“Teacher, are you dating my brother?”

The face, a full head taller and more defined than she remembered, stared at her with a sullen expression as he asked the question.

As if he had no will to study at all, he was half-sprawled over the desk, flicking the mechanical pencil he was holding between his fingers in a rather delinquent manner.

Na Eun, who was grading the problems Jae Won had solved in front of her, raised her head.

“No.”

They often encountered each other at school and had light conversations, and sometimes people around them misunderstood due to the other person’s unnecessarily flashy appearance.

As Na Eun denied it in a familiar manner, Jae Won furrowed his brows.

“It’s strange.”

“What’s strange?”

“My brother said he would kill me if I dared to talk back to you, Teacher.”

He’s not the type to care about others or be so mindful. It’s weird. The honest high school senior made no attempt to hide his doubts. Na Eun lowered her head again and continued the grading she was doing.

“Your brother is usually good at making death threats. Don’t take it too much to heart.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve experienced it too.”

“He said he would kill you? My brother?”

Teacher? Jae Won’s expression became even more disbelieving as he raised his sprawled upper body.

“He’s not the type to do that to a woman, though?”

If he flirted, he flirted. The younger brother, who had thoroughly objectified his own brother, blinked innocently and was curious.

Na Eun smiled professionally and held out the mock exam workbook she had finished grading.

“Enough with the nonsense talk, I’ve checked the ones you got wrong, so try correcting them.”

The boy, who had properly entered his rebellious phase, was more naive than she had worried.

She was a little concerned about what would happen if he was insincere from the first day of tutoring, but contrary to those worries, he at least pretended to do what Na Eun told him to do, grumbling.

It seemed to be thanks to his brother’s threat that he would not let it slide if he behaved rudely.

His intelligence remained the same, to the point where it was hard to understand why he had neglected his studies and let himself go this far until now.

Instead, the boy, who had become a little more arrogant than when she first saw him, continued his own talk while scribbling his mechanical pencil over the workbook Na Eun handed him.

“If you’re flirting, don’t date my brother.”

She had no intention of doing so anyway, but she was curious as to why the younger brother deliberately said that, so she asked.

“Why?”

“All the girls who dated my brother cried.”

Or they screamed and threw fits.

Having witnessed that scene by chance several times since middle school, it must have been much more frequent in places he had not seen.

Na Eun laughed at the stories the young boy was offering as his own advice.

“Don’t worry. I do plan on getting a boyfriend, but it’s not your brother.”

“Why?”

My brother is so good-looking that even I find him slightly annoying.

Jae Won, who had been spilling gossip until just now, ended up defending him as his brother. Na Eun tapped the wrong problem with her fingertip to indicate for him to focus, and said:

“I admit he’s handsome, but he’s the type I hate the most.”

“What type do you hate?”

“The type that doesn’t sincerely deal with others for even one second.”

“Ah.”

This was irrefutable. Jae Won erased the wrong answer to the problem Na Eun pointed out with an eraser, unable to make any further retort.

Na Eun looked down at the back of Jae Won’s head quite contentedly, as if they had never engaged in small talk.

The 2 hours passed in the blink of an eye.

Doing English and math together made even 2 hours feel insufficient, but it seemed the student felt differently.

Finally able to escape, Jae Won packed his bag happily, showing his delight, and headed out of the study cafe.

Na Eun also gathered her things and stepped out the door, and Jae Won muttered a small curse from a step ahead of her.

Na Eun knew why Jae Won was doing that, so instead of scolding him, she grinned.

“Tutoring is over?”

Hee Won, who had arrived in front of the cafe on time for the end of the lesson, gestured with his eyes toward Na Eun standing behind him.

As she had already received a message that he would come to pick up his brother, she nodded her head without looking surprised.

Hee Won’s hand swiftly caught the back of Jae Won’s neck as he yelped and tried to run away. Jae Won complained.

“Ah, you said you only had to do the tutoring! Why are you doing this!”

“You’ll run off somewhere else after it’s over. Go home.”

“Ah, bro! Come on! I was going to go home!”

“Is the PC bang your home? Why don’t you report your change of address there while you’re at it?”

Hee Won had come to catch Jae Won, who spent time at the PC bang all night gaming and didn’t stay home on weekends.

Easily subduing the struggling Jae Won with one hand, Hee Won asked Na Eun.

“This punk didn’t talk back to you, did he?”

“He didn’t. He’s cute and well-behaved.”

“…Cute?”

Glancing at the boy who had grown steadily since middle school and was now almost the same height as him, Hee Won gave an unbelievable look.

Na Eun slung her bag over her back and smiled.

“He told me not to date you. Said I would cry. Isn’t he sweet?”

“…Seo Jae Won, do you want to die?”

“Ah, I didn’t say anything ridiculous!”

Hee Won lowered his voice and tightened the arm wrapped around his brother’s neck.

Jae Won struggled fiercely to escape from that sturdy embrace, but there was no way he could withstand the strength of a superhuman.

It was just a common sight of siblings on the street. Na Eun was about to turn her back with a smile and say goodbye when-

“Have a meal before you go. I’ll treat you to celebrate your first lesson.”

“I told you I don’t eat with a man alone.”

“That’s why. It’s not just the two of us, so let’s eat.”

3 years of being a bodyguard inevitably led to many occasions where they had to face each other.

Even so, Na Eun, who had adhered to the ironclad rule of not eating alone with a man she had no intention of dating, had never had a meal with Hee Won alone without Seung Joo and Sun Jin.

At Hee Won’s words, Jae Won furrowed his brow, wondering if he was referring to him.

“You should eat before you go too.” Hee Won commanded, not suggested, as he squeezed Jae Won’s neck with his arm, just as expected.

“No!”

“Then what should we eat? I have to go to the academy soon, so is it okay to eat nearby?”

“Let’s do that. How about the knife-cut noodle place near there?”

“Ah, I said no!”

“Ah, that place was delicious. Then let’s go. Is it okay if we take my car?”

“I didn’t bring my car, knowing it would be like this.”

The conversation between the two continued, ignoring Jae Won’s cries of refusal.

Eventually, the three people (although one was not by their own will) headed to the car parked on a nearby street.

Na Eun got into the driver’s seat, and Hee Won got into the passenger seat quite familiarly.

Jae Won, who could not defy his brother even though he rebelled against his parents, grumbled in a sulky voice but obediently headed to the back seat.

Hee Won turned his head towards Jae Won, who was sitting with his mouth pursed and his back hunched, and threw a doll that was rolling around on the back seat floor into his brother’s arms.

“Hold onto it. And put on your seatbelt.”

“What is this? Am I a kid?”

Jae Won furrowed his brows at the suggestion to hold a doll and the order to put on his seatbelt, which he had never done when riding in his own car.

Hee Won stared intently at his brother.

“…You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

“What?”

Jae Won realized his brother’s advice exactly 5 minutes after Na Eun stepped on the accelerator and aggressively maneuvered out of the street.

Wobbling, after arriving at the parking lot of the knife-cut noodle restaurant, Jae Won got out of the car, covering his mouth with his left hand and bending over with his right hand on his knee.

Still, the cold outside air entering his nose made him feel like his motion sickness was subsiding a bit.

As if Hee Won had expected it, he got out of the passenger seat and approached Jae Won from behind.

“That’s why I told you to hold onto the doll.”

Then the motion sickness would have been a bit less. Hee Won spoke nonchalantly.

As someone who had experienced Na Eun’s driving style, which was reminiscent of a roller coaster, quite frequently, he seemed to be not at all unfamiliar with this situation.

Jae Won sincerely advised the tutor who got out of the driver’s seat and excitedly said, “Let’s go eat noodles now.”

“Teacher, have you thought about selling your car?”

“Actually, when our family went bankrupt, we sold all the expensive things, but I couldn’t sell this one. It was the last gift my father gave me before he passed away.”

Ah, damn. If you say that, I have nothing to say.

Na Eun, who casually brought up her painful past that others were careful to even mention, took the lead and went to the entrance of the restaurant, saying she would go in first.

Jae Won, who felt like he had unintentionally touched on the other person’s painful part, tried to calm his churning stomach as quickly as possible and followed behind.

Finally, Hee Won entered the restaurant.

The heating seems a bit strong today.

Although the weather was quite cold, the inside of the restaurant felt so warm that the heating seemed a bit excessive.

It was confusing whether it was cold or hot.

Thinking that it felt stuffy but the cold outside air was still lingering, she chose a suitable seat and sat down.

This is a place she often visited when she was hungry or needed to eat while working as an assistant instructor at an academy. The price was cheap and the food was delicious, so Seung Joo and Sun Jin, whom she had brought, also liked it.

Moreover, it was also the place where the four of them, including Hee Won, had lunch together for the first time.

Na Eun naturally set the spoons and chopsticks, and Hee Won brought water.

Jae Won seemed a bit awkward, as if he was not familiar with this kind of restaurant, and was looking around the interior of the restaurant.

Seeing this, it was obvious that he was a young master from a well-off family, and Na Eun laughed.

Now she understood why Seung Joo and Sun Jin had teased her so much when she didn’t even know how to use the subway properly when she was young.

The restaurant, which had the advantage of serving food quickly, brought out meals for three people in less than 5 minutes after ordering.

Na Eun, who was eating in a hurry because she had to go to her part-time job at the academy soon, felt that the water she was drinking was not enough and thought while chewing the noodles in her mouth.

It’s bothersome to go and get more water. But I want to drink water. Ah, but why is it so hot and cold here? Should I just drink cold water? No, should I just drink warm water?

As she was blankly chewing the noodles and thinking according to the flow of her consciousness, Hee Won, who was sitting across from her, suddenly got up and stopped moving in an awkward posture.

At that subtle posture, the gazes of Jae Won and Na Eun, who were eating noodles quietly, simultaneously turned to him.

Na Eun asked, seeing him in a posture that was neither fully standing up with his hands on the table nor sitting down, as if he was deep in thought about something.

“Why?”

“…No. I was contemplating whether I should give you warm water or cold water.”

Come to think of it, he could have brought both, but it seemed like his intelligence was deteriorating as he got older, he scolded himself and laughed, then fully stood up.

And Jae Won, who was blankly looking at his back as he calmly went to get water, asked Na Eun across from him again.

“…Teacher, are you really not dating my brother?”

Na Eun, who was admiring how quickly he could sense the other person’s feelings or desires as a superhuman, blinked and shook her head.

At her innocent face, as if she didn’t understand why Jae Won was asking such a question, Jae Won made an even more indescribable expression.