SATURDAY 6

“Mr. Taeseon… is coming?”

“Hmm? Since when did you start calling CEO Lee ‘Mr. Taeseon’?”

“Ah.”

Inha used to call Mr. Taeseon “CEO” or “Director.” This was because Mr. Taeseon did not permit any other title. The first time Inha called him “Mr. Taeseon,” he showed immense displeasure and coldly cut him off, telling him never to call him that again.

Inha’s pride was so wounded that day that he completely trashed my room and beat me.

Of course, I never told my parents about things like that, but they at least knew that Inha and I used different titles for Mr. Taeseon. They knew that Inha did not call him “Mr. Taeseon.”

However, Mom didn’t think deeply of it and smiled.

“It seems you two have grown closer. What a relief. I’m truly heartened that CEO Lee stepped forward first…. After all, since he was so close with Inyoung, it was difficult for us to bring it up.”

Moving my spoon quietly, I froze. Mr. Taeseon… brought up the marriage first? Originally, it was an arranged marriage between families. It had become a love match between Mr. Taeseon and me. But since “I” am dead, Mr. Taeseon will now marry “Yoon Inha.”

It’s a common occurrence in Alpha and Omega families. Sometimes siblings with large age gaps are forced into marriage, so people at the funeral whispered that if the partner was a twin, it was actually a good thing.

A love match. Mr. Taeseon and I were on good terms, and we came to marry because we had feelings for each other. It was a very rare case in a conglomerate family.

Mr. Taeseon was the only one I could lean on—I, who drifted at home and had no friends. And as far as I could tell, he was also a person with a strong possessive streak. He seemed to think it wasn’t a bad thing that I had no one else to give my heart to.

I thought I would become happy once I got married. But… with the wedding only a few months away, this happened.

“He’s coming in a few days? To the house?”

“Yes. It would have been better if he came sooner, but I heard he had a business trip scheduled immediately after the funeral. Did they say it was Finland? I’m not sure of the details, but he probably went quite far.”

I didn’t say anything and just pushed rice into my mouth. Mr. Taeseon went on a business trip, and Mom—not me—knows his destination. That fact was so strange and awkward that I could no longer taste the food.

“Why, are you nervous about meeting CEO Lee?”

I slowly shook my head, then soon nodded. Mom wore a pitying expression. I had only been nervous meeting Mr. Taeseon the first few times in the beginning.

But his appearance at the funeral hall… was so overbearing. He was seeing me completely as Yoon Inha.

Am I nervous because he treats me coldly?

Or am I nervous because he… doesn’t recognize me?

My body currently belongs to “Yoon Inha.” I have possessed Inha’s body. Truly, I have become that evil spirit the shaman spoke of. I couldn’t be sure.

If the body is Inha’s, am I Inha even if the soul is me? Or, since the soul is me, am I Yoon Inyoung regardless of whose body it is? There is only one person who can answer this. The shaman.

“Ah, and your uncle is here. He’s resting on the second floor right now, so go up later and say hello…”

“There’s no need for him to come up, Sister-in-law.”

“….”

A man was standing on the second-floor stairs. A thin build with hair reaching his shoulders tied back in a ponytail, drooping eyes—my father’s much younger brother. Uncle Chaein. He is exactly ten years older than me.

Uncle is a somewhat well-known painter and has lived with us since I was young. Uncle’s room is on the second floor near mine, and he uses the house annex as his studio. He was also one of the few people who was friendly toward me.

Uncle, who could not be seen at the mortuary, the funeral procession, or even until the woodland burial was over, had arrived home at some point. His already tired-looking face had eyes that were sunken and hollowed out, looking extremely exhausted.

“Are you finished with the meal? Then I’ll talk with Inha for a bit.”

“Right now? Chaein, you aren’t going to say unnecessary things to Inha again, are you?”

Mom called Uncle “Chaein” instead of “Younger Brother-in-law.” And she was quite wary. Because since I was young, Uncle had doted on me and didn’t think well of Inha. He was the only enemy of Inha, who was loved by the whole house.

I don’t know why Uncle is like that, either. Only that Uncle also dislikes the shaman. Naturally, he doesn’t believe in the shaman’s fortune-telling. As much as that, he also distrusted the fates of Inha and me. Perhaps that was why he disliked Inha and looked after me.

“What unnecessary things? Am I going to eat Inha alive? I just have something to ask him, so don’t worry, Sister-in-law.”

“….”

Mom stared at Uncle with an uncomfortable face. I stepped in there.

“…Mom, I’ll go talk with Uncle.”

“Hmm? You… you will?”

When I, who she thought would be stubborn and refuse, stood up compliantly, Mom could no longer stop me.

“Let me just brush my teeth.”

When I spoke toward Uncle, he slowly lifted his body from the railing and headed toward the entrance.

“…Fine. Come to Uncle’s studio.”

I nodded. About ten minutes later, I was standing in front of the annex after passing the back path of the yard. For some reason, I was nervous. How will Uncle treat me? He will treat me as “Inha,” of course. If so, I cannot expect a gentle atmosphere.

After a deep breath, I knocked on the door, and the sound of slippered footsteps approached from inside.

And the door swung open. The annex has a door that opens by pushing from the inside out, and because I was standing too close to the door, I almost got hit. While staggering backward, I fell on my buttocks.

“….”

This has happened before. Standing stupidly right in front of the door. Back then, Uncle would have been surprised and helped me up, but this time, he just stared blankly.

Uncle’s gaze was directed toward a somewhat peculiar spot. Following that gaze, I realized he was looking at the tattoo on my ankle.

The only difference between Inha and me.

“…What is it, Uncle?”

I asked while struggling to pick myself up. Uncle did not answer and went inside.

I followed him inside. The smell of oil, oil paints, and acrylic paints filled the space so much that it seemed to need ventilation immediately.

I watched his reaction, then approached the window and opened it. The sound of birds along with fresh air poured in.

“You’re acting just like Inyoung would.”

“Pardon…?”

Uncle muttered quietly, so I didn’t hear him properly. I asked back, but Uncle said something else.

“It’s a relief it was settled well.”

“Pardon?”

“Regarding Inyoung.”

I blinked blankly.

“It was handled as a suicide. It’s a real relief for you. Isn’t it?”

“….”

The detective had come to the funeral as well, but my parents told me not to worry since it was settled well. They definitely covered it up with money.

There were no other victims; it was someone from our house who died, and it was a traffic accident in the rain. There was no evidence anywhere that I had pushed my twin. Inha’s testimony could easily be dismissed as a hallucination.

However, the things Inha supposedly went and said to Mr. Taeseon weigh on my mind…. In truth, Inha used to say things like that often. So it seemed it wasn’t adopted as decisive testimony.

I suddenly became dejected. I don’t know how to act in this situation. Was opening the window an “action just like Inyoung would do”? I only acted as I usually did. But Uncle seemed to dislike that.

But I cannot act like Inha. Inha’s patterns of behavior were too different from mine. Inha was bright, cheerful, communicated well with anyone, was loved, had many friends…. He was truly different from something like me.

Then abruptly, Uncle opened his mouth.

“Inha, why did Inyoung pull you and fall with you while committing suicide?”

“Pardon…?”

The button that had snapped off and rolled into the manhole, the impact that hit my body the next moment. While being hit by the car, Inha tried to pull me with him. Perhaps he thought I could serve as his sandbag.

“It’s strange, right before the wedding…. A wedding he was waiting for so much. Why did Inyoung commit suicide?”

“….”

Uncle harbored resentment toward the investigation results that had been smoothed over. That is why he is asking me. Whether “my twin” really committed suicide that day.

“Inha.”

“Yes….”

“Do you feel no responsibility at all for Inyoung’s death?”

“….”

“They say twins are half-selves…. Then again, you didn’t have much affection for Inyoung.”

I couldn’t say anything. Thump, my heart sank. For no reason, the area around my eyes became hot. It wasn’t something to cry about. And following that, my heartbeat quickened. My vision narrowed, and I felt as if a black whirlpool was forming around my body.

“Gasp….”

The black whirlpool sucked in my breath. I cannot breathe properly. I panted several times searching for oxygen, but it escaped helplessly like trying to hold breath in a bag full of holes. Oxygen was not being supplied to my brain. And a death-like terror covered my entire body.

My chest ached dully, and my heart hammered. Am I going to die like this? I might be dying. Without even finding the worth in taking over Inha’s body.

Is Inha’s body dying, am I dying, what happens to the soul if I die—all sorts of thoughts swirled dizzily in my head until… as time passed, little by little, I began to calm down as if nothing had happened.

“….”

I reflexively looked at the clock. About ten minutes had passed. Panting, I looked up at Uncle. Uncle, who was looking at me with his arms crossed, spoke slowly.

“Right, they said panic attacks can happen. As an aftereffect of the traffic accident. Anyway, you were in a traffic accident too. Though you weren’t seriously injured.”

“Gasp….”

“Maybe it’s the shock of seeing your sibling die right before your eyes. There’s medicine in that drawer over there. It’s something I take. Take it now if you need it.”

A panic attack. A vivid malice was felt in the fact that he only told me there was medicine after it had all passed. Was it because I wanted to avoid that malice, or did the remnants of the panic attack spur an impulse to confess my inner thoughts?

Before I knew it, I opened my mouth to call Uncle and said the words I shouldn’t have.

“Un, cle….”

“….”

“…It’s me, Inyoung….”

“What?”

“It’s me, Inyoung…. Uncle.”

After staring at me intently for a moment, Uncle gave a hollow laugh.

“Have you lost your mind?”

“….”

“There’s a limit to jokes. What are you trying to do with a dead child?”

“That’s…”

That’s not it, it’s really me, Inyoung. But perhaps because my senses had returned more, the words did not come out easily this time. The atmosphere was such that if I spoke like that, I might even be kicked. Uncle clicked his tongue and said:

“Cut it out. You ended up marrying Lee Taeseon like you wanted so much, so go and live well. Not that you’d have even a shred of guilt toward Inyoung. …Get out.”

My head was dizzy, and a desolating anxiety filled my chest. I had no choice but to leave Uncle’s studio weakly.