One morning, not long after the new semester had started...
"Bro, wake up! Mom says it's time to eat!"
Jinwoo was still fast asleep when his youngest sister, Minji, came bouncing onto his bed. Despite being nineteen now, she still had the same mischievous energy she'd had as a child, jumping on him to force him awake.
"Argh!! What the hell are you doing?"
Startled by Minji's sudden "splash" attack, Jinwoo, groggily but desperately, tried to push her off. The weight of Minji's thigh and the feel of her soft, mature figure through the thin blanket was transmitted directly to Jinwoo's aroused state.
Lying down, he quickly pulled up his knees to create some distance from her.
"Hey, didn't I tell you to stop doing this? You're not a kid anymore," Jinwoo said, struggling to open his sleepy eyes.
"Hehe~ You can't get up if I don't do this. Besides, I'm still the baby of the house," Minji grinned innocently, oblivious to his plight.
Seeing Minji leaning against his chest with his knees raised slightly, Jinwoo felt a renewed surge in his manhood. She had grown up significantly over the last year, her height and figure filling out in a way that made these "wake-up calls" increasingly stressful for him.
"Get off, will you?"
Pushing Minji to the side amidst the chaos, Jinwoo caught his breath and thought to himself, 'Wow, that was close.'
Minji, now pushed aside, began pulling at the blanket Jinwoo was under.
"Bro, you need to get up, Mom said to wake you up~ I'll keep bothering you until you do. You're going to be late for your lectures!"
"Alright, alright, I'm up, I'm up."
Jinwoo turned away from Minji, curling up and trying not to let go of the blanket. He didn't want to expose his aroused state—though it might have been too late. Minji began shaking the blanket back and forth again.
"You can't go back to sleep, bro~"
"Alright, I'm really up, I'll get ready and come down, just stop."
Jinwoo sat up with a look that seemed close to tears, clutching the blanket to him.
"Are you really up? Come down quick, breakfast is your favorite egg rolls and sausages."
Minji, with a devilish smile, headed downstairs. As she walked away, Jinwoo couldn't help but notice how much she'd changed; she'd always had great proportions, probably something she got from her mom, but now that she was an adult, it was even more apparent.
After Minji left, Jinwoo calmed himself by silently repeating the national anthem to himself three times.
Jinwoo's and his second sister Sohee's rooms were on the second floor. The first floor had the master bedroom, Minji's room, and the room that used to belong to their eldest sister, Yejin, who now lived on her own. After washing his face, Jinwoo headed downstairs.
At the dining table, Sohee and Minji were already seated. Mom was sitting on the living room floor, sewing a button on Sohee's university blazer.
"If you had told me the button fell off, I could have dealt with it sooner, but just leaving it in the laundry basket? What am I supposed to do with this in the morning rush?"
"I forgot to mention it~" Sohee, sitting at the table and eating, turned apologetically towards mom.
"You're a college student now, Sohee. You spend all your time buying cosmetics and clothes, but you can't sew a button? You still expect mom to do this in the morning?"
"I've just been so busy with the new semester~"
"Busy? And why would a perfectly good blazer button suddenly fall off? You're not gaining weight, are you?"
"Mom, it's not like that~ Why bring this up over breakfast~~" Sohee looked hurt.
Last year, Sohee had been a star athlete. But she had decided to quit athletics upon moving up to the advanced university program. It was a sudden change, and many linked it to the loss of their father. However, there was another reason: Sohee's chest and hips had grown too large for her to remain comfortable in competitive sprinting.
Jinwoo casually glanced at Sohee. Even in a simple T-shirt, her development was extraordinary. The slim body shaped by years of sports was now defined by curves that practically burst the buttons of her formal clothes.
As Jinwoo joined the table, he teased her. "Seriously, you've been eating a lot more since you quit the team."
"What are you talking about? I eat the same as before!" Sohee shot a fierce look at him.
"That's the thing, you're not working out but eating just as much. You're bound to fill out~"
"Hey! This isn't about getting fat, it's just... natural growth! I still go jogging. You're the one who stays up all night doing 'weird stuff' and oversleeps!"
"Enough, enough~!!" Their mother intervened.
After a while of back-and-forth, mom finished her sewing and stood up. "Big brother should set an example. Ah, our Minji is the most adult-like, even if she is the youngest. She's never late and always listens."
Mom stroked Minji's hair. Minji, now a twenty-year-old woman, just giggled like a little girl.
Sohee pouted. "That's because Minji has been sleeping with mom every night lately. Hard to be late when Mom drags you out of bed."
Since their father passed away, Minji—despite being an adult—had been frequently sleeping by their mother's side. It was a habit born of grief that she hadn't quite let go of yet.
"Ah~ So sleeping in mom's room instead of her own at the age of twenty is being 'adult-like'?" Jinwoo teased.
"Oh my~ Jinwoo, you were clutching at mom's chest in your sleep until you were nearly in high school, and now you talk about others?" Mom exposed his past.
"Jeez! That was a long time ago!" Jinwoo blushed furiously.
"Kekeke, pathetic," Sohee muttered with a smirk.
"Hehe~" Minji smiled innocently, taking a bite of her breakfast.
"Come on, you guys need to eat quickly and get to campus," Mom sat at the table, smiling at her three grown children.