My heart pounded at all hours.
Ba-dump! Ba-dump!
‘Ah, it’s happening again….’
It beat so loudly and so fast that whenever I focused on the sound, I would instinctively glance around, worried that the people nearby might be able to hear my heart hammering away.
“Nuna, what are you thinking about?”
Suddenly, my younger brother, Kim Jeong-hun, who had been eating quietly across from me, spoke up.
Snapping back to my senses, I shook my head with an awkward smile.
“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing! Hehe… I just had something on my mind for a second.”
“…Really?”
Hearing my answer, Kim Jeong-hun’s gaze grew more intense.
‘Something’s definitely up.’
Something was off about his sister.
That was the conclusion he’d reached after observing her closely for the past few days.
‘Normally, she’d be clinging to me every chance she got….’
Kim Eun-bi loved physical affection.
She’d always insist that skin-on-skin contact was proof of a truly close relationship and would latch onto him at every opportunity. But even though they’d seen each other countless times over the last few days, she hadn’t pounced on him once.
And that wasn’t all.
The daily nagging to go somewhere or the way she’d shove her smartphone in his face for a picture had also completely vanished.
He frowned, feeling as if they’d been demoted to the level of just moderately close siblings.
‘This feels like shit.’
Was having a daily routine disappear always this damn unpleasant?
‘Did I do something wrong?’
He thought it over, but nothing came to mind.
He might be different with others, but in front of her, wasn’t he always the gentlest lamb in the world?
‘Besides, it’s not in her nature to hold a grudge.’
Unlike other women, Kim Eun-bi didn’t pout or stay upset for days over something.
She had a surprisingly easy-going side to her and tended to immediately talk about things that bothered her or actions she disliked, resolving them on the spot.
‘…Then what is it?’
No matter how much he thought, he couldn’t come up with anything.
There was no logical reason for their once-great sibling relationship to have become so awkward in just a few days.
If he had to pick one thing…
‘No way.’
Maybe she got a boyfriend.
But Kim Jeong-hun quickly shook his head.
‘That’s impossible.’
Having spent his entire life with her, he knew.
He knew just what kind of absurd fantasy of love his sister dreamed of.
A love guided by the powerful pull of destiny? There was no way something like that existed in this world.
‘I don’t know.’
Unable to find an answer, Kim Jeong-hun gave up thinking.
What was the point of wracking his less-than-brilliant brain? It wasn’t like an answer would just pop out.
“Nuna.”
“Yeah?”
She looked up, uncharacteristically picking at her rice.
“I mean… if something’s bothering you, talk to me about it. Don’t just suffer in silence.”
It was the best he could offer in this baffling situation.
At his words, Kim Eun-bi’s face lit up with a bright smile.
“Aww, is my little Jeong-hun worried about his nuna?”
“No, well…”
Finding his bashful, trailing-off response adorable, Eun-bi immediately reached out and stroked his head.
“Aigoo, such a good little brother!”
She wondered if there could be another younger brother in the world as sweet as him.
She’d heard other siblings did nothing but fight whenever they saw each other, but her brother was just so gentle.
“Thanks for worrying about me, okay?”
“Uh, sure.”
After finishing dinner in a somewhat more cheerful atmosphere, Kim Eun-bi went straight to her room to get ready.
Comfortable jeans for easy movement and a cozy knit sweater.
A coat to block out the cold, and a fuzzy hat to add a touch of cuteness.
“Perfect!”
Standing before the mirror in an outfit that wasn’t over-the-top, she nodded with a satisfied expression and left her room.
“Time to go blow off some steam.”
Sometimes, stress builds up to an excessive degree.
The reasons vary.
Maybe you’re in a bad mood, something unpleasant happened, or something is weighing on your mind.
Usually, it was a mix of everything rather than one single cause, but this time, it was clearly the third reason.
The man who had appeared out of nowhere to save her, only to leave after telling her to forget him instead of giving his name or number.
That man had been on her mind for days.
Was it fate, or wasn't it?
‘The situation itself was incredibly heart-pounding…’
The circumstances had been so coincidental that you could only call it fateful.
But the fact that she’d become a stranger to him again without even learning his name made it seem like it wasn’t fate.
Yet, to say it wasn’t fate, she couldn’t seem to forget him, and her heart pounded every time she thought of him.
‘This is so frustrating.’
Stuck in a situation where she could do nothing, her stress just kept piling up.
So today, to relieve that stress, she had decided to go to a club with a close friend.
She wasn’t a huge fan of loud places.
But paradoxically, whenever her stress reached a certain level, she found herself intensely drawn to that kind of atmosphere.
Whenever that happened, she would hit the clubs with her friends.
Dancing to the ear-splitting music was a quick way to melt the stress away.
The men who occasionally… no, constantly tried to talk to her were a bit of a nuisance, but that was fine.
Everything in this world had its pros and cons.
‘Except for my little brother.’
Of course, her brother was the exception.
Coming downstairs, she spotted Kim Jeong-hun sitting on the living room sofa watching TV and tiptoed toward the front door.
Once she was safely out, she let out a sigh of relief.
“Phew…”
If her brother, who hated her going to clubs, had caught her, who knows how long the lecture would have been.
After leaving the house, she immediately took a taxi to Hongdae and met up with her friend, who had already arrived.
“Sorry I’m late! Have you been waiting long?”
“Nope, you’re not late. I was just early.”
“Hehe… I know.”
“…Are you crazy?”
Her friend’s name was Ryu Jin.
Unlike the bright and cheerful Kim Eun-bi, she was a woman who exuded a chic and sultry vibe.
Her fashion, a head-to-toe ensemble of black, only amplified that feeling.
The two, who seemed to be polar opposites in every way, were surprisingly the best of friends.
There had been many ups and downs to get to this point, but to put it simply, it was perhaps because they were so different that they were drawn to each other even more.
“Shall we go?”
“Yeah.”
The two left the cafe and walked toward their usual club.
Amidst the noisy atmosphere, Ryu Jin asked her in a blunt tone.
“So, what’s got you so stressed out this time?”
“Umm, well…”
Kim Eun-bi fidgeted with her fingers and averted her gaze.
Seeing her friend’s typical set of habits when she was about to bring up something difficult, Ryu Jin waved a hand dismissively, cutting her off.
“Forget it. If it’s hard to talk about, just tell me later.”
Grateful that Ryu Jin understood her so perfectly, Kim Eun-bi linked her arm through her friend’s and snuggled close.
“Ah, stop clinging to me.”
“Aww, whyyyy♥”
“……”
Ryu Jin shook her head as Eun-bi hugged her arm even tighter, acting cute.
She’d been through this so many times that she now seemed to just accept it.
Bickering playfully, they arrived at the club to find a long line snaking out front.
If they were to get in line now, there was no telling when they might get in.
But that didn’t apply to them.
“Hey! Why has it been so long!”
The moment they arrived, the club’s manager spotted them and rushed over to greet them.
“Can we go in?” Ryu Jin asked.
He immediately stepped aside, clearing a path for them.
“Of course! Go on in, hurry.”
Several factors are needed for a club to thrive.
A playlist that gets people excited, an atmosphere that makes you want to stay, convenience, and so on.
Countless things were necessary, but the most important thing was something else entirely.
The quality of the crowd.
A club’s revenue for the night depended on how many beautiful and handsome people were inside.
In that sense, the two of them were treated as if they had an all-access pass to every club.
As soon as they entered, they grabbed a table.
Ryu Jin, who loved to drink, ordered a bottle of liquor, while Kim Eun-bi immediately stood up.
“I’ll be back!”
“Yeah, go have fun dancing.”
As mentioned, the two had opposite personalities.
Kim Eun-bi loved to dance, while Ryu Jin hated it.
So whenever they came to a club, one would only drink, and the other would only dance.
Ryu Jin sat alone, sipping her drink.
She had barely been at the table for a minute, but she was already drawing immense interest from those around her.
“Did you come alone?”
She waved away a man who approached her with a sweet tone.
“They say pouring your own drink is bad luck. How about I…”
“Piss off.”
“Right.”
To another who tried to hit on her with a ridiculous superstition that would never work, she cursed without hesitation.
“Tsk, what a bunch of pests.”
She just wanted to drink in peace. Why did they have to keep bothering her?
For someone who hated being disturbed while drinking more than anything, it was incredibly annoying.
After news spread that she had shot down every guy, things quieted down for a while.
Just as she was enjoying her drink at her own pace, another man approached.
He sat down across from her without even asking for permission and casually picked up the liquor bottle, which was as precious to her as treasure.
“What do you think you’re—!”
She was about to lash out, but the words wouldn’t come.
The moment she looked up and saw his face, she was speechless.
This man had a completely different air about him than the others who had approached her.
He gave off a dangerous scent, like someone she shouldn’t get close to.
While she was flustered, the man who had taken her bottle asked with a faint smile.
“There’s a way to make this drink taste even better.”
“……”
At his question, she found herself asking before she even realized it.
“…How do you do that?”
Perhaps the reason she’d rejected all the men who approached her so far wasn’t simply because they were interrupting her drinking.