Oppa, I Have One Wish.

“Which bitch is it.”

Sia’s one icy sentence rang through the restaurant, and for an instant the whole place went quiet.

“Sia, let’s step outside and talk for a minute.”

Partly to cool his own head and partly to buy time for Sia’s temper to settle, Minjun took her by the hand and pulled her outside. Thankfully, she let him lead and followed him out obediently.

“So I’m asking which bitch it is, Oppa.”
“The blonde woman who was sitting diagonally across from us.”
“Ah. That bitch.”

Most people would have struggled to remember a face they’d only glimpsed in passing, but she had already memorized every single person inside that restaurant.

“So what did you do.”
“I told her no, obviously. She kept pushing, so I drew a hard line and told her it wasn’t happening.”
“…”

Minjun had given the model answer, but her hardened face showed no sign of softening. She knew perfectly well that other women could be drawn to Minjun too; seeing it happen firsthand was just a shock.

But.

“Sia, are you angry?”
“…”
“Look at me. Sia. Look me in the eyes.”

Minjun gently cupped her face in both hands and made her meet his gaze. Slowly, the face that had looked as unstable as a time bomb only a moment ago flushed red.

However hard she tried to hide it, Minjun could tell she had been quietly anxious all along. They’d been apart for a whole year, and the Sia who came back was no longer an ordinary human like him.

If I’m going to clear away Sia’s anxiety, right now this is the only way.

He couldn’t say it was the best option, but it would at least do. Without warning, Minjun claimed her lips, hard enough to steal her breath.

“…!”

The moment their lips met, her pupils flew wide in surprise. But she didn’t push him away. If anything, as though she’d been waiting for this very moment, she rested her hands softly on his waist.

“Why would I ever let my eye wander to another woman.”

When I have you.

After the deep kiss, Minjun pressed a light one to Sia’s cheek, and before long the life slowly crept back into her eyes.

“I believe you. Of course I do.”

This time she returned the favor and kissed Minjun on the cheek.

With the situation settled, the two of them went back into the shop.

“Are you a little better now?”
“A little.”

The expression that had been cold as a sheet of ice had eased a good deal, and she was unmistakably steadier than she’d been at the start. Still, however much Minjun had smoothed over her mood, that didn’t make her anger at that woman disappear.

“Oppa, could you maybe go to the bathroom for a bit?”

At the out-of-nowhere suggestion, Minjun was about to answer I don’t really need to go, though? when his eyes met hers.

I don’t want to show Oppa anything ugly.

She didn’t go so far as to say it aloud, but Minjun read the intention plainly enough in her eyes.

“Then… I’ll go and come back.”

Minjun rose obediently from his seat, as if to say he understood.

The moment he left the table, Sia turned her glare on the woman who had tried to get Minjun’s number. Without a trace of guilt, the woman was chattering happily away with her friend over her meal, and the sight of that repulsive face set Sia’s anger surging all over again.

Our Minjun-oppa, the one I waited twenty-five hundred years for.
How dare she.
A nobody like that doesn’t know her place and sets her sights on him?

And that pickup line of hers was a real spectacle too — she said it with her own mouth, that it was fine? She knows full well he has a girlfriend and still tries to get his number? Even with her own friend trying to stop her? No, and then asking whether it wouldn’t be fine to just be a girl-friend? Look around. Out of all the women in here, how many see our Oppa’s face and don’t fall for him? And yet none of them say it out loud, do they? Because they know he has a girlfriend. They just think, oh, he’s handsome, and leave it at that. Going for the number of a man they know full well has a girlfriend — nobody entertains vermin thoughts like that. Right?

A bitch like that, who isn’t even human…
is going to need an education.

“You. Come outside for a second.”

Icy-faced, Sia planted herself in front of Hwang Yeonju.

But.

“Why should I?”

Even with Sia’s face right in front of her, the woman only shot back brazenly.

At that brazen attitude, Sia folded her arms and glared at Hwang Yeonju. Unleashing the dragon’s killing intent she had kept suppressed all this time, she spoke again, crisply, one syllable at a time.

With Dragon Fear loaded into it.

“Come. Out.”

After stepping outside for a moment and coming back in, thanks to Sia’s request that wasn’t really a request, I sat quietly staring at the tteokbokki that had just come out and waited for Sia to come back.

When is Sia coming back?

I couldn’t say for sure, but she was probably giving that woman a piece of her mind right about now over what had happened earlier.

Though I’d have done the same in her position.

I hoped she’d stop at a reasonable line, sort out her feelings, and come back soon. Not that I was worried about that woman; it just felt like a good mood was being ruined for nothing.

I was still deep in waiting for Sia when the shop door opened and the woman who’d come for my number earlier staggered back in. Her hair was a wild mess, her face had drained white as if she’d just seen a ghost, and her makeup was smeared all over.

What on earth happened out there.

One look told me she wasn’t in a normal state. She finally sank into her seat on trembling legs, gathered her things in a fumbling hurry, and walked straight out of the shop. Her companion called after her, but the woman didn’t seem to take in a word of it, bent only on getting outside somehow. Left with no choice, the companion hurriedly settled the bill and chased after her.

“…What on earth happened out there.”

I didn’t know exactly what had gone on, but Sia had probably given her a proper education. Whatever happened out there, I’d better leave to the imagination.

If I knew, I might be the one who got hurt.

Sia came back in the meantime.

“Sorry, Oppa. I was gone a long time, wasn’t I?”
“No, it’s fine. Have you calmed down a bit now?”
“Mm-hm, I’m really fine now.”

Her expression was bright now, nothing like before, so I decided to stop thinking about that woman’s business altogether.

“The tteokbokki just came out. Let’s eat it quick, before it goes soggy.”
“Mm-hm. You eat up too, Oppa. It’ll all go cold.”

We were deep in conversation over our tteokbokki when something occurred to me.

“Oh, right, Sia. What’s in that bag?”
“Huh, you didn’t open it, Oppa?”
“Nope. It’s your stuff.”

My answer must have satisfied her, because Sia broke into that fresh smile of hers and held the shopping bag out to me.

“It’s a present for you, Oppa. Here.”

Inside the bag lay a pair of expensive wireless earbuds. As it happened, the ones I’d been using had developed a fault, and I’d been meaning to replace them. But those had also been a present from Sia, so I hadn’t been able to bring myself to swap them out.

“So earlier you didn’t go to the bathroom — you went to buy this.”
“Mm-hm. Originally I was going to surprise you with it, but…”

Sia let the words trail off. If it hadn’t been for that woman, we might have stuck to the plan, traded presents, and spent an even cozier time together. I could feel her regret, so I simply pulled her into a tight hug.

“What does that matter. Thank you, really.”

When I thanked her, Sia smiled with her eyes, looking satisfied.

“What about you, Sia — nothing you’d like to get?”
“No, no. For me the time I’m spending with you right now is the present all by itself, Oppa.”

Sia waved a hand.

“Still, think of just one thing.”
“Hmm.”

She agonized over it at first, and then her eyes began to glitter fiercely.

“It’s not a present, but I do have one small wish.”
“What is it?”
“Role-play. I want to try it just once.”

Role-play, huh. Not quite the answer I’d expected. I had no idea whether Sia had always liked this sort of thing, but it wasn’t difficult, so I decided to go along with it.

“What’s the setup going to be?”
“A close noona and her younger brother¹, the kind who played together in the neighborhood as kids.”

That one caught me off guard too, I suppose.

“So — I call you Noona?”
“Just one day — no. Even half a day is fine. I just want to try it once, so… is that a no?”

Like a little girl who’d spotted a doll she loved at the supermarket, Sia looked up at me, wide-eyed. With a face that earnest, how could I possibly refuse?

“Sure. Trying it once wouldn’t be bad.”
“Really? Then can we do it right now?”

She wanted to try it this badly?

“If you wanted to do something like this you should have said so ages ago. It’s not even hard.”
“Thank you, Oppa!”

The instant I said yes, the look in Sia’s eyes changed, from those of an innocent college freshman to those of a mature woman who fit the title of Noona perfectly.

“Minjun.”
“Whoa, you startled me.”

Hearing Sia talk to me in casual speech for the first time raised goosebumps all over my body. Still, I’d have to play along.

“Yes, Noona.”

Sia had dutifully called me Oppa since before we ever started dating, so calling her Noona felt more than a little strange. At that one word, Noona, the corners of her eyes lifted as high as they’d go, as though she’d wanted to be called that all along.

“Want to go eat some ramyeon with Noona?²”

For that moment at least, Sia really did seem like a ‘Noona’.

A wolf of a Noona, out to devour her younger man.

It was predawn and Sia was fast asleep. I’d woken in the middle of the night, so I came up to the roof for some air.

“Oof.”

She’d said she wanted to be called Noona for exactly half a day, so for exactly that long I’d played the younger one and called her Sia-noona. Maybe because she’d thrown herself so completely into the role-play, Sia treated me like a boyfriend years her junior.

Was Sia always this much of an adult?

I’d thought I knew a great deal about Sia, and this taught me that I didn’t. And if anyone asked whether I disliked it…

If anything, all the better.

I found myself thinking an event like this now and then was a good thing. I still couldn’t forget those bewitching eyes of hers, the exact opposite of her usual innocent image.

As I stood in the cool breeze, lost in thought, drowsiness crept back over me by degrees, so I decided to head slowly back to the home where Sia was waiting.

But then.

“Ngh.”

All of a sudden, a stabbing pain I’d never once felt in my life shot through my chest.