A sigh escaped me the moment I stepped into the apartment.
The air felt heavy, stagnant with the scent of dust and the lingering, bitter smell of cheap, government-rationed cleaning supplies. It was a stark reminder of the world outside, where the cost of living had spiraled into a nightmare. Even basic necessities were as expensive as they had been before the Gates appeared, and that was considered cheap. Was this the result of the government desperately trying to fix prices?
But the prices of goods not managed by the government were dizzying. Rubber gloves were 17,000 won, a 30-pack of toilet paper was 68,000 won....
The prices were enough to make anyone’s head spin. I tossed my bag onto the sofa and slumped down, the exhaustion from the day’s operations finally catching up to me. My body felt like lead, and my mind was a blur of static. I stared at the ceiling, wondering how much longer I could keep this up.
"Oppa?"
A soft voice broke the silence. My younger sister, Kim Seon, was standing in the doorway of her room, looking at me with a mixture of concern and hesitation. She looked tired, too. We both did.
"You're home early," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Yeah," I replied, forcing a small, tired smile. "Just a long day."
She didn't press for details. She knew better. She walked over to the kitchen and started boiling water for tea, the familiar clinking of the kettle providing a small, comforting rhythm to the room. It was the only sense of normalcy I had left.
"Did you eat?" she asked, not turning around.
"Not yet."
"I'll make something."
I closed my eyes, listening to the sounds of her moving around the kitchen. It was a simple, mundane scene, but in a world where monsters could tear through the walls at any moment, it felt like a fragile, precious sanctuary. I wondered if this was what it felt like to be truly alive, or if we were all just waiting for the next disaster to strike.
I pulled out my phone and opened the news app. The headlines were the same as always: more Gate outbreaks, more casualties, more desperate pleas for help. I scrolled past them, my thumb hovering over the search bar. I shouldn't look, I knew that, but I couldn't help myself. I typed in my own name.
The results were a mix of praise and vitriol, a digital reflection of the chaos outside. I sighed and locked the screen, the blue light fading into darkness.
"Here," Kim Seon said, placing a steaming mug of tea on the table in front of me.
I took it, the warmth seeping into my cold fingers.
"Thanks," I murmured.
She sat down across from me, her eyes searching my face.
"Are you okay, Oppa?"
I looked at her, really looked at her, and for a moment, the weight of everything felt a little lighter.
"I'm fine," I lied. "Just tired."
She nodded, though I knew she didn't believe me. She never did. But she didn't push, and for that, I was grateful. We sat there in silence, the only sound the soft hum of the refrigerator and the distant, muffled roar of the city outside. It was a quiet moment, a brief respite in a world that seemed determined to tear us apart. And for now, that was enough.
I let out a sigh the moment I stepped into the supermarket.
The store was named "Fresh Produce," yet not a single vegetable or fruit was in sight. There was only rice, instant noodles, canned goods, and other processed foods with long shelf lives.
I scanned the prices.
First, the rice and noodles... they were twice as expensive as before the Gates opened, but that was actually on the cheap side. Was this the result of the government desperately trying to fix prices?
However, the prices of goods not managed by the government were dizzying. Rubber gloves were 17,000 won, a 30-roll pack of toilet paper was 68,000 won...
In particular, the prices of flour-based foods had risen to a terrifying degree. Most of Korea's flour was imported, and the water spirits swarming the oceans had driven maritime logistics costs through the roof.
On top of that, the state of the countries that used to export wheat was dire. India had officially halted grain exports due to food shortages, Ukraine had been invaded by Russia without any justification, and Australia was no longer a land for humans.
For these reasons, the main ingredient for noodles these days was rice, and flour-based foods were all classified as luxury goods with absurd price tags.
Snacks were priced entirely by market fluctuation. You could tell just by looking at that single bag of MatXsan priced at 120,000 won on the shelf.
"Huh, that one is unreasonably expensive."
Other snacks were around 66,000 won, so why was this one so much pricier? Baffled, I asked the owner.
"Why did this one go up so much?"
The owner, whom I was on friendly terms with, replied in a tired voice.
"Rumor has it the factory stopped production and it's going to be discontinued, so the price jumped again. Didn't you see the news? A lawmaker got caught hoarding three boxes of MatXsan."
"A lawmaker is hoarding snacks? Does he have a side hustle?"
"It's not like he was planning to hoard them to sell for a higher price later. He just really liked the snack and bought them to eat himself because he thought he wouldn't be able to get them anymore."
While the owner grumbled about how this was the first time in his life he’d seen a politician get flak for buying snacks instead of committing some sort of corruption, and how it made him realize the country was truly doomed, I picked up a bag of MatXsan.
When I brought it to the counter, the owner looked surprised.
"Oh, you're really buying it? You must have a lot of money, kid?"
"I can at least afford to buy a bag of snacks."
I left the store with the bag of MatXsan in hand, humming a tune on my way home.
To think I could buy something that even a lawmaker would hoard without a second thought? It really hit home how much I’d moved up in the world.
I didn't buy that 120,000-won snack for myself. I intended to take it to the prison for a visit.
This afternoon, I was going to see my younger sister.
I couldn't say I was looking forward to it.
*******
I saw my younger sister through the iron bars.
She looked gaunt. Seeing her like that, when she used to be chubby, didn't sit well with me.
But just as I was about to offer some words of comfort, she spoke up first, sounding grumpy.
"Why are you here, you son of a bitch?"
It was a voice that sounded just like Mom's, and I couldn't hold back a surge of emotion.
"I heard the pig lost weight, so I came to see. Wow, the country even helped you lose weight—you're better off in prison, aren't you?"
I realized my mistake the moment the sarcasm left my lips. What a moronic psycho I was.
Before she could spit out more insults, I hurriedly pushed the items I’d brought toward her.
"Just eat your feed, you pig."
She probably wanted to shove the food away to protect her pride.
But she had always had an insatiable appetite. Seeing the bag of MatXsan and the plate of flatfish sashimi I’d brought (it was raised in an indoor fish farm, and it was absurdly expensive), a profound conflict appeared on her face.
Then again, in a world where even ordinary people chewed on dry ramen to get by, one could imagine what prison food was like.
In the end, her appetite won. She picked up her chopsticks, put a few pieces of sashimi in her mouth, then grabbed a piece of MatXsan, and her pace quickened.
When she was halfway through, I asked.
"Is it good?"
Did she take my words as mockery? She stopped eating, glared at me, and repeated what she’d said earlier.
"So why are you here, you son of a bitch?"
"Why are you being such a bitch after eating so well?"
"So what, you expected me to bow and thank you? Do you have any idea who's responsible for me ending up like this... huh?"
"Who do you think is responsible for you ending up like this?"
"You, you son of a bitch. You! If you hadn't beaten me up like that and twisted my personality...!"
This wasn't the first time I'd heard this claim. During our last visit, she’d screamed similar things, insisting that her current state was all my fault.
Her argument was that because I used to beat her at home, her personality became twisted and antisocial, which led to her being bullied at school, and that was why she ended up here.
"That's just because you didn't learn jiu-jitsu. If you had, you could've countered when I hit you, and you could've broken the arms and legs of the bullies at school. Instead, you didn't learn jiu-jitsu and just stuffed your face, and that's why you ended up like this."
She glared at me.
"You son of a bitch..."
"Isn't it your fault for doing things that deserved to be hit in the first place?"
"What did I even do!"
"I still haven't forgiven you for selling all the books on my shelf to a used bookstore while I was on a school trip and buying shoes with the money. What the hell were you thinking, selling my reference books too? And Mom, that woman, she took your side, saying I should just consider it a gift to my sister since I'm the older brother!"
"That was Mom's idea! She was sulking because you took Dad's side during their fight the day before! She sold the books while I was at school and told me to say I did it, promising to give me half the money!"
"I figured as much. I should've beaten that bitch even more before she became monster food."
"It was your fault for taking Dad's side in the first place! Why would you take the side of that asshole who didn't even provide proper living expenses and just went hiking all the time?"
"Do you think I had a choice? If I didn't take Dad's side during their fights, the whole family would've ganged up on him, and that asshole would've made my life a living hell when it was just the two of us!"
"What kind of hell did he put you through?"
"You know what he did when I didn't take his side during a fight? I was alone, boiling some soup, and he flipped the table because I didn't offer him any. Have you ever experienced that? I got burned on my thigh, and the scar stayed there until I got my Super-regeneration ability. I was screaming in pain, and he just pretended to be pissed off and stormed out of the house."
Even now, thinking back on it makes my blood boil. Why did both of them have to become monster food? It was a shame I couldn't dump their ashes in the toilet because there was nothing left of them.
"That's what Dad did, not me! Why are you taking it out on me?"
"Then should I keep listing the things you did? In the end, you didn't even give me money to buy new reference books, so I had to study online. And don't you remember running to Mom, whining that I wouldn't let you use the computer? I hadn't even been on it for ten minutes, and Mom ordered me to give it up!"
"Stop bringing that up! You used that as an excuse to stop me from using the computer for even five minutes a day later on..."
I was about to counter with a new anecdote, but I stopped. What a moron. What was I doing, coming here to visit just to fight?
I wasn't originally a person with such a short temper, but after my third year of middle school, my personality had become this twisted. Damn it.
I took a deep breath and spoke in a deliberately calm voice.
"Let's stop. What's the point of talking about how shitty we were to each other? We'll just end up getting worked up... just eat while you listen. Keep eating."
She continued to glare at me while chewing on a piece of MatXsan. I kept talking.
"I can't say I'm reflecting on how shitty I was to you. You're not exactly reflecting either, are you? Right?"
She looked like she was about to say something else. Not wanting to fight again, I quickly continued.
"Still, if I could turn back time... I don't think I'd want to do it like that again."
"What?"
"If I could turn back time, I'd only beat Mom and Dad again. Just those assholes... I wouldn't hit you, just those idiots."
She seemed to roughly understand what I meant. She glared at me, then lowered her head and picked up another piece of sashimi.
"I felt bad when you got locked up. Didn't I protest and stuff to try and get you out?"
At my words, she finally opened her mouth.
"And yet, you only came to visit once."
"I was kicked out of the UFC, and I didn't have any dignity left. I couldn't face hearing you say bad things to me while I was already feeling miserable."
"Has something changed now?"
"Yeah. Your brother is making some money now."
I started telling her about my recent Hunter activities and how my signing bonus alone was over 50 billion won. I told her about my current situation, trying my best not to sound like I was bragging, and then said:
"So when you get out, I'll take care of you, so let's live together. I'll provide the money..."
"I want to live alone."
"I figured you'd say that, so I looked into it, and it's going to be tough. Don't you know that Gates open frequently around Ice-Ability Users? Monsters inside the Gates can see the souls of sentient beings in the outside world, and Awakened ones shine so brightly they stand out like lighthouses. And the monsters know full well that an Ice-Ability User like you is weak..."
It was like in an RPG, where catching an Awakened gives you far more experience points than catching an ordinary person. And in that sense, an Ice-Ability User who was weak despite being Awakened was essentially a golden opportunity for them to gain experience.
So, there was no need to explain that whenever the soul pattern of an Awakened inside a Gate is identified as an Ice-Ability User, monsters drool and open Gates just to get to them.
"I know. Every time a Gate opens near the prison, the girls in my cell harass me, saying it's all my fault."
It seemed prison life wasn't easy, either. The people she shared a cell with were tormenting her, but honestly, why on earth hadn't this idiot girl learned jiu-jitsu to avoid all this trouble?
"Anyway, it seems it's not easy for an Ice-Ability User to live alone. It's hard enough to buy a house, but even if you manage to move in, the neighbors won't leave you alone."
At my words, my younger sister asked hesitantly, her voice sinking low.
"Then, is it okay to live with you?"
"Probably... They say it's fine to live with a Physical Enhancer. Since a Physical Enhancer isn't an easy target, monsters try not to open Gates nearby if they can help it. It means that if an Ice-Ability User and a Physical Enhancer are together, it roughly balances things out. Plus, the neighbors are scared of the Physical Enhancer, so they can't complain..."
My younger sister parted her lips. She looked like she wanted to say something, but then she closed her mouth. I kept talking on my own.
"So, let's live together when you get out. I haven't bought a house yet, but I have the money to buy one. I also have the money to buy you a car. Once you get your driver's license, I'll buy you a Porsche."
"A Porsche?"
"Yeah, a Porsche. I only know Mercedes and Porsche when it comes to luxury cars, so that's all I can offer to buy you. If you know of a better car, I'll buy you that instead. So..."
My vision blurred. I blinked back the moisture and continued.
"Let's start over. We're the only family each other has, so let's live together. We don't need to do anything grand for each other while living in the same house. We just need to live together, okay?"
I went on to say that she wouldn't need to cook or do the dishes, and that I planned to hire a housekeeper once she was released. I told her that I had enough money and ability to provide for her, that all she had to do was get out, and that she didn't need to worry about anything else.
After that, I wiped my eyes. I could see something streaming down my younger sister's cheeks as well.
After the visit, I left the prison alone.
When I was in middle school, my mom and dad would get into fights at the drop of a hat.
It would have been better if they had just fought between themselves, but they didn't. Every time they fought, they would each pick a child to take their side and turn it into a brawl just to prove they were right.
In that long and exhausting marital war, my younger sister was always on Mom's side, and Dad forced me, his fellow male, to be on his side. Every time I was forced to take Dad's side, Mom would glare at me as if she wanted to kill me, and I was just sick and tired of it all.
Then, in my third year of middle school, I was forcibly woken up in the middle of the night to be dragged into another fight, and I finally reached my breaking point.
I punched my dad in the stomach after he demanded I take his side, asking, "Do you think I'm right, or is that bitch who ignores the head of the household right?"
My dad, who was over 190cm tall at the time, couldn't breathe properly from a single kick of mine. I kept kicking him for a long time even after he collapsed.
I couldn't forgive my mom, who was staring with wide, shocked eyes, either. She was just as much of a tormentor to me. I beat her, too, as she stood frozen in panic instead of calling the police.
And then, peace came to our home. Mom and Dad were now afraid of me. They stopped fighting at home and behaved themselves, and I realized what it meant for the fist to be closer than the law.
However, misfortune befell my younger sister.
Usually, when my sister and I fought, Mom would unconditionally take her side, so despite the difference in strength, the relationship between us siblings was somewhat equal.
But by the time I stopped caring about Mom's opinion, my younger sister was no longer my equal.
The gap in our strength became the hierarchy between us.
Thinking about it now, my younger sister, who was only in elementary school, had also been forcibly dragged into their marital fights. But back then, as a mere middle schooler, I didn't have the empathy to consider that fact.
In my eyes at the time, my younger sister didn't look like a fellow victim of domestic violence, but rather like a female Yi Wan-yong who clung to foreign powers to throw her weight around.
I hit her whenever I could for revenge and to vent my anger, and she, no longer protected by Mom, had to take the beatings one-sidedly. This continued until I was sent to the juvenile detention center.
I can't turn back time and change all of that. It doesn't matter whether I have the superpower to see the future or not.
But couldn't I change things from now on?
If I treat her well from here on out and share what I have without holding back, couldn't our unnecessarily twisted relationship start to move in the right direction?
I believe it will.
On the way home, I turned on HuntWeb to shake off my gloomy mood.
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