170 – Simulation (3)
“”…….””
The atmosphere in the living room is cold.
– Rattling, rattling…
In a quiet space where only the sound of chopsticks clashing against each other can be heard, Kang Ha-neul, who is still panicked and shaking, begins to quietly notice his older sister in front of him.
“Noona…”
Eventually, her body trembled, and Kang Haneul cautiously opened her mouth.
“I, I… I…”
“…Aren’t you eating?”
“Hi.”
He lowers her head, looking at her with a frightened look on her older sister’s face, something he has never seen before.
“…I have something to say to my sister.”
“……..”
“Sa, Sa Sa… Actually…”
Soon, Kang Ha-neul, still with his head down, begins to mutter something in a frightened voice.
“…Sky.”
“Ugh. Ugh, huh?”
“We’ll talk about that later, let’s eat first.”
Kang Maru, who was looking at him with wide eyes, muttered in a dark voice and quietly scooped up a spoon.
“”…………””
A heavy silence falls on the table again.
“…I understand.”
Little Kang Ha-neul, who had her head down for a while with tears in her eyes, soon forced herself to hold back her tears and picked up a spoon.
– Rattling…
“…Sister?”
But for some reason, from that very moment, Kang Maru’s hand, which was holding a spoonful of rice, began to slowly tremble.
“Why are you doing this all of a sudden…?”
“Monster, monster…”
Kang Ha-neul, who was embarrassed, got up from his seat and asked questions, but the more he did, the more Kang Maru’s body trembled.
– Gooooo…
It was because the shadow of that terrible shape peeking out from behind her was looking at her with a sinister smile.
“…Monster.”
Kang Maru looks at that scene with frightened eyes for a long time, and then without realizing it, he blurts out those words.
“Ah.”
“…….”
“No, no, Sky. What I said to you…”
Then, belatedly, she realized what she had said and quickly shook her head and tried to retract her statement.
“I see…”
It was impossible for her to pick up the words that had already been spoken.
“Sister, I was a monster after all, right?”
“…………”
“Did I kill all of my parents… Because I was a bad monster?”
As tears begin to flow from young Kang Ha-neul’s eyes, Kang Maru’s eyes begin to tremble.
“Is that so…?”
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It was not simply because in the hand of Kang Ha-neul, who was asking that question, was a knife of unknown origin.
“Answer me… Please… Sister…”
It would have been more correct to say that she, too, did not know what to answer.
“Please…”
Anyone but her would have hesitated in her answer if she had seen the strange scene of her own brother crying with her own eyes and smiling with her mouth, but she said:
“…River sky.”
Although a long time passed, Kang Maru was unable to give any answer to her younger brother, or rather, to the person who might actually be her younger brother.
– Sigh…
“What you’re doing… Stop.”
She just averted her eyes from that strange smile, and as she broke into a cold sweat, her voice was horrified and she could only give the command to stop him from committing suicide.
“Forever… You can never do anything without my permission.”
“……..”
“Do you understand?”
Kang Haneul’s expression, as her older sister forced her to do something for the first time in her life, eventually began to slowly become empty.
“…Why?”
Soon, an equally empty question came out of his slightly opened mouth.
“That…..”
Of course, Kang Maru could not answer even that simple question.
“…Just do whatever your sister tells you from now on.”
“……”
“You understand, right?”
.
.
.
.
.
After that day, seemingly smooth days began to pass by.
“…Eat.”
“Yes, sister.”
“After eating, I’ll train again today.”
“…I understand.”
From that day on, Kang Ha-neul never locked herself in her room again and always followed her older sister’s instructions, and the gentleness she started against her went without saying a word even to her harsh training.
“…If it’s hard for you, tell me. If it’s hard on you, I won’t force you.”
“…No, sister.”
The biggest change from her previous experience was that although her training was difficult, it was never at the level of abuse.
Her training routine was composed of things that were essential to pass the entrance exam for the hero academy that Kang Haneul wanted.
Also, when Kang Haneul showed signs of exhaustion, her training was immediately terminated, and during her sparring, Kang Maru wore anti-shock gear that she bought out of her part-time job, Rain.
– Parr…!
“…Ugh!”
Of course, there were times when she failed to control her strength, as the eyes of Kang Maru, who was looking at the river sky that was attacking her, trembled.
– Kugwagwagwagwagwang!!!
It was with her superhuman control of the river Maru that she came to her senses, always deflecting her river sky.
“Noona… It’s okay…”
However, that did not mean that their relationship was going positively.
“…Go back to your seat.”
“Nu, older sister.”
“Go back…”
In Kang Maru, the kindness she had shown to her younger brother a few years ago was nowhere to be seen, and she always treated her younger brother with her dead expression and mechanical instructions and responses.
“Yeah, but…”
“Are you hurt? Then let’s stop here for today.”
And it wasn’t just during training.
A few years have already passed since that terrible incident, and the relationship between my younger brother and older sister, which was closer than any other family in the world, has become increasingly bleak.
For the past few years, the siblings have never made eye contact for more than 3 seconds, let alone had a proper conversation, and only work together during mealtimes and training sessions, exchanging soulless conversations.
Of course, on the outside, he looked quite peaceful, to the point where it seemed like he had almost overcome all the wounds of that day.
“…What’s the use of all this?”
Their insides have been slowly rotting away since that day.
“Sky.”
“What will I do when I get stronger, sister?”
In the end, the moment when the pus burst due to a trivial reason.
“Even if I become stronger like this… I’ll just become a strong monster, right?”
“That’s…”
“That’s right!?”
The situation began to spiral out of control.
– Gooooo…
When Kang Ha-neul raises his voice, a shadow begins to emerge from his body.
– Babble…
A thought suddenly occurred to Kang Maru’s mind as he watched the scene trembling as always.
‘…I have to solve it.’
But her feet did not fall off easily.
‘But in what way?’
She still had no conclusion or answer.
No, it would be more correct to say that I deliberately ignored it.
“…Sister.”
And then, a word from Kang Ha-neul, who had a dark expression on her face.
“Why don’t you kill me?”
“Shut up…”
“Why?”
That one word was enough to stimulate Kang Maru, who had been falling asleep in fear every night for the past few years.
“Shut up!!!!!!!!”
The shout that came out of her mouth soon filled the training room.
– Clink…
Her river sky, which had been looking at her soullessly for a while, put down the weapon she was holding in her hand helplessly on the floor and turned her steps back.
“…I understand.”
“………….!”
“I just need to shut up, right?”
When he slightly turned his head and muttered, Kang Maru’s face immediately turned into astonishment.
“Ah, ah…”
Realizing that her own abilities can no longer bind her younger brother, she collapses in her seat as if her river Haneul collapsed as soon as she left her training room.
“Ah…..”
Her eyes were shaking like that day 10 years ago.
“…As expected, are you a monster?”
.
.
.
.
.
“…Hey, you see, sky.”
“……..”
“What on earth did you want?”
Ise-ah, who was leaning with her back against the side of her river Haneul, staring blankly into the empty space in her dark space, began to whisper with a sneer on her lips.
“Did you really think there would be a different result?”
“…………”
“But didn’t I make it clear? I just accelerated what was inevitably going to happen.”
Then, Kanghaneul’s hill slowly turns to the side.
“Sky, there is a future that will not change no matter how much you use it.”
“…………”
“Kang Maru was a b*tch who only had that much affection for you from the beginning. The difference between you and me is heaven and earth. I was just giving you a gentle push on the back to tell you to quickly decide on a route when you were going to turn around anyway. “
As he began to look at himself with eyes that contained no emotions, Lee Se-ah, who had been talking excitedly, quietly tilted her head.
“Why are you looking at me like that? I don’t understand.”
“…….”
“I want you to vent a lot of your emotions. Of course, only to me!”
Soon, Ise-ah started cackling by herself again, and suddenly her eyes lit up and she pointed into the sky.
“By the way, look over there!”
Where her finger is pointing, a simulation scene slowly reaching its highlight unfolds.
“Your meaningless simulation is about to end!”
It was a very familiar sight to Kang Ha-neul, who remembered it again some time ago.
“What did I say, Sky, huh?”
– It’s not easy…
“…It’s all meaningless.”
For the first time, Kang Ha-neul’s complexion begins to darken quietly as he looks at the ruined academy exam hall where he completely ran away.
“You even jumped in before Justia could intervene? It actually got worse, didn’t it?”
As Lee Se-ah said, Kang Maru, who had jumped into the test room a while earlier, was running towards Kang Ha-neul, who had started to run away at a crazy speed.
– Pabababak…!
“Ugh.”
Soon, a large number of tentacles extended from his body and stabbed at her, but Kang Maru, who avoided them with fluid movements, continued to move in front of her.
“Wow… You’re even wearing support gear. I guess I made up my mind right?”
“……..”
“Anyway, Sky, do you admit it now?”
Eventually, she pulled out a long sword from her waist and leaped high into the sky, cutting off the tentacles rushing towards her with one strike. Ise turned her gaze to the river sky as if there was nothing more to see. Ah.
– Kwasik…!
“…Even if you don’t want to admit it, stop admitting it now.”
Kang Maru, who raised her sword high in the sky, immediately stretched out her arms forward, and the next moment, as the sound of her body penetrating rang out, she smiled and began to whisper in Kang Haneul’s ear.
“I am the only one who truly loves you…”
And there was silence for a moment.
.
.
.
.
.
“…Ha.”
“……..?”
Ise-ah, who was smiling alone in victory in the silence, soon tilted her head slightly to the side.
This was because the corner of Kang Ha-neul’s mouth, which had been staring blankly ahead with an expressionless expression, was quietly twisting.
“…….”
Ise-ah tilted her head at that sudden appearance, but then inadvertently turned her head back.
“What is it?”
For a split second, a look of embarrassment passes through her eyes.
– Cough…
It was not because Kang Ha-neul’s body was pierced by Kang Maru’s sword, but because Kang Maru’s body was pierced by Kang Ha-neul’s tentacles.
– Sky.
In such a situation, Kang Maru opens her arms and embraces Kang Haneul, shedding tears mixed with blood.
– It’s a little… No, it’s too late, but I’ll answer now.
She begins to whisper in her dying voice.
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– I don’t even know what you are. Maybe you are a monster.
– Sister…?
– But even if that’s the case… It doesn’t matter.
At the corner of Kang Maru’s mouth.
– Nevertheless, there are some facts that do not change.
A smile that had not been seen for a while appeared.
– Of course, you are my beloved younger brother, right?
That faint smile when we play house with each other covered in dirt at the neighborhood playground.
– It’s not easy…
It was at that moment that the shadows surrounding the young Kang Ha-neul began to fade.