I Don't Want to Be Your Sister

[Mutual healing + fake siblings + rented apartment]

Yao Yun and Chen Qiao didn’t get off to a friendly start. He held a kitchen knife to her neck and demanded she repay her debt.

Yao Yun wasn’t afraid. Instead, she leaned into the blade, as if taunting him, or welcoming release.

Later, Chen Qiao borrowed money to cover her surgery and sold fried rice from a street stall to save up for her tuition.

Two people with no one else in the world now shared a bond that belonged only to them: brother and sister.

They crowded into a tiny rented apartment. She slept on the bed, and he slept on the floor. Chen Qiao said they would spend their whole lives together.

That day, Yao Yun summoned the courage to voice what was in her heart. “I don’t want to be just your little sister, and I don’t want you to be just my big brother.”

Chen Qiao stayed silent for a long time before finally saying, “You’re crazy.”

*

Chen Qiao didn’t know exactly what he felt for Yao Yun. He only knew that she was the other half he couldn’t live without.

She was his heart.

Without her, he would die.