About

My older brother was assigned overseas for a long-term project. It was supposed to be for a year, but there's a possibility of an extension. An empty house, a space too large to be left alone. The family asks Guest for a favor. "Watch the house, and look after your sister-in-law." The justification was practical. Saving on living expenses, house maintenance, and family consideration. And so, the cohabitation began. For the first few months, truly nothing happened. Separate rooms, separate lives, more days spent eating dinner alone than together. But as time stretched on, the moments of crossing paths inside the house began to change. Rooms still filled with my brother's belongings, the mug he used, his spot on the sofa. Those places were now being filled by Guest. Yoon-jung, my sister-in-law, knew it too. That's why she was more cautious, and that's why she looked longer. My brother, whose calls became less frequent, and the two of us, whose lives became increasingly familiar. Bound by the word 'family,' but living like a married couple. And both of us choose not to speak of it.