First Course: Sister-in-Law Jieun 02 — "Touch My Sister and You're Dead!"
Clunk—
At last the elevator lurched back into motion.
Crowds spilled out on the first floor, and the car that now held only the two of us descended to the underground parking garage.
We hurried into the car and turned the key, yet even getting out of the garage proved an ordeal. From the exit ramp that climbed from B3 to B2, a solid mass of vehicles already sat bumper-to-bumper, every brake light glowing red. It seemed every building in the complex had emptied at the same instant.
The damp, mildewed air peculiar to underground lots filled the cabin. My sister-in-law, who had finally caught her breath, glanced through the rear-view mirror at the endless line of cars, let out a soft sigh, then turned to me with a languid smile.
"Well, with snow like this, of course everyone's rushing. Still… being stuck with you like this is actually kind of nice, Jebu. On a day like today the subway would be absolute hell-train."
"True. Let me call Jihye first."
I connected the Bluetooth and dialed my wife. I explained that we had left early but the traffic was so bad it would take forever.
"I was thinking we could all go eat something nice together tonight… what a shame."
Her voice filled the car, pouty and playful. Even so, the younger sister who doted on her older sibling spoke directly to Jieun, who was listening beside me.
"You wore heels again today, didn't you? When you get here I'll bring sneakers down, so call me the second you arrive, okay?"
"Yeah, I know, Jihye."
The look in my sister-in-law's eyes as she answered was strangely complicated. Then, as if something had just occurred to her, her eyes sparkled and she began to tease me.
"By the way, Jebu… that thing that happened in the elevator earlier… I'm still deciding whether to tattle to my little sister. What should I do? Haha."
"Agh, Nunim! Please! That was just an unavoidable physiological reaction, okay? Don't get the wrong idea!"
As I floundered through excuses, she burst into bright laughter. The clear sound filled the narrow car, and the earlier embarrassment slowly transformed into a strangely sweet tension. I had worried that, given her past trauma with a stalker, I might have made her uncomfortable without meaning to—yet her easy joking lightened my heart at once.
"Tch, don't look so wronged. Still… doesn't it just mean you got that excited because of me? It's fine, I understand. Men are all like that."
"But I'm really curious what face my little sister would make if I told her."
She tilted her head slightly and gave me a meaningful look. I felt her gaze but couldn't bring myself to turn; I simply gripped the wheel tighter, face burning.
My wife and my sister-in-law possessed completely opposite charms. Jihye kept her hair short and lived in hoodies and jeans—easygoing, tomboyish. Jieun, by contrast, had long flowing hair, feminine makeup, a blouse and tight skirt that emphasized her glamorous figure, sheer nude stockings, and high heels. A perfect, heavenly woman. Having a beauty like that sitting in the passenger seat and teasing me so gently—sister-in-law or not—made it impossible not to be conscious of her. Especially after what had just happened.
While we traded those silly, faintly suggestive jokes, the car finally crawled out of the underground garage at a snail's pace.
And the moment we emerged into the open air, both of us were left speechless.
"Wow… the whole world really is white. This is insane…"
"Um… do you think we'll even make it home today, Nunim?"
Anxiety about the commute home was written all over our faces.
"Wow, I never imagined it would pile up this much so fast. Jebu, what do we do?"
"All I can do is sigh. Want to know the real horror story? Last year during the blizzard, Deputy Kim left at six, took the bus, and didn't get home until three in the morning."
At my ominous words she dragged a hand down her cheek and bit her lip hard.
"Really? Three a.m.? That's too much… Last time it snowed the roads were bad, but never like this. This is bad…"
"It's worse than that, Nunim. We're almost out of gas."
"Huh? Come to think of it, Jebu, didn't you say you'd fill up on the way home today?"
"Yeah. I left just enough to reach the station near the house—but right now our mileage is less than a quarter of normal. And with the heater blasting…"
I bit my lip in frustration; her eyes flickered violently as she grasped the seriousness of it. We had to take the highway right after leaving the office if we wanted any chance of getting home, and the low-fuel light could come on at any second.
"We can still make it home… right? If it really comes to that, shouldn't we start looking for a motel near the office?"
The word "motel" leaving her lips overlapped with the close press of bodies in the elevator earlier, striking my ear with a strangely sensual charge.
"Let's… just watch the situation a little longer."
My vague hope proved pointless; the car came to a complete standstill and refused to move. Determined to save even a drop of fuel, she hurriedly switched off the heater. Outside the blizzard howled, and the temperature inside plummeted almost instantly; cold air began to seep in.
"We have to save gas, but… ugh, it's still cold."
She rubbed her palms together and curled into herself. Wearing only a thin office coat, she had no defense against the chill.
"Geez, that's why I keep telling you to dress like Jihye and wear a long padded coat! You come out in just a coat because you want to look stylish, and now you're freezing!"
Even as I grumbled I shrugged out of my own padded jacket and draped it over her lap and skirt. She looked up at me with round eyes, then, for some reason, the corner of her mouth curved upward ever so slightly.
"No… I wasn't that cold. Just a little chilly… Thank you, Jebu."
She carefully pulled the jacket around her legs. As the residual warmth of my body reached her, the tension in her frame seemed to ease a little.
"I feel like I'll survive thanks to you. But aren't you cold, Jebu?"
"I'm fine for now. Maybe the worry that we won't make it home is keeping me warm."
We talked of this and that, and by the time we finally reached the highway entrance more than an hour had already passed. The sight that greeted us forced us to abandon all hope.
Cars that had slid on the hill had piled into a multi-vehicle crash, completely barricading the on-ramp like a wall of wreckage.
"Th-that… Jebu, what is that? An accident, right? What are we going to do…?"
Every trace of color drained from her face. Judging that there was truly no way forward, I dialed my wife again. When I told her the situation made it impossible to get home, she insisted safety came first and that we should grab a room nearby immediately. Then she drove the point home with a joke.
"You better book two rooms! If you lay a finger on my sister, you're dead! Haha!"
"Haha… got it. Don't worry."
I laughed awkwardly, ended the call, and looked at Jieun. Her cheeks had flushed pink and her expression was complicated.
"Jihye's something else… Funny, right?"
She murmured, avoiding my eyes in embarrassment.
"If we wait any longer there won't be rooms left. I'm turning around."
I made a quick decision and forced the car into a U-turn lane, then stepped on the accelerator toward the motel district clustered near the office. My wife's joke and the sticky sensation from the elevator earlier spun round and round in my head, sending a sharp jolt of stimulation through something deep inside me.
"A m-motel? Do we really have to go that far? We could just wait it out in the car overnight…"
Now that the destination was real, something seemed to weigh on her. She clenched and unclenched her fists anxiously, stealing glances at my profile. Her breathing sounded a little quicker than before.
"Nunim, with no gas left, if we spend the night in the car they'll find us both frozen solid like dongtae tomorrow morning. Haha."
"Dongtae… You always have to put it that way. Fine, no more jokes—just hurry."
When we finally reached the motel district it was already a sea of cars jostling for rooms. Unable to push any farther into the alleys, I parked far out on the periphery. Opening the door, we stepped into snow that swallowed our ankles.
"Nunim, can you walk? It's piled up to your ankles and you're in heels."
She looked down at her own feet with a helpless expression. Snowflakes were already landing on the sheer nude stockings.
"Jebu… making me walk this road in these shoes is just cruel, isn't it? If I twist an ankle it'll be a disaster…"
"Nothing we can do. Hold onto my shoulder. I'll support you."
I lightly wrapped an arm around her waist and steadied her. What should have been a ten-minute walk took twice as long because of her high-heeled steps and the swirling snow. I had already wrapped my padded jacket tightly over her coat, yet her smooth legs exposed beneath the skirt still trembled from the cold. When snow began to pile on her hair I gently brushed it away with my hand. She shivered but surrendered herself to my touch.
"Jebu… it's so cold… I feel like my ankles are going to snap…"
Her voice quavered. Looking up at me with an almost tearful, pitiful expression, she clung even more desperately to my arm, pressing it against her chest so she wouldn't fall. Through the layers of winter clothing the full, soft volume of her breasts transferred clearly to my forearm.
"Just a little farther. Careful."
Just as her legs truly began to buckle, a single motel finally came into view—the most remote one in the district, rundown and shabby at a glance.
The moment we stepped up to the counter I asked the owner if any rooms were left. The old man clicked his tongue and checked the monitor.
"Aigoo, with the blizzard every room's gone—except one. It's an ondol room. You want it?"
I looked back at Jieun. She seemed frightened by the motel's dilapidated atmosphere; she tugged at my sleeve and whispered.
"Jebu… it's too old. Let's just try somewhere else, okay?"
"Nunim, there won't be rooms anywhere else. And even if we go back to the car there's no gas, and if you walk any farther in this state you'll actually collapse."
While I was still persuading her, the front door opened and the sound of other guests entering reached us. Panicked at the thought of losing even this last room, I hurriedly shoved my card across the counter.
"Sir, we'll take that room! Charge it right now!"
Jieun closed her mouth at my urgency. Her eyes were full of unease, yet the cold that was already biting into her body left her with no strength left to refuse.
In the end we took the key card the owner handed over and stepped into the elevator. Unlike the packed elevator earlier, this one was spacious with only the two of us—yet a silence far more suffocating than anything in the car settled between us.
In the mirror Jieun's face was flushed scarlet, and I was busy swallowing dryly.