“No way!”

“No I swear! I saw them walking to school together. It was so gross. She kept giggling and smiling at him. Like does she have no shame?”

You sighed as you heard your classmate’s not-so-hushed whispers. You expected as much when you first transferred to this school. No one knew that the dreamy sunbae Lee Hongbin was actually your older brother. Everyone assumed you were dating and since that made them hate you immediately, no one bothered to ask what your relationship was. You missed your old school but you knew you had to move for your mom’s job and it was too far from your new house for you to be able to go back. So you just it up. It had been a month already and things weren’t too bad. You didn’t have any friends but that didn’t bother you much. Hongbin was your best friend and that was all you needed.

After school, Hongbin waited for you at the school gate as always. He smiled and waved when he saw you, earning you dirty looks from your classmates. You just kept your head down and walked past him in a hurry. He was confused but followed behind you anyway. He figured you would explain at home anyway.

Once you were home and had changed out of your uniforms, Hongbin called you out to the kitchen where he started preparing a snack for both of you. Your dad had left when you were still a little kid so it was just you, your mom, and Hongbin. Your mom worked all day and that caused you and Hongbin to develop a strong bond over the years.

He placed a sandwich in front of you and you thanked him and started eating it. He let you take a few bites before he spoke up.

“So what happened today? More girls talking bad about you?”

You nodded and continued eating the sandwich.

He sighed, “Just tell them I’m your brother. That will get them to be EXTRA nice to you.”

“I already told you, they’re just gonna pretend to like me and I’ll never know who is using me.”

“Sometimes it feels like your ashamed of me,” he joked pretending to pout.

You chugged your water and stood up, “Thanks for the food. I’m gonna go study,” you said and left the kitchen.

Hongbin put his head down on the table. He hated seeing you like this for the past month. He hated it even more knowing it was his fault. Why were those girls so mean?

~

You were in class when you heard the girls around you squeal. You were confused looking around at them blushing and whispering to each other. You looked towards the door where they were pointing and realized Hongbin was there. When he saw you he smiled and starting walking toward you.

This had to be a nightmare.

“Hey little sis”

Yup, definitely a nightmare.

“You left your lunch at home this morning,” he said and placed the brown paper bag on your desk.

You had been in such a hurry that morning trying to avoid walking to school with Hongbin that you didn’t even bother to grab the lunch he made you. Now you were screwed.

“Thanks bro,” you sighed, accepting your fate.

He leaned in towards you and whispered, “Just let me know what happens after school, okay?”

He kissed you forehead and ignored the sighs from your classmates before walking out of your classroom. It didn’t take long after that for you to be surrounded by the other girls.

“So you’re just his sister?”

“Has he ever mentioned any of us?”

“Does he have a crush on someone?”

“Does he like HyunA? I can dance just like her!”

“Can we come over and do homework sometime?”

The questions kept coming and you had no idea how to handle it. You were going to explode if they didn’t leave you alone so you tried taking deep breaths. Just when you thought you couldn’t take it anymore, a hand grabbed your arms and dragged you away from the girls.

“Leave her alone you lousy vultures. Up until you realized she was just his sister, you were saying nasty things about her like she couldn’t hear you. I know she’s too nice to say anything, so I will. Leave her alone and don’t talk to her just because she has a hot older brother. Talk to her because she’s a nice person who you genuinely want to be friends with.”

The boy maintained his grip on your arms and dragged you out of the room. He took you to the gym and stopped to turn towards you.

“Are you okay?”

You were speechless so all you could do was nod.

“Good…Sorry about that. I just saw that you were struggling and I thought since your brother wasn’t there, I should help you out. Now I see why you never told anyone about him being your older brother.”

“You knew?”

Your voice caught him off guard but he still responded, “Yeah, he’s my English tutor. He talks about you a lot, y’know.”

You sighed. Hongbin had good intentions and you loved that he wasn’t ashamed of you but you also knew that he didn’t understand how obsessed the girls at school were with him. Especially the ones in your grade.

“I just wish he understood me more. We’re best friends and I’m proud of having an amazing brother like him, but it kind of makes me feel ashamed of myself,” you admitted.

“How so?”

You walked toward a ball cart in the gym and picked up a basketball. You walked over to the three-point line and the boy went over by the net.

“He’s great at everything. School, sports, relationships. He’s really good-looking too,” You said as you shot three pointers and he would return the ball to you.

“So are you,” the boy said after a few moments of silence.

You shook your head,”Hongbin taught me everything I know so it doesn’t count.”

The boy caught your last three pointer and instead of returning the ball to you, he threw it to the other side of the court and walked up to you. You were slightly scared considering this guy was super tall, but Hongbin told you to stand your ground and defend yourself only if necessary. Luckily, your height difference was an advantage to you, one wrong move and you could bring this guy down to his knees with one kick, just like Hongbin taught you.

He looked you in the eyes for a while and smiled, “You’re scared of living in your brother’s shadow? One day both of you will live separate lives and you’ll wish you had him around to teach you things if you keep thinking your skills set depends on him. Why not embrace it now while you’re both on the same boat and become an unbeatable tag team.”

You were slightly confused by this guy’s pep talk, but after thinking about all the clubs you considered joining but didn’t because Hongbin was a part of them you realized he had a point. You were going to thank this stranger for everything he had done for you today when-

“WONSHIK! THERE YOU ARE?”

His name was Wonshik?

“Hakyeon hyung, seriously?”

The person you assumed was Hakyeon noticed you and looked like he was going to burst from happiness. He immediately ran to you and looked you over, but not in a creepy way.

“This is the hoobae you’ve been crushing on? You finally confessed! See, I told you Hongbin didn’t mind you dating his sister.”

Wonshik facepalmed, “I haven’t asked him yet. Thanks hyung.”

If Hakyeon felt sorry he wasn’t showing it, “Oh Wonshik, just ask her out then since the cat is out of the bag.”

Wonshik began pushing Hakyeon out of the gym, which you guessed was to prevent him from saying more embarrassing things. You were confused but smiled at the unofficial confession.

~

After school, you found Hongbin waiting at the school gate. You were trying to escape all the classmates who were practically inviting themselves to your house to “study.” This had gone on all day so you were pretty fed up by now. Knowing you’d prefer them hating you than pretending to like you, you snapped.

“No! None of you are ever allowed in my home. You should’ve been nice to me before you knew my brother was your god-like sunbae. Leave me alone and leave my brother alone. He doesn’t pay attention to any of you and yes he has a crush on someone, his boyfriend who is a college student. He likes HyunA and I bet all you do is hump the air instead of actual dancing. Now if you’ll excuse me, my future brother-in-law is coming over for dinner and I want to make it home on time.”

You stormed off and noticed Wonshik and Hakyeon talking by the gate. Well, Hakyeon was talking while Wonshik stared at you with a smile. You blushed and smiled back. You walked past Hongbin and he followed behind. He stayed quiet most of the walk because he thought you might kill him for what he did today.

“I’m really-“

“Does Taekwoon oppa like pasta?”

Hongbin was taken aback but still answered, “Yeah why?”

“I was going to make pasta for dinner, mom’s been craving it.”

Hongbin smiled knowing that was your way of letting him know you weren’t mad. Slightly irritated, but not mad.

“Do you know a guy named Wonshik?”

“Yeah, I tutor him. Why?”

“He’s cute.”

“Aw my little sister has a crush!” Hongbin thought it was adorable that his little sister had a crush since you didn’t normally pay attention to boys.

“I heard from some guy named Hakyeon he likes me back. He wanted to ask you for permission first.”

Hongbin’s smile disappeared. That wasn’t adorable.

“No way! Over my dead body. Wonshik’s a nice guy, but he isn’t good enough for my little sister…”

You listened to Hongbin talk about what kind of guy you should date and laughed at your protective best friend.