The Daughter They Charged for Love

2: 2

They got back at eleven at night.

The smell of a big shared dinner and liquor came in with them, sharp and thick.

Mom rubbed her ankle while she settled up the numbers with Dad.

"Tonight ran us thirteen hundred. Not bad."

Thirteen hundred.

That was eight hundred packs of instant ramen for me.

Renata tilted her head at me out of nowhere.

"Sis, which college did you put down? I'm pretty sure your scores were higher than mine."

I opened my mouth, but before I could get a word out—

Mom jumped in fast.

"So what if they're higher? Obviously she's going to the same school as you."

Dad nodded.

"You two have never been apart, not once, growing up. You look out for each other. Isn't that great?"

When I was little I lost a year of school because they sent me off to a martial arts gym to train, and that's how my sister and I ended up in the same grade.

Renata nodded too, like it was only right.

"Mom, our school has four-person rooms and eight-person rooms—"

"Then a four-person room, of course. More comfortable."

"Mom, you're the best!"

Renata lunged over and threw her arms around Mom's neck.

Mom's eyes went soft, full of that doting look.

"I'll have a word with the dorm supervisor, get the two of you put in the same room. She's a hard worker, she can help you out."

Then she turned to me.

"Maya, your twenty thousand in student loans is enough, right? Do you need to sign another IOU for the housing fee?"

I gave a small shake of my head.

"No need to sign anything."

She nodded.

"Good. Don't keep making us worry about you."

Dad pulled out a cigarette but hadn't lit it yet.

"Maya, you make sure you look after your sister when you get there. She's never been away from home."

I smiled bitterly.

As if I'd ever been away from home either.

"You're both just deciding we'll be at the same school? Our scores were more than a hundred points apart."

"So what?"

Mom's tone was flat.

"You just put down the same choices, that's all. Hasn't it always been that way, all your lives?"

All our lives.

Those words were like a switch.

When it came to the high school placement exams, I could have gotten into the top-tier high school.

But Renata's scores weren't high enough, so she could only go to an ordinary one.

Back then Mom settled it on the spot.

"Your sister didn't make the top school. You'd send her off to an ordinary high school all by herself? You think she can handle that?"

"You're sisters, you're supposed to look out for each other. Top school or not, there's barely any difference."

I really didn't want to, back then.

"Mom, the teaching at the top-tier school is better."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Mom's voice climbed.

"You'd abandon your sister for better teachers?"

Dad looked furious too.

"You're at the same school as your sister, you can even help her study. She goes without you, then what?"

And Renata was gripping my hand then, crying like her heart was breaking.

"Sis, I don't want to be away from you—"

Later, the top-tier high school's admissions office called my parents.

My parents were adamant.

"Either you take both daughters, or forget it."

In the end, it was forget it.

Now three years have passed, and history is repeating itself.

I'm grateful.

The words I'd just heard came too late.