UR | Chapter 9

When Yujin, having washed away the traces of their affair, went to the bedroom, Jihoon, who had finished showering first, was already asleep.

Yujin, staring blankly at him, found it hard to believe that this was the same man who had been as wild as a beast just moments ago. She quietly left the bedroom. It seemed more convenient to sleep at home if she had to go to work in the morning.

But just as she was about to quietly turn off the lamp, Jihoon grabbed her wrist.

“Where are you going?”

“I have to go to work tomorrow. I’ll head home.”

Jihoon blinked blankly for a moment, then got up. Rubbing his eyes with one hand and putting on his glasses, he said, “I’ll give you a ride. It’s late.”

Surprised by his unexpected kindness, Yujin declined. “It’s fine. I can just call a taxi.”

It was then that Jihoon, as if he hadn’t heard anything, was about to grab his car keys.

His phone rang.

– Oppa, you’re not asleep, right?

The bedroom was too quiet, and the caller’s voice was too loud. So Yujin couldn’t help but overhear the conversation.

– I guess I’m excited to be back in Korea. I ended up drinking a bit too much.

“How much did you drink? Your words are slurring.”

– Oh my, really? Well, people keep offering drinks everywhere. But it’s a problem. I keep feeling sleepy. How do I get to the hotel?

The woman’s voice seemed familiar, and Yujin thought it might be the woman she saw earlier in the day. The only daughter of M&O’s President Seo Hoonjae, and the woman who made Jihoon smile. Her name was probably Seo Doyeon. She’s also an executive director at M&O.

Recalling the information she had heard from the staff, Yujin left the bedroom. Before closing the door, Jihoon’s words painfully echoed in her ears.

“Wait, oppa will come.”

With that, Jihoon’s immediate task was set.

Yujin quickly left his house and caught a taxi. Then she called Yoosung.

“Yoosung, noona just finished work and got in a taxi. I’ll text you the car number. I’ll arrive in about 20 minutes, can you wait in front of the house?”

Though he answered with a sleepy voice, Yoosung said he’d wait and told her to be careful.

Yujin rarely took taxis. Even if she had to transfer several times, she insisted on buses or subways. But at this late hour, there was no other choice. Feeling sorry for waking her brother, she thought she should give him some pocket money tomorrow.

When she met eyes with the taxi driver, who looked at her through the rearview mirror as if wondering why she was making a fuss, Yujin turned her gaze to the window.

Staring blankly at the competing neon signs, she sighed.

Her encounters with Jihoon were always like this. No matter how long they spent together, they never had any meaningful conversations.

That didn’t mean she had nothing to say to him.

Today, she was curious about this person named Seo Doyeon. She wanted to subtly gauge Jihoon’s feelings by asking if he had a special relationship with the woman she saw earlier.

But as always, Yujin couldn’t say anything and just shared her body with Jihoon. And on her way home alone, she struggled to calm her bitter heart.

That didn’t mean she could call Han Jihoon bad.

After all, this was a consensual arrangement, and Jihoon paid more than what Yujin wanted.

Even so, every time she parted ways with Jihoon, it felt like a huge hole had formed in the middle of her chest. It was empty and difficult.

Knowing that this was ultimately her problem, she tried to be cool about it, but there was no sign of getting better.

“Sigh.”

As she took in the neon signs that seemed more dazzling than usual today, Yujin recalled the day she first shared her body with Han Jihoon.

❀❀❀

A conference at a hotel in Macau had just ended, and as they were moving to the location of the after- party, a text came from Yoosung.

[Noona, can we talk for a bit?]

Since Jihoon seemed to have already moved to the party venue, Yujin excused herself from the people she was with and went to find a quiet place.

Her shoes were so uncomfortable that she was already thinking it would be nice to sit somewhere. Just then, she saw a door leading to a terrace, so Yujin went there, took advantage of the empty space, sat on a chair, and took off her shoes.

Then she called Yoosung.

“Noona.”

Yoosung, who seemed to have been waiting, answered the call and repeatedly called her noona.

“Noona, you know… I know you’re busy with your business trip…”

For some reason, Yoosung’s voice didn’t sound right, so Yujin adjusted her grip on her phone and spoke calmly.

“Tell me, Yoosung. What’s going on? Are you sick?”

Even though she asked kindly, Yoosung remained silent. He kept hesitating as if he was about to bring up a rather difficult topic, calling her noona again.

“Did you do something wrong? It’s okay. Noona won’t scold you, so just tell me.”

While gently urging him, Yujin thought that Yoosung was probably scared over something trivial. Among the people Yujin knew, Yoosung was the kindest. Such a brother wouldn’t cause trouble.

But the brother who had grown up straight without ever worrying his noona surprised Yujin.

“No matter how much I think about it, this doesn’t seem right.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Yujin’s heart sank.

Under the dark night sky, the lights of the Macau hotels twinkled and blurred.

Yoosung was already crying. For a kid who was usually strong and not prone to tears to be like this, something big must have happened.

Yoosung, who had made Yujin anxious, finally couldn’t hold it in any longer and cried out loudly.

“Noona, I… actually got into college.”

“What?”

Yoosung, who had said just the other day that he didn’t get into any of the colleges he applied to and didn’t even make it as a candidate, brought unexpected news.

In a daze, Yujin spoke calmly.

“Congratulations, Yoosung. Did you get in as a reserve candidate?”

While speaking, her mind was racing.

She calculated whether the reserve candidate announcements had already started and considered that she would have to look into student loans as soon as she returned to Korea, given their financial situation with no room to spare.

She was relieved that she had congratulated him first. Knowing that her brother was probably worried about money, she couldn’t bring up that issue as his noona, could she?

Determined to handle it all on her own, Yujin praised her brother once more.

“You really worked hard. Which college did you get into?”

She thought she could ask about the tuition payment schedule once she returned to Korea, just as she was thinking that.

“Noona, actually, I got into all of them from the start.”

Yoosung confessed.

Before she could ask why he lied, Yoosung almost cried out as he poured out everything that had happened.

“We don’t have money, right? I didn’t want to worry you, so I was just going to give up. But no matter how much I thought about it, it was too regrettable. I even looked into whether I could get my part- time pay in advance, thought about borrowing from friends, and checked all the scholarship options, but it didn’t work. I thought I could just work hard at construction sites, but it’s been snowing constantly lately…”

It was only natural that it didn’t work out.

Even if he had just turned twenty, who would lend such a large sum to a kid who hadn’t even graduated high school yet? No matter how hard Yoosung worked, earning enough for private university tuition wouldn’t have been easy.

It was a mistake to think that her brother, who worked part- time from dawn till night as soon as the college entrance exam ended, was so diligent and mature. It was only natural that Yoosung, like other kids his age, had a naive and innocent side, but trusting him completely had backfired.

“So I was just going to give up. I decided to work for a few months and take the college entrance exam again, or maybe go to the military first, but when the last day to pay the tuition came…”

Yoosung couldn’t finish his sentence and sobbed.

“…….”

Tears welled up in Yujin’s eyes too.

She wished she had paid more attention.

Knowing that Yoosung wasn’t good at lying, he must have spoken clumsily and obviously, and she should have suspected something.

Her heart ached so much.

But now that things had come to this, she had to play her role as a noona, even if it was late.

“Yoosung, let’s talk slowly. You have to pay the tuition by tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

“I see.”

She was set to return to Korea the day after tomorrow, but she was at a loss about how to come up with such a large sum by tomorrow.

“Can’t you use a card?”

She asked just in case, but it seemed Yoosung had already considered that option.

“They said I can’t use a card, noona.”

It was like adding fuel to the fire; her question, in an attempt to find another way, only made Yoosung more anxious.

“Noona, I’m sorry. I should have just given up. I shouldn’t have told you. But I was so desperate…”

Yujin pressed her hand against her chest, trying to calm her pounding heart.

In doing so, she felt the distinct sensation of the necklace under her hand.

If she had been in Korea, she might have sold the necklace to solve the problem.

Even if she got only half of its original price, it would have been enough to pay the tuition.

But being here, there was nothing she could do at the moment.

If only he had told her a bit earlier, she could have looked into getting more loans, but Yoosung’s decision to be overly considerate of Yujin had backfired.

Who would have thought her kind brother would cause such a big issue?

Still, Yujin decided not to let go of hope. She planned to call her friends, and if that didn’t work, she would ask her colleagues for help.

It wasn’t the time to be proud when she couldn’t even properly take care of her own brother.

“Yoosung, don’t worry. Noona has money. It’s late now, so I’ll send it in the morning.”

“Noona, you don’t have to lie.”

“I’m not lying. Noona had already prepared to pay your tuition if you got into college. So don’t worry and get some sleep.”

I’ll do the worrying, Yoosung.

Of course, Yoosung didn’t fully believe Yujin’s words. But knowing that his noona wasn’t someone who would make empty promises, he seemed to hold onto a glimmer of hope.

“Sigh.”

After ending the call, Yujin looked up at the night sky in exhaustion.

What should she do?

Her dad wouldn’t have money, and no friends came to mind who would readily lend such a large sum.

“Kim Yoosung, you should have given me more time.”

As she poured out her belated resentment towards her brother and tried to calm herself down, someone tapped her on the back.

“Ah!”

Startled to the point of trembling, Yujin was about to get up.

“Assistant Manager Kim Yujin.”

A familiar voice came from the darkness.