ITBF 05

CHAPTER 05

Jaehyun added one little white lie out of kindness.

Older women, women his age, younger women—he had never really thought about which he preferred, but he wanted to put Tae-joo at ease.

“Good. Older women seem to be the trend these days. Anyway, I’m counting on you, Jaehyun.”

While speaking, Tae-joo suddenly pulled out his wallet and handed Jaehyun a card.

Jaehyun’s eyes quickly dropped to the card before lifting again.

“What’s this?”

“Buy yourself something good to eat. Use it for your study materials, too. You can buy whatever you need.”

When Jaehyun didn’t take it, Tae-joo awkwardly waved the card in the air.

“Come to think of it, you probably have several more zeros in your bank account than I do.”

“Yes. So let’s just consider the expenses I incur while tutoring her as rent for staying here.”

“Okay. I’m off.”

Tae-joo gave him a gentle smile and lightly patted Jaehyun’s arm.

Only after he left did a quiet silence settle over the living room.

Amid that silence, an inner voice rang out.

This isn’t some kids’ game of house. Why the hell am I tutoring my friend’s little sister?

Do I look like someone who should be working as a private tutor?

It was the voice urging him to crush that cunning half-brother before he could rise, preserve the rightful tradition of the legitimate son becoming the heir, and protect his position.

Just as he was about to let himself be swayed by that voice, he heard rustling from inside the room where Geuk-joo’s younger sister had gone.

The image of her shy face, cheeks bright red as she ran away, came to mind, and he found himself instinctively heading toward her room.

As he walked, he made a decision about the thoughts that had briefly confused him.

His mother’s memorial day was approaching, and the closer it got, the more sensitive he became. For now, it was probably best to get away from Taekyung Group and find a way to live independently.

With his long legs, he strode toward the room, knocked twice, and opened the door.

But perhaps because he was always so quick with his movements—

THUD!

The moment he opened the door, the younger sister, who had been standing right behind it, was pushed backward and landed hard on her backside.

She looked as though she had been leaning against the door and listening.

Seeing her grimace in pain and rub her hip, Jaehyun asked,

“Sorry. I didn’t know you were standing so close to the door.”

Apparently, she really had been eavesdropping on what was happening outside, because she gave no response.

Instead, she lowered her head, her ears turning as red as strawberries.

“Why do you have strawberries attached to your ears?”

He muttered it without thinking.

The girl immediately lifted her head, then covered both ears with her hands and pouted.

She seemed to be the type of person who showed all her emotions openly.

Meanwhile, she tried to stand up.

But she grimaced and whimpered as though her backside hurt, so Jaehyun held out his hand.

She nervously bit her lip as she looked at his hand, then cautiously took it.

At the same time, Jaehyun pulled her up.

Come to think of it, she came along almost like cotton candy being pulled up. It hardly felt as though he had used any strength at all.

Are women normally this light?

Without permission, a strange ticklish sensation seemed to form inside his chest, almost as though someone were making cotton candy there.

Unfamiliar with the sensation, he released her hand and looked down at her.

She had supposedly been kidnapped and lived on an island all this time.

Yet her skin didn’t look particularly tanned.

It was so pale and smooth that she almost looked like a white seal.

Would her skin feel damp and soft like a seal if I touched it?

At that moment, a heavy sensation suddenly settled in his lower abdomen.

He was extremely flustered.

“Um… Oppa.”

Just then, the girl called out to him.

Something heavy seemed to drop into Jaehyun’s chest with a thud.

‘Oppa?’

It was an extremely common word he had often heard at university or social gatherings.

So why did his heart suddenly skip?

He became tense like someone caught stealing, then composed his expression and answered briefly.

“Yeah.”

“…Are you really going to be my private tutor?”

“Probably?”

“For all the middle and high school equivalency exams?”

“Yeah. Why?”

Does she not want to study?

“When… are we going to start?”

“Today—”

At that moment, somewhere, a tiny rumbling sound came from a stomach.

It was so quiet that it was impossible to tell whose stomach it had come from.

The girl immediately panicked and clutched her stomach.

“Looks like you haven’t eaten. How about we have brunch and take some time to get to know each other?”

It was the perfect excuse to turn around.

He gestured for her to come outside and turned around.

He had not come here today for an actual lesson. He wanted to get a rough idea of whether he could stay in this house and whether she was at a level he could reasonably teach.

So it seemed better to learn more about her while they ate.

“Then this isn’t tutoring… We’re just playing, aren’t we? What should I tell my brothers if they ask?”

Her cheeks flushed as though she had been caught doing something improper.

Jaehyun answered calmly.

“It’s not playing. It’s an orientation. An introduction beforehand. So get dressed and come out, pretty—”

His voice trailed off.

Wait.

What’s this kid’s name?

He didn’t know her name, so hadn’t he just unconsciously repeated the nickname Gi-joo had used earlier?

Why the hell didn’t Yoon Geuk-joo even tell me his sister’s name?

He let out a short sigh and looked down again.

His younger sister was standing there with a clenched fist covering her mouth, trying to suppress a laugh.

She soon raised her head and looked at him with lake-like eyes.

Her sparkling eyes looked incredibly moist.

“I… haven’t heard someone call me pretty in twelve years. It makes me feel… like I’m actually a person again. It feels really nice.”

Then she murmured in a serious voice,

“Thank you, Jaehyun… Oppa.”

A warm breeze brushed past the back of his neck.

How many times have I felt this strange sensation since coming here?

“Since you’re my second brother’s—no, Geuk-joo Oppa’s friend, right? Do you know my name?”

While he was momentarily speechless from the unfamiliar sensation, the girl spoke in a brighter voice.

“I’m Yoon Hae-som.”

“Yoon Hae-som.”

He rolled the three syllables of her name around on the tip of his tongue.

“Cute name.”

Hae-som laughed out loud and thanked him.

She was unmistakably twenty-two, both in appearance and the way she spoke, yet she seemed remarkably innocent.

Maybe because she remained untouched by the world while trapped on that island.

“Kid.”

He called out to her, suppressing the strange questions that kept arising despite himself.

“Y-yes? But I just told you my name…”

“I’ll call you whatever I want.”

Hae-som’s face turned red as she lowered her gaze.

“So when are you going to get dressed and come out?”

Hae-som lowered her head and looked down at what she was wearing.

She had on an oversized brown T-shirt that seemed to belong to one of her brothers, along with wide-legged pants that were so long she had folded the hems several times.

Her head looks tiny while the clothes make her body look huge.

She looks like a kiwi bird.

Jaehyun looked down at the round, thick-haired crown of her head and couldn’t help letting out a small laugh.

Hae-som didn’t hear it. She quickly said she would change and come out, then shut the door.

He heard some clattering from inside, and soon the door opened again.

When she timidly emerged wearing a bright yellow two-piece outfit, Jaehyun’s brow furrowed slightly.

“Is it… bad? My brothers bought me a bunch of clothes yesterday, so I picked this one.”

It’s ridiculously tacky.

He wanted to say exactly that, but forced himself to hold it back.

The clothes looked expensive, but they also made her look like someone from the 1970s.

With taste like this, the rest of the clothes they bought are probably just as bad.

Tae-joo and Geuk-joo mostly wore suits, so perhaps that could be excused.

But Gi-joo was an idol, wasn’t he?

“Um. You’ll be okay staying here alone for a moment, right? Just for a minute or two.”

Hae-som blinked her round eyes several times before slowly nodding.

Jaehyun quickly left the house.

It wasn’t that he was embarrassed to be seen with her. He simply didn’t want Hae-som, who hadn’t even adjusted to life in Seoul yet, to encounter unpleasant stares.

He crossed the yard and stepped outside the gate before heading toward his parked car.

He picked up a thin summer windbreaker from the back seat and was about to return to the gate when he suddenly stopped.

Then he took two steps backward.

He whipped his head around.

Something hurriedly disappeared around the corner of the alley.

“If you don’t want rumors going around that you got fired for stalking your boss, come out.”

At that, a woman and a man who looked to be around Tae-joo’s age awkwardly emerged again.

They were his secretary and the head of his office, Secretary Kim and Manager Hyun.

Jaehyun motioned for them to come over.

They hurried toward him and stopped in front of him.

“Director…!”

“Director.”

“Why are my secretaries going around stalking their own boss?”

The two of them folded their hands in front of them at exactly the same time, as if they had rehearsed it, and bowed their heads deeply.