I am back – Chapter 37

“Unnie!”

As I waved my hand and ran toward my older sister, she looked back at me with a smile.

“Hi…”

But unlike my genuinely happy greeting, Unnie’s words trailed off a bit as she replied to me.

“Uh? Siyun, are you a little tired?”

Unnie asked that right away.

“Uh…”

I suddenly found myself at a loss for words. I had looked in the mirror and confirmed I didn’t look tired before I left. Actually, it was already quite late, so even if I looked tired, there was nothing I could do about it.

“No, I just stayed up a bit late last night…”

Unnie tilted her head at my awkward excuse.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, I’m sorry…”

I thought that if I showed up looking tired after agreeing to meet someone, it might upset them. If I was tired, the atmosphere would inevitably fall flat, and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the situation while hanging out.

Plus, it would just keep bothering me.

Today wasn’t just a simple outing either. It was Unnie’s close friend’s once-in-a-lifetime wedding. Even though I didn’t have a significant role, I couldn’t afford to ruin the mood just because I was tagging along with Unnie.

“Are you alright?”

But Unnie didn’t seem to be blaming me. Her voice was purely concerned.

“Yes, I’m fine. I can handle this much.”

“Yeah…”

I gave a small smile, and Unnie nodded at least for now.

“But if you start feeling unwell, just tell me. It’s not an extremely long wedding, so I can get you back home as soon as possible.”

“Ah, no. It’s my friend’s wedding after a long time; I shouldn’t miss it because of me.”

If it really came to that, it would probably be better for Unnie to stay while I headed home alone. Of course, looking at my current state, it didn’t seem necessary to go that far, though.

“Is that so?”

At my spirited excuse, Unnie tilted her head again and then gave a slight smile.

“Were you looking forward to it a lot?”

I nodded quickly, as if I had been waiting for her to say that. Yeah, saying I couldn’t sleep due to a sudden fear was worse than admitting I stayed up late because I was excited.

“Well, it’s a buffet…”

And honestly, that wasn’t entirely off-base. Though it had nothing to do with sleep, it was a fact that I did look forward to the wedding. The thought of reuniting with familiar faces made my heart race, and so did thinking about the buffet.

I couldn’t just go to a buffet by myself. Plus, most buffets are pricey. Asking Unnie, who I had just met a month ago, to go with me felt a bit pressure-filled. Of course, I wanted to go, but from Unnie’s perspective.

So, today was an opportunity in many ways.

“I see.”

At my response, Unnie nodded as if she understood.

“Should we go then? I was thinking of meeting Unnie’s friend; is that okay with you?”

She was probably talking about Older Sister Yu-ri, who would be in the bride’s waiting room.

“Yes, that’s fine.”

I was even hoping for it.

*

Surprisingly, the venue wasn’t overly extravagant.

Well, it was indeed fancy—after all, it was a wedding. But, somehow, I thought Older Sister Yu-ri’s wedding would be held in a huge hotel. Yu-ri was the daughter of a well-off family, and she didn’t seem to scrimp on spending either.

But the ceremony was in an ordinary venue often seen in the area.

Ah, speaking of which, hadn’t they said they had to rush the wedding and had trouble finding a venue?

That made it understandable.

“Wow, it’s been a really long time!”

As soon as we entered, Yu-ri, who was sitting down, jumped up and ran towards us.

Not quite as much as Ah-yoon, but her fair skin and elongated face, with slender shoulders and arms, made her look like a model.

Her hairstyle, typical for brides, didn’t showcase much personality. Actually, Yu-ri’s hairstyle often changed. I didn’t know how she was now that she was working, but back in college, she often switched her hair color.

Her eyes were slightly upturned, but since her eyes were large, she didn’t give off a sharp impression. However, she did have a somewhat haughty vibe. In fact, Yu-ri had many instances of being a bit proud around her boyfriend, Park Hyun-seung.

Her wedding dress was white. It was a rather elaborate design, showing her shoulders and back, but it suited Older Sister Yu-ri very well.

“How have you been? Is the bakery doing well?”

Yu-ri, holding Ah-yoon’s hands, asked with sparkling eyes.

Yu-ri was excited even to see someone she hadn’t seen for just a week. She was a person with many friends, and she got along well with all of them. Since Yu-ri and Ah-yoon kept in touch regularly, it wasn’t truly been that long since they saw each other. But it might have been a long time since they had seen each other’s faces.

However, considering Yu-ri had so many friends, I thought there would be a lot of her friends here, but… at the bride’s waiting room, there weren’t many people around. Besides, most of them had moved away by the time we arrived.

That was a bit puzzling. I didn’t think Yu-ri would be the type to rank her friends by who she was closest to.

“Yeah, it’s going well. There are a lot of customers.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Yu-ri said softly with a smile. They exchanged a few more words: whether it had been hard to come here, no, it had been fine, it wasn’t that far, and all such conversations.

Even while talking about cliché and mundane things, I could tell how close they were because of the way their eyes sparkled.

To be honest, I was glad too.

Yu-ri was someone who treated me warmly. In fact, I was a bit flustered that she sometimes treated me like I was dating Ah-yoon.

Thinking back, it was our presence that became the reason Yu-ri and Park Hyun-seung got together. Every time we visited to see her, she would mention how lonely she felt being all alone.

Of course, it wouldn’t be solely for that reason that they started dating; there must be more of a story between Yu-ri and Park Hyun-seung.

But that didn’t mean I could say it had been long since I saw them. It was our first meeting. Just like how there’s a relationship between me and Ah-yoon, me and Yu-ri didn’t have that kind of relationship yet.

“Ah.”

While enjoying a pleasant conversation with Unnie, I suddenly found Yu-ri’s gaze turning toward me.

Her eyes widened slightly and then narrowed all of a sudden.

“This is….”

Yu-ri was speaking in honorifics.

“Yeah, this is Siyun.”

“Hello. I’m Cha Siyun… It’s nice to meet you.”

I said as politely as I could and bowed slightly.

“Hello, I’m Shin Yu-ri, Ah-yoon’s friend. Thank you for coming to the wedding today.”

“Ah, no….”

It felt incredibly awkward.

Yu-ri had started speaking casually to me right from the start. Given that I was the younger brother of her close friend, there was no reason to analyze our relationship.

But defining each other like that was only for when we were still students.

Once you enter society, adults treat each other like adults. Even if the person is younger, they must use honorifics and show respect. Of course, if a relationship was already established, there wouldn’t be a need, but it was obvious that I had to do so to someone I was “meeting for the first time.”

Yu-ri was being polite to me.

Moreover, she seemed to be observing my face as if she were probing.

“I’ve heard a lot about you from Ah-yoon. She says you’re a great help at the bakery…”

“Ah, no, I’m still learning. I’m just a part-time worker…”

“Well, at least it’s good that someone else is working at the place where only one person was working before. It must be a busy place since there are lots of customers.”

As she was saying this, Yu-ri glanced at Ah-yoon. Ah-yoon laughed bitterly.

“That’s not really the reason…”

“Well, if you say so, then it must be.”

Yu-ri said that and shrugged her shoulders, turning to me with a look of confusion.

“Ah-yoon has a surprisingly picky eye for people. She hasn’t had part-timers until now.”

…Though I heard that there had been one person who already quit.

It looked like Yu-ri refrained from saying that to protect Ah-yoon’s honor.

“Make yourself comfortable and enjoy today. I hope we can find some time to meet up sometime.”

Yu-ri said that to me.

“…Yes, I’ll definitely do that.”

And that word felt very thankful to me.