My Younger Sister Was My First Love - My Younger Sister Was My First Love chapter 84
84. The Wavering Knight
The truth is, it’s not that important!
No matter what card comes out, Ajumma, who was always able to adapt to the situation, never lost her composure.
It was a moment when I realized that this industry wasn’t about fortune-telling, but about providing a service that makes a living by reading the atmosphere.
“Death! It means death! Normally, this card isn’t very good for love-related things.”
Ji-hee’s reaction, which had been positive until then, turned cold.
“But when it meets the keyword ‘marriage,’ the meaning changes completely, right?”
“Is that so?”
As if she had been expecting it, a bright smile bloomed on Ji-hee’s face.
“If it’s about romance itself, I can’t say anything good, but marriage is a huge change and turning point in life, isn’t it?”
The explanation went on for a while, but to summarize, death symbolizes a new beginning, so when it meets the keyword ‘marriage,’ it can be quite positive and uplifting.
“Then, I’ll wish for the two of you to have a beautiful love! Come again~”
We quickly paid by bank transfer and bid farewell, leaving the store.
The streets were crowded with people.
I naturally became concerned about Jihee, who had fallen silent.
Her expression didn’t look good.
It wasn’t difficult to guess why.
You couldn’t deny that it seemed like we were just pretending to be a couple, no matter how you looked at it.
I casually approached Jihee, who didn’t seem happy, and started talking.
“What’s going on? You know this isn’t believable, right? We’re just doing it for fun. Just for fun.”
“What do you mean?”
Jihee tilted her head slightly, as if she genuinely didn’t understand.
“It seems like you’re still thinking about what you heard earlier.”
“Oppa.”
“Yes?”
“When you say something like that, it sounds like you really believe we’re getting married.”
Jihee stopped in her tracks and smiled brightly at me.
“In Korea, if an older brother and younger sister get married, isn’t that just like a death sentence?”
That was a reasonable thing to say.
But it wasn’t what Jihee wanted to hear.
At least, I understood that Jihee didn’t want to accept that fact.
“Anyway.”
Jihee approached me and leaned her forehead against my chest.
The sweet, floral scent of her shampoo wafted up, making my head spin.
Jihee’s usual lilac shampoo scent was like a hypnotic trigger, confusing my mind.
“I don’t like being rational.”
“Suddenly?”
“Love isn’t something you do with your head, is it?”
My younger sister’s arms wrapped tightly around my waist.
“There are so many stories in fantasy novels where knights fight monsters to protect princesses, right?”
I listened quietly to Jihee’s words, which sounded like they were grasping at clouds.
“When you think about it, if you were in the knight’s shoes and wrote it in first person, how scary would it be? When you’re risking your life to jump into the flames, what kind of feeling would you have?”
Jihee slowly lifted her head and rested her chin on my shoulder.
“Oppa, the total amount of love is proportional to the amount of courage you can muster for that person.”
As I understood Jihee’s words, I felt my heart pounding wildly.
Jihee’s slender fingers gently touched my cheek.
“I wish you would be my knight, Oppa.”
In the midst of a modern city street, a medieval vow was unfolding.
Jihee’s dreamy eyes created an illusion that made me think she was the heroine of this world.
Jihee didn’t deny that our path was one of death.
On the contrary, she understood it all too well, with a chilling clarity.
It was something that was simultaneously forced upon me.
“I want to become Oppa’s princess.”
I couldn’t give a direct answer, so I just patted my younger sibling’s head.
* * *
Scoring a goal in an empty net is easy.
However, the difficulty level increases exponentially when a goalkeeper appears.
As I faced the unbeatable goalkeeper, Lee Ji-hee, I had to prepare a strategy that matched hers.
There were a few points I had to consider.
I had no idea what kind of situation Lee Joon-ho was in at home.
Separating the two of them was a difficult task in reality.
The situation was already tilted in Ji-hee’s favor.
Therefore, adopting the same strategy as Ji-hee seemed like a very foolish thing to do.
First, I had to make Lee Min-ju’s charm as a woman stick in his mind.
I had to start by seeing her as a woman.
It seemed necessary to emphasize that I had changed a lot from before.
Honestly, I thought I had changed enough, but…
As I looked in the mirror, I let out a deep sigh.
“What more can I do to make myself look better?”
I didn’t think losing 1 or 2 kilograms through dieting would bring about a dramatic change.
I thought my skin was good enough as it was.
I thought I was dressing stylishly, but Lee Joon-ho didn’t seem to notice my efforts.
In the end, what I needed was stimulation.
Stimulation.
More stimulation.
I took out a mini-skirt that was too short and hadn’t been worn much, and bit my lip.
Even if I wore something like this, would he think of me differently?
My Confucian self was screaming that this wasn’t right, but the image of Ji-hee, who was lying next to Joon-ho wearing only her underwear, lingered in my mind.
The goalkeeper who was protecting Joon-ho was a formidable opponent indeed.
I couldn’t just stay still here…
With a rustling sound, the pajamas I was wearing fell off, and I pulled up the skirt that exposed my legs without hesitation.
Yes. Opportunities like this didn’t come every day.
No matter how hard I tried to make excuses, I couldn’t surpass Ji-hee in the number of times I met Joon-ho.
In the end, I had to cherish each opportunity given to me.
It was a waste to hesitate and waste time, especially with the summer break deadline looming.
“I can do it. I can do it.”
After slapping my cheeks in front of the mirror to psyche myself up, I finished my makeup and sat down.
I had to steel myself.
The fact that Joon-ho had sincerely fallen for Ji-hee was equivalent to saying that my first love had fallen into an abyss from which I couldn’t escape.
* * *
A new week has dawned.
A bright Monday morning with a warm sun.
Teacher was doing a demo as usual today.
“Step on me.”
“I Ji-hee.”
“If you want to leave, step on me and pass by, Junho.”
As I looked at my younger sibling lying down in front of the gate, all sorts of thoughts came to mind.
It was cute, and I also thought, “Do you really have to go this far?”
“I told you, just until this summer, please. I’ve already discussed it with Min-ju.”
“Honestly, I don’t get it! You’re not going to accept it anyway. Then why not just not meet up from now on?”
Ji-hee wiggled her feet like a cartoon character.
It was a reasonable argument, but I had already made a promise.
If Min-ju’s rumors spread at school, my social life would be over.
Rather than that ending, it seemed better to take some time to verify each other’s feelings and settle things cleanly.
“Don’t you believe me?”
I sat down on the floor and poked Ji-hee’s belly with my finger.
“I believe you, oppa! But I don’t believe Min-ju unnie!”
“Just study quietly and I’ll buy you ice cream later.”
“……What flavor.”
Only then did Ji-hee get up from the floor, having finally given up her protest.
“I don’t know. You choose what you want.”
“Pecan and pistachio. And one more flavor that you want, oppa.”
“Okay.”
Having achieved a dramatic compromise, Ji-hee held my hand and stood up.
“Are you not coming late? You said so yourself?”
“Yes, I know.”
“Before 8 pm?”
“It’s only 12 pm now. I’ll come in before then.”
“No skinship with unnie, not even holding hands.”
“I know.”
Although Ji-hee’s expression still looked displeased, she eventually let me go at the entrance.
“I’ll be back.”
“Come back quickly and get a free pass to use your little sibling.”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“I was just saying I’d help with cleaning, but I guess I had weird thoughts.”
Laughing and joking, it seemed like I wasn’t that upset after all.
“Come back quickly!”
The front door closed with a creak.
I was wearing a thick, short-sleeved T-shirt and jeans, and I checked the link sent by Minju before heading out to the bus stop.
What’s going on here, anyway?
The location was all that was specified, and I hadn’t heard anything about what we were going to do.
So, I arrived at a neighborhood that was hard to call a bustling downtown area.
The street was lined with 3-4 story commercial buildings that caught my eye.
When I arrived at the destination, I saw Minju standing in front of the cafe entrance, looking a bit awkward.
The first thing that caught my attention was her extremely short skirt.
No, why was it so short?
Even considering the hot weather, the hemline was overly daring.
If Jihee had come out like that, I would have probably dragged her back home.
“Hi……?”
“Did you come?”
Minju, who was checking her phone, gave me a bright smile.
“Yeah. But why did you want to meet here today?”
It wasn’t that far, but it was an ambiguous neighborhood located between our houses.
“There’s a reason. Come in.”
I thought we were going into the cafe, but Minju led me past it to the stairs at the corner.
We took the elevator to the 3rd floor.
“This is……”
“Let’s watch a movie.”
A space I had never been to before.
A DVD room.
But I had heard about what kind of place this was used for.
“Park Minju. You.”
“I want to watch this.”
Minju ignored my words, scanned the shelves, and picked out a case.
“Let’s watch this.”
“Are we going to go in there and watch it just the two of us?”
“Why? Have you seen it before?”
“No. It’s not that.”
Jihee was like that, and Minju was like that too.
Why couldn’t they watch adult movies?
It was clear that an awkward atmosphere would arise.
And I wanted to avoid that as much as possible.
The conversation I had with Jihee that morning was still weighing on my conscience.
Her words, “I trust you.”
Minju seemed to notice my hesitation and let out a faint laugh.
“Lee Junho.”
“Yeah?”
“What’s up. You don’t have a girlfriend, do you?”
“Huh?”
“You don’t have a partner, so it doesn’t matter who you’re with, right?”
Min-ju spoke as if it was no big deal, walking towards the counter.
On the surface, it was true.
I didn’t have an official girlfriend.
“Min-ju, I told you. I have someone I like.”
“I told you too. It’s not going to work out with that person anyway, so snap out of it.”
From noble mtl dot net
Min-ju, who had stopped in her tracks, turned her body and looked up at me.
“You asked me for a chance too. So, for now, just focus on this moment with me and don’t think about Ji-hui.”
Min-ju’s hand gently grasped my wrist.
“Try experiencing what it’s like to have a normal college girlfriend, not a screw-loose younger sibling, and then make your decision.”
Her words were rational.
Her eyes were unwavering.
I nodded my head awkwardly.
While feeling a sense of unease, I ended up going inside with Min-ju.
In the narrow, dark room.
The sofa bed, which looked very comfortable, was waiting for us.
“Take off your shoes.”
After I went in first, Min-ju followed.
As the door closed, the lights went out, and only the screen lit up.
We sat side by side, not saying a word, our faces fixed on the screen.
“Do you have it?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you bring what I asked you to prepare?”
My shoulders trembled at the word “prepare”.
It was because I clearly remembered what it referred to.
“……No.”
“I knew you wouldn’t, so I brought it.”
Min-ju opened her wallet with a clinking sound and took out a square-shaped vinyl bag.
“Wow, wow, just for a moment. Are you serious?”
“Are you just carrying it around?”
Her playful tone.
Her head, which was shaking slightly, made her short hair flow down.
“If you want to use it, let’s leave now.”