A Crush’s Thresher

“My unrequited love was ruined.”

I, Ha Gi-yeon, was endlessly inferior compared to my perfect older brother. My first love and last love were all my brother’s friends. To the one I poured endless affection into, what came back was a cold rejection as harsh as violence.

The family I craved affection from told me, like a bolt from the blue, that I wasn’t even their biological child, and I was driven out of the house. Living by doing manual labor, Ha Gi-yeon’s life felt like it wasn’t even a life. Then came a sudden traffic accident. On the verge of death, I regretted and begged: if I could live again, I would never pour love into the family that ignored and discriminated against me, or into the brothers who bullied me under the pretext of affection. I would live my own life completely.

And then, like a lie, Ha Gi-yeon returned to the winter when he was 17.

As Ha Gi-yeon began to change, the family and the brothers also began to change because of him....

***

Ha Gi-yeon put a capsule into the espresso machine and pressed the button. Watching him brew coffee, Gwon Jong-seok complained as if pouting.

“Hyung doesn’t like coffee~”

“……Huh?”

He knew that. Didn’t he drink hot chocolate because he liked sweets?

Ha Gi-yeon knew in detail what they liked and disliked. Food, of course, but also their favorite colors and tastes, and more. He had worked so hard because he wanted to know everything about the person he loved unrequitedly... yet he knew nothing about himself. He had matched everything to his brothers’ tastes.

If there was one thing he learned after leaving home, it was that he liked bitter coffee. Ha Gi-yeon inhaled the faintly spreading aroma. Even the scent was different from the instant coffee he used to drink three or four packets of a day before he regressed. And yet, the stick coffee that had been the only thing to relieve his exhaustion still came to mind.

“Your mother went out earlier.”

“……Huh?”

What was there to do in the kitchen? Why was he saying something he didn’t even care to hear here?

As he set the tart and coffee on a tray, Gwon Jong-seok asked, looking puzzled.

“Who are you taking that to?”

“It’s mine.”

“……It’s yours?”

“Yeah.”

Wasn’t that obvious? He couldn’t even drink espresso, so who else would it be for?

As he passed the flustered Gwon Jong-seok and tried to leave the kitchen, someone else blocked his way.

“What is it?”

Sharp eyes looked down at Ha Gi-yeon. A boy with sleek black hair down to his neck and a cutting expression.

‘Of all people, the one I least want to run into, and here he is...’

Choi Mu-jin.

Ha Gi-yeon’s final confession target.

He should avoid him? The whole house was a minefield.

“What, coffee? Who are you giving that to? You’re just going to eat it all yourself.”

Those sharp words were exactly as he remembered.

“And why are you all gathered here?”

Even Ha Do-hoon, who watched indifferently from a step behind.

But... somehow, looking at the three of them, Ha Gi-yeon felt something strangely off.