Chapter 11

“The Chief told me to commute out here and assist you, Managing Director. And to come in to the Seoul office now and then.”

“So. What you’re saying is. You’re here nine to six, and once the day’s done you go home? You dump me out here and go back to your cozy ivory sofa? And on top of that, if there’s work in Seoul, you’re off there too?”

“The commute will be a bit of a grind, but there’s nothing to be done about it. I can rest on the weekends.”

“And on the weekends I’m supposed to sit out here by myself?”

“Yes.”

Hah. Sa-heon let out a breath of pure disbelief.

“So I’m just part of my honey’s job, is that it?”

“I… suppose so?”

She said it with such an artless face, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, that he very nearly lost his temper. Instead Sa-heon swept a hand back through his hair and made himself smile.

“Then my honey has to live out here too.”

“Me?”

Ji-an started in alarm and took a step back, and Sa-heon closed the distance again with a step of his own.

“You said this was your own unnie’s house. You said it was livable. You said it was cozy,” Sa-heon said.

“Didn’t you?” The corner of Sa-heon’s mouth curved crookedly as he asked. Ji-an was lost for words, and her eyes darted this way and that.

“I-it’s just…”

Just then, tires screeched as a car braked hard somewhere below. Ji-an slipped past Sa-heon, scurried to the edge of the roof and looked down.

“Eek, I think my unnie’s here! Managing Director, just so you know, you absolutely cannot say ‘honey’ in front of her!”

She hauled the rooftop door open and hurried down the stairs. Hee-jin, her face flushed red, was already stomping up the outside staircase that led to the roof.

“Unnie! Isn’t today your day off? Why are you back so early?”

Ji-an caught hastily at her sister’s arm as she came up, and Hee-jin’s eyes flashed up at her, fierce.

“Han Ji-an, are you out of your mind? You can’t just bring people here whenever you like!”

The truth was, what Ji-an had given her unnie was less a request than an announcement. So she took hold of Hee-jin’s hands, let the corners of her eyes droop pitifully, and pleaded.

“Unnie, please understand. He’s someone from work. He quit, and he says he needs somewhere to stay for a little while. He’s got nowhere else to go. He’s honestly in a really bad way.”

“He what?”

Hee-jin’s face screwed up all at once, and Ji-an lowered her voice, putting on a look of deep sympathy.

“A-apparently some coin investments went bad on him. He even lost his whole lease deposit…”

“Are you insane? Even if that’s true, how could you tell a man you don’t know the first thing about to go live in the rooftop room!”

“I know him perfectly well.”

“The rooftop room hasn’t even been cleared out!”

“It’s fine, he’s easygoing.”

“Hey!”

Hee-jin finally lost her patience and let out a fierce shout, and just then:

“Ji-an.”

A low voice came from behind Ji-an’s back, right on cue. I’m done for. Ji-an squeezed her eyes shut.

“Hello.”

Sa-heon had come down the stairs, and he offered the greeting with his eyes on Hee-jin.

Hee-jin had been huffing and puffing, thinking, Let’s get a look at what kind of lowlife this is. But her sharp eyes widened at the sight of a fine-looking man she hadn’t expected in the slightest.

“O-oh my…”

She covered her mouth with one hand and let the words trail off. Sa-heon gave an awkward smile and apologized.

“You’re Ji-an’s older sister, I hear. I’ve been terribly rude. I was about to be on my way anyway—”

“Please, p-please stay as long as you like, and make yourself comfortable…!”

Hee-jin cut him off in a hurry and smiled.

“The rooftop is awfully shabby, isn’t it? I’ll tidy it up for you.”

She even added that, bashfully. Faced with her unnie’s complete about-face, Ji-an could only laugh awkwardly, “Haha.”

“Auntie!”

A booming shout came up from below.

Thump-thump-thump-thump. A boy in a taekwondo uniform, a red belt around his waist, came up the outside stairs two at a time and threw himself against Ji-an’s hip.

“Dong-yun! Did you miss your auntie?”

Ji-an stroked the boy’s head.

“Yeah! Auntie, are you gonna live with us now?”

“No, Auntie’s going back to her own place…”

He didn’t hear her out. He’d caught sight of Sa-heon, and he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“It’s a celebrity!”

“Dong-yun! You mustn’t say things like that. And this gentleman isn’t a celebrity, he’s someone Auntie knows…”

“Is he your boyfriend, Auntie?”

“No! He’s not my boyfriend, he’s Auntie’s friend.”

“Hello! I am! Yang Dong-yun, eight years old!”

The child put his two hands politely together, bowed deep from the waist and straightened back up. What on earth kind of situation was this? Sa-heon let out a snort of laughter.

“Hi.”

“Ahjussi! Want me to show you my poomsae?¹”

“D-Dong-yun! Not Ahjussi. You’re supposed to call him Uncle.”

The boy paid her no mind whatsoever. He abruptly set his stance, planted his legs wide on the landing between the first and second floors, and drew a deep breath.

“Taegeuk Yuk Jang, begin!”

He seemed to have forgotten how little room he had, because he threw himself into the poomsae with real passion. He clenched his small fists hard and thrust one out in front of him for the first movement.

“Hyah!”

When he tried a kick in that cramped space he came within a hair of slamming into the railing, yet he recovered his stance with astonishing agility.

In the end he only got through a handful of movements. The stairwell hemmed him in, so he finished by simply letting out a great shout.

“Tae! Kwon!”

Dong-yun struck his final pose and looked at Sa-heon in triumph, his small face full of expectation and hungry for praise.

“I was cool, right? My instructor says I’m good at it! Next year I’m taking my black-belt test!”

“Not bad. Uncle’s a black belt too. Third dan in taekwondo.”

“Really?”

“Wow!” Dong-yun shouted, his eyes shining. He must have taken a liking to this man who’d turned up out of nowhere, because he went so far as to hang off one of Sa-heon’s legs like a monkey.

“Dong-yun!”

Horrified, Hee-jin pried the child off him.

“I’m so sorry. He’s my son. He’s so lively I can’t keep up with him. As you can see, he’s bursting with energy.”

“It’s quite all right.”

Hee-jin took Dong-yun by the hand and started up the stairs, asking as she went.

“I’ll go and tidy the rooftop a little. Have you eaten? Lunchtime’s long past. If you haven’t, shall I bring you something? Do you like bread?”

“No, Unnie. We’ll sort out our own food.”

Ji-an cut in hurriedly, and Hee-jin smiled at her through clenched teeth and whispered.

“You and I need to talk first.”

Through the gap in the door of Hee-jin’s bedroom, Ji-an watched the scene in the living room, unable to keep still.

“Sorry, what was your name again?”

“Lee Sa-heon.”

“I’m Han Hee-jin, Ji-an’s older sister. As you can see, we live on the second floor, and I run a bakery downstairs on the first. I made this myself, so please help yourself.”

“Thank you.”

Hee-jin cut large slices from a nicely baked pound cake and set one down in front of Sa-heon and one in front of Dong-yun.

Sweet as pie, she poured milk for Dong-yun and coffee for Sa-heon, and then she glanced toward the bedroom.

Eep. Their eyes met, and Ji-an quickly pulled the door shut.

Before long Hee-jin came into the room with the smile wiped clean off her face and closed the door behind her.

“What’s going on with you? Tell me the truth.”

There were five years between them, hardly a gap at all. Even so, Hee-jin had played the guardian ever since they were little, and maybe that was why Ji-an, whenever her sister pressed, helplessly spilled the truth.

“It’s true. He’s got nowhere to go…”

Ji-an dropped her eyes and mumbled, careful not to let out what had really happened. Hee-jin set a hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes.

“You’re sure there’s nothing at all going on between you two?”

“I’m telling you, there’s really nothing between us.”

“Sounds like a lie to me.”

“It’s true.”

“Then why not make something of it, while you’ve got the chance?”

Hee-jin plopped down on the edge of the bed, kneading her shoulder, and laughed. Ji-an had been standing there with her head bowed like a guilty schoolgirl, and it came up with a snap.

“What?”

“He’s good-looking, isn’t he?”

“Oh, honestly…”

The mood had softened, and Ji-an finally managed a small smile. Luckily, Hee-jin didn’t seem to mean to throw him out. Ji-an watched for her chance, then sidled over and sat down beside her.

“How long is he staying?”

“Um, at least a month… or so?”

There was no telling when his memory would come back, but even just to work out a plan for what came next, she and Sa-heon would need about that long.

“And his things? It looked to me like he came empty-handed.”

“I left them somewhere else for now, in case you said no. If it’s all right, I’ll have them brought over.”

“All right.”

Thank goodness. The permission had come so readily that Ji-an let out a breath of relief. Hee-jin patted the rumpled blanket smooth, then asked her a question.

“So he worked at Hyeongang too?”

“Mm-hm. I suppose so…”

“And he didn’t know my husband?”

“No, he and my brother-in-law didn’t know each other.”

“I see.”

Hee-jin nodded with a bitter look, and in an instant the air in the room grew heavy.

The feeling seemed to well up in her all at once, and she buried her face in her palms. Without a word, Ji-an quietly rubbed her unnie’s back.

“It’s almost my brother-in-law’s death anniversary.”

“Yeah. A whole year already. Time really does fly.”

Ji-an’s gaze landed on the picture frame standing on the dresser. In the photo her unnie, Dong-yun and her brother-in-law were holding hands affectionately, all of them beaming.

Ji-an’s brother-in-law, Tae-jun, had been a Senior Researcher at the AI Control Research Institute of Hyeongang Tech, the affiliate headed by Sa-heon’s second-eldest brother, Lee Jae-seong.

Her unnie had worked at a bakery across the street from Hyeongang Tech, and that was where they met. They were each other’s first love. They jumped the gun and had Dong-yun, and the three of them made a warm, happy home.

It was such a harmonious home that just seeing her unnie happy made Ji-an happy too.

Until a year ago, when her brother-in-law ended his own life.