With red, swollen eyes, Seung Joo glanced around cautiously.

“Now that I know my mother has passed away, can I still stay at your house, elder sister?”

“Of course.”

Even though they hadn’t lived together for long, Eun Seo had already become unable to imagine a home without Seung Joo.

“It’s all an investment for the future. So when your memory returns, you’d better treat me really well, okay?”

Eun Seo even playfully clenched her fist.

“Just you try saying you don’t remember when that time comes. I’ll…”

Seung Joo smiled a little.

“Don’t worry. I have my own plans.”

“What?”

“I’m preparing something. With that, Kwon Seung Joo will never be able to treat you badly, elder sister.”

Seung Joo spoke of his original self as if he were a completely different person. As if such a day would surely come someday.

Hearing those words suddenly made a corner of her heart feel empty. It was as if the Seung Joo before her eyes might truly vanish like smoke someday. As if he would really not recognize me, and we would become strangers again.

Suddenly, Eun Seo wanted to confide. The story she hadn’t told anyone until now, not even Sun Ah.

She wanted to tell it to this Seung Joo, who was beside her now, and no one else.

The train started to move.

“You know, the apple tree in the yard. You said it was mother’s last wish, so you wanted to protect it no matter what.”

Seung Joo, who had been looking out the window, turned his gaze towards Eun Seo.

“Actually, that was a lie.”

“What?”

Seung Joo looked a bit confused.

“It wasn’t because it was mother’s last wish that I wanted to protect it. Actually, it was for my sake.”

Mother firmly believed that when the apple tree bore fruit, Eun Ho would return. But Eun Seo never believed in the words of the shaman from the beginning.

Nevertheless, the reason she wanted to fulfill the last wish was, in fact, not for her mother but for herself.

“I wanted to grant mother’s last wish, and then I wanted to try living my own life.”

It had been 15 years since they lost Eun Ho. Eun Ho had always been the priority in Eun Seo’s life. Thinking of her younger brother, she avoided delicious food, and even when there were people she liked, she had never been on a single date.

While she missed her younger brother terribly, it was also true that she was tired. She had been thinking for several years now, how long must I live like this?

“So I was planning to sort out my feelings after seeing the tree bear fruit. I wanted to think that I had fulfilled mother’s last wish, so I had done enough.”

That’s why she had clung so desperately to Kwon Seung Joo, begging for just one more year. Throwing away all her pride.

“It’s not that I’m giving up. I’ll keep searching. But I also wanted to live like others, meeting men, going on trips, wearing pretty clothes…”

If her deceased mother had heard this, she would have glared with anger, saying how could you be so selfish. But she felt Seung Joo wouldn’t criticize her.

Because Seung Joo was on her side.

“Elder sister, you’ve done enough.”

With eyes still red from crying, Seung Joo took Eun Seo’s side.

“So from now on, do as your heart desires. No one will be able to say anything.”

“Really? It’s not wrong for me to live as I want? It’s not selfish?”

“It’s not.”

Seung Joo said emphatically, and added a moment later.

“There’s no one in the world as kind as you, elder sister.”

She had thought Seung Joo would say something like that, but actually hearing it made her heart feel unbelievably light.

The train began to pick up speed. As she gazed at the night-covered outside, her eyelids soon grew heavy.

She didn’t know why she always felt sleepy when she was next to Seung Joo. Was it because she felt at ease? Though she was clearly the guardian and he was the one being protected, being next to this big, kind boy somehow made her feel like she was the one being protected.

“I’m sleepy.”

“Sleep. I’ll wake you when we arrive.”

As if those words were a signal, Eun Seo soon fell asleep. Watching her head keep dropping down, Seung Joo gently reached out and rested her head on his shoulder.

His heart trembled at the weight settling heavily.

A faint fragrance emanated from the sleeping woman.

His heart was pounding so hard he could barely breathe.

“Go on trips, wear pretty clothes.”

Seung Joo whispered softly to the woman in her dreams.

“…But don’t meet any men.”

Muttering under his breath, he gently pressed his lips to Eun Seo’s hair.

At eighteen, it was his first love.

*

That night, she slept sweetly without any dreams. Neither her mother, who often appeared in dreams to scold her, nor Eun Ho, still looking six years old, crying “Sister, where are you? I’m scared,” appeared.

In her sleep, she heard a strange sound from somewhere. When she opened her eyes, it was already light outside. When Eun Seo got up and went outside, Seung Joo was digging in the yard with a shovel.

“What are you doing?”

Seung Joo straightened his back and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“When I lived with mom, we buried a time capsule in the yard. She said that even though things are tough now, someday this will all pass, and when that time comes, we’ll dig it up and look at it together.”

Shadows quickly fell across Seung Joo’s face.

“I wanted to dig it up together when we found mom, but now…”

Before Seung Joo could become more depressed, Eun Seo quickly put on her slippers and ran out.

“I’m curious too. What did you put in?”

“I remember putting in a drawing of mom that I drew when I was young. I don’t remember well what mom put in.”

Since they buried it around the time they moved into this house, it had been almost 20 years. She was worried about what condition it would be in, but thanks to being wrapped in several layers of plastic, the inside of the tin box was surprisingly intact.

“Ah, this.”

An old report card came out from inside. Seeing that it said national ranking 9th, Eun Seo’s eyes nearly popped out, but Seung Joo humbly said,

“It’s the best test I’ve ever taken.”

“But didn’t you say you were 115th before?”

“You asked about the most recent test score. I did poorly on that test.”

Eun Seo couldn’t close her mouth. He was even more of a monster than she thought.

There was also a small frame the size of a postcard. Below a woman’s smiling face drawn in crayon, it said ‘My Mom’ in neat childish handwriting.

“I drew this when I was in first grade. Mom really liked this drawing.”

There was also a small jewelry box that his mother had put in. Inside was a necklace with a green pendant. As if just remembering, Seung Joo narrowed his eyes with a nostalgic expression.

“This originally belonged to my maternal grandmother, and mom inherited it. I think she put it in because she thought she might sell it if she kept it.”

She didn’t know what kind of jewel it was, but the pendant was small, and it was just a thin gold chain, so it didn’t look very expensive. Yet she put it away for fear of selling it—it was clear how difficult their circumstances must have been at the time.

“It’s pretty.”

She said it without much thought, but suddenly Seung Joo held out the necklace.

“You take it, elder sister.”

“What? Why should I!”

Eun Seo was surprised and quickly waved her hands.

“If your grandmother passed it down to your mother, it must be really precious. You should give it to your girlfriend later, or to your wife when you get married, why give it to me?”

“I don’t have anyone like that now. Think of it as a bribe from my mom asking you to take good care of me, okay?”

“I’ll take good care of you without needing something like that, don’t worry.”

“Think about it. How grateful would mom be to you by now? If mom were alive, she would have wanted to give it to you, don’t you think?”

Seung Joo was insistent. His desperate desire to repay her somehow, even if it was just with this, since he had nothing else, was palpable. When he even brought up his deceased mother, Eun Seo’s heart softened.

“Alright then, I’ll keep it for now. But if you ever find someone you really want to give it to later, don’t hesitate to ask for it back, okay?”

“Okay.”

Seung Joo stretched out both arms and reached behind Eun Seo’s neck. It was to put the necklace on her.

As the large man came close, it looked like he was about to embrace her, and Eun Seo cleared her throat awkwardly.

After putting on the necklace, Seung Joo stepped back and looked at Eun Seo with a smile.

“It’s pretty.”

Feeling somehow awkward, Eun Seo averted her eyes and said,

“Oh, yes, it’s pretty. …The necklace.”

*

Yeon Hwa was receiving a report from her personal secretary.

“You say Seung Joo came with some woman?”

Thinking he might show up at the columbarium where his mother was at some point, she had bribed an employee there.

“Yes. They came late yesterday evening.”

Come to think of it, it was close to the anniversary of his mother’s death. Since they didn’t know the exact date of death, they had set the memorial day as the day of the funeral.

“I see, what kind of woman was she?”

“They said she was a pretty, petite woman. She called the CEO ‘Seung Joo.'”

“She called him by name?”

Yeon Hwa adjusted her posture. For him to take her even to his dead mother, they must not be just ordinary acquaintances.

“Yes. The CEO called her ‘elder sister’ and used polite speech consistently.”

That means she’s quite older then… Yeon Hwa tilted her head. She couldn’t quite picture that boy calling someone ‘elder sister.’

“They couldn’t hear exactly what they were talking about, but apparently the CEO cried a lot, and the woman seemed to be comforting him.”

“He cried? That boy?”

She couldn’t believe it. Who was Kwon Seung Joo? He was the one who didn’t shed a single tear even at his own mother’s funeral.

Yeon Hwa judged that he must certainly have a special relationship with that woman.

“So, just how old is she to be called ‘elder sister’?”

“Well, she looked unmistakably in her twenties. Even being generous, she didn’t look to be in her thirties…”

“What? She looks that young?”

A woman in her mid-thirties at least. Someone who looks ten years younger than her age.

“Find out more.”

Yeon Hwa ordered.