episode_0027

The first time Shin Jin-ah met a man named Han Yu-seong was about a year and a half ago.

Jin-ah, who was born with heart disease, had no choice but to stay in the hospital since she was young.

Additionally, it was known that her disease was so rare that there was no clear cure yet.

At the same time, in order to prolong her life, she constantly needed expensive and unprecedented drugs, so Jin-ah was a money-eating monster for her parents who gave birth to her.

It must have been a difficult decision to continue to pay hospital bills for my daughter, who I never knew would get better.

That’s what I thought when I heard from the doctor that my parents had disappeared without paying the hospital bills.

It wasn’t very sad.

Because I subconsciously realized that this would happen someday.

The comfort that was full of warm words turned into resentment and sadness.

The smile disappeared from the face that used to smile so brightly, and the hospital visits that used to come every day stopped coming.

It didn’t take long for once a day to become once every three days, and when that soon changed to once a week and once a month, Jina was resigned to it in her heart.

I didn’t blame my parents.

What you should truly resent is your fate of being born with such a cursed body.

After her parents disappeared, the life-sustaining treatment she had been receiving was discontinued, and the then 13-year-old girl found herself in a situation where she would soon have to leave the hospital due to non-payment of hospital bills.

As time passed, the last day she could stay in the hospital came.

The doctor’s words telling me to come out in a sad tone, and the nurse’s face as if she was seeing something pitiful.

But they only sympathized from afar and no one tried to help her.

It was much better for Jina.

It was because I knew that if I approached her clumsily anyway, I would be thrown out like her parents. I felt more comfortable being alone than seeing things like that.

It was a feeling close to giving up.

When she, abandoned by her parents and shunned by everyone, tries to give up all hope.

There was a man who came to her hospital room as if he had been waiting for her.

No matter how you looked at him, he looked like he was only a high school or college student. He was so young that he was not much different from Jina, who was only an elementary school student.

When he met Jina for the first time, he told her this story.

‘Would you like to be my little brother starting today?’ Called.

One winter day, white snow was falling outside the window, and the trees outside the hospital, once vibrant with abundant leaves, looked bare and swayed in the cold wind.

Shin Jin-ah met a new family.

**

“It reminds me of the old days.”

Yoosung muttered as he entered the arcade where the sticker machine was located.

“What, what?”

“Don’t you remember? We took pictures together a long time ago. Perhaps it was you, Jin-ah, who first brought up the idea of taking a picture just like that?”

“I don’t remember very well…”

Contrary to what she said, Jina remembered clearly.

After coming to stay with her current brother, Jina’s condition began to improve rapidly.

She used to sit down because her heart hurt even if she walked even a little, but suddenly she felt fine even when she ran until she was out of breath.

I wonder if the doctor who was watching Jin-ah’s progress even used the expression “miraculous.”

I will never forget for the rest of my life the memory of being so happy at the hospital that I was diagnosed with a full recovery and running around excitedly holding my brother’s hand.

As if to compensate for the life of being confined in a narrow hospital room and only looking enviously through a small window, Jina that day did whatever she wanted and played to her heart’s content.

“But why did you suddenly say you wanted to take a picture?”

“…Ah, I guess it’s good. Because you said you would listen to what I want.”

Now that I think about that incident, my face gets hot.

It’s like they were running around excitedly just because they were cured of an illness.

I’m sure my brother thought of her as a child.

Jina covered her face, which was trying to get hot, and looked around at the view of the arcade.

As before, the arcade was always full of students of similar age to her, no matter where she went.

This place, filled with loud music and happy laughter, was also the space she longed for when she was confined in the hospital.

“Now that I think about it.”

Yoosung, who was looking around the arcade with her, muttered as if he suddenly remembered her.

“…?”

“I guess you don’t have photos from that time. After I took the picture, I felt embarrassed and threw it away.”

“Well, that means…”

…Something like that happened.

I didn’t know it when we were filming together, but when I saw the results, I was more embarrassed than I imagined.

Jina was worried that her brother might have a strange misunderstanding when he saw this, so she unknowingly crumpled the photo and threw it in the trash can.

The thing that was used as Jina’s cell phone wallpaper was something that Jina, who later blamed herself, went into her brother’s room and secretly took a picture of it.

Of course, that fact is a big secret that you will have to carry with you to your grave for the rest of your life.

“ character. I’ll give you this.”

Yoosung takes out something that looks like a small ID photo from his wallet with a calm expression on his face.

“…is this?”

“Still, I took a picture as a souvenir, but it feels empty without it.”

“…Did you still have it?”

“Then. This is one of the few photos I took with Jina, so I should keep it precious.”

Yoosung smiled softly as he handed her the photo.

I still carry around photos from a year ago.

I had no idea.

I thought that as the number of people at home increased, interest in me disappeared.

But, it seems that wasn’t the case.

From the moment we first met until now, he has cherished the person named Jina.

“This time, don’t throw it away. It’s a waste. I took a picture at best.”

Jina couldn’t help but look at him as if he was fascinated as he spoke in a playful tone.

“It looks empty over there, let’s go in together.”

Her hand led Yooseong.

There was no hesitation in his action, just like when he first extended his hand at the hospital.

“They tell me to write down the message I want to say?”

“Comment?”

“Hmm, I guess it’s a newly added feature. If you draw a picture or text with this pen, it seems to be drawn together.”

Yoosung handed the electronic pen he was holding to the confused woman.

“…Can I write it down?”

“You can’t write something down and then throw it away because you don’t like it, right?”

“Well, that was then, and it’s not that now!”

“Oh, you’ve grown.”

Yoosung smiled and stroked Jin-ah’s head.

Also, they are treated like children.

Now that I’m out of elementary school, it would be nice to treat me like a girl to some extent.

Will she always be just a little sister to her brother?

‘…Good.’

Jina, who was staring at the screen, soon made a decision.

“Did you draw it all?”

“Ugh.”

But when I actually write down what I was thinking, I feel so embarrassed that I feel like I’m going crazy.

What if I see this and think something strange?

Jina, filled with regret for a moment, tried to quickly erase the phrase she had just written, but ironically, the machine moved on to the next step, depriving her of the opportunity to make corrections.

“…Jina?”

“…Why?”

“We took a picture together, shouldn’t we show you how it turned out?”

“…I don’t like it. Because I’m embarrassed.”

“Anyway.”

Yoosung looked like he couldn’t stop him.

As soon as the photo shoot was over, Jin-ah quickly retrieved the sticker photo that had just been printed and pretended not to.

Even if I died, I couldn’t show this photo to my brother.

**

“…I must be such a fool.”

Jinah returned home and locked herself in her room, blaming herself.

In the end, my date with my brother ended without me being able to do anything properly.

It was a chance to truly be a genius, but he wasted it due to his own foolish actions.

“…”

Still, what is this feeling?

A smile had been forming on my face since a while ago.

The more I thought about the day’s events, the more I felt how much my brother valued her.

Even if she was late for a date, he didn’t say anything, he remembered her favorite movies, and no matter what he did, he thought of her as his top priority.

Her brother wasn’t as interested in her as she thought.

I just realized that fact, but my heart was already beating loudly.

The same pain as before came, but what was there was a warm pounding heart that filled my whole body.

I turned on my phone screen.

There, a new photo of my brother taken today was set as the wallpaper, replacing the existing photo.

A photo of Jina blushing and blushing to the tips of her ears, and her brother smiling while gently wrapping her arms around her shoulders.

Below it, the phrase ‘1 day from today♥’, engraved by Jina herself, was drawn in light pink pastel.

Looking back, I was really fortunate.

If I showed this photo to my brother, I would never have the courage to face him face to face.