When Did You Get So Big?

Yeon-ha gave a short nod.

"Got a needle?"

"Hmm, not sure. I've never actually drunk enough to get drunk. Tsk—hold still. I'm going to poke it in."

Je-yoon gripped the space between her thumb and forefinger and pulled. Watching his large hand swallow her wrist whole, Yeon-ha drew in a silent breath.

"……"

His nails were neatly kept, his hands soft. Looking at him so intently focused in the silence made something in her chest feel strange. The hand he held itched; every fine hair on her arm stood on end. She clenched the fist resting uselessly on her thigh.

"Relax. You're so tense I can't get it in."

"O-okay."

Yeon-ha took a steadying breath and let the tension drain out of her.

"Ah—! That hurts!"

The sudden stab of the needle made her shoulder give a sharp tremor. She squeezed her eyes shut—and a moment later something warm and soft touched the pierced spot. Je-yoon's lips closed around the bead of blood that had welled up, sucked it away, then gave it a light stroke of his tongue.

"Why would you…"

"Even a single drop of blood is precious. It came from those hands, after all."

He answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world and rummaged in his pocket. After wiping her finger clean again with a disinfectant swab, he produced a character bandage and wrapped it carefully around the tip.

Yeon-ha turned her hand this way and that, studying the little penguin printed on the bandage, then let it drop.

"Didn't you have anything else?"

"It's cute. What's wrong with it?"

"……"

She found herself absently fiddling with the bandaged finger. Watching Je-yoon tidy up, her gaze snagged on his hands. Someday, when he had a girlfriend, a couple ring would sit on that fourth finger of his.

The tight, uneasy feeling in her chest refused to ease. Yeon-ha rose from her seat and took the samples she had stored in the desk drawer. She was reaching for a ring case without thinking when she startled.

"Shall we try something on? A ring?"

Je-yoon was standing right behind her, almost pressed against her back. Yeon-ha closed her eyes for a beat, opened them again, and picked up the case beside it instead.

"No. The bracelet."

A long arm stretched out beside her.

"That navy one's pretty."

Je-yoon leaned his face over her shoulder. The heat of him radiated through the place where their backs touched. Yeon-ha's fingers kept slipping as she tried to open the case.

"I'll open it for you."

His other arm came around past her side. Suddenly she was gathered into the circle of his body.

"No, I—"

Flustered by how close they were, her hand slipped again. The bracelet case hit the floor; both of them bent at the same time. Yeon-ha snatched for it, but Je-yoon was a fraction faster. The case she would have needed both hands to lift, he held lightly in one.

"Here."

He held it out to her, but she was staring so hard at his hand that she didn't notice. He set his palm on her shoulder and gave her a gentle shake.

"Noona."

The dried-rose shade of her lipstick had worn away, leaving her natural pink; those lips threw his gaze into disorder.

I want to press them. Just once.

Je-yoon swallowed hard.

"What did you say? I can't hear you."

"……"

The eyes fixed on her grew slowly more intent. Beneath the round forehead and the straight bridge of his nose, her lips were saying something—soft, unbroken murmurs. His gaze stayed locked on his own hand while her mouth kept moving. He had long since passed the point of merely swallowing; his lips had gone bone-dry.

At this rate I'll dehydrate.

If I took those moist-looking lips between mine, maybe this thirst would ease…

I want to kiss her.

The moment he bit down on his own lip, Yeon-ha lifted her head.

"When did you get this big?"

At those words his spirits plummeted straight into the ground.

Ah. Song Yeon-ha still doesn't see me as a man—only as the little brother she used to hold. When did I get big? I've been taller than Noona for ten years. That's how I learned to read every expression she tries to hide.

While he poured out that quiet grievance inside himself, Yeon-ha muttered again, even smaller.

His hands are really big. Really. He's become a man. They seem even bigger than before.

The voice was too soft to catch even at this distance. Then she took hold of both sides of the blue velvet case he was supporting so lightly with one hand.

Looking up at him as he refused to let go, she found one handsome brow cocked at a crooked angle.

"What's not to your liking?"

Yeon-ha gripped the case and pulled, but it was no use. Je-yoon's gaze was fixed somewhere around her forehead, lost in thought.

"Give it heeere—why is your grip so strong?"

The instant she tugged with a little tremble of frustration, Je-yoon simply released the case. The sudden freedom sent Yeon-ha's body lurching backward. Ah…! Her eyes flew wide and one hand shot forward—

But once again he was faster.

I didn't fall, right? I'm not hurt, right? Nothing hurts. Thank goodness.

Confirming she was unhurt, Yeon-ha cautiously opened her eyes—and immediately regretted it.

Ah. I shouldn't have opened them.

They were far too close. When had their bodies last been pressed together like this? The last time they had faced each other at this distance was a very long time ago.

She pushed at him as she spoke.

"Aren't you a little too close…?"

Je-yoon slid the hand supporting her back a fraction deeper. How do I make her look at me as a man? When will I stop being the little brother and become someone of the opposite sex to Song Yeon-ha?

The arm around her waist tightened. He could not stay indifferent. It ought to have been a sensitive place, yet Yeon-ha barely reacted; she only opened the case and examined its contents.

The hand Je-yoon had braced against the edge of the desk had gone white. He was jealous—of a bracelet and a velvet case that were neither man nor woman.

Then I'll just have to make her look at me.

He released the arm around her waist. The other, however—the one braced on the desk, caging her in—remained exactly where it was.

"Put that on me."

"Huh?"

He lifted his arm and gave it a light shake.

"If you need my body, you're free to use it anywhere."

Yeon-ha followed his gaze downward. She opened the lid of the case and looked at the bracelet she had named Night. A simple design: angular blue sapphires set along a slender gold ring.

It was a design she cherished so much she could stare at it every day without wanting to look away—yet right now her eyes kept drifting elsewhere.

Beyond the case, Je-yoon's thigh…

She hadn't meant to look. But he had one knee bent, his body stretched toward her, and the firm line of muscle standing out under his black pants was impossible to miss.

So… so I only looked because of that. That's all.

"Can't take your eyes off it."

"Huh?"

Je-yoon was nearly out of his mind with jealousy of her bracelet, yet even the sight of her staring blankly at the jewelry instead of at him—when he was appealing with his whole body—still looked so lovely that he had to laugh at himself.

These expressions of hers, the ones he only caught now and then, he had seen a thousand times over their long years together; still they made his heart hammer like a fist against a door.

"Put it on me."

"Ah—right. We should try it on."

She gave a short nod, pulled her focus back together, and lifted the bracelet free. She opened the clasp and gathered his fingertips in her hand. They were so large they would not even fit inside her palm.

Even when he brushed her hair back or touched her ear she had never realized they were this big. Holding his hand for no reason while she fastened the bracelet made something under her sternum shift and stir.

The hand that had looked soft and smooth was firmer than she expected. As the bracelet slid over the back of it, his fingers gave a small twitch—and blue veins rose sharply against the skin.

It really suits him.

Even after she closed the clasp, Yeon-ha could not take her hands or her eyes away. She took his hand in both of hers and drew it toward herself. She wanted to fasten the matching women's bracelet on her own wrist and set them side by side to admire.

Unfortunately the women's piece had already finished its final fitting and was locked in the safe.

Her eyes, fixed on his wrist, slowly widened. Her gaze traveled up from the wrist to his face. When it reached the level of his eyes, her head tipped back.

Yeon-ha blinked, slow and dazed.

Soft moonlight was coming in through the window. It felt as if the entire night sky had been captured on Je-yoon's wrist.

Behind him she could see the man whose face was as bright and clean as that moonlight. Je-yoon narrowed his eyes and suddenly ducked his face closer.

"This is how I get you to look at my face."

At the renewed closeness she recoiled.

"You… are you going to keep playing around?"

"I'm being pretty serious, actually."

Je-yoon murmured as he toyed with the bracelet.

I want to wear it just like this and walk around, but I can't, can I.

From the moment he put the bracelet on, Yeon-ha had not been able to take her eyes off him. Seeing her look at him so thoroughly as nothing more than a model made a wicked little greed stir. So he brought his face right up to hers.

Yeon-ha immediately backed away as if to ask what he thought he was doing, unfastened the bracelet, and put it back in the case.

Watching her turn her back and return to the proposal documents, Je-yoon bit down on his lip.

He hid the sulky feeling and simply watched as she sat at the chair and began typing. The more she concentrated, the more her round head tilted a little to the left. The corner of Je-yoon's mouth lifted at a slant.

He came up behind her, rested his chin on the crown of her head, and stretched both arms forward to settle them on the armrests. The fingers on the keyboard stopped.

"What?"

The vibration traveling through her skull and the low, quiet voice made his hands tighten on the armrests.

"When's the next fitting?"

Yeon-ha moved her hand to the mouse. A calendar filled the screen. Seeing more appointments than even he—a celebrity—had, his brow furrowed of its own accord.

"What's with all these schedules? No wonder you keep losing weight."

"It's fine. I put on a little living in America."

"You're pretty enough as you are."

"Only you ever say that."

It was true—only Je-yoon ever said such things to her. No one else had ever asked whether she had eaten or told her to take better care of her health. A short, soft laugh escaped her.

He's this kind, and that's probably why my heart feels even stranger.

She decided to leave it at that.

Yeon-ha propped her chin on her hand and scrolled the mouse this way and that.

"By the way—are you busy next week?"

The cursor hovered over Go Eun-jung's retirement date.

"Of course I don't have anything scheduled. Why? A fitting?"

"If you're going, let's go together. We're doing it at our house anyway, right?"

"Ahh—I thought you were calling me over for a fitting."

Yeon-ha shook her head and clicked the schedule for the following week.

"What you were helping with is almost finished now. This is something else."

Je-yoon filed Yeon-ha's Jeju Island schedule—marked Important—away in his head. Then he said he had a call to make and stepped out of the studio.

Only after he was gone did Yeon-ha let her back settle against the chair. Her face reflected on the black desktop. Staring hard at that reflected face, she muttered under her breath.

"Pretty…?"