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The phone call bothered her the next morning. Luckily, it was Saturday and she was free. She had been staring at the plain ceiling since she awoke until midday, worried that the book might be cursed.

The beeping from the living room brought her thoughts to a halt. A rustling noise from plastic bags alerted her to the fact that her brother, who had come to visit, had brought something.

"Noona, are you awake?" she heard her brother shout. "Come out quick!"

"Yes, yes! I'm coming." She grabbed a random hairband and pulled her straight, chest-length hair into a loose bun. As soon as she exited the bedroom, she went to the counter table and discovered her brother removing groceries from plastic bags. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"You've got four eyes. Use them properly, noona."

Hye-ryeong scowled at Beomgyu, murmuring hushed curses. "I mean, what are these for?" said the older sister. "I've got enough food in the fridge."

"For us to eat," Beomgyu said.

"And mom?"

"Mom won't be at home for the next three days. She went to Busan to visit Aunt Mira."

She just nodded, fully aware that their aunt in Busan had been sick. "What would you like to eat?" she asked.

"Let's just eat ramen," Beomgyu said, squinting his eyes. "You've only just gotten out of bed, you're still stinking, and I'm too lazy to help you with the dishes."

Hye-ryeong jokingly threw her fist at him in response to the tease.

While Beomgyu was preparing the ramen, Hye-ryeong went to wash herself. She brushed her teeth, shampooed her hair, scrubbed her body, and washed her face. She walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body and a small towel on her head. Her eyes widened as she shut the door behind her and found a stranger in a brown suit sitting on her bed, holding the novel she had bought the day before.

She screamed.

On the other hand, the man became agitated. He tried to keep her quiet and avoid whatever was thrown at him. "I mean no harm," he exclaimed.

"You pervert!" She continued to throw things at the man. "Beomgyu-yah!"

Beomgyu rushed into the room, his eyes wide with shock as he stared at his sister. "What happened?"

"A pervert over there!" Hye-ryeong scurried to her younger brother, cowering behind him.

"What exactly are you talking about, noona?" Beomgyu asked his sister as he searched the room for another figure.

"There's someone over there!" she said.

Beomgyu became irritated. A harsh tone laced his voice as he spoke, "where?"

"There!"

"But there's no one!"

"What?" Hye-ryeong peered around the back of Beomgyu's towering form, her gaze sweeping the room, wondering where that man had vanished.

"Noonaaa! You're twenty-four years old. Enough with the humorless pranks like this," Beomgyu said, stomping his foot.

"I'm not playing a prank on you, Beomgyu-yah! When I got out of the bathroom, there was someone on my bed."

"Maybe it's just your imagination," Beomgyu said, his brows creasing as he glanced at his sister.

"How could that possibly be my imagination?" she said, then cursed at him

.

"What then? A ghost?"

"I've been living here for three years, and why is there a ghost now?" she retorted, taken aback by his claims.

Beomgyu remained silent for a moment, staring daggers at his older sister. "It's possible you've attracted a ghost from your college days or from your part-time job. Come out quickly. Or else your ramen will turn soggy." He then walked out of the room, grumpy, leaving her alone.

Hye-ryeong stared blankly into space. She believed she saw a man in her room, attempting to silence her and assuring her that he had no intention of harming her. The man was about the same height as Beomgyu, but his shoulders were wider than her younger brother's, she recalled vividly. She couldn't stop thinking about how he tried to silence her, and she later noticed his full lips. They were probably plumper than hers.

She dashed to her wardrobe and randomly picked out clothes, oblivious to the fact that some of her belongings had fallen out of the small wardrobe. Then, she bolted from the room, telling her brother to sit in the living room while she dressed in the kitchen.

As a result, she had to endure her brother's mockery of her timidity.

She wasn't a fearful person before that experience, to be honest.

**********

After Hye-ryeong begged him to spend the night with her, Beomgyu agreed. They were eating ice cream from two separate tubs while watching a Netflix series.

Despite appearing to be engrossed in the series, Hye-ryeong was troubled by what had happened in the afternoon. She couldn't keep her emotions hidden any longer, so she turned to her brother, shaking his arm and saying, "Beomgyu-yah, I'm sure I saw someone on my bed."

"Huh, noona," Beomgyu said. He turned to face his sister after setting his ice cream on the table. "It's possible that your glasses are playing tricks on you."

She gave out a faint "what?" with a scowl on her face.

"What? I'm responding to an absurd situation with a ridiculous answer."

Hye-ryeong gave him a slap on the arm, and the younger one yelped. She snapped, "I'm serious."

"Please stop thinking about it, Hye-ryeong noona," Beomgyu moaned as he rubbed his smacked arm.

"How can I not? It started last night," she explained.

Beomgyu barely blinked twice before asking, "are you serious?"

"Do I have to tell you how serious I am?" she chastised. "Yah, can you stay until Mom comes back?" she continued to beg her brother. "I don't want to be alone here right now. Please?"

Beomgyu clicked his tongue. "I'm going out with my friends tomorrow. We have a band rehearsal until next week for our college's presentation."

Hye-ryeong gave him a pleading look as she jerked her head back. "Can't you cancel it?"

Beomgyu shook his head slowly. "If I don't go to practice, our leader will murder me."

Hye-ryeong pretended to cry, leaving the younger one perplexed as to who was the older one.