Chapter 45
It was the fourth day since I had been summoned back to the family home.
After choosing the least feminine outfit among the clothes Mother had bought, I took a short nap. The moment I woke up, I had no choice but to scream.
“Aaaah!! You messed up my hair again!”
Today, my brother had once again turned my hair into a work of art.
How dare he make a palm tree out of my hair…!
...Wait, how did he even make this? Can I undo it…?
As I grunted and struggled to undo my hair, I ground my teeth and plotted my revenge on my brother.
If it had only happened once, I could have let it go, but he kept doing this at least once a day. How could I not be angry?
Do you have any idea how hard this is to put back the way it was…!!
“Huh? What? You're awake already….”
Just then, I spotted the culprit behind my palm-tree hair carrying something resembling a coconut out of the refrigerator.
“Graaah! My hair’s nemesis!!”
The moment I saw his face, my anger boiled over, and I immediately fired an icicle at him, brother or no brother, but-
“Whoops.”
My brother dodged the icicle as if it were nothing.
...Is that even human?
When I stared at him in disbelief, my brother spoke as if it were no big deal.
“Why are you getting so worked up over your hair? Just undo it.”
“Just undo it…? Did you hear yourself?”
I froze the elastic bands holding my hair together and shattered them as I shouted at my brother.
“Every time you mess up my hair, I have to spend three hours brushing this long hair! And do you have any idea how much it hurts when it gets tangled?!”
Of course, the Snow Woman’s recovery ability meant I didn’t have to brush it, but I’d rather fix it with a brush than suffer with tangled hair while waiting for it to return to normal.
“Ugh….”
I glared at my brother, furious at his constant cruel pranks, but as always, all I got in return was the same vacant, idiotic expression on his face.
It was even more irritating that his face was completely expressionless rather than looking like he was teasing me.
My irritation reached its limit, and I formed an ice club in my hand despite the cold. My brother raised his hands in a calming gesture and spoke.
“Don’t get so worked up just because you’re a Snow Woman. I have my reasons for doing this too.”
“...What are they? I’ll hear you out for now. But if you say older brothers exist just to prank their younger siblings, I’ll kill you.”
“...Give me thirty seconds.”
This guy, seriously….
My brother, who had asked for thirty seconds, thought for a moment before opening his mouth.
“...When I saw your beautiful, long, silky straight hair, I couldn’t help wanting to play with it-”
“Stop talking nonsense!”
I swung the ice club at my brother as he rambled on about how he had simply wanted to tease me.
“I’m serious. There isn’t a man anywhere in the world who could resist hair like yours.”
Dodging my attack, my brother continued spouting a defense that was hardly a defense.
But his excuse was so absurd, and I had a clear counterexample, that it was practically a blunder on his part.
“Hyeonwoo only complimented my hair. He never pulled a prank like that!”
“...Hyeonwoo?”
The moment I said Hyeonwoo’s name, my brother’s gaze suddenly changed.
“...That bastard complimented your hair?”
“Huh…? Yeah, I guess…. There were times when he touched my hair while complimenting it….”
While we were living together, Hyeonwoo had told me a few times that my hair was beautiful.
I had always just brushed it off, thinking it was because I had Snow Woman hair…. Was there anything wrong with that?
“...What about anything else? He didn’t do anything strange to you, did he?”
My brother’s previously blank eyes took on a slightly displeased look.
Why is he suddenly acting like that…?
Even if he was only asking what Hyeonwoo had done to me….
Hyeonwoo was kind, unlike my brother, so he hadn’t really done anything…. Ah.
“He did fiddle with my cheeks pretty often….”
I said this while scratching my cheek—the one Hyeonwoo often fiddled with, calling it addictive.
Come to think of it, even if it used to happen often, he hadn’t really fiddled with my cheeks lately. The last time had been during the camping trip….
“Good. He’s sentenced to death.”
Unaware of those details, my brother’s gaze turned serious as he grabbed his car keys and made for the door.
“I’m going to go kill a sex offender. Stay here and guard the house.”
“Huh…?”
My brother, who had been spouting incomprehensible nonsense, walked straight out the door.
...What is wrong with him, anyway?
...No, more importantly.
“Don’t run away! You lousy brother!!”
======
In the end, this whole mess was settled when, after I tattled to Father, my brother agreed to buy me expensive ice cream.
Phew…. Since it’s ice cream, I’ll let him off!
For the record, my brother tried to buy mint chocolate, but I stopped him.
“Hehehe…. This ice cream is delicious….”
As expected, expensive ice cream had a sweetness on an entirely different level from cheap store-bought ice cream.
“Seriously…. Are you a child? Does ice cream you get by telling Dad on me really taste that good?”
“Yeah! It’s really delicious!”
I scooped up a huge bite and slowly put it in my mouth, savoring the flavor and giving my brother a dazzling smile to tease him as he stared dejectedly at the card charge that had come through on his smartphone.
Even my brother seemed to be slightly provoked, because his poker face wavered a little.
Seeing his expression change by about a nanometer, I couldn’t hold back the smile welling up inside me.
A role reversal is so much fun. Hehehe….
“Everything really is great…. Except….”
“Hm?”
As I ate ice cream and glared at my brother, he looked back at me questioningly.
I wasn’t entirely happy that my brother was the one I was sharing this ice cream with.
Food tasted different depending on whom you ate it with.
Surely food tasted better when eaten with someone you liked than with the person you disliked most, right?
This ice cream was delicious, but rather than with a good-for-nothing brother like him, I’d much rather eat it with Hyeonwoo….
“...Huh? Hyeonwoo…?”
I felt a slight sense of dissonance when Hyeonwoo’s face naturally came to mind as I thought of the person I wanted to share it with.
No…. Hyeonwoo was definitely a close friend, but why was he the first person to come to mind…?
If things had been as they used to be, I would have thought of my mother, father, or any of my friends, so I wondered why Hyeonwoo alone had flashed through my mind.
...Had I started missing him? After only four days?
I shook my head hard.
Missing him just because I hadn’t seen him for four days? What kind of ridiculous thought was that?
Hyeonwoo and I were still basically just strangers…. There had even been times when we went much longer than four days without seeing each other.
Even so, there was no way I could miss him just because I hadn’t seen him for four days.
All right, forget Hyeonwoo and eat my ice cream!
Nom nom.
The moment I shoved a mouthful of delicious ice cream into my mouth, determined to forget Hyeonwoo-
“...But,”
My brother, who had been pondering deeply, opened his mouth.
“You and Hyeonwoo really aren’t in a relationship, right?”
My brother suddenly mentioned Hyeonwoo’s name at the worst possible time, and I almost spit out the ice cream I was eating.
Phew…. I need to be careful…. This ice cream cost a lot….
“I told you before…. We’re just ordinary friends, okay?”
I swallowed the ice cream I had nearly spit out and insisted that it wasn’t anything like what my brother suspected.
Haru and Ms. Chaeyeon fiddle with my cheeks too, so why did he have to suspect something over that….
Hyeonwoo doesn’t have any feelings for me, and I don’t have any feelings for Hyeonwoo either….
Even after all my explaining, my brother pondered as if he wasn’t convinced, then finally opened his eyes and spoke.
“All right, I’ll believe you. It’s not what I’m thinking, is it….”
My brother placed a hand on my head and continued.
“Like you said before, if I liked someone as small as you, I’d already have been arrested.”
“Shut up…. And take your hand off me.”
“Whoops, sorry. There was a perfectly placed armrest, so I did it without thinking.”
“Are you making fun of me right now!”
I knocked my brother’s hand away and protested, but he covered his ears and looked down at me as he spoke.
“If it bothers you, grow taller.”
“It’s not like I can grow taller just because I want to….”
No matter how much I wanted to grow taller, Senior Narae had told me that I wouldn’t grow any taller from here.
It would be a blessing if I didn’t melt and shrink instead….
The only way I could look down at my brother was to get above him somehow…. Ah!
Just as I was about to lose heart, I felt a good idea flash through my mind.
That’s right…. I had that option!
“Hup!”
Having thought of something good, I immediately began gathering and compressing the chill beneath my feet.
Before long, I sensed that I had gathered enough. I formed the chill into a large block of ice and summoned it beneath my feet.
The ice pillar that rose beneath me lifted me up, bringing me to a height where I could look down at my brother.
“Heehee, how’s that? How does it feel to be looked down on?”
“......”
My brother stared at me without saying anything.
Hehehe…. Looking down at my brother like this feels amazing….
The only problem was….
“I can’t get down; it’s too slippery….”
Since it was an ice pillar, it was naturally made of ice.
So the pillar beneath me was both incredibly cold and incredibly slippery.
Its coefficient of friction was so low that even the slightest wrong movement would make me slip and fall immediately.
“S-save me….”
I clung to the cold ice pillar to keep from slipping and sent my brother a help signal, but-
“Hmm….”
My brother thought for a moment before opening his mouth.
“All right, call me oppa once and I’ll let you down.”
“Huh?”
“Once is enough. It’s something I’ve wanted to hear at least once.”
I gave my brother a disgusted look as he seriously asked me to call him oppa.
“How could I possibly say something like that-”
“Fine, then this big brother is leaving, so you can stay right there.”
“W-wait! I said save me! Aaaahhh!!”
My brother, who was colder and more heartless than even a Snow Woman like me, immediately left the spot.
In the end, after trembling up there for about ten minutes, I barely managed to get down from the pillar.
Though technically, I slipped and fell after misstepping….