The Wrong Sister

"I'll call you later."

Something about her had seemed uneasy, but Mu-yeol dismissed it as nothing of consequence. The only thing that truly puzzled him was whether she could even come out for a matchmaking meeting so soon after being discharged. It had been a mere handful of days, and yet the cancelled appointment had been snatched up again with the haste of beans tossed into a flash of lightning. He couldn't quite make sense of it.

"We've arrived."

Seung-yu brought the car to a stop at the hotel entrance. A waiting attendant opened the door, and Mu-yeol tossed the documents onto the adjacent seat as if discarding them before stepping out. His long legs cut across the lobby without breaking stride. He went straight up to the lounge café, and the manager, recognizing him at once, hurried over.

"Allow me to escort you, sir."

Mu-yeol offered a slight nod and followed.

"I hope you have a pleasant time."

The manager stopped before a table and bowed with meticulous courtesy. Just as the long-haired woman seated there rose and turned around—

"Oppa, it's been a while."

At Hye-ri's shy greeting, Mu-yeol's expression went ice-cold. She lowered her gaze, tucking a long strand of hair behind her ear, and offered a bashful smile.

Yes, yes. Have a good look. Hye— I mean, I'll be waiting.

His mother's rambling from a moment ago surfaced all at once. Now he understood. So she had been cooking up this little stunt. That was why she had seemed so anxious the entire time. A sneer slipped through his lips.

One look at that painfully young face and she could have just graduated high school. He'd heard the Go household had two daughters — so this was the youngest.

"Your name."

Mu-yeol spoke first. When he asked it offhandedly, Hye-ri's mouth stretched into a bright smile.

"Ah! I'm Go Hye-ri!"

"Miss Go Hye-ri."

Watching her light up just from hearing him say her name was almost too absurd to bear. His own mother, who had gone along with swapping out the intended match, was a disappointment in her own right. The calculation behind that decision would have been painfully transparent.

The internet had been in an uproar for days — in part because of Eun-jae's accident not long ago, but also because of the adoption news that had broken so suddenly.

Go Eun-jae was the daughter Go Gwang-hyun had adopted and raised, and five years after taking her in, they had a biological daughter of their own. That daughter was the child sitting right in front of him.

After years of infertility following their marriage, Go Gwang-hyun and Hong Mi-jung had adopted a newborn Eun-jae from an orphanage, or so the story went. An article — rather staged, in his opinion — had claimed they'd raised her more like their own than a biological daughter ever could be. Like their own. As if. A cynical smile hooked the corner of his mouth.

Why reveal a secret they had kept all this time — why now, at this exact moment? And of all times, when Go Eun-jae had fallen into the abyss. Questions bloomed in his mind.

"Are we... going to keep standing?"

While he stared, sorting through his thoughts, Hye-ri asked it with a cautious glance. Mu-yeol walked around to the opposite side of the table and sat first. Hye-ri took her seat as well and sipped the water in front of her.

"The same for me."

"Of course, sir."

After addressing the attendant who had approached, Mu-yeol's gaze settled on her. Hye-ri, who had been looking down, stole glances at him, her lips parting as if to speak. Both cheeks were flushed.

For heaven's sake. The situation was so ridiculous he couldn't help a hollow laugh. When he let out that quiet scoff, Hye-ri's face colored a shade deeper.

"I went to Chairman Cha's birthday party with my parents before. I saw you then, Oppa. I don't know if you'd remember me..."

She let the sentence trail off, watching him as if waiting for him to say that he did. Meeting those eyes so full of expectation, Mu-yeol raised one eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, but."

She went still.

"I don't remember."

"Oh..."

Disappointment flickered across that young face. Looking at her, Mu-yeol's gaze deepened.

The reason the match had been swapped. This wasn't a matter of one or two years — the marriage discussions had been going back and forth for years. And yet in a matter of days, the intended had been replaced with the younger sister, and even the older sister's birth secret had been laid bare to the world. Someone had been playing games.

Mu-yeol slowly traced his jawline and spoke.

"Miss Go Hye-ri."

"Yes? Yes."

"If I may ask — your age."

"Ah... I'm t-twenty..."

Twenty. She seemed embarrassed even saying it herself. He'd thought she looked young, but he hadn't expected her to be quite this young. Mu-yeol let out a faint laugh. A matchmaking at twenty. Even for a political marriage between families, putting forward a twenty-year-old was a little too easy to see through.

"Did you know how old I am when you came here?"

"Yes. I know."

"You'd be about a college freshman by now. And you want to marry me."

A full twelve years between them. Twenty. Even turning the number over again, it was absurd. What was he supposed to do with a child like that? He was sitting here talking out of courtesy, but he fully intended to make himself clear. Whoever had engineered this situation was under a remarkable delusion. Did they actually think shoving her at him like this would result in a marriage? The ploy was so shallow it was almost funny.

"Anyway... if it's going to happen someday, I don't think now is so bad. That's why I told Mom..."

She flinched mid-sentence and swallowed the rest. Mu-yeol's eyes narrowed a fraction further.

"Why did you stop? Go on. I'm listening."

He spoke in a deceptively gentle voice. But at that pointed remark, Hye-ri fumbled, lifting her water glass with trembling hands and draining it in one go.

"Ah, it's nothing."

She forced the corners of her mouth up, composing her expression. Watching her, Mu-yeol was utterly unmoved. He simply looked at her with an indifferent face.

"Miss Hye-ri. Listen carefully."

"Yes!"

He drew a brief breath, then went on.

"Study hard. Date a little."

"What?"

"You're twenty. Do the things people your age should do. Don't even think about getting married."

It was a rejection. At his rather firm refusal, dismay spread across Hye-ri's face.

"Why..."

"Are you actually asking because you don't know? Even for a marriage arranged between families, I'm not so shameless as to marry a twenty-year-old child."

At the blatant rejection, the rims of Hye-ri's eyes turned red. She bit down on her lip and clenched the fists resting on her knees.

"If you got pregnant, it'd look like a child having a child."

"I... I want to, though. Get married."

"Well, I don't. So go home. It was nice meeting you."

His voice held not a trace of pleasure as he rose from his seat without a shred of lingering attachment. Hye-ri stood immediately after him. When she stepped into his path, he tilted his head to one side.

"Are you disappointed because I'm not my sister?"

A rather bold question. Mu-yeol twisted his lips slightly, as if amused, and went on.

"Want me to tell you the truth?"

"Yes."

If she was going to insist on asking, what choice did he have. Apparently she needed it spelled out for her. Mu-yeol's mouth pressed into a hard line. He'd meant to send her off nicely — it was nice meeting you, that sort of thing. Why was he getting angry at a twenty-year-old child?

It wasn't that he was this angry simply because Go Eun-jae hadn't shown up. The feeling was complicated, something he couldn't quite name, and that only made it twist more viciously in his gut.

"Even if that weren't the reason, this oppa has no intention of marrying a woman twelve years younger."

Oppa, my ass. Recalling the title Hye-ri had used just moments ago, Mu-yeol let out a laugh.

"Did you... not see the articles?"

Hye-ri, who had been listening in silence, clenched her teeth and curled her hands into fists. In the end, she'd lost to Go Eun-jae again. From a childhood spent being compared to a sister who excelled at everything, right up to this very moment — no matter how hard she tried, Hye-ri had never been able to catch even the hem of Eun-jae's shadow. And she was beautiful, too. Why should a sister who wasn't even her father's child be the one to marry him? The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.

"What articles."

"My sister isn't even our father's daughter."

At Hye-ri's sudden words, Mu-yeol's face went cold.

"What?"

"That's how it is. You said it's a political marriage between families. So you want to marry my sister — who isn't even a blood child, who was picked up from outside? I don't understand. Obviously my father would support me more, since I'm his real daughter."

At that, one corner of Mu-yeol's mouth lifted in a bitter curl. So it was you. The one who'd laid hands on Go Eun-jae's shame.

The accident, Eun-jae's future thrown into uncertainty — and then, suddenly, a birth secret piled on top of it all. Thanks to Hye-ri laying her true colors bare, Mu-yeol understood perfectly.

"How interesting."

His tone and expression suggested it was anything but. Mu-yeol's face looked almost vicious. He was a man whose smile, when he chose to give it, was captivating enough to drown in. Looking at that icy face now, Hye-ri felt a chill crawl over her skin. She clenched her fists tight — tight enough for her nails to bite into flesh.

"Get home safely. I'm too busy to see you out. Let's not meet like this again."

As if there was nothing more to say, he turned without a backward glance. After everything it had taken to arrange this meeting — to have it thrown away like this. Hye-ri watched his retreating back as he left the café, and swallowed the tears that threatened to spill.