Chapter 4
***
“A lunatic was here.”
Park Jeong-a was terrified the moment she heard her brother’s words.
'So he doesn't believe me after all?'
Her future of being locked away in a psychiatric hospital flashed through her mind in an instant.
Park Jeong-a tried her best to keep a calm expression, but her hands and feet were trembling uncontrollably.
Just as she swallowed hard, her throat tight with suffocating tension.
“It’s okay. Actually, I’m a regressor too.”
Her brother’s shocking words continued.
“Huh?”
Park Jeong-a’s reaction broke down at her brother’s sudden confession.
Park Jeong-a desperately swallowed the words, 'Then why does our house still look like this?'
She had learned from childhood that if she said anything to ruin the mood here, she’d get hit.
In the first place, Park Jeong-a wasn’t the type to pick fights over other people’s words.
The fact that such a thought came to her at a moment like this was because it had rubbed off on her from living with her brother.
“I’m a regressor too.”
In any case, the relief that she wouldn’t be forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital brought tears to her eyes.
She felt embarrassed at crying when she was mentally an adult, but perhaps because she was so young, she couldn’t control her tear ducts.
Her brother quietly came over and hugged her.
From a distance, it would have looked like a touching scene of an older brother comforting his much younger sister.
“You’re a regressor too?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re not lying, right?”
“It’s true.”
“Then why is our house still poor?”
“How are we supposed to be rich if we don’t even have the lottery?”
“In novels and stuff, they all just do well on their own.”
In reality, they were too busy checking whether the future knowledge they each knew matched up.
“Who’s the next president of the United States?”
“Obama.”
“…George Bush does win, but I guess you really did regress. And on top of that, I now know why our house is still poor.”
Hard as it was to believe, once it was confirmed that her brother was a regressor,
'...Then that means all that was done by a full-grown adult?'
The bullying Park Jeong-a had suffered so far flashed through her mind like scenes from a revolving lantern.
From the water errands that started the moment she learned to walk, to being used as a wall for free kicks.
She couldn’t believe that all of it had been the idea of a grown adult.
'This... can't be right.'
In fact, today Park Jeong-a had intended to reveal that she was a reincarnator and rebuild her relationship with her brother.
But her plan fell apart before it even began.
'No, there’s still hope left.'
Holding on to that hope, she asked her brother.
“Oppa, how old were you before you regressed?”
“Thirty-seven. You?”
“…I won’t tell you.”
She quietly accepted her fate as the younger sister.
***
I talked at length with my sibling, who had revealed that she was a reincarnator.
We even talked about what each of us had done in our previous lives.
Well, there wasn’t anything particularly special.
“You said you were an idol in your past life. What group were you in?”
I’d been looking forward to it because she was an idol, but it was a group I didn’t know.
I guess they weren’t as famous as I thought.
“You don’t know us?!”
“Thinking everyone should know you—that’s classic celebrity syndrome, isn’t it?”
As soon as I finished speaking, the furious Park Jeong-a instantly calmed down when I showed her my tranquilizer (my fist). Early education really is important, apparently.
To be honest, it was a little awkward talking to her after she’d revealed that she was a reincarnator.
But in this life, she was still my little sister.
Just because my sister was a reincarnator didn’t mean anything would change. The bonds we’d built and the little memories we’d shared wouldn’t change.
“Hey. I’m thirsty.”
“Then go pour it yourself!”
“Water.”
“…I’ll be right back.”
If she’d been an idol I knew, she would’ve gotten a bit more respect, but unfortunately I didn’t know her, so I felt no hesitation.
And my sister seemed to feel at ease with how casually her brother treated her, no different from before she’d revealed herself as a reincarnator.
'...Wait, then did he spill water on me back then on purpose?'
Just as she was about to realize an uncomfortable truth.
“Here, drink.”
My sister brought the water.
“Then what are you going to do this life? Idol again?”
I looked at my sister and said with a calm expression.
There was still something I needed to confirm.
“Ugh. No. I’m never doing idol stuff again.”
“Huh? Don’t you have some kind of mission?”
“What mission?”
“Mine was to win the Champions League as a manager.”
“I don’t have anything like that.”
In the process, we talked about the ability called ‘Scouter.’
“You can see football players’ potential?”
“Yeah.”
At that moment, my younger sister’s eyes sparkled as if she’d discovered an unending gold vein.
“Oppa, football players are expensive, right?”
“Huh? Yeah. They are expensive. If you looked like you could kick a ball even a little, the starting price was over 100 billion won.”
“Then why don’t we buy a club and raise prospects to sell them?”
“If we just bought some Bitcoin, we’d have enough to live on for the rest of our lives, so why bother?”
Just as I was thinking Park Jeong-a’s greed for money was beyond imagination.
“Oppa! The future might change because of us, but abilities are different!”
“Abilities can disappear all of a sudden too.”
“Just trust me! This ability is never going away! I can feel it!”
She suddenly started flooring the accelerator on her delusions.
I calmed my little sister, who was trying to reinvent herself as a twenty-first-century slave trader.
“Before that, just tell me the lottery numbers. I’ll convince Mom and Dad.”
“Ah. Right.”
***
After receiving the lottery numbers from my “crazy” younger sister, who’d been memorizing them while saying she was preparing for regression, I headed out the door with the feeling of a general marching to the battlefield.
Behind the door, I could see my sister peeking her head out and pumping both fists in a cheer.
‘Oppa, fighting.’
‘Leave it to me.’
We nodded at the same time, as if our thoughts had connected.
For the record, since I said I had a trump card for persuading Mom, I was put in charge.
Heading into the living room, I saw Mom preparing dinner.
I walked up to Mom, handed her the paper with the six numbers my sister had written down, and prepared my last-ditch gambit.
“Mom, Grandpa who passed away told me the lottery numbers.”
Our mom believed in superstition, so this one line had a very high chance of working....
“What are you talking about? Your dad and your grandfather are both alive and well.”
Huh?
At the mention that both my paternal and maternal grandfathers were alive, my brain errored out.
“Ah. They’re still alive?”
I had committed the worst possible slip of the tongue.
***
“Ah. They’re still alive?”
Seeing her brother Park Chan-hyuk, Park Jeong-a had only one thought.
'What the hell is that bastard?'
Deep inside Park Jeong-a’s heart, a whole range of emotions crossed in an instant.
From the sinking feeling that her chance to get rich had flown away, to anger at her foolish brother and regret that she should have been the one to persuade their parents.
Her heart simply refused to calm down.
“Oppa!!”
The moment she was about to hurl abuse at her brother, who had scratched his head awkwardly and gone back to his room.
“Little sister, come with me.”
Park Chan-hyuk said.
And where the two of them headed was a neighborhood supermarket that sold lottery tickets.
“Oppa, objectively speaking, your face has aged a bit, but not enough to look like an adult.”
“Little sister, shut up and listen quietly. I’ll explain the plan.”
“…Okay.”
“I’ll pinch you at the right moment, and then you just cry. I’ll take care of the rest.”
Honestly, I didn’t trust him at all, but there was nothing I could do.
I had no choice but to trust my brother one more time.
***
'Can't be helped.'
If I were my usual self, I would have given up the moment the plan went sideways, but I couldn’t easily let go of the once-in-a-lifetime chance for a turnaround that had come 15 years after my regression.
“Little sister, come with me.”
I took my sister and headed to a nearby lottery shop.
It was a nostalgic age when, if an adult said they’d sent you on an errand to buy alcohol and cigarettes, they’d hand a minor child cigarettes and booze without a second thought.
Recently, after the government’s intense crackdown, more and more places had begun refusing to sell alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, and the like to minors.
But with the nearly Doraemon-level all-purpose tool known as my ‘little sister,’ I was confident I could buy a lottery ticket with ease.
“My, did you come on an errand for your parents?”
As we entered the supermarket, the lady greeted us warmly.
My face looked a little older, but I still hadn’t lost that youthful look.
“Yes, one lottery ticket and a pack of cigarettes, please.”
“Hmm. What should I do? They’ve said we aren’t supposed to sell to kids anymore, even if they say it’s an errand from their parents.”
When the supermarket owner hesitated to sell, I lightly pinched my sister in the side.
“Waaah, waaah—! Daaad—!”
The sudden pain made my sister burst into tears.
“It’s okay. If Dad tries to hit you, your oppa will protect you.”
Park Jeong-a began crying even harder when I hugged her.
Seeing that, the supermarket owner’s heart couldn’t help but soften too.
“…I’ll sell it just this once, so please be sure to tell your parents that they can’t do this next time.”
“Thank you!”
“How do you want it done?”
“Manual. Please do it with this number.”
As a result, our father suddenly ended up with a neighborhood reputation as a kid-beating piece of trash.
It was fine.
If I won first prize in the lottery, I was sure Dad would forgive his reputation being trashed.
After successfully buying the lottery ticket at the supermarket and arriving near home,
“Oppa, why did you buy cigarettes?”
My sister cautiously brought it up.
“I’m the one smoking it.”
“Huh?”
“Thanks, little sister. I’d been having a hard time because the withdrawal symptoms were hitting me, but thanks to you, it’s fixed now.”
Though my sister’s icy gaze landed on me, I didn’t really care.
***
Late in the evening.
Park Young-man, the father of the two children, was on his way home after another day of overtime work.
“One pack of cigarettes, please.”
“Tsk.”
He couldn’t hide his confusion at the supermarket owner’s frosty attitude.
'...What is it? Did they have a fight or something?'