APOS 01

Chapter 01

Complete English

The incident had all started because of Mom’s son.

‘A trip around South America before graduating from university.’

That was Seobin’s grand dream, even though she had only lived a quarter of her hundred-year life.

And her second older brother had crushed that dream in an instant.

**[Mom’s Son 2: Little sis. Looks like you had ten million won saved in your bank account? Thanks to that, I put it toward a new car and just picked it up ^^ I’ll take you for a drive anytime.]

While Seobin was diligently listening to her professor’s lecture in the classroom, a notification from the group chat with her brothers rang.

Her face turned pale as she hurriedly replied.

**[How did you know my bank account password? Don’t lie to me!]

Almost immediately, a selfie arrived.

Her second older brother was kissing the contract for a brand-new car with the logo of a famous foreign automobile brand on it.

**[Mom’s Son 2: It’s the same as the house passwordㅋㅋㅋㅋ Learn that the world can be a scary place, and from now on, set your password so other people don’t know it.]

“You crazy bastard!”

In the end, Seobin shouted and jumped out of her seat.

A close friend grabbed her sleeve and asked what she was doing during class, but Seobin had no time to answer.

It was money she had painstakingly saved by working two part-time jobs without relying on her parents.

Even though her parents were well-off, the reason she had to earn the money herself was because they had opposed her trip, saying South America was dangerous.

They said they did not want to invest their money in sending her somewhere dangerous.

They had told her that if she wanted to go, she should earn the money herself.

So Seobin had saved every penny with incredible determination.

But her second older brother had used that precious money she had earned through sweat and tears to help buy himself a new car.

What kind of thief was he?!

Seobin hurried out of the classroom and walked quickly, tears welling up in her eyes from anger.

Unlike her first older brother, Seojun, who always treated her like a princess, her second older brother, Dojun, was always mischievous.

She knew he had founded an IT startup and was doing very well now.

He made plenty of money, so why would he touch his little sister’s bank account when he had nothing else to spend it on?

She would never forgive him.

Seobin ran home with the angriest expression of her twenty-three years of life.

On the first floor café of the university hospital where Seojun worked.

“Enough already. Look, she hasn’t replied. What if she comes home crying?”

Seojun clicked his tongue and scolded his younger brother.

“Ah, why? Isn’t it cute?”

Seojun frowned as he picked up his coffee cup.

“If it’s cute, then why play a prank like that?”

“I’m going to give her plenty of spending money for her trip anyway. So I can play a little prank like this, can’t I, hyung?”

Seojun looked at his younger brother, who had two shirt buttons undone and was sitting in a rough, carefree manner, giggling as he stared only at his phone.

Who would look at that guy and think he was the CEO of the famous IT company Zeus?

And to think he was having this much fun teasing a younger sister who was five years younger than him.

“Get yourself checked for antisocial personality disorder. I’m serious.”

Dojun pretended not to hear Seojun and continued staring intensely at his phone, waiting for Seobin’s reply.

Seojun shook his head as he watched him.

No matter how kind and adorable their youngest sibling was, if Dojun kept teasing her like that, he was definitely going to get himself into serious trouble.

Seobin ran home, quickly entered the door lock password, and opened the door.

The moment she came face-to-face with Dojun, she tensed her throat, ready to scream.

With anger burning in her steps, she walked to Dojun’s bedroom door.

Dojun only went to work twice a week.

That was partly because he was the CEO and therefore had such a free schedule, but it was also because of the nature of his job. As long as he had a computer, he could work anywhere.

And today was a day when Dojun did not have to go to work.

On days when he did not go to work, he spent the whole day lazing around in his room.

Bang!

With a determined expression, Seobin flung the door wide open.

Even though it was broad daylight, the blinds were drawn, making the room pitch-dark.

Blinking as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Seobin searched for Dojun.

Looking carefully, she noticed that the blanket was bulging.

He was obviously rolling around in bed, completely wrapped up in the blanket.

He definitely knew she had come and was pretending to sleep.

Seobin walked up to the bed and grabbed the blanket tightly.

But as she was about to pull it away, a rush of sorrow surged through her.

There were some things you could joke about, and some things you absolutely could not.

Whether it was Alaska or South America, their parents had always let her older brothers go wherever they wanted.

But because she was the late-born youngest child and a daughter, there were countless restrictions placed on her under the excuse of protecting her.

She had spent four whole years saving up so she could break through those restrictions herself, see more of the world, and step out into it.

It wasn’t simply about traveling.

She wanted to show her parents that she was at an age when she needed growth rather than protection.

And he had ruined that…!

That awful son of Mom!

Afraid that seeing his face would make her lose her resolve, she raised the hand holding her bag into the air.

It was quite heavy because it was filled with her major-related textbooks, but she did not have the mental capacity to care about that.

Thud!

“I know better than anyone how hard I worked to save that money!”

Thud!

She mercilessly struck his stomach….

No.

She struck even lower than that.

Thud! Thud!

His long, large body squirmed beneath the blanket.

But Seobin had already lost half of her reason. She did not care and continued striking him recklessly.

“You took away my precious opportunity, so you suffer too!”

Thud!

“You’re always chasing women around, and what?! Big? Biiig? Try living without that! You said you’d have no joy in life if you didn’t have that, right?! Huh?!”

After delivering one final, powerful blow, she swung her bag toward his head.

“Ah!”

A heavy groan came from the man beneath the blanket, but Seobin did not feel even the slightest bit sorry.

Dojun, however, had a terrible tendency to become such a cold-blooded person when he got angry that even Seojun could not stop him.

If something displeased him, or if Seobin made even the slightest mistake, he would sit her down and lecture her for ten hours straight.

This time too, he would surely ignore his own wrongdoing and only lecture her about the violence she had committed.

Seobin quickly turned around.

Then she heard the rustling of the blanket behind her.

“Aaaah!”

She screamed and ran away without even looking back.

Once she had done it, the reality of what she had just done came crashing down on her.

Terrified of the aftermath, she burst through the front door and sprinted down the apartment hallway.

She did not even think about taking the elevator and ran down the stairs from the twelfth floor.

Finally, just as she exited the first-floor entrance and was about to run away—

She had no choice but to stop dead in her tracks.

“……?”

Oh my God.

Was the shock too much for me…?

Had I been seeing an illusion this whole time?

A short distance away from Seobin, Seojun and Dojun were walking together.

Then Dojun spotted Seobin and greeted her happily.

“Oh? It’s Seobin.”

W-What the hell was this…?!

Was the brother calling out to me an illusion, or was the Dojun I had just beaten between the legs at home so he’d become impotent the illusion?!

Her heart began pounding like crazy from confusion.

While Seobin stood there frozen in a daze, her brothers approached and looked down at her.

The eldest reached out and flicked his fingers in front of Seobin’s eyes.

“Seobin. Why did you come out looking like you were being chased? More importantly, shouldn’t you be at school right now?”

At Seojun’s worried voice, Seobin’s pale lips trembled without producing a sound.

Then she suddenly grabbed Seojun’s hand and asked,

“O… O-oppa. I-I… Lee Dojun…!”

Seojun, who had been carefully examining her, turned his gaze toward Dojun beside him.

“Haah, you bastard! This is why I told you not to tease our youngest too much. You’ve broken the kid!”

At his brother’s scolding, Dojun looked at Seobin, who seemed completely out of it, and finally realized how serious the situation was.

“Hey, hey. What’s wrong with you, kid? It was… just a joke. You really think I’d use the kid’s hard-earned money to buy a car? Huh?”

Seobin looked at Dojun and forced her frozen lips apart.

“N-No…. That’s not it…. Ah, this is really weird…. I definitely… saw… Lee Dojun… in his room……”

Dojun raised his eyebrows as if he had no idea what she was talking about.

Then Seojun, who was standing beside him, let out a small exclamation.

“You said Kanghyun was in your room.”

Only then did Dojun seem to understand what Seobin was talking about, and he suddenly raised his voice.

“Ahhh, right! You remember him?”

The color began draining from Seobin’s face.

“He said he didn’t want to go home and deal with the adults, so he asked if he could sleep at our place. I told him that was fine.”

Without the slightest idea of what Seobin was feeling, Dojun suddenly remembered something and gave a wicked grin.

“Oh, right. You used to like Kanghyun.”

“……?”

“He came back to Korea for the first time in years. I guess you couldn’t greet him because he was sleeping?”

A greeting?

I think I did….

A very, very intense one.