Not a Little Sister

"Oh my, how perfect. A gathering like that—you simply have to go."

To catch every word of that vain little exchange between mother and daughter, Ethan took the stairs at a deliberate crawl.

Jang Se-hee's own daughter, Seo Yeon-ju. K Construction.

A thin, unpleasant smile touched his mouth. The job, he suspected, was going to be rather entertaining from the very first step.

Whirrr. The buzz of an electric toothbrush filled the bathroom.

The other three moved through the motions with easy familiarity. Yeon, using one for the first time, kept jabbing the switch again and again.

"What are you doing."

"I'm brushing, but my head keeps buzzing. It feels strange, too. Is this how it's supposed to work?"

"It's always like that at first."

Each of them had a private bath off their own room, and yet once the meal was done they had all drifted into the same one. The bathroom attached to the living room was enormous—three sinks lined the counter—but they had never brushed their teeth together before.

"Wah!"

"Oh, for—what is this!"

Yeon had loaded the brush with toothpaste again and, without a thought, hit the power. The fierce vibration sent paste flying in every direction.

"Hey, kid. You turn it on after it's in your mouth."

"My eye……"

Seol-woo had been watching her even as he rinsed, and a fleck of toothpaste landed near his iris. He was left to endure a truly wretched stretch of time.

"Shouldn't we wipe the mirror and the sink too?"

"The housekeepers are coming tomorrow."

"Right. Don't cause another disaster trying to clean up. Out."

Ethan caught the rabbit ears on her headband and tugged her out of the bathroom.

"I told you not to grab the ears!"

"They look like they want to be grabbed."

He shook both ears. Yeon, hauled along without resistance, clung to his arm.

"Up you go."

He scooped her up without effort and carried her straight into her room.

Seol-woo and Chen followed. Tonight was the first time they would tie Yeon down.

"Lotion, then lie down."

Seol-woo tossed a length of soft cloth onto the bed and lightly worked her wrist between his fingers. The marks had only just begun to fade, and now he would have to make them again.

"I'm all ready."

"Are you really all right with this?"

"I'm fine. It's better than wandering around like a ghost, isn't it?"

Yeon drew the covers up over herself and stuck her hands and feet back out. Seol-woo let out a heavy breath and bound her wrists and ankles with the cloth he had already wound tight around the posts of the safety rail. The length was enough to let her move freely within the bed. She tugged it a few times, then rolled onto her right side.

"That's enough. Everyone go to sleep."

"Once you're asleep."

"This is way too much pressure."

The three men settled on Yeon's pink sofa, each occupied with his own task, stealing glances at her.

"Don't mind us. Close your eyes."

"I really am fine."

"This is not fine. Close your eyes. Now."

Seol-woo was firm. That habit of hers—calling everything fine—was the first thing that needed breaking.

"Oh, right!"

She had been lying so neatly, and then she bolted upright with a shout. Six eyes snapped to the same spot.

"What."

"I didn't take my medicine."

She had forgotten the sleeping pills prescribed to straighten out her ragged hours of rest.

"I told you to take them before you brushed."

"I knew she'd do this. Don't come down. Wait—I'll bring them."

Ethan, who had been reading the comic Yeon recommended, was out of the room at once.

"I'll put the rest of the pills in the drawer."

"Okay!"

"Why are you this cheerful."

Bound hand and foot in a way that ought to have felt stifling, Yeon sat on the bed as if it were nothing and kept smiling, bright as anything. Am I really Sun Woo-yeon? The question still rose, and yet it was true—the stone that had been crushing her chest felt lighter. They said she was the very person Seol-woo had been searching for so desperately. She was glad she had not been a child simply left behind. That was why the day had been a happy one.

She hadn't been alone in the house, and she had eaten delicious jajangmyeon, those black-bean noodles. She had lingered in Seol-woo's office until the sun slipped down before she knew it. If every day could be like today, she thought she might truly be happy.

"Oppa, you should smile a little too."

Seol-woo could not take his eyes off her wrist, wrapped in white cloth.

"I'm putting you to bed like this. You think I can smile?"

"Anyone looking would think you're the one who's tied up."

"Right? Ever since you showed up, this guy's gone completely soft."

"What do you mean, soft?"

"He used to be a man with no blood and no tears. These days he can't think straight for worrying about you."

Chen, still working through what remained of the day's business on his tablet, had put the last word in.

"Here. Pills and water."

"Thank you, Ethan."

The crease between Seol-woo's brows refused to smooth. Even the ease with which she swallowed the pill seemed to displease him.

"Lie back down."

"Good night, everyone."

"Sleep well."

Yeon hugged the plump cotton duvet and closed her eyes. Seol-woo tipped his head back against the sofa and pressed at his throbbing temple.

"Should we take shifts? Like a night watch?"

Ethan switched off the lights in Seol-woo's stead—the man was wound far too tight—and came back to his seat. The two scented candles Chen had set out gave off a small, steady glow.

"The checkup results come in tomorrow. Let's hear what they say first."

"You're going after work, right? Let's go together."

"Fine. I'll stay with the kid. Though, seriously—shouldn't we sound a siren at the office? One wrong step and somebody's getting destroyed."

Eyes half shut, Ethan stole a look at Seol-woo, whose brow was drawn tight.

"Doesn't seem to occur to you that you might be the one."

"Pfft—!"

Ethan had been drinking water through a snicker. The lethal remark sent it down the wrong way and soaked his shirt. With Ethan, a joke landed like the truth. With Seol-woo, the truth landed like a joke.

"Yeon's asleep."

"Good. The medicine took."

"The question is how long she can stay that way."

Chen rose, careful not to disturb the other two, and gently brushed a stray wisp of hair from Yeon's face as she breathed in an even rhythm. She wasn't moving at all. She seemed to have fallen quite deeply under.

"Ethan. How did it go with Manager Kwon?"

"Said he'd be in touch. But I found something interesting. Yeon's stepmother has a daughter of her own. Name's Seo Yeon-ju. Looked about Yeon's age."

"Not Manager Kwon's daughter?"

"No. Different surname. And the way she carries herself—she's her mother all over. She's seeing the son of K Construction, and she's headed to some gathering soon."

"Starting from that side wouldn't be a bad idea."

"We'll talk details outside. You two go ahead. I'll watch another ten minutes, then I'll go."

After sending Ethan and Chen out first, Seol-woo sat on the floor beside the bed. The foolish thought crossed his mind that he ought to buy a cushion, since he would likely be sitting here often; he let it go, and fidgeted with the wrist drawn tight by the cloth.

It had to hold. It had to be tied so she could not undo it. He had tried his best even so. Tender skin was already reddening where the cloth rubbed.

"It hurts, doesn't it."

If someone snapped an angel's wings and bound them, would it look like this?

Seol-woo slowly bowed his head and set his lips to Yeon's wrist. The moment that soft skin met his mouth, he remembered the plush lips that had come crashing into his, and heat climbed the back of his neck. Feeling his heart stir in a way that was far too pleasant, he let out a laugh edged with self-mockery.

As expected. She wasn't a little sister.

The rumor that Cha Seol-woo had brought a woman into his office spread in an instant. News outlets, wary of pressure from two giants—CH and Hyunjin Group—didn't dare print a single line, but in gathering after gathering of the business world it became the hottest topic of all. Word reached Chairman Cha and Park Hwa-jin, of course, and Mayor Han Kang-il and Han Joo-hee as well.

Chairman Cha, who had already struck a deal with Seol-woo over Yeon, let it pass as nothing of consequence. The Han household did not.

"You've heard the rumors about CEO Cha."

"Yes. I have."

Joo-hee, about to take a spoonful of freshly cooked rice, set the spoon back down.

"This man. The girl is trying to eat, and he has to go and spoil it."

Mrs. Jeong, ladling out a generous bowl of the beef-and-seaweed soup her daughter loved, scolded her husband. Kang-il's stomach was rotting in its own way. What father could sit still and watch his youngest—the daughter he treasured past all reason—get hurt over a man?

"Who is she. That woman."

"I don't know either. We agreed from the start that we wouldn't interfere in each other's private lives."

"What? Have you lost your mind, girl? Why would you make a promise that isn't even worth calling a promise?"

Why else? Because I wanted this marriage badly enough to lose my mind. It wasn't something she could say in front of the parents who had raised her with such doting care.

"What are you lacking, that you'd do something so idiotic? With your temper, could you even stand a husband keeping another woman?"

He knew better than anyone the fiery nature of his greedy, jealous daughter. To think his clever girl would push a marriage even on a promise she could never keep. She must like Seol-woo a great deal.

"You liked him too, Dad."

Young Master Cha, Young Master Cha. Her father's face, crooning the name with delight, was still vivid.

"There were plenty of other choices besides CEO Cha Seol-woo. Executive Director Cha Hyun-woo, or Managing Director Park Won-ho of Hyunjin Group—neither would have been a bad match. If you change your mind even now, I'll speak to them properly."

"That's right, Joo-hee. Once you're married, you can't take it back. If we ask to break the engagement over another woman, CH will let it pass quietly."

"We don't even know who the woman in his office was. I can't give Seol-woo up. There's a little over two months left until the wedding. Once we're married, everything will be fine."

When Joo-hee dug in with that venom in her face, Mrs. Jeong shook her head again and again. Why walk a field of thorns when a well-swept road of flowers lay open? A marriage of convenience, with a ban on meddling in private life, was a game enjoyed only by calculating chaebol families—and this was not even a case in which both sides felt the same.

Watching the daughter who was dying of a love that ran only one way, Kang-il downed a glass of cold water.

"You planning to wither away without so much as your husband's love?"

"I'll work to be loved. Dad, please find out who that woman is."

Having said her piece, Joo-hee heaped a full spoon of rice and put it in her mouth.

The memory remained painfully clear: the daughter of a poor politician, slighted in every way high society knew how to slight a person. Honor without wealth earned no respect in their world. Things were different now that her father was mayor of Seoul and a leading contender for the next presidency, but it still felt like a castle of sand that might collapse at any moment. That was why she had set her heart on Seol-woo in the first place.

The sole bloodline shared by CH and Hyunjin, the two conglomerates fighting for first and second place in the business world. The power most watched in every gathering of the upper class. Looks, speech, the way he moved—there was nothing about him that fell short, and she could not help loving him.

She prayed desperately that the woman he had brought to his office was not a lover. Let her be what the others had always been: a tool for venting lust. If Seol-woo ever had a woman he could call his own, Joo-hee could not even begin to guess what she herself might do.

Sunlight leaked through the slats of the blinds. Seol-woo, slumped against the back of the chair, slowly lifted his eyelids. Yeon filled his vision first—bound arms thrown high overhead, the covers shoved completely away.

He had meant to watch for ten minutes. It had become seven hours. Having spent the night with his eyes open, he rolled his stiff neck this way and that.

"Mmm…… Oppa?"

Yeon, waking, looked at him. For a moment she thought it might still be night, but the room was quite bright even with the lights off.

"Good morning."

At his light greeting she smiled, soft and shy. In the sunlight, the gold she carried stood out all the more.

"Why are you here? Did I do something again? No—I'm still tied."

"Tied or not, you kept moving. I caught you and laid you back down, and after that you tried to get up about twice more."

"You've been sitting here the whole time?"

"I was afraid you'd get hurt. You nearly did."

After watching her sleep through the night, tying her down no longer seemed like a safe method either. What on earth was he supposed to do?

"You have to tie them shorter. So I can't move at all."

She had spent so many days with her limbs bound that she truly was all right with it. Seol-woo shook his head all the same. Rubbing at his heavy eyes, he undid the cloth. Vivid red bands circled her wrists and ankles.

"And we have to keep doing this."

"Should I try taking more sleeping pills? At the hospital I slept for a really long time."

"Don't say things like that so casually. Nothing good comes of taking more medicine."

Seol-woo carefully closed his hand around her wrist.

"Oppa, um……"

"What did you do. Just say it. I won't scold you."

"I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Then what."

"Can I go out with you again today?"

Yeon hesitated, shrinking in on herself. It was the first time she had spoken first about something she wanted, and her heart was pounding. What if he says no? The thought filled her completely.

"Why? Trying to get me to feed you jajangmyeon again?"

"No! If I can't, then it can't be helped."

"Come with me. There's an incredible steakhouse right in front of the office. I'll buy you meat."

"Wow, really? I'll go wash up right away!"

Because she lit up so visibly over the smallest things, Yeon had become the spark in a house that had gone dull. The moment she pattered off into the bathroom, the light drained from Seol-woo's face.

His anger toward the people who had neglected this small, lovable child until even ordinary life was difficult for her grew sharper by the day. No punishment he made them pay seemed as if it would ever be enough.

"Sun Woo-yeon! Sleep well?"

"Ethan!"

Ethan opened both arms in welcome, and Yeon threw herself at his neck without a shred of hesitation. Hanging off someone that tall felt exactly like riding an amusement-park attraction.

"Yeon-ah. Oppa too."

Chen came out of the kitchen and stood beside Ethan as if waiting his turn.

"Did you sleep well too, Chen?"

"Yeah. Breakfast is tuna kimchi stew."

"That sounds delicious."

Yeon beamed, loose and happy, and folded herself into Chen's arms.