“Hyunyoung-sshi . . .”

Hyunyoung looked up distractedly from the script she was reading. “Yes, sunbae?”

Sungyeol stirred his spoon in the empty ice cream bowl for a moment, wondering if he should ask her. They were both at the ice cream parlor and were having yet another practice session two weeks later. Oh, rather, it had just ended and the two of them were enjoying their ice cream as a reward. “Um . . .” he hesitated.

“Sunbae, what is it?” Hyunyoung pressed.

“It’s nothing, really . . .” He shrugged. It felt awkward to be asking her but he didn’t really want to ask others in fear they might never let him live it down. Plus, he trusted Hyunyoung not to tell anyone like how she did not tell anyone that he had secretly been taking practice with her.

“If it’s nothing, you wouldn’t have brought it up in the first place,” she reasoned, taking a bite of her ice cream.

Good point, he admitted to himself. He smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his nape awkwardly. “Well, it’s just that it might be a little awkward for me to ask you this but —”

“Has this got to do with your crush on my sister?”

His eyes widened in amazement. “How did you know that it was relating to your sister?” Sungyeol answered back with a question.

She had this little grin on her face. “Aha! So it does have to do with my sister.”

He could not stop the blush that crept from the back of his neck to his cheeks and could only awkwardly rub his nape as he nodded. “Uh . . . is it that obvious that I like your sister?” He was suddenly worried. If his sister could tell that he had a crush on Jihyun, would anyone else have noticed it?

“Don’t worry, only Sungjong and I noticed,” she reassured him but she did not wipe that grin off from her face. “Our assumption was confirmed the other day when eonnie took that heavy box from you and you kinda gawked after her.”

Sungyeol blushed harder. “R ― Really? It was that obvious?” He facepalmed and groaned as he placed his hands on the table and rested his forehead on the back of his hands, hiding his face in shame. He had never felt so embarrassed in his life before.

She giggled and nodded. She thought his reaction was adorable. “Do you really like my sister that much? Why do you like her, anyway?”

He looked up and shrugged. “What’s not to like about her?” he asked back. “She’s beautiful, she can act, she can sing, she can dance, she cooks, she’s strong, she has a great stamina, plus she’s really nice and friendly and she’s very outgoing and she’s very easy to talk to.” He could go on forever but he didn’t want Hyunyoung to think that he was obsessed with Jihyun.

“It sounds like you’re obsessed with her.”

He mentally facepalmed himself.

“Does it?” he said weakly.

She nodded. “I get it all the time,” she told him. “Everyone always ask me what my sister is like. But I don’t tell them anything because I don’t feel like they deserve to know.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” she hastily said, “because the only the reason why I don’t tell them anything is because I feel like if they want to know more about my sister, they should hang out with her.”

“But I don’t want to look so desperate and I don’t want to make it look obvious that I like her,” he whined, pouting a little.

And some people would find it hard to believe that he’s my sunbae, Hyunyoung thought to herself. Sungyeol really looked like a kid when he was pouting like that.

Sungyeol, on the other hand, mused thoughtfully. “Is there a way for me to get with your sister?” he wanted to know.

Hyunyoung forced a smile. That’s the same question they ask me all the time. “Um, I don’t know, really,” she confessed. “I haven’t seen my sister in so long, even if we have a good sisterly relationship.”

“Has she ever had a boyfriend?”

She shook her head. “Not that I can remember. I do remember a lot of guys going after her. I mean, she is a beauty so I don’t really blame them.” She smiled to herself, remembering how much her sister used to complain about them all the time. She took a sneak peak at Sungyeol, who was lost in his own thoughts. “Do you really like her that much?”

Sungyeol chewed on his bottom lip, not sure how to answer. “I don’t know,” he said after a while. “I do like your sister but I’m not sure how deep it goes.”

“Would you be willing to be by her side no matter what she’s doing?” she wanted to know. “Like, if she asks you to follow her somewhere without telling you where she’s going, would you follow her just because you’d want to be with her?”

He paused to think about it before finally nodding. “Yes, yes, I would.”

“Do you want to see her smile all the time?”

“I don’t want her to be upset, that’s for sure.”

Hyunyoung interrogated him for a while about her sister before coming to a conclusion that Sungyeol does, indeed, like her sister. By that time, it was already time for them to leave the ice cream parlor.

The two of them walked home in silence, each deep in their own thoughts. When they reached their home, Hyunyoung turned to Sungyeol and smiled. “I think you really do like my sister,” she said. “And if you really want to be with her, then go for it.”

“Really? You’d approve?”

She nodded once. “My sister deserves someone who can make her happy. And she’s been, well, really happy lately,” she told him. “I think it’s because of you. And you two spend a lot of time together, right?”

He nodded. “Yeah, like we’d go out for jogs together and I’ve been following her to the animal shelter, as well.” He glanced at Hyunyoung. “You don’t mind me asking you about your sister, right? I mean, she’s your sister and you seem to have a lot of guys asking about her a lot and —”

“Most of them are idiots, but you’re not an idiot so that means you’re an exception to this.” She gave a non-committal shrug.

He breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Hyunyoung approved of him dating her sister. “I guess all that’s left for me to do is to ask her out.” He grew worried at that thought. He had no idea how he was going to ask her out.

“Take it slow,” she advised him.

“Right.” He smiled gratefully at her and ruffled her hair in a brotherly way. “Thank you, Hyunyoung-ah. You’ve been a great help not only about your sister, but with my lines as well. I can pretty much say my lines while sleeping. And that’s a relief because the play is coming up in two weeks. Gah, I am so nervous.”

“You can do it, sunbae.”

“Thanks, Hyunyoung.”

“I guess this means you won’t need my help anymore?” Hyunyoung glanced up at him as she clutched the script to her chest. “You’ve improved a lot, too. Your pronunciation and your projection are good.”

Sungyeol shook his head. “I don’t want to hog you all to myself and it’s really thanks to you that I am able to remember all my lines,” he laughed lightly. He pinched her cheeks playfully. “Go on in; the sun is setting.” He watched as she bowed politely and made her way back to her house. “Oh, Hyunyoung, one more thing!” he sud