The moment she inserted the key into the front door and turned it, a welcoming voice came from inside.

“Is elder sister back?”

The footsteps behind her back that were moving away suddenly stopped.

Cold sweat soaked her palms. Just as she thought she would be caught, a lie sprang from her mouth as if by magic.

“Yeah, I’m back. It’s raining outside, so don’t come out!”

Although she was so tense that she felt like she would collapse any moment, her voice sounded surprisingly natural, even to herself.

“Someone is here to talk for a bit. I’ll come in soon.”

Casually shouting towards the inside of the door, Yoon Eun Seo looked at the man in a confrontational manner.

“I don’t know what business you have with the CEO, but from a common sense perspective, there’s no reason for him to contact me.”

“……”

“Go carefully, and don’t come looking for me again for something like this.”

Only after watching the man turn around and walk some distance away did Eun Seo open the door. Her legs felt weak and she thought she might collapse any moment, but she managed to make it to the living room and plopped down.

Seeing Eun Seo looking like her soul had left her body, Kwon Seung Joo asked in surprise.

“Elder sister, are you okay? Did something happen?”

However, Eun Seo couldn’t even hear what he was saying. Her heart was pounding so hard that her eardrums were ringing.

‘Did he notice?’

Eun Seo quickly shook her head. No, if he had, he would have somehow followed her in to check.

Seung Joo’s way of speaking now was completely different from his original self. Even if his voice sounded similar, there was no way the person who called her elder sister would even dream that it was Seung Joo. After all, he was originally six years older than her.

That thought eased her tension a bit, but the anxiety remained the same.

‘What if I get caught?’

She wondered if not sending him back to his parents and keeping him would be a crime that would land her in jail. Of course, he was a sound adult with the freedom to determine his own whereabouts as he pleased, but still, his current mental age…

The other side was Daewon Group. The realization that she was playing a dangerous game against a chaebol family belatedly hit her. If she got caught, it definitely wouldn’t just end with getting fired. Her fingertips trembled at the vague fear that something big would happen.

“Elder sister?”

The moment Seung Joo put his hand on her shoulder with a worried look, Eun Seo screamed as if she had been burned and slapped his hand away.

“Don’t touch me!”

“I- I’m sorry.”

Seung Joo apologized as if flustered, but Eun Seo’s anger had already exploded towards him.

This man verbally abused her saying her younger brother must be dead, and tried to kick her out of the house overnight. Why do I have to risk danger and lie here and there because of this man?

The fact that he had stopped the redevelopment for her was already out of Eun Seo’s mind. In the first place, wasn’t he the one who ordered that redevelopment? None of this would have happened if he hadn’t done such a thing in the first place.

As she openly glared at him, he stammered excuses.

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to…have dinner together, since elder sister never eats dinner…”

Eun Seo retorted sharply.

“Can you please stop calling me elder sister? I really can’t get used to it.”

It was even disgusting how he acted innocent with the face of a proper adult. Even if he had amnesia or whatever, the face in front of her eyes was his face, so what was she supposed to do?

“Go look in the mirror. Who’s the elder one here!”

“……”

“And CEO-nim, you’re the one paying my salary. To me, you’re a lofty superior. Do you think I can sit across from you and have a meal go down my throat? Do you not consider my position at all?”

Eun Seo vented everything that came out of her mouth.

“…I’m sorry.”

He apologized with a deflated face. Seeing that flushed red face made her even more irritated. Why do I keep feeling like I’m becoming the bad person? What did I do wrong?

“Even without me, I’ve lived honestly without lying once to anyone. But do you know how many times I’ve already lied because of you? Why do I have to, because of someone like you…!”

No matter what vicious words she poured out, he just apologized meekly without talking back. As if everything was his fault.

“I’m really sorry for causing you trouble.”

This made her feel worse instead of refreshed even as she got angry. It felt like one-sidedly beating up an opponent who wouldn’t fight back.

“Here.”

In the end, she practically shoved the plastic bag with the lunchbox at him and went into her room.

As soon as she closed the door, self-loathing washed over her. Eun Seo plopped down on the floor.

“……”

After cooling her head a bit and thinking, she realized it wasn’t something to get angry at him for. It’s not like he unilaterally forced it, and wasn’t it something they had agreed on because it was mutually beneficial? If she was going to hide him, she should have been prepared for this from the start.

He had nowhere to go in the whole wide world and no one he knew. So he must have just been waiting at home all day for me to return. Actually, how much must he have had no one to rely on to be like that, even though I’m not a close person to him?

I haven’t said a single kind word to him, so how long must he have waited to say “elder sister is back” just from hearing the door open?

But to his welcoming face, I…

Sitting blankly lost in thought, Eun Seo finally made up her mind.

‘I should apologize.’

Thinking that, she came out of her room and smelled a faint scent of food from somewhere.

Following the source of the smell, she went down to the living room and headed to the kitchen. Looking under the newspaper covering one side of the kitchen, Eun Seo was surprised.

It was a fully set table.

Eun Seo rarely had proper meals, so there were hardly any ingredients at home. There would only be eggs, sprouted potatoes, and half-wilted onions, but he had somehow managed to make fried rice with them.

[I’m sorry. I just wanted to…have dinner together, since elder sister never eats dinner…]

Only then did Eun Seo guess what he had been trying to say earlier. He must have been trying to say “I made rice”.

She didn’t know how it tasted, but it looked quite decent. Seeing the smiling face clumsily drawn with ketchup on top of the fried rice made her heart swell.

How does an eighteen-year-old boy know how to cook? Eun Seo carefully went over what he had said before.

[Go tell Father clearly. No matter what you do, I’m not going back to his house.]

At first, he had spoken angrily. And since he said it had been a year since his mother left the house…

Eun Seo realized belatedly.

‘He stayed alone in this house for a year waiting for his mom.’

Thinking of a high school kid being left alone at home waiting for a mother who wouldn’t return made her eyes suddenly sting.

‘And to that child, what did I say…’

Eun Seo left the kitchen. She was going to apologize for speaking so harshly earlier and suggest eating together.

As she went up to the living room, Seung Joo happened to be coming out of his room.

“Um, earlier I was too har-”

The apology she had resolved to say didn’t reach its end. Because he suddenly threw his whole body into her arms.

“CEO-nim?”

Eun Seo was so shocked she nearly fainted. Her face instantly flushed red. For her who had never even held hands with a man, this level of skinship was too much to handle.

Moreover, the other person was a man she had secretly admired from afar until not long ago. Her heart raced like crazy and her face felt like it would explode. She could feel the heat along with the sensation of his firm body through the clothes she was wearing.

“CEO-nim! Wait, let go of this fir-”

As she flailed around not knowing what to do, a breath hot enough to melt her soon reached her ear.

“…Elder sister, my body… feels weird.”

With those words, his huge body completely lost strength and collapsed into Eun Seo’s arms.

“CEO-nim? CEO-nim!”

The man’s body, heavy like a lump of iron, pressed down mercilessly. In the end, she couldn’t withstand the weight and they both fell sprawled on the floor.

Eun Seo sprang up like a coiled spring, but Seung Joo remained passed out with his eyes closed as if he had lost consciousness.

“What’s wrong? Hey, are you okay?”

She only shook him slightly, but an agonized scream burst from his mouth as if he had been stabbed with a knife.

“Ugh!”

Eun Seo was startled and let go.

Something was definitely wrong. After a moment’s hesitation, she carefully lifted the hem of his sweater with her fingertips and nearly screamed, hurriedly covering her mouth.

“…!”

The revealed skin was covered in dark red bruises.

Only then did Eun Seo remember that he had been in a traffic accident not many days ago. No matter how miraculously he escaped without breaking a single bone, how could he not be in pain after being hit by a speeding car? It’s not like his body was made of steel.

Even if it was an emergency, it was truly burdensome to touch his body without permission. For now, Eun Seo sought his consent and hesitantly reached out to touch his forehead.

“Excuse me for a moment…”

The forehead she felt was burning up. She finally understood why his face had been red all this time.

Thinking of him going into the kitchen and cooking rice in this state made Eun Seo hate herself anew. How considerate of her must he have been to not even say he was in pain?

“Hang in there a little.”

As soon as she managed to help him to his room and lay him down, he began moaning in pain.

She gave him the painkillers and fever reducers she had at home, but the fever didn’t go down easily, so she had to stay by his side and keep changing the wet cloth.

“…Mom.”

Seung Joo was delirious with fever and talked in his sleep all night. As if having a nightmare, he would sometimes scream or plead tearfully.

“Mom, don’t leave me. Take me with you.”

His face, which had always been cold as if molded from steel, was filled with unease and fear.

She keenly understood the loneliness he must have experienced living alone at a young age.

Because she had been through it.

Eun Seo’s mother had passed away when she was in 9th grade. The social worker tried to persuade her to enter a facility, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She didn’t want to leave the house empty, not knowing when Eun Ho would return. Her late mother would probably be angry from heaven too.

It was her own decision, but it wasn’t easy for a young girl to live alone. The house was already spacious and had no neighbors. On nights when even the wind blew strongly, she would hug her pillow and cry from fear.

‘This person must have gone through the same thing.’

Only now did she start to truly see the man lying down. Not as the man who hurled abusive words at her, nor as the ruthless CEO, but simply as a wounded eighteen-year-old boy.

She wanted to crawl into a mouse hole. To an eighteen-year-old who lost his mother, friends, and the college he was going to attend overnight…I didn’t offer a single word of comfort to cheer up…

“It’s okay, I’m here.”

Even as she said that, the man trapped in the nightmare didn’t seem to hear it.

Eun Seo hesitated before taking his hand. The large, hot hand gripped hers tightly as if it had been waiting. As if her hand was the only thing in the world for him to hold onto.

“……”

After holding hands for a while, the fear gradually faded from his face. His breathing slowed and he soon fell asleep with a peaceful expression.

Holding his hand, Eun Seo also dozed off leaning against the wall at some point.

…When she woke up in the morning, Seung Joo was nowhere to be seen, and the bedding where he had been was neatly folded.