A taste of everyday life for the first time in a while.

“,,,I fell asleep at sunrise, but woke up after sunrise.”

I once heard that the cold winter sun rises late because of the cold.

The fact that I fell asleep until that late-rising sun came out made me realize how much fatigue had accumulated.

It had been a while since I’d slept in a fluffy room. I yawned incessantly and left the room.

“You’re up now. How tired were you to sleep so long?”

Jua was licking an ice cream on the sofa, wearing only an oversized t-shirt.

She hadn’t even bothered to fix her longer hair, and she was tapping on her phone on the sofa, so it seemed like she hadn’t been up for long.

“I’m like this, but are you just waking up now?”

“I was streaming until late last night and went to bed late too. But how did you know I just woke up?”

“Even a virgin ghost would tell you to get lost because your hair is so messy.”

“It’s not that messy…”

“Messy doesn’t just mean dirty, it also means disheveled. Did you eat, or are you going to eat?”

A smile that seemed to say ‘of course not’ with aegyo.

I understand being too lazy to eat, but you have to take care of your meals.

Just as my stomach was asking for food, I opened the refrigerator first.

“What? There’s no food at all?”

As soon as I closed the empty refrigerator, I looked at Jua, and she nodded.

Was she unable to eat, rather than not eating? Even so, I couldn’t imagine there being nothing at all.

I didn’t have enough ingredients to cook right away, so I scratched the back of my head.

“Ah… I need to eat, should I order something? Jua, is there anything you want to eat?”

“Food? Hmm, if oppa wants rice, we can order rice side dishes, or maybe a hamburger?”

“Hamburger? Hamburger… okay, good, I’ll order a hamburger and laze around a bit more.”

“If you’re ordering, I’ll have a cheeseburger.”

Three hamburgers, one cheeseburger, and a large size.

I ordered two more Big Macs, both large, and sat on the sofa, fiddling with my phone.

“Why don’t you lie down after you finish your ice cream?”

“Why?”

“If the ice cream falls, are you going to clean it up?”

“I’ve almost finished it, so just let it go. I’m going to stream after I eat.”

“Does anyone watch if you stream this early in the morning?”

“I do. Amazing, right?”

She laid down on the sofa with the little bit of ice cream left, and looked up at me with a proud expression.

If she streams at this hour and people watch, how many pure fans does she have?

I stroked her hair to answer, and she smiled and put the ice cream stick on the table.

“Oppa’s back, so should I take some missions today and rake in some cash?”

“Weren’t you always taking missions? Listening to you, it sounds like you’re only specially taking missions today to rake in cash.”

“I haven’t been taking them much lately. When oppa’s around, the atmosphere is like ‘Oh, he’s doing that.’ It’s fun, so they don’t give me missions as much after that.”

“Oh, really? If it’s so fun that they don’t give you missions… what is it…”

“Oppa’s here, so just stream with me until lunchtime. If the atmosphere gets a little heated… hehe.”

She smiled and tapped my body.

Ah, right, it’s been a while, so I know what you’re thinking, but not today.

I firmly tapped her forehead, and she quickly became sullen.

“No. Go back, please keep to the order.”

“What order! Do I still have to get permission from unni?”

“No, I’m still tired, so I’m refusing, I’m first in line. No approaching until I’m rested.”

“That’s too much! If Eunha unni was here, I could try to do it by force… no, I can’t do it anymore.”

“Even if you guys push me with force, I don’t think I’d lose now… want to try it by force?”

“No, I’ll just touch your stomach and play. You’ll allow that, right?”

I nodded weakly.

I didn’t have abs, but my stomach definitely had more muscle than before, so I had to endure her hands pressing on my stomach.

Her hands pressing on my clothes were playful, as if she were touching a toy doll.

I guessed it was because she missed me being subtly clingy, but it was just a guess. It was a topic that was too awkward to ask about, so I quietly kept it to myself.

“Ah, what about Eunha? I heard you live together?”

“She probably went out with Jihye unni? I heard yesterday that she was going to visit Jihye unni’s company in advance because she had work to do with them.”

“She has work to do with a webtoon artist?”

I wondered if they were drawing a promotional webtoon, but there could also be design work.

There were too many things to speculate about, so I gave up and leaned back on the sofa.

Normally, it would be time to get up and work, but the rest I got from coming home was so sweet.

The sunlight coming in through the glass felt so soft and sweet that I yawned again, but Jua’s touch eventually bothered me and made me lose sleep.

Jua fiddled with me for a while, then got up and nodded at me.

Then she turned her face towards the room, nodded in response, and headed into the room.

–

“Huh? Why is there a server maintenance? Does the streaming platform also have server maintenance??”

“…Streaming sites also have server maintenance.”

I sighed as I looked at the streaming equipment plastered all over my computer.

Compared to streaming with a phone attached, it’s like a fairy, but it hurts my heart that my computer has that kind of stuff attached to it.

I wanted to get angry and say, “How could you do this to my computer that I’ve been using well for years!” but I ended up agreeing on the condition that they buy me a new computer.

I was going to start streaming after the agreement, but a notice that the streaming platform would be undergoing maintenance all day today was plastered on the main screen.

“…What do I do now? I have nothing to do until the food comes.”

“It’ll be a while before the food comes, oh, what?”

“What’s wrong? Did something come?”

“…No, it seems like the deliveries are backed up, so it’ll take even longer?”

The saying “adding insult to injury” came to mind.

If one thing doesn’t work out, the other doesn’t work out either. I couldn’t eat or stream, so I yawned and lay down on the bed that Jua uses.

The food isn’t coming, and I can’t stream. I don’t know why the streaming platform is doing maintenance on the entire site, but I have too much time left over.

“Haa… then what do I do? It’s a bit early to go out to eat, but I’m hungry to sleep again.”

“Keueung, to lose the chance to naturally touch… this is a bit of a big blow…”

“If that was your purpose, give up and let’s eat. What do you want to eat?”

I tapped Jua’s chair with my toes as she groaned while sitting in it.

She seemed to hesitate for a moment, then nodded and looked at me with a smile.

“Hamburger!”

“While I was gone, did Jihye act like a mom and say, ‘Jua-yang, you shouldn’t eat unhealthy things like hamburgers!’ or something?”

“That’s not it, I just want to eat a hamburger from the burger place near our house.”

“…I have to wash up and go out. Then you wash up and get ready too, I’ll wash up and go out too.”

We nodded at each other, giving each other signals like partners talking in a movie.

–

“Delicious.”

“It’s good that you’re eating a lot and chewing thoroughly… but why did you grab a spot in the corner like this?”

We went into a large hamburger chain and ordered a cheeseburger and two Big Macs, and sat in the corner.

I wondered if there was a reason to sit in the corner, but I didn’t ask any more questions because she looked happy eating her hamburger.

I wiped the area around Jua’s mouth as she mumbled like a child who was happy to eat a hamburger after a long time, and I also mumbled my hamburger.

Without saying anything to Jua, I also mumbled at the taste of the burger that I was eating after a long time.

On the ship, I could only eat grilled fish, vegetable scraps, and soup and rice, so the salty and greasy taste of the burger that I was eating after a long time was so stimulating that it was almost violent.

I finished eating one Big Mac and wiped my hands, and Jua was looking at me with a smile.

“What? Why are you smiling?”

“You were eating so eagerly, like it was your first time.”

“You said what I was going to say. But it’s true that it’s delicious because I haven’t had it in a while. I couldn’t even dream of this on the ship.”

“Ah, right, you said you worked on a ship? Since there’s plenty of room, can you tell me about it?”

“…Do you want me to recall that hellish time in my head again? Isn’t that too much, Jua-yang…”

“A younger sibling can ask if they’re curious!”

I almost punched her, but I held back.

I don’t want to think about it because it was hard back then, but what’s wrong with a kid being curious?

I didn’t want to think about it, but I nodded.

“I can’t tell you everything, it’s too long… so I’ll just tell you what you’re curious about. What are you curious about?”

“Why did you go?”

“……”

I closed my mouth at the question that was too direct from the start.

If she asked, I thought she would ask something like, “Did you catch anything?” or “How did you live there?”, at best.

To suddenly ask the most difficult question, “Why did you go there?”, my throat felt like it was burning, and even though I drank cola, she was still smiling and looking at me.

‘I don’t know if I can avoid it by avoiding it.’

There were many excuses I could make.

Of course, if I made excuses, she would find out I was lying and get angry, and if I said it directly, I would be a little embarrassed.

“Can you ask me a different question?”

“I have other questions, but… I’m most curious about this right now.”

“Why are you curious about this? Isn’t it something you can just let go?”

“…Oppa.”

She continued to speak seriously, turning her smiling expression into a blank one.

“Even if I look like I’m smiling and comfortable, I don’t empty my brain, you know?”

“…”

“Of course, if a guy I was hanging out with just the day before suddenly went somewhere for work the next day, it’s normal to worry.”

“…That’s true.”

“And he went to another country, so of course I wouldn’t worry, huh?”

“I’m… I’m sorry…”

I realized that she was my younger sister.

She was pointing out each point with a blank expression and pushing in, not much different from Jihye.

This feeling of blocking the wall step by step, pushing and tightening.

It was similar to the feeling that tightened me when Jihye was determined to scold me, so I endured it by swallowing the feeling with cola.

“That’s why I asked, if you don’t want to talk about it, just tell me roughly.”

“Roughly? Roughly…”

If it was really roughly, I would be too pathetic, so I hesitated for a moment.

If it was too long, she would look at me strangely, and if it was too short, she would definitely suspect me, so I needed content that I could adjust appropriately without lying.

Her eyes were watching me as she mumbled french fries in front of me as I pondered.

Even though it was the same look as usual, I felt a slightly stinging sensation, so I felt that I had become sensitive.

If she was going to ask persistently even if I talked around it, I opened my mouth with the intention of only saying what wasn’t embarrassing.

“I went because I was a bit pathetic.”

“Pathetic…? You’ve changed so much that I thought, ‘Is that really oppa?’ and you’re pathetic?”

I drank the little bit of cola left and nodded.

“I was pathetic. My younger sisters are doing that, so what am I? I needed a little confidence.”

I continued to speak as Jua nodded at my words.

“You know how it is? My younger sisters are doing well, but I wondered what I had done. So I looked for a job on a whim, and that was the ship.”

“It doesn’t sound like you made a decision… how big of a decision did you make to go to another country…?”

“It was probably the biggest decision of my life.”

“A bigger decision than when you tried to take over your younger sisters?”

I glared at her, and she laughed loudly and mumbled.

My throat was drying up as if to say that my throat dries up when I’m nervous, so I was just sucking on the empty cola glass to moisten it, and Jua got up from her seat.

“I was just kidding. It seems like you have a bigger decision, but I won’t ask, so eat your hamburger, oppa. I’ll get more cola.”

“It seems like you’ve changed a lot too. Are you really that immature Jua?”

She picked up my cup and lightly bumped my shoulder with her body.

“I’m just pretending to be mature right now!”

Then she smiled and walked to the counter to get a drink.