35 – Haerin Kang (35)
Haerin Kang (35)
friends said
‘Ah, stop talking about your sister!’
‘Hey, you know what’s weird?’
what the hell is weird
Is it strange that the older sister is worried about the younger brother?
Idami felt rebellious.
‘It’s too much.’
‘If you say anything, Dongmin, Dongmin, I know that your younger brother is cute and handsome~’
‘that’s right. She acts like a mother too.’
‘If it were my younger brother, I would have beaten him.’
without knowing anything
I didn’t even want to understand.
It’s a matter of blood.
People who do not mix blood do not understand.
‘Yes, I will never understand.’
People who have just gotten to know Lee Da-mi are taken aback when she talks about her sister.
You may have doubts next time.
‘You, by any chance, have a different mind, don’t you?’
There are people who ask rudely and openly.
Of course, the answer is fixed.
‘I take care of him because he’s my younger brother.’
No matter how you take that answer, once you ask that question, one of two things comes out.
I think that Lee Da-mi is originally a kind person and accept it, or I hate it and distance myself from it.
I often hear that
‘Aren’t siblings usually on good terms?’
It seems like asking lightly, but I feel the intention strangely.
‘You’re not even kissing me, are you?’
sarcasm and ridicule.
It seems to have a restless imagination.
You can tell just by looking at that smile.
‘It’s you who are dirty.’
She shut her mouth.
#
Lee Da-mi is a freelance web designer with a 170 cm tall body full of healthy beauty and no fuss, always attracting attention wherever she goes.
His personality is also straightforward and cool, so if you don’t get excited about talking about your younger brother, you’ll usually get a crush on him.
Although young, he has saved up enough money to live on his own.
He has a talent for financial technology, so he used the money he earned well and bought a fairly large rental house even though he was not yet 30.
After escaping from that hellish house, she discovered what a charming woman she was.
I realized my own worth.
So I felt more guilty.
At that time, when I was in high school and made a runaway with my friends, should I have taken my younger brother with me?
She wasn’t sure.
Leaving the house was not usually something one could do with determination, and at the time, my younger brother was still in elementary school.
But after that, there were no excuses.
Fortunately, Lee Da-mi graduated from high school stably thanks to her teacher who felt sorry for her situation, but Lee Dong-min was different.
He lived with his father until he was 20 and was gaslighted.
‘A monster-like cub-‘
‘A guy who’s not good at anything!’
‘Why are you so slow, don’t move quickly!?’
I’m not saying it because he’s younger than me, but Lee Dong-min is just as good-looking as popular male idols these days.
Even though he is old and ugly, he may have inherited the blood of his father, who still gets along well with ajummas.
Lee Da-mi was disgusted, but when he was young, his father’s face was unmistakably close to that of a handsome actor.
Because of that face, both Lee Da-mi’s mother and Lee Dong-min’s mother became pregnant with the man’s child.
Nevertheless, he habitually blamed himself and self-tortured.
In particular, the demeaning of appearance has gone too far.
There was a big gap between how he felt and how others looked at him, to the extent that a person he didn’t know would feel that a handsome guy was condescending.
The paranoia of persecution that arose in an unfortunate family environment did not immediately receive favor from others.
All of them were aftereffects of abuse.
‘Dongmin-ah, you are handsome. Have confidence.’
Lately, Lee Da-mi often told him, but it was too late to heal his old wounds.
But it wasn’t just comforting.
‘If you weren’t my sister, I would have snatched it up.’
Those words were sincere.
‘My only blood relative.’
Lee Da-mi didn’t even consider her mother who abandoned her or her father who was rude to her.
But my brother is different.
Lee Dong-min is good and pitiful.
When he blamed himself for being an ugly monster and self-tortured, as an older sister, I felt sorry.
If only she had saved him sooner.
If only I had saved them from a mother who was emotionally unstable due to pseudo-religion or a father who was an alcoholic and domestic abuser.
He gave her hope.
After finishing work, Lee Da-mi suffered from unknown feelings of loneliness and solitude, and sometimes felt suicidal thoughts.
All that was left around him was remnants.
I don’t have a family, and I don’t have the ability to create a family.
Still, I smiled when I thought of my brother.
That tenderness is alive too.
Even though it was hard, he never thought about dying.
I accepted the given situation and did my best.
Lee Da-mi was a sensitive 10-year-old girl when her mother brought her five-year-old Lee Dong-min.
My mother had an affair a year ago and ran away.
The year with her father tore and scarred the little girl’s soul, so she was wary.
To the existence of a sudden younger brother.
About the skinny stepmother who brought him in.
It was unusual from the first meeting.
From the beginning, the stepmother encouraged Idami to read the Bible, and later she raised her voice little by little.
But she could refuse.
A stepmother is just a stepmother.
She grew up prematurely due to abuse and rebelliousness for not being a real mother.
In order to stand up to his father, who often yelled at him, his personality became stronger than he should have been for his age.
However, Lee Dong-min, his biological son, was different.
He clung to his mother foolishly and did whatever she told him to do.
Even though I was told to read the Bible all day, I read it, and even when I was told to wake up at 4 am and pray.
Even when his stepmother didn’t feed him, saying he had to fast during religious weeks, Lee Dong-min foolishly obediently kept it.
He eventually collapsed from malnutrition.
Even when he came to pick up the two after receiving a report from the support center, Lee Dong-min said that he would give his share to his sister, saying that he had to keep ‘fasting wine’.
I was angry at the stupidity that I couldn’t even guess.
‘Are you an idiot?’
‘…because if I don’t keep the fasting day, my mother will get sick…’
Idami remembered the scars on her stepmother’s body.
‘What the hell is this kid…’
She shuddered at the marks of abuse in the eyes of a mere six or seven year old.
From a very young age when he lived with his mother, Lee Dong-min has been abused more than Lee Da-mi.
If Lee Dong-min didn’t listen, he would have been self-harming and forced him to listen.
Making him a bad person if he doesn’t listen.
with that young body.
It was then that Idami realized.
‘This child is too vulnerable.’
So I have to protect you.
She was busy taking care of herself, but for the first time, she thought of someone other than herself.
That was the beginning of change.
Uncharacteristically for a child, she was imbued with the cruelty of the world early on. Even while eating tteokbokki with her friends, she playfully said, “I’m going to follow you when I’m 20.” I’m going to kill myself.’ He was a kid who didn’t say things like that.
However, the moment she realized her sister’s vulnerability and felt an unknown maternal instinct, she awakened.
I can’t live like this.
Even for my brother.
I had to protect that kind and pure soul more than my father or mother, even more than myself.
When I made that decision, my will welled up like a spring.
A lot happened after that.
Seven years later, until Lee Da-mi ran away, Lee Dong-min followed her like a mother, and Lee Da-mi cherished her as if he were a son.
Brother and sister’s work was something that could not be easily explained.
These are things others will never understand.
I have no desire to make you understand.
#
“wow…”
The man on a blind date rounded his mouth.
“That sounds great.”
The man who seemed to have grown up lacking nothing reacted as if he had heard an interesting story.
Lee Da-mi, who pointed out the careless attitude, was not new to this kind of reaction, so she kept her mouth shut.
Perhaps this man will never understand.
Even now, I blamed myself.
Needlessly overinvolved, I talked too much to a guy I wouldn’t see today anyway.
“I am. I would even give my life for my brother. Because, the one who made me want to live even a little bit is my younger brother.”
“… Oh, I see…”
The man smiled awkwardly and said.
Was it too serious?
Idami felt embarrassed and apologized.
“sorry. I have a habit of being overly immersed whenever I talk about my younger brother. What do your friends say?”
“it’s okay. I also like homely women. If you are good to your brother, you will be good to your child.”
The man was always benevolent.
Although it was burdensome to drive this position with weight as if it were a ‘line’ position rather than a blind date.
As always, Lee Da-mi is not attracted to this man, but he is not a bad person.
Hearing her talk made me laugh, sneer at her, or even not say that she was gross.
“… So, I guess I’ll have to go now.”
Idami said while packing her bag.
“yes?”
He was taken aback by her sudden action.
“I think something happened to my brother.”
“… what… happened? Is it a big deal?”
“… I think someone is holding my sister hostage again. My younger brother is so kind that if someone gets hurt, I’d rather have a hard time myself.”
“This hostage…?”
Lee Da-mi said goodbye and left the cafe.
The man stared blankly at her back.
#
“Lee Dong-min, why aren’t you answering the phone?”
Lee Da-mi, who came out of the cafe, spat out a curse.
It’s been over a week since I haven’t contacted my brother.
The other day, I went to my house to make kimchi stew, and I met a girlfriend who claimed to be ‘Kang Hae-rin’.
Arrogant enough to feel arrogant, she certainly had a look that suited her.
At least she was almost fooled.
It was because I thought of the character in 『Journal』 after seeing the black bluish hair, the delicately beautiful features like a mixed-race child, and the dark red pupil color.
But it couldn’t be.
Do the characters in the novel come to life?
Around that time, Lee Dong-min stopped writing novels.
I was trying to write a new work, but there was no news.
Then, this time, I will resume serialization.
I was worried about my younger sister, who I couldn’t understand at all, but I also had a girlfriend, and if I kept getting involved, I was afraid that it would interfere with my love business.
As friends said, if she clings too much to her brother, it won’t help his life either.
But is my brother really okay?
She read the latest episode right away because she set up a notification when Lee Dong-min’s novel was uploaded.
The murder case that takes place in the background of S University clearly resembles Lee Dong-min’s own story.
What the hell are you thinking?
The most serious thing was the episode uploaded today.
[… Lee Dong-hyun was always feeling irritated by his older sister who followed him like a shadow. He found her obsession frightening at times. And it was his lover Kang Hae-rin who told it.]
[…he felt the blood of his own flesh on his hands and was stunned. As if the blood had flowed from his own artery, not from his older sister, Lee Da-eun, he was short of breath and his vision blurred. he just did it Considered the worst crime in human history […]
“… no.”
Idami shook her head.
“Dongmin wrote this?”
She went to Lee Dong-min’s room.
“There must be something.”