Ch.140My Stuff is Mine, Your Stuff is Also Mine (2)

Today was supposed to be a very joyous day for Ban Doyoung’s family.

The eldest son Solyoung was being discharged from the military, and the youngest Siyoung was returning from her kendo studies abroad.

Their mother Junsook, who had boarded the plane to care for Siyoung, was also coming back,

making this a monumental day when Ban Doyoung’s family would all be gathered in one place after about two years.

If the “real” Ban Doyoung had been here instead of me,

it would have been an even more meaningful occasion.

“Ah… Dad felt like everything that happened today was a dream. Honestly, I’m still a bit suspicious. Doyoung’s mom, am I dreaming right now? If so, could you pinch my side?”

“I’ll need that body tonight, so I won’t pinch you.”

“Ah… This response confirms it’s reality. Yes, since it’s reality, it’s a series of events more surprising than dreams.”

It wasn’t unusual for Mr. Ban, the head of the household, to make a fuss with his gruff and boisterous voice, but today there was definitely a basis for his excitement.

A big and beautiful basis, at that.

[20th World Kendo Championship WWKC]

[Champion]

[Ban Siyoung]

“When your mom first told me, I was truly shocked. First the national championship, and now the world championship… And with Solyoung coming back too. I thought today would be the happiest day for our family.”

The family dining table, visible from both the living room and kitchen.

Dad proudly placed the brilliant golden trophy in the center of the table.

The trophy boldly displayed the name “Ban Siyoung” as the world champion, written in both English and Chinese characters.

It was already a joyous occasion to have the long-separated family reunited,

but to come home clutching a world championship trophy on top of that—how could our Mr. Ban not be amazed?

What greater homecoming gift could there be for our Mr. Ban?

Everyone would understand if a grown man had tears welling up in his eyes today.

For Solyoung, who just returned from military service, to outdo this homecoming gift,

it wouldn’t be enough to walk through the front door with a fiancée in hand.

He’d probably need to have already produced a grandchild to even compete.

“If only I hadn’t witnessed the door getting smashed within an hour of coming home… sigh.”

Dad let out a deep sigh as he looked at Ban Doyoung’s room, which had been turned into a complete mess by Siyoung’s recent commotion.

“Both Doyoung and Siyoung should show better behavior as they’ve grown in their respective places, shouldn’t they? Fighting over a snack like this isn’t right.”

“…Fighting?”

As far as I know, a fight refers to a conflict where both parties exchange blows.

At least in my memory, I hadn’t engaged in either physical or verbal combat with the crazy girl who transcended genres by creating air pressure with a bamboo sword and throwing people around.

‘If that was a fight, then I guess we should rename school violence as school fighting too…’

However, there was no reason to pour oil on the fire when someone was trying to mediate the situation,

so I decided to just observe how things would unfold.

“Anyway, don’t be disheartened, Doyoung’s dad.”

“That’s right, Dad. They say if you laugh after crying, you’ll grow horns on your butt.”

“In your case, you were laughing first and now you’re crying.”

“W-who’s crying… This is just sweat coming from my eyes due to disappointment!”

“Your pride, as always… There, there, I’ll pat you, so stop crying now.”

Mom comforted Dad by patting his shoulder as he shed tears of disappointment.

It felt a bit awkward seeing this scattered middle-aged man who easily exceeded 190cm trying to hide his tears while being comforted by Mom in her pink apron, but Mom wasn’t exactly small either, so their size difference was just barely acceptable.

“Ahem! Anyway! Since today is such a joyous occasion, I’ve decided we’ll have a celebration party for Solyoung’s discharge from the military and Siyoung’s world championship victory. Any objections?”

“If you have anything you want to eat, tell me in advance. Mom will show off her skills after a long time.”

“Oh, then I…”

“But!”

Before I could even mention a single menu item,

Mom raised her finger to silence both Siyoung and me.

“Until the party preparations are complete, you two will restore the messy room together, understood?”

“T-together…? She destroyed it by herself, so why do I have to fix it with her…?”

“I don’t want to either. I’d rather just do it alone than do anything with this Ban Thief Girl…”

“No. It’s meaningless unless you do it together. Try doing it like when you two used to build blocks together nicely when you were little. Mom and Dad will go grocery shopping.”

“W-wait… Mom!”

And so Mom and Dad left us behind with the broken door and our awkward relationship, flying far away in the family car before we could stop them.

“…”

“…”

“Siyoung champ. Should I go get some tools from the dojo storage to fix the door first?”

“I told you not to call me that. Mom’s not here, so call me what you usually do.”

“What do I usually call you, Ban Shibal Girl?”

“Acting like you don’t know when you do.”

Ah, so that’s what it was.

The sisters’ nicknames for each other were Ban Doyoung (Ban Thief Girl) and Ban Siyoung (Ban Shibal Girl).

What kind of life have you been living, Miss Ban Doyoung?

While “Thief Girl” might be acceptable, “Shibal Girl” was definitely an awkward nickname to use in front of Mom and Dad.

“Even so, calling your younger sister ‘Shibal Girl’ seems a bit much.”

“Hmph, I’d rather be called that than ‘Siyoung champ’ by you. If not that, then call me by the nickname I was known by at competitions abroad—the Crimson Sword Master, ‘Scarlet Swordmaster’…”

“Fine, whatever. Hey, Shibal Girl. Let’s go downstairs and get some tools.”

“Add the surname, Ban Thief Girl. Without it, I’m just a Shibal Girl.”

While calling my sister by her newly rediscovered nickname,

we began to clean up Ban Thief Girl’s room that Ban Shibal Girl had wrecked.

.

.

.

“Ah, I have exams right around the corner and need to study, but here I am doing this because of my incompetent sister.”

“Hmph, who told you to pack my hidden snacks as a get-well gift and send them away?”

“I didn’t take them, Dad gave them to me.”

“He gave them because you asked. Knowing that I like those. Asking Dad if you could take them as a get-well gift.”

It seemed that Siyoung, the younger sister, had quite a bit of resentment built up against Ban Doyoung, whether she realized it or not.

Judging by the nickname “Thief Girl” and her anger about having her belongings taken by her older sister,

she must have had some pretty harsh experiences with Ban Doyoung when she was younger.

Plus, she was at a particularly sensitive age.

“I’m sorry about the snacks. I had to bring a get-well gift right away, but it was the end of the month and I had nothing left after setting aside my transportation money.”

I remember the snack set I took as a get-well gift for Do Hamin, who caught a cold and missed school right after the school trip.

I vaguely recall Dad explaining that it was a brand that both Mom and my sister really liked.

Of course, I didn’t know she liked those snacks enough to attack her own sister with a bamboo sword while half-asleep.

“Still, I felt bad, so after I got my allowance, I bought cookies from the same brand and put them on the shelf.”

“Does replacing it mean you can just take it? Besides, what you bought wasn’t chocolate cookies, but cheese cookies. Do you think it’s fair to exchange deliciously bittersweet chocolate cookies for tangy, greasy cheese cookies?”

“What’s wrong, Siyoung champ? Can’t you eat cheese?”

“…I told you not to call me that. Do you want to get hit with a mop after the bamboo sword?”

“Alright, please refrain from Kamizari round 2… Let’s put down the class pres—I mean, the mop in your hand first.”

“Cheese… Not enough to drink milk, they have to eat spoiled milk too? It’s truly humanity’s tragedy.”

“Sigh… I guess you really can’t eat it. Good thing I didn’t make female-corrupting porridge as a peace offering—that would have been disastrous.”

Even the great Ban Doyoung doesn’t deliberately create fights she can’t win.

There was no need to turn my back on Siyoung or cause conflict right now, so I decided to avoid provoking her anger as much as possible.

-Buzz

Just then, my phone in my pocket rang.

“Huh? That’s unusual.”

It seemed like this was the first time it had happened.

A sudden call from Do Hamin on a weekend afternoon without any warning.

“Hello?”

[Oh, hi, Doyoung.]

Do Hamin’s voice came through the receiver.

“Yo, calling at this hour? Pretty impressive.”

[Ah, sorry. Are you busy?]

“I am busy, but not too busy to take a call. What’s up? Did you miss my voice that much?”

[Um, yes… That’s true, so I’ll say yes.]

“Oh my, look who’s not denying it.”

[Actually… I’m at the library near school today.]

“The library…? Ah… the one behind the middle school?”

On a weekend when there’s no school.

Yet for some reason, Do Hamin was near the school,

which means very close to Ban Doyoung’s house.

From what I gathered, it seems that with the final exams coming up next week, the libraries near his home were under construction,

leaving him with nowhere to study but the library in front of our school.

From my memory of visiting before, Do Hamin’s house definitely didn’t have air conditioning.

For someone with a hot constitution like Do Hamin, studying at home during summer would be absolute hell.

[I bought some snacks as a thank-you for when you came to visit me with a gift… If it’s okay, could I maybe come over to your house now?]

“Ah… well. My room is a bit messy right now…”

I was slightly conflicted.

I wasn’t sure if bringing Do Hamin, who would appear to have eaten Siyoung’s snacks, to our house was the right choice.

It certainly wasn’t because I felt uncomfortable being under the same roof as the grown-up Do Hamin.

“Hey, Do Hamin, the kid I visited when he was sick, says he wants to come over…”

I briefly covered the speaker with my hand and called out to Siyoung, who was supposed to be cleaning.

“Huh?”

However, Siyoung, who had been cleaning the room just moments ago, was nowhere to be seen,

and the window of Ban Doyoung’s room was wide open.

“…No way.”

I’ve heard that revenge for snacks isn’t too late even after three months.

But this crazy girl, surely she wouldn’t…

**

Siyoung jumped out the window and dashed straight to the street where the library was located.

She knew the place immediately from overhearing Doyoung’s phone conversation.

The audacity of someone to buddy up with Ban Thief Girl and steal her snacks.

She didn’t know who this person was, but she felt compelled to see their face at least once.

Arriving in less than three minutes at a distance that would normally take ten minutes to walk,

Siyoung immediately spotted a man on the phone in front of the library.

She was instantly certain.

That person must be her sister’s boyfriend who stole her snacks.

“Are you Ban Thief Gi—I mean, Ban Doyoung’s boyfriend?”

“…Huh?”

Siyoung naturally approached the man and spoke to him.

He was tall with curly brown hair swept back, looking somewhat naive and rustic, but definitely the type her sister would like.

“You are…”

“Nice to meet you, Dad. I’m your daughter from the future.”

“Ehhh…?”

Siyoung began with a shocking self-introduction,

capturing the man’s attention as she approached him.

“Listen carefully to what I’m about to say, Dad. I came to prevent you from being manipulated by that wicked thief girl. If you continue dating your current girlfriend, I won’t be born.”

“W-what are you…”

“You wouldn’t want to erase the future where an adorable and lovable daughter like me is born, right? So break up with that thief girl you’re dating right now and find a woman who looks like me…”

Siyoung’s acting was perfect.

Even she herself didn’t expect the lies to flow so smoothly.

This wasn’t something she could do just because her sister stole her snacks.

It was a lie fueled by accumulated karma over time,

a grudge that made her want to mess with her sister even a little bit.

“What have you been saying all this time, Scarlet champ?”

“…Huh?”

However, the man looked straight into Siyoung’s eyes with a bewildered expression and spoke,

calling her by a nickname that even her sister Doyoung didn’t know.

“Don’t you recognize me? We met in Asakusa. It’s me. Do Hamin. ‘Ha’ from summer, ‘Min’ from sky. Don’t you remember?”

“…L-Little Ground Oppa?”

The man she thought was her sister’s boyfriend turned out to be none other than

Little Ground Oppa, Do Hamin, whom she had met before.