My Brother's Friend Wasn't Just a Man — Episode 3

"A-another offer?"

Lee-jin couldn't understand why her heart dropped like a stone.

"No, it's just— I got the feeling you were hoping I'd say something else."

"As if. I had no idea what you were going to say."

"Really? Suit yourself."

Kang-hyun flashed a grin and shrugged.

A sly, unreadable man. Lee-jin stole a glance at that face, then brushed past him and went back to tidying up the workshop.

Handsome enough to catch the eye even from a distance, with a frame to match, Moon Kang-hyun had been popular with the girls all through his school days. He must have received confessions regardless of seniority—just the ones she knew of numbered more than five, so probably both hands wouldn't be enough to count them all.

Come to think of it, she'd never once seen him dating anyone. She knew he and her brother Yi-hwan hung out together every day, to the point that strange rumors had spread about them—which was exactly why Yi-hwan had hurled every curse word in the book and bounced off the walls back then.

"Why am I even thinking about this?"

Whoever he dated was none of her business. He was her brother's friend to her, and with Yi-hwan gone now, he was someone closer to family than anyone else—someone she could share memories of her brother with.

With a small laugh, Lee-jin shook off that strange undercurrent from earlier.

The next day, Lee-jin's high school friend Baek Jin-hee dropped by the workshop. She was a friend worth her weight in gold, coming by at least once a week to help with the tasks Lee-jin couldn't manage alone.

"What? Senior Kang-hyun offered you a job?"

"Yeah. The pay's good, so I'm torn."

"Take it. You have to take it."

Watching her nod with such fervor, a hollow laugh escaped Lee-jin of its own accord.

"You know, whenever it's anything to do with me and Kang-hyun, you always push me headfirst, fire or flood be damned."

"Friend, my intuition's always been spot-on, hasn't it? I can just feel something."

"You've been saying that for what—seven years now?"

"Ugh, whatever!"

Baek Jin-hee had a cheerful, sunny personality. She was often the polar opposite of the composed Lee-jin, but Lee-jin always welcomed the energy she radiated.

"But seriously, it turns out it wasn't true, huh?"

"Hm? What wasn't?"

"The rumor that Kang-hyun was a third-generation chaebol heir of Moonseong Group."

His popularity meant all kinds of rumors about Moon Kang-hyun had circulated through school. One of them claimed he was chaebol royalty.

"You still believed that?"

When Lee-jin asked teasingly, Jin-hee bristled.

"Hey, do you know how many people genuinely bought into that?"

She had, once. Then at some point, oddly enough, the bubbling rumor had gone quiet, as if someone had dumped cold water over it.

"Well, I suppose an architect suits you far better than a chaebol heir ever would."

Jin-hee said it with an impish grin. Apparently her habit of settling everything to her own advantage hadn't loosened one bit.

"Baek Jin-hee. I told you, Kang-hyun and I are not like that."

At the rise in Lee-jin's voice, Jin-hee hurried to pile on the excuses.

"It's easier to work with someone you're not involved with, isn't it? You haven't been able to make a single piece in ages—and you used to submit to art festivals and the Ceramics Biennale, remember?"

"……"

Before she'd opened the workshop, Lee-jin had been a ceramicist. Once upon a time, she'd had grand dreams as an artist. She just hadn't been able to pursue them properly since running the studio swallowed her whole.

Building a reputation as a ceramicist required steady, consistent work. Yet these days she was so busy teaching classes at the studio that her own creative work had ground to a complete halt.

"You've got a point there."

When Lee-jin admitted it flatly, Baek Jin-hee beamed and patted her shoulder.

"This unnie is always right, dear."

Oh, honestly. Lee-jin snorted, as if to say the girl was hopeless. Still, thanks to Baek Jin-hee, she'd managed plenty of laughter today.

It felt as though the shadow Yi-hwan's death had left behind took a step toward her and then receded, over and over, countless times a day.

The next afternoon was leisurely—the first day in a long while with no reservations. Lee-jin was wandering the workshop wondering what to do with the spare hours when a text arrived.

It was Kang-hyun. Puzzled, Lee-jin sent a reply.

Phone in hand, Lee-jin froze. No reply came readily to mind.

What could this be about, all of a sudden?

Kang-hyun had never sent her a text like this before.

Her belated reply earned her nothing back.

Don't tell me he's already on his way and can't check his phone?

Her guess was spot on.

Before long, Kang-hyun's car pulled up in front of the workshop. Lee-jin let out a long breath, grabbed her bag, and headed outside.

While she locked up, he stepped out of the car and came toward her. The weather was unusually lovely today, and he looked so perfectly put together in his suit that he might have stepped straight out of a magazine spread.

"Sorry for the short notice. When you said you had no bookings today, I couldn't sit still."

His suit was immaculate, without a single wrinkle, and his shoes gleamed without a speck of dust. He always dressed flawlessly, but today he looked sharper than ever.

"Weren't you busy too?"

"There was a company event. I came once it was all wrapped up."

He flashed a smile and opened the car door for her. Lee-jin nodded and climbed into the passenger seat. With no way of verifying whether the event had truly ended, she had no choice but to take his word for it.

Had she known he'd bolted before the event was even over, she couldn't have worn such a serene expression.

Kang-hyun smirked faintly, slid into the driver's seat, and pulled away. The car left Seoul behind and eventually reached somewhere on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.

"This place……?"

Lee-jin's eyes went wide as she gazed out the window.

"That's right. This is that hanok I built."

Lee-jin stared in astonishment—the estate was on an entirely different scale than anything she'd imagined. The roof alone, visible from far off, made the house feel like a palace.

The car glided down into an underground garage, and the two of them parked and rose back to ground level.

A sprawling garden spread out before them first—green lawn carpeting the earth, dotted with every manner of planting.

When he'd said hanok, Lee-jin had pictured an aging traditional house—simple and modest, the kind you passed in any neighborhood.

No—the image in her head had shrunk precisely because this house was so enormous.

"If you head back there, there's a bamboo grove. That's why I named the house Cheongjukje—the Green Bamboo Estate."

"You really built all this yourself?"

Disbelief written across her face, Lee-jin looked back and forth between the grounds of Cheongjukje and Kang-hyun.

"Why? Does it sound like a lie?"

Kang-hyun laughed, as if her reaction were thoroughly entertaining.

He had poured five years of his heart and soul into this place. It wasn't a simple traditional hanok but a design fused with a modern building, the result of countless deliberations to maximize the efficiency of every space.

A house that preserved the distinctive tiled hip-and-gable roof of a traditional hanok while using full glass walls to open up the interior and secure sweeping, unobstructed views. A house that honored the traditional craft of interlocking timber joinery while embracing the minimalism and practicality of modern architecture.

"I figured that once you'd seen this house, you'd want to accept my offer a little more."

Walking the stepping stones that crossed the lawn, they arrived at the main building. Stepping inside, they found an even more astonishing sight.

An artificial pond lay within the embrace of the U-shaped building, the structure arranged so that opening a door led straight out to the water. An arched bridge spanned the pond, and beautiful plantings adorned everything around it.

There were benches for lounging and taking in the scenery, and lights ringing the pond—seeing them, Lee-jin found herself dying of curiosity about what the grounds looked like at night.

The two of them wandered through every corner of the building. Here, a long corridor of polished wood flooring ran on and on; there, a grand main veranda and stepping stones connected the interior to the outside world. And at the end of the loop stood the main living room with its view of the pond. The maze-like tangle of spaces made exploring genuinely fun.

"This space needs ceramics to make it truly beautiful."

There was something bewitching in the look and gesture of Kang-hyun as he said it. Her heart churned as though disaster would strike if she refused his offer.

Frankly, Lee-jin had already made up her mind to accept. But seeing the space in person felt like her heart tipping over completely.

"All right. I've decided—I'll take the job you offered."

While the two of them were touring Cheongjukje, Jin Ae-ran was attending the founding anniversary celebration of Moonseong Group. She turned to her secretary.

"Secretary Kim, I don't see Kang-hyun anywhere."

"He appeared to be in the hall until just a moment ago. I'll look into it."

Jin Ae-ran let out a sigh as she watched her secretary hurry off. Her third son Kang-hyun was a grown man who still gave her nothing but headaches, and it put her in an ill humor.

Before long, Secretary Kim returned.

"It appears he slipped out of the venue quietly."

At that, Jin Ae-ran murmured under her breath.

"That incorrigible little fool……"