Third story
As time passed, the three of them became easier in each other’s company to the point where they were easily chatting together. Narae led the conversation while Chii answered her questions, and this continued for a while.
“I’m going to go now.”
Narae looked at her watch and got up. I followed her and asked:
“What? Already?”
“I need to give these photos to Jungmi. She’s probably waiting for me.”
“Then when are you going to get back?”
Narae tilted her head to the side inquiringly.
“What do you mean?”
“Huh? Aren’t you going to come back?”
“Why would I?”
“Wait, what? I thought you were going to be staying over.”
Narae’s eyes sharpened and focused on me like spotlights.
“Like I said, why would I?”
…I didn’t know, either. Why did I think that Narae would be staying the night here? Why did I simply assume she was going to stay? Maybe because of our phone call from yesterday?
“No, never mind.”
I waved my hands rapidly, trying to keep Narae from realizing that I’d been looking forward to her staying the night.
“Do you want me to stay over?”
Narae had a mocking smile on her face. If I made a wrong move here, I had no idea what she might do. I quickly thought of a smart answer before cautiously saying:
“Not at all. Why would I ever want that?”
“Yep. First, I’m hitting you.”
It hurt.
The first thing I did when Narae left was move all my stuff into my new room. Yesterday, I only moved my clothes. Plus, there were some sensitive materials that I didn’t want Chii and Pyeii to look for. When I was putting all my things away in my mom’s room, a welcome guest opened the door.
“Are you free to talk with me?”
It was Chii. As if I would ever not be free to talk with Chii.
“Yep.”
Chii slipped in through the door, silently closed the door behind her, and sat kneeling modestly in front of me. She could have sat more comfortably. Feeling as if a new toy had just appeared in front of me, I motioned to Chii with my hand.
“Awooo?”
“Come over here.”
Chii flapped her hair and inched towards me. The moment she was within arm’s reach, I grabbed her, moved her so that she was sitting on my lap, and wrapped my arms around her waist.
“Kyawoooo?!”
“What’re you being all formal for? If you won’t sit comfortably, then I’m going to keep on hugging you.”
“Kyawoo, kyawoooo!! Where do you think you’re touching, Big Brother?! Please let me go!”
“Don’t wanna.”
I don’t negotiate with phantoms. I rubbed Chii’s belly and rubbing my cheek against her hair. Her hair slapped against my chest, but it was bearable. …Ah, I’m only mentioning this to prevent any misunderstandings, but I’m only doing this to tease my adorable little sister. There was absolutely no other intention underlying my actions.
“Wh-why are you touching my belly?!”
“Hm? Can I not?”
“Why are you speaking as if you’re being reasonable? Of course you can’t!”
Tch. I miss Rangii. Her and her ample belly … I became scared of how weird my thought processes were becoming, and I let her go. Chii scurried away on all fours, then straightened her clothes and glared at me. Wow, how scary.
“Please don’t hug me without asking.”
“So only after you say I can?”
“I’ll never allow it!”
“Wait … for real?”
My show of disappointment made Chii unsure of how to respond.
“Awoo, awooo. I-if you want to so bad, then I can allow it occasionally.”
“Really? But I was going to hug you without your permission, anyway.”
Chii looked confused when I stuck my tongue out at her. When she realized that I’d tricked her, Chii lifted the hair above her ears and stared daggers at me.
“Whatever! Big Brother, you idiot!”
Eek. I may have took my teasing a bit too far.
“Sorry, sorry.”
Chii was about to stand up and leave, but I grabbed her hand and held her to me, patting her head as I said:
“Are you mad at me?”
“Awooo. Please go die, lolicon Big Brother!”
If I told her that I teased her because she was too cute, she’d probably get mad again. I apologized again and changed the subject.
“So, why’d you come?”
“…It’s none of your business, Big Brother.”
“Don’t be like that. Please?”
Chii acted as if she were sulking and tossed her hair to the side, and I rubbed her cheek in response. Chii herself had no intention of remaining upset for long, and she continued talking after only a short pause.
“I was hoping you could go and buy bread with Pyeii tomorrow.”
I answered right away.
“Sure, why not.”
Pyeii also answered right away.
[No.]
“Pyeii, you’re the one who wants it, so you should be the one to buy it.”
I felt as though I were watching a mother trying to reason with a petulant child.
[Chii, used to make bread at home, though?]
“That’s because you had an oven at your home.”
[I’m rich. You can just buy it.]
Th-this was my first time meeting a bourgeois like her.
“Then what are you going to do for tomorrow?”
[…Buy it and bring it here.]
“In that case, you should go and get the bread yourself.”
Pyeii spun her twintails and argued back.
[Why should I? You’re the one buying it, so you should go.]
“It’s your money, Pyeii.”
[I’ll give you my credit card.]
“…If you keep saying things like this, I’ll get mad.”
Surprised by what Chii said, Pyeii shook her head and said:
[D-don’t. In that case, I won’t eat bread.]
Chii crossed her arms and sighed after Pyeii said that.
“But you won’t eat breakfast unless there’s bread.”
[Don’t need to eat. It’s okay.]
Was she this much of a brat this morning, too? She was clearly absolutely against going outside. She seemed almost too against it for someone apparently trying to fix her own introverted personality. Or maybe not. Considering how shy she was, it wasn’t weird to think that she’d be reluctant to leave the house. Though, wouldn’t this mean, rather than being introverted, that she was suffering from social anxiety disorder? I was about to volunteer to go by myself, but Chii shut me up with a single look.
“Then you can help clean.”
[Why? You did it all before, Chii.]
“This is Big Brother’s house. Were you planning on intruding on him without doing anything?”
Pyeii turned to look at me.
“What?”
[How much for lodging?]
Did she plan on paying me? I was about to say something, but Pyeii silenced me when she brushed her hands together and took out a wad of ₩50,000 bills (tn: Basically $50 bills). Was this the power of money?
[Will this cover it?]
There was a lot. Almost too much. I wondered if that much money would be enough to stay in a 5-star hotel for a week. Though I was fully ready to whine like a dog before the formidable might of her money, the same didn’t apply to Chii. Chills went down my spine when I saw, for the first time, Chii with a genuine look of anger on her face.
“Pyeii.”
Chii’s patience had reached its limit, her words lacking any semblance of politeness they once had and her her hair kept perpetually raised. Shocked to see Chii like this, Pyeii put away the cash she had just been fiddling with. No matter how selfish Pyeii was, even she could do nothing except take a step back before Chii’s fury.
“Keep saying things like that, and I’m gonna get mad.”
I was shocked to hear Chii speak informally. My goodness. So Chii can speak like that! While I was busy marveling at Chii, Pyeii stood straight up, waving her arms at Chii in a panic while writing. (tn: Chii normally speaks with specific honorifics. In this case, she spoke informally.)
[Just kidding. I work hard. I do my best at cleaning.]
How flustered must Pyeii have been to write as if she were a foreign laborer who learned Korean only recently? Granted, I wouldn’t know how to respond if Chii had gotten that angry at me, either. I’d probably be unable to speak straight and go uhh, uhh….
“…Please don’t make jokes like that again.”
[Okay.]
Chii’s anger seemed to have subsided, so I joined the conversation as well.
“I’ll help clean, too.”
“You don’t have to, Big Brother.”
“It wouldn’t feel right to do nothing.”
[Then go buy bread.]
Chii and I were of the same mind, and we both looked at Pyeii. Chii’s gaze alone was likely enough to cause Pyeii to lower head and write:
[…I’ll start cleaning.]
I almost felt bad for her.
We divided the labors up so that Chii took care of the bathroom, me the dishes, and Pyeii vacuuming. There were only a few dishes in the sink, so Chii likely took that into account and gave me the easy job. Not to mention the fact that she volunteered to clean the bathroom, something that she didn’t have to do. Whoever ends up with this kind, adorable, praiseworthy girl is one lucky son of a gun.
[Come over here.]
I was washing the dishes while thinking of Chii when smoky letters floated towards me from the living room. I was in the middle of the washing process, so, after a cursory wipe of my hands, I walked into the living room. Pyeii was there, the vacuum cleaner held in her hands. Actually, while she did look like she was holding the vacuum cleaner, she could just as easily have been leaning on it while on the verge of falling to the ground from exhaustion. She was holding it by the handle, but Pyeii was so short that it looked like she was having a difficult time.
[This is too big.]
“…Give it to me.”
Pyeii handed me the vacuum cleaner by the handle, and I adjusted its height. Pyeii watched, her eyes wide with fascination. Why was someone who could access the Phantomnet with her laptop so intrigued by a vacuum cleaner? …Actually, maybe I’m jumping to conclusions. After all, if this was her first time ever seeing one, then it would make sense for her to be so surprised.
[Astounding scientific development,] she wrote amazedly.
Based on her reaction, it looked like my guess was correct.
“Here.”
Pyeii accepted the vacuum cleaner without writing another word. Though I’d set the vacuum cleaner to the lowest height possible, she still looked as if she belonged in a surrealistic art piece. Perhaps this was only only natural, considering it was designed for adults. It’d probably be difficult for kids like Chii or Pyeii to use it, but it should be okay. After all, I used it when I was younger than them. Just in case, I retracted the power cord and plugged it into the socket.
“You can use it now. When you’re done, pull the plug out and press this button.”
[…Being surprisingly nice.]
“Was that a compliment?”
[Not when you consider what I normally think you act like.]
“I knew you’d say something like that.”
Pyeii turned on the vacuum cleaner, and the familiar noise filled the room. Because of what she’d said before, I had absolutely no expectations, but I hoped that she’d at least do a quick sweep of the floor.
…Except not even a single minute had passed before I ran to Pyeii and grabbed her wrist so that I could lower the vacuum cleaner. Pyeii looked up at me as if asking why I was doing this.
[What?]
“Why were you using the vacuum cleaner on the TV?!”
Exactly. After she turned it on, she lifted it up and pressed the vacuum cleaner against the TV. And it wasn’t even a cathode ray TV, either!
[Won’t it change automatically to LCD cleaning mode?]
“As if something like that’s possible!”
[Piece of junk.]
That little brat. Granted, my vacuum cleaner was definitely very old. It had already been five years since I bought it. However, I had to save up and live frugally to gather enough money to buy it. I’m okay with me calling it a piece of junk, but I won’t forgive her for doing the same!
“I’m not asking for anything else, so just clean the floor, okay? The floor.”
[Okay.]
I was still worried, but I decided to trust Pyeii’s affirmation and went back into the kitchen. I kept hearing a clacking sound from behind me, but that was the typical sound of the vacuum cleaner bumping against things, so it should be okay.
Bam!
It didn’t seem okay.
[This is weird.]
“The weird thing’s your head!”
[?!]
I snatched the vacuum cleaner from her hand and hit her on the head.
[Ow!]
She used the exclamation point as a club and hit me. Rangii’s tooth reverted the exclamation point to smoke, but it still hurt.
“I didn’t hit you that hard.”
[Mental pain from the fact that you hit me.]
“Was it really that hurtful?”
[Hurt my pride.]
“You should try and feel a bit more shame for not knowing how to use a vacuum cleaner.”
As I said this, I righted the trash can Pyeii had knocked over. It was a stroke of luck that there’d been nothing in it. Otherwise, a colossal disaster might have unfolded.
“If there’s something in front of you, avoid it.”
[You’re dirty, so I’m avoiding you.]
“Don’t spin my words against me.”
[A man with no sense of humor will never be popular.]
I didn’t want to be popular in that sense.
“Look, I’m going to finish washing the dishes in the kitchen, so don’t lift the vacuum cleaner and avoid anything that’s in front of you. Just follow these two conditions and you can pretend to clean as much as you want, okay?”
[I’m going to do what I want.]
“…Whatever.”
I raised both my hands in capitulation. I hoped Chii would finish cleaning the bathroom soon. I began to walk towards the kitchen, praying that Pyeii wouldn’t break anything.
“Huh?”
Something caught on my ankle. I lost my balance and fell forward. I instinctively moved my arm forward to break my fall, and then I saw it. My foot had caught on the vacuum cleaner’s power cord, and the one holding the other end taught was Pyeii, with an impish smile on her face. These were the only thoughts going through my head even as I rolled around in pain on the living room floor.
That brat, she got me.
[My thanks to the departed.]
More like your prayers! Plus, I’m not dead, you brat! My hands and my knees hurt, but the pain was bearable. I bolted upright, and stared straight at an overjoyed Pyeii.
“…So you don’t want to clean?”
[OMG, you found me out.]
“Found you out, my ass! You never even tried to hide it!”
[You’re angry.]
“Did you think I wouldn’t be?!”
[Short tempered.]
I truly was on the verge of snapping. I sighed.
“You could have just agreed to go outside if you didn’t want to clean this badly.”
Pyeii turned her head haughtily and pouted.
[Hate going outside.]
“Didn’t you come here to fix that introverted personality of yours?”
[…I’m not fixing it because I want to.]
What did that mean? By that, did Pyeii mean someone asked her to change? The only person I could think of who could ask that was Chii, but Chii, that lovely and adorably precocious child, would never ask something like that. Pyeii looked at me, and, as if realizing she’d made a mistake, began to write something before suddenly freezing in place like wet laundry left in the Siberian tundra. What was the matter? At a closer look, I realized that Pyeii was actually looking at something behind me. Curious, I turned around. Peering at us from behind the cracked open bathroom door was Chii, her blue eyes shining menacingly.
Wow, I wasn’t the target of that gaze, but even I felt a chill. Chii opened the door and walked towards us. In response, Pyeii spun her twintails. It was just like back when Chii was cowering before Rangii.
“I saw everything,” Chii said.
[Chii, good kid. I know you’ll forgive me.]
“The one who has to forgive you is Big Brother.”
Pyeii spun her head to look up at me. There was a deep conviction in her eyes telling me that she would kill me unless I forgave her. Was Chii really that important to her? I decided to reward Pyeii just this once for thinking so highly of Chii’s opinion, and shrugged my shoulders before tapping Pyeii on the head.
“Just don’t do something like this again.”
Pyeii turned her head to the side.
[I don’t want to hear that from you.]
“Do you not understand what’s going on right now?” I asked.
[Problem is that I know too well.]
Pyeii glanced at Chii.
[I’m a phantom who always speaks her mind.]
“Then you should do your work more earnestly, Pyeii,” Chii said.
[Okay.]
Pyeii began cleaning immediately, as if she had nothing more to say to Chii. Chii went back to the bathroom, and I went to the kitchen to finish washing the dishes.
Around the time when I wrapped up washing the dishes, the whirring of the vacuum cleaner died down. I wiped my hands on my pants and peered into the living room, and I saw Pyeii sitting on top of the now unplugged vacuum cleaner, the hose held in her hands as she retracted the power cord. She pressed the button, and the power cord zipped into the vacuum cleaner.
[Wow!]
When she saw that, her mouth opened in a diamond shape out of amazement. She pulled at the power cord all the way until the red-colored end showed, and then she pressed the button again. Zip-zip-zip-zip.
[WOW.]
The letters were bigger now. Pyeii pulled at the power cord again, and then,
[……]
“……”
Our eyes met.
[…Did you see?]
Motes of smoke slowly gathered to form those words, a sight that I fully enjoyed.
“That’s fun, isn’t it? I used to play with it a lot when I was younger.”
My attempt to make small talk caused Pyeii to blush profusely and wave her hands at me furiously.
[Voyeur! Pervert! Criminal!]
Was she really so embarrassed that I’d seen her do that?
“C’mon, you brat.”
[Perverted Peeping Tom!]
Shouldn’t someone be called a pervert only after looking up someone’s skirt or something? Or, y’know, when you see someone in the process of undressing or when she’s in the bath. I felt it was unfair to call me a pervert after seeing her doing something so innocent as playing with the power cord. But I could easily tell from the red glow in Pyeii’s cheeks that she felt extremely embarrassed at having been seen doing that. In a time like this, I should be the mature one and concede the point to her.
“All right, this was my fault. I’m sorry.”
[Then you need a punishment!]
That little snake.
[Buy me bread for breakfast tomorrow.]
The way she clearly wanted bread despite saying earlier that she was fine not having any really was just like a kid.
“…Didn’t you say you didn’t need it?”
[Secret from Pyeii.]
“Why don’t you buy it yourself?”
It took Pyeii a while to finish writing.
[Dressed like this?]
I decided not to comment on that.
“So you were self-aware.”
[I’m sensitive to others.]
If she was so bothered by the gazes of others, then couldn’t she have cared in the slightest about mine? Still, I didn’t necessarily dislike kids like her. Kids are supposed to act like this sometimes. Saying they don’t want something because they don’t want to do something else, but then taking a step back and trying to get what they wanted anyway. I didn’t want this to become a habit, but indulging her once should be okay.
Not to mention that I didn’t want to sprint to school again.
“Okay, then what kind of bread?”
[Mocha cake and strawberry milk!]
Pyeii’s eyes were shining and her twintails spun in circles. …If she wanted it so bad, couldn’t she have gotten it herself?