Chapter 108: What is family?

“I’m home.”

It was late at night, and Ji-yeon had just returned from studying.

She was so focused today that she didn’t even realize how much time had passed at the study room.

She was the type to be easily influenced by her mood, so she had to study a lot on days like this.

Ji-yeon, with her backpack slung over her shoulder, yawning, was greeted by a figure sitting at the dining table in the living room, as if waiting for her.

“You’re here.”

“Mom, aren’t you asleep yet?”

“Come sit down for a moment.”

The woman sitting at the dining table, Ji-yeon’s mother, gestured for her to come over, as if she had something to say.

“How is Ji-eun doing these days?”

“…Sister?”

Ji-yeon was slightly taken aback, not expecting her mother to mention her sister.

She thought her mother would ask about her grades or if she needed more allowance.

The relationship between her sister and mother was, to put it mildly, the worst.

After ‘that incident,’ her sister left home, and the family tacitly agreed not to mention her.

Like Voldemort. They didn’t utter the name Lee Ji-eun in front of her mother.

She occasionally talked about her sister with her father, but with her mother, she had never spoken about her sister even once since she left.

“Don’t you go to see your sister sometimes? Like when you said you were sleeping over at a friend’s house last time.”

“How did you know?”

“Your eyelids twitch when you lie.”

Is she lacking magnesium? I need to change my vitamins.

Ji-yeon felt unfamiliarity from her mumbling mother.

Her mother was a wonderful and respectable person as a parent and as an individual, but she wasn’t affectionate towards her family.

Compared to her father, who paid a lot of attention to his children and was responsible for the atmosphere within the family, she was quite taciturn.

Ji-yeon grew up feeling more paternal love than maternal love.

She wouldn’t know for sure, but her sister probably felt the same way.

She never knew that her mother would observe her face so closely that she would notice Ji-yeon’s lies.

“But, sister… why?”

“No, it’s nothing much.”

Her mother picked up her phone and showed her something.

It was something Ji-yeon was familiar with.

“Ji-eun… is she doing well?”

It was her sister’s YouTube channel, something she never expected to hear from her mother.

On the screen, her sister was playing a game with a focused expression.

Afraid that her mother might misunderstand, Ji-yeon quickly added, “Ah, this is a broadcast. People watch my sister play games.”

“It seems so. Looking it up, it seems Ji-eun has a lot of fans.”

“Yes… she’s the most popular among the people who broadcast.”

“Of course, whose child is she?”

Normally, she would have been excited and bragged more about her sister.

But the look on her mother’s face was somewhat wistful, so Ji-yeon had no choice but to close her mouth.

“Can you tell Ji-eun something for me?”

After hesitating for a moment, she continued, “Tell her that Mom misses her.”

What is family?

This is a sudden confession, but I am an orphan.

I was abandoned at birth and grew up in an orphanage.

Although I didn’t have a close, family-like bond with the director or other residents, it was still a relatively ethical orphanage, so I was able to enter society after much effort.

For me, other adults who had real families were difficult to understand.

When I was a student who didn’t know anything, I was hurt so many times over trivial things.

Immature children have a unique cruelty, which made me tired in a different way from the sneaky adults who secretly gossiped or spread rumors.

Mischievous friends would openly ask me with a look of genuine curiosity if I really didn’t have parents and what it felt like to live as an orphan.

Without parents, teachers, or any adults to look out for me, I could only endure.

To me, other children who had families were objects of both envy and jealousy.

But after becoming an adult and starting to work as a cog in society, I became indifferent to it.

After making a few good friends and settling down, I was able to somehow live on.

I even came across a few families where it was better to not have parents.

Those are all memories from my childhood.

Having grown up without a family, I initially had difficulty dealing with Ji-yeon.

But now, she has become a special existence that I can’t live without.

The words that Ji-yeon conveyed to me after a long time were enough to cause confusion.

“Um… Sister. Mom wants to see you sometime.”

I once had that thought.

When I first met Ji-yeon, I wondered if I could take on the role of this girl’s sister.

Considering the relationship, I was just a stranger who had taken over this body, so I wondered if I could really call them family.

There was also the hypothesis that I was originally the real Ji-eun and all the memories of my past as a man were based on my mental illness.

But if that were the case, all those memories would be my delusions, and my imagination isn’t that great.

“Okay, when should we go see her?”

“Uh, huh?”

Ji-yeon, who had been hesitant, looked up as if she hadn’t expected to hear this answer.

I had finished worrying a long time ago.

I knew this situation would come someday.

Since I’ve taken over this body anyway, it’s something I have to experience.

“Is today okay? It seems like Mom wants to see you as soon as possible.”

But I didn’t expect it to be this soon.

“Is the food to your liking?”

“Yes, it’s delicious.”

Actually, I don’t even know if it’s going into my mouth or my nose.

The first impression I had upon seeing Ji-yeon’s mother, the mother of the Ji-eun and Ji-yeon sisters, was that I understood where the two’s outstanding looks came from.

Although Ji-eun, the older sister, looks more like Ji-yeon.

Ji-eun seems to look more like her father.

“Are you doing well?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

There have been many things that have happened, but I couldn’t tell her everything in detail.

In conclusion, it’s true that I’m doing well now.

More than that, I didn’t have a sense of how Ji-eun and her mother used to talk, so I was cautiously looking around and answering appropriately.

It seems like they weren’t that close.

Judging by the fact that she didn’t say anything in response to my stiff answers filled with awkwardness.

“You can stop eating when you’re full.”

Still, a mother is a mother, and she accurately grasped Ji-eun’s stomach capacity.

When her mother gestured, a housekeeper cleared away my share of the dishes and rice bowl to make room, and then brought out tea.

Hot water in a luxurious teacup with tea leaves floating on top.

I don’t know what it is, but the scent was unusual, and it didn’t seem like a typical manufactured product.

After entering the house and looking around at its size and interior, I was convinced.

Based on my standards, the Ji-eun and Ji-yeon sisters’ family was at least middle class, if not higher.

Why would Ji-eun leave such a wealthy family and live separately, when her job wasn’t even in that area?

“Is broadcasting manageable?”

“Ahem. Ahem. Yes, it’s fun.”

“Drink slowly. You might get indigestion.”

I turned my head and glanced at Ji-yeon, who shook her head.

That meant Ji-yeon didn’t tell her.

Not many people of her mother’s generation would know me, so it seemed her mother was more new-generation than I thought.

“I think you’re doing commentary on TV too.”

“Yes, I somehow got the opportunity…”

“Your father likes it. He’s always in his study watching that.”

Hmm, a daughter who is a game channel commentator and a father who enjoys watching it.

I felt that meeting the father, whom I hadn’t met yet, wouldn’t be easy in a different sense.

“Yeah, Dad always brags about it. He says my sister is amazing.”

“She is amazing. If you think about it, she’s also a celebrity.”

When Ji-yeon chimed in from the side, her mother added with a pleased smile.

It looked like a harmonious family, which was a good sight to see, if I wasn’t the subject of the conversation.

Hearing them praise me in front of me was quite embarrassing.

“Ji-eun must be tired, you said you were broadcasting yesterday, right? If you’re done eating, go upstairs and get some rest. You can even take a nap. Broadcasting sometimes goes until dawn, right?”

“Yeah, stay over, Sister.”

The two were so in sync. A mother and daughter duo who resemble each other from their looks to their personalities.

After finishing dinner, I accepted their offer and went up the stairs.

I was worried about how I would find my room since there were stairs and so many rooms in the house, but there was a sign that said ‘Ji-eun’s Room’ in cute handwriting in front of the door.

Left alone in the room with Ji-yeon’s consideration for me to rest.

Ji-eun’s room, the room of the original owner of this body, was nothing but awkward to me.

The bed and bedding were all pink, so I was thankful that at least the wallpaper wasn’t pink.

I sat down in the unfamiliar space and thought.

Why did Ji-eun move out and live alone?

I thought her relationship with her mother was related to it, but that’s now unclear.

Based on what I saw earlier, she clearly loved her children, even if she lacked expressions of affection.

After thinking for a long time, I fell asleep without realizing it, and woke up in the early morning with a thirst.

I then learned why Ji-eun came to live alone.