I originally planned to start this in October or November 2026, but I recently need to revise the publication manuscript for "Love on a Long Holiday" and write its bonus chapters, so I may have to push the launch to after the new year. Nothing’s certain, though. I might get the urge to start it any day, so feel free to add it to your library first.
It’s billed as sweet, but it’s really seven parts sweet and three parts bittersweet. The full outline has been ready since 2022.
Spoiled young heiress × cold, gloomy older brother
Living-under-the-same-roof trope, class divide
I’ll polish the blurb before launch. Here’s how their relationship works:
When they were little, the older brother overheard the younger girl’s hangers-on teasing him for being her dog.
He secretly hoped she would argue with them, but she didn’t. He saw her laughing.
When she later asked why he was ignoring her, he coolly retorted, “Do you expect a dog to respond to you?”
But there wasn’t a trace of embarrassment on her face at being caught. She looked confused and asked, “Brother, don’t you like dogs? But puppies are so cute. I love dogs the most.”
As if nothing had happened, she rested her head on his shoulder and yawned. Pointing at a puppy in the distance, she asked sleepily and dependently, “Brother, do you think a puppy knows it’s a dog?”
He said nothing, but his tense shoulders began to relax again without him realizing it.
When they grow up, the older brother knows the difference in their status, but when he loses his head, he still indulges in fantasies. He keeps his distance so the younger girl’s mother won’t get the wrong idea, yet he goes mad with jealousy whenever she says even one extra word to another man. He even gets jealous when he hears her teasingly call someone else “big brother” (even though she clearly means it as a joke!). After holding back for ages, he finally corners her in a blind spot outside the home surveillance cameras and asks, “Wouldn’t a brother with no blood ties be enough for you?”
After the younger girl graduates, a man starts pursuing her. The older brother thinks she treats this man a little better than the insignificant men she used to know, so he nervously asks what she likes about him. She says, “Don’t you all say I have a bad temper and should find someone obedient? He’s very obedient.” Then, after holding back for days, the older brother asks under the influence of alcohol. His voice is cold, but his words are: “So you just wanted a dog? Have you found one who listens to you better than I do?”
When the younger girl was little, someone called the older brother her dog, and she saw how much it hurt him, so she’s sensitive about that word. But he’s been keeping his distance lately, which makes her furious. She pokes him in the chest and says imperiously, “You don’t listen to me at all anymore. You even moved out. Aren’t dogs supposed to stay by their owner’s side?”
That’s right: one openly throws a tantrum, while the other suppresses his feelings until he goes mad. They’re both intensely possessive. Because he’s living under her family’s care, the older brother suppresses his love for her and puts on a cold face as her dog. But when he sees her getting close to someone else, he can’t stop himself from getting jealous. After holding back for too long, he goes crazy. A sweet love story.
Theme: The older brother is utterly in love.
