episode_0119

39. Not your brother, but this brother. (2)

I left my brother Ji-seong lying there in a daze on the other side, and my brother Hyun-seok came out to the small veranda and looked outside.

The weather is now so hot that you can tell summer is coming. June has arrived.

The view from the veranda was as if the ruins of the tower were slowly returning to nature, befitting the name of the Blue House settlement, which was often attacked by the tower.

Of course, this is only true in the areas surrounding the settlement, but if you look far away, you can still see the desolate landscape in ruins.

As the saying goes, the more you perceive the hotter the scenery, the hotter it gets. As I fan myself with my hand, a cool breeze tickles my hair.

Let’s look at the direction the wind is blowing. My brother is using his power to cool me down.

” Thanks. It was a little hot. Hehe. ”

” What’s this? I really like it when you keep calling me that. ”

” Really? If you like it… That’s fortunate. ”

I turned my head slightly and looked at my older brother who was still blankly staring at me. Then, my older brother’s hand wrapped around my waist and I was held in his arms.

” Brother…? ”

” Don’t worry. Mr. Yoo Ji-seong… No, should I call him hyung now? I don’t think he’ll get too angry or anything. It just seems like he’s having a hard time accepting it.

Still, I’ll always be by your side. ”

I smiled faintly at his words, asking him to trust me and that he would always be by my side, and placed my lips on his.

A light kiss without tongue insertion. However, without thinking of pulling away from their overlapping lips, they simply enjoyed the time they were stuck together.

How much did they overlap? As we felt each other’s breathing becoming increasingly rough, a sharp voice was heard from the living room.

” Oh my, you guys really… ”

At that voice, we pushed each other away and fell apart.

” Okay. Okay. I’m glad you seem to be on good terms. Hyunseok, you… do you remember what I said? ”

” Yes, Charlotte… will never cry. ”

My heart pounded at the sight of my brother confidently answering, as if he was holding my hand tightly and telling me to leave it to him.

‘I’m really… completely lost. I can’t get out of it anymore.’

As I was looking at Hyunseok with honey dripping from my eyes, my real older brother Jisung sighed deeply and turned to leave, getting up from his seat.

” Then I’ll go too… Well, you two can do whatever you want, but come on time. ”

” Ah! Hey, wait a minute, oppa…! ”

” Why…? ”

When I stopped him from leaving, my older brother had a sullen expression on his face as if asking why I was holding him back when he was telling me to go and have a good time together.

I felt a little sorry for that expression, but… I thought that if not now, then there would be no time to… convey my decision…

” I have something I want to say… ”

*****

” So what do you want to talk about? ”

My older brother asks me while drinking ice-cold coffee sitting on the table.

When I couldn’t speak and was holding Hyunseok’s hand and fidgeting, he looked slightly surprised.

” What? Are you already pregnant?! ”

” What?! Oh, no! That’s not it…! ”

I had to tell him my decision, but… I suddenly felt embarrassed and my mouth wouldn’t open.

But isn’t it inevitable?

The story goes, ‘The memories I have as a man disappear when I first give them to the person next to me.’

Because if someone heard it, they would say it was so obscene and ridiculous that they would ask if I was crazy.

Honestly, no matter how many times I think about it, the god who set such a condition… is definitely Patruna.

Because he made me a woman because he wanted to see me get taken in by his older brother.

‘ Well, it’s not that I don’t like it… but… ‘

As I was staying still, Ji-seong oppa knocked on the desk and told Hyun-seok oppa, who was next to me, to leave for a moment. Hyun-seok oppa patted my head and headed to the bedroom.

” I see you’re so worried, so it’s probably related to our family… right? ”

” Uh, yeah… ”

” And you didn’t say that you were originally a ‘man’. ”

” Ugh, that’s… I can’t help it… ”

” I made you leave the seat, so speak quickly. ”

” Yeah, about my memory… I told you, right? ”

At the word memory, my older brother stopped tapping his fingers on the desk, clenched his fists, and took a deep breath.

” Almost none… I said. I only recovered a little bit with the memory fragments I received from the goddess. ”

” Yeah, and actually, that memory was… ‘a memory that disappears when the condition is met. ‘ ”

” Hmm, so you know about that condition? ”

” That’s right… I heard it from the goddess who gave me the fragments… ”

” What on earth are the conditions that have you been fidgeting all this time? ”

” That, that is. That… condition is… ”

Ji-sung oppa, who couldn’t stand seeing me keep stopping and starting to speak, slammed the table down with a ‘bang!’ and gulped down the coffee in front of him.

” Hey! Speak quickly! ”

” Oh, I got it! Oppa, if I give my first to this oppa instead of that one… it will disappear… ”

I was startled by the sudden bang on the desk, so I could have spoken more naturally, but I ended up speaking too quickly.

‘Ugh, I said it…! ‘

He covered his face with both hands, bowed his head, and remained still.

I just stayed there and couldn’t hear anything, so I spread my fingers slightly and looked forward. There was my older brother, who was drinking coffee and slurping it down as if he was dumbfounded.

” Are you okay…? ”

As if he had come to his senses at my words, he wiped his mouth.

” Phew, wait, I think I misheard something. Let me check again. So now my memories of my family are as faint as a speck of dust, right? ”

” Yeah. ”

” And that memory doesn’t remain permanently, it disappears when the conditions are met. ”

” Right. ”

” But, the condition is that you have sex with that guy? ”

” Hey, wait! No matter what, that’s too direct… ”

” Haa, how did my sister… Not only did she become a woman… she became a total slut… ”

” Wait? What are you talking about! Why am I, ugh, lewd!!! ”

” Oh, Yeonseo was right. She said she was going at him lewdly from the beginning… Yeah, that must be it. ”

” Oppa?! I told you, it’s not like I wanted it to be like this?! The goddess… ”

I tried to talk to him because the atmosphere was flowing strangely, but he had no intention of listening.

” If you keep doing that, I’ll get mad…? ”

” Hey, right. Can’t you tease me a little? ”

” Huh! ”

” This is totally a woman. A woman. ”

” Woman… that’s right… ”

I smiled slightly at the sight of him apologizing when I glanced at him with a slightly crooked expression on his face, and after that, they changed the mood by laughing with each other.

” So why are you holding me back and telling me this? ”

” Jia… I asked my sister first… If I lose my memories… Would the ‘me’ back then be my brother’s family and younger sister? Or… would I just be a girl named ‘Charlotte’? ”

To my question, my brother, Yoo Ji-seong. No, my real brother, thought slowly and opened his mouth.

” I can guess what Jia would say… but I’m the same. Even if you lose your memories of us, you’re still my sister.

It’s not my younger brother ‘Yoo Ji-seok’. But it’s my younger sister ‘Yoo Ji-soo’ and ‘Charlotte’. So you don’t have to make that crying face. ”

” Who, who’s crying… sob… ”

Tears flowed out of my eyes without me knowing at his answer, and he slowly got up from his seat, hugged me, and patted my back.

” It’s enough that we met like this. We’ve been apart for quite some time, but we met like this, right? Well, I didn’t know you’d turn into a pretty little sister and even bring a boyfriend. ”

” What is that… ”

” So… now there’s only the three of us as a family. Even if you lose the memories you had with us when you were a man, you can still build up memories as my younger sister.

You can start building again from now on. And it’s even better if you’re happy with the person you love. ”

” Yeah, thanks… Oppa. ”

I slowly raised my head, smiled, and thanked him.

This is… the end.

It is a farewell to the past where I lived as a maintenance worker.

The ‘me’ who has lived as a man ends here. Now, there is only the ‘me’ who lives as a woman.

There is only the present and the future with them as Yujisu and as Charlotte.

*****

When her older brother Yoo Ji-seong left, Hyun-seok and her older brother came out of the bedroom.

” Is the story over? ”

” Okay, that’s it… the end. ”

I went up to him and hugged him. To calm my slightly troubled mind… My brother’s scent was the best.

My brother, who was watching me sniffing the air, saying, ‘Sniff, sniff.’ and ‘Ugh.’

” Are you okay? ”

” Yes. Thank you. Oppa. And please take care of me in the future too. ”

” This is what I have to say. Stay by my side from now on and for the rest of my life. ”

The lips of the lovers slowly and gently begin to overlap, and little by little, they become rough, overlapping as if confirming each other’s affection.

As if simply overlapping their lips wasn’t enough, they mixed their tongues together and repeatedly pulled their lips apart and overlapped them again, creating a transparent yet long thread of fate.

And the two of them moved their bodies to each other, opened the bedroom door, and went in.

In that room, the only sounds were the licking of something and the screams of a woman filled with joy.

The ice cubes in the glass on the table crumble down with a ‘clank’ sound.

A hot day that is still and yet has a warm breeze blowing through it.

A man ends his long journey of life here, and a woman begins her long journey of life on the bed.

The day one of the two people who were once one disappeared.

The day when the hearts of two people who were once two became completely one.

One such summer day.