Home Workout
Home Workout
It probably wasn't her intention, but thanks to Victoria's declaration, the mood at the table just fizzled out, and the gathering broke up leaving a slightly awkward aftertaste behind.
That was only natural.
When Victoria came out like that, I had nothing more to say either, and Aria and Seo-yeon seemed to be burning with a strange competitive spirit over Victoria's behavior.
In fact, the whole way home with me, Aria seemed lost in thought.
It had truly been a long time since Aria and I had walked together without exchanging a single word.
It was a little lonely, but this wasn't bad either.
I needed time to think just as much as she did.
I'd steeled my resolve, but there was more than enough to think about beyond that.
'What do I do?'
It felt belated, but even if things went well, I wondered whether I could really take responsibility for Seo-yeon and Victoria too.
They were both young ladies from chaebol families that ran major corporations.
To settle things, I would inevitably end up clashing with both families.
There were two clearest options.
Give up money, honor, power, and even family, and run away.
Or, conversely, seize power.
The fortunate part was that neither the former nor the latter was entirely unrealistic.
The problem was that I had to choose a path now.
The first option wasn't impossible because it was obvious Hancheon Group would soon be shaken.
Chairman Han, my maternal grandfather, still looked vigorous on the outside, but he was quite elderly.
To be honest, it wouldn't be strange if he collapsed tomorrow.
Even if he didn't collapse, the day he retired from the front lines wasn't far off. Once that happened, Hancheon Group would be thrown into chaos fighting over their own interests, and they'd actually welcome Seo-yeon's absence.
As for Victoria, well, if she wanted to live with me in Korea in the first place, she'd have to settle things herself and even naturalize.
Then what about seizing power outright?
With no base of support compared to the other contenders, I would have to rely solely on Chairman Han's favor and lock down the succession in a short period.
As long as I inherited Hancheon Group, there would at least be no problem maintaining relationships with the three of them.
I'd tie Victoria to me through marriage, hold a ceremony with Aria in Sweden, and as for Seo-yeon—unfortunate as it was—we'd all just live in de facto marriages like that.
After all, the only things legally prohibited in the Republic of Korea were incestuous marriage and bigamy.
Adultery laws were gone now, and there was no provision to punish consensual incest between adults.
'Both of these are insane situations, now that I think about it...'
Once I'd steeled my resolve, I had no intention of backing out now.
But separate from that, this was a matter involving multiple people's futures. I had to carefully set a direction and make a plan.
"Hah..."
A sigh escaped me without thinking.
No matter how I looked at it, I was just an ordinary college student.
The kind of ordinary college student who worried about grades and employment, but unless something was truly urgent or important, put it off for future me and stayed busy enjoying each day playing games.
In fact, if I told the me from a few months ago about the current situation, he probably would never believe it.
In the end, there was a limit to how far I could get with armchair speculation on my own.
Even though it was urgent, it would be better to consult everyone about this matter later when we were all gathered.
"Brother."
"Hm?"
Just as my thoughts were settling, Aria called out to me.
Aria's hair, tinged with the evening glow, sparkled gold.
"Do you want me to work hard at music again?"
"Why all of a sudden?"
"For some reason, I felt like I lost to Victoria earlier. Hehe, strange, right? I'm clearly far ahead of her in both music and my relationship with you."
Neither Aria nor Seo-yeon had needed to be wary of Victoria as a rival until now.
Because the history and bonds they had with me were different.
But precisely because of that, there were things only Victoria could say.
"That's for you to decide. Whether it's living as you do now or doing music again, if it's something you truly want, Aria, I'll support you."
"I prefer being by your side. If it's necessary for that, I'll work hard and be active again, but if not, I want to stay by your side."
Aria answered immediately without a moment's hesitation.
I stroked her head as I spoke.
"I'm happier to hear you say that, Aria."
"Really?"
"Of course. It means you treasure me more than anything else."
From my perspective, Aria's words could only make me happier. We wanted each other to be happy—and to be happy together.
Only then did Aria seem to finish her worrying, and she smiled her usual smile again.
We headed home along the road draped in twilight.
Today, somehow, the way back felt a little longer.
* * *
Two weeks passed after that day.
The problem was that the four of us hadn't gathered once since then.
It wasn't that things had gotten awkward between us after last time—it was purely a scheduling issue.
Now that I thought about it, maybe Seo-yeon and Victoria had only been free because it was exam period.
During exams, they could make time using exams as an excuse, but normally they'd be busy in all sorts of ways.
From my perspective, it wasn't entirely bad.
I needed a mental break, and my time alone with Aria had increased.
I'd steeled myself to embrace multiple people, but that was premised on whether they could capture my heart.
That much wouldn't change.
It had been that way since I was five, and it would stay that way.
"Still, we need to all gather once within two weeks..."
Originally, my mother's birthday would have been something I'd casually show my face at and exchange greetings, but now it had unintentionally turned into an important milestone.
I wanted to set our future course of action before then.
Especially since the two of them would know the most detailed information about the two chaebol families that were the biggest obstacles in our relationship.
After finishing my thoughts, I ran a hand through my tousled hair and got up from bed.
It wasn't good to laze around too much just because I had no classes that day.
"Should I go for a jog or something?"
I changed into a gray hoodie and pants.
It was getting hot enough to feel like summer weather was approaching, but real summer would be a heat wave so bad I wouldn't even want to go outside.
So I usually signed up for a gym in summer, which meant this season was the last chance to comfortably run around the neighborhood.
When I came out of my room, I ran into Aria in her usual indoor clothes.
"Brother, where are you going?"
"I was thinking of going for a jog."
"In this hot weather...?"
Aria's indoor clothes had changed from a short-sleeved T-shirt to a camisole, probably because she felt the heat more than others.
Well, she'd been in Sweden until early this year.
Sweden's weather was naturally much cooler than Korea's, and if she'd gotten used to that Nordic weather and then encountered a Korean summer, it was only natural to feel suffocated.
The problem was that it wasn't even midday yet—it was morning—and real summer hadn't even arrived.
"When real summer comes, it'll be way hotter than this. I don't want to stay outside long in that kind of weather either, so I'm trying to run now while I can."
"It gets even hotter than this...?"
Aria asked back as if she couldn't believe it, but facts were facts.
"Yeah. So want to run with me? Working up a sweat once might actually make it easier to adapt to the heat."
"I—I'd love to go with you, more than anything. But if I did, I might collapse from heatstroke..."
"Hey, I'll be right next to you, so I don't think you'll collapse from heatstroke."
But Aria didn't seem to be entirely joking.
After agonizing for a long while between wanting to follow me and not wanting to run outside in this weather, Aria finally clapped her hands as if a good idea had struck her and said,
"Brother, then how about working out at home?"
"Well, that's not bad either..."
It obviously fell far short of a proper gym, but the environment for working out at home wasn't bad.
The living room was quite spacious with nothing to bump into, and although it fell far short of a gym, there was exercise equipment, and I could work out with the AC blasting.
"Then let's work out at home today. Ah, wait just a moment!"
Aria decided on her own like that and suddenly dashed off to her room.
I was a bit taken aback, but I didn't dislike this either.
I'd only been going to run because I had nothing to do anyway.
A moment later, Aria came out of her room in an outfit I'd never seen before.
"How is it, Brother?"
"You're not going to wear that in front of other people, right?"
A sports bra and yoga leggings. It was a fashion you'd see fairly often at the gym.
But it felt different when Aria wore it.
Her bare midriff showed her navel and the faint outline of her ribs.
The skintight leggings outlined the fuller curve of her rear and hips, contrasting with her slender figure.
Somehow, the thought of Aria going out in front of others like this didn't sit well with me at all.
To put it bluntly, it pissed me off.
Aria saw my expression and let out a little laugh.
"Jealous?"
"Obviously."
I admitted it calmly.
Honestly, at this point, not admitting it would be ridiculous.
"Don't worry. You know, right? This look is exclusively for you, Brother."
Aria seemed pleased even by that jealousy, and she came over and hugged me.
"Still, I'm happy. It makes me feel like you properly see me as a woman now."
"That's been true since the first time we met. I remember thinking, how could there be a child this pretty and delicate? I couldn't take my eyes off you. Even after I found out you were my half-sister, I wondered if we really shared the same blood."
"But back then, you treated me like a little sister."
"That's because it would've been a problem if I didn't think of you that way."
If I hadn't recognized her as my precious little sister, I might have been the one to make a move first.
"From my perspective, that would've been better."
"Back then was when you were wary of me, Aria."
Hadn't Aria fully opened her heart to me only after I went looking for her when she ran away from home?
But Aria puffed out her cheeks and protested.
"Of course it's true that I completely fell for you then, but it's also true that my heart was fluttering for you even before that."
"Really?"
This was the first I'd heard of it.
Just as I was honestly wondering if it was a lie, Aria continued.
"You know how I was terribly shy around strangers when I was little, right? Would a child that shy around strangers have had any other reason to greet you first?"
"Wasn't it because Linnea told you to?"
"Muu, I worked up so much courage to greet you."
Since it seemed like Aria would sulk if I teased her more, I poked her cheek lightly with my finger to soothe her.
"Okay, okay. But then we both fell for each other at first sight?"
"Hehe, would you call this mutual love at first sight?"
With that one line, Aria seemed to cheer up and rubbed her face against my chest.
That action was so cute that I instinctively hugged her and headed toward the living room sofa.
"Mm, chuu, haah..."
Just like that, holding each other, we kissed without either of us knowing who moved first.
Crossing a line once made crossing it again surprisingly easy, and thanks to that, we were now kissing at every opportunity.
"Weren't we going to work out?"
"We will. In a little bit."
I sealed Aria's lips again.
The outfit covered more area than last time, but it was still quite revealing, so I could feel her bare skin directly.
Even with such a slender figure, Aria's body didn't feel hard when I touched her.
Rather, everywhere I touched was soft and addictive. As I was touching Aria's stomach and sides, Aria murmured.
"Brother, you've been like a pervert lately."
"Tell me if you don't like it. I'll stop right away."
"That's unfair. There's no way I'd say I don't like it."
In the end, the two of us kissed again.
It was amazing even to me that we hadn't actually crossed the line despite all this.
Of course, part of it was that I was desperately holding back.
There was still a lot to do, and I felt like if I crossed the line now, I'd lose control.
Before Seo-yeon and Victoria even got their turn, I felt like I wouldn't be able to wait and would just choose Aria.
Still, wouldn't just a little bit be okay?
Like using tongue when we kissed—something like that.
Just as I was thinking about crossing the line just a little on the next kiss.
The doorbell rang.