When I woke up in the morning, the sky was completely grey. It was also quite humid, so it was likely going to rain heavily today.
I figured Chii was still sleeping, so I walked through the courtyard to the kitchen. Heh. Just how considerate can I get?
“You’re a sleepaholic, Big Brother.”
Chii, whom I’d assumed was asleep in the master bedroom, greeted me with scorn in the kitchen. She looked different than yesterday. After having the night to mull things over, she regarded me the same as usual. So I decided to treat her the same as well.
“My plan was to get washed up and then get breakfast ready. What a shame.”
“I will prepare breakfast today. After all, if I left breakfast to you, you’d only warm up the leftovers from last night.”
I just realized that there was a nice smell coming from the kitchen. Based on the smell, there was kimchi stew boiling in a pot and rolled omelets cooking in a frying pan. On the table, I saw edible wild greens like aralia shoots and deodeok roots. They were all side dishes I hadn’t seen yesterday. When did she pick them?
“I won’t be accruing a debt to you, Big Brother. What a shame. Did you think I would fall for something like that?”
Ah, so that’s why. You sure are good at coming up with creative solutions. I chuckled and spoke.
“All right. I’ll leave it to you then. I’m going to go wash up.”
“Do as you please.”
Chii turned her head sharply away and focused her attention back to cooking. The chop, chop, chopping sound of Chii using the knife was music to my ears.
“But where’d you get that stool from?”
I may be mentioning this belatedly, but Chii was standing on a wooden stool. Because she couldn’t couldn’t reach the sink without it. The food must have all been ready because cooking utensils were all in the sink, and as she got ready to wash the dishes, she spoke.
“I found it in the storage room.”
Come to think of it, there was a stool in the storage room. But she really is treating this house like her own if she’s searching through the storage room. Of course, I was glad to find this out.
“When you’re on the stool, you’re about my height.”
I bent down at the knees a little and I was exactly at eye level with Chii.
“What are you… Kyawooo!”
Chii turned her head to look at me and her hair rose up in surprise. She looked just like me when I unexpectedly see Saehee right next to me. Ah, so this is how Saehee must have felt, surprising someone like this. But Chii was so surprised that, as she took a step backward, her foot slipped!
“Ah.”
Chii lost her balance and fell backwards. This is bad! I wrapped one arm around Chii’s waist and pulled her towards me. Phew, crisis averted.
“W-Wait. Big Brother.”
But after I so narrowly saved Chii, she tried to struggle out of my hold. Stop it, you brat! You’ll fall down!
“Hey, hey! That’s dangerous!”
“Th-That isn’t the problem!”
“Then what is?”
“Wh-Where you’re touching me!”
Chii screamed with a blushing face. What in the world am I touching? I tilted my head down. Ah. Hm. In all the confusion I had failed to notice that I could feel Chii’s soft breasts. When I held her to me without thinking, her breasts pushed against me with a pillowy pressure. They felt soft and cushiony.
“…Sorry.”
I quickly righted Chii on the stool and took a step back. Chii crouched down, covered herself with her arms, and looked up at me.
“You pervert! You pervert, pervert, pervert!”
“This is an accident! I didn’t mean to do that!”
For some reason I spoke with honorifics to her, and I ran away to the bathroom when Chii grabbed a ladle and got ready to throw it at me. I heard something hit the door.
Everything aside, her breasts were big and soft for a kid…wait, what the hell am I thinking right now?! I washed away these thoughts with cold water.
The breakfast Chii made was unexpectedly delicious.
“It’s good.”
“Eat then die, you lolicon.”
Chii must have still been angry because her face was bright red as she used her chopsticks, making a clack-clack-clacking sound. I felt like I had to apologize even though it wasn’t my fault.
“I’m sorry for earlier.”
Chii’s hair rose up towards the heavens.
“Awooo! Forget that happened! Just forget it! Why are you bringing that up?!”
“It’s because you were still bothered by it.”
“Of course I am!”
“Why’s that?”
“That’s because Big Brother…”
Chii started to speak, then closed her mouth for a moment, and she suddenly turned bright red and shook her head from side to side. Why is she doing that? She was blushing all the way to her ears, and she covered her breasts with her arms as her hair flapped.
“B-Because you’re planning on u-using what just happened tonight when you’re alone! So how could I not be bothered?! I-I have no idea what you’ll do to me in your imagination!”
Pbbbt! If I had been eating something, a terrible tragedy would have occurred. I should hold off on eating for now. Something more important than eating just came up.
“You brat! That’s not something a girl should be talking about! And I only grabbed you because you were about to fall! And I’m into older girls with big breasts!”
“M-My breasts are big too!”
Only if you compare yours with kids your age. Like if you compare them with Rangii’s or Baduk’s.
“And I was about to fall because Big Brother was suddenly so close to me! It’s your fault! Of course I’d be surprised when your ugly mug was right next to me!”
U-Ugly mug? I may not have an attractive face, but I’m just about average! My temper was rising for some reason. I leaned forward to repay the favor of breaking this news to me. Chii flinched and leaned away from me.
“Wh-What is it?”
“Keep in mind that I’m doing you a favor by letting you sleep here.”
“Kya-Kyawooooo!!”
I realized, as Chii hit me in the cheek with her spoon, that that wasn’t the kind of joke to tell a kid.
After that tumultuous breakfast, I once again wondered what I should do to pass the time. Yesterday, after Chii threw me out of the room, I rolled around my room, observed an ant trail, and talked to flowers. I thought I was going to die of boredom. I hope Rangii gets here soon. At the very least, if she were here, I wouldn’t be bored. After all, Rangii is so cute that just watching her makes time fly. In contrast, there’s another kid…
“Why are you still here, Big Brother?”
She wasn’t the kind of person to mince her words. But thankfully, that hard hit with her spoon must have made her feel better.
“What does it matter to you where I am?”
“Because being near Big Brother makes my mood worse.”
Does your happiness meter go down when I’m here? But I don’t want to go into my room either. Because I’m bored! I refuse to go through the same thing I did yesterday! Don’t you know that humans are social animals? If this continues, I feel like I’ll end up summoning a ghost with a Oujia board and asking it to be my friend.
“Stop acting like that, and let’s play together.”
That was why I bowed my head to Chii. Chii upturned her nose at me, her hair flapping.
“Why should I?”
She may have said that, but she seemed interested in what I said. She must be just as bored as me.
“Don’t act like that. Want to play janggi?”
“Beating you so many times in janggi is boring.”
Sorry. That I’m so bad at it.
“Then if not janggi, how about alkkagi (tn: stone flicking. Played on janggi boards and the like)
Alkkagi. Though it is more often played with go pieces, it’s possible to play this game with janggi pieces as well. The game requires minimal brainpower, and the important factors are the strength and precision of your fingers. With hinged janggi boards, there are strategies that made use of the height differences created by the hinge, but unfortunately the one at home lacks a hinge. So the only thing that matters is pure finger strength. And our game sense will determine who’s the victor!
“Alkkagi?”
Chii turned her head to look at me, showing interest in what I said. You were bored just like I thought.
“That’s right. Have you played it before?”
“I haven’t, but I know about it. But why should I…”
I cut off Chii.
“Oh ho. So you’re running away because you’re afraid you’ll lose. What a coward, only participating in things you’re good at!”
“Who did you say is running away?”
Chii’s hair was raised. Got you! Hook, line, and sinker!
“I’ll make Big Brother squeal like a pig again today.”
“And I’m going to make you cry desperate tears of regret!”
“…I don’t want to play anymore.”
“…Sorry, that was a bad joke.”
What’s wrong with me these days?
Anyway, the second round in a contest between a phantom and a human begins!
We decided who went first with a fair game of rock-paper-scissors. Like a man, I sent out my closed fist, but Chii unfairly used paper, allowing her to go first. Chii had laid out the janggi pieces just like when we were playing actually actual janggi, and I waited for Chii to select her piece. It looked like she picked the king for her first flick.
Heh, what a dummy. The king may look desirable because of its large size and weight, but the pawns in front of it prevent her from fully utilizing that piece. In other words, grabbing the king first is a newby mistake!
This round. I won before it even started.
“I’m going.”
“Go ahead.”
I smiled triumphantly as I spoke. Chii curled in her middle finger and held it in place with her thumb, building up all her strength.
…Wait. I knew from experience that she had unimaginable power in her fingers. If she uses that much strength, the piece might even be sent flying. And the grin on Chii’s face gave me a bad feeling. You brat, what are you planning?!
Clack!
Chii unleashed her middle finger, and I realized what she was aiming for. The king that Chii flicked was flying straight at me. It was already too late to dodge!
“Ow?!”
I fell, my hands covering my forehead. How could it hurt that much?!
“Awooo, I made a mistake.”
I got up, forgetting the pain after hearing Chii’s words, and shouted.
“The heck do you mean a mistake?!”
“I put too much force…pfft?!”
But Chii started to laugh when she looked at me. Why’re you laughing?
“What are you saying while looking like that?”
Now she was covering her mouth with her hand as she pointed at my face. Even her hair was flapping. What was so funny? My confusion made me forget my pain, and I walked to a mirror.
…It was pretty funny. The janggi piece Chii flicked, the red king, landed directly on my forehead and stuck fast. What am I, some human dart board shown on TV? But I guess in this case, janggi board was more accurate?
I pulled off the piece, and the character 漢 was imprinted on my forehead. After seeing that, Chii started laughing even harder.
Well look at you, you brat. You can laugh like that too?
“You brat. I’m not going to go easy on you anymore.”
I sat back down in my seat flicked a piece while Chii was preoccupied with laughing. The janggi piece flew and hit Chii in the nose.
“Awooo?!”
Chii’s face scrunched up, and she grabbed her nose.
“Are you picking a fight?”
“Who do you think started it?”
After that, we forgot about the rules of alkkagi and instead played a strange game where we tried to hit each other with the pieces. Sadly, there was no way a human could keep up with a phantom’s aim and speed.
After that, I challenged Chii to new games.
First was gravestone kicking. Chii’s rock split my rock in half, so I lost. (tn: Biseokchigi or gravestone kicking. Each player has a rock. The defender’s rock is placed on the ground. The attacker’s goal is to knock over the defender’s rock with her own rock. There are a variety of rules. Check pages 29 and onward of this for the rules.)
Next was territories. There was nowhere for my rock to go with Chii’s empire of a territory blocking me, so I lost. (tn: Ddangddameokgi. If you’re honestly curious, just comment. This stuff is a pain to explain.)
Then was block off. No matter what I tried, I ended up unable to move, so I lost. (tn: The goal is to block the opponent’s pieces from being able to move.)
Then was gonggi nori. Chii hadn’t dropped a piece in 400 years, so it was my automatic loss. (tn: I actually played this game a lot! Wikipedia article that explains it here).
“It’s my perfect victory.”
“…Why’re you so good at these games?”
“Big Brother is just bad.”
There was no way that was true. How did it make any sense for me to lose to a kid even though I was trying my hardest?!
“No, that doesn’t make any sense, Mistress Chii. I’m bad, you say? M-Me, bad?! This is fraud!! You cheat! Cheater! This cannot be!”
I exaggeratedly fell to my knees in a pose of frustration, and Chii pulled away from me with her soft butt and she even crossed her legs.
“Isn’t there no way for a human to beat a phantom?”
…Pardon?
“I’ll show you the strength of a human!!”
I suddenly stood up, and,
“Awooo, you’re scaring me. I feel like you’re about to eat me.”
Our next game was tag. How’d it go, you ask? Somehow, I ended up stuck on the roof with no way to get down. Because Chii moved the ladder. I eventually realized that, in a crazed state, I had acted as a human never should.
“I’m sorryyyy~!”
A boy’s cry echoed throughout Jirisan.