When Eun Seo returned home exhausted, Seung Joo had not yet come back.

‘Wasn’t today supposed to be his last day of part-time work? Is he out having dinner?’

Thinking this, Eun Seo chuckled. Ah, he must have gone to buy a game console with his pay.

Sitting on the porch waiting for Seung Joo to return, Eun Seo let out a long sigh. Due to the suddenly colder weather, her breath spread white in the night sky.

‘Why did it have to be me…’

In truth, Eun Seo knew the reason. How long would Kwon Seung Hyun remain a regular employee? There were rumors he would immediately become a manager leading a team during the year-end personnel changes.

With November almost over, it was at most a month away. Feeling burdened about how to treat him for that one month, they pawned him off on the lowest-ranked Eun Seo under the guise of basic training.

Actually working together, Kwon Seung Hyun didn’t seem like such a bad person. Three years younger than Seung Joo, he must be 30, which made him three years older than Eun Seo. Yet he always addressed her as “senior” and used formal speech. He was friendly and sociable, completely different from her cold brother.

He even brought her coffee, nearly making her choke while drinking.

‘If he finds out I’m hiding his brother…’

Just imagining it sent chills down her spine, making it hard to focus on work. Unable to even tell Seung Joo, her exhaustion built up day by day.

For his part, Seung Joo had started to feel increasingly awkward lately. The boy who had always been careful not to make Eun Seo uncomfortable suddenly started casually taking off his clothes.

That body she had seen just once, for a brief moment, kept coming to mind, nearly killing Eun Seo. For the past few days, she’d been too embarrassed to look Seung Joo in the face, averting her gaze. Strangely, Seung Joo was the opposite. Whenever he had the chance, he would stare blankly at Eun Seo’s face like someone in a daze. So much that she could feel his gaze.

‘What in the world is wrong with him?’

As she sat on the porch lost in these thoughts, the front gate opened and Seung Joo entered.

“I’m home.”

As expected, he was carrying a large shopping bag. Eun Seo sighed as if to say he was hopeless.

“Is that it? You should only play games a little and study, you know.”

She thought he would go straight up to the porch to set it up, but Seung Joo approached Eun Seo and put down the shopping bag. What came out of the bag was not a game console box, but a snow-white coat.

The very coat that Eun Seo had wanted.

“Try it on, elder sister.”

Stunned and dazed, Eun Seo only realized after a moment.

“So you’ve been working all this time to buy this…?”

“I promised I’d buy it for you, didn’t I? I wanted to get it for you before the weather got colder.”

Eun Seo was taken aback. She had never received such a big gift in her life.

To buy this one coat, the boy who still found it burdensome to go out alone had worked at a convenience store for 2 weeks. He must have had plenty of things he wanted for himself too.

The coat made of good material looked warm yet light. The feelings contained in the light coat were so big and heavy that she didn’t know how to react. It was the first time in her life that Eun Seo had been treated as someone so precious by another person. She wasn’t even sure if she deserved such treatment.

“…”

As she just stood there blankly, not knowing what to do, Seung Joo personally put the coat on Eun Seo and even buttoned it up for her.

Then he stepped back to look at her and smiled happily.

“It’s really pretty.”

His eyes were looking at Eun Seo’s face, not the coat.

Come to think of it, it was the same when he put the necklace on her last time. Saying it was pretty while actually fixing his gaze on Eun Seo’s face rather than the necklace.

‘Could he…’

An alarm went off in her head. This couldn’t happen.

Eun Seo unbuttoned the coat, took it off, neatly folded it, and put it back in the shopping bag.

“Return it tomorrow.”

“What?”

Seung Joo looked as if he’d been struck by lightning.

“Why? You don’t like it after trying it on? Should I exchange it for something else?”

“I don’t need it, so return it and buy that Playbox thing or whatever.”

After speaking harshly and turning away, a surprised Seung Joo hurriedly blocked her path.

“Elder sister, what’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?”

Seung Joo hadn’t done anything wrong. If there was any fault, it lay with her own heart for making such an absurd sound.

At that moment, Eun Seo’s heart had clearly made a thump sound. A sound that should never be heard in response to Seung Joo.

Eun Seo regretted it now. She shouldn’t have kept him with her from the start.

Saying he was only eighteen, or that he was a different person from that man – she now realized it had all been futile words she’d desperately told herself to deceive herself.

If that were really true, he wouldn’t look at me with those eyes, and my heart wouldn’t make such a crazy sound!

He may have lost his memories, but he was still very much an adult man. She should have anticipated the possibility of things turning out this way. If she had, she wouldn’t have kept him with her in the first place.

The fact that he was mentally eighteen was almost a secondary issue. What if Kwon Seung Joo found out about this after his memories returned?

That man who already looked down on people, how much would he despise me.

Just thinking about it made her cold to her fingertips. Such a thing must never happen, not even if the sky were to fall.

“Elder sister!”

As Seung Joo clung to her desperately, not knowing what to do, Eun Seo shook him off ruthlessly.

“If you do one more useless thing, I’ll get angry.”

*

“Good morning, Senior Yoon!”

He put on his best eye smile and held out the coffee, but she took it without even looking at him.

“Thank you.”

Watching Eun Seo push the coffee to the corner of her desk without even taking a sip after receiving it, Seung Hyun thought to himself that she was quite an unusual woman.

The second son of the group chairman, rumored to be promoted to manager and put in charge of a team in a month.

Everyone was uncomfortable around him. But they still tried to exchange a few more words with him when they had the chance, showing signs of wanting to get closer.

Especially the women, who would secretly glance at him with admiring eyes while pretending not to. This had always been the case throughout his life. Even women who acted prickly at first would fall into his arms as if they’d never behaved that way, if he was just a little nice to them.

But this woman who had become his supervisor, Yoon Eun Seo, was the exception. He could sense her genuine feelings of not wanting to be involved with him and finding him uncomfortable. It was different from having feelings for him but acting cold to hide it. This was just pure dislike.

‘What on earth did I do?’

Seung Hyun was baffled. It seemed like she had an aversion to him from the start, but he had no idea why.

“Senior, if you’re free today, how about dinner together?”

Curious about the reason, he casually suggested a meal, but as expected, she replied without even looking at him.

“I’m sorry. I need to go home early today.”

“Then how about tomorrow?”

“I need to go home early tomorrow too.”

“The day after?”

“I don’t think that day will work either.”

“Why? Is there someone waiting for you at home?”

Eun Seo felt as if her heart had literally dropped to her feet. He probably asked without thinking much of it, but for someone with something to hide, every little thing made her nervous.

“I have a dog, so… I feel bad leaving it alone all day…”

Though it was an excuse, thinking about it, it wasn’t far from the truth. Following her around eagerly, wagging its tail happily whenever it sees her – just like a big dog.

“Tsk, I really wanted to have a meal alone with you, Senior… but the dog is getting in the way.”

Seung Hyun made a disappointed face.

The only fortunate thing was that he didn’t know that dog was none other than his own brother.

*

Returning home from work that day, Eun Seo tried to act as if nothing had happened yesterday, treating Seung Joo normally. Thankfully, Seung Joo didn’t say anything about yesterday either, so she inwardly sighed in relief, thinking it might just pass like this.

In the evening, while going through Seung Joo’s pockets to do laundry, she found a small box. Wondering what it was, she opened it to find a tie pin.

“What’s this?”

Seung Joo hesitated a bit before answering.

“Ah… Na Eun gave it to me as a farewell gift, saying I worked hard.”

She must have chosen something that could be used at work later too. It suddenly made Eun Seo realize that Na Eun was more thoughtful than she seemed.

“Na Eun’s a good kid. Thoughtful too.”

“I think so.”

“Even knowing who you are, she didn’t tell anyone.”

“Yeah.”

Though his replies seemed lifeless, Eun Seo was desperate.

“Seeing how she even got you a gift, she seems interested. Why don’t you try things out with Na Eun?”

Seung Joo looked frustrated.

“I told you, it would be a crime if I got together with her.”

“She won’t be eighteen forever. You could wait and meet her after she graduates.”

Eun Seo repeated what Na Eun had said before.

Anyway, Na Eun was currently a high school student. So even if Seung Joo had feelings for Na Eun, it would be right to stop him. But now, she wanted to avoid it even if it meant turning his interest towards Na Eun. She couldn’t help being cowardly.

“I really have no interest in Na Eun.”

After hesitating a little, Seung Joo put on a determined face.

“The only one I’m interested in is you, elder sister.”

With a feeling like her heart had stopped, Eun Seo sensed it. The moment she had desperately wanted to avoid was right in front of her.

Eun Seo hurriedly gathered an armful of laundry and stood up.

“It’s already this late. I should quickly start the washing machine.”

“No, listen to me until the end.”

Before Eun Seo could run away, a confession flowed from Seung Joo’s lips.

“I like you, elder sister.”