Eunseo left the kitchen, intending to apologize and invite him to eat together. As she stepped onto the porch, she saw Seungju leaving his room.
“I was too harsh earlier, I’m sor…”
Before she could finish, Seungju suddenly embraced her.
“President?”
Startled, Eunseo’s face flushed. The unexpected intimacy was overwhelming, especially from the man she had secretly admired. Her heart raced, and she felt his solid body’s warmth through her clothes.
“President! Please, let go…!”
Panicking, she flailed, but then she felt his hot breath close to her ear.
“…Nuna, my body… feels strange.”
His words were followed by the loss of strength in his large frame, collapsing into Eunseo’s arms.
“President? President!”
Unable to bear his weight, they both tumbled onto the porch floor.
Eunseo quickly got up, but Seungju lay there, unconscious, with closed eyes.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
Eunseo was taken aback when her slight touch elicited a pained cry from Seungju, as if he had been stabbed.
“Ugh!”
She quickly withdrew her hand, realizing something was terribly wrong. After hesitating, she gently lifted the hem of his sweater and was shocked to see his skin covered in dark bruises.
That’s when she remembered he had been in a car accident just a few days ago. Even if he hadn’t broken any bones, it was natural for him to be in pain after being hit by a car.
Feeling awkward about touching him, Eunseo cautiously placed her hand on his forehead.
“Just for a moment, excuse me…”
His forehead was burning hot. She now understood why his face had been red earlier.
Thinking of him cooking in the kitchen despite his condition made Eunseo despise herself. How much he must have been worried about her to suffer in silence.
“Hang in there a little longer.”
She managed to get him to bed, where he started moaning in pain. Despite taking painkillers and fever reducers, his fever didn’t subside, and Eunseo had to continually replace his cold compresses.
“…Mom.”
Seungju deliriously muttered throughout the night, sometimes startled or pleading.
“Mom, don’t leave me. Take me with you.”
Eunseo could deeply empathize with the loneliness he must have felt living alone at a young age.
Because she had experienced it too.
Her mother passed away when she was in the ninth grade. Although social workers suggested she go into a facility, Eunseo couldn’t bear to leave the house, waiting for her brother Eunho’s return. She feared her deceased mother would be angry.
Though it was her choice, living alone as a young girl wasn’t easy. Especially in a large, isolated house. She often cried, hugging her pillow on windy nights.
‘He must have gone through the same.’
Only then did Eunseo fully see the man lying before her. Not the man who had insulted her, nor the emotionless CEO, but a hurt eighteen-year-old boy.
She wished she could disappear into a hole. For a boy who had lost his mother, friends, and dream college overnight, she hadn’t offered a single word of encouragement…
“It’s okay, I’m here.”
Though her words didn’t seem to reach him in his nightmare, she hesitantly took his hand. His large, hot hand eagerly grasped hers, as if clinging to her was his only connection to the world.
“…….”
As she comforted him, his face gradually relaxed from fear, and his breathing slowed until he fell into a peaceful sleep. Holding his hand, Eunseo too dozed off, leaning against the wall.
…Upon waking in the morning, Seungju was gone, and only the neatly folded blanket remained where he had been.
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
