Little Scheming Sister

Kaye sat at her usual table outside the café, the perfect position from which she could spy on Dara who was hanging out with some friends across the street. Kaye had been going out each day after school on these spying missions and was serious enough about these ventures that she had invested a few hundred dollars of her inheritance money into covert spying equipment. She had turned her school uniform into a complete spy ensemble, with her red plaid bow tie holding a tiny camera and the right pocket of her navy cardigan holding a sound amplifier that connected to an earpiece, which allowed her to hear otherwise inaudible conversations, such as the one happening across the street at this moment.

She had been listening to Dara talking with her friends for over an hour already, having not gained any useful information with which she could convince her older brother, Jaejoong, to break up with Dara, which was Kaye’s ultimate goal. It wasn’t that Kaye was evil. She may be a spoiled little brat – she would be the first to admit that – but she wasn’t evil. She just didn’t want to lose her brother. She had already lost her parents when she was young and was struggling now just to remember their faces. She couldn’t imagine going through that with Jaejoong, her only surviving family member. She knew that she was being selfish, standing in the way of his happiness. But she convinced herself that it wasn’t real happiness, that Dara was not the type of person capable of making her brother truly happy.

She just couldn’t prove that yet. The only piece of evidence she had so far was the fact that Dara was poor but hung out with rich friends. She had learned that tidbit the very first day she had gone out to spy on Dara and had promptly returned home to inform her brother. She tried to tell him that Dara was only using him, that she wasn’t after his heart but after his inheritance, but Jaejoong dismissed her worries. He said that everyone in their neighborhood was rich and that Dara, whose family managed to somehow live in such a nice area despite their meager wages, would of course make friends with the people around her. There were, after all, no other poor people for Dara to hang out with. Who else would she be friends with? That was Jaejoong’s explanation anyway. But Kaye had come up with her own theory. She imagined Dara’s family as this horrible manipulative group who had moved to their area solely to scam the people there before they would move onto the next rich neighborhood to do the same. In her mind, Dara was weaseling her way into Jaejoong’s heart and would leave him the moment he emptied his bank account for her.

She scooted up in her seat now and adjusted her hearing device as she peered intently at the group across the street, adamant about leaving that day with something – anything – to finally use as evidence in support of her theory. But just as Kaye was gearing up for something to happen, Dara apparently decided to leave her friends for the day and go home. Kaye saw her wave goodbye to Jiyong, Minji, and Daesung, and could hear her telling them all that she would see them tomorrow.

But then something interesting happened. Just as Dara turned to leave, Jiyong gently reached for her arm and quietly asked her out on a date. “Maybe Friday night?” he asked.

“I’m sorry, but I’m dating Jaejoong-oppa,” Dara said.

Jiyong shrugged in submission and then watched her leave their group of friends.

Kaye watched, too, smiling from her seat at the café across the street. It was the only interesting piece of information she had received since learning of Dara’s financial status and she knew that she had to somehow use this to her advantage.

And then, just like in those old cartoons where a light bulb suddenly appears above a character’s head, an idea immediately came to her.

Kaye’s plan to sabotage Dara’s relationship with Jaejoong was already underway.

This morning, she went to Jiyong and told him that Dara wasn’t really dating Jaejoong. She said that Dara was just playing hard to get. Kaye “proved” this with a handwritten message she produced at that moment, ostensibly written by Dara to Kaye:

Hi, Kaye. Just wanted to let you know that I told Jiyong I was dating your brother even though that’s not true. Hope you don’t mind! I just really like Jiyong but am afraid to admit it. He’s just so daebak! By the way, you’re really pretty. I wish I was as pretty as you.

Dara had of course never written such a letter. It was all Kaye’s doing, but Jiyong believed the lie and blushed as he held the letter. Kaye then told Jiyong to go to the café at eight o’clock that night. She said that Dara would meet him there.

Then Kaye went to Dara under a similar pretense. She produced another note that she herself had written, but she told Dara that it was written by Jiyong:

Hi, Dara. I didn’t know you were dating Jaejoong when I asked you out. I feel that things are weird between us now. I still want to be friends and hope that we can at least talk about this. Can you meet me at the café tonight at eight? Just as friends to talk?

When Dara read the note, she was a bit skeptical and asked why Jiyong had chosen Kaye as the messenger. Kaye replied simply that he was too nervous about approaching Dara in person. This seemed to make sense to Dara, and despite her initial skepticism, she eventually agreed to the rendezvous.

With the trap set, all Kaye had to do now was bring her brother to the café to witness the meeting and convince him that Dara and Jiyong were dating behind his back.

It wasn’t hard to get her brother to go to the café that night. All Kaye had to do was tell him that the café was offering free cookies to its customers.

“What kind of marketing strategy is that?” Jaejoong asked, as he walked with his sister down to the café.

Kaye shrugged. “They probably only give out a couple of free ones and then hope you’ll buy more.”

They made it to the end of the street and then turned the corner, seeing the café with its small outdoor tables just down the way. Kaye immediately spotted Jiyong and Dara at one of those tables and quickly held her arm out in front of her brother, stopping him from walking any further.

“Oh, look!” she said, trying to feign surprise. “Your girlfriend is cheating on you!”

“What?” Jaejoong peered down the street and saw Dara sitting with Jiyong. “Oh, that’s just her friend Jiyong.”

“Erm, why are they meeting secretly like that?” Kaye said, trying to instigate.

Jaejoong looked over at Kaye, confused. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, how come she didn’t tell you she’d be here? With him? Look, they’re sitting awfully close to each other. Don’t you think?”

Jaejoong shrugged. He thought that maybe it was a bit odd that Dara hadn’t mentioned anything to him about meeting Jiyong that night, but he wasn’t convinced that she was cheating. “Let’s go join them,” he said, resuming his walk.

Kaye stopped him again. “What? No! You really want to experience the awkwardness of catching your girlfriend cheating on you? You should just text her now and break up with her.”

Jaejoong sighed and looked at his little sister. “Why would I do that?”

“Why wouldn’t you do that?” she asked. “She obviously can’t be trusted! You’d really want to date someone who cheats on you? She’s not worth your time. Just text her and get it over with.”

“I’m not going to just break up with her, Kaye! And if I was, I wouldn’t do it through a text!” He shook his head and looked at his sister skeptically, unsure as to why she seemed so intent on convincing him to end things with Dara. He gently pushed her aside and continued walking down the quiet neighborhood street until reaching the tables crowded along the sidewalk outside the café.

Kaye followed behind in somewhat of a huff, knowing that her plan was about to fall apart.

Jaejoong approached the table where Dara and Jiyong were sitting and waved.

Dara immediately stood and hugged him. “Oppa!” she said, smiling. “Come sit.” Spotting Kaye behind Jaejoong, she added, “Oh, hi! There’s an extra seat here for you, too!”

“No thanks,” Kaye said, tugging at her brother’s sleeve. “We can’t stay.”

Jaejoong, ignoring his sister, asked Dara what she was doing there.

Dara glanced between Kaye and Jiyong and then looked back at Jaejoong. “Just meeting Jiyong-oppa for a cup of coffee to talk,” she said. Before Jaejoong and Kaye got there, Dara and Jiyong had already figured out what was happening. The moment the mention of the handwritten messages came up, they each realized that the other had not, as they were led to believe, written such messages. It didn’t take long to figure out that Kaye had hatched the entire plan. They just didn’t know why Kaye had wanted to get them to meet at that particular place at that particular time, not until they just saw her show up there with Jaejoong. Then, it all made sense.

But although Dara knew the truth, she didn’t want to reveal this to Jaejoong. She thought that she could use this opportunity to prove to Kaye that she was not, in fact, a bad person and was instead someone deserving of Jaejoong’s love. And so, rather than inform Jaejoong of his sister’s devious plan, she said, “Kaye here was kind enough to help settle some confusion between me and Jiyong.” Looking directly at Kaye, Dara added, “Isn’t that right, Kaye? It’s so nice of you to care so much for your brother’s girlfriend. I really appreciate your help.”

Kaye looked curiously at Dara. “Erm, yeah, that’s right,” she said, slowly realizing that Dara was covering for her.

Jaejoong, completely confused, gave up on understanding what was happening and, seeing that Dara and Jiyong were only drinking coffee, asked about the cookies then. “How come you aren’t taking advantage of the free cookie deal?” he asked.

“Free… cookies?” Jiyong asked.

“Oh, that’s right,” Dara said, playing along. “We just ordered coffee and completely forgot about the free cookie deal.” She looked over at Kaye again. “Should we go inside and get some cookies for everyone?”

Kaye shrugged. “I guess,” she said.

Dara stood and grabbed Kaye’s hand. The two girls then left the boys at the table and walked inside the café.

As they stood on line, Dara quietly said, “I hope you know that I could’ve told your brother the truth about you trying to set us up like that.”

“Then why didn’t you?” Kaye replied, with a bit of an attitude.

“Because I’m not a mean person,” Dara said, looking at her. “I really like your brother. And I hope that we’ll eventually be friends. I’m not sure what I did to make you mad, but I don’t have any bad intentions. Your brother’s amazing and I don’t want to lose him.”

“I don’t want to lose him either!” Kaye stammered.

They were at the counter now. The barista was waiting for their order.

“Is that what this is about?” Dara asked, ignoring the barista as she reached for Kaye. She knew about how their parents had died. Jaejoong had told her about this when they first met. He had also told her about the overwhelming fear of loss that plagued him since. Dara could only imagine now that Kaye suffered from this same fear. “I’m not trying to steal him away,” she said. “The last thing I want to do is take your brother away from you.”

Kaye looked down, standing there in silence.

“Your order, please?” the barista asked.

The people on line behind Dara and Kaye were growing impatient, too. “Can you order already?” they asked.

“We’ll take a dozen assorted cookies,” Dara quickly said.

“Make that two dozen,” Kaye said, smiling. She looked over at Dara. “If you’re going to date my brother, don’t underestimate his ridiculous love for cookies.”

Dara smiled. “Okay,” she said.