A Visit
A Visit
"Big brother, is that true?"
"It's just that Father and Ms. Linnea both had to step away for work for a bit. Don't get the wrong idea."
"Either way, it's true that the two of you are staying there alone together!"
Seo-yeon snapped.
Well, sure, that part was true.
But since it still felt unfair, I answered back.
"Then what, you want me to kick Aria out?"
"Ugh."
Apparently aware that she'd gotten worked up emotionally, Seo-yeon closed her mouth at that.
"Sorry. I got worked up for a second."
Still, this was definitely a huge improvement.
At least the old Seo-yeon would hardly ever have apologized so quickly.
We headed to the bus stop as we were.
There was something oddly fascinating about watching Seo-yeon wait for the bus.
"You take the bus too, huh."
"What's that supposed to mean, out of nowhere?"
"I figured you'd at least have a chauffeur with you. If you want to call that a prejudice, I can't argue."
"It's not entirely a prejudice. There are actually quite a few people who do that. But I don't like it."
"Why?"
"Because it draws aggro, obviously."
A pretty cheap word popped out.
Aggro, of all things.
"You use words like that too?"
"Of course I do. Just because I'm a chaebol daughter doesn't mean I only use fancy vocabulary in private."
It seemed the prejudice in my head was lodged pretty firmly thanks to media like dramas.
As I was realizing firsthand that reality and media were different, Seo-yeon spoke to me first this time.
"You're the surprising one, big brother."
"What is?"
"Since you live with Ms. Aria, I thought you wouldn't have that kind of prejudice. Isn't Ms. Aria super rich too?"
Come to think of it, that was true as well.
I'd never asked, so I didn't know the exact scale of Aria's wealth, but just thinking about that last concert, she could certainly afford to hire a chauffeur whenever she wanted.
"I'm not fond of that kind of showing off either. Honestly, if possible, I'd rather not attract attention..."
"Ah, right. Wherever you go, you draw attention, so it's a bit much. Naturally."
Seo-yeon sympathized with Aria's words.
No matter how I thought about it, the reason they drew attention probably wasn't about flaunting wealth.
"From what I can see, whether you go around looking classy or demure, you'd draw the same amount of attention."
"Why is that?" "Why?"
Aria and Seo-yeon asked at the same time.
"Because you two are pretty enough to draw attention wherever you go."
"..." "..."
The two of them fell silent at the same time.
And they did it while blushing and averting their eyes.
I was aware I'd said something embarrassing myself, but I wondered if it was really something for these two, of all people, to react to this much.
They'd probably heard they were pretty countless times in their lives.
"Um, big brother."
"Yeah."
"Like Ms. Aria said last time, do you want to have both of us at the same time?"
"What?"
I was so dumbfounded I asked back.
But Seo-yeon twisted the hair by her ear and gave a completely different answer.
"I haven't solved the problem you mentioned yet, but separate from that, if you want to have both of us, I'm okay with it..."
"I-I've already given my permission, Brother!"
Even Aria chimed in.
I didn't understand why the two who'd been bickering just moments ago were suddenly so in sync.
"No, I think there's some misunderstanding here. The fact that you two are pretty enough to draw attention wherever you go isn't my subjective opinion, it's an objective fact. Anyone would think so."
But the two of them blushed even harder and now dropped their heads completely.
I'd really just stated pure facts, but had it sounded like a compliment to them?
"In the first place, haven't you two heard that you're pretty countless times?"
"Because hearing it from other people isn't the same as hearing it from the brother I love. You've called me pretty many times, but it still feels new and exciting every time."
"Me too. And for me, this is even the first time you've ever told me I'm pretty..."
Was this really the first time I'd told Seo-yeon she was pretty?
Thinking it over, that did seem right.
Because until recently, she'd been Fierce Seo-yeon.
"Anyway, I wasn't saying it to flirt with you two. I was speaking purely from an objective perspective."
"Then what do you think, big brother?"
Seo-yeon's eyes were wavering with anxiety and anticipation.
Unlike Aria, whom I'd already called pretty several times, this was the first time Seo-yeon had heard it, so she probably wanted certainty.
Normally I could say it fine, but with the stage set like this, the words wouldn't come out right away.
But since I couldn't just stay silent, I squeezed my eyes shut and opened my mouth.
"Of course you're pretty. Whose little sister are you?"
"That's right. I'm the little sister of the coolest big brother in the world."
Seo-yeon murmured, leaning her head against my shoulder.
As her brother, I was glad to see Seo-yeon being this honest.
But seeing her hide her face and avert her eyes, it seemed she couldn't help being embarrassed doing something she didn't normally do.
Even so, the reason she'd spoken honestly was probably partly because her rival Aria was right there.
When I stroked Seo-yeon's hair, this time Aria rubbed her head against my other shoulder as if asking to be petted too. I stroked Aria's hair with my other hand.
I found myself newly grateful that this bus stop was enclosed by glass with a semi-transparent coating.
If other students from our university saw this scene, I was afraid to imagine how many uncontrollable rumors would spread.
But this quiet time didn't last long.
Along with a light-toned alarm, an announcement in a mechanical voice said that a bus was arriving.
"I should get going soon."
The bus Seo-yeon was supposed to take was coming.
But Seo-yeon showed no sign of getting up.
"Just a little longer."
"What if you miss the bus?"
"Then I'll just take a taxi."
Now that was a silver-spoon remark.
It was Seo-yeon's freedom to take whatever she wanted, but taking a taxi just to stay together for a mere two minutes was a bit much.
"Our bus comes in two minutes too, you know?"
"They say time is gold. Put another way, that means I can buy time with you using gold."
I had nothing to say to that.
If that's what she wanted, what could I do?
But two minutes passed in an instant, and before long an announcement came that the bus Aria and I were taking would arrive soon.
"Let's get up soon. We need to go home. Seo-yeon, call a taxi."
The two of them got up surprisingly obediently.
We left the cool air-conditioned breeze and stepped out into the warm outside.
Before long, the bus arrived.
Maybe because it was still far too early in the afternoon for office workers' rush hour, the bus was quiet. At most, a few elderly people were seated.
Aria got on first, and just as I was getting on too and about to say goodbye to Seo-yeon—
Seo-yeon naturally got on the bus with me and tapped her card.
"Seo-yeon?"
"Yeah, big brother."
"If you take this bus, it's the opposite direction from your house."
"I know."
Seo-yeon nodded calmly, as if she'd heard something obvious.
Just as I was wondering where to even begin, Seo-yeon took out her smartphone and called someone.
"Yeah, Mom. I think I'll eat dinner before coming home because of a group project. Yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm on the bus so I'll hang up now."
Click, the call ended.
Seo-yeon spoke to me with a triumphant look, as if that settled everything.
"Big brother, can I just mooch dinner before going home? I want to eat your cooking for the first time in a while."
"Have you ever even eaten my cooking?"
"I have. When I was a baby."
Hearing that, I vaguely remembered too.
Right before Father and Mother divorced, when they were fighting constantly, I'd taken care of Seo-yeon in their place.
But I was five years old back then. Even I don't remember it now unless someone reminds me, so the fact that Seo-yeon remembered it was absurd.
"No, how do you remember that?"
"Actually, I don't remember it myself. I heard it from Mom. She said when she couldn't take care of me, you took care of me a lot."
I scratched the back of my head, feeling awkward for no reason.
Then Aria, who'd been watching from the side, spoke.
"So that's why you're so good at cooking, Brother."
"Good at it, my ass. I just got used to it because there was a lot to do."
Objectively, I didn't think I was that good.
I'd just gotten used to it because there were many situations where I had to do it.
And even that—before Aria came back, I'd often lived alone and just threw together rough meals.
"At best, I'd say I'm about average housewife level."
"To my taste, it's better than any other cooking."
"Come on, that's going too far. You probably went to famous restaurants often when you were abroad, right?"
I didn't know the details of Aria's life abroad, but it wasn't hard to guess that she'd often gone to good restaurants.
For one thing, Ms. Linnea, a formerly famous performer, had considerable wealth, and she was definitely not the type to be stingy with Aria.
I didn't know for sure, but whenever they stopped in another country for a competition, she probably took Aria to Michelin-starred restaurants at least.
"Well, that's true. But still, I like your cooking best, Brother."
"Sure, thanks, even if it's just empty flattery."
I'd never eaten at one, but no matter what, a Michelin-starred restaurant probably wasn't worse than my cooking.
But Aria murmured with an odd expression.
"I mean it..."
"Is your cooking really that good, big brother?"
Apparently sensing that Aria's reaction didn't look like empty flattery, Seo-yeon asked me.
"You think it's that good? If I were that good, I'd have dropped out of college and opened a restaurant by now."
"I think you'd do well if you opened a restaurant, though?"
Aria's interjected voice wasn't joking.
If my skills got hyped up any further, I was afraid of the reaction later.
"It's just ordinary home cooking. Don't get your hopes up."
"But Ms. Aria's saying that?"
"Anyway, don't get your hopes up. Whether it's really that good or not, it's better this way, right? If you don't expect anything, you won't be disappointed, and if it exceeds expectations, you'll be that much more impressed."
"I've already got my hopes up, so that's probably impossible. So work hard and make it tastier than I expect, big brother."
This is driving me crazy.
This one probably has an expensive palate too.
The one saving grace was that there was still plenty of time until dinner, so I had more than enough time to prepare.
I thought back to what had been in the fridge this morning.
Everything I needed was there, but the ingredients were still too sparse to prepare something special with care.
"Then let's stop by the grocery store on the way. I need to buy some ingredients."
"I'm fine with that, but you don't need to go all out. I'm the one who suddenly decided to mooch a meal."
"If you're coming over for a meal, I should put some care into it. Besides, Aria and I are eating too, so I'll just think of it as making dinner a bit fancy."
I said that, but I had no set menu.
Couldn't be helped. I'd decide while looking around the store.
We got off the bus earlier than we would have for home and walked a bit, arriving at the shopping mall I'd visited with Aria before.
Even though it was called a shopping mall, it was a general shopping mall, so the only floor where you could buy groceries was the one basement floor with the supermarket.
We went down to the basement, took out a cart, and headed to the fresh food section.
Maybe because we weren't in a space with just the three of us this time, or because I was pushing the cart, Aria and Seo-yeon didn't cling to me.
"Meat, scallops..."
I picked out packs of chuck flap tail and ribeye cap, and added a pack of scallops too.
Then asparagus and other vegetables as well.
"Are you making steak?"
"You don't want it?"
"It's not that I don't want it, but I eat steak all the time anyway, so I wanted home cooking made by you. Aren't you good at home cooking?"
"I said I make it ordinarily, not that I'm good at it. Anyway, since we're here, let's buy it. Even if we don't use it today, we can eat it later."
After paying for the ingredients in the cart, I shoved them into the bags I'd also paid for and headed home.
"Excuse me..."
When we arrived at our house, Seo-yeon carefully looked around inside before taking off her shoes and coming in.
"It's the same as ever here."
"Haven't more things changed?"
Since it was the house we'd lived in since childhood, it had aged over time, and we'd done quite a lot of repairs and renovations here and there.
By now, it was fair to say it was a different house with only the location the same.
If it were an apartment, we'd just wait for redevelopment, but this was one advantage of a standalone house.
"Still, the people living here were you and Dad. The furniture design and layout, the whole atmosphere—it doesn't seem that different from back then."
"Really? I've lived here the whole time, so I thought it was just familiar to me."
Chatting like that, we headed to the kitchen and washed our hands.
"Aria, get Seo-yeon something to drink."
"Yes, Brother."
I could hear Aria going to Seo-yeon, who was sitting on the living room sofa, and asking what kind of drink she wanted.
Aria would handle hosting the guest well, so I should focus on cooking for the remaining time.
Since she'd ordered home cooking rather than Western food like steak, I planned to use good ingredients but make the menu as usual.
First, I thinly sliced the heavily marbled chuck flap tail, then lightly seared it in an earthenware pot.
Once the initially seared chuck flap tail turned golden brown with a Maillard crust, I set the meat aside and seared the scallops in the oil left at the bottom.
I gave both sides of the scallops a Maillard crust as well to bring out the texture, then added seasoned doenjang directly to the browned meat juices stuck to the bottom, plus half as much ssamjang and half as much gochujang, and stir-fried it.
Then I added zucchini, green onion, minced garlic, and shiitake mushrooms, stir-fried briefly, and poured in water and a stock pack to boil.
"I'll add the peppers and tofu later, and next..."
I set aside part of the thinly trimmed chuck flap tail to put on top of the doenjang stew, and wrapped the rest around the scallops.
Then I trimmed the lean, mild-flavored ribeye cap and seared it with butter and asparagus.
The inside didn't need to be cooked much. What mattered was the Maillard crust on the outside.
I took out the properly cooked meat and asparagus, and this time prepared the pot rice.
Since I planned to cook it further when making the steak pot rice, I had to avoid overcooking the inside.
I trimmed bamboo shoots and chives and placed them on the pot rice, and finally sliced the ribeye cap like steak and laid it on top.
Lastly, I added tofu and cheongyang peppers for a spicy kick to the doenjang stew and let it boil a bit longer, and that was it.
Other than that, I took out some suitable side dishes I'd made before and set them on the table.
"Both of you, come eat!"
"Yes."
"Coming!"
Maybe the two had been talking on the sofa, because their answers came from the same direction at the same time.
"Whoa, did you really make all this, big brother?"
Seo-yeon, who arrived first, was surprised.
From my perspective, I didn't feel like I'd made anything that grand, but I was still proud that she was impressed.
Then Aria arrived at the table too, and the three of us sat down.
Seo-yeon slowly brought the food to her mouth.
I swallowed inwardly and waited for Seo-yeon's assessment.
Would Seo-yeon say the food was good?