Daniel Kim stood in the doorway with his arms crossed, looking Jordan up and down like a bouncer deciding whether to let someone into a club. The oversized hoodie he wore had some anime character on it that Jordan probably should have recognized but didn’t, and his sneakers were the kind of limited edition Jordans that cost more than most people’s rent.

Chloe watched the exchange from the edge of her peripheral vision while pretending to close the door. Her stomach had been doing uncomfortable things since Daniel texted that he was in the Uber, and now that her brother was actually here, actually standing in her apartment and staring at the first boyfriend she’d ever introduced to anyone in her family, the uncomfortable things had evolved into full-scale gymnastics.

"You’re taller than I expected," Daniel said.

Jordan didn’t miss a beat. "You’re shorter than I expected."

A beat of silence.

Then Daniel’s face cracked into a grin that looked so much like their father’s that Chloe felt a pang of homesickness she hadn’t anticipated.

"Okay. That was decent." Daniel walked past Jordan into the apartment, his eyes immediately scanning for the television and gaming setup that Chloe kept in the corner. "Noona said you’re not completely terrible at games. Is that true or was she being nice?"

"I don’t know. Is she ever nice?"

"Fair point."

Chloe closed the door behind them and tried to will her heart rate back to something approaching normal. This was fine. Daniel was being Daniel, which meant he was testing Jordan the way he tested everyone, pushing to see where the cracks were and whether the person would push back or crumble.

Jordan was pushing back.

That was good. That was very good.

"I brought controllers," Daniel announced, already unzipping his backpack and pulling out a pair of fighting game sticks that probably cost more than Chloe’s textbooks for the semester. "You know Tekken?"

"I know Tekken."

"Ranked?"

"I’ve played ranked."

"What rank?"

Jordan hesitated for exactly one second too long.

Daniel’s eyes narrowed. "Liar. You’re a casual. I can tell."

"I never said I was good."

"Noona said you were good."

"Your sister says a lot of things."

Chloe intervened before the interrogation could escalate further. "I said he was decent. There’s a difference."

Daniel turned to look at her with an expression of profound betrayal. "You brought home a casual gamer? I expected better from you, noona."

"He has other qualities."

"Like what?"

"He owns a hot springs resort."

The words left her mouth before she could stop them, and Chloe immediately wanted to take them back. She had specifically decided not to mention the Moonstone Onsen, not to bring up anything that might make Jordan seem too wealthy or too complicated, but Daniel had a way of pulling information out of her that she didn’t intend to share.

It was annoying.

It was also the reason she loved him.

Daniel’s entire demeanor shifted. The casual assessment gave way to something sharper and more interested, and he turned back to Jordan with renewed attention.

"A hot springs resort? Like an actual business?"

"Family inheritance. Long story."

"Is it cool?"

"It’s got koi fish."

"Sick."

Chloe watched the exchange with a mixture of relief and exasperation. Boys were so simple sometimes. Mention a business or an expensive car or a physical asset and suddenly you were worth paying attention to, regardless of whatever you’d been doing five seconds earlier.

Though she supposed she wasn’t much different.

She’d noticed Jordan’s potential the moment she saw his transformation at that first dinner, the way his shoulders had filled out and his jaw had sharpened and his entire presence had shifted from desperate simp to someone who carried himself like he expected to be taken seriously.

The System tracked her chemistry percentage with Jordan.

Chloe had been tracking her own feelings long before she knew any System existed.

"Okay," Daniel said, dropping onto the couch with the boneless grace of a teenager who had never experienced physical discomfort. "Best of seven. If I win, you tell me about the resort. If you win, I’ll consider not roasting you in front of Mom."

"That’s not an equal trade."

"Life isn’t fair. Deal with it."

Jordan sat down beside him, and the two of them began setting up the fighting game sticks while Chloe retreated to the kitchen to finish the prep work her mother would expect to be done. She could hear them talking in the background, the low rumble of Jordan’s voice mixing with Daniel’s higher-pitched commentary, and she let herself relax slightly.

This was going better than she’d feared.

Not that she’d admit that to anyone.

The sound of the game starting filled the apartment, accompanied by Daniel’s immediate trash talk and Jordan’s calmer responses. Chloe sliced vegetables and listened, her hands moving through familiar motions while her mind processed the scene unfolding in her living room.

Jordan McKnight was sitting on her couch, playing video games with her little brother, preparing to meet her mother in three hours.

Six weeks ago, Jordan McKnight was the guy who paid three thousand dollars to have coffee with her OnlyFans persona.

Six weeks ago, Jordan McKnight was a pathetic simp with bad hair and worse self-esteem who had just been cucked by his ex-girlfriend in a hotel parking lot.

Now he ran a content creator network, owned a hot springs resort, had a body that made other women stare, and was dating her alongside another girl with everyone’s full knowledge and consent.

The transformation was insane.

The transformation was suspicious.

Chloe had been collecting evidence for weeks, filing away every inconsistency and every moment when Jordan’s story didn’t quite add up. His sudden wealth. His rapid physical improvement. His almost supernatural ability to say exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment, as though someone was feeding him lines from a script.

But the evidence never coalesced into anything coherent.

Jordan wasn’t lying to her about the important things. She would have known. She always knew when people were lying, had been able to read the tells since she was fourteen and her mother taught her that men would say anything to get what they wanted.

Jordan was hiding something, but it wasn’t the kind of something that would hurt her.

She was almost certain.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"