PROMPT: Feeling as though she's forever overshadowed by her overachieving elder sister, Yoon Jinah spends most of her life in competition with the latter.

But the one thing she can't ever lose to her sister is the man she loves.
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Rivalry is probably one of the first relationships siblings establish between each other, and no one knows this better than Yoon Jinah.

The youngest of two girls, Jinah is forever destined to be the shadow of her elder sister, who seems to have been born with the innate ability to be the best at everything.

As the baby of the family, Jinah has had her fair share of being doted on by her parents. But, as she grew up, it became consistently clear to her who the favourite really was - and for good reason.

Her sister just didn't seem to understand the meaning of the words failure and disappointment.

Though Jinah herself was also smart and competent, she was still never able to match her sister's levels, thus downgrading her to just average.

Because her sister was forever the golden child who's so high up a pedestal, no one can ever reach her, Jinah has always thought of herself as the black sheep of the family.

Her self-esteem never wavered more than when people would start comparing her with her golden sister. Compared to the latter, Jinah was always the second-best, the consolation prize, the weaker one.

That was why Jinah liked going to her work at the coffee shop because, unlike everywhere else, there was no sister there to outshine her or show her up.

At the cafe, Jinah was the beloved manager, the star employee, the favourite of her staff.

And there was the added bonus of the mysterious handsome man who liked to frequent the cafe, sitting at the exact same spot everyday for an hour.

She didn't know who he was, what he did, why he was always going to her coffee shop even though it looked like he wasn't from around the neighbourhood.

All that she knew was that he seemed to be a businessman involved in some kind of tech company, if any of his loud meetings was anything to go by; that he always had a smile reserved just for her whenever she served him his coffee of the day; and, that he looked especially attractive whenever his eyebrows were knit in concentration, his lips jutted out as he read the morning paper.

Without meaning to, Jinah began to look forward to his visits to the cafe, and she took to being the first to greet him good morning every time he swung by.

Sometimes, he'd ask her how she was, and on days when Jinah remembered how to use her tongue, she would ask him the same.

Presently, as Jinah finishes chatting him up about the weather (for she couldn't think of any more creative topic to talk about), the entrance to the cafe dings to signal a new customer.

"Jinah."

She turns around at the sound of her name, and her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "Unnie, what brings you here? I thought you had a shift at the hospital."

Her sister shrugs before reaching over to tuck a strand of hair behind her dongsaeng's ear. "I have a little break right now, and I need some fresh air and a caffeine fix. And will you please take better care of yourself? Look at you, you look even more haggard than a doctor with a 24-hour shift."

"You always look better than me, Unnie," Jinah replies defeatedly, the way she does when talking to her sister.

She leads them to an empty table before taking her Unnie's order. As she leaves, she feels her sister tugging on her arm. 

"Who is that?" Her Unnie asks, subtly gesturing her chin towards the direction of the man by the corner of the cafe.

"I don't know," Jinah replies through gritted teeth, her hands virtually shaking to mirror the fast beating of her heart.

She can't explain the irrational burst of anger that now spills in her insides at the thought of her sister taking something away that was hers once again.

For one thing, he isn't technically hers, he doesn't even know her name, he's free to do whatever he wants, but something in Jinah's mind just keeps screaming, No! You already have everything you want! Stay away from him!

But fate, it seems, has other plans.

Her sister moves her head purposefully to the side, as if intent on catching the man's attention, and of course she does so effortlessly, with the man nodding and smiling at her as soon as he catches her eye, for she was the blessed child with the magical touch who seems to have the entire world at the palm of her hands.

As her sister approaches the man and strikes up a conversation with him like it was the most natural thing in the world, Jinah walks back to the kitchen, feeling like her heart had been torn into a thousand pieces.

Inexplicably upset over something that wasn't even real, she spends the rest of the day in silence, not even coming out of her office to say goodbye to the man who had been used to seeing her face before he left the building.

That night, her thoughts bereft of anything else except the disturbing image of her sister going out with the man she now acknowledges to be someone special to her, Jinah suddenly feels claustrophobic in her own apartment.

Grabbing her coat, she opens the door to step out for some fresh air, when what she finds on her doorstep has her widening her eyes in sheer surprise.

"Hi," the man who's been occupying her mind casually greets her, his hands folded behind his back.

"Hi," she manages to answer, inwardly coaching herself to breathe properly. "What are you doing here?"

"Your sister told me you lived here."

As if suddenly remembering something, he moves his hands to his sides, hesitantly taking one step back. "I'm sorry, is this inappropriate?"

She blinks rapidly at him, still wildly unsure whether he was real. "Yes... I mean, no... I mean..."

"I waited for you this morning but you never came out," he explains hurriedly. "I wanted to see if you would like to have dinner with me tonight."

She purses her lips as she turns his words around and around in her head until they start to make sense. "I... I thought you wanted to date my sister..."

"No," he says simply, grinning. "I wanted you."

Blushing furiously, Jinah looks down at her feet, swaying like a shy little girl from where she stood, until she feels him stepping back in front of her, the nearness of him almost making her lungs collapse.

"She told me your name is Jinah," he says quietly, the minty fresh scent of his breath invading her senses, as he offers his hand towards her.

"I'm Yoo Jinwoo."

She slides her palm into his much-larger one, his touch immediately shooting bolts of electricity through her skin that spark an alien emotion within her.

For the first time, someone had voluntarily chosen her over her sister, and Jinah finally feels for the first time what it's like to win.

"I would love to have dinner with you, Jinwoo."

-
Photos from BAU by Bride and You & Crocodile
Special thanks to biblio_phile100 for the initial prompt