“…she does. That’s why it’s so funny.”

The white light of the streetlamps cast deep shadows beneath the roadside trees. People dressed in lighter clothing and cars on the road hurried through the darkness. Euihyun cast a vacant gaze amidst the bustle.

“So I told Gayoung not to do it. But do you know what Gayoung said?”

Just as the scenery outside the car window brushed indifferently past, Sujin’s chattering voice failed to reach his ears, scattering in all directions. His lack of focus wasn’t just because he had been drinking for the first time in a while.

“Oppa. Oppa?”

Eventually, Sujin noticed his distraction. Grabbing his forearm as if to urge him, she looked clearly disappointed.

“Yeah, I’m listening. What did Gayoung say?”

“Are you tired?”

He wasn’t tired. However, in this situation, claiming exhaustion was the best way to avoid hurting her feelings.

“Yeah, a little.”

“It makes sense that you’re tired since you went to the charnel house today. Chaewon looked tired earlier, too. Maybe I should have suggested she ride in this car with us.”

Fortunately, Sujin understood Euihyun quickly. This was why kind, straightforward people were easy to deal with; they took words at face value.

“How are Chaewon and Dokyeom oppa getting along? Seeing them today, they seemed a bit distant.”

“They’re just like any other siblings.”

“I guess so. Looking at my friends, sisters usually stay close, but if the genders are different, they tend to drift apart as they grow. It would be nice if Dokyeom oppa took good care of her.”

The conversation about Chaewon dragged on. Euihyun checked the navigation screen to see how many minutes remained until their destination.

“Seeing them today, Chaewon and Dokyeom oppa look really alike. I guess that’s natural since they’re siblings? They both have eyes like cats.”

“Chaewon is more like a puppy.”

“Huh?”

Sujin tilted her head in confusion, but Euihyun stubbornly held onto his opinion.

“She acts like a puppy.”

Yoo Chaewon frequently came up as a topic in their conversations. He had introduced her to Sujin as a girl he had known since childhood, practically a real younger sister, and mentioned that he paid more attention to her because of her unique family history. Since Sujin knew today was the anniversary of her parents’ death, it was only natural for her to feel sympathy and worry.

But right now, he didn’t want to say much about Chaewon. Regardless of the fact that today was an overwhelming day for her, every time her name came up, an unpleasant bitterness spread through his mouth.

“How is your exam prep going?”

With that, Euihyun shifted the direction of the conversation. While keeping his eyes fixed on Sujin, he struggled to hold onto his thoughts, which kept drifting elsewhere. There were about eight minutes left until they arrived at Sujin’s house. If he could just endure that, he could enjoy the freedom of being alone in silence.

***

After returning home and showering, Euihyun checked his phone first. There were no messages from Chaewon. He had told her to contact him if anything happened. Had nothing happened yet, or did she simply not want to talk to him?

The latter was more probable. Knowing full well that she would be upset, he had brought her to a meal with Sujin, and Dokyeom had relentlessly grated on her nerves right beside her. Chaewon’s pride would have been stripped bare by now.

Next, Euihyun checked Chaewon’s social media. On her neglected account, a photo of the bouquet he had given her when she graduated high school remained the most recent update. He knew Chaewon only used social media for searching or contacting people, but checking it periodically had become a habit.

Euihyun opened Chaewon’s following list. When he navigated to Han Jio’s account, a photo of a desk cluttered with books and a tablet, posted an hour ago, appeared. It was transparently obvious who it was meant for. To think he could get Chaewon’s attention with such a bland photo; he wondered if the guy was just naive.

Liked by chaeone_u and others.

But Chaewon had pressed the heart icon, as if to show off. It meant that while she hadn’t sent Euihyun a single message, she had diligently looked at a photo posted by another man.

Euihyun took a deep breath and exhaled. When he thought about how much meaning a single heart, pressed thoughtlessly by Chaewon, might hold for Han Jio, heat rushed to his head. Since she was just playing around with him to get his attention anyway, why put in the effort to like a photo like this? He couldn’t understand it.

Euihyun’s fingertip then moved to his best friend’s contact. As soon as he pressed the call button, Dokyeom’s voice came through.

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“Did you stop by the house?”

“No.”

At the nonchalant, almost indifferent answer, the temper that had been sleeping soundly inside Euihyun stirred. On a day like today, couldn’t he fulfill his duty as a family member? A taxi driver would be doing the driving anyway; was it even that hard to just go with her?

“You sent Chaewon home alone?”

“She said she wanted to go separately, so what am I supposed to do?”

Euihyun closed his eyes slowly. A woman’s voice leaked through the phone. It was likely the girlfriend Dokyeom had started dating a couple of months ago.

“She contacted you, right? What, is she saying she’s miserable going home alone? Hey, you know her. Acting pitiful is her specialty.”

According to Dokyeom’s guess, it would have been correct for Chaewon to have called and whined long ago. However, Euihyun’s phone remained silent. There were several reasons for this. Given the day, Chaewon might have been exhausted, or she might have been conscious of Sujin being with him. Or perhaps she lacked the strength to pretend to be okay while clutching her bruised pride.

Neither fit the persistent and blind Yoo Chaewon, however.

“Didn’t you hear what she said today? She said she’s all grown up. She’s an adult, just leave her alone.”

“Got it. Bye.”

After roughly ending the call with Dokyeom, Euihyun’s finger moved toward Chaewon’s number, but he stopped. If she wanted to contact him, she would do it first. His role was, after all, to look after Chaewon in place of Dokyeom, not to organize every single emotion she couldn’t handle. That had to be left entirely to the person involved.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Euihyun changed his phone from vibrate to sound. He turned the volume up to the maximum so that even if his head, heavy from the wine, fell asleep, he could wake up at any time.

Finally, he checked his photo gallery. He found the photo quickly, even without searching through organized folders. It showed the backs of a man and a woman standing and looking at a pink painting: a girl with black hair flowing down to her waist next to a man boasting broad shoulders. It was a photo of a couple where the awkward atmosphere couldn’t be hidden despite standing side by side; it was a scene from a date between Chaewon and Han Jio, which he had taken himself.

He had started looking at this photo once in a while. He didn’t know why, but it was similar to picking at a hangnail. If he left it alone, it kept bothering him, but if he ripped it off, he knew it would get inflamed, leaving him stuck in limbo.

Since the frequency of looking at the photo had increased lately, he felt the need to take action, whether by clipping it with nail clippers or something else. Euihyun pressed the trash icon at the bottom to delete the photo. However, when the question asking if he wanted to delete it popped up once more, he couldn’t bring himself to press confirm and exited the gallery.

As he lay flat on his back with the phone by his head, he felt a gradual tightening inside his heart. Whenever he thought of Yoo Chaewon, his chest felt crumpled like a piece of paper, making him feel suffocated. It had been nearly a year since he first felt these symptoms.

Euihyun turned over to face the phone. That way, it was a bit easier to breathe. In the dark room, the liquid crystal screen remained black and asleep.

Yoo Chaewon was like a puppy. Not so much in appearance, but in her behavior.

His friend’s much younger sister was like a Maltese or a Poodle you’d see when visiting that house. She was a petlike existence where you could just pet her and give her treats without any responsibility, feeling satisfied as she followed you well, regardless of whether she developed bad habits.

The reason Euihyun had taken good care of his friend’s sister wasn’t because he was particularly kind or generous. It was simply because the things she did were cute. There was no reason to push her away when she listened to him better than her own older brother and beamed with a smile whenever she saw him. There were times he intentionally pretended not to notice because it was cute how she followed him around.

Even when Chaewon hit puberty and would only greet him quietly before scurrying back into her room, he didn’t take those feelings seriously. People are usually shy at that age. Even when Chaewon shyly handed him meticulously wrapped snacks on Valentine’s Day or Pepero Day, he just laughed it off. It felt as if an invisible tail was wagging in circles behind her.

It was only after Dokyeom left to study in the United States and he enlisted in the army that he began to wonder, as he read the letters Chaewon sent him regularly. She didn’t even send a single message to her own brother, so did she really like him that much? He had heard there is an unconditional, pure affection that pets give; he wondered if this was similar.

Even though he had no intention of returning those feelings, he didn’t find it burdensome. It had been a given for a long time that she liked him, so there was nothing strange about it. He showed her affection and she followed him; he praised and cherished her as much as she listened to him. His relationship with Chaewon was established upon that exchange formula.

Occasionally, he couldn’t understand why Dokyeom felt embarrassed because of his sister. Who in the world would feel pressured just because a friend’s dog acted cute in front of them? You just pet them and tell them they’re good.

Of course, he never voiced those thoughts. Euihyun himself knew that his way of thinking was slightly different from others. While not to the point of needing a hospital, he was aware that there was a slight problem with the calculation method in his head when dealing with people.