Chapter 29
Jae-in was quite surprised by her brother’s harsh assessment of their family. She thought he didn’t care at all, but unexpectedly, he understood very well the unfairness she felt from her perspective.
“At first, I thought you were pathetic, Noona. Why you went that far. I wondered if it was the pain of being the second child or something… But…”
“Maybe it was.”
Jae-in smiled faintly, holding back her words. It was too extreme to be dismissed as just the pain of being the second child. It was blindly devoted to a degree that even she couldn’t understand.
“If it were me, I would have left this damn house long ago…”
Jae-yeol picked up an ion drink from the table and twisted the cap. After gulping it down, he glanced pitifully at his sister and continued.
“You loved Mom too much. Well, I guess you didn’t expect your affection to be returned like this. Actually, I didn’t know either. That she would act like this until the end.”
“How can you call Mom’s behavior ‘acting like this’? Can’t you speak more nicely?”
“You still want to defend her even now? That’s why you’re treated like a pushover.”
It was true, so there was nothing to say. To point that out at a time like this.
When Jae-in laughed hollowly, Jae-yeol puffed his cheeks and let out a long sigh. Then he hesitated as if he had something to say. The hesitation didn’t last long.
“I’m sorry.”
Jae-in tilted her head, puzzled by the apology from her brother’s lips.
“Actually, I felt a bit uncomfortable seeing you.”
“…Why?”
“I was scared, and somehow felt uneasy. Thinking about it, I think it’s been since then.”
“Since when?”
“Well…”
Jae-yeol paused for a moment, his gaze fixed on empty space, as if recalling something from long ago.
“Remember? The day you were really sick. Your fever went up to 40 degrees, and you were out of it for two or three days. When I was in elementary school.”
“Ah…”
How could she forget? That lonely night when she was kicked out of the house and burst into tears, shivering in the cold at the playground.
At fifteen, her mother relentlessly pursued her young daughter who refused to apologize. And the next day, Jae-in suffered a severe fever that made her lose consciousness.
“Later, Mom found out it was Nuna who stole the money, but she just let it go without saying anything. After grabbing your hair and even slapping you.”
It was about a large sum of 300,000 won missing from her mother’s wallet. For Jae-in, who was reading a book in her room, it was truly a bolt from the blue.
The reason she was dragged out to the living room and suffered that ordeal was because of Jeong Jae-hee’s lie.
The lie that she saw Jae-in opening Mom’s wallet in the master bedroom and stealing money.
At first, she was scolded for stealing, but when Jae-in insisted she didn’t do it, her angry mother grabbed her hair.
The reason was that the young girl was already trying to deceive her mother so cunningly, even if she couldn’t bring herself to apologize.
“Since then, whenever Nuna looked at me intently, I felt strangely scared and chilled.”
Jae-in thought she knew the reason. Certainly, she developed some abnormal symptoms after that. At first, even she didn’t know. Where this pain was coming from.
She thought the fever had completely healed, but even after a year, two years passed, her chest would occasionally ache. And sometimes it still hurts. In severe cases, she even had trouble breathing.
“Looking back now, it seems like nothing, but I guess I was needlessly anxious as a child. Whenever I lied, it felt like you always knew everything.”
At his words, the expression disappeared from Jae-in’s face. As if he expected this, Jae-yeol waved his hand.
“It’s not that I’m still scared now. Anyway, am I right? You knew I was pocketing money while pretending to go to cram school, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know exactly that you weren’t going to cram school at all. I just knew you were lying.”
“I thought so. Whenever I made excuses to Mom asking for money, I felt chills when our eyes met.”
Jae-in doesn’t know exactly why she developed this ability either. She only guesses, through counseling with a psychiatrist, that it might be another manifestation of childhood trauma.
“It’s called an empath.”
“Empath? What’s that?”
“It’s a kind of hypersensitivity syndrome where you react sensitively to others’ emotions.”
Jae-in was an empath who experienced others’ anxiety and tension as physical pain among many emotions. She was particularly sensitive when the other person was telling a lie.
It was a fact she discovered after several trials and errors. After that, she couldn’t form deep relationships with anyone. Because in the process of socialization, appropriate lies are considered a virtue in this world.
“Is it a disease? Can it be cured?”
Jae-yeol asked with a serious face.
“Well, it’s hard to explain scientifically in the first place.”
“Is it like a superpower?”
“If I had to say, it’s more like a sixth sense.”
“Then, you must have known when Noona was lying?”
After hesitating for a moment, Jae-in nodded. There was a lie in the insistence that she wanted a divorce and needed to borrow 30 million won.
“Do you know why she asked for money?”
“I don’t know and I don’t really care either.”
“Noona has a man. A younger one. But his wife caught them.”
“What?”
Jae-yeol snorted, and Jae-in was at a loss for words. Jae-yeol shook his head as if the mere thought of Jeong Jae-hee disgusted him.
“That woman demanded 30 million won as compensation. She said she’d tell our brother-in-law if she doesn’t pay.”
“Jae-hee has really gone crazy…”
“So, absolutely don’t give her that money. Even if Noona comes to your house and begs on her knees, even if Mom says you’re the only one she has and pleads for help, ignore it. Dad will handle it, right? It’s his wife and daughter after all.”
She suddenly made a fuss about getting divorced, and I thought maybe she had a big fight with her husband due to her temper… But an affair? I never imagined that. And getting caught by the spouse and having to pay compensation?
“No matter how much she lives her life as she pleases, Noona is that old but lacks responsibility and is less than human. I’d rather everything be exposed and tell her to get divorced. What sin did brother-in-law commit to live with such a woman?”
Jae-yeol implored Jae-in once again, just in case. Absolutely don’t give her money.
“Instead of giving money to Noona, donate it. Don’t you regret all the money she’s taken from you so far?”
“Actually, I don’t have money to give.”
“You really have no substance, Noona.”
“The money I send you every month is a lot, you know.”
“Right. I’m grateful for that. I’ve been saving it up diligently with a thankful heart.”
Jae-yeol’s face was full of satisfaction as he bowed his head politely with his hands together on the table, then lifted it.
“I haven’t spent a penny of the money you sent me. It’s money you earned with difficulty, right? When I saved it all up, it amounted to several million won.”
By the way, he said he saved the money. It’s admirable that he didn’t spend it carelessly, but why? When Jae-in asked, Jae-yeol grinned.
“Actually, I came to say goodbye to you today, Noona.”
“Goodbye? What do you mean?”
“I was originally planning to use the money you gave me to live independently, but an even better opportunity came up. There’s a recruitment for interns in Canada, and I’m going. I have a professor’s recommendation too.”
“An internship in Canada? So suddenly?”
“That’s how it turned out. Noona doesn’t have to send me allowance anymore. I should have told you earlier, but every time money came in from you, I felt good seeing the amount pile up. It’s a bit funny to feel good about someone else’s money.”
“Thank you, Noona. Really.”
Jae-yeol scratched the back of his head awkwardly, as if he was shy about directly saying sorry, thank you, or I love you to family.
“You know I’m not lying, right?”
“Our Jae-yeol has grown up.”
“What are you saying? I was already much taller than you in middle school. And your body, what’s with that? You’re so skinny, living with a skeleton, you think you’re a skeleton yourself.”
She had always thought of him as the much younger youngest child, but while his thoughtfulness for his sister was touching, it also felt strange, as if he had suddenly become a stranger.
“When are you coming back?”
Jae-yeol looked somewhat relieved, as if he had said everything he needed to say.
“At least 2 years. Who knows? I might even settle down there if I like it there.”
The thought of not being able to see him at all for a while made her feel empty in one corner of her heart. Even though they were in the same city of Seoul, they hadn’t even met, let alone contacted each other much.
There’s an old saying that you don’t know what you have until it’s gone, and she thought this must be what it refers to.
As if reading her subtly depressed mood, Jae-yeol tapped the desk to get her attention.
“If you just stop getting money taken from you by Mom and Jae-hee, you could come to Canada twice a year, you know? If you miss me, save that money and come yourself.”
“Did you tell Dad?”
“No. I’m planning to tell him the day before I leave. Even if he opposes, I’m not going to listen anyway. Apart from you, Noona, I have no attachment to this household.”
That was the point Jae-in couldn’t understand. It might be true for her, but Jae-yeol was different.
She thought he was receiving plenty of love and expectations for being the son and the youngest. Was there more than meets the eye?
“There are just people you like, and people you don’t like, right?”
“…..”
“For me, that was our parents and our noona. When I thought about how they might do to me what they do to you someday, it gave me the chills.”
Jae-yeol stood up. As he picked up his bag from the empty chair and slung it over his shoulder, his face looked quite different from when he first stood at the door of the research lab.
“I don’t know about you, but in my opinion, family isn’t all that special.”
He delivered his final words before leaving.
“You can’t choose where you’re born, but you can choose where you’ll live from now on, right? Meet good people and make a new family. Don’t cling to this miserable household.”
“Is that as easy as you say?”
“What’s difficult about it? Oh. I guess to make a new family, you need to start dating first.”
As if dating would be easy. She immediately notices when the other person lies. Once doubt sprouts in a relationship, whether with good intentions or bad, it can’t be undone. That’s why Jae-in didn’t want to meet anyone.
“Why are you worried? It’s even better. The moment a guy you’re dating lies, you’ll know for sure, right, Noona?”
“That’s not always a good thing—”
“Anyway. Speaking of which, don’t you have a boyfriend, Noona?”
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Thank you for reading! ♡
