Sharing My Heart
The weekend arrived.
Min-hyeok looked at his sister A-reum and nodded.
"I knew it… our noona is the prettiest girl in the whole world…!"
"Really?"
"Yeah!"
A-reum stood before him. That morning she had stopped by the salon for a cut and put on makeup she rarely ever wore. Soft pink polish gleamed on her nails. On Friday she and Min-hyeok had gone to the department store together, and she was wearing a brand-new beige U-neck short-sleeve knit top with a light-brown suede miniskirt. Everything was fresh off the rack, and on A-reum it looked radiant — perfectly suited to her. Paired with low-heeled ankle-ribbon shoes and a white everyday shoulder bag, she gave off the fresh, lively air of a woman in her twenties.
"I'm all ready now. Want some cocoa?"
"Mm… I want cocoa…"
"Sit here and wait, Noona."
Min-hyeok filled the electric kettle and switched it on. He set out two mugs and poured in the cocoa powder. A moment later the kettle clicked off. He lifted it carefully by the handle and poured the water to just the right line, then stirred each cup thoroughly with a teaspoon. He carried the finished cocoa over and set both mugs in front of his sister, then sat down across from her.
"Noona, should we buy a sofa?"
"A sofa?"
"Yeah. Sitting on the floor like this is kind of uncomfortable, right?"
"Min-hyeok… are you uncomfortable?"
"I think it'd be nice to have one."
"Then… let's buy a sofa… If Min-hyeok wants it… that's okay…"
"It's settled, then? I make money too, and you're working hard as well."
Through a center the welfare office had recommended, A-reum worked ten-hour days Monday through Friday and brought home a salary of over 1.9 million won. When she received her first paycheck, she had given Min-hyeok the money for his Nike sneakers — she had borrowed from him to buy them, so of course she had to pay him back.
"You understand, Noona…? No need to be nervous. Just spend time together comfortably, like always. The way we hung out last time."
A-reum nodded.
"Cocoa… is delicious…"
"Of course it is~! I made it."
"Min-hyeok… makes good cocoa…"
"I am pretty good at it, yeah."
He lightly brushed the side of his nose with a finger and grinned.
Noona looks happy.
He could tell just from the atmosphere — how excited she was, how much she was looking forward to this.
I always want Noona to keep smiling like that…
The reason Min-hyeok had been able to grit his teeth, pay off their debts, and keep going all this time was because of her. If she hadn't been there — if he had been alone — he never would have made it this far. He would have just given up on the debt and let it spiral. To Min-hyeok, A-reum was his only family, the one person who always made him smile.
They were nearly finished with their cocoa when Min-hyeok's phone rang.
"You're here already…? Yes, I'll send her right down~!"
He hung up and turned to her.
"Noona, he's out front."
He took the mug she was cradling in both hands and set it down.
"Time to get ready to go."
A-reum picked up her everyday shoulder bag, walked to the entryway, and slipped on her ribbon shoes.
"Hold on — let me do one more scan."
Min-hyeok crossed his thumbs and index fingers into a frame and slowly scanned her from head to toe, then nodded.
"Done! Perfect!"
"I'm… perfect…?"
"Yeah! Perfect, Noona!"
A-reum smiled.
"Remember — no need to tense up. Just think of it as going out to have fun."
She nodded.
Min-hyeok put on his own shoes, and together they opened the front door and stood in front of the elevator. He pressed the button. Moments later the doors slid open. A-reum stepped inside, turned, and looked back at her younger brother.
"Have a good day, Noona~"
"Min-hyeok too… have a good day…?"
"Heh… okay."
He waved as the doors closed and watched the floor numbers descend.
"I mean it, Noona… go have a truly happy time…"
Min-hyeok watched the numbers all the way down to the first floor.
First floor.
With the automated announcement, the elevator doors opened. A-reum stepped out slowly.
Click, click.
The sound of her heels carried her toward the main entrance, and her heart pounded so hard she could feel it. Beyond that door, he was waiting.
Whirr…
The villa's front gate slid open. She stepped outside and looked around. Then the driver's door of a white BMW 520D parked off to one side opened, and a casually dressed man climbed out.
"A-reum-noona."
It was none other than Seong-min.
The moment she saw him, her heart hammered even harder. Click, click — she walked toward him slowly.
"Have you been waiting long?"
He asked with a smile.
"…Yes…"
A-reum answered shyly.
"You dressed up so prettily today."
Her cheeks flushed even deeper red.
"Come on over."
She followed him. When she reached his side, Seong-min opened the passenger door for her himself.
"Hop in…"
A-reum carefully climbed into the passenger seat. He closed the door gently, then walked around, opened the driver's door, and got in.
"Seatbelt on?"
"It's on…"
Seong-min started the engine and buckled his own belt. Soft ballad music filled the car — quiet enough not to overwhelm — and he took the wheel.
"All right, we're off."
"…Okay…"
Her voice was small, but Seong-min heard every word. They pulled out of the parking lot, wound through the alley, and merged onto the road.
"Let's make it a good day…"
"…Okay…"
The tremor in her voice was unmistakable.
"A-reum-noona, you don't have to be so nervous."
He smiled with his eyes and told her she could relax — but that only made her more tense. She kept stealing glances at him, gauging his expression. The whole situation still didn't feel real.
"Nice weather, right?"
"…It is…"
"Later we should walk along the Han River Park. Perfect day for a stroll, don't you think?"
A-reum slowly nodded.
Seong-min had met her at eleven. He took her to a restaurant he had reserved, and they enjoyed a delicious lunch. The entire meal, A-reum kept looking at his face — so intently it almost felt burdensome. But Seong-min didn't mind in the least. Every so often he simply smiled back at her gaze.
"Was the pasta all right?"
"…It was delicious…"
"I looked this place up and it seemed solid. I thought it'd be nice to come here with you, A-reum-noona…"
After a good meal, they made it in time for the movie he had reserved. It was a romantic comedy, and looking around the theater, most of the audience seemed to be couples. The film had more funny scenes than expected and was genuinely pleasant — and quite sweet. Throughout, Seong-min glanced at A-reum's face. Her cheeks were faintly flushed as she lost herself in the story. During the kiss scenes and the love confessions, she couldn't tear her eyes away. It was adorable.
An hour and forty minutes later, the couple on screen got their happy ending without ever breaking up.
"They stayed together at the end instead of splitting up. That was nice, right?"
"Yes… it was nice…"
"Did you finish your cola?"
A-reum nodded. "Let me see." She handed him the empty cup. "You really did, huh?" He laughed and shook the cup to show her, and she grew shy all over again.
They left the theater and headed into the shopping district, where Seong-min steered them toward an arcade.
"Watch closely, Noona. See how many basketballs I can sink."
He fed in a thousand won. Basketballs rolled out, and Seong-min picked them up one by one and launched them at the hoop. Ten points per ball; the scoreboard cutoff was 230. With fluid, effortless form he kept throwing — and astonishingly, every single shot dropped cleanly through. Passersby started taking notice of the unbroken streak of perfect shots. When the first stage ended, Seong-min's score stood at an incredible 350.
"Not bad?"
A-reum, mouth open, clapped her hands in rapid little seals of applause. Clap clap clap clap clap.
"Is that your way of saying I did well?"
She nodded twice.
The second stage began, with a clear score of 700. Once again Seong-min snatched up the rolling basketballs and fired them in rapid succession.
"Dude's insane."
"He hasn't missed a single one…"
"This is the real deal…"
Onlookers pulled out their phones and started recording. Every throw seemed magnetically drawn into the hoop, drawing nothing but gasps of admiration. Seong-min cleared the second stage and pushed straight into the third and final one, finishing with a total of 1,500 points — an unprecedented record. The crowd murmured in awe, and some people even applauded.
Starting with the basketball game, Seong-min and A-reum played several more — hidden-picture games and the like.
"Want to try the dart game too, Noona? They give out prizes."
A-reum nodded.
"I'll win you that teddy bear in the first-place photo up there."
He called the owner over, paid ten thousand won, and signed up for the dart game. Ten darts were brought out. To even earn a keychain, you needed at least five hits of seven points or higher. Seong-min took his place at the line. At the owner's go-ahead gesture, he eyed the board and threw the first dart.
Thock.
"Ten points!"
Amazingly, the dart had landed dead center on the ten. The owner pulled it free. Seong-min reset his stance and tossed the next one lightly.
Thock!
"T-ten points!"
Another bull's-eye ten. The owner looked a little flustered — and for good reason. Eighty points or more meant first prize. Seong-min kept throwing, one after another.
"T-ten points!"
Ten again.
Thock.
Ten after that, too. He threw every remaining dart in succession. The final result:
"W-well done. Total score: one hundred points… First prize."
The owner announced it with a thoroughly stunned expression. All ten darts had scored a perfect ten.
"Just a moment… please wait."
He disappeared into the back and returned with an enormous teddy bear.
"Here you are…"
"Thanks for your hard work~"
With people watching, Seong-min walked out proudly carrying the first-prize teddy bear he had earned with a perfect hundred.
"Here."
"…You're… giving it to me…?"
"I told you. I'd win first prize and give it to you as a gift."
A-reum, lips slightly parted, carefully gathered the teddy bear into her arms.
"…Thank you…"
The sight of her hugging the bear made a smile rise on its own.
They left the arcade and were walking along when Seong-min spotted a street stall selling pretty hairpins. He bought a sparkling, luminous heart-shaped one and fastened it in A-reum's hair himself. It suited her fresh, youthful air perfectly.
"Haha! It looks amazing on you."
A-reum was embarrassed, but she clearly liked it.
After snacking their way through the shopping district and having a thoroughly fun time, they returned to the car and settled the teddy bear in the back seat.
"Shall we head to the Han River Park now?"
A-reum nodded.
"Then let's stop by a café first and grab something to drink."
Seong-min pulled into a nearby café he spotted, left A-reum in the car, and went in alone. He came back with an iced americano for himself and a chocolate cream shake for her.
"You don't drink coffee, so I got you a chocolate cream shake."
"…Thank you…"
Seong-min smiled with his eyes and drove them to the Han River Park.
"Lucky the weather's so nice, right?"
A-reum got out of the car and nodded. Cotton-candy clouds drifted across the sky — prettier, somehow, than a cloudless blue. Being the weekend, people were out walking, including families. Seong-min and A-reum strolled side by side.
"Looks like families came out, and I can see couples too."
Just as he said, A-reum could see groups that looked like families and pairs that looked like couples. Some people had spread picnic mats and were sitting on the grass.
"A-reum-noona. They're renting mats over there. Want to borrow one and sit for a while?"
She turned and saw a middle-aged woman in a sun hat selling picnic mats.
"…That seems… nice…"
"Then let's rent one and find a good spot in the shade."
Seong-min and A-reum headed over to the woman. A female customer who had just finished paying turned around and bumped lightly into A-reum.
"Ah, I'm so sorry…!"
A pretty young woman with long black hair apologized.
"…No, it's… okay…"
A-reum, flustered herself, said it was fine and apologized in return.
"Ju-yeon, what's going on~?"
A man's voice called from a distance — her boyfriend, apparently.
"I just bumped into someone turning around~! I'm really sorry…"
She apologized once more politely, then headed toward the man who had called her. Seong-min watched for a moment, then looked at A-reum.
"A-reum-noona, are you okay?"
"Yes… I'm fine…"
She seemed all right, and Seong-min was relieved.
"How much for a mat?"
"Cheap ones are five thousand, decent ones are ten thousand."
"I'll take the ten-thousand one. I've only got a fifty-thousand bill — is that okay?"
"I've got change, don't you worry."
Seong-min pulled out his wallet and handed over a fifty-thousand-won note. The woman gave him forty thousand back. He listened to her brief explanation of how to return the mat, nodded, and said, "Thanks for your hard work~"
Carrying the mat, he and A-reum searched for a good spot.
"That tree shade over there looks perfect~!"
They found a suitable place, and Seong-min spread the mat out.
"Come on up, Noona."
A-reum slipped off her shoes and stepped on. Seong-min climbed up and sat as well.
"You can tell it costs more — this mat's actually pretty nice."
A-reum nodded.
"It's a bit hot, isn't it?"
Seong-min took a sip of his iced americano, then pulled something from the bag he had brought — a portable fan. He switched it on to high and aimed it at A-reum.
"Noona, is that cool enough?"
She smiled and nodded. A faint trace of perfume drifted from her short hair as the breeze stirred it. The pure happiness on her face was wonderful to see.
"Human connections are a strange thing, aren't they…?"
A-reum looked at him.
"I went out on a delivery job and met Min-hyeok… and that led to meeting you, A-reum-noona. Isn't that amazing?"
She nodded. Even she thought it was remarkable. If Min-hyeok had never met this man, he might not have made it through that danger unharmed.
Seong-min lifted his gaze to the cotton-candy clouds drifting overhead.
"I'm glad it happened that way."
Glad about what?
"Because I went on that delivery job that day… I met Min-hyeok. And because of that… I was able to protect your smile, A-reum-noona."
For a moment A-reum's lips parted slightly.
"From now on too… I hope you keep smiling, A-reum-noona."
She was acutely aware of her own heartbeat — pounding so loudly she almost worried he could hear it.
"Right, Noona?"
The moment Seong-min's eyes met hers, A-reum turned her head away. She was far too embarrassed.
"Huh? Noona, your face is all red."
"Ah… no, it's not…"
The way she ducked her head in flustered panic looked so pure and innocent.
For the rest of that day, Seong-min and A-reum spent a peaceful weekend together. And when evening passed seven and the surroundings began to darken, Seong-min was driving her home.
"A-reum-noona…"
"…Yes…?"
"I don't know if today was enjoyable for you… but I hope you'll keep living thinking that good things like this will always come your way…"
"…Okay…"
When they reached the area near her building, Seong-min pulled over onto the shoulder.
"Get home safely, A-reum-noona…"
He waited for her to unbuckle her seatbelt and say goodbye.
But she didn't unbuckle. Her hands fidgeted restlessly in her lap, as if she were gathering something up inside herself.
"A-reum… no—"
"I… want to stay…"
"Sorry?"
A-reum looked at Seong-min.
"I… want to stay… with Seong-min…"