LSDK 08

Chapter 8

“Yeah, Sis.”

“…….”

If you have money, anyone can be an older brother, and anyone can be an older sister, right?

Unless the owner of this club had completely lost his mind, that was probably the context.

“I asked if you called.”

The young-looking man took a sip from the glass he had been served. Arang looked at Ji-i from beyond her on-the-rocks drink. Meanwhile, the man sitting to Arang’s right busily carried snacks to her, glancing back and forth between Ji-i and Arang.

As if showing off to Ji-i, Arang slightly turned her head and opened her mouth. Then she happily accepted the snacks the man brought her, one after another.

All while staring straight at Ji-i.

Ji-i did not know whether Arang was doing this to make her jealous or simply to show off. Whatever the purpose was, Ji-i’s consistent reaction was the same.

Disgusting.

Ugh!

“…….”

Anyway, at Arang’s words, Ji-i only nodded.

She did not want to talk to Arang any more than necessary. Besides, even their voices were more than 98 percent identical, so for some reason, she did not want to attract any more attention from the people around them.

Oh, as a side note, except for the mole on her left ear, the two looked like they had been copied and pasted with Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V.

But strictly speaking, their voices were also slightly different if one listened very carefully, straining one’s nerves and perking up one’s ears.

Both of them had decent voices.

However, if you listened closely, Ji-i’s voice was relatively slightly lower, while Arang’s was half a note higher than hers.

Since it was only a difference of half a note, an ordinary person without an innate sense of pitch would have had a hard time telling them apart, especially in a noisy environment like this.

So even Im Arang’s fiancé probably had not noticed much difference.

Even with the same person’s voice, there were subtle differences between the voice used in everyday conversation and the voice used over the phone.

“So what did he say?”

While she was lost in thought, Arang gestured toward the phone with her chin, and Ji-i’s gaze moved toward it.

Only then did she remember that a message had just arrived.

[Tomorrow at 7:00 a.m., the coffee shop at .]

7:00 a.m.?

“…….”

“Reply.”

Were hotel coffee shops open twenty-four hours?

“…….”

“What are you doing? Reply quickly.”

When Ji-i tilted her head and looked at her, Arang spoke in a commanding tone.

[Yes, exact time, exact place…….]

Ji-i started writing a reply, but deleted most of it.

She had intended to ask whether 7:00 a.m. was really correct, or whether the other person had meant 7:00 p.m. and accidentally sent the wrong message.

But her instincts stopped her.

Somehow, even through the phone, she could feel the other person’s aura, and it did not seem like someone who would make such a mistake.

Indeed, this was the first time Ji-i had ever felt intimidated by someone she had never even seen.

[Yes.]

You really didn’t make a mistake, right?

Even while tilting her head in doubt, Ji-i sent the short message.

“…….”

Then she handed the phone to its owner, who had been standing guard beside her.

“That phone is yours now.”

“…….”

Well, fair enough.

After briefly checking Arang’s expression, Ji-i shrugged and tucked the phone into the pocket of her bomber jacket.

“You know what you have to do from now on, right?”

“Where is he?”

Arang asked in the meantime, but instead of answering, Ji-i asked her a question.

“You said you would tell me after the contract was over, right?”

“Are you sure you’re protecting him?”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“I don’t.”

I would rather trust the most shameless person in the world than trust you.

“…….”

For a while, the two glared at each other.

If this had been eight years ago, Ji-i would have been intimidated by the malice filling Arang’s eyes and would have backed down long ago.

“…….”

But Ji-i was not the Song Ji-i of eight years ago anymore!

The foolish girl who considered Arang her only family and thought it was only natural for her to give in to Arang had already died eight years ago.

You killed her.

With your own hands!

Objectively speaking, Ji-i herself did not know how much she had changed.

But at least on the outside, she probably did not look as soft and weak as she had eight years ago.

The silence, made even more suffocating by the noise coming from outside the door, seemed as though it would never end.

Then, after some time had passed—

“Haa. Here. Check it.”

Arang’s eyes began to show a little confusion and suspicion.

In the end, Arang was the first to back down.

She tapped the phone in her hand several times and then held it up.

“…….”

A message notification sounded from the phone in Ji-i’s bomber jacket.

When she took it out, she found that an image file had been sent.

Judging by the file name, which seemed to have been automatically assigned by the memory, the image had been created five days ago.

What is this?

Grandfather?

Ji-i quickly checked the message.

Ah, Grandfather……

The moment she saw her grandfather, Yang, wrapped in life-support equipment, even if only in a photograph, she immediately felt her throat grow hot.

The sensation was so strong that it felt as though it might rise straight up her throat at any moment.

I have to save Grandfather somehow.

She barely swallowed it down and was just about to stand up when—

“Take it.”

Arang casually tossed a file of documents at her.

“…….”

Ji-i reflexively clenched her fist and looked at Arang.

“We weren’t particularly close, but our families did know each other, so you need to know at least the basics about Heo Dong-in. Otherwise, you’ll arouse suspicion.”

Whatever else could be said about her, she was definitely good at using her head.

If she had used that brain to study, wouldn’t she have become a judge, prosecutor, or doctor by now?

“…….”

Thinking sarcastically to herself, Ji-i finally opened the file.

It was Heo Dong-in’s personal history.

But this time, it did not seem to have been handled very well.

The report was far too detailed.

It contained so many specific details that someone who was not close to him could never have known.

Overall, the report was unnecessarily full of information.

Ji-i assumed that Arang had probably hired someone to create the profile.

But when she looked through it, the report that should have been detailed was nowhere to be found.

“What about the report on your family?”

Wondering if she had somehow missed the prepared report, Ji-i quickly flipped through Heo Dong-in’s file once more as she asked.

“Family?”

I actually got fooled by that careless person?

How stupid am I?

Even if Ji-i did not have to meet Arang’s family right away, she would inevitably have to come into contact with them.

Yet Arang had overlooked that.

There was exactly one thing Ji-i knew about Im Arang’s family.

More than ten years ago, Ji-i had saved Im Sang-a. Because of that, Ji-i had been scheduled to become her adoptive parents’ legal daughter.

But Im Arang had stolen Ji-i’s identity and, instead, become the legal daughter of Im Sang-a’s parents.

After having her identity stolen more than ten years ago, Ji-i had never properly heard anything about Arang’s family.

A few years later, she had lived under Arang’s identity during her second and third years of high school.

However, after school, each of them returned to their own homes and lived their separate lives.

They only switched identities at school.