Chloe let out a hollow laugh and sent Guru behind her.
Guru ducked and hid behind Chloe’s legs, hugging her tight.
The warm body heat tugged a faint softness to Chloe’s lips.
Then Chloe felt a gaze fixed squarely on her and lifted her eyes.
It was Jurim.
Come to think of it, why is On Jurim here? Because of his brother? Really?
Sensing her puzzled look, Jurim pointed at his own neck and said,
“You’ve got a mole in the same spot as Guru.”
Chloe rubbed her neck with her palm, and Ijo whipped his head toward Jurim so fast it practically made a whoosh as he stared holes through him.
Watching them, Chloe said flatly,
“Ah... don’t tell me you’re flirting?”
“Excuse me?!”
Ijo’s eyes flew wide like what on earth are you talking about, and Jurim’s lips curled.
At his brother’s loaded reaction, Ijo grabbed Jurim’s shoulders and shook him.
“Jurim? You’re supposed to say no, right? How can you not answer right there?”
But Jurim just let himself be shaken, face unbothered.
“What did I do.”
“I said deny it. Why did you even follow me here? Aren’t you going back to the training center? Please. Just go. Yeah?”
As Ijo snapped in a fluster, Chloe suddenly let out a small chuckle watching him.
At that little laugh, Ijo looked plainly hurt.
Because she kept wanting to laugh, she cleared her throat hard and said,
“Enough jokes. I have to get ready for work, so all of you, out of my house while I’m asking nicely.”
Issuing the eviction order, Chloe shoved the two men’s backs and pushed them outside.
She even warned them not to wait out there, then slammed the door and went into the bathroom to splash cold water on her face.
A quiet smile hovered at the corner of her mouth.
Thinking of On Ijo desperately trying to chase his little brother out, she kept snickering—then, catching sight of herself in the mirror, she touched her lips.
'Am I going to end up falling in love with him?'
The woman in the mirror seemed to be asking her.
“Cici, America is the land of opportunity.”
Her father said that whenever he had the chance.
“The harder we work, the better we’ll live.”
Those words were full of hope and faith.
Her father wore old clothes and worked on construction sites until calluses formed on his fingers, and her mother worked at a restaurant day and night.
Chloe knew better than anyone how hard they had tried.
To her, that was what love was.
Even across the long genealogy of the Han family, Chloe Han was singularly exceptional, and she knew herself well.
A quarter Korean on her grandfather’s side.
Pretty, a mouth so foul she couldn’t speak without slang, platinum hair so fine it floated skyward unless managed, and a firm belief that no god of mercy toward humans existed.
A living witness to the American Dream achieved on sheer grit alone, in a family of ugly undocumented immigrants.
A hardhead who graduated early from the Ivy League out of the slums.
Instead of entering a government research institute, a bulldog who got her undocumented family their citizenship.
Having accomplished all of that, she only knew one way to love someone.
Devotion, blind faith, sacrifice, self-expenditure.
That was the love she learned from her parents.
But love like that doesn’t end in a happy ending.
Her parents, who dreamed the American Dream all their lives, died as soon as they shed the status of undocumented immigrants, their health failing rapidly.
Chloe despaired, and that was the bitter end of the sacrificial, consuming love to which she and her parents had devoted their lives.
Only when her parents died did she understand.
That all her achievements had become meaningless now.
'What a load of crap.'
Masking the discomfort, Chloe plunged her face into cold water again.
Affection always disappears into pointlessness.
To avoid the kind of maddening sense of loss, you simply shouldn’t have it to begin with—that, she knew now.
Chloe thought briefly of On Ijo.
Act like an adult, Chloe.
Maybe you want him a little because he’s handsome. But holding back is what adults do, right?
So it’s better not to get entangled anymore....
...That was just yesterday—so why is he there every time I open the door?
As Chloe, about to head to work, opened the front door, Ijo, holding a bouquet of roses, tilted his head.
“Heading out? Work? But it’s Saturday.”
“The company called me in urgently....”
She gave a vague answer, and Guru—who had been holding Chloe’s hand tight—ran to ❖ Nоvеlight ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеlight) Jurim, who stood beside Ijo, and threw herself into his arms.
Jurim picked her up like it was the most natural thing.
Chloe wasn’t the only one who found it strange and unfamiliar.
While Chloe felt an inexplicable pang of disappointment at Guru plastering herself to Jurim, On Ijo’s jaw hung open.
“Have you two been meeting behind my back?”
“They look like they knew each other already....”
Chloe and Ijo spoke in unison.
And in reflex, Guru nodded—whereupon Jurim grabbed Guru’s cheeks and wobbled them left and right.
Then, brazen as anything, he answered,
“No.”
Cheeks pinched, Guru agreed.
“Nope!”
Regardless, Jurim spoke like he was already Guru’s guardian.
“If you’re going to work, I can take the kid.”
“Excuse me?”
Chloe’s eyes sharpened, but Guru pressed her cheek to Jurim’s face and sent a shining look full of expectation.
Anyone could see she wanted to be with him.
At that, Ijo looked at Guru and backed his brother up.
“Looks like Jurim’s gotten attached to Guru in the meantime. We’ll take the little princess and play with her. Go without worrying.”
Chloe glanced down at her wristwatch, then let out a deep sigh.
They were people with verified identities.
Today wasn’t a day for Guru’s tests, and she had only planned to bring the child along because there was no one to watch her—so this wasn’t bad, but....
After a moment’s thought, Chloe clicked her tongue.
“I’ll be calling often, so pick up.”
“Yaaay—!”
And so, today’s babysitting was entrusted to the brothers On Ijo and On Jurim.
Just as Jurim had planned.
A bustling kids’ café on a Saturday.
In a place packed with children and parents, the brothers pulled their caps low and carried the child inside.
The Tower was still under assault, and they were faces that appeared on the news whenever the TV was on, so it was best to hide their faces.
“Should Uncle build a princess castle out of blocks?”
“Yeeeng.”
“But you gotta give Uncle a kissy on the cheek.”
Ijo, holding Guru, whispered teasingly, and Jurim raised an eyebrow.
Jurim scanned the shop for a second—then—
Whip!
“Eh?!”
He snatched off Ijo’s cap and tossed it away.
“Oh!”
“It’s On Ijo....”
The stir in the kids’ café erupted in an instant.
“Wow! On Ijo!”
“Are you Mr. On Ijo?”
As kids and parents swarmed, On Ijo gave a low laugh and shot a look at Jurim.
Holding Guru’s hand, Jurim waved at his brother like, Do your thing, then took a seat at a secluded table.
Guru sat across from him.
“On Guru.”
Eep. At his clipped, squared-off tone, Guru stiffened her shoulders and answered,
“Yesh....”
“What happened?”
Guru rolled her eyes around and finally, inch by inch, spilled everything she’d been told.
“So, Yoo-rian isn’t a normaw puppy eiver....”
“We apowojize....”
Right. Since when has our kid ever brought home anything normal?
He should’ve realized it when she, out of character, gave such a grand name as “Yurian” to a dog in the first place.

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