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Older Sister Yu-ri is quick to pick up on things. I realized that after just a few meetings with her.

Maybe she sensed that neither Mom, nor I, nor Older Sister Ah-yoon had said a word about our home, because afterward, Yu-ri didn’t mention wanting to visit again. Sure, we would occasionally bump into her around town, but she never asked to come over or stay the night.

Did Yu-ri figure out why we didn’t show her our house?

…Nah, I don’t think so. If we had ‘shown’ her, she would understand why she had avoided coming over until then, but before that, she’d never grasp it.

Yu-ri was a completely different type of person from anyone I had ever met.

No matter what she did, she exuded confidence and simply shrugged off any mistakes or failures before trying again. I heard she failed her driving test nearly five times.

Even when she went to take the TOEIC exam, she just breezed through it. And while grumbling, she kept trying repeatedly, gradually improving her score.

She didn’t care about her friends’ wallets. If someone dining with her was a bit short on cash that day, she’d just casually cover it and say, “You can pay me back next time.” And she’d forget that she had treated them.

Older Sister Yu-ri… was a good person. At least, she wasn’t the type to judge others based on money.

But that was a trait she could afford to have since our worlds were different.

Driving licenses and TOEIC exams—they weren’t free. In fact, they could be considered quite expensive for someone who frequently needed to use them.

For Ah-yoon and me, those were things we couldn’t try casually. We had to study our hearts out to get the best results on our first attempts. Otherwise, it meant spending money again, which implied we’d have to earn that money from somewhere else. In other words, it was a waste of time.

Even if I wanted to treat a friend to a meal, I couldn’t do that. The amount in my pocket was barely enough for my own share.

Yu-ri had a completely different concept of money than we did. If she thought, “It’s okay to live even without that,” we were the type of people who felt we couldn’t survive without it.

That was also the reason why Ah-yoon seemed impressive to me.

While walking together, if Ah-yoon saw a donation pot, she would never just walk past it. Just like when we were kids, she always put in a little money to help those who were less fortunate. I acted the same way every time.

How could a person be so generous even when their own situation was tight? I thought Ah-yoon was truly amazing, learning one by one about things I hadn’t noticed in my childhood, or even things I could easily overlook.

“Hmm…”

After Mr. Park Sang-hyun left, Ah-yoon looked at the invitation card with a joyful expression a few more times. It seemed like such a happy occasion had been a long time coming. Just seeing it made my mood lift.

As I watched her sneak glances at me, she smiled brightly.

“So, would you really like to go together?”

“Huh?”

I blinked in surprise.

Actually, I had been thinking that I wanted to go.

Though Yu-ri had never visited our home, she had run into Mom a few times since then, and because of her charismatic and approachable personality, it quickly turned into fun conversations.

If it were true to Yu-ri’s nature, she probably sent out an invitation too.

So…

“Oh, but it might be a bit awkward since I’m meeting someone for the first time?”

As I got lost in thought for a moment, she seemed to think I was sulking alone and said that with a slightly embarrassed expression.

“You could say it’s basically like your boss inviting you to something…”

“No way!”

I answered quickly, fearing that if I stayed silent any longer, she might end the conversation. Perhaps surprised by my sudden exclamation, she blinked a couple of times.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, I love buffets too!”

Indeed.

Who doesn’t love a buffet?

Sure, there are a few people here and there. People who will complain about how buffets are awful while stuffing their faces at a wedding buffet.

But I’m not one of them.

Isn’t it a place filled with foods that are often too precious to buy? When living in this world, and even during my time in that other world, I never would’ve imagined something like this. Even though I nearly took down all the high-ranking members of the Demon King’s army and the church was desperately trying to purify the land, it wasn’t like pigs and chickens would just pop up out of the soil. They were all things that couldn’t be supplied until they were raised.

Sure, at the tail end of the war, the food situation improved a bit, but when I first crossed over into this world, we were scavenging all the food from the Kingdom just to replenish our supplies.

The only beings who could eat anything whenever they wanted were the soldiers being deployed directly to the front lines. And even then, only a tiny handful of them were able to eat freely without any repercussions, needing to literally gamble their lives on the battlefield.

Being able to eat what you want when you want is a blessing. To me, a buffet was just that.

…Of course, right now, all I really wanted was to see Mom.

“I see…”

Maybe I had been too enthusiastic about it. Ah-yoon looked a bit dazed as she spoke.

“Okay, then. I’ll cover your share of the wedding gift.”

Earlier, Mr. Park Hyun-seung had said I didn’t need to pay for my part, but it seemed she wasn’t planning on going along with that. Knowing her personality, I’d have expected nothing less.

“No, it’s my meal, so I should pay…”

“Nope, if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even be going. And you don’t know any of those other people.”

She said it lightly.

…Ah, right. I was just a stranger to Yu-ri. I was the only one who was excited to see her after such a long time; to her, I was probably just a friend’s younger sibling who tagged along.

“But…”

“It’s really fine.”

I thought Yu-ri getting married was genuinely a good thing. She was a truly great person. And the one she was marrying was someone she had been with for a long time, someone I knew was also a good person. Based on how he was when I saw him today, it seemed he had a proper job too.

While the good people around me were happily getting married, I was just an outsider.

“…”

As I suddenly felt down, she seemed to think she had said something wrong.

“I’m just sorry. To you, it’s just going to a wedding of someone you scarcely know, but… ah.”

While she was speaking, it seemed she realized something.

And for just a moment, her expression hardened.

Did I do something to upset her?

“…Siyun.”

She called my name seriously.

“Yeah?”

With a suddenly serious expression, she spoke.

“This wedding gift is really fine. After we genuinely become closer, there will be more opportunities to celebrate. Like a first birthday party or something. You can celebrate me properly then, so for now, why don’t you just do what I say?”

“…”

I wasn’t sure why she suddenly became so earnest… but I guessed there must be something I didn’t know.

I had only ever attended Mom’s wedding when I was little, but Yu-ri must have gone to several of those events as she grew up. There must be customs or something that I didn’t quite understand.

“Alright, I got it.”

In the end, I nodded in response to her.

*

I had completely forgotten about how different the appearance of the person in front of me was from the person I remembered.

Though we were the same age, she was a different gender, and her looks were completely different from what I had known. Occasionally, small habits might remind me of the girl I thought of, but that was probably due to my own awareness.

The real issue was that this child’s name was ‘Cha Si-hyun,’ the same as the other.

Yeah, it wasn’t impossible.

It wasn’t impossible, but…

If someone found out there was a wedding gift envelope with the name Cha Si-hyun written on it, or if someone saw that name in the guest book…

What if his mom found out?

I could explain. That it was just a name coincidence and that they were entirely different people. And once I explained, they would probably understand.

But my issues would flare up again.

I thought I had forgotten after years, but any trace of it would resurrect the worries.

That would be a burden I couldn’t let happen again.

So, yes. Someday, everyone would find out. I knew I couldn’t keep hiding forever and that I couldn’t maintain this act until the end.

…Right. Earlier, when Hyun-seung said I could just cover my own part, it was because…

Yoori probably figured it out already.

…She must be worried.

After chatting so happily, I mentioned that name several times.

My mouth turned bitter.

It was impossible to forget everything.

What kind of day had that been? I had been so looking forward to it.

“Sister.”

The ‘Siyun’ in front of me spoke up.

“Are you worried about something?”

“Eh? Oh, no.”

I forced a bitter smile.

“I just remembered something I almost forgot.”

No, perhaps it was something I couldn’t forget at all.

It was something I didn’t want to forget.