About how our relationship became strange even after announcing our marriage.

“I have a major announcement.”

The wedding was over, and I’d even greeted the parents.

Getting away with just one slap from her father was a steal, but I also got a warning that he’d beat me to a pulp if I ever made Ji-hye shed a tear.

We didn’t even pick a honeymoon destination, so it all wrapped up neatly. I came home to rest, and about a month passed.

I gathered all the kids in the living room and sat them down, cautiously reading their expressions.

They were all chatting and laughing, clueless about why they were here, but Ji-hye was just quietly sitting on the sofa, drinking water.

For a moment, I wondered if Ji-hye was the only one who knew, and as I nodded to myself, Joo-ah flashed a meaningful smile.

‘Could she possibly know…?’

Seeing that look on her face while sitting next to Ji-hye made me wonder.

Even if she knows, she’s the only blood relative, so it shouldn’t be a problem. I clapped lightly to get their attention and opened my mouth.

Clap-clap

“Okay, hold on a sec, stop talking.”

Everyone stopped talking and looked at me.

“I asked you all to gather because it’s important, so no one has any time constraints, right?”

“I finished my quota for today, so I’m good. Unless we’re talking all day, I can finish up later.”

“I prepped my video footage for today too. I just need to finish it up at the shop later.”

“I took an unauthorized day off, heehee.”

Yeah, an unauthorized…wait a minute, unauthorized day off here?

When I looked at her again, she nonchalantly turned her head and avoided my gaze.

I’ll talk to you about that later, just you wait.

“I already used my vacation days.”

“Great, so everyone’s here, right? It’s a major announcement, but it won’t be too long.”

Just having everyone’s attention on me is a lot of pressure.

I haven’t done anything wrong, but I have some karma to deal with, so I can’t just brazenly brush it off.

If I tell them now that I messed around with them all and then married Ji-hye, will they accept it willingly?

It’s pointless to worry about spilled milk…but I can’t shake the fear that they’ll all flip out and leave after I tell them.

“Hoo, alright.”

I exhaled briefly and continued immediately.

“I submitted the marriage registration with Ji-hye. Ji-hye is pregnant, so we got married. That’s it.”

It was very quiet right after I said that.

Contrary to my worries that they’d all jump up and cause a ruckus, they just quietly looked at me.

However, their quiet stares were too quiet.

Like in a horror movie, a tense situation where you’d be devoured if you made a sound.

Everyone was silently staring at me, maintaining the silence.

As I was suffocating in this atmosphere, one person’s voice broke the silence.

“Question!”

It was Joo-ah who broke the deadly silence.

As the silence broke, I gasped for air as if a blocked airway had been cleared, and immediately asked back.

“What is it?”

“I want to ask if we can’t even go on dates or hang out with you, Oppa!”

“You’re coming at me from such an unexpected angle that I didn’t even prepare an answer, you little brat.”

I had no answer to that unexpected question.

Usually, the standard question would be why I got married, but out of nowhere, a date?

It was a completely unexpected question.

“No, but seriously. I get that we’re pushed back as women, but don’t we at least have the right to hang out with you as younger sisters, Oppa?”

What? Is this the Joo-ah I know?

She’s being so logical all of a sudden?

If it’s not as a woman, but just as a younger sister or cousin, Ji-hye has no room to interfere.

That’s because a wife can block other women.

If she says, “Don’t meet other women on the condition that you don’t cheat!” what can I say?

I’d just tuck my tail between my legs, quietly nod, and cut ties with other women.

But younger sisters are different.

Especially with Joo-ah, there was a reason why Ji-hye couldn’t exert much influence.

Eun-ha, Se-ah, and Hyeon-ji are all cousins. Yes, they’re cousins.

It’s hard to stop them just because they’re younger sisters, but since cousins have some distance, you can tell them to be moderate to avoid awkwardness.

But Joo-ah is a full sibling, even if we have different mothers.

How many things can Ji-hye say to a younger sister who wants to hang out with her Oppa?

Besides saying, “No,” “He’s busy,” or “He’s sick,” what else can she say to stop her?

If a younger sister living in the same house wants to take her Oppa out, Ji-hye’s influence actually decreases.

She can’t stop her in the name of a wife because she’s a younger sister, and she can’t stop her in the name of a younger sister because Joo-ah is also a younger sister.

It’s a strange situation where Ji-hye’s say becomes weaker now that we’re married.

“If you put it that way, I have nothing to say…”

“Right, Unnie? Yeah, you two can live as a married couple. But whether you’re a couple or not, Seon-ho Oppa is still my Oppa, you know?”

Like a gangster threatening someone in a drama, she sat down casually with a playful expression.

“So, I’ll give you Oppa as your husband, but we also have the right to Oppa as our family member.”

“Well, yeah. Ji-hye Unnie gets what she gets, but I need to ask for permission as a colleague.”

Eun-ha chimed in from the side.

“Right? Joo-ah is a full sibling, and I’m a colleague with the title of editor.”

“That’s right, that’s right. Ji-hye Unnie can’t touch this! It’s clearly the boundary between family and work, so what can she say!?”

“You two are really plotting something, aren’t you? What are you going to do if I say something?”

I’m screwed. I sat next to Se-ah, who was quietly drinking cola, and watched the three of them.

“Aren’t you going to stop them?”

“…Leave them be. They’re making valid points, and I can’t take sides with Ji-hye on this one. The moment I side with Ji-hye, the relationship will explode.”

Se-ah nodded from the side.

Ji-hye can’t stop them from the position of a wife, and she can’t stop them from the position of a younger sister.

Joo-ah is a younger sister, so she wants to hang out with her Oppa, Eun-ha is in the position of editor and writer, and Se-ah is also in the same industry.

If she stops anyone other than Joo-ah, the relationship will explode because it’s not a personal matter.

I was already exhausted just watching the three of them having a heated debate.

“Still, try to pretend to stop them since they’re fighting.”

“What’s the point of stopping them now…Hey, listen to this.”

She took a sip of cola.

“Joo-ah is a younger sister, right? A full sibling, to be exact.”

“Right.”

“But if a younger sister says, ‘I’m going to hang out with Oppa!’ can a wife say no?”

She pondered for a moment and shook her head.

“That’s the thing. If a ‘younger sister,’ not a woman, says she wants to hang out with her Oppa, you can’t stop her. Joo-ah is a full sibling, after all.”

“Then what about Eun-ha? Eun-ha is also a younger sister, though a cousin.”

“Eun-ha is a bit different. It’s more appropriate for Ji-hye and her to be respectful to each other since they’re cousins, right?”

“That’s also true. That’s why I got a hard time from Ji-hye.”

“The problem is that I’m in charge of editing Eun-ha’s work.”

Even if Eun-ha declares that she won’t meet with me, we have to meet for work.

You can’t tell her not to work, so Ji-hye inevitably has time that she can’t prevent.

“I have to work, but Ji-hye can’t say, ‘Don’t meet him!’ so there’s bound to be time when we have to meet.”

“Eun-ha’s work applies to me too?”

“That’s right…Marriage has become more of a constraint for Ji-hye.”

Unlike when she was treated as the unofficial main girl, she’s actually weaker now that she’s the real main girl.

In the past, Eun-ha and Joo-ah would be kneeling and unable to come to their senses from being scolded.

Now they’re boldly standing up to Ji-hye, so Ji-hye ended up pushing them away with both hands and ending the conversation.

Ji-hye can’t stop the family relationship of being a younger sister and the work relationship from any angle.

You can’t tell her not to see her younger sister, and you can’t tell her not to work.

As a wife, the only thing she can do is tell me not to meet other women outside the house.

“I guess so. It’s the first time I’ve seen Ji-hye get pushed back with words like that.”

“Doesn’t this mean Ji-hye will see Oppa the least?”

Huh, suddenly?

“What are you talking about? I see her every day when I come home?”

Did she get drunk from drinking cola?

I frowned slightly at her random comment, and she continued calmly.

“Okay, look, what’s Oppa’s daily routine usually like?”

“Usually? Well, I wake up in the morning and…clean your shop a bit, and help out at the shop, right?”

“What’s next?”

“And in the afternoon, I film my videos, and when I come home, I do Eun-ha’s editing work, and then it’s night, so I eat dinner…”

“…You already spend more than half the day working, so when would you have time to see Ji-hye? If Joo-ah adds one more request to hang out, you really won’t see her at all?”

…Did they all eat a bunch of mackerel or something and get smarter?

They laid it out so neatly without saying a single wrong thing that I have nothing to say.

Trying to do multiple jobs while saying I’ll try harder is actually poison.

I might see her in the room after work, but would I have the energy to lift my head and look at Ji-hye when I’m exhausted in the room?

“Ha…Should I cut back on work?”

“If you quit being an editor, you’ll lose a fixed income, and if you quit making videos, you’ll ruin the momentum you’ve started to gain?”

“Wow, this is the most difficult situation of my life. If I can’t give up either, my married life will be ruined because I’m just working.”

“The only solution is for Ji-hye to rest at home and come to take care of your meals.”

Meals, yeah, whether I’m at the shop or editing at home, I have to eat.

If Ji-hye is willing to take care of my meals, there will be plenty of opportunities to see each other.

But this isn’t a one- or two-day thing, and considering her growing belly, is that okay?

“Either way, I only have bad options.”

Se-ah patted my back and chuckled.

“Well, you have to pay for all the karma you’ve created, Oppa.”

…That’s right, I have to pay for the karma I’ve created.

The marriage story was resolved neatly, but the relationship became even more difficult, and I couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief.

Only one phrase kept popping up in my head.

‘I’m going crazy.’

That one phrase was all that was going through my head.

It felt like untying one knot had caused the untied knot to become tangled.