The Intruder

At that natural command, Yoon Dae-eon forgot to keep pounding on the chest and froze for a moment. It was genuinely embarrassing, but he was slightly intimidated. He was feeling the raw, visceral sensation of a rabbit held in a lion’s embrace.

Fortunately, just as Yoon Dae-eon kept his promise to “stay still,” Seon Ji-ha kept his end of the bargain as well. He soon loosened the suffocating grip of his arms. However, he didn’t let go entirely; instead, he lowered his head toward Yoon Dae-eon, who was still tucked against his chest.

Their eyes met at a very close distance.

“……Good morning, Dae-eon.”

His voice, even lower than its usual register, was laced with a hint of a smile. He treated Yoon Dae-eon as if he were a small, delicate creature. Seon Ji-ha’s visible eyes curved into crescents.

In that moment, Yoon Dae-eon felt a strange, unfamiliar fluttering in his heart. Was this the feeling of a prey animal caught before its predator?

“Senior, let go of me for a second…….”

“Ah, I’m sorry…….”

Seon Ji-ha finally seemed fully awake. He released him obediently. Yoon Dae-eon practically tumbled out of the embrace and sat on the edge of the bed. “Scrambled away” would have been the perfect description of his state.

Sitting there, Yoon Dae-eon brushed his hair back roughly. Then, he stole a glance to his side.

In this vast Eastern King-sized bed, Yoon Dae-eon and Seon Ji-ha were precariously close to the far-left edge. The opposite side of the bed was so empty it looked untouched. It was crystal clear how far Seon Ji-ha had cornered Yoon Dae-eon during the night.

“……Senior, I’ll go start some ramen for breakfast.”

Leaving Seon Ji-ha, who had yet to emerge from under the covers, Yoon Dae-eon quickly fled the bedroom. Waking up in someone’s arms first thing in the morning felt bizarre. He took one last peek before leaving; Seon Ji-ha was still wriggling around under the blankets.

Yoon Dae-eon let out a long breath and rummaged through the kitchen. Fortunately, among the items they had bought at the mart last night, there was ramen. The bags the security guards had brought up were still sitting in the corner of the kitchen exactly where they had been left.

He filled a pot with tap water after searching around for one, and just as he was tearing open four packs of ramen, a strange sound drifted over.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Wait, that’s the sound of a passcode being entered? The thought flashed through Yoon Dae-eon’s mind just as the front door swung wide open.

“Seon Ji-ha, you son of a—!”

His eyes met the newcomer’s. It was a woman. She, too, stared blankly at Yoon Dae-eon. Or more accurately, at Yoon Dae-eon holding a packet of ramen flakes, wearing nothing but Seon Ji-ha’s oversized T-shirt over his briefs.

Before Yoon Dae-eon could even let out a scream, thud-thud-thud-thud, heavy footsteps thundered from somewhere. Before he could even turn toward the noise—poof.

His vision swayed, and suddenly everything went black. Seon Ji-ha’s signature laundry scent enveloped him completely. And then, a voice hissed in his ear.

“F*ck…….”

Muttering a curse in a voice Yoon Dae-eon didn’t recognize, Seon Ji-ha scooped him up.

Startled by his body suddenly becoming weightless with his vision obscured, Yoon Dae-eon instinctively reached out and grabbed onto something hard. It took him a few seconds to realize it was Seon Ji-ha’s chest.

It was only after several tens of seconds that Yoon Dae-eon realized how the situation had progressed. Seon Ji-ha had appeared out of nowhere, grabbed the bedroom duvet, wrapped Yoon Dae-eon in it, and hauled him up in one go.

Yoon Dae-eon squirmed inside the blanket, trying to at least poke his face out. But Seon Ji-ha blocked every movement and hugged him tight. Then, he whispered low over Yoon Dae-eon’s head.

“Just a moment. Stay like this.”

“Sen—Senior. I can’t breathe! I……!”

“Yes, I’m sorry”

He said he was sorry, but his tone didn’t contain even a fingernail’s worth of remorse. Seon Ji-ha didn’t remove the blanket covering Yoon Dae-eon’s head until they were back in the bedroom. Yoon Dae-eon thanked his stars he was a non-smoker; at least he could hold his breath for a decent amount of time.

Eventually, the blanket was pulled back, and Yoon Dae-eon realized where he had landed. It was Seon Ji-ha’s bedroom, where he had spent the night. He was right back where he started.

The entire ordeal had taken roughly a minute.

“……Wait here…….”

Seon Ji-ha spoke curtly while looking into Yoon Dae-eon’s eyes, then turned and left the room. Before the bedroom door clicked shut, the woman’s interrupted voice could be heard.

“Let’s get you to a hospital. You crazy son of a—”

Slam! The door shut, cutting off the noise. Sitting dazed on the bed, buried in the duvet, Yoon Dae-eon finally started to use his brain.

He recalled the face of the woman who had entered the house. Thinking back, she looked exactly like the face of Seon Ji-ha he had seen this morning. If you made a female version of Seon Ji-ha, that was exactly what she would look like.

It was just that Seon Ji-ha usually walked around with his eyes downcast and shaggy bangs covering his face, giving him a different image than the woman who had her forehead clearly exposed. If Yoon Dae-eon hadn’t seen Seon Ji-ha with his bangs pushed back this morning, he wouldn’t have recognized the resemblance so quickly.

‘Are they siblings?’

Driven by curiosity, Yoon Dae-eon crept toward the door and pressed his ear against it. The voices were coming through in muffled patches.

“Since dawn…… Assistant Park…….”

“…….”

“You bastard!”

Seon Ji-ha’s voice was so low it was impossible to hear. Instead, the woman’s “You bastard!” came through loud and clear. It was enough to make the startled Yoon Dae-eon jerk away from the door.

Still, the conversation continued soon after.

“Who is it?”

“…….”

“Are you insane?”

Realizing the situation outside was clearly about him, Yoon Dae-eon hesitated. Should he go out? Then he looked at his current state. If he went out like this, he’d look like nothing but a pervert. Just as he sighed and headed back toward the bed—

Click. The door opened, and Seon Ji-ha appeared. In his hands were Yoon Dae-eon’s clothes.

“Dae-eon…… put your clothes on.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Yoon Dae-eon accepted the clothes as if he’d been waiting for them. The door closed immediately after. Alone in the bedroom, he hurried to shove his legs into his pants.

But for some reason, something felt off.

“……Were these clothes always like this?”

Seriously, it made no sense, and it seemed impossible, but his clothes felt foreign.

Though he hadn’t bought them that long ago, they weren’t exactly brand-new either, yet Yoon Dae-eon’s clothes were sparkling as if they’d just come off the rack. He even checked the tags, wondering if they’d been swapped, but he just tilted his head in confusion.

“The size is definitely mine…….”

Unable to shake the unsettling feeling, he put the rest on anyway. The gray pants and the coral-colored sweatshirt were definitely the same design as his, but they all felt brand new. There was no smell, either.

‘Ah, did the Senior wash them?’

Thinking that made it strangely plausible. In a house this nice, he obviously had high-end washers and dryers—or maybe he used one of those clothing care systems that Yoon Dae-eon had never used. Do clothes really turn back into new ones if they go through one of those?

Yoon Dae-eon, who only knew about such appliances through commercials, reached that conclusion. Finally fully dressed, he opened the bedroom door and stepped out.

There stood Seon Ji-ha, and beside him, the woman who looked exactly like him. The only difference was the woman’s expression, which featured bared teeth.

“Hello. I’m Senior Ji-ha’s school junior“

“……A junior?”

“Yes. Korea University.“

The woman looked at Yoon Dae-eon, who had just emerged from the bedroom, then looked back at Seon Ji-ha. Seon Ji-ha silently shifted his body to block Yoon Dae-eon from her view. It seemed like a deliberate move to cut off her line of sight.

Seeing this, the woman tilted her lips into a crooked smirk.

“You crazy bastard.”

“…….”

“You really need to go to a psychiatric hospital.”

“…….”

No matter how you looked at it, they were clearly blood-related, but the words coming out of her mouth were cold. Yoon Dae-eon stared at her with wide eyes.

The woman seemed to notice Yoon Dae-eon’s gaze and softened her expression. It was still a bit chilly, but it was a different face than the one she showed Seon Ji-ha.

“Nice to meet you. For now, I’m Seon Yeon-jeong, Seon Ji-ha’s older sister.”

“Ah, you were his sister…….”

“Could you just remember me as Seon Yeon-jeong? I don’t particularly want to be that guy’s sister.”

Yoon Dae-eon, who had no siblings, blinked and tried to read the room. He wondered if this was how all siblings fought. He’d often heard stories from friends about fighting with their older brothers or sisters like cats and dogs.

As Seon Yeon-jeong and Yoon Dae-eon exchanged words, Seon Ji-ha moved another step. Now, Yoon Dae-eon couldn’t even see a single strand of Seon Yeon-jeong’s hair.

“What…… Ha, forget it.”

Watching this display, Seon Yeon-jeong swallowed what she was going to say and turned around. To avoid seeing Seon Ji-ha like this, she had to get the hell out. Seon Ji-ha watched his sister with an expressionless face.

Seon Yeon-jeong had boldly entered the house without taking off her shoes, so she had no reason to stop at the entryway. Right before she opened the door to leave, she suddenly spoke.

“You, don’t you dare get caught by Brother.”

“…….”

“That time, it’s really straight to the island.”

An island? Confusion bubbled up in Yoon Dae-eon’s mind. Then, Seon Ji-ha, who had maintained his silence until now, finally uttered a single sentence.

“Just don’t touch him.”

Yoon Dae-eon froze, wondering if that firm command really came from Seon Ji-ha’s mouth. But before he could fully process it, Seon Ji-ha spoke again.

“Tell the Brother that, too.”

“……What?”

“I showed you so that you’d do exactly that.”

His voice was low yet crystal clear. It was calm, but there seemed to be a faint growl beneath the surface.

Yoon Dae-eon, seeing Seon Ji-ha speak with such precise pronunciation and a warning tone for the first time, widened his eyes. But Seon Yeon-jeong seemed to be in the same boat. She stared at him with a face no different from Yoon Dae-eon’s.

She left the house with a shell-shocked expression. Slam, click. Silence settled over the house.

But before he could even get used to that silence, Seon Ji-ha turned around. He looked down at Yoon Dae-eon, who was wearing his brand-new-feeling sweatshirt and pants, and spoke through his long bangs.

“Ramen…… do you still want to eat it……?”

As if the warning he had just issued was a mere mirage.