"Ah! Fried chicken and pastries!"
Sung Jinah's eyes sparkled as she stared at the heavy boxes in his hands with a beaming, radiant smile. "For me, right?"
"...Don't eat it all," Min-jun warned playfully, setting the feast down on the coffee table.
"Stingy~!"
"....." Min-jun just sighed.
"By the way," Min-jun asked, taking off his blazer, "where is Hyung? Shouldn't he be home by now?"
Jinah paused, happily opening the box of sweet-and-spicy yangnyeom chicken. "Jin-woo Oppa? Yeah, he should be home."
"...Then shouldn't you be over there with him? Why are you crashing at my place?"
"It's fine! Oppa is a grown man now. He doesn't need his little sister hovering around him," Jinah dismissed the thought with a wave of her chicken-greased hand.
"So, I'm the one who needs you hovering around?" Min-jun asked, perfectly deadpan.
"Aren't you?" Jinah laughed, popping a piece of pickled radish into her mouth. "You'd be incredibly lonely if I wasn't here to keep you company!"
"..."
"Haha, you're blushing, Oppa~!"
"...If you have so much free time to tease me, you should be studying. You still want to get into medical school, right?"
"Ugh..."
Jinah groaned, her shoulders instantly slumping. She knew Min-jun was right. Medical school was notoriously difficult to enter, standing as one of the most fiercely competitive academic departments in the country. But truthfully, the academic difficulty wasn't the only thing weighing heavily on her mind.
"Oppa..."
"Hmm?"
"Do you really think I should keep trying to be a doctor?"
Min-jun paused, stopping mid-motion as he draped his jacket over a chair. He looked at her in surprise. The bright, playful energy had entirely vanished from her face.
"What's wrong? Sit down here. Tell me."
He patted the free space beside him on the sofa. Jinah obediently sat down. Despite how much she loved to tease him, whenever Min-jun took control of a situation, she naturally followed his lead. Honestly, she preferred it. In a hyper-toxic, competitive society where students were forced to study for more than twelve hours a day just to secure a basic future, the constant pressure led to severe depression and anxiety. Having someone like Min-jun to guide her meant she didn't have to overthink everything. She could just let her guard down and relax.
"Well..." Jinah fidgeted nervously with her hands. "Mom is sick... and Jin-woo Oppa's situation isn't that great right now. So, instead of aiming for a long, expensive medical degree, maybe I should just get a more stable job? Like... a civil servant?"
"Do not become a civil servant in Korea," Min-jun said instantly, his voice entirely flat. "You will be overworked to death by the bureaucracy."
"Well, life is hard no matter what, right?"
"..."
Min-jun wasn't entirely sure what to say. It was impressive that Jinah was so incredibly mature despite not even being in university yet, but it broke his heart to see someone so young forced to worry about the grim realities of adulthood.
Her father was gone, her mother was in a magical coma, and her older brother was famously known as the "Weakest Hunter," constantly returning home covered in bruises and blood. If she didn't grow up fast, she deeply feared she would become an unbearable burden to her struggling family. The only reason she kept a bright smile on her face was for Jin-woo's sake, knowing that if she broke down, her brother—the sole fragile pillar of their family—would shatter completely.
Min-jun had always tried to help from the shadows. He secretly gave Jinah pocket money or treated them to dinner, but he knew Jin-woo's pride wouldn't allow him to accept massive handouts, especially for something as expensive as medical school tuition.
"Jinah, if you truly want to take the civil servant exam, I won't stop you," Min-jun said softly, his tone turning gentle. "Despite its flaws, it is incredibly stable, and you'll never have to worry about putting food on the table. It's the ultimate safety net. But... if your dream is still to become a doctor, then you need to work harder right now. Aim for a full-ride scholarship, just like I did."
"...." Jinah looked down at her lap.
Min-jun's words might have sounded a bit arrogant to a stranger, but Jinah knew exactly how hard he worked. She used to watch his twelve-hour marathon study streams. His relentless, machine-like work ethic was exactly what inspired her to keep opening her textbooks in the first place.
"Also..." Min-jun added.
"Also?"
"If you don't get the scholarship, I'll pay your tuition."
"Eh?!" Jinah jerked her head up, her eyes wide as she frantically waved her hands in refusal. "No, no! How could I trouble you like that? You worked so hard for your savings, Oppa!"
She knew Min-jun was incredibly frugal; she couldn't let him empty his bank account for her.
"Jinah, look at me," Min-jun said firmly, catching her gaze. "Never think of yourself as a burden. You are an important person in my life. If you have a dream, chase it. I will support you."
"Oppa...."
Tears welled up in Jinah's eyes, and she threw her arms around him, clinging tightly to his chest.
Yes, Jin-woo worked incredibly hard to support her, but his job meant he could die in a dark dungeon at any moment. Every time he left the apartment, she was terrified he wouldn't come back. Meanwhile, Min-jun's path felt so incredibly safe and dependable. To a normal high school girl, Min-jun's promise wasn't just financial support; it was an unbreakable emotional safety net.
"Okay, okay, stop crying," Min-jun sighed, gently patting her back. "You're going to get snot all over my shirt."
"I'll wash it!" Jinah sniffled, burying her face deeper into his shoulder. "I'll wash all your shirts! Just let me wipe my tears on you!"
"..." Min-jun let out a helpless sigh, resigning himself to doing laundry, and just continued to pat her shoulder.
After a few moments, Jinah pulled back, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "Say... Oppa..."
"Hmm?"
"You haven't found a girlfriend yet, right?"
"...When exactly do you think I'd have time to find a girlfriend?" Min-jun replied, adjusting his glasses. "I'm constantly balancing my university studies, my streaming, and now my corporate Hunter career."
Min-jun genuinely didn't think getting a girlfriend would be difficult, but his schedule was a nightmare. Fortunately, with the Manager now optimizing his life and automatically trading his massive new corporate income on the stock market—utilizing the high-level physics and mathematical algorithms synced from the Jujutsu Kaisen Suzuki—he finally had some free time. He didn't fully understand the complex multiversal math, but he trusted his alternate self's Ivy League-equivalent education.
"Hehehe..." Jinah suddenly giggled, pointing a finger at him. "You're so unpopular~!"
"....."
Min-jun rolled his eyes, utterly speechless.
Unpopular? If he showed her the flooded inbox of borderline-illegal direct messages he received from his female fans, her jaw would hit the floor.
"Well, it can't be helped!" Jinah declared cheerfully, her ears turning slightly pink. "I guess I'll just have to take care of you."
"..." Min-jun raised an eyebrow.
"I-I mean... that's only fair, right?!" Jinah stammered, frantically waving her hands as her face turned as red as a ripened tomato. "You're helping me, so I should help you! Also, what's with that blank look on your face?! Shouldn't you be overjoyed to have a cute, dependable girl like me taking care of you?!"
The more she tried to justify it, the more embarrassed she became. She felt like she was going to die of mortification, especially with Min-jun just staring at her in complete silence!
"OPPA! SAY SOMETHING!"
"Yes, yes," Min-jun chuckled softly, shaking his head. "I am incredibly lucky to have a cute girl like you to take care of me."
"R-Really~?"
"Really. Now, let's eat the chicken and the pastries before they get cold. I need to take a bath."
"I'll go get your comfortable clothes ready! Just go to the bathroom!" Jinah announced, skipping happily toward his bedroom as if she practically lived there.
As she disappeared down the hall, Min-jun leaned his head back against the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. His eyes drifted over to the framed photo of his deceased grandmother resting on the bookshelf.
For a brief, inexplicable second, he swore the old woman in the photo was giving him a massive, glowing thumbs-up.
"....." Min-jun closed his eyes and sighed.