Do I Still Look Like a Little Sister to You?

Technically, it was a supply closet.

But if I were being brutally honest, it was nothing more than a dumping ground for every scrap of junk the company had ever accumulated. A telephone that looked like it had been manufactured twenty years ago. Partitions so thoroughly decayed they were practically dust. Even a CRT monitor that would have been right at home in a museum exhibit. No matter how big the corporation, places like this — glorified trash heaps — always seemed to exist somewhere. Plenty of people had declared, at one point or another, that they were going to clean the whole thing out. Not a single one of them had ever actually done it.

"What are you looking for?"

"I need a power strip."

"A power strip… where would those be…"

That said, painting a 2020s conglomerate as this kind of slapdash operation would be unfair. Not every corner of the supply closet was a landfill. The archaeological dig site I mentioned earlier was confined to the far, far back of the room. Closer to the entrance, the items that actually mattered for day-to-day office life — the ones purchased recently enough to still look clean — were reasonably well organized.

The problem was the decades. The company had been around long enough that the accumulated junk had to go somewhere. Every time someone shoved another relic into the corners, the space available for modern supplies shrank a little more.

Which meant…

Thud.

"Ah, sorry."

"No, it's fine. The power strips are probably further in. Want to wait here?"

"No… you're already going to all this trouble for me, Sunbae. The least I can do is come with you."

Seon Yeonwoo stuck so close behind me that we might as well have been pressed together — though saying it that way makes me sound oblivious. Even as cramped as the supply closet was, it was still a space people walked through to pull things out and put things away. There was a reasonable amount of room.

And yet Yeonwoo glued herself to my back all the same.

I considered messing with her a little — not quite a joke, not quite not a joke — but no.

"Yeonwoo."

"Yes?"

"Are you scared of the dark?"

"Not particularly."

"You're just stuck so close to me. I figured maybe you were scared and trying to lean on me."

"……"

I'd asked on purpose, laying the groundwork for her to start playing around. The supply closet wasn't exactly a high priority for the company, so it was pretty dark in here. Nobody seemed to care much about the lighting. The fixtures had the same exhausted glow as the ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bathroom lights in some run-down bar, barely clinging to life. You could still make out what was in front of you well enough, though — which meant the only reason Yeonwoo was pressed this tight against me was…

Bump.

"Sorry. It is a little dark in here."

"That's fair."

She was absolutely planning something. And not just any something — she was planning to mess with me in a distinctly sexual way. Pure play, of course. Actually having sex with Yeonwoo right here would have been absurd. What I wanted was to get us into an atmosphere where that kind of thing wouldn't feel awkward between us.

For example… stopping dead in my tracks mid-step.

Thud!

"Eep!"

Yeonwoo collided with my back. I felt something soft and light bounce off me, but I pointed upward as if nothing had happened.

"I think it was around here."

She'd been gearing up to mess with me, and now that the opportunity had been yanked out from under her, she rubbed her bumped forehead with a faintly sulky look. She didn't need to look so put out, though.

"Ah, never mind. Must be further in."

As if nothing had happened at all, I pushed deeper into the closet — deep enough that no one outside would be able to see us.

Here, then…

"Um… Sunbae."

"Yes?"

"It's so dark… I can barely see ahead of me. Would it be okay if I held onto you while we walk?"

This was the zone where Yeonwoo could mess with me as openly as she wanted.

"Your eyesight that bad, Yeonwoo?"

"Mmm… maybe I've been working too hard. My eyes feel all dry and scratchy."

It wasn't nearly dark enough to warrant this much drama. Still, she was being cute about it, so I held out my hand for her to take — and Yeonwoo just smiled at me, her expression loaded with pure mischief, and ignored the gesture completely.

Instead—

Slick.

—she latched onto my back. Not a full hug from behind, exactly. She gripped my back firmly and pressed her chest flush against me, grinning with unmistakable intent.

"I told you I can barely see, didn't I? Holding hands wouldn't really help."

Bullshit, and a transparent little scheme on top of it. But—

"Mmm… alright. Just follow carefully."

"Okaaay."

—I let her get away with it and kept walking. That kind of indulgence was the sort of thing that happened between a little sister who insisted she wasn't scared of the dark, ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and an older brother who played along for her sake.

And so, in the older-brother-and-little-sister dynamic we'd just improvised on the spot, the little sister pressed her chest firmly against her brother's back and moved forward with him.

Which meant…

Squish. Squish. Squish. Squish.

With every step, Yeonwoo's soft, rounded breasts mashed against my back. Honestly, calling them large would have been a stretch. Park Eunseo was a full B-cup, so Yeonwoo was probably somewhere in that borderline zone between a full A and a barely-there B.

But relative to the average? That was nothing to sneeze at. And given Yeonwoo's tiny frame, her current size actually suited her better than anything bigger would have. A face so small you almost wondered how her eyes, nose, and mouth all fit on it. Shoulders so delicate they looked like they might only span half the width of mine. Thighs that seemed thinner than my own forearms. The descriptions were exaggerated, sure — but that was how small Yeonwoo was.

And yet the volume pressing into my back was unmistakably real…

"Hey, Yeonwoo."

"Yes?"

"I think holding hands would be better. Uh…"

I'd engineered this situation to a degree, sure, but walking around with Yeonwoo rubbing her chest against my back was making things distinctly uncomfortable below the belt.

Of course, Yeonwoo—

"…Is something wrong?"

—picked up on my predicament immediately, her grin turning even more wicked as she peeked around to look at me.

So I played along.

"No, it's just… this much contact is a little, you know."

"I'm fine with it, though?"

"I'm the one who's having a hard time here."

"Mmm… why are you having a hard time?"

"Wellll…"

I put on a show of being flustered. Averted my eyes. Bent slightly at the waist. Walked with an awkward, hunched gait. And the more I did—

"…Does something hurt, Sunbae?"

"No, it's not that it hurts…"

—the more Yeonwoo smeared that wicked look across her face, clearly calculating how best to tease me.

"Mmm… well, I guess there's no helping it."

"…Thanks."

Apparently she'd finished thinking it through, because she peeled herself off my back without a fight. Unexpectedly cooperative.

"But like you said earlier — holding hands is still okay, right?"

"Hands?"

"Yes. I really am having a hard time walking in the dark."

"Hands are fine… yeah. Here."

I held out my hand.

And she clamped down hard—

"Yeonwoo?"

—with the look of someone who'd just sprung a trap. One corner of her mouth curled up as she pulled my entire arm into her embrace, pressing it firmly against her chest instead of simply taking my hand.

The soft pressure I'd felt against my back was now concentrated against my forearm in far finer detail. Soft. Squishy. Smooth. The higher resolution of the sensation only made it clearer that she was smaller than the other women — and yet—

"Shall we go, Sunbae?"

"Ah… right."

—with that rabbit-like, baby-faced expression of hers twisted into such a wicked little smile, I found myself thinking that this size suited her perfectly. I started walking again, one step at a time.

Slowly. Really slowly. Extremely slowly. Making it abundantly clear that she was the reason my pace had slowed to a crawl. ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Which wasn't exactly a lie. I was only pretending to be flustered because of her… but I was also deliberately dragging this out so I could feel more of her, and so she could feel more of me.

Slowly, slowly, slowly, we walked.

"It should be here."

"Ah… okay."

"I'll grab one. Just let go of my arm for a second…"

"I'm scared."

"……"

We'd reached the power strips, but Yeonwoo refused to release my arm. So I had no choice. ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I reached up with my free hand and pulled one out.

Mission accomplished. Time to head back out.

"Alright, let's go."

"Ah… okay."

But leaving meant today's little game was over. Yeonwoo didn't bother hiding her disappointment, hugging my arm even tighter with a faintly sulky expression.

I gave her a gentle nudge.

"You shouldn't do this with other guys, Yeonwoo."

"…Do what, exactly?"

"Pressing up against their backs like it's nothing. Hugging their arms. That kind of thing."

"Why not?"

"Guys will get the wrong idea."

"Mmm…"

I played the concerned older brother — fretting over her, looking out for her, thinking of her best interests. Every flavor of performance. Our actual relationship had already shifted past the point where I needed to keep up the big-brother act… but I had my reasons for planting that fantasy of an older brother in her head and watering it carefully.

"Then are you a guy too, Sunbae?"

"Huh?"

"I thought you were more like an older brother. I figured you wouldn't have those kinds of dirty thoughts about me… but I was wrong?"

"No, that's…"

The thrill of the forbidden. The same guilty charge Chu Yeonju felt whenever she looked at me — doing every filthy thing imaginable while still carrying the conviction that they shouldn't be dating — I wanted Yeonwoo to feel that too. That sense of transgression would turn into pleasure, and that pleasure would become fuel…

"I trust you, Sunbae…"

"I don't think of you that way, so you don't need to worry."

"…Why not?"

"Because you're like a little sister to me."