I Returned as a High School Girl

Chapter 78: Wanna Stay the Night? (2)

Kang Ra-Eun’s phone chimed while she was reading her script in the living room. It was a text from Seo Yi-Seo. She closed the script and got up from her seat as soon as she checked what it said.

“Yi-Jun. I’m gonna go pick up your sister, so look after the house.”

“I’ll go with you, noona.”

Seo Yi-Jun couldn’t just laze around in someone else’s home. He had suggested going as well because of his sense of conscience, but Ra-Eun adamantly refused.

“I’d get bombarded with dating scandals if any reporters see me in a car with you, so just stay put here.”

Yi-Jun would be happy to be in a dating scandal with Ra-Eun, but the thought was purely out of his self-greed. He needed to take Ra-Eun’s position into consideration. He could not hold Ra-Eun back when her new drama would start filming soon. He had no choice but to stay put just like Ra-Eun had said. In exchange...

“Then I’ll make dinner while you’re away,” Yi-Jun suggested.

“You know how to cook?”

Ra-Eun was surprised by the unexpected truth.

“Yes. I’m better than my sister.”

“Better than Yi-Seo?”

If that was true, then he was considerably good. Being in a dual-income household, Yi-Seo and Yi-Jun frequently had to cook dinner for themselves. Hence, the siblings had absolutely no objections to cooking. Ra-Eun decided to give Yi-Jun a chance to show off the cooking skills that he had trained since his childhood.

“Okay. The ingredients are in the fridge, so use whatever you want.”

“Got it. Is there anything you want to eat?”

“Nothing in particular... Just make me your specialties.”

“Understood,” Yi-Jun said confidently as he put on an apron.

Ra-Eun felt strange seeing a younger man cooking in her kitchen.

‘I heard women love situations like this.’

Ra-Eun did not really feel anything special since she was not a woman at heart, but at least thought it was nice that there was someone who could cook meals for her.

***

Ra-Eun talked about dinner with Yi-Seo on their way back home after picking her up.

“Yi-Jun said he’d cook for us.”

“He did?”

“Yeah.”

“Jeez, that little brother of mine... He never cooked for me whenever I asked him to. He’s way too kind to you, Ra-Eun.”

Yi-Seo obviously knew that Yi-Jun’s kindness to Ra-Eun was born out of his romantic affection for her, but she couldn’t help but feel sad about the difference in treatment as his sister.

“I didn’t even know Yi-Jun could cook,” Ra-Eun said.

“He can. He’s way better than me.”

“Really?”

If Yi-Seo was saying that, then it meant that Yi-Jun was considerably skilled since Ra-Eun had been very satisfied with the meals that Yi-Seo had cooked for her.

“Looks like I’ll get to have a meal that my brother cooked after so long. It’s better than eating out, isn’t it?”

“It sure is.”

There was no need to be conscious of others at home, so Ra-Eun felt comfortable and happy. Not just that, but she needed to be extremely careful since the drama shoots were right around the corner. It would be problematic if she was swept into some strange gossip news.

Ra-Eun got a call from Park Seol-Hun while she was around five minutes away from home. She turned down the music, answered the phone and put it between her ear and shoulder.

“What, mister?”

- We decided to launch around the first half of this year, didn’t we? I wanted you to check the homepage draft layout before it goes into official production. Should I email it to you?

“I’ll come to the company tomorrow. I have something to check there as well.”

- Okay. Oh, and that loan shark that you employed has been recruiting people without my permission. Is it true that you told him to do it?

“I told him to do it since we might need them, so don’t worry. Anyway, Chairwoman Kang here is gonna visit the company tomorrow, so make sure you have everything ready.”

Yi-Seo could hear Seol-Hun’s complaints from the passenger seat. She asked as Ra-Eun ended the call, “Was that about the business you’re setting up?”

“Yup. We have to get it up and running before my drama shoots start, but it’s taking some time because there’s a lot more to prepare than I expected.”

She needed to launch the company and release their clothing products as soon as possible so that she could wear them during her drama shoots. Products sold like hotcakes simply from a celebrity wearing them on TV. She had planned the launch of her company to coincide with the resumption of her TV career precisely to aim for this advertising effect.

“You sure are busy,” Yi-Seo remarked.

“I don’t really have a choice.”

“What do you mean? Haven’t you already earned a ton of money?”

“No, I have to earn even more.”

Ra-Eun had a much bigger goal.

***

Ra-Eun and Yi-Seo were met with a mouth-watering scent as soon as they opened the front door.

Yi-Jun expressed, “You’re just in time. Dinner’s ready.”

He greeted his sister whom he hadn’t seen since she entered university, while he gave the rice a stir. Yi-Seo never expected to see her brother again cooking in her own home in an apron.

“Come eat. You too, Ra-Eun noona.”

Ra-Eun had very high expectations because of how good it smelled. The menu wasn’t anything extravagant; he had made purple rice, sausage stew with various hams added to it, green onion pancake, and stir-fried anchovies. The rest of the side dishes were what Yi-Seo had previously made.

Ra-Eun took a photo of the dishes with her phone before digging in.

Snap!

“Visually, it’s a pass.”

“So will the taste, I guarantee it,” Yi-Jun stated confidently.

Ra-Eun decided to judge whether or not he was being pretentious after a taste. She went for the sausage stew, the main dish, first. Her eyes widened as soon as she tasted the soup.

“Wow. This is delicious,” Ra-Eun expressed.

“Right?”

The taste exceeded her expectations. Even the cooking of Cha Mi-Ye, one of Kang Ra-Hyuk’s girlfriend candidates, did not impress Ra-Eun this much when she ate at her family restaurant. It looked like Yi-Seo’s praises for Yi-Jun’s cooking were not unfounded.

The other side dishes that Yi-Jun had made also fit Ra-Eun’s tastes perfectly.

“Noona. It’s good, right?”

“Yeah, it is. I wish I had someone who would cook me delicious food like this every day.”

Yi-Jun’s heart thumped from Ra-Eun’s statement. He wondered if this was his chance to confess, but...

“Lemme dig in too.”

His plan went out the window once Yi-Seo came out of her room after changing.

***

Yi-Jun decided to stay the night, but nothing special that he had been secretly hoping for happened. He was a minor, so he couldn’t drink with Ra-Eun yet, and Ra-Eun also had to sleep early because she had a morning shoot the next day.

“I’m gonna hit the sack first,” Ra-Eun said.

Yi-Jun could only hide his disappointment. He wanted to spend more time with her, but couldn’t, considering her circumstances.

It was 11:30 PM. Yi-Jun was watching TV with Yi-Seo in the living room. However, Yi-Jun’s gaze periodically shifted to Ra-Eun’s closed room door while watching TV.

Yi-Seo witnessed it and asked with a smirk, “Do you still have a crush on Ra-Eun?”

Yi-Jun’s shoulders flinched violently at his older sister’s hard-hitting question.

“What are you gonna do if Ra-Eun noona hears?!”

“Wouldn’t she already know how you feel with how blatantly you’re appealing your feelings?”

“...”

It was not a 100% certainty, but the chances were not low either. Yi-Jun also felt the same way.

“But considering how much she hangs out with me... Don’t you think she has feelings for me too?” Yi-Jun asked.

“Stay happy in that dream world of yours.”

“Come on, noona. Stop poking fun at me and think about it seriously.”

Yi-Jun did not want to let go of that sliver of hope, but there was nothing that Yi-Seo could say to him.

“I don’t know. I’m not Ra-Eun.”

There was nothing that a third party could say regarding feelings of love, since it was purely the issue of the people concerned.

***

Ra-Eun woke up and left her home quietly so that she didn’t wake the Seo siblings after she received a call from Shin Yu-Bin. It was 5:30 AM. Yu-Bin had parked the car outside her home and was waiting for her. Ra-Eun handed Yu-Bin a warm can of coffee.

“Drink this before we go,” Ra-Eun said.

“Thanks.”

Yu-Bin was able to thaw her hands in the freezing winter weather thanks to the sensible Ra-Eun. Ra-Eun showed her stylist Kwon Mi-Yeon something while on the move.

“What do you think of this?” Ra-Eun asked. She had taken out some sportswear.

“Oh my, what’s this?”

The stylist took a liking to the sportswear and searched for a brand logo, but couldn’t find one.

“This is only a trial product, so it doesn’t have a brand logo attached.”

“Oh, is this a product from your newly-made company?” Mi-Yeon asked.

“Yes.”

She had brought them for a clothing sponsorship. She was planning on promoting her business by putting her products in the drama. The sponsorship was only possible because she already knew that Waitress?would be a massive hit. Director Hwang would not hate the addition of a sponsor either.

Not just that, but Director Hwang had stayed true to the thought that he was already blessed enough that Ra-Eun had decided to star in his drama’s lead role. Ra-Eun had also already laid the groundwork for a clothing sponsorship. The production team still needed to see the products to decide, but it seemed like the products would pass with flying colors if even a stylist liked them.

“The material’s nice too. They stretch well. They certainly look like they’ll be comfortable to wear while exercising,” Mi-Yeon remarked.

“Right?”

Ra-Eun had not only paid attention to the design, but its functionality as well. She had not worn leggings while exercising for no reason; it was all for the success of her business. All she needed to do now was to rake in the dough through these products.

Ra-Eun was strengthening the foundations of her path to becoming rich step by step. The goals of the rich were to make lots of money and to live happily, but Ra-Eun added one more thing to the table.

Revenge.

Only after accomplishing all three things could she earn the right to enjoy happiness.