You can't be the Only One with Me Around

In my last life, my little brother was kidnapped by human traffickers—and that’s when he awakened his swap system.

He traded bodies with me. I was the one who got chained up and beaten in a filthy pigpen while he got to live in my body, soaking up our parents’ love—double what they used to give him.

Ten years later, they finally found me. But the moment I came home, my brother used the system again and switched us back.

He ran straight into our parents’ arms, sobbing, blaming me for his kidnapping.

Then my parents found a journal in my nightstand—written in my handwriting but filled with words I’d never written. My brother had forged it, mimicking my tone perfectly. Page after page, it painted me as selfish and cruel, bragging about how I let him get taken.

From that moment on, Mom and Dad hated me. They let my brother do whatever he wanted—insult me, hit me, even convinced themselves his latest idea was a good one.

Drug me and sell me off to some blind, crippled widow in the mountains.

I overheard everything. The rage was too much, so I set the house on fire and took them all down with me.

Then I opened my eyes—and I was back. Back to the exact day my brother and I first met the trafficker.

This time, I moved first. I grabbed the trafficker’s hand.

But my brother stopped me. “Grandma, my big brother doesn’t need the candied apples. Just give them to me instead, okay?”

The trafficker hesitated, then shook her head. Taking two kids was too risky. A younger one was easier to control.

She let go of me and took my brother’s hand instead.

He grinned at me and leaned in close to whisper, “Bro, I know you came back to this life too. You think you can steal my system? Not a chance!”

I just watched him walk away with the trafficker and sneered.

‘Little brother, I hope after you use up both your swaps, you’ll still be smiling.’

——

Not long after I got home, I heard the same voice in my head from my last life.

‘Since the host has been kidnapped, the system has activated the body-swapping ability. You have two swaps. Would you like to use one now?’

In my last life, this was how my brother first realized he’d been kidnapped. Without hesitation, he swapped with me.

And now? He still couldn’t wait.

‘Exchange confirmed. Host, you have one swap left. Call me when needed.’

A wave of dizziness hit me. When I opened my eyes, I was in a moving car.

I turned to the window and saw my reflection—I was back in my brother’s body.

The woman sitting next to me, pinning me down, was the same as before. Mabel. The driver, an older woman named Fabienne, was their boss.

They had a system. Fabienne, in her 60s, would play the sweet old lady selling candied apples, luring kids in. Then she and Mabel would smuggle them deep into the mountains and sell them off.

I was just eight years old, so they weren’t exactly on guard around me.

I leaned back in my seat, memories crashing down.

For 10 years, I had only one question. ‘Why?’

‘Why did my own brother do this to me?’

After they found me, I didn’t even get a chance to ask. He swapped back immediately, pinned everything on me, and whispered in my ear.

“Bro, you let me get taken and did nothing. You deserved every bit of it.

“Now that you’re back, you’ll pay for what you did!”

But I did try to stop him! I told him not to go with that woman, but he wouldn’t listen! He even cursed me out, saying I just wanted the candied apple for myself.

He chose to go! And somehow, I was the one to blame…

After we swapped back, he ran to our parents, sobbing, saying I had set him up.

At first, they didn’t believe him.

Then he led them to my pillow, where he had hidden a journal.

A journal that read: [I saw the trafficker take my brother, but I told Mom and Dad I didn’t. Because I didn’t want to share their love. Their love and money should belong to me alone.]

That’s when I realized, ‘For 10 years, my brother hasn’t just taken my body. He’s stolen my entire life!’