Aren twisted the knob to the door of the small apartment that he lived in, and it opened.
"Sigh, she's here again. Something must have happened at home again," he said under his breath before pushing the door open. And right as he thought, there was someone seated on his bed.
His room was pretty small: a bed, a clothes rack, a table for studying and stuff, and a door to his toilet. He didn't even have a kitchen that he could use to study.
The person on his bed was a young girl with black hair. She had her phone in her hand and was scrolling away while swinging her legs in the air and humming a tune.
She had on his hoodie and joggers as well, acting like a girlfriend in her boyfriend's house.
"June, you can't keep doing this," Aren said the moment he walked in, shutting the door behind him. She turned her head and looked at him.
"Huh? You're back already, bro?" she asked, turning on the bed.
She was his younger sister, well, the one he came to meet in this world, June.
She was a lot of trouble. She loved the feel of life. That was the type of person June was. She loved adventures and doing a lot of things, and much like many youths, her dream was to enter the God's Trial. But she was only fourteen, which meant she couldn't go this time.
And that meant when it was finally her turn, she would be twenty-five years old. Her parents were worried that she wanted to invest all her time waiting for the next God's Trial ten years later, when she should be doing something with her life before the trials.
They didn't want her wasting ten years just waiting, only to possibly end up with a low-tier ability. They didn't want her to waste her life like that. But she wasn't listening. She didn't pay attention. She didn't care. That was the type of person June was.
And so she normally went to Aren's house to find peace and escape her parents' nagging and constant pressure. She was similar to Aren in behavior, except she was extroverted and loud where he was quiet and reserved.
Aren had also left home long ago. He didn't leave because he was chased out or forced away by his parents. He left because he hated being compared to his younger brother, Lewis.
Lewis was born just one year after Aren. Only a year separated them, but Lewis was the talent, the brilliant one, the genius. He had the brains, the skills, the promise—everything a parent would want in a child.
At first, it was normal. Aren was the older brother. But soon it became a constant comparison between the two—Lewis doing everything better, and Aren being left in the shadows, unable to measure up. Eventually, he couldn't take it anymore.
So he left.
Still, he supported his family from afar, giving whatever he could from his small delivery job to make sure their lives were better. He wanted to help them, but from a distance, far away from the comparisons to Lewis that had crushed him for years.
"So what has brought you here today?" Aren asked, walking to the chair near his table. He sat down.
June sat up on the bed and crossed her legs. "Well, Lewis just came back from his awakening ceremony, and as you'd expect, the genius awakened a B-class warrior," she said.
Aren was shocked to hear that his brother awakened something that high, but he wiped the expression off his face quickly. If he was the past Aren before he transmigrated, he would have been crushed with depression, seeing his brother overshadow him yet again even from a distance. But he wasn't that Aren.
"Mom and Dad wanted to take him out to get some things and celebrate since he'll be entering the God's Trial tomorrow. They want their prized son to be safe," June said. "They wanted me to come along, but I decided to come here. After all, you're my brother as well, and you awakened today. Why should they be ignoring you?"
"They should be ignoring me, because I decided to run away," Aren responded, leaning back into the chair. "You should have gone with Lewis to get the stuff. He's your brother."
"Meh. Lewis is hard to get along with. He pisses me off," she said. "And also, I came to at least celebrate the fact that you'll be going to the God's Trial, or aren't you going?"
"I'm going. Maybe I could even defeat the trials and become one of the heroes," he said.
She chuckled. "You don't have any grand dreams like that. The only reason you're going is because after the first trial, you'll be able to sell a lot of the stuff you get from there and make a ton of money."
Aren lifted his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright. You got me."
"But I know you aren't really here to support me on my going off alone," he said.
"Yeah…" She dropped her head. "Both of you are going to be leaving me alone with Mom and Dad. I wanted to at least see you one last time before you go. The God's Trial isn't something easy. Everyone knows there's a high risk of death. I think of that, and it scares me, the fact that you might not come back. But you have to go, and I understand that. Because if it was my turn, I would go too. But still… it's a scary thought."
"I can't promise you that I'll be alive until the end of the trial," Aren replied.
She looked up at him with confused, almost hurt eyes.
"But I can promise you this," he said. "I'll give my best fight to stay alive and make sure I come back, June. Because that's what you want, right? For me to give my best and live life for the thrills."
She finally smiled. "Yeah. Exactly. Because your life is really boring."
They both laughed. June lay back on the bed again. "And I really hope you do come back. Because everything won't be the same if you're not around anymore."
Aren looked at her with a soft, pained smile. He had known her for only a month, but she had already become a large part of his life. And if there was a reason he wanted to fight to come back… she would definitely be part of it.