Chapter 42
“H-Hyeonwoo! What should I do? This is bad!”
I realized I’d sent a text to my brother without thinking and hurried to Hyeonwoo’s room to discuss it with him, but-
“Hyeonwoo…. Uh…. Are you okay?”
“Uh… yeah…. I’m fine…. Yeah….”
Hyeonwoo looked haggard, dark circles settled heavily beneath his eyes and making him look exhausted.
His room was a mess too, and the trash can was stuffed with tissues.
What is this…. Did he spill something while drinking last night?
“It’s just that…. I had a lot on my mind, so I couldn’t sleep.”
Hyeonwoo said with a yawn.
“Uh…. It’s good to get plenty of sleep. Whatever’s going on, you’ll be more likely to come up with a solution if you sleep well.”
“......”
After hearing my advice, Hyeonwoo suddenly looked at me as if asking how I had the nerve to say that.
Uh…. Did I do something wrong…?
“M-more importantly! This is a disaster! My brother’s coming here now!”
“Your brother…. Minjun?”
“Uh…. He’s on his way here right now…!”
Though I spoke in a fairly serious tone, Hyeonwoo looked at me as if wondering what the problem was.
“...If he’s coming, then he’ll come. Is that really a problem? Don’t tell me you still haven’t told your family about the mutation….”
Hyeonwoo stopped his casual guess halfway through, as if he couldn’t believe I would do that.
Because I fell completely silent, mortified by what he’d said….
“...Ms. Seolhwa?”
“...Yes.”
At Hyeonwoo’s quiet words, which contained a hint of anger, I unconsciously knelt down in front of him.
“What was the condition I set when I let you move in with me?”
“...Telling my parents about the mutation.”
“And you still haven’t done it?”
Hyeonwoo looked down at me in disbelief.
I tried to lighten the mood, giving a bashful smile as I spoke.
“Ahaha…. I-I was going to…. In about… three years….”
“You call that telling them?!”
“Aah!”
Once Hyeonwoo realized I had essentially planned never to tell them, he gave me a chop on the head.
Ouch….
======
“Now that it’s come to this, explain everything properly to your brother.”
“Mmhmm….”
After Hyeonwoo lectured me for a while, I stood in the living room with my hands raised as punishment until my brother arrived.
I have to tell my brother before my parents…. Sigh…. My future looks bleak….
Ding-dong-
Just when my arms had started aching so badly that I felt I might die.
The doorbell I had been waiting for—and dreading—rang.
“Is he here….”
Realizing the moment of truth had arrived, I lowered my arms, which had nearly gone numb, and put on a solemn expression.
“If you run away, I won’t let you back into my house either, so you’d better handle this properly.”
“Okay….”
Hyeonwoo spoke to me with a serious expression instead of his usual gentle look.
Since Hyeonwoo was definitely right that it had been wrong of me not to tell my parents until now, I decided to face my brother without making any more excuses.
I was going to, but….
“...Seolhwa, you don’t look so good. Are you okay?”
Hyeonwoo noticed my gloomy expression and, apparently worried, let the seriousness fall from his face before approaching me.
“...I don’t think I can.”
Considering everything Hyeonwoo had done to take care of me, I had intended to face my family seriously this time.
But regardless of what I’d intended, I just couldn’t keep my expression bright right now.
For good reason….
“My arms are cramping….”
“Yikes.”
Perhaps because I’d held my arms up for too long, the scant muscles in them began tingling like mad.
My arms were already aching from holding them up for so long as punishment, and now they were cramping too. There was no need to explain how painful that was.
In the end, Hyeonwoo had to massage my arms before we could open the door.
======
“Why is no one opening the door?”
A hulking man stood waiting in front of Hyeonwoo’s house.
With hair a deeper blue than Seolhwa’s and seemingly stern eyes that gave him a cold impression, the man’s name was Nun Minjun.
He was Seolhwa’s older brother.
With both hands full of side dishes their mother had made, he had come to see his younger brother, whom he hadn’t been able to contact for some time. Though it didn’t show on his face, he was in a foul mood.
“Seriously…. Even if it’s close by, why do I have to bring side dishes over on my day off….”
Though it was a bother, he had come out of the house on his day off at his mother’s request. He grumbled as he waited for his younger brother to come out.
It was probably because he was worried about his younger brother, whom he hadn’t heard from in a while.
But he didn’t bother saying that out loud.
Fundamentally, both brothers had somewhat tsundere-like personalities.
“It’d actually be worth coming if I had a cute little sister instead of a disgusting little brother…. Hah.”
Minjun gave a faint, wry smile and thought how nice it would be if his younger sibling were a little sister instead.
A younger sister who would cutely call him oppa, oppa and follow him around at his heels instead of constantly snapping at him.
At the thought of the bewitching little sister that men without younger sisters dream of, a smile no more than a nanometer wide appeared on his expressionless face.
Of course, in real life, a younger sister would be more troublesome than cute, so he was only saying it for the sake of it….
Ring-ring-
With his younger brother taking so long to come out, Minjun was just about to step outside for a smoke.
At last, the bell rang, and the closed door to Hyeonwoo’s house opened.
“Ah…. Hyung, long time no see.”
“Oh, hey. Hyeonwoo, have you been well….”
However, it was Hyeonwoo, not his younger brother, who came out after opening the door.
Minjun knew Hyeonwoo, his younger brother’s longtime friend, of course, and was just about to exchange greetings when-
A blue-haired girl hiding behind Hyeonwoo caught Minjun’s eye.
A mysterious, beautiful girl gazed at Minjun with tears glistening faintly in her eyes.
...Of course, it was Seolhwa, but Minjun had no way of knowing that, so he could only be flustered.
‘Who is that girl? A younger sister….? But she doesn’t look anything like Hyeonwoo….’
Seeing the cute girl who didn’t resemble Hyeonwoo in the slightest, Minjun put his mind to work and began deducing her identity.
His neurons began firing at high speed, and after several deductions, he reached a conclusion.
It was-
“Um…. Hyeonwoo.”
“Y-yes….”
Minjun’s strangely dark tone momentarily frightened Hyeonwoo into standing at attention.
Hyeonwoo thought Minjun had seen him and this girl in the home where he was supposed to be living with his younger brother and had realized what had happened to his sibling—or so he thought.
“...I have nothing to say about whoever you’re dating, but….”
“Huh?”
However, contrary to Hyeonwoo’s expectations, Minjun continued, bringing up the subject of a girlfriend.
“...Isn’t that girl a little too young? Were you a lolicon?”
“No, I’m not!!”
Since Minjun was looking at him with genuine disgust, Hyeonwoo had no choice but to protest his innocence.
“Then what is she? Don’t tell me she’s my little brother’s….”
“That isn’t it either! Sigh…. Come on, explain it to him.”
Thinking he needed to explain quickly before Minjun misunderstood again, Hyeonwoo pushed Seolhwa, who had been peeking out from behind him, forward to face her brother.
Minjun stared at Seolhwa with a face full of question marks, while Seolhwa kept blinking and awkwardly avoided his gaze as much as possible.
Then, deciding she had no choice, Seolhwa scratched her cheek and spoke to her older brother.
“Ahaha… Hyung…. Long time no see, huh?”
======
We decided it wasn’t right to keep talking at the door, so we let my brother into the living room first.
Then we explained everything that had happened up to that point.
Things like how I’d turned into a Snow Woman and how the house had frozen over….
My brother listened to everything I said without a word, then quietly lost himself in thought.
With that impassive face, he sat there without saying anything, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.
His silence made him even scarier….
“...So I’ve got a little sister now.”
“Huh?”
Then he suddenly muttered something in a low voice and seemed to grin, but neither Hyeonwoo nor I could hear him.
“First of all…. Hyeonwoo, thank you. For looking after my useless little brother all this time.”
“Ah, no, not at all….”
“I know it must have been hard dealing with my good-for-nothing little brother.”
“......”
Hyeonwoo denied the first part, but didn’t deny the second at all.
No, Hyeonwoo must have had a hard time because of me…. He… did have a hard time, I guess…. Uh… um… I’m sorry….
“It’s not much, but take this at least.”
Saying that, my brother handed Hyeonwoo 100,000 won, telling him to use it as spending money.
“N-no, it’s okay! Friends can do things like that for each other….”
“Take it. Since it was my little brother who caused you trouble, it’s my responsibility as his older brother. I should at least compensate you this much.”
When my brother urged him and pressed the money into Hyeonwoo’s hand, Hyeonwoo reluctantly accepted it.
Lucky….
“Now…. And, Nun Seolhwa.”
“Yes!”
I looked at Hyeonwoo, who had received the money, enviously, then immediately turned my head toward my brother when he called me.
What is it? What is it? Is he giving me money too?
Am I getting some kind of consolation money for turning into this?
“You little punk, how could you transform and not contact us even once?”
“Gyaaaah!! N-not the Iron Claw!! I’m twice as weak against Fighting!!”
Far from receiving money, I got an Iron Claw from my brother.
“...I knew that was going to happen.”
Hyeonwoo let out a deep sigh as he watched, saying it was just as he’d expected.