Chapter 36: Who Might You Be? (2)
Objectively speaking, Kang Ra-Hyuk was not on the ugly side. Rather, it was the complete opposite. Although he didn’t possess overwhelming beauty like his little sister Kang Ra-Eun, he was fairly attractive in terms of average standards.
Ra-Hyuk had semi-curly hair and a male idol-like slim figure. Since he also wore horn-rimmed glasses, he was close to the style that foreigners called ‘handsome nerd’.
‘It’s not like he’s hard to get along with either.’
Ra-Hyuk had the personality and patience to deal with Ra-Eun’s temper. However, he himself did not seem to have much interest in women, all except for one.
‘He seems to really like Rita, but...’
It was more accurate to say that he liked Rita as a fan, and not romantically.
“What are we gonna do for dinner?” Ra-Eun asked.
The fact that they had a guest aside, Ra-Eun had been planning on teaching her brother, who was lacking in life skills, cooking step by step... the spartan way, of course. However, no matter how rude Ra-Eun was to her brother, she was not rude enough to embarrass him in front of others. Ra-Hyuk had his own pride to protect, after all.
Ra-Hyuk answered lightly, “Let’s just order something.”
There was no meal more simple and high-quality than delivery food. As Ra-Eun was about to agree, the woman, Cha Mi-Ye, said surprisingly, “I’ll cook dinner.”
The siblings fixed their gaze on her.
“You’ll cook dinner?” Ra-Hyuk asked, confirming whether he had misheard or not.
“Yup, I’m a pretty good cook,” Mi-Ye expressed.
“You’re here as a guest, I can’t make you cook.”
“No, it’s fine. That’s the kitchen over there, right? Just wait a few minutes.”
Mi-Ye opened the refrigerator to go through the ingredients. Not even Ra-Eun had expected this turn of events. She thought as she looked at the assertive Mi-Ye...
‘She must really like this guy.’
A woman had to like a man to a certain extent if she was willing to cook for him at his own home. Ra-Eun was sure of it.
***
Mi-Ye had already finished making dinner with the table full of dishes before the siblings’ apprehension of making a guest cook had yet to disappear.
“Dinner’s ready,” Mi-Ye announced.
It had not even been thirty minutes, but the menu was absolutely enormous.
“For the main dish, we have beef brisket soybean paste stew, and I thought there weren’t enough side dishes, so I also made some rolled omelets, stir-fried leeks and seasoned seaweed. Have a taste.”
Gulp!
It was so perfect that one would have to swallow their saliva with how much their mouth was watering. Appearance-wise, it was a pass. How about the taste?
“Thank you for the meal,” Ra-Eun and Ra-Hyuk said as they picked up their chopsticks.
Their pupils widened as soon as they tasted the dishes.
“It’s delicious!”
“This is really good.”
Ra-Hyuk and Ra-Eun briefly expressed their opinions in order. The rolled omelet that they had thought was just egg had been filled with minced carrots, onions and ham. Not only that, but the flavor of the stir-fried leeks was amplified with the appropriate amount of seasoning. They couldn’t help but think that such simple Korean dishes could be this delicious when cooked right.
Mi-Ye looked at the two with a satisfied smile, and especially gave more attention to Ra-Eun.
“What do you think of an unnie who can cook, Ra-Eun?” she asked.
Ra-Eun’s answer was obvious.
“They’re amazing, of course. Since when have you learned to cook?”
“Ever since I was little. Do you know ‘Mi-Seong Restaurant’ near the station?”
“Yes, very well. Isn’t that the place people consider a must-visit restaurant?”
As far as Ra-Eun knew, they were unequivocally first place in sales among the restaurants in the area.
“My dad runs it,” Mi-Ye mentioned proudly.
Ra-Eun and Ra-Hyuk were shocked.
‘It looks like this guy didn’t know either.’
Ra-Eun aside, she was almost certain since Ra-Hyuk was just as surprised as her.
‘Cha Mi-Ye, was it?’
Ra-Eun couldn’t help but smile from imagining what would happen if she became Ra-Hyuk’s girlfriend.
***
On the next day, Ra-Eun heard the front door opening as she was checking stock trading information in her room. Not only that, but she also heard an unfamiliar woman’s voice.
“My, is this your house?”
It was slightly different from Mi-Ye’s voice. As Ra-Eun came out of her room, a woman in extravagant clothing gazed at her in astonishment.
“Hi! Are you Ra-Eun?” she asked.
“Oh... Yes, but who might you be?”
Ra-Hyuk answered in the woman’s stead, “Her name is Hwang Yun-Ji. She’s a friend in the same department as me.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Ra-Eun,” Yun-Ji expressed.
The woman with long hair dyed blonde greeted Ra-Eun. She had a completely different style from Mi-Ye.
“Is she also here because of the report?” Ra-Eun asked.
“Yup, Yun-Ji’s also in the same group as me. Oh right, Mi-Ye also stopped by yesterday.”
Yun-Ji’s eyes narrowed as soon as Ra-Hyuk mentioned Mi-Ye. Ra-Eun had seen such eyes countless times by trade. They were eyes filled with rivalry. Ra-Eun could tell what sort of relationship the three were in from Yun-Ji’s reaction.
‘Is this the love triangle that I’d only heard about?’
Cha Mi-Ye and Hwang Yun-Ji seemed to be fighting a war of nerves against each other for Ra-Hyuk.
Yun-Ji asked Ra-Hyuk with a slightly sharper tone, “What did Mi-Ye come here for yesterday?”
“We worked on the report and had dinner together. She made us some really delicious dishes.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Yun-Ji snorted as if she thought as much and handed Ra-Eun the paper bags that she was holding.
“Do you need any clothes, Ra-Eun?” she asked.
“Clothes?”
“I heard from Ra-Hyuk that you’ve been working in the entertainment industry lately, so I took some clothes out from the store. You can think of them as a gift from me.”
The paper bags were filled with womenswear. The clothes aside, the fact that Yun-Ji said she ‘took some clothes out from the store’ caught her attention.
“Do you own a clothing store?” Ra-Eun asked.
“Yup, my unnie is pretty big in the clothing business. She owns a few stores. Let me know if you need any clothes or shoes, and I’ll get you some nice ones. Free of charge, of course!”
The first was the daughter of a famous restaurant, and now it was the younger sister of a clothing brand chairwoman. Ra-Eun glanced at Ra-Hyuk.
‘This guy’s overflowing with luck in women.’
***
On Monday afternoon, Ra-Eun had come across yet another woman’s shoes laid in front of the door after coming home from school. She had thought that it was either Mi-Ye or Yun-Ji’s, but reality had surpassed her expectations.
“Hi, Ra-Eun! I’m Seo Bo-Yeong, your brother’s friend in the same department!”
A third character had barged herself into the triangle.
Ra-Eun asked the extremely popular Ra-Hyuk for confirmation, “Is it because of the report again?”
“Yup,” he answered.
“And she’s one of your group members?”
“That’s right.”
Ra-Eun was not even surprised since she had already experienced it twice. However, there was one more thing that she did not expect.
“Here’s a gift for you,” Bo-Yeong said.
Like Yun-Ji, she handed Ra-Eun several paper bags. She thought that they were clothes again, but they were a bit too heavy to be bags filled with clothes.
“What are these?” Ra-Eun asked.
“I packed some cosmetics and some moisturizing and nourishing creams. My aunt runs a beauty store. Skin is everything for a woman, after all, so I specially brought them for you as a gift.”
Cha Mi-Ye, Hwang Yun-Ji, and Seo Bo-Yeong were doing their absolute best to score some points with Ra-Eun. Thanks to this, Ra-Eun was raking in an unexpectedly enormous amount of profit without even lifting a finger. However, at this point, she started to worry about her older brother’s love triangle... no, quadrangle.
***
Ra-Eun was watching TV together with Ra-Hyuk in the living room while chewing on apple slices. She then stated, “I think the three girls who came here a while ago all like you.”
“Well, in terms of like or hate, of course they like me. They wouldn’t come to my house if they hated me, after all,” Ra-Hyuk replied.
“That’s not what I meant.” Ra-Eun remarked while putting some more power into her voice, “I’m saying that I think they like you romantically.”
It was not a guess; she was 99.9% certain. However, Ra-Hyuk’s response was lukewarm.
“...Really?”
“What’s with that reaction? You don’t find them attractive?”
“No, that isn’t it.”
All three of them were pretty, kind, and were fairly well-off. And most of all, they liked Ra-Hyuk very much. Ra-Eun thought that it wouldn’t be bad for him to go out with one of them, but Ra-Hyuk seemed to be against it. Actually, he seemed to be avoiding the idea rather than rejecting it entirely.
‘Come to think of it, I’ve never heard him mention anything about girls.’
Ra-Hyuk looked like he had absolutely no interest in dating. Ra-Eun wondered if there was a reason for it.
Ra-Hyuk mentioned his past while awkwardly scratching his head.
“I’d never told you this, but I had a girlfriend back in high school.”
“Really?”
The fact that he had a girlfriend meant that he had at least some interest in dating.
“So, what happened to her? Are you still together?” Ra-Eun asked.
“No, I was dumped.”
“Dumped? When?”
“When I became a third year in high school. I found out that she was dating someone else.”
In other words, Ra-Hyuk was being two-timed.
“It’s not like I heard about it from someone else. I happened to see them on a date together with locked arms. We broke up the next day, but... I see that scene every time I even think of getting into a relationship.”
A trauma. An inexplicable fear for romantic relationships had formed in his heart due to his pain from the past. Ra-Eun sighed. It was not like she couldn’t understand Ra-Hyuk’s feelings, but...
“That doesn’t mean there are only women who will two-time you with another man in this world. At the very least, I don’t think the unnies who came to our house would. I’m sure there’s a woman out there who will love only you, so don’t be too afraid of relationships,” Ra-Eun assured.
This advice was not from a little sister, but from one with more life experience than Ra-Hyuk. Ra-Hyuk smiled bitterly, reassured by Ra-Eun’s advice.
“I’ll introduce her to you if I ever find someone I like, so subtly let me know if she’s a keeper or not when I do,” Ra-Hyuk said.
“Me? Why?” Ra-Eun asked.
“They say women know each other best.”
“I guess...”
He wasn’t wrong, but...
‘I’m not a woman.’
She found the fact that she couldn’t say something like that out loud funny.
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