1440 - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 21
20
―No, Ye-eun, it’s nearly mealtime already. You wander off somewhere instead of coming to help? Ye-eun, you’re not answering your phone again, which means you’re holed up somewhere doing that acting or whatever it is. Go find your sister. Before Dad gets angry, we need to get dinner ready.
Mother didn’t know where Heo-eun spent her time. She was busy from dawn until evening with fieldwork, housework, and caring for the livestock.
As a result, it fell to Heo-eun to help with my studies and listen to my troubles.
Heo-eun didn’t neglect her own studies or acting practice, yet she still made time to care for me. She was truly the best sister. That’s why I never told our parents about Heo-eun’s secret place.
The secret place was the 2nd Grade Class 3 Classroom at Goe-am Elementary School—the very desk where I sat to study. Since it was a secret only the two of us knew, no matter how much Father drank and went out searching for Heo-eun, she could hide there safely.
My feet carried me toward the classroom as naturally as habit would. As I climbed the second floor, I heard my sister’s voice.
The school was empty and silent for the School Break, and because of that, Heo-eun’s voice rang out all the more clearly.
―Don’t do it! Aaah, ah!
My sister was screaming. Wow, which drama was she imitating today? I stiffened for a moment at those high-pitched cries I’d never heard from her before, but realizing it was Heo-eun’s acting, I found myself impressed all over again.
My sister’s scream sounded so genuine.
―That’s, um, comple—… roll!
It sounded like Heo-eun wasn’t alone. Had she found someone to practice acting with? She often asked me to read lines with her, so I wondered if she’d made a good acting partner.
But that voice—I knew that voice. It seemed strange for that person to be called my sister’s friend. And why was that?
―Oops! Ah, Chief. I thought nobody came to the school during the break.
―Eek!
―We’ve got a witness now.
Large hands suddenly seized me from behind, gripping me from under the arms, and I screamed in shock. The man who held me from behind, seemingly startled himself, caught me easily as I thrashed about, and opened the front door of the classroom.
There was my sister. And above her was the owner of the voice I’d just heard.
The neighbor I knew well—the Village Chief of Goe-am Village.
My sister cried when she saw me. She screamed for them to let me go, but nobody listened.
We had to endure something very painful.
My sister and I were crying, but they laughed watching us.
‘Look at these things.’
Someone spoke, gesturing at my sister, worn out from crying.
I saw my sister’s Mobile Phone on the floor buzzing and buzzing.
Was it Mother? I should have just told her. I should have told Mother everything instead of keeping secret where and what Heo-eun was doing. Then she would have come looking for us.
My sister’s body went limp as she cried herself out. I reached for her hand, but I couldn’t properly grasp my sister’s drooping hand.
―You right now! That thing you’re doing! You, you. Ugh—! Ugh! I can’t live like this, I can’t live like this!
Mother grabbed my sister as soon as she returned home, shaking her back and forth. Heo-eun hadn’t even properly straightened her clothes in her concern for me.
We barely managed to walk home, and our legs gave out beneath us. In that state, we were shaken back and forth by Mother’s hands.
―Mom, it hurts. Sob… it hurts.
―That’s why Mom said so! Don’t go wandering around! Why would a girl be in a place like that during that time of day!
Heo-eun had been silent since earlier. She made no response to Mother’s screams and sobs, only stared at the ground.
I squeezed my sister’s hand tightly, but she didn’t squeeze back.
―The Village Chief did this?
Father let out an irritated sigh. Then he came over and struck both Heo-eun’s head and mine hard in turn.
It wasn’t something that surprised me anymore because it happened so often, but I was worried about my sister. She was already hurt so badly right now… why not just hit me instead?
Father seized my sister’s hair and shook her back and forth, then released her roughly. Even as her thin body fell backward, he didn’t care and instead stomped his feet on the ground, screaming.
―The Chief? Hey, you crazy girl! The Chief?! Do you think you can survive in this small village if you fall out of the Chief’s favor?
Father kept hitting Heo-eun. I clung to his legs, but soon Mother pulled me away.
―We break our backs farming and cleaning animal shit to earn money, and for what! Our daughter doesn’t think of helping her parents and instead gets distracted with acting and nonsense!
―Dad! Sob, Dad please stop. Sister’s hurting, Dad! Ah!
―You get a little responsibility at school and your head gets so full of it that you strut around wagging your butt, and that’s how this disaster happens!
I had learned that if someone hurt or hit me, I should tell them to stop and call the police. But Father didn’t call the police on the people who had hurt us. Instead, he locked my sister and me inside the house for the entire break.
Heo-eun withered away. Like a sunflower I once grew at school and killed by watering it wrong, she just hung her pretty face down. She didn’t speak. She didn’t eat.
Even when Mother threw down a meal in anger, telling her to eat or not as she pleased, Heo-eun didn’t flinch, even as the bowl struck her.
How many days passed like that? The moment I opened my eyes, I looked for my sister, who should have been lying beside me. But her spot was empty. I panicked, opened the door, and ran through the house, but nobody was there.
Mother and Father had gone out to work, so the house was silent. That silence terrified me so much. The fact that the front door, which was always locked, stood open made it worse.
I held back my tears and put on my sneakers. My ankle still throbbed red and swollen, but I limped forward without stopping and left the yard.
I couldn’t let Mother and Father find out I’d left the house. They’d catch me immediately and lock me in my room.
Would my sister be at that place again? Even though it had caused her so much pain, would she still be there?
Praying she’d be where I thought, I ran down the uneven path to the edge of the village. By the time I reached the school, worry for my sister had made me forget the pain in my ankle.
Sister! Sister!
As I limped up the second floor, I saw the classroom door standing open. I cursed how slowly my injured legs carried me.
I pushed myself forward and entered the classroom, and there she was. Just like that day, all the desks were pushed to the corners, clearing the classroom floor. In the middle of that empty space, my sister lay with both arms outstretched. She looked free.
Heo-eun turned her head and saw me. And she smiled.
Seeing my sister’s smiling face for the first time in so long, I wiped my tears and moved closer. As she watched me lie down beside her, resting my head on her arm, she whispered.
―Ye-eun. I’m sorry. I’m going to die.
The voice of the woman speaking resembled the one I’d heard before—that shy yet joyful voice as she talked of her dream of becoming an actress.
―I want to be an actress.
―I want to die.
I was old enough to understand what death meant. Lying still, tears streamed down my temples. But she didn’t comfort me. She only repeated the same words over and over.
―I’m sorry. I want to die. I will die.
You only have me.
I hated our mother, who was always irritable and paid me no attention. I hated our father, who reeked of liquor every evening and struck and tormented both her and Mother.
―I want to be with you…….
―Together……?
―Yes. Together.
She repeated my words several times over, then slowly raised her hand. I felt her fingers brush across my neck.
Her hands, once white and straight and beautiful, were now thin as twigs. Her grip tightened. I couldn’t breathe. Without thinking, I grabbed her wrist, but I stopped abruptly when her tears fell onto my cheek.
Her grip loosened.
―Together.
When I managed to say the word again, she broke into sobs.
―Sob, sob……h-hic, with you. Together. Yes, sob, hahaha. Ah……hahaha.
Her face kept shifting between tears and laughter. I stretched my arms out long, the way she had been lying moments before. Soon my head began to swim.
***
“So you killed your sister, and then you died too?”
Yeon-su asked the question of Ye-eun, the girl whose hand was wrapped around her own throat, whose face twisted with something terrible as she stared.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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