When I was 5 years old, we had a Korean neighbor, whose daughter, for some reason I didn't know, was always having a sleepover at our place. I honestly liked the idea of a younger playmate, especially a girl. Since, I only have an older brother. A younger sister sounded great to me.

I expected a three-year-old to be cute and fun to play with. This three-year-old kid WAS indeed cute with her dimples always protruding out of her cheeks at the slightest movement, but she also refused to talk to me. For some reasons I didn't know, she hated my guts and so for that, I returned the feeling, especially when she had to sleep in my room whenever she had a sleepover.

'Ungrateful Brat!' I thought.

One day at dinner, Mom announced that the girl, whose name was Son Chaeyoung, was going to live with us permanently. I frowned at my mother and father. I didn't understand why. Didn't she have her own family? What about her own family? Nevertheless, I only asked one question.

"Is she going to sleep in my room?" I asked them.

"Of course! You guys have always shared a room! Why wouldn't you guys be sharing a room?" My mom replied.

"I can't accept this!" I protested. "It was fine when she stayed only for awhile, but permanently, I won't allow that!"

"Mina, that is not nice! I don't like your attitude right now!" My dad growled.

I might be dad's favorite, but if he started to talk in a threatening tone, I better shut up. So I it up.

"I'ts fine, Auntie! I will sweep on the couch!" She cutely said.

That was the first time, I'd ever heard her voice. She was really the definition of a cute child. If only she was affectionate with me. I probably would've been happy, sharing a room with her, but she wasn't. She hated me, for no reason.

My 8-year-old older brother politely asked my family to leave the table and go to bed early and my mom allowed it. He bowed before leaving. In order to go to his room, he had to pass by me.

He purposefully went closer to me and muttered, "Freeloader"

I snorted.

"What's funny?" My mom asked.

"Nothing" I said.

One thing I noticed though, Chaeyoung was pretty mature for a three-year-old. My mom tried to feed her but she refused and ate by herself. Chaeyoung couldn't go to the kindergarten yet, but mom enrolled her in a preschool. I noticed how she wore her uniforms all by herself, even her own shoes. Her shoes didn't have laces, but it was still pretty impressive for a toddler.


 

My hunch that it was going to be horrible that she moved in was right. Times had passed and now Chaeyoung was in third grade. I was in sixth grade grade and Kai, my older brother was in ninth grade. Me and Kai hated her. Mom always compared us with Chaeyoung, because Chaeyoung always got good grades and was first in her class. Besides that, Chaeyoung also helped out with chores despite her young age.

Kai really wanted to kick her out, even filled me in on the idea on how to make her leave, but being a coward, I chickened out. Besides, both dad and mom seemed so fond of Chaeyoung. I didn't wanna risk getting grounded. At this point, it seemed like me and Kai were the ones, who weren't part of the family and Chaeyoung was the real "Myoui". Myoui is my family name.


 

Anyway, Kai moved out as soon as he turned 18, by going to a University abroad. I never saw him as happy as he was that day, when he left to his destination. I was jealous of him. I wished that I TOO could leave. If we couldn't make the girl leave, then might as well leave this house. But alas, I had to wait three more years till I finished high school.


 

Two years later, when Chaeyoung got into high school, she requested to move out. My mom and dad obviously objected. Chaeyoung was too young to move out, but I saw my chance of living a peaceful life without her. If she moved out, then I didn't need to study abroad. I could just stay here in Japan.

I offered to help Chaeyoung move out. I helped Chaeyoung convince mom and dad that Chaeyoung would be just fine living on her own, even said that I would take responsibility in case anything happened. Mom and dad reluctantly agreed.

As promised, I helped Chaeyoung, by driving her to her new place. I was supposed to help bring her stuffs into her new place, but like hell I would do that. Chaeyoung unloaded all her stuffs by herself with that small body of hers, while I played with my phone while waiting for her to be done. Mom instructed me to help her unpack and clean her new place. She must be crazy for expecting me to do that, but to avoid suspicion, I stayed at the car longer before driving home.



 

One month had passed and Mom asked me to check how Chaeyoung was doing. I reluctantly drove to her place. I was gonna just stay in the car, but mom asked for picture. So I had to get into her place. I rang the doorbell but there was no answer. I called mom, telling her that Chaeyoung wasn't home. She told me to call Chaeyoung and since I wanted this to get over with. I called her.

She picked up the phone, but since none of us had ever spoken a word to each other. None of us said anything. After a moment of silence, I finally cleared my throat. I took a deep breath and exhaled.

"Hey, So mom wants me to check on you. Why are you not home?" I asked.

"I have a part-time job." She answered courtly.

I quickly hung up and called Mom.

"She has a part time job." I informed Mom.

"She has a part time Job? She's on scholarship and has a part time job and also has to take care of her own house? Can she really hande it?" My mom panicked.

"I'm sure she'll be fine, Mom! Don't need to worry!" I assured Mom, while rolling my eyes.

"I'm just really worried!" Mom shrilled.

I furthered my phone, before sighing. I really hated when she treated Chaeyoung like her own child, while treating her own children like outsiders. I put the phone back to my ears.

"I'm sure she'll be fine, okay? Don't need to be so worried!" I assured her.




 

Another month passed and Mom wanted me to check on Chaeyoung again. This time Mom didn't ask for pictures, so I went to the convenience store instead. I ate some ramen and drank some soda and went home. Mom seemed pretty satisfied with my report. Since I didn't get caught, doing this. I did the same thing the next months.

Until one day I was caught red handed, when I was in an arcade in the mall. It turned out that dad had an appointment with his business partner at the mall and he saw me coming out of the arcade. He was furious and I was grounded because of it.

The next day, Dad drove me to her
place. It really that I had to tag along. Wouldn't Dad be enough? We rang the doorbell and noone was answering. I quickly told dad that Chaeyoung must be working, but dad decided to call Chaeyoung to be sure, but Chaeyoung didn't pick up the phone.

Dad started panicking. He went to the landlord asking for the spare key. I told Dad he was exaggerating, but he didn't wanna hear it. The landlord gave dad the spare key and we unlocked the door and there in the living room we saw Chaeyoung, passed out cold. Her face was really pale. Dad quickly carried her and brought her to the hospital.

I started feeling guilty, how long had she been passed out? It couldn't be long, right? It couldn't be more than three days? Thankfully, the doctor said that Chaeyoung just fainted from overfatigue and if she just rested, she would be fine. Dad told Mom what happened and eventually Mom and Dad made Chaeyoung move back in and quit her job. Chaeyoung begged Mom and Dad to let her keep her job and stay at her place, to the point of kneeling and crying, but Mom and Dad's mind didn't waver. In the end, I was stuck with her again.

My night had always been peaceful even when Chaeyoung was around, but for some unknown reasons, Chaeyoung started crying in the middle of the night. She was crying silently, but I was sensitive to noise. I woke up at the slightest noise. I groaned and covered my ears with pillow, but it obviously didn't do its job.

"Why are you crying?" I asked, gritting my teeth in suppressed anger.

She quickly wiped her tears and stopped crying.

"I'm sorry!" She muttered.

"Don't make any noise again, or I'll kick you out! I don't care if I get grounded!" I threatened.

With Chaeyoung back, it meant that I had to take her to school. Honestly, I didn't really like the idea of people knowing that Chaeyoung lived with us. Me and Kai had made a good job hiding that fact. Luckily, Chaeyoung played along. So, I told Chaeyoung that I was going to drop her at some random place and she had to walk to school from that place. She didn't protest and just went along with it.






 

One day though, when I stopped at some random place, she refused to get out.

"I was late yesterday. They let me go without a punishment, since it was the first time, but I couldn't say the same for today. I can't miss any lessons. If I get bad grades, I'll lose my scholarship!" She explained.

I groaned.

When we arrived at school, we instantly became the topic of gossip. My friends asked about Chaeyoung. I was about to lie to them, but Chaeyoung beat me to it.

"We are neighbors!" She lied and then she sprinted to her class.

"You're taking your neighbor to school?" One of my friends asked.

I just nodded.

That night, I was doing my homework, before going to sleep. Chaeyoung stood around like an idiot, looking down and playing with her shirt. She looked agitated, but of course I didn't comment and just continued with my homework.

"O-onee-s-san!" She stuttered.

Onee-san? She meant me? That was the first time, she called me that. What did she want? I just kept silent, ignoring her.

"I-I w-wanna apologize!" She continued.

"For?" I finally responded. I figured, she wanted to apologize for almost exposing us at school.

"Everything!" She cried. She kneeled down and started crying, covering her reddened face.

"I was actually jealous of you!" She said in-between her sobs.

Jealous of me? Shouldn't me and Kai be the ones jealous of her, since she hogged mom and dad's affection?

"My mom always said that I was useless  and a burden to her and that she wished that she had a daughter like you, instead!" She went on.

I widened my eyes. I barely remember anything that was happening when I was three. It must be really traumatizing for her, if she remembered it and all of a sudden everything made sense. Why she was so mature for a three year old. Why she wanted to move out so soon. Her mother's words must be haunting her. She didn't want to be useless and a burden. Why she despised me. She must've thought that I was the reason, why she was abandoned by her mother.

"I thought that if I could prove that I wasn't useless and a burden and if I could beat you! My mother would come to take me back to her to South Korea!" She shrilled.

And THAT was why she always got good grades and became first in her class. Damn, I didn't know, that a young girl like her was carrying all these burdens. I went to hug her and she cried on my shoulders. I carressed her back to soothe her. After a while, she calmed down.

"I understand now, that it wasn't because of you, or because of anything else that she left me. She just didn't want me and your parents were kind enough to take me in or I would end up in an orphanage!" She remarked, full of anger and hatred towards her mother.

Damn, this made me grateful for my parents. Even though, my parents were kinder to Chaeyoung than me and Kai, at least they would never abandon us. I honestly felt so bad for Chaeyoung. I did have questions regarding Chaeyoung, but I hated her so much, that I didn't want to know anything about her. Now that I knew everything, my perception towards her completely changed.







 

Chaeyoung must've felt very guilty, because she was being very kind to me. Baking me cakes and cookies, taking over chores I was supposed to do, even taking care of the cleaning of the our room, including folding my clothes and cleaning my study desk. She also started opening up to me, little by little. Not gonna lie, now that she didn't hate me anymore, Chaeyoung was actually very likeable and adorable.

Day by day, I started to enjoy her company even more. I got to know more about her, like how she absolutely loved strawberries and also her hobby of drawing. How was it that, I shared a room with her for 13 years, yet never saw a single drawing, drawn by her? She also had no friends at school, because she was Korean. I honestly never knew that she was so alone. I was determined to be a good company for her, now that she was opening up to me.







 

End of high school came faster than I expected. I used to look forward to it, because I wanted to escape from Chaeyoung, but now I actually really liked the girl and did not want to be separated from her. I tried applying to college near home, but I eventually got accepted at Tokyo University. So, I had to move to Tokyo.

Chaeyoung was crying her eyes out, when she sent me to the airport. Mom was also crying. Dad looked concerned, probably worried that his little girl wouldn't be able to survive on her own. I hugged all of them, telling them not to worry about me.

"Chaeng! I'll be waiting for you! Two years from now, I expect you to be a freshman at our Uni!" I chirped.

"Pinky swear?" I questioned, holding out my pinky, unexpectedly, she pulled me down to her level and kissed me on the lips. I widened my eyes. Mom and Dad were equally shocked.

"I promise!" She whispered to me afterward.

My face turned red. I waved to them one last time then got into the plane. The kiss replayed in my mind throughout the whole flight. It was only a short flight to Tokyo.

'I'll be holding on to your promise and waiting for you, Son Chaeyoung!' I happily thought.