Caught Red-Handed (1)
An old villa, weathered enough to look run-down at first glance. Still livable enough that none of the units sat empty. A black sedan rolled to a quiet stop in front of it.
"All right. Monday, then."
"Drive safely."
The tall, slender woman who stepped out of the car gave a small nod to the chauffeur and turned away. The driver double-checked the time he was supposed to pick her up on Monday, then drove off.
A faint sigh slipped from her, her throat quivering. The reason she had rushed through her work and come straight to this villa was a certain signal she had received.
The neighbors always said a place like this was no fit for a refined, icy beauty who looked so natural in a white lab coat. They simply gave quiet thanks for the daily eye candy.
The woman herself never found the place beneath her. Petty details like that had never mattered much to her.
She swiped her card key at the shared entrance and strode purposefully toward the elevator. Her expression barely shifted, yet she made no effort to hide her urgency.
She hammered the call button without waiting for the car that was already descending from the fourth floor. The wait was only a few seconds, but even that was intolerable.
The doors opened. A girl who looked like an elementary schooler and a woman who seemed to be her mother stepped out. They offered warm greetings. She returned an awkward smile and quickly boarded.
She smashed the close button hard enough to break it. The awkward smile stayed frozen on her face until the doors sealed shut. The moment they did, it vanished, replaced by a cold, piercing blankness.
One leg jittered restlessly as she glared at the leisurely changing red numbers. Fortunately, it was not long before she reached her floor—the top floor of the villa.
The fifth floor.
Unit 503. The woman stopped in front of the door and took a moment to steady her breathing, bracing herself for the grim reality she already knew she was about to face.
She had not come here to catch an affair in the act.
Beep.
Nor was she here for some pitiful animal waiting for her.
Click.
Nor because she urgently needed the bathroom.
In a manner utterly unlike her usual self, she stomped through the entryway, crossed the living room, and fixed a hard stare on the tightly closed door.
Bang.
And then she came face-to-face with the reality she had not wanted to confront.
Thud.
The small handbag in her grip slipped free and hit the floor. She did not even have time to catch the strap sliding from her palm. She simply stood there, dazed, taking in the scene.
The little brother she loved more than anyone in the world was lying naked in bed, side by side with a woman she did not know.
Perhaps because of the noise she had made, her brother pushed himself up with hazy eyes. He roughly raked a hand through his messy hair, then looked tenderly at the woman sleeping soundly beside him.
Then he lifted his head.
"Yuhwa-noona??"
"Sion. Wash up and put some clothes on."
"Yes, ma'am."
Her startled little brother trembled like a baby gazelle before a lion. And of course he did—this woman, five years his senior, was the owner of this house.
She was the one who had personally given him a room so he could work as a teacher at Celestia Academy.
And the one and only condition she had set was simple: do not bring strange women home.
Of course, to Yuhwa, Sion had always been the good, obedient little brother. He had never gone astray, never caused trouble. He had studied so hard it was as if women barely existed to him.
She tried to tell herself her brother was an adult now, but her chest seethed.
Something close to betrayal clawed at her heart. At the same time, she felt a flicker of relief that at least he was not gay.
She shot a sidelong glance at her brother as he scrambled off to wash, then approached the woman still lost in sleep.
"Hmm?"
She recognized the girl. A junior from Celestia Academy. Definitely a member of the Service Club. Diligent enough, all things considered.
"Failing student."
Yes. That was what they had called her, as she recalled.
She had learned of it through Metis. "Your little brother became a teacher at our academy. I plan to put him in charge of the failing students."
Honestly, she had believed her brother would handle it well. She had never imagined that "caring for failing students" would look like this.
A red screen lit up on the watch at her wrist. Judging it nothing serious, she gave it a light tap to dismiss the alert.
She had set it to notify her the moment any anomaly appeared in her brother's body. Exactly how she detected those anomalies was a secret only Yuhwa herself knew.
"Haa."
After deep deliberation, she reached a firm decision. If things continued this way, her plans would certainly be disrupted. Without a doubt, someone would steal her little brother away.
"You little thief of a cat."
She wanted nothing more than to grab the girl by the hair right then, but she barely held herself back. She wanted to believe her brother had brought the girl this far for some reason of his own.
I dropped to my knees in front of my silent sister Yuhwa. The moment I saw her face, I remembered the rule that had felt so strangely abstract before.
The whole time I was washing up, I had frantically scrambled for some excuse. The second I met those cold, razor-sharp eyes, every last one of them vanished from my mind.
Selena knelt beside me as well. She seemed to think she had dragged me into this mess with her own stubbornness. She chewed hard on her red lower lip.
Yuhwa-noona had been staring out the veranda window for a long while. Slowly she turned and looked down at us.
"Are you dating?"
"No, ma'am. Um, Teacher Sion only went along with my insistence—"
"I wasn't asking you, failing student."
At that ice-cold, low voice, Selena's body flinched. Watching her face darken made me feel sorry for her. She was clearly drowning in guilt.
I met the eyes of my sister as she quietly looked down at me. Those eyes were terrifying no matter how many times I saw them. When she smiled naturally she was truly radiant and cute, but it was a face I rarely got to see, which was a shame.
"We're not dating."
"Friends with benefits, then?"
"Definitely not that either."
"Then why were you sharing a blanket? Naked, at that."
"Noona."
"What."
"It's a little hard to talk about this in front of Selena. Can I send her home first?"
I forced the words out while clamping down on my pounding heart. No matter how terrifying and predatory her presence felt, Noona was still someone you could reason with.
Even if this was the first time I had ever seen her truly angry.
"Fine. I'll take the kid home myself. You clean up. And air the place out."
"Ah—okay."
She turned with elegant composure and walked toward the entryway. Then she shot a sidelong look at the still-dazed Selena and spoke. Her low, husky voice made it thoroughly intimidating.
"What are you doing?"
"Y-yes, ma'am."
I was a little worried about sending Selena off alone with Noona, but at least she was not the type to hit anyone, so I figured it was safe enough to trust her.
I gave a small look to Selena as she hesitantly rose, signaling that we would talk later. She clearly did not like it, but she nodded that she would go along for now.
The two of them left the house, and the front door closed. Cheese, who had been shut away sleeping the whole time, quietly approached.
"Nyaang~"
"Sorry, Cheese. Oppa's not in the mood right now."
"Myaang, grrr."
"Ugh, just a little, okay?"
The way she rubbed her cheek against me melted me completely. Only after stroking her for a long while did I finally come back to my senses.
Inside the moving car, a silence so piercing it ached settled over them, thick and awkward.
Yuhwa normally preferred to hire a private driver, but every so often she used her little brother's car like this.
Usually it was for grocery runs or other errands. She had never imagined she would be using it to drive home the she-cat who had barged in and stolen her brother's first time.
She let out a deep sigh, and Selena flinched, sneaking a careful glance at her.
She knew the girl was not a bad person, at least. Still, she felt like being petty. After all, this was the little wretch who had taken her brother's first time!
"Name?"
"It's Selena."
"I'm Yuhwa. Explain what happened."
Yuhwa gripped the steering wheel hard. The leather creaked under her fingers.
"I'm sorry. I forced him."
"I told you to explain."
"I was the one who contacted him first. For counseling."
"Counseling?"
"Teacher Sion is the advisor for the Life Guidance Department."
"Hmm."
She stole a glance at the profile that looked thoroughly displeased, then hung her head.
"The reason I came to his house uninvited was partly to mend a button that had fallen off... and also because I wanted to confirm how I felt about Teacher Sion."
"What?"
"I wanted to know whether it was simple admiration... or love."
"So you just casually give your body away?"
"No. I never took it lightly. Along the way, I sincerely fell in love with Teacher Sio—"
HONNNNNNK!!!
Yuhwa slammed the horn with everything she had. She did not want to hear another word, and conveniently the car in front had been doing something stupid.
Selena thought her heart had stopped for a second.
The driver of the car ahead peeked out, startled, hurriedly rolled his window back up, and fled.
As far as Selena could tell, this Yuhwa woman was no ordinary person. Some notorious local villainess, maybe, or someone who had already blown up over something like this before.
Either way, she would have to choose her words carefully.
Sudden fear made her voice hard to find, but she forced herself to speak for Sion's sake.
"Even if Teacher Sion rejects me, I will still—"
"You little thief of a cat."
"Pardon?"
The unexpected words made her jump.
The cool, emotionless ice beauty was now shedding crystal-clear tears, one after another.
"I claimed him first. I claimed him first."
"Uh. Um."
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"
For a split second Selena thought the person sitting next to her was a child. But that attractive low voice, that mature and sophisticated air, created a jarring mismatch.
Watching her puff out both cheeks like a thoroughly sulking kid, Selena simply gave up thinking.