Nowhere to Stay
“Do you have little brothers with different last names and different parents too?”
“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I? He’s right here.”
“Huh, Noona. Do you just grab other male models’ hands like this? No way, right?”
Yeon-ha tilted her head and nudged her glasses up with one finger. Je-yoon reached over and tucked the short strands of hair slipping down her cheek behind her ear.
“Just hold still for a second. I was looking over the lineup pieces anyway.”
She tightened her grip on his middle finger and pulled. Je-yoon let himself be drawn in for a moment, then gently pushed her hand away.
“Hey—Go Je-yoon!”
“I’m tired.”
When his large hand slipped free, Yeon-ha finally looked up at him from an angle. Up close, the faint exhaustion around his eyes was unmistakable, and a small pang of guilt stirred in her.
“Sorry. I was only thinking about myself.”
“It’s fine.”
His eyes curved into a smile, and she found herself smiling back.
“Go on, then. Next time, once you free up a day, will you try these on for me?”
“Hmm.”
He tilted his head, clearly dissatisfied with the answer.
“I’ll enjoy the cake.”
Je-yoon simply watched her without answering. Yeon-ha gave him one more soft smile and casually boxed up the cake. The completely melted heart-shaped candle caught her eye.
She had never loved him, yet the sight of that ruined candle made the finality of it all sink in at last.
With her ex-husband Kevin, there had never been that kind of relationship to begin with. Far from passionate love, the two of them had married purely after weighing what each family stood to gain. Once the corporate dealings matured and the shares had been exchanged, they had planned to quietly raise the subject of divorce.
By the second year of marriage, she had already been considering it; the marriage felt like it was grinding her life down, eroding her day by day. And somehow, Kevin had begun dropping hints about children.
The longer she spent at the U.S. branch, the more fiercely she longed for divorce. And whether by coincidence or kindness of fate, Kevin himself had handed her the perfect justification.
Seattle, wasn’t it?
She had just returned from a two-week business trip.
At an hour when all the maids had already left for the day, she heard movement on the second floor where their separate bedrooms were. As she drew closer the sounds grew clearer; her eyes first widened in shock, then settled into calm.
Too vivid to be a video. A peculiar scent leaked through the slightly open door. Yeon-ha hastily pressed a handkerchief over her nose. Whatever they had been doing—and for how long—was so blatant she could picture it without stepping any nearer.
“We agreed not to do anything that could become a risk for either of us.”
It hadn’t been written into the contract, but it had been an unspoken understanding. Standing outside the door, Yeon-ha debated whether to confirm the scene with her own eyes or simply walk past—when a moan of climax reached her ears.
She deliberately scuffed her foot against the floor.
Panic flared inside the room. Sheets rustled; someone scrambled off the bed in a hurry.
Through the open doorway, her eyes met Kevin’s. His widened so far that creases formed across his forehead, but Yeon-ha remained utterly composed. That very composure made his gaze waver.
“Hey, Yeon-ha.”
“Speak through the lawyers.”
She turned away without another word. Afterward Kevin tried several more times to catch her, but her unyielding stance made him give up; he settled the matter with ruthless speed.
He had created the ugly situation, so it couldn’t have been comfortable for him either. That was as far as she allowed herself to think.
The only ones who regretted the divorce were her grandmother and her mother. The rest of the family reacted as if the inevitable had simply arrived. If anything, some seemed quietly pleased that the public noise surrounding the divorce might shrink Yeon-ha’s standing within Songhwa.
Even so, the marriage with Kevin had not left Songhwa—or Yeon-ha herself—empty-handed.
As agreed with her grandfather, her father, once the vice chairman, had become the majority shareholder of the retail division he prized most. And timed with his inauguration as CEO, she would launch her own brand.
At last she would be doing the work she actually wanted.
Yeon-ha lifted her gaze to Je-yoon. The look he was giving her—as if asking what on earth she was thinking about—made the tension drain from her shoulders; a small laugh slipped out.
Still… is it a good thing Je-yoon is here? The only person who congratulated me is Go Je-yoon.
She carefully set the cake in front of her nameplate.
“Send me your schedule and I’ll try to work something out around it.”
“And once you’ve worked something out?”
Je-yoon lifted the end of the sentence and cocked his head. Golden hair slid softly aside, revealing one crooked eyebrow—the same habit he had whenever something didn’t sit right with him.
“Yeah. So you can go now. You’re tired.”
Yeon-ha gave a vague nod and nudged his thigh with her elbow. He flinched for an instant; then his Adam’s apple moved slowly.
“Do me one favor.”
“What is it? Tell me.”
“I don’t have anywhere to sleep.”
“What?”
At the sudden claim she looked up at him. Je-yoon shrugged and continued.
“You know I was planning to move in next month. I put in a remodeling request right after I switched places. But I came early to congratulate you, so—”
“I never told you to come early.”
A disbelieving breath escaped her lips.
“Don’t make the person who sincerely wanted to celebrate feel bad… I really have nowhere to stay.”
She had been about to ask what about his uncle’s house when she paused. Right—he had moved to a mountain house in the fresh air of Gangwon-do. And it wasn’t as if someone with his money would be begging for a place to sleep just for the sake of it…
When she gave him a look that said go ahead and spit it out, Je-yoon edged a little closer and smiled prettily.
“What. Why—”
“Let me stay.”
“What?”
“I can’t sleep at Dad’s hospital, can I? And going back and forth to Taebaek every day sounds exhausting.”
He slid off the desk and crouched beside her chair, resting his arms on the armrest and propping his chin on top of them. Yeon-ha leaned the opposite way, folded her arms, and looked down at him.
“You’re an unrelated man.”
“So what?”
“You want to sleep at an unrelated woman’s house? A divorced woman’s house, no less?”
“Why not? Since you’re divorced, it’s even better.”
“Go to a hotel.”
He shook his head against his hands.
“Hotels have way too many people… What if someone snaps a photo for no reason?”
“What about Kyeong-ho?”
At the mention of his manager Yoon Kyeong-ho, Je-yoon shook his head even harder, as if she had uttered a forbidden word.
“Hyung’s a newlywed. Don’t you think I’d be a massive inconvenience? I can’t impose on a newlywed couple I haven’t seen in ages.”
He spat the word “newlywed” with particular force. Yeon-ha sighed at how ready his answers were and pushed her hair back.
“For a few days.”
“A month?”
“…….”
A month. She would only grow busier anyway; she would spend more time in the studio or at the office than at home.
Even if we grew up together since we were little… he’s a fully grown adult man now…
Wasn’t it a little dangerous? Not that Je-yoon himself was dangerous—more that both of them attracted far too many eyes.
“Song Yeon-ha—”
He drew her name out with a faint coaxing lilt. The longer she hesitated, the more he pressed down on the armrest, as if urging her to look at him.
Watching him, she remembered the little Je-yoon who used to circle around her while she studied whenever he wanted something, then deploy sparkling eyes and babyish charm. But the man in front of her now was nothing like that child.
The long eyes with their thin double lids and the high, straight nose formed features that could look boyish one moment and unmistakably masculine the next.
I can’t let myself soften.
Yeon-ha looked away.
If he really were her little brother—if they shared blood—what would she do as his noona? She ran through the spare rooms in her mind.
All right. A month should be fine.
The house was close to the hospital, too… a month would be manageable.
“One month only, then. You can leave earlier. Got it?”
“Yeah. Just one month.”
“All right.”
“Then let’s go.”
Je-yoon sprang up and caught her hand, pulling her along.
“Where?”
Yeon-ha rose awkwardly, already being towed after him.
“It’d feel weird for me to walk into Noona’s house alone.”
Grinning smoothly, he moved with quick efficiency. In one hand he scooped her coat and bag from the rack behind the chair; with the other he kept a firm hold on her hand.
“W-wait—!”
Clutching only a pencil, Yeon-ha hurried after him on short steps.
“Go Je-yoon! I have work to do…!”
Her protest was swallowed by the solid slam of the door.