe... Heehee... Minseo Oppa... Minseo Oppa gave me mint chocolate... This is practically a confession of love..."
...I'm really scared of her.
Hundreds of times more scared than I am of Hyunwoo.
At least Hyunwoo doesn't eat mint chocolate or Hawaiian pizza, and he doesn't sexually harass me so openly...
Her way of speaking and acting made me wonder if she was really eighteen.
Her desires, which I really wished she'd keep to herself, were more than I could handle—nearly enough to make me pass out.
"Minseo... When I'm not home, if Hyuna tries anything weird, shout as loud as you can. Tell her to stop. Loud enough for people outside to hear."
"...Okay."
Now that I knew that warning wasn't a joke or just Hyunwoo teasing Hyuna, I was even more on guard.
That thing in front of me was no longer Hyunwoo's younger sister, but something closer to my enemy.
"No... You were all over Minseo Oppa right in front of me, and you only say that to me?! I haven't done anything yet—I only said it..."
"No... That's not what it was..."
"...It wasn't?!"
If anything, I was more puzzled about why she thought that in the first place.
I admit the position could have been misunderstood, but...
"I've already revealed my identity, and there's no way Hyunwoo and I could do something like that when we're both men, right?"
"......Th-that's right."
Hyunwoo's voice sounded weak, and he took a long time to agree, though.
"Then what were the two of you doing?"
Hyuna's follow-up question put us in quite a difficult position.
"Umm... We were just messing around, and I triggered Hyunwoo's trauma, so he pinned me down—and unfortunately, we ended up in that position..."
"That's suspicious. Are you two actually dating already?!"
"N-No!"
Even as I tried to explain, Hyuna kept trying to turn Minseo♡Hyunwoo into a couple, and the back of my head started to ache.
I stared at myself in the mirror and reaffirmed that I wasn't some gay bastard.
And Hyunwoo couldn't possibly think of me as anything more than a friend or a substitute pet.
"Hyunwoo... Say something, will you...?"
"......"
Even when I called for backup, Hyunwoo just glared at Hyuna with a sour look.
And Hyuna smiled brightly, seemingly pleased with that.
I wondered if her moods really did swing that wildly.
"Aha... So that's what it was? Oppa, if you don't let me stay here for a week, I'll tell Mom and Dad you're running around doing this sort of thing after running away from home."
"I said I'd let you stay. Give me a break about that..."
"Still, I'm relieved that the older brother I respect isn't a complete scumbag."
"...What are you two talking about?
I had no idea what they were discussing, so I asked, but...
"Minseo Oppa doesn't need to know! Actually, you'd be better off not knowing."
Hyuna's sly smile was the only answer I got.
"Let's eat the ice cream first. It'll all melt."
Perhaps deciding this couldn't go on, Hyunwoo started things off, peeled back the wrapper, and took a bite.
The fruit-shaped ice cream crunched as Hyunwoo bit into it, then melted away in his mouth.
Just hearing that sound made me feel cooler already.
"Hyunwoo. Thanks. I'll enjoy it..."
I smiled a little, then took a big bite of my favorite, the red bean ice cream.
Before the taste could fade, I went to take another bite, but stopped when something suddenly felt off.
"...It doesn't taste good."
I didn't know why, but it wasn't the flavor I remembered.
No, the flavor itself was the same, but...
It felt less like eating ice cream and more like crunching down on sweet, hard clay.
The red bean flavor tasted really strange.
"...I thought so. It doesn't suit this body, does it? Want to switch? I think the sweet, refreshing fruit ice cream might suit you better."
"Thanks..."
"Don't worry about it. I like it."
He probably meant he liked red bean ice cream, too, right?
In the end, thanks to Hyunwoo's thoughtfulness, we traded the ice creams we'd each taken a bite out of.
The bite marks made it a little awkward, but it looked so sweet that my mouth watered.
I opened my mouth wide and took a bite...
"Wait a minute! I'm not even allowed to hug you, but you can share an indirect kiss with Oppa?!"
Hyuna objected to even this little thing.
Indirect kiss... Was that really something worth making such a fuss over?
"Come on. You're taking it too far. Hyunwoo and I don't care about that sort of thing."
Honestly, quite a few of the things we'd done before would already have been out of bounds.
If people of the same sex sharing food set off her radar like that, a good chunk of the world would end up being gay or lesbian.
In short, it was just unfair nitpicking.
"Y-Yeah. I don't care..."
Hyunwoo still seemed to be stumbling over his words, though.
Was he feeling off today...? Then again, it was already getting past nine.
My eyes were starting to blink slowly, too, as if warning me to hurry up and rest.
"Hyunwoo... I'm sleeeepy..."
After finishing the ice cream, I tossed the wrappers in the trash and tugged at Hyunwoo's collar as I spoke.
Hyunwoo naturally picked me up and headed for the bed.
"W-What?! Why are you two lying in the same bed...? You really aren't together...?"
Hyuna kept protesting, worrying about all sorts of strange things right to the end.
"Minseo. Sleep well..."
"Yeah..."
I did my best to ignore her and fell asleep right there in Hyunwoo's arms.
Yeah. Just like always.
"No...! Where am I supposed to sleep...? And at least clean up the table you set out..."
More than ever, I longed for the warmth of Hyunwoo's arms today.