Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols
SS Chapter 69: Living as the Youngest of the Choi Family
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TL: FoodieMonster007
When she was young, people would say to her, "Some people want an older sister, and others want an older brother, but Miho must be so happy to have both!"
Is that so? Choi Miho had wondered, though she had never given it much thought.
Elementary school kids all bragged about the same things. 'My dad has a million won.' 'My older sister is in high school.' Things like that.
After her dad disappeared, Choi Miho often lost by default to the meaner kids. She never lost a battle about siblings, though. Without even trying, the fact that she had both an older sister and an older brother made her friends envious.
Once she entered middle school, the bragging grew more detailed. Proper boasts emerged, like 'My mom works at so-and-so,' or 'My older brother is competing in a table tennis tournament.'
"Why does no one really brag about their younger siblings?"
She had been curious at one point.
"A younger sibling isn't someone to brag about. They're my lackey."
After a friend with two lackeys said that, Choi Miho no longer had any doubts.
Her own complaints also grew. She moved past childhood, where getting smacked by an older sibling was the biggest incident, and into the more complex problems of her teenage years. Most of it was being told to turn off the lights or being sent on errands.
Choi Jeho isn't like that, though.
Choi Miho's older brother was not the kind of scoundrel who made his younger sister run errands. He just didn't do anything himself. Unless their mom made him do chores, Choi Jeho spent his time at home either sleeping or staring at his phone.
"Does Oppa really dance?"
Having never seen Choi Jeho lift his back from the floor, Choi Miho had once asked her mom, genuinely confused. Her mom said she wondered the same thing. Choi Jeyoung, while loud, was a good older sister who only ever fussed at Choi Jeho. As a result, Choi Miho became the only youngest child in her class who couldn't relate to the 'please turn off the light' episodes.
Sibling talks had another indispensable topic, the question of whether you and your siblings looked alike.
Whenever that came up, she remembered what her mom used to say.
"You kids weren't born from your mom, you were popped out of a mold."
She supposed that meant they looked identical. Choi Miho would reply that she thought so, which was always followed by a request to see a picture. Unfortunately, the Choi siblings had never taken an affectionate photo together, nor were they popular enough to use their faces as messenger profile pictures. There was nothing to show.
It wasn't just their mom who thought Choi Jeho and Choi Miho looked alike, though she wasn't sure about Choi Jeyoung.
She knew just by the texts that flew in as soon as spArk started gaining a little recognition.
Giju [(Sent a photo.)] [omg Choi Myo] [Did your brother become an idol??]
Rani [Isn't that Choi Miho who debuted?]
Her acquaintances recognized their blood ties just by looking at their faces. No DNA test was needed. A few years later, Choi Jeyoung couldn't stand the dating rumors with her brother and had him reveal they were siblings. His SNS photos then spread all over the internet. People unanimously said that the older sister looked exactly like Choi Jeho too.
Unni [If the photo hadn't been mosaic-ed, we wouldn't have even needed to explain]
Oppa [;]
Unni [Look at this reply]
Choi Jeyoung and Choi Jeho seemed aware of their facial similarities. Choi Miho learned this fact a little late.
"All you siblings are good-looking."
"Is that a compliment?"
It was nice they didn't bother her with errands, but there was no other advantage to being good-looking. If she had to pick something good about their similar physical traits, it would be their height. She had never felt her physique was lacking while working out.
After finishing her shower, Choi Miho headed to the locker room. She changed, then checked her phone and saw a message in the family group chat.
Oppa [Do you have any of my childhood photos?]
Choi Miho was the only one who had read it. Her mom and sister seemed too busy to have seen it yet. In truth, the family generally wasn't quick to read messages.
Me [Any photo?]
Oppa [Something that can be shown on broadcast]
Occasionally, requests like this would come from Choi Jeho. He had asked her to send his school uniform, and on other days he'd ask for photos or documents. Thanks to him, Choi Miho found herself running errands as an adult that she never did as a child.
Me [Something similar to the one I sent before should be fine, right]
[I'll look for it when I get home]
After sending the reply, she packed her things. As she was about to close her locker and leave, her phone vibrated again.
Oppa [Around 5 years old is best, if not, then around 7.]
[We used a photo taken at home before, so if possible, an outdoor one (kindergarten, playground, park, etc.)]
[Taken in the brightest place possible]
[Copy only up to here and send it to Miho]
[I'll send a gifticon, so pass it on for me! You have to be sincere even when asking for a favor She might feel burdened, so tell her it's from you]
Me [Iwol oppa told you to copy only up to here]
[It's your errand, so buy the gifticon with your money]
Even though she pointed out the problem, Choi Jeho didn't even read it. It was clear he had forwarded the message without reading it. Choi Miho turned off her phone and left the gym.
The Choi family didn't have many photos. Choi Miho's and Choi Jeho's albums were the thickest, in that order, while Choi Jeyoung's photos were few and far between. People said the firstborn usually had the most photos, but this is what happened when you had a hellion in the family.
They didn't have a digital camera either, so submitting them required sending the physical photos or taking a picture of them. Choi Miho took out the medium-thick album and opened it.
Around five years old, taken outside, in a bright place…
She chanted Kim Iwol's instructions like a spell while searching for a suitable photo. In every picture, Choi Jeho looked as big as a giant cushion, so she had to check the year. The advantage of printed photos was the date stamped on them. Choi Miho counted his age on her fingers and narrowed down the candidates.
She briefly considered sending the whole album but decided against it, thinking it seemed too insincere. Kim Iwol might have preferred that, but Choi Miho still thought of him as a sensible person, unlike Choi Jeho. She had never seen her brother's friend willing to wipe the floor with his back for content, so she showed her own consideration by carefully selecting the photos.
After frowning and deliberating, three young Choi Jehos survived. Now it was time to borrow the power of collective intelligence. Since Choi Miho's relationships were deep but narrow, her collective intelligence was a four-person group chat with friends she'd been close to since elementary school.
Rani [Picking out Jeho's photos?]
Yumini [Looks like he's on another show haha I vote for #3!]
Me [Question]
[1. Baby holding a ball]
[2. Baby eating pork cutlet]
[3. Baby lying face down on the street]
[Which one is the best]
Choi Miho had asked her friends for opinions like this before. To her, this photo and that photo all looked the same, but her mom kept telling her to pick a good one. Perhaps because they had been through this once, her friends reacted with familiarity.
The advice from the current idol fan was even more detailed. Even while stanning some other perfectly fine idol, she would come running at Choi Miho's request and offer her opinion as if she were a spArk fan.
Giju [What kind of ball, how much of the pork cutlet he ate, and what clothes he was wearing when he was face down are all important]
[Is it a bouncy ball? Is there a heaping pile of rice with the pork cutlet?]
[If he's face down, his face isn't visible, so that's a demerit, but if his clothes are cute and his back view is round, that's a bonus point]
Me [A yellow bouncy ball]
[He just speared the pork cutlet with his fork to eat it, but his expression is bad, maybe because they made him stop to take the picture]
[A round mound of rice]
[He's lying face down like a collapsed scarecrow]
Giju [All three pass]
[Send them all and tell them to post them all]
Choi Miho briefly wondered if this was okay. However, if she picked one and they asked for the others later, it would only be a hassle. Following her friend's tip, Choi Miho took pictures of all three photos and sent them.
Me [(Sent a photo.)]
[(Sent a photo.)]
[(Sent a photo.)]
She sent them as requested, but Choi Jeho didn't even read them. She had heard he was busy. Her mom and sister, who saw the messages late, were busy laughing.
Unni [Why is he like that]
[kukukukukukukuku]
[Miho, you have it tough]
Mom [That's funny]
[kuku]
[He was this small once, when did he get so big]
Unni [Mom, look at the picture]
[Choi Jeho is twice the size of the other kids]
As Choi Miho remembered it, Choi Jeho was always the biggest wherever he went. None of her friends' older brothers were bigger than Choi Jeho. People said you couldn't tell how big someone was when they were lying down, but the Choi Jeho in her memory took up about half the living room even when sprawled out on the floor.
Then, Choi Miho realized that was a distorted image. She saw a photo of herself and Choi Jeho together. The small rectangle contained a single room, too small to even be called a living room, and two people playing inside it.
The photo's light might have faded, but her eyes were drawn to the wallpaper, which had lost its original color long before the picture was taken, and the peeling floor. A young Choi Jeho sat next to Choi Miho, concentrating on drawing something in a sketchbook.
Choi Miho stared at the single old photo for a long time. There was a time when her field of vision was so narrow that if she turned her head, all she could see was Choi Jeho's face as he lay on his side, drawing for her. Her childhood, with hardly any toys and a dislike for playing with peers, could only be vaguely pieced together by looking at records like this.
For a while after that, she had no memories with Choi Jeho. One day, he suddenly disappeared from home. She later found out that he had gone up to Seoul. When Choi Jeho occasionally returned, he would eat, sleep on the floor as always, and then leave for Seoul again after a quick ruffle of his messy hair.
Choi Jeho still took a nap lying on one side of the living room when he came home. The new house they moved into was very spacious, so even when Choi Jeho lay down, there was plenty of room left. The lighting was good, and sunlight reached all the way to his feet.
The Choi Miho who used to wait with a sketchbook for her brother to wake up had grown up. She passed through the phase of calling his dorm when she heard their dad had gone to see her sister. Now, she was old enough to close the curtains so the sunlight wouldn't fall on Choi Jeho's face and go to the gym by herself. Choi Miho's field of vision now included the entire spacious house and the scenery outside the window. Even so, Choi Jeho didn't look any smaller.
Her phone rang. A gift had arrived from Choi Jeho, a protein product so famous it was being talked about everywhere. Below it, the typing indicator was blinking.
Oppa [I paid for it]
It was a fresh reminder, but he really was a person who did exactly as he was told. Choi Miho sent back two letters, 'thx', and put the album away.