Second Half Chapter 41

What on earth was he thinking, calling her all the way to this distant land of England? Gabriela had spent about ten minutes killing time, calling Aaron and intentionally annoying him by using a nickname he hated, all while braiding her long blonde hair that draped down toward the floor from the sofa. Finally, the person she was waiting for showed up. She sniped at him without hesitation.

“Just how urgent was this business of yours that you forgot your appointment with me and went out? Ari.”

“If you don’t want to be kicked out the moment you’ve arrived, don’t ever call me Ari again. I’ve warned you several times.”

Even though it was a face she had seen since childhood, her shoulders flinched when he made such a stern expression. Unlike her own gentle impression, Aaron’s look couldn’t be called good even as a hollow compliment. Though they shared many personality traits, the two siblings were characterized by their vastly different appearances.

In the first place, it was already a problem that half-siblings were the same age, but if they had even looked alike, it would have been very uncomfortable for their respective mothers to look at their own children. In fact, Aaron’s wise mother had immediately lost affection for her own biological son and divorced the moment she learned of the existence of an illegitimate child the same age as her child.

Anyway, despite his words, Gabriela acted shamelessly because she knew well that Aaron wouldn’t kick her out into the streets where paparazzi were crawling everywhere.

“So stingy. I’m just trying to call you by a nickname, but I can’t? You call me by a nickname.”

“No, not even you. Think of another nickname besides Ari.”

Honestly, her intention to irritate Aaron was greater than any actual desire to call him by a nickname, so she quietly shut her mouth.

She had already asked several times why that nickname—the one given to him by that Jerim or Hyerim—was so precious that he wouldn’t let anyone else utter a word of it. Every time, she received the answer, “Because we promised to call each other that.” Since it was obvious the same answer would return if she asked again, she didn’t bother re-asking this time.

By nature, both she and Aaron were the type of serious loners who, once hooked on something, would dig into only that and not look at anything else, but… she couldn’t understand why he was so obsessed with a mere first love, even if she considered Aaron her alter ego. The affection Aaron poured into soccer was in the same vein as her love for acting, so there was nothing to understand or not understand about that.

But the boy Aaron had met and fallen in love with in his teens was the only existence that occasionally made Aaron—the only sibling Gabriela acknowledged—feel like a stranger. Truly the only one since they first met at age four and learned of each other’s existence.

In that sense, the Asian boy with the surname Ban (though he was a young man now) was a figure with a very special meaning to Gabriela as well, yet she couldn’t bring herself to like him at all.

‘Such a pushover.’

Does he still like him after breaking up with all that drama? After having all his calls ignored at the end and being dumped in the worst way possible. I really can’t understand it. She looked at her kin with disgusted eyes, seeing him throw away his pride, honor, and career all for a mere first love. Aaron must have read the subtext in that look, but he coolly ignored it.

“More importantly, you’re early. How was the trip?”

“How do you think it was? It was shitty. They were already stationed there, somehow knowing I was coming to England. So I left them some pretty pictures to use as their main features.”

Scandals poured out every time she interacted with Aaron, but that was actually what they wanted. Both she and Aaron had many truths they could cover up with those pathetic dating rumors.

Since both siblings had jobs that required a decent amount of buzz, the false scandals brought more gain than loss. A romance between the currently most high-valued young, handsome soccer player and a Hollywood actress—wasn’t that a subject the public everywhere, regardless of nationality, went crazy for?

In truth, since they couldn’t exactly come out and reveal that they were half-siblings, and that one was an illegitimate child born of an affair, it was better to use what they could. It was also fun to see the man they called Father foam at the mouth every time an article linking them appeared.

‘That’s why he shouldn’t have done such useless image-making, pretending to be a family man and a harmonious big family.’

The Reyes family has been running a family business manufacturing handmade luxury furniture for generations. They were a family of undisputed local influence in Tabarona. With their catchphrase “For a harmonious and cozy home,” and since the local residents had been their primary target customers since olden times, a family-friendly image was important to sell well.

Aaron and Gabriela’s biological father was a man who knew the importance of corporate image well, even if he didn’t move his dick in a family-friendly way at all. Divorce and remarriage were so common that they weren’t big problems in maintaining that image, but the existence of an illegitimate child born from an affair during marriage was something that had to be kept strictly confidential according to doctrine.

At the same time, he was the kind of human who would make a dying fuss, saying he couldn’t bear to see dating rumors between his own children. Every time, Gabriela wanted to rip her biological father’s mouth wide open. Who was the one responsible for the situation where they couldn’t deny the dating rumor that first popped up ten years ago? Perhaps Aaron was thinking something similar, as he chuckled softly.

“Aha, more novels using full imagination will come pouring out then. Father is going to faint again.”

“Just faint? I’d prefer if he took this chance to die.”

“If he dies, the inheritance issues get annoying. It’s better for him to live a moderately long life with a sick body.”

“Still, I’m relieved he seems to be dicking around less lately since he’s been a bit sick. If he breeds any more, the will is going to be longer than the hallway of the mansion.” At her sibling’s pointed joke, Gabriela cackled and sat up from her lying position.

“Putting screwing over Father aside. It’s more convenient for you to have regular scandals with me to bury the rumors about being impotent or gay… Hey, what’s with those shoes?”

As she straightened her upper body, the area under Aaron’s feet came right into view. Some light blue women’s slippers were pitifully wedged onto Aaron’s feet, losing their life in real-time. Even if they were open-topped shoes, it was a miracle how he had managed to cram his feet into that small space.

Did he pick up a new hobby in the few months she hadn’t seen him? Was there now going to be another point she couldn’t understand about Aaron besides the existence of Ban Jerim? Even if she could generously package the obsession with a first love as a pure-hearted story, a hobby like that was… Gabriela’s face was right on the verge of distorting miserably.

“Ah, this?”

Aaron took off the shoes nonchalantly and picked them up. He then shrugged as he threw them straight into the trash can.

“Trash.”

“No, why were you wearing women’s shoes… Are you crazy?”

“Watch your mouth with your Oppa. I just wore them out to throw them away for someone.”

“Speak so I can understand. Exactly who did you meet that you stood me up and wore those beggar-like shoes…”

“Who else.”

The corners of Aaron’s mouth curled up broadly. The eyes that had been shining brightly with a dangerous atmosphere softened in an instant. The person who could make Aaron make such an expression just by thinking of them was fixed. Though from the perspective of seeing such an expression on her own kin, Gabriela felt a bit of physiological repulsion. She asked with her eyes narrowed.

“Are you seeing that person again? Already?”

“No, we’re busy fighting every time our eyes meet. We just fought now, too.”

“What. Didn’t you transfer even while taking all that verbal abuse just to make things work again?”

Since he had suddenly said he was transferring to the team where Ban Jerim was, abandoning the team he had played for since his youth, she had naturally assumed that was the case. At his sister’s blank question, Aaron gestured with his chin toward the trash can. A deep sigh, as if the situation was absurd, was a bonus.

“Those shoes, they’re Jerim’s ex-lover’s shoes. He still had them even though they broke up. He didn’t even know they were in his house.”

“Whaaat, I heard he was a bit… on the insensitive side even when he was dating you.”

To think the guy who used to get hurt by that insensitivity piece by piece is acting like this now.

She could still clearly remember the time he called suddenly with a voice like he was dying, asking, ‘It’s not like we’ve fought, but what kind of mentality is it to say that we might break up one day and become people who barely see each other’s faces during matches?’ That was the first time Aaron had ever asked for advice while acting weak because of a total stranger.