I snuck out of the house so that Chii wouldn’t find out, but when I came back with the bread, she was waiting for me. I gave a dry chuckle, feeling just like a kid who’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t, but Chii’s eyes remained in the shape of half moons as she stared at me, unimpressed.
“Big Brother.”
“Yes?”
“Spoiling Pyeii is doing her no favors.”
“Sorry. She worked hard while we were cleaning, so I figured I’d reward her. Are you mad?”
Chii crossed her arms and tossed her hair to the side.
“I would need to have expected anything of the Big Brother to be mad.”
For some reason, I got the feeling that Chii wasn’t sulking only because I did what Pyeii wanted. Because, otherwise, Pyeii, who was sitting in the living room with her laptop, wouldn’t be glancing at me with envy clear in her eyes. That cute brat. Chii had to be strong ever since she was a kid, and that meant she didn’t know how to act like a kid. That meant I had to try and spoil Chii even if she wouldn’t ask me to.
“Would you expect something of me if I promised to take you somewhere later?”
The hair above Chii’s ears rose up then sank back down.
“Why are you asking this now?”
“Just because.”
“Please don’t make offers like that without thinking.”
Chii pouted, and I patted her on the head.
“A big brother doesn’t need a reason to want to play with his little sister.”
“…Big Brother, you’re just a smooth talker.”
“I can be a man of action, too.”
“In what way?”
She went hmph with a smile on her face, and then she took the bags from my hands.
“Then I will prepare dinner, so please play with Pyeii.”
“Hm? But it looks like she’s having fun by herself.”
“While it may appear that way, she is actually bored because I won’t play with her. I want you and Pyeii to become closer, Big Brother.”
“I’m seriously trying.”
Because Pyeii was Chii’s friend. But, even so, I couldn’t let myself play with Pyeii and leave Chii to prepare dinner all by herself. Because Pyeii was Pyeii, and I was me.
“But won’t making dinner by yourself be difficult? I could help out.”
“All you can do is warm up what’s already been made. Isn’t that right, Big Brother?”
This brat was underestimating me. I may not look it, but I can make over sixty kinds of side dishes. Of course, I was only really confident in about ten of them, but this was a point of pride for a high schooler! However, I couldn’t say this to Chii.
“Big Brother, you would be helping me by staying out of my way.”
Her haughty words and the blushing of her cheeks overwhelmed my heart with a surge of emotion. I jumped forward, hugged Chii, and kissed her on her soft cheek.
“Kyawoooo?!”
Surprised, Chii flapped her hair painfully against my cheek, but I was okay with this.
Chii angrily told me, “I-if you have the time to do this, then please spend time with Pyeii!” and I did as she said, taking a seat on the sofa next to Pyeii. I couldn’t believe she lost her temper just because of a surprise peck on the cheek. I mean, what about that goodbye kiss she gave me at Jirisan? While I was grumbling inwardly to myself, Pyeii fully ignored me and had her focus solely on her laptop. I asked Pyeii:
“What’re you doing?”
[Video game.]
“What kind of video game?”
[You have eyes.]
Correct. I do have eyes. I looked over her shoulder to peer at her laptop. Via an emulator, the quintessential fighting game that had taken the world by storm, ‘Road Brawler 2,’ was on her screen. Wow, what an old game. It was so old that people played it at arcades back when I was a kid.
“That’s a super old game.”
[It’s fun.]
I couldn’t deny that. I used to played it a lot, too. Awash in a sudden sense of nostalgia, I wanted to play it again.
“Can I play a round when you’re done?”
[…You can play?]
“Of course.”
[Really?]
Pyeii looked strangely excited. Why’s she like this?
“Why would I lie about something like this?”
[Then play with me.]
From her enthusiasm, I got the feeling that she was tired of playing by herself.
“If you wanted to play with someone this bad, why don’t you ask Chii?”
[…Chii, bad with technology.]
“…Is that so?”
That explained why Chii used a broom and dustpan instead of the electric vacuum claner. And that was how I went from expecting to play a round against a CPU to suddenly waging a battle against a phantom. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Fighting games are the funnest when you’re playing with another person. However, there was another problem.
“On your laptop?”
I doubt anyone wouldn’t know what a keyboard looks like. It might be possible for me to share it with Pyeii if my fingers were small and pretty like hers, but these pubescent boy’s hands of mine were a different story.
[I have a controller.]
Please don’t. I don’t think my psyche can take much more brainwashing—wait, what’s wrong with me? Seriously, my thoughts have been taking way too many weird turns lately. (tn: The word for controller transliterates to “pad.” Sunghoon thought she was talking about the kind of bra pads, and thought to himself some derivation of ‘putting on pads will just make your breasts look even bigger.’)
“In that case, let’s play.”
But from where I was sitting, it was difficult to see the screen. I inched towards Pyeii so that I was sitting closer to her.
[?!]
Pyeii made a question mark and exclamation point out of smoke, grabbed them, and hit me in the head with them. It hurt. I didn’t have to ask to know what kind of misunderstanding she’d made, and I quickly gave her an explanation.
“I couldn’t see the screen! If we don’t sit next to each other, then I can’t see it.”
Pyeii stopped hitting me, and wrote with a stony expression on her face:
[…Bad viewing angle.]
Viewing angle? What’s that? Pyeii dissipated her weapons, and then pushed the laptop a little towards me.
[Can you see it?]
“I can.”
The screen was easy to see. However, a new problem had popped up.
“But now you’re sitting weirdly.”
Pyeii was leaning towards me. Growing children need to have good posture. …Though maybe this didn’t apply to phantoms.
[Because we’re using a keyboard.]
Pyeii said it was okay, but I couldn’t get her bad posture out of my head. Hm. I thought of a good solution.
“Then let’s do this.”
[?]
“Sit here.”
I sat further back on the sofa and spread my legs as far as they would go, making a space for Pyeii to sit. Pyeii looked from that newly-formed space to my face and back again before sighing, making a hammer out of smoke, and hitting me on the head. It hurt. If I didn’t have Rangii’s tooth, I might have seriously died!
“Are you trying to kill me?!”
[…Scum. Go die.]
I took issue with this cruel treatment.
“I was trying to make it so you could play the game while sitting properly, so what’s the big deal?”
[I’m amazed you honestly thought it was okay to boldfacedly ask a woman to sit in a place like that.]
“You mean girl.”
[I’m old.]
Saehee once told me something very useful.
“Kids are kids based on their appearance, you brat.”
[Bothering an elementary schooler who developed early and looks like a college student is still a crime.]
“That’s true, but it’s also totally irrelevant to your situation.”
[You look like you’ll molest me the moment I get near you.]
That brat.
“All right. Then let’s just play like this.”
I was just trying to help her out.
And then a little bit later.
[My 13th win.]
I had the same look on my face that a battered and beaten main character with a headband wrapped around his head would make. I clenched the controller in my hand as I attempted to suppress my rage and said:
“Pyeii.”
[What?]
“Do you know what a toxic player is?”
[Unsportsmanlike conduct is a part of skill.]
I didn’t want to talk about this either. However, there was basic etiquette to fighting games that she had failed to follow. Exactly. There’s the saying that if you fail to follow this etiquette, the violence depicted on the screen will happen in real life. That’s what I wanted to do, at least.
Pyeii’s strategy was simple. After doing a bit of chip damage to me, she would stay crouched in a single spot. If I jumped towards her, she would uppercut, if I walked towards her, she would hit me with a low kick, and if I stayed still, she’d shoot a fireball at me. Add to that the fact that the controller made it difficult for me to shoot fireballs or do uppercuts, and I was utterly helpless to do anything. How could I not be angry?!
“I get that it takes skill, but isn’t that unfair?!”
[The victor’s world is comfortable.]
I nearly threw the controller at her and shouted that life is a battleground, but I stopped myself. Chii told me to play with her, not fight, right? It was as though I put a token into the arcade game, reviving my frayed patience.
“Sigh….”
I sighed, breathing out the world’s bitterness and the rage coloring my brain.
“I lost. I just can’t win.”
In other words, I was saying, ‘This game is crap! What’re you smiling for? All you did was slaughter a casual player! Tch, screw this game!!’ so wipe that smile off your face, Pyeii. And don’t puff out your chest in pride and don’t stick your nose in the air!
[Want me to teach you how to play better?]
That would mean I’d have to play again. I waved a hand at her and refused.
“It’s fine. I’ve never been good at fighting games.”
[You’ll stay crap unless you practice.]
“Use proper, normal language.”
[Toxic?]
“I’ll bet you didn’t know this, but toxic has always been used this way.”
Was I right? I had no idea. I just said that so that I could win something against Pyeii. As I expected, Pyeii pouted and wrote:
[…Noob.]
That was actually pretty cute. I found it difficult to hold in my laughter.
“Y’know, even noobs can have it good.”
[And how’s that?]
“We can have a tough fight against the AI.”
[…That doesn’t seem good.]
“Don’t you think it’s better than being a grandmaster who annihilates noobs?”
[Then let’s do something else.]
Pyeii’s hands glided across her keyboard with the ease of long practice, and she started a new game. This time, the game was a side-scrolling action game with a Three Kingdoms motif, ‘Devour the Heavens.’ (tn: No idea what this is a reference to.)
“Your taste in games is pretty retro, isn’t it?”
[Must not forget the classics. Old games are fun.]
“I can’t really understand the nostalgia guys who were born in the 90s have for these 90s era games.”
[…Shut up.]
Ah, she was sulking. It looked like she really enjoyed these vintage games. Pyeii stared daggers at me and wrote:
[No one’s forcing you to play.]
“I never said I didn’t want to. Okay, now let’s start.”
I grabbed the controller. Pyeii focused on the game right away, as if her bad mood was just an act. And then…
“Hey, Pyeii?”
[Hm?]
“This might just be my imagination, but it seems like every time I try and grab a weapon, you hit me on the head.”
[It’s your imagination.]
A few seconds later.
“How come every time I try and get on a horse, you hit me off it? You even used a cool-looking technique last time.”
[Misclick.]
“Then explain to me why you wrote, ‘Nice!’ when you did that.”
[You have bad eyesight.]
I have 20-20 vision. I forced myself to hold back my temper and focused on the game. Though only for a moment.
“Hey.”
[Focus on the game.]
“As if I can.”
I put down the controller and rubbed my now aching head as I asked:
“How come you ate the meat when you’re at full health, and I was one hit away from dying?”
[Accident.]
“Then how come, the moment I tried to eat it, you threw an enemy at me and made me trip?”
[Coincidence.]
“Doesn’t it seem like that accident and that coincidence lined up perfectly?”
[True.]
“As if that makes sense!!!!”
I stood up, unable to restrain my temper any longer.
[OMG!!]
This is complete crap! I’ll grant that, in fighting games, you’re supposed to beat up the other player, but we were playing a side-scrolling beat ’em up game. In other words, aren’t we supposed to be working together? So why did this brat keep trying to sabotage me?! Am I an enemy, too?!! We were playing on a laptop, so the problem wasn’t the money. The problem was the enjoyment of the game itself!
[Are you mad?]
Pyeii looked furtively at me. When I saw that, I forced my now overflowing anger forcibly back down. Only for Chii’s sake.
“No. I’m angry at the irrationality of this world, not you.”
Yep. I was angry that the developers made it so you could hurt your teammates. Or, at least, that’s what I decided to think.
[…This isn’t fun, either?]
The nostalgia factor of the game was pretty fun, but Pyeii’s playing style only made me frustrated—though I couldn’t tell her that. It seemed like Pyeii was having genuine fun playing like that. However, I couldn’t imitate Pyeii’s playing style. Because that would take more skill than I had. I sat back down and sighed tiredly.
“No, it was fun.”
The problem was that the game was putting my mental health at risk.
“Why don’t we go outside and play, instead?”
The only things I had in mind were taking a walk around the neighborhood, going to an amusement park, eating fast food, or going window shopping, but they were all fun activities in their own rights. Of course, I didn’t expect to Pyeii to agree immediately. She already told me she didn’t like going outside. That was why I did my best to entice her into saying yes.
“I have a friend who’s a really nice guy. Plus, he’s an ordinary human, so there’s no need to worry. He’d be great practice for making friends.”
Pyeii came here to try and fix her personality. She said she wanted to fix her introverted personality and become more outgoing. Which meant she had no reason to say no. Saehyun may seem like a total weirdo, but he’s a cheerful guy who can get along with pretty much anyone, so I was sure Pyeii would like him.
However, Pyeii immediately rejected my proposal.
[Don’t need it.]
I once again felt a disconnect between Pyeii’s behavior and her supposed goal. However, from the angry pout on Pyeii’s face, I could see that now wasn’t the time to think about that. Was she upset that I suggested we go outside when she was having fun playing video games? Actually, that didn’t seem right. Then my best course of action was to go along with Pyeii’s rude words one more time.
“All right. Then do you have any other games that are fun?”
[……]
Pyeii simply sat silently before closing our current game and double-clicking on an icon that was on her desktop. The game, ‘Cid Mayor’s Manifest Destiny 6’ started up.
[Play this.]
“…I know that that’s an addictive strategy game.”
Pyeii flinched and wrote with her head lowered:
[It’s fun, guaranteed.]
“I don’t like strategy games to begin with, and I’ve never played a game like this before.”
[Play the tutorial.]
But the biggest problem was my next point.
“Isn’t this a single player game?”
The situation may have gone a bit sideways, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to play with Pyeii. It felt like, despite all our bickering, we’d gotten a bit closer, and this whole exercise had been fun in its own right. Pyeii seemed to be able to tell what I was thinking, because she wrote:
[When you get used to it, you can play online with me.]
She was willing to go that far?
“But what’re you going to do until then?”
When I said that, Pyeii brushed her hands and took out another laptop.
[I have a spare.]
She was ready for anything.
“Then help me out. Teach me a bit.”
[Sure.]
Pyeii and I sat side by side with laptops at the ready. And then … time seemed to slip by.
“Big Brother, will you eat now?”
“Ah, one sec.”
“What about you, Pyeii?”
[One sec.]
“Stop playing video games and eat, the both of you!!”
“Just one more turn.”
[You eat first.]
“Are you two asking for a scolding?!”
Chii scolded us, but after we finished eating dinner, Pyeii and I didn’t take our hands away from our laptops even once.