as all friends do, they have a couple of unspoken rules. namely: don't you ever date my sister. turns out, as they're all meeting at this party, this rule is a lot harder to respect than they expected.
a zb1 applyfic | closed
With his arms crossed firmly over his chest, Yujin stood in front of the door to his sister's room, sighing again and again. Why was this his job? Surely their parents would be better at convincing her to come to this party...Yet, they’d asked him to do it, and he frankly had no idea how to go about it. What could even convince a recluse like her to go outside, let alone to a huge party?
Hmm. Maybe desserts. Surely there’d be lots of desserts, and Jiyeon could hardly resist that. Though he could already imagine her saying that she could just go alone to the pastry shop next door...Yeah, desserts wouldn’t be enough.
How about boys? A party with a bunch of rich families would certainly be filled with attractive heirs. Even his own friends— Nope, scratch that. No way. Not his friends. She would just embarrass him in front of them.
Yujin saw only one solution left. The good ol' guilt trip only a sweet baby brother was capable of. He just had to pout a little bit, make his eyes as big as possible, and act just like little eight years old Yujin. Oh, the humiliation. Seriously, their parents could have done the whole guilt trip strategy themselves!
"You're gonna come in or what?" He heard her voice from inside her room.
Looks like she'd heard all of his desperate sighs. He clicked his tongue and pushed the door open. Okay, maybe he didn’t have to go for the humiliating goo goo gaga guilt trip just yet. He'd start with desserts.
She barely looked up from her book as she addressed him, lying on top of her bed. "It better be important, I'm reading."
"Yes, well, it's important," he managed, already forgetting which strategy he'd settled on. "You know, that party we were invited to..."
"No way, nuh-uh." She finally set her book down to sit upright and stare right into Yujin's eyes. "I don't wanna go. There'll be too many people."
Of course, the usual. Yujin knew his sister was introverted, and he knew she hated crowded places. If it was only up to him, he would totally understand if she wanted to stay home and skip on the party. Even he himself would rather stay home and watch a movie with her. But she couldn’t stay here forever, could she? At some point, she would need to go outside.
"You know Dad's trying to close a deal with Zhang Enterprises. And Mom just published her new novel, it'd be good for her to get some networking in," he pleaded, trying to appeal to her love for her family.
And it seemed to work for a second, because he clearly saw her lips stretch into a thin line as her eyes darted down. But just as quickly, she furrowed her eyebrows as she looked back at him. "I mean, they don’t need me to be here for that, do they?"
Point taken. Still, it would make a much better impression to have the whole family united at the party. Whenever Jiyeon had bailed on parties and meetings before, the snobbish guests had expressed fake concern as to how sheltered she was. Yujin knew their parents only wanted her to open up. Just a little bit.
So, step one.
"Okay, but I've heard from Zhang Hao hyung that there'll be a mountain of desserts. And not from some random pastry shop either! They've hired a famous chef to cater for the party." Wasn’t exactly the truth, but it was close enough. The chef wasn't famous, he was just really expensive to hire. "And Hao hyung assured me there'll be tiramisu. Your favorite."
From the way her eyes widened, Yujin knew he'd scored a point. "Tell me more," she mumbled, aware she was falling into the trap.
"And there'll be a bunch of handsome men, too. Like, you know, rich gentlemen. With like, suits and all." Was that what women found attractive? He had to admit he wasn’t very interested in what type of fictional men his sister was usually in love with.
"I see," she muttered to herself, before her lips stretched into a slightly mischievous smile. "But that doesn't really matter, you know. Rather, do you want me to come?"
Dammit. He'd have do to the whole goo goo gaga guilt trip after all.
He took a big inhale to steady himself so he wouldn’t die from the sheer cringe. "Yes, Yeon. It would make me really happy if you came with us."
She laughed as she jumped to her feet, rushing to ruffle Yujin's hair, who just stood there, frozen by humiliation.
"Well, if my baby brother asks so nicely, I'll definitely come!"
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