Krystal's POV (The next day, at her own home)

Could Sulli be Jae Hee’s long-lost twin sister? Ever since my trip with Jae Hee yesterday, this question had been nagging in my head, shortening my attention span that should have been invested into revising for a Mathematics test that happened right after the semester break. As the problem involved Sulli, it was more enjoyable to solve, unlike the f(x) questions found in my Math notes. Mixing Jae Hee, a gender-bending version of Sulli, into the equation doubled the pleasure. Oh… what a beautiful distraction…

So back to the question at hand, I decided to start with what I already knew about Sulli. Sulli had a little brother who was the biological child of her adopted family. Apart from that little brother, she had never mentioned anything about the existence of another sibling. When I was at her house, I noticed that she did not have any baby photographs. Her explanation was that she was quite old when her foster family adopted her. In that case, she should have memories of her life before adoption, which she had never told me about. To be fair, I did not ask. Why not I asked her now? It’s always faster to get the answer straight from the horse’s mouth.

Turning to my laptop that was already switched on, I checked to see if she was online. Unfortunately, she was “AWAY”. Instead, I saw Eun Gyeol with a new post:
“I made it to the National Team, thanks to Sulli’s magic and Mr Byuntae Sweet Potato”.

My eyes grew wider when I saw the accompanying picture consisting of him, Sulli (?!), two children, and a erted-looking sweet potato. What is Eun Gyeol doing with Sulli?! Unable to contain my jea… I mean curiosity, I my webcam and initiated a chat session with Eun Gyeol.

“Chuka hae, Eun Gyeol!” I pretended to be calm about it, just in case, it turned out to be a misunderstanding.

“Kumawo, Krystal. I did not make it at first. But one of the team players got into an accident, hence I’m selected to replace him. Sulli’s magic really works wonder,” Eun Gyeol looked particularly happy when he mentioned Sulli’s name, or was it my imagination?

“Oh… so you were with Sulli yesterday?” I seized the opportunity to slip in my question inconspicuously.

“Ah… erm… yes. Hey, wait a minute, you didn’t think I ask her out intentionally, did you?” Eun Gyeol suddenly turned exasperated.

“I was just asking. If you didn’t do anything disgraceful, why get so worked up for?” I feigned innocence.

“Actually I bumped into her when I was loitering around… Eh? The flashing bangle on your wrist looks familiar. I saw Jae Hee wearing one too when we met up for the project this morning.”

“Well… It’s ja… just a normal bangle,” now the table was me.

“Hehehe! Jae Hee reacted the same way as you when I asked him about it,” Eun Gyeol snickered.

“The old lady that sold these bangles was handicapped, so Jae Hee bought it out of charity,” I explained.

“How did you know the reason so clearly? Jae Hee did mention about buying the bangle from an old lady with only one leg, but he never said anything about buying one for you too. Did I catch something?”

Damn, I fell into Eun Gyeol’s trap! I certainly did not expect that out of silly-looking Eun Gyeol. “Yah! It’s all your fault. Your best buddy is relatively new to Korea. He needed to visit a place he’s not familiar with but because you were emo-ing over not making it to the National Team, he dared not trouble you. I did not want him to lose his way, so I brought him there.”

“Where was he going by the way?”

“To the orphanage he used to live in,” while we were at it, I might as well involve him in this detective work. After all, two heads are better than one, “He wanted to look for his twin sister.”

“Twin sister? I didn’t know he has siblings. Based on how Jae Hee’s looks, she should be one hell of a beauty. Am I right?”

If Sulli and Jin Ri were the same person, then you are right, I thought to myself. “I don’t know. The orphanage is no longer there. Hence we did not get to meet her.”

“Jae Hee must be very disappointed. Did you guys find out where else to find her?”

“Nope, we reached a dead end. But I have a suspect in mind. Eun Gyeol, I need your help on this. I shall list out the reasons why I suspect her, and you tell me if I am making sense.”

“Sounds interesting. Go ahead please.”

“I guess Sulli is the one. Firstly, they look like each other, too alike to be brushed off as a coincidence.”

“I totally agree on that one. I would never forget the day at our Genie High Annual Fair when the two took a picture together,” then he showed me the picture he stored in his mobile phone.

“Secondly, they were borne on the same day. This is an important criterion to qualify them as possible twins.”

“They proved that with their student IDs at ABC Steak House.”

“Thirdly, you may not know about this but Sulli tends to feel a little uncomfortable about the bullying issue. Based on Jae Hee’s account, his sister was a victim of bullying. That could explain things.”

“I’m not sure about the uncomfortable part, but based on what happened at the orphanage yesterday, I can tell Sulli is extremely protective of bullying victim. If she has a history of being bullied, then it makes sense that she understands the pain all too well that she does not want to see another victim like herself.”

Is that why she always stood up for me against Seol Han Na, just like what Jae Hee had done for her many years ago? Wait I’m jumping to conclusion too soon. There’s one big “But” in this whole analysis.

“Although all the clues seem to point to Sulli, there’s one inconsistency in this whole thing. According to Jae Hee, his sister has buck teeth, but Sulli’s teeth look normal.”

“I know this one. She had braces to correct it. Sulli did have buck teeth when she was a child.”

How did Eun Gyeol know something about Sulli that even I did not know of?! Chill, Krystal, chill. “How did you know?” I spoke slowly. I suddenly realised that Sulli was keeping a lot of things from me.

“I found an old picture of hers by accident. She seemed really upset when I discovered her secret.”

On hearing that, I felt a LITTLE better. Just then I received an alert on my laptop. Sulli and Jae Hee were online at the same time.

“Hahaha. You forgot to add that they have the tendency to do the same thing at the same time. It’s like they share a telepathic bond typical of twins,” Eun Gyeol pointed out, “Since both of them are here, let’s tell them the good news.”

“Hold on! Let’s surprise them instead. How about meeting up at Baskin Robbins in Myeong Dong?” I was already browsing through the mouth-watering pictures of their ice-cream menu on the website, “In order not to arouse any suspicion, we pretend that we are celebrating your qualification for the National Soccer Team.”

“What do you mean by pretending? I really make it to the Nationals. I deserve a celebration too!” Eun Gyeol faked a crying face.

“Okok, don’t cry. We shall celebrate your Nationals qualification for real as well.”