Chapter 117
* * *
When she entered the house, Nuri spotted Ji Hyori moving luggage out of the room.
“You’re home early?”
“What? Where are you going?”
Ji Nuri raised a question mark as she looked at the suitcase on the floor.
“I’m going home now too.”
“Oh.”
Ji Nuri raised her voice.
So she was finally going home.
They had been brutally long days. Hyori had made her do so many things.
Nuri inwardly cheered as she recalled all the errands she had run.
“When are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Mm-hmm.”
It was an even more satisfying answer.
Nuri happily started toward her room, then—
stopped.
She felt like she should tell Hyori what had happened. Part of her also hoped she might get some more advice.
“You know...”
“?”
Nuri added briefly,
“What you said was right, sis.”
“What was?”
“You know, what you said last time. About my friend.”
At those words, Hyori’s movements as she moved the luggage slowed.
“......Really?”
Hyori’s features became round as the moon.
Why was she surprised?
Nuri gave her a slightly sullen look.
“......You were the one who told me that.”
Why was she surprised after saying it herself?
“No, I just had a feeling... Who knew it would really be true?”
“......Hmm.”
Well, fair enough.
Even Nuri hadn’t been able to believe it until she confirmed it herself.
“But I guess he’s quite the guy, huh?”
Hyori let out an incredulous laugh.
She seemed to find it hilarious since it wasn’t her problem. Nuri was the one in turmoil.
“Hmm....”
Reading her expression, Hyori asked in a somewhat calmer tone,
“So, what are you planning to do?”
Though there was a bit of an age gap, Hyori seemed determined to help in her own way.
“......What do you mean, what am I going to do?”
Honestly, she didn’t know.
It was still something she was wrestling with.
“Your friends are really pretty. If they confess to him, it’ll be too late, you know?”
That again.
“I told you, I don’t like him.”
“Then why are you worried?”
Nuri flinched at the question.
“......Because it’s the other way around.”
“The other way around?”
Hyori repeated the words, then murmured them to herself.
Finally, she realized what they meant.
“......Really?”
She looked like she couldn’t believe it.
“He likes you?”
Nuri’s shoulders trembled.
Hearing that sentence from someone else’s lips gave her a different feeling.
It was strange. Goosebumps rose along the back of her neck.
“......Yeah.”
Because of that feeling, Nuri took a short pause before answering.
She slowly nodded.
“......Huh?”
Hyori tilted her head slightly. Perhaps she was recalling what Lee Seungho was like; her gaze was fixed on the ceiling.
She still looked unconvinced.
“Hmm....”
Hyori met her eyes, her gaze full of doubt.
It slowly moved downward, falling from her face toward the floor.
It continued downward, then—
stopped around her chest.
“Tsk.”
She clicked her tongue, then nodded.
“It’s not impossible.”
She came to her own conclusion.
“W-what?”
It was an oddly unpleasant look. Nuri frowned and shielded her body with both arms.
“So, what are you planning to do?”
The question hadn’t changed.
No, its nuance had shifted a little.
“If he confesses, will you accept him?”
“......”
The answer wouldn’t come easily.
The expressions of Sol and Ayoung naturally came to mind.
Besides,
she was enjoying the time she spent in the counseling club more than anything.
From an honest standpoint,
all she wished was for time to pass just like this, without anything happening.
* * *
I sat in the living room and checked the social media account I’d made for Lee Sol.
The response had been pretty good.
Even though it hadn’t been open long, it had already passed 1,000 followers,
and the OTT-room photo we’d taken last time seemed to have drawn attention in several ways.
As expected, people’s eyes were drawn to good looks.
[When are you planning to take the next one?]
It was a text sent to Lee Sol.
Since I’d checked it, I sent a reply right away.
[Did you check the challenge video you sent last time?]
[Yeah. I practiced too.]
Faster than I’d expected.
Then there was no reason to delay.
[Let’s shoot it sometime this week when we have time.]
[(Hamster emoticon giving a thumbs-up)]
I set my phone down.
Anyway.
“......Why isn’t she coming out?”
It was time to go work out, but Lee Seungah showed no sign of coming out of her room. She had gone in to change clothes and had been silent ever since.
After waiting as long as I could, I stood up.
I pounded on her door.
“Hey, are you almost done?”
“Not yet.”
Only her faint voice came from the other side.
— “If I keep this up, I can kill about twenty minutes.”
The mini-me’s muttering came from beyond the door.
“......”
Of course.
After hearing that, I let out a deep sigh.
“Hey, don’t drag it out. Even if we go late today, we’ll do everything we need to and then leave.”
I had plenty of time anyway, since I didn’t have a part-time job.
Creak—
Not long afterward, the door slowly opened.
“It’s not like that, okay? Who said I was dragging it out?”
Lee Seungah sent me an unabashedly indignant look.
— “He’s annoyingly quick on the uptake.”
She really didn’t hold back with her older brother.
* * *
“......”
Shin Ayoung stood in front of the gym, looking down at her phone. She was swiping quickly through a romance webtoon.
But she wasn’t really taking anything in.
Even though it was something she normally liked, that was how it was.
She merely scrolled blankly, her mind occupied with another concern.
‘Sol is having a hard time, and now Nuri too....’
Ji Nuri liked Lee Seungho.
It was almost certain.
If not, what else could it be?
Who in the world would cling to someone that much if they didn’t like him?
No, even if she did like him, it was still the same.
‘......Isn’t she embarrassed?’
She looked like an adolescent girl clinging to a man without even realizing what her own body was like.
‘Nuri does have an innocent side, but....’
Still, she couldn’t really be that clueless.
She must have made up her mind.
Ji Nuri had clearly decided on something. There was a visible determination to openly flirt with Lee Seungho.
“......”
Shin Ayoung turned off the screen. Her grip tightened around her phone.
She couldn’t let herself be pushed aside like this.
‘Still....’
Seeing Seungho’s expression when Nuri approached had made her even more certain.
That this was a way to attract his attention.
Being proactive was the way to win him over.
“......”
Shin Ayoung checked her reflection in the phone’s black screen once again.
This was an area in which she was confident.
“Unni.”
Just then, a drained voice reached her.
When she took her eyes off her phone, she saw two people walking side by side in the distance.
“Seungah. You actually showed up today?”
Hadn’t she secretly run away a few days ago?
Lee Seungho, angry when he saw that, had made her work out even harder the next day.
“......Yeah.”
Lee Seungah’s lips poked out in a small pout. She looked as if she’d been dragged there against her will.
At some point, she and Ayoung had started speaking informally with each other.
Ayoung liked it; it felt like a sign that they’d grown close.
“Do you hate working out that much?”
Shin Ayoung gave a small laugh at her expression.
Perhaps because she resembled Seungho in appearance, even her actions looked cute.
Shin Ayoung moved forward with slightly buoyant steps.
......
......How many minutes had passed since they started exercising?
“Huff... huff....”
“Take a break.”
“Huff....”
Lee Seungah nodded frantically, as though she didn’t even have the breath to answer.
Whether she lacked technique or just hadn’t built up her stamina, she looked exhausted every time she exercised.
“......Wait a minute?”
Seeing that, Shin Ayoung moved off to find the restroom.
“Phew—”
In front of the restroom, Ayoung scrubbed her hands vigorously and steeled herself.
If she was going to do it, now was the time, while Seungah was distracted.
It was embarrassing to openly flirt with him in front of his real little sister, after all.
“......All right.”
Let’s give it a try.
When Shin Ayoung returned, Lee Seungho was working out alone.
She slowly walked over behind him.
“I’ll check your form.”
“Sure.”
Since it was something they did normally, Lee Seungho naturally moved the machine.
But Shin Ayoung moved differently from usual.
She moved closer.
Whereas she had always taught him verbally from a distance, now she reached out directly.
“You need to pull your arm in a little more.”
Shin Ayoung gently took hold of his arm.
She pressed her upper body close to him.
Flinch—
His shoulder jerked. She saw it vividly.
As if he couldn’t concentrate, his movements grew more awkward.
Shin Ayoung lifted the corners of her mouth slightly at his reaction.
“What are you doing? You need to focus.”
She needlessly chided him and adjusted his posture.
“Pull a little more. A little more.”
“......”
A strange feeling lingered in her chest.
She felt a swelling sense of satisfaction at having drawn out a change in Lee Seungho.
“Phew....”
Soon, his breathing steadied.
Rather than letting his attention be drawn to what was behind him, he seemed to focus on his exercise.
Hoo—hoo—
The veins on his arm bulged and twitched.
Each movement transmitted the vivid motion of his muscles through the hand touching him.
‘......Oh.’
There was something about this.
It felt strange.
Shin Ayoung’s eyes wandered up to the irrelevant ceiling.
She had started this to embarrass him, but instead found herself becoming the embarrassed one.
“Phew....”
Then the set ended, and Lee Seungho rose awkwardly from his seat.
Then he pointed at the spot where he’d just been sitting.
“Here, sit.”
“Huh?”
Shin Ayoung lifted her head and looked at him questioningly.
“I said sit down. I’ll check yours too.”
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(!Signboard!)
(There’s an illustration if you scroll down!)
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Working Out: Shin Ayoung