Ch.139My Stuff is Mine, Your Stuff is Also Mine (1)

“Loyalty, Sergeant Ban Sol-young. I have received orders to be discharged as of Saturday, July 5th, 20xx. I hereby report.”

“Good work, Sol-young! Stay healthy out there!”

“Congratulations, Sol-young hyung!”

“Thank you, Captain. Thanks to all of you too.”

In July, as full summer began.

Sol-young, Do-young’s older brother, completed his military service—long if you considered it long, or freezing cold if you called it short—with cheers from his juniors and company officers as he made his final discharge report.

Despite being a cook who was rarely seen around the base, his caring personality that looked after his juniors and his cooking skills that rightfully earned him the title of “ace” of the unit made him popular. Not only members of his company but also soldiers from other companies gathered to congratulate him on his discharge.

“Now that I think about it, it’s sad we won’t get to eat Sol-young hyung’s cooking anymore.”

“Kang-taek, you’ve been to my neighborhood before. Let me know if you’re in the area. I’ll at least cook you a meal.”

“Really? If you say that, I’ll actually come.”

“Loyalty! Stay healthy in civilian life too, Sergeant Ban!”

“Yeah, loyalty. You all stay healthy too. Don’t get sick, don’t overdo it, and keep yourselves in one piece until we meet outside.”

And so, Sol-young headed toward the guard post amid cheers of congratulations.

“Could you open the gate? I need to leave.”

“What, Mr. Sol-young? You’re being discharged today? That can’t be. Who’s going to cook for us? Mr. Sol-young should cook until he becomes a major.”

“Cooks can’t become majors. Here’s my discharge certificate.”

Sol-young had his discharge certificate verified by the envious guard commander.

“Ah, right. Is there a family car waiting for you?”

“No, there won’t be. No one’s coming to pick me up.”

“Huh? Why? Families usually come for discharge day.”

“Today is when my family’s youngest and my mom are returning from studying abroad, so they’ve probably all gone there.”

“Ah… that’s too bad. After you worked so hard during your service.”

“Haha, sons can never win against daughters, even if they die trying. I’ll be going now.”

At the front gate of the base, where the congratulatory voices of his juniors could no longer be heard.

Sol-young, who had no fellow soldiers being discharged on the same day, walked out of the guard post alone and forlorn.

“Let’s see… the bus schedule to East Seoul.”

“Finally out?”

“…Huh?”

Sol-young, who had just exited the guard post and was trying to hail a taxi, turned his head at the familiar voice calling him.

“…Miso noona?”

Beyond the guard post where he thought no one would be waiting stood Teacher Yeo Mi-so, who had been Do-young’s homeroom teacher.

“How did Miso noona get here… I never told you my discharge date or base location.”

“I asked Do-young. She said the rest of the family had to go somewhere else and couldn’t come.”

“Ahaha… well, the youngest daughter always comes before the eldest son. But how did you get all the way to Gangwon-do without a car—”

—Whoosh

Teacher Yeo Mi-so pulled Sol-young, still in his military uniform, into a tight embrace with her small arms before he could finish speaking.

“Ah… Miso noona. I mean, this is practically the countryside so there’s hardly anyone watching… but we’re still barely in range of the base CCTV, you know?”

“…Let them record. I don’t care.”

“Haha… I guess Do-young must have given you a lot of trouble during the school trip. You’re being clingy right away.”

Sol-young gently wrapped his arms around Teacher Yeo Mi-so’s head and waist as she clung to him.

“Miso noona. Looks like you ate well during the school trip. You’ve put on a little weight…”

“Seven weeks along.”

“…Eh?”

Sol-young, who had just walked out the guard post gate, found himself bound again just as he had gained his freedom.

**

#Modern, #Daily_Life, #Romance, #Comedy, #Pure_Love

These were the tags listed in the introduction when I was binge-reading “Half of Half-Do.”

Just from these, I could tell there were no special fantasy elements in this work.

Well, of course, the storyline where a beauty like Ban Do-young would take interest in a loser like Do Ha-min before he matured could be called fantasy, I suppose.

Anyway, what I want to say is this:

“Half of Half-Do” doesn’t contain elements that people might expect from a #Fantasy tag.

Magic, superpowers, fighting spirit, status windows, etc.

Especially status windows—those definitely don’t exist.

When I was locked alone in a room during the school trip,

I shouted until my throat was raw from morning until late afternoon, and nothing appeared, so they must not exist.

In this day and age, hiding tags for the sake of plot twists or adding tags without notice after sudden developments is considered a betrayal of readers who have followed the work, and such authors get roasted everywhere.

“Half of Half-Do,” which concluded successfully with positive reviews, wouldn’t take such an approach.

At least there wouldn’t be a harem ending where protagonist Do Ha-min suddenly declares a harem and takes everyone to the Middle East,

or a hunter story ending where gates from another world open and change everything just as he and Do-young get together,

or a SF ending where aliens invade and destroy Earth,

or a meteor shower ending where an asteroid collision destroys the planet.

Of course, this assumes that I, as an entity outside the work, make it to the end without mistakes.

Well, what could happen? I don’t have regression abilities, so small incidents shouldn’t snowball into butterfly effects that come back to haunt me.

I decided not to consider such worst-case scenarios from the start.

Huh? Why am I talking about this now?

—THWACK!

“Guhk…! *cough*”

“This is instead of a morning greeting. A bit late for a morning call, isn’t it?”

“Crazy… kendo stick. You can actually use that thing?”

In the world of “Half of Half-Do,” which has no magic, superpowers, fighting spirit, or status windows,

a crazy girl who could send people flying with just the air pressure from swinging a bamboo sword stood before me.

“Did you enjoy my Belgian chocolate cookie set that I was saving for the pleasure of coming home? Did you enjoy it, Ban Thief-girl?”

“*cough* *cough*… Ah, you mean the ones on the kitchen shelf that Mom and my sister said they liked… so that means…”

Only then did I raise my head through the broken door and swirling dust to look at the girl in front of me.

“What’s with that blank face? Did you forget my face after not seeing me for just a year or two? Or are you stunned by how much I’ve grown while we were apart?”

A twin-tailed girl with the same face as in the family photos at home.

But only her youthful face matched her age. Below that, there was no trace of the small little girl from the family photos—she had grown tall and slender.

“…Growth?”

“You just tilted your head while looking at my chest, didn’t you? That will grow soon enough, so don’t nitpick. I’ve almost caught up to your height. I’m much taller than when you were in 8th grade.”

She was slightly shorter than Ban Do-young, but still looked to be over 170cm.

That’s exceptionally tall for a middle school second-year girl.

That’s why I only thought her face resembled Ban Do-young’s and didn’t immediately recognize who she was.

If it weren’t for her face that looked exactly like her childhood self in the family photos,

and the absence of the same cute upper body, I probably would have taken longer to realize.

“So that means the person in front of me is…”

Ban Do-young’s younger sister, the youngest of the Ban siblings who had gone abroad to study kendo, Ban Si-young.

That Ban Si-young was now standing before me, bamboo sword in hand, fire in her eyes.

“Ban Si-young…”

I remember Mom saying she would return home around July when her competition ended.

An excellent foreshadowing payoff.

Though I don’t understand why recovering this foreshadowing required sacrificing a door and Ban Do-young rolling off the bed.

“So it was today. Come to think of it, Dad did say yesterday that he needed to leave early.”

It makes sense that the diligent Mr. Ban-doche would rush off without waking Ban Do-young.

Going to pick up his beloved wife and cute youngest daughter returning home after a long time, he wouldn’t have the luxury of waking his second daughter who was sprawled out in deep sleep.

“Ban Si-young… it is Si-young, right?”

“How unusual for you to call me by my proper name. You haven’t done that in a while.”

“…Oh, is that so?”

Ah, what a mistake.

So the ‘real’ Ban Do-young was the type of older sister who called her younger sister by a nickname rather than her name.

Just like how I used to call the early Do Ha-min by the nickname “Model Student.”

It was a moment where I found a strange commonality with Ban Do-young.

“It’s awkward, so just call me like you usually do.”

“U-usually… Sister Ban Si-young?”

“…”

“S-Si-young-chan? Beloved sister? Our family’s trea—no, treasure?”

“Are you joking with me in this situation? Or are you trying to act like a nice sister to lower my guard, what is it…?”

How am I supposed to know?

Ban Si-damn-young.

“Even if it’s a strategy to lower my guard, it won’t work. How many times have I fallen for your tricks while living with you? I won’t fall for that anymore.”

—WHOOSH!

As Si-young swung the bamboo sword with one hand, a gust of wind struck Ban Do-young’s face.

“I’m about to go crazy with anger finding out I’ve had something stolen by you again as soon as I get home.”

While I was momentarily distracted by the wind rushing to my eyes, Si-young raised her bamboo sword above her head and charged at me as I lay fallen.

“Prepare yourself, Ban Thief-girl. Scarlet Sma—!”

“Ban Si-young, stop.”

—THUD!

“Gak!”

Just then, Si-young, who had charged at me with her bamboo sword, was suddenly grabbed by the wrist by a white arm from behind me, and she tumbled to the floor.

“That cookie set. You ran out before hearing that Dad gave it to your sister to take when visiting her boyfriend in the hospital.”

“Urgh…”

“And no matter how angry you are, really? Who in the world breaks down a door over a missing snack? And your sister’s door at that.”

“Kekek… As expected of the former Crimson Blader. Even though I had no killing intent, you easily saw through and countered such a basic technique.”

“Mom…?”

The one who caught and subdued the flying Si-young was

the mother of the Ban siblings who had returned home with Si-young.

Cheok Jun-sook.

“Our Do-young, have you been well?”

“That doesn’t seem like the right thing to say in this situation. Anyway, I’ve been fine.”

“Hoho, Mom’s been well too. Our Do-young seems to have gotten prettier in the short time I haven’t seen you. Busy with your romance?”

“Mom, that’s sexual harassment.”

“It’s okay, Mom’s a woman too.”

It was Mom’s mirror therapy that I was experiencing after a long time.