It didn’t take long for Jonghyun to notice the change in his sister – a few more dresses, many more outings. She used to return home punctually after work, but now she’s always out on the excuse of “meeting a friend” or “having dinner with colleagues”. Of course, some of them are real, but there’s also a part of it that scream “lying” to Jonghyun’s face. She wasn’t his elder sister for no reason -  over the years, he’d grown to understand her subtle actions, when she’s hiding secrets from the rest of the family she tends to touch her left earlobe (and Jonghyun noticed that the frequency of her doing that action had increased tremendously over the past few days). She’d appear to be on the phone for half the time at night after dinner, when the rest of the family was cooped on the couch switching channels looking for a bearable drama to watch. She’d smile to herself while staring at the screen of her phone before typing down a few replies. She’d ignore him a bit more than usual, and that’s the very last bit that Jonghyun dislikes the most.

Jonghyun wasn’t really a needy brother. He has moments that he needs his sister, for her presence or subtle reassurance, or simply just to talk to him about the casual life that they have. Jonghyun was a little bit more insecure though – as a student who dropped out of school to be a freelance lyricist (and he’s trying composing as well), and also the bad childhood he had which he refuses to recall up till today, oh, and a failed romance because he courted the girl to realize she’s not exactly who he wants. It was the failed romance that makes him cautious of every other guy that his sister appears to be dating – he was unsure if the guy(s) really wanted his sister for who she is, or they wanted her to be someone she isn’t, because Jonghyun knew that the breakup hurt his ex so much that he decided that he should prevent further tragedies like this, especially if his sister would be the one hurting more when the relationship finally breaks off.

Therefore when Sodam has a new sign of being attached (or potentially attached to this one guy who keeps harassing her), Jonghyun decided that he needs to intervene (once again).

“Who’s that?”

Eh? His sister replied with a tinge of unexpectedness. “It’s just a friend.” She replied, and Jonghyun knew that of course, this isn’t just any other friend. She’d reply with the name if it was really just a friend.

“Boyfriend?”

“Jonghyun ah,” his sister started after realizing that her brother was too sharp to be deceived. “He’s a really sweet one. He has mannerisms and knows how to treat a girl right.”

“Remember the previous ones? You said they were nice too.”

“Kibum’s different, you’d love him.” Sodam replied while smiling to herself, while Jonghyun snorted in response.

“He’d better pray that he passes my tests.” Jonghyun replied.

“He will, and you’re going to love him for that.”