It was an idle thought that he had.
On learning about Seol's actions, he couldn't help it.
Betraying his younger sister who cherished him so much? Stealing her car and laptop that she needed to get to and study for school?
'That bastard Seol... If I was in his shoes, I would change everything.'
His name. His life. His family. All the women that he didn't deserve. Who he just treated like trophies.
'I would fix everything.'
That man was certain of it. If he was in Seol's shoes... everything would change.
Or so he thought.
But he was wrong.
...No. Not 'wrong.' But 'lacking.'
The wish to take Seol's place was granted because Seol had wished to become someone else as well.
A bargain- No, a 'trade.'
Seol, who had lost everything, was ashamed of his entire life, and who wanted to erase his entire record of existence.
That man, who was willing to throw his life away, take Seol's, and then fix everything that Seol broke.
They exchanged it. Lives, identities... all of it.
But that man failed.
...And Jinhee saw it.
Bodies littered the ground, both Parasites and humans. A wasteland filled with blood and entrails from countless clashes.
Among it all, only he was alive.
His body was cold. Sapped dry. Even with all his power, he had been worked to the bone. And only grit and determination were moving his body now.
And then, a conversation.
Looking up, that man saw it. A warm light, a soft presence. And then a faint voice, soft and melodious. "Go back. You can't change it."
And as for his response...
"My answer is the same no matter how many times you ask me."
...A brute force determination.
"I will."
Trial.
Failure.
Time, spinning back.
Trial.
Failure.
Iteration after iteration until slowly, inevitably, that man lost everything but a single name: Jihu.
Not Seol.
Not who he was before.
But 'Jihu.'
Whittling away at everything that he was. Reducing 'causality' down to a single path.
Tying the future to the past in order to reforge the present so many times that instead of going forwards it snapped off from history into a never-ending story.
And then now. This timeline. The present. The only time that existed for the man who erased his name to try and fix what Seol broke. Who ended up breaking things even more, shattered time where no one could see, and desperately stitched the pieces together with threads of karma into one cohesive whole.
Jinhee stared at him.
He was young. A man in his early 20s.
He was Asian, but he wasn't Korean. Maybe Chinese, maybe Japanese... East Asian for sure, but not from around here.
He also didn't look like Seol. Or like her Oppa.
A pair of rectangular glasses, soft eyes, a faint smile and slightly rounded face. Not the sharp KPop idol looks that Jinhee had grown familiar to.
Even so, Jinhee could sense it.
The kindness towards her. The doting gaze. The faith and unconditional love. That bone-deep refusal to allow her to be hurt.
"You aren't my brother, Seol Jihu."
Jinhee quietly whispered the truth in front of her eyes.
"That's right." The man who had become her Oppa Jihu nodded. "I'm someone who heard about your story and came here because of you."
Jinhee's breath hitched.
Because she could hear it. See it.
Her.
Only her.
The reason this man was here in the first place.
The reason this man had started off the entire chain of events leading up until this moment.
The reason why he was always so indulgent of her...
In front of Jinhee's eyes, a short paragraph appeared, typed on a word processor. Just like the one she would use to write a story.
[I won't allow this. That bastard Seol... Jinhee loved him. She trusted him. She believed in him, unconditionally. And he just... used that? Her? By taking everything? No. I refuse. Something like this can't happen. I reject it. All of it.]
The man who had become her Oppa... The man who was now ONLY her Oppa. He let out a faint smile and reached over to place his hand on her head. "Sorry for lying. You don't mind, do you, Jinhee?"
A voice that wasn't Seol's. A voice that she didn't know. But the inflection, the wording... it was the one she came to know.
And like that, the 'truth' she saw... No. The 'memory' of what had been faded into the reality of what existed now.
Oppa was sitting there, smiling at her as he gently patted her head like an indulgent older brother would.
Jinhee stared at her Oppa for a little longer. Then she said, "...I'll only ask one question, Oppa."
"I'll never lie to you, Jinhee." Oppa paused and said. "...Any more at least."
Jinhee snorted. "...Not the best way to console your baby sister who had her whole world turned upside down... but fine. Then..." She looked at her Oppa and quietly said, "...My real Oppa. Seol. ...Would he have left that day?"
"...It's not 'would have' Jinhee. It's 'did.' There exists at least one 'you' in existence who became a jaded, bitter, and completely distrusting young woman. It's not the you that's here talking to me. But that person exists in a world where I never did."
"...Okay then." Jinhee took a deep breath. As she did, she paused to sort out her thoughts.
And she came to a simple conclusion.
"...It's fine- No. It's better than fine." Jinhee laughed and looked up at her Oppa with warm eyes. "I don't care. You said it too that day, right?"
She had missed it since she was still in shock.
But from the very start, he had told her the truth.
===
*"It's nothing, but... Are you... really Oppa?"*
*"...No. I'm not your Oppa."*
===
Jinhee smiled, her eyes soft. "You told me the truth. That you weren't my Oppa. That if you were my Oppa, you would never have done that to me. That 'Seol Jihu' was a bastard who doesn't deserve to be considered my older brother. Maybe that's true. No, knowing what I do about 'that guy' it was definitely true. But." She walked around and hugged her Oppa. "You're not him. But you ARE my Oppa. Because I call you my Oppa. So there."
Jinhee's Oppa... that loving, ridiculous, and crazy man who came all this way just because he viscerally rejected the way Seol Jihu, Jinhee's real brother treated her that day...
He laughed and said, "You know. You're taking this a lot better than I thought."
Jinhee laughed as well and said, "You DID tell me from the start. I guess I had always subconsciously realized it. And..." She hugged him a bit tighter. "...It's probably why I was worried you would disappear."
Because she had known it, somehow, someway.
Her Oppa wasn't Seol Jihu.
He was someone else who took that despicable man's place. That bastard who drowned in gluttony...
Jinhee had always been worried that man would come back and ruin everything again.
But she knew now.
That man was... if not dead, at least gone for good.
And Oppa was here to stay.
So...
'It's fine.'
A secret she would take to her grave.
Mom and Dad didn't need to know.
The women in Oppa's life all knew the him that existed now, and not the him from the past. Not that Seol Jihu bastard who was gone. So-
"Wait." Jinhee stopped hugging her Oppa and said, "Then... how does Seonhwa Unni tie into this?"
"Ah, that's the complicated part." Oppa laughed. "You see. Seol and I had a mishap the first loop around... Somehow, instead of directly swapping into his life, I ended up plopped into America as a random Korean American student named Neol Won. I met Seonhwa there, she ended up being my bestie, Seol showed up, killed me by accident in a drunken haze, Seonhwa got depression and escaped into Paradise for a while, Seol went off the rails... and then I took over on that day he was gonna take your car."
"...What?"
"Yeah. Long story, but unimportant now. More tea?"
"...Just shut up and give me some alcohol. I know you can make some."
"Fair. Here, soju."
Jinhee downed the offered shot and said, "Alright. Then... how are you gonna fix this with Seonhwa Unni, oh mastermind Oppa of mine?"
"Well..."