Siblings Work in Business (4)
Since I had my earphones in, I hadn’t realized Lee Eun-ji had entered the room until just now.
“Lee Eun-ho! What are you?”
“What?”
Why was she suddenly picking a fight with me in my room?
“Why can you rap in English?”
“What the…”
At first, I thought she was talking nonsense.
‘Oh, right, it’s 2014 here…!’
Back then, I was seriously worried about this path because I was terrible at English.
“Ah, that, I studied like crazy because I couldn’t understand anything.”
I knew it was a lame excuse, but I had no choice but to make one up on the spot.
However, Lee Eun-ji seemed unwilling to let it go, narrowing her eyes at me.
‘It’s understandable she doesn’t believe me.’
Well, it’s Lee Eun-ji, after all.
She’s the one who knows my thickheadedness better than anyone.
It was true that I studied hard, but with my brain, rapping?
It took me years to be able to understand and sing along to pop songs decently, because I couldn’t even do the simple ‘conversion’ of substituting Korean words for English words.
Even now, I could sing well because the song was familiar.
‘Realistically, I haven’t gotten that much better…’
Why am I so flustered?
Just as that thought crossed my mind…
“You’re so annoying!”
Lee Eun-ji’s voice struck my ears like a heavy thunderbolt.
Her loud voice shook the attic room.
I’m not kidding, the attic roof actually shook. It was a sound beyond the word ‘loud.’
“What kind of voice are you using to tear down the hou― Ugh!”
I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
Lee Eun-ji’s fist twisted my thigh muscle.
“Are you crazy!”
I barely managed to gasp and shout, but Lee Eun-ji had already dashed out of the room.
“Why is she acting like that all of a sudden?”
I couldn’t understand it at all.
Since I had a lesson soon, I changed from my stretched-out t-shirt into a clean white one and went out to the living room.
‘What the…’
As I pulled my head out of my shirt, I was met with a middle finger thrust right in front of my face.
Beyond it, I saw Lee Eun-ji’s smugly upturned lips.
More than anything, her half-lidded, characteristically hazy eyes annoyed me.
“Aaaaagh!”
Grinning back at Lee Eun-ji, I took advantage of her unguarded moment and bit her middle finger with my canine teeth.
“Hey, shit! You crazy bastard! Let go! Let go of me!”
Lee Eun-ji opened my jaw as if she was going to break it with her grip, then pulled her middle finger out and glared at me.
“Crazy, you actually bit me with your canine teeth! It hurts!”
“Who told you to offer such a delicious-looking finger?”
“You’re annoying, Lee Eun-ho!”
“Oh my, such high praise! Thank you!”
I intentionally grinned and exaggerated. Knowing I was teasing her, Lee Eun-ji huffed and stomped back to her room.
Slam!
She slammed the door so hard that the reverberations lingered in the house.
I shrugged and focused on the greatest challenge of my life, which was placed in the living room.
My personal locker from 2014.
The combination lock on it.
‘2014, 0830, 3080… It’s not my birthday…’
About 10 minutes passed.
I still hadn’t solved the puzzle.
Lee Eun-ji, who had been holed up in her room working, came out, putting what looked like a USB with a guide file in her pocket.
“Oppa, what are you doing in front of the locker?”
“Oh, nothing. Hey, do you happen to know my locker combination?”
“Isn’t it 1111?”
There’s also 0000, but why 1111?
“Why?”
“Because it’s my birthday.”
“Okay. That’s definitely not it. Nope.”
I frowned at Lee Eun-ji’s answer, dismissing it as nonsense.
As if expecting this reaction, Lee Eun-ji rummaged through the shoe rack, chuckling.
“But, where are you going?”
“I have to go to the Ilsan studio to meet the composer and the driver.”
“Ilsan’s a bit far.”
“That’s why I’m going to take a nap in the car.”
“Wear your seatbelt properly, even if it’s uncomfortable.”
“Am I a kid? I don’t care if I die on the road.”
Since coming back to this time, unlike before, I couldn’t easily say words like ‘die’ or ‘drop dead.’
In that sense, Lee Eun-ji’s answer touched a nerve.
“Don’t say things like that and just be careful.”
“Why are you being so creepy all of a sudden? I don’t care if other people die.”
The repeated mention of death brought back the feeling of my world collapsing back then, and anger welled up inside me.
Lee Eun-ji’s accident was caused by a drunk driver, but there was another factor that contributed to her death.
Lee Eun-ji, finding it constricting, had carelessly flipped the chest strap of her seatbelt behind her.
It was a small difference, but the manager, who had worn his seatbelt correctly, at least survived.
“I’m not kidding.”
“I was going to wear it anyway!”
“Don’t loosen it or flip it over because it’s uncomfortable.”
“H-How did you know?”
“Just answer me.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll wear it properly. Geez, you’re so annoying.”
As if realizing I wasn’t joking, Lee Eun-ji grumbled in response.
“If I hear from the manager that you didn’t wear your seatbelt or flipped it over, I’m going to act like I did the day before yesterday.”
“Oh, please.”
The day before yesterday…
Thinking, ‘Let’s be a good older brother this time,’ I had been kind to Lee Eun-ji for a few days.
My good older brother project was honestly perfect, to the extent that I thought I’d done well.
But…
On the second day of the good older brother project…
「“Why are you doing this to me?!”」
「“Why, my dear sister? What has angered you so?”」
「“You! You bastard! Lee Eun-ho, you son of a bitch! If you have a problem, just curse at me directly! Don’t mess with my mood with this bullshit!”」
Lee Eun-ji suddenly grabbed me by the collar, yelling at me, while I had been diligently preparing breakfast.
I tried to be a good older brother, but she cursed at me, calling me a bastard and accusing me of messing with her mood…
I’d noticed it since she had a few successful rap songs, but she was incredibly skilled at cursing, relentlessly bombarding me with enough curses to make my ears ring.
「“Unwanted kindness is a nuisance!”」
I thought it was quite reasonable.
After that incident—should I call it ‘thanks to’ that incident—I realized that Lee Eun-ji was comfortable with this, and I was also able to regain my comfortable, ‘real’ daily life.
“Please, I still have nightmares about you wearing an apron. I’ll wear my seatbelt properly, so please don’t do that.”
On the other hand, those two days seemed to have become quite a trauma for Lee Eun-ji, as she sighed deeply and rubbed her hands together nervously.
Since she’s the type to keep her promises…
I felt relieved and sent Lee Eun-ji off.
After Lee Eun-ji left the second floor…
‘I didn’t try it because I thought it couldn’t be something like 0000-9999…’
I fiddled with the lock a bit more and, on a whim, entered 1111.
Click.
As if waiting for this moment, the lock opened easily.
Feeling somewhat defeated, I clicked my tongue and picked up the glasses case inside the locker.
Lately, blurry vision hadn’t been a big problem, but I needed my glasses to see the blackboard during lessons.
“I’m leaving.”
Now that I had all my necessities, and since the CEO was out of the office on other business, there was no one to say goodbye to, but I cheerfully greeted the empty house anyway.
With light steps, I headed straight to the vocal training academy after a long time.
“Teacher!”
“Oh, it’s been a while, Eun-ho. You’re energetic today. You’ve been practicing diligently, right?”
“Of course!”
“And you’ve been stretching properly?”
“Of course! It’s your word, after all!”
“Haha. Why has he become so smooth-talking after a few weeks?”
It was our reunion after about three weeks, due to the trainer’s overseas business trip.
In my time, it’s actually been at least four years, right?
Since it had been a while since I’d seen her, I greeted her in a rather excited mood.
“Before we start the lesson, let’s have a glass of water and warm up your voice.”
“Yes!”
After about 20 minutes of physical stretching…
Since our voices also needed stretching, I was naturally warming up my voice when…
“Aaah.”
“Oh my, Eun-ho.”
“A-aah?”
“You used to have a stiff voice because you put unnecessary force in the wrong places!”
“D-Did I?”
“‘Did I?’ You couldn’t get it right even though I corrected you every day! How did you fix that chronic problem so cleanly in just a few days?”
“Ah, haha…”
I felt like an invisible dagger had pierced my chest.
‘Chronic problem, she says.’
My worst bad habit, which hadn’t been fixed for a while even after my debut.
But after my debut—was it during the recording of my second mini-album?—while singing a slow, low-pitched part, I unintentionally relaxed my throat.
At that moment, I understood and accepted the ‘chronic problem’ the teacher had been pointing out for so long.
It was a realization that took at least a year after my debut.
But I hadn’t been singing any other song; I was just making weird noises.
It was just preparation for warming up my voice.
“Lee Eun-ho? Did something happen?”
I froze, my mouth agape in a dumbfounded expression.
The teacher had figured it out in that short time.
It was clear that if I mentioned anything about regression or something like that, I’d be treated like a crazy person.
“Or did you learn from someone else besides me?”
“Learn from someone else? I just practiced really hard, and I guess it helped. Haha.”
I laughed nonchalantly and somehow changed the subject.
This teacher was my only ‘vocal teacher’ even after my debut.
“Wow, your hard work paid off. Good job. Really good job.”
For the teacher, who was stingy with praise, to say such a thing… the difference compared to before must be huge.
“I was worried you’d still have that chronic problem at your debut, but I’m relieved now.”
“Haha…”
Whack!
The slap on my back she gave while laughing heartily stung.
“Yes. This is CEO Park Chang-seok of NRY Entertainment.”
—CEO, it’s Ha-neul.
“Ah, Director Lee. Isn’t this the middle of your lesson time?”
—Yes, it is. I’m calling because I have something urgent to ask you.
“Did Eun-ho make a mistake or something?”
—Oh, no, no. I’m calling with good news.
“Good news?”