"Noona! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!"
"Your whole fucking attitude reeks of a pathetic loser! You little incel bastard. You wanna die for real?"
"Guh—hk! Cough! I’m being normalized!"
"You know how I am when I’m pissed… Ugh…"
Jimin released the headlock and fanned herself.
Huh? She’s not as energetic as usual… Normally, she’d keep in a joint lock for at least 30 minutes…
"Let’s talk straight. What the hell are you planning to do?"
"If things get bad, I’ll take out a loan using my organs as collateral—"
"You wanna keep talking shit?"
Thwack! Thwack!
I got two more strikes as punishnt.
Noona’s love-filled punches didn’t hurt much now that I’d outgrown her, but…
Guh—hk!
Her blows reached my soul.
Struck deep in my spirit, I crumpled into a crooked shape, gasping.
"What’s wrong with being from a remarried family? You worried about what people think? You gonna stay like this forever?"
"I don’t care. It’s obvious we’re not blood-related just by looking at us."
"Then what, bullying in school? Dishonorable discharge from the military? What the hell made you like this?"
"All of it was EXP for ! I’m not unhappy. I’ve achieved enlightennt!"
"You’re at that age and have never even had a girlfriend!"
Guh—hk!
She’s really determined today…!
"Y-You don’t have a boyfriend either at your age!"
"Actually, that’s why I’m here. Noona’s getting married in three months."
"What?"
Noona… has a boyfriend?!
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
"Erasus, Qiora."
"…What are you doing?"
"A mory-erasing spell."
Of course, it didn’t work.
"Noona having a boyfriend… No way!! You always said you weren’t interested! You’re not even 30 yet!"
"Why are you whining so much? I didn’t expect it either, but… it’s ti. The match seed good—he’s decent."
"But… getting married after just three months? Are you pregnant?"
"No. But, well, you know . I don’t care about the small stuff."
No, still…
"You should at least check if he’s a divorced single dad or so kind of trash! What if you end up stuck with soone like ? Your life would be fucked!"
"I’ve frozen my eggs, and he was straightforward about setting a date. We’ll plan the pregnancy carefully…"
"……."
Seeing speechless, noona smirked.
"What, you this invested in my life? Worry about yourself first…"
"Noona…"
"So, you need to figure your shit out too."
Gurgle.
I felt my stomach churn.
I’d have to survive in this fucked-up world after all…
I knew reality would catch up eventually, but not this soon.
My sister went back to the table and sat down, taking out an envelope from her bag.
"Let’s make this the last one."
Even at a glance, the envelope looked thick.
It seed to contain at least ten tis the amount she’d sent so far.
But I couldn’t feel purely happy about it.
"This is… the last?"
"Now that I’m going to be part of soone else’s family, I won’t be able to support you anymore."
"……."
"You’ll wish happiness, won’t you?"
"Yeah… Of course I will…."
If this envelope held the amount I expected, I could max out the next limited gacha character.
That thought crossed my mind.
'It’s a sha she’s leaving, but…'
What matters is dopamine.
I still have my parents, after all…….
I’ll be fine.
This lifestyle won’t end. If anything, it’ll burn even brighter with her last dance.
I imagined myself telling her that I’d earned enough on my own to return the favor—even contributing to her wedding fund.
Wouldn’t that be cool?
But I didn’t have that kind of power. For a mont, I wondered what it would’ve been like if I’d been born a pretty girl.
Life would’ve been so much easier.
'Or would it?'
Selling my body might’ve been simpler, but honestly, there’s no such thing as an easy life.
Even if I’d been reborn as a busty beauty, I’d still have to grind every day just to survive.
Most ordinary people live like that. And a select few don’t have to lift a finger to have everything.
Even my sister, who I thought had been born pretty and blessed with everything, had to endure society’s absurd pressures, forcing herself to blend in...
never experiencing burning love, just getting married off because her ti was up.
'This world really is a dood, fucked-up ga, huh?'
The last update was billions of years ago, isn’t that just unfair?
I’d rather everything be reset, rebooted for my sake, letting reap all the benefits.
If the world’s already like this, wouldn’t it be fine if I were the one profiting?
"Still, Yujin. Don’t get wrong. I’ll always think of you as precious family."
"You’re cutting off financially and saying that? This is severance pay!"
"What, you want to support you for life? Not even Mom could do that."
Ugh. Honestly…
"I’d love it if you supported forever, Noona."
"Then go make so food. I’m hungry."
THUD!
The nonsense spilling from my lips was crushed under the weight of her loving side kick.
"Ghk! Seriously, you’re getting married and you won’t even cook for …?"
"Hah? Why would I cook for you when you’re not even my husband?"
"Husband…? The fuck kind of archaic term is that…?"
"Bring sothing decent, not just frozen food. Or order so tteokbokki with that money."
"Aren’t you supposed to be dieting for the wedding dress?"
"Ugh… Can't you see my waist? There's no woman with a figure like this at work."
Well… she wasn’t wrong.
Maybe because it was the last ti, Noona decided to relax a little, stripping off her top and stockings.
"Got any clean clothes? Sniff sniff…"
"Why are you slling my shirt…?"
"You’re better at laundry than , huh? The fabric softener slls nice."
"This place gets a lot of sunlight."
The problem was, it got too much sunlight—without blackout curtains and an eye mask, I couldn’t sleep.
As I turned my attention to my phone to order delivery, Noona slipped out of her clothes and pulled on one of my shirts.
The size difference made it hang like a boxy tee, but her ample breasts still made their presence known.
"This could pass as a dress. A dress. Lose so weight. You’re all over the place."
"……."
I cought a glimpse of her apricot-colored bra...
Not a sports bra, not particularly fancy, but the kind of ordinary shade won usually pick. It turned on more than it should have.
"Should I order beer too?"
"Yeah. Let’s toast to my hikikomori little brother’s future and farewell."
"Then give more money."
"You little… Trying to suck dry on the last day."
We siblings really got along.
Well, I was the one doing all the exploiting.
Noona’s generosity, tempered by years of dealing with soone like , was beyond words.
I realized then—I loved her so much, like a mother, that I wanted to stop her from getting married.
But most of my desires were dood to fail.
I’d abandoned any semblance of a dignified life, shirked responsibility and duty...
...forever a whining, a man-child.
The only reason I didn’t hate myself was that this world was just as ssed up.
Looking around, there were plenty like , so who’d realized even more than I had.
So who’d bet everything on a miracle, leveraged every last resource, then died spectacularly.
In a hopeful tiline, maybe they’d have been rewarded, rising to the top instead.
Not sothing to say in front of Noona, but, the value of honest work was long dead.
"Alright. Let’s toast. To our hopeless NEET, Yujin."
"You give the toast, Sis!"
"Bossy for soone who doesn’t even have a job."
With tteokbokki in front of us and a beer can in hand, Noona clinked hers against mine and said:
"A toast to the idiot right here!"
With so alcohol in , I finally asked the questions I’d held back till now.
"Noona. That job... It was your dream, wasn’t it? Why are you giving up?"
"Huh? Ahh…"
"You always said it. That you’d beco a top-tier career woman, live like a queen without sparing n a glance."
"Well… It wasn’t what I expected, and this might sound funny, but… I got lonely."
"……."
"Just… work, ho, work, ho. Every day. Yeah… I got tired. I’m still a woman, you know?"
The fatigue in her voice, layered with years of disappointnts, was a far cry from the hopeful tone she’d had in college.
"I didn’t want to just grow old like this~~. So I started wondering what raising a kid would feel like."
"Did you freeze your eggs?"
"Yeah. About a year ago. It’s trendy these days. Even if they’re healthy now, they won’t stay that way as I age…"
I see…
So she’d use sperm from her future husband to get pregnant…
Unlike in eromanga, it felt so sterile. Clinical.
"What? Jealous that you’re losing your monopoly on ?"
"More like… I was thinking about the kid."
"Now that you’ll be an Uncle, you should get a job so your niece or nephew won’t be ashad."
"……."
Honestly, it’d be better if they weren’t born into this world at all.
But I didn’t say it, didn’t want to ruin Noona’s happy mood.
She drank too much and passed out.
I, too, succumbed to the alcohol I hadn’t had in ages, falling asleep without cleaning up.
'What I need isn’t a job, it’s normalization.'
The normalization of abnormality…
When I woke from a light doze, my phone was blaring loudly.
'Ugh.'
Had the outside flashed bright for a mont?
[Ergency Disaster Alert]
[Cot observed in XX XXX area, 4km southwest. Risk of impact. Refer to National Disaster Portal XXXXX.]
"That’s near us…"
At first, I thought it was Noona’s phone. Mine was always on Do Not Disturb.
But the ergency alert overrode it.
Looking outside…
No signs of an impact or anything unusual.
I turned off the bright living room lights and cleaned up the leftover tteokbokki and cans.
I thought the noise might wake Noona, but she was out cold.
"Mmm…"
"Noona. You don’t have to go."
"……."
I shook her shoulder gently, but there was no response.
Damn it…
Knowing her caring nature, she probably couldn’t just coldly toss the envelope and leave...
so she used dinner as an excuse to observe my reaction.
Worried I’d self-harm that night?
She could’ve just cut off and walked away.
But her sentintal heart kept her dragging along, even when she should’ve abandoned long ago.
"Noona. Let’s get you to bed."
[PS: As you read further, you may notice so chapters are less polished. This is because I'm rewriting earlier ones. Feel free to check the latest chapter for my current tone and style.]
Reviews
All reviews (0)