Midway through a job interview with a recruiter at a job fair last year, Brad Werenski was prepared for a question about possibly moving to Ohio.

The lifelong Michigander knew the job was based at Honda’s plant in Marysville, so when asked, he went with the “relative who lives nearby” option — without getting into the relative’s identity or profession.

“I never directly named my brother,” said Werenski, 23, whose younger and only sibling is Zach Werenski, the Blue Jackets’ 21-year-old star. “It was one of those things where if I was going to come here, it was going to be on my own. I wanted it to be my own schooling and work that got me the job, so when I mentioned that I had family in Columbus, it was more to let my interviewer know that I was willing to move there.”

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That interview led to another one, in Marysville last spring. The job was offered and he accepted, becoming a buyer for Honda’s North American Purchasing Department. The elder Werenski brother, who graduated with a degree in integrated supply chain management from Western Michigan University’s Haworth College of Business, now helps purchase stereo equipment and entertainment systems for Honda and Acura vehicles.

He lives in Columbus with his “relative” in a two-bedroom apartment that looks out at Nationwide Arena.

“He’s lived with me since July and it’s been awesome,” said Zach, who’s in his third NHL season. “It’s actually better having him here. It’s nice to have someone to talk to sometimes. When you live alone and stuff starts going bad or whatnot, there’s nobody to talk to, so it’s nice having him there.”

It’s good for Brad, too. He’d lived apart from Zach for five years, after his younger brother moved away at age 16 to join the United States National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor.

“I know it’s easy to communicate today, with text messages and things like that, but at the same time they never really lived together after that,” said Ken Werenski, their dad. “Seven, eight, nine months out of the year, Zach was gone. And as Brad got older, he was busy in the summers when Zach was home. So, I really think in some ways they’re just making up for lost time.”

The daily grind

A typical weekday for the Werenski brothers, when the Blue Jackets are home, begins with Brad’s alarm going off at 6 a.m., shortly before his drive to Marysville.

He’s at the office by 7 a.m., works until 3 p.m. and then sneaks in a workout at Honda’s on-site gym. Zach, meanwhile, heads over to the arena for practices and morning skates, returning to the apartment afterward.

“It’s great because they’re not in each other’s faces all day,” said Kristen Werenski, their mom. “Zach does his thing and then he’s home all afternoon. Brad leaves at 6 in the morning and doesn’t get home until 6 or 7 at night, so they’re not getting on each other’s nerves all day.”

It’s a nice mix, which is exactly the sort of thing moms fret about.

“As a parent, you’re just so happy that your kids like each other enough that they want to live together — because they’re boys, they’re close in age and we went through all the wrestling and the name-calling,” Kristen said. “And they’re very competitive. I mean, there’s minutes where you’re like, ‘Oh my god.’

"As adults, though, they’ve made a decision that they don’t have to do that and they actually want to live together — and it’s just awesome.”

One-stop shopping

The arrangement is convenient for mom and dad, too.

Rather than driving to two different spots, or flying across the country, their sons are only about a three-hour drive away from their home in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Woods.

“We still feel like they’re home,” said Ken, who has the drive to Columbus down pat by now. “It’s just like, ‘They live over there and we just live over here.’ And now, Kristen and I have kind of fallen in love with Columbus. It’s like my wife and I get a vacation.”

Sometimes they’ll grab a hotel room. Other times, they’ll just stay with the boys in the apartment — which is a typical bachelor pad, complete with a mini artificial Christmas tree still on display, purchased and decorated by mom.

Every time, the Werenskis soak it all in, knowing how lucky they are that things worked out this way.

“Now they’re old enough to be able to do adult things, so we go out to dinners and the bars and games, so it’s almost like a vacation for us,” Ken said. “And it’s only three hours away from home.”

Kristen has another term for it.

“I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” she said. “ 'Both of my kids are going to be three hours and 15 minutes away? It’s like one-stop shopping.'" ”

'Give him a minute'

Another reason Kristen is excited about the arrangement is that her boys don’t want to pummel each other.

They’re suppressing the urge, anyway, which hasn’t always been the case. When she mentioned that Brad and Zach would “wrestle” when they were younger, she didn’t mean the organized kind on a mat.

More like organized chaos in the house.

“As they got bigger, I thought someone would go through the wall,” she said. “My husband would sit there and watch, because he’s a big guy, too, and he’d just laugh. I’d just say, ‘That’s it, I’m outta here,’ and I’d go outside. They’d think that was funny.”

Ken remembers the squabbles, too.

In fact, they still happen from time to time, usually after Brad beats Zach at something, such as a “friendly” game of ‘H-O-R-S-E' or ‘P-I-G' on the basketball court.

“Brad can beat Zach in a lot of things,” Ken said. “Let me tell you, it does not go over well with Zach. He will literally kick the ball into the next yard and he’ll need five minutes to cool down. Brad will come running in, and (Zach) will be chasing him or throwing the ball at him, and Brad will be, like, ‘Yeah, I just beat him again. Just give him a minute.’ ”

Back on the ice

Brad’s NHL aspirations carried him farther than most, playing in the same prestigious Little Caesar’s program in Detroit that produced Zach.

Eventually, after chasing his dream through the AAA level, he made the decision that hockey just wasn’t going to pan out for a career. He traded his skates for a college degree, as Zach continued to star at Michigan and then in the pros.

“My last game was in the national semifinals with Little Caesar’s,” Brad said. “I was 19. We lost and I just hung up my skates for four years. I didn’t touch the ice.”

It wasn’t, however, the end of him playing hockey.

Columbus now has two Werenskis filling nets with pucks. One terrorizes NHL goalies as an offensive defenseman. The other does the same as a winger for a local men’s league team called “Vandelay Industries,” named after a reference from the 1990s TV comedy “Seinfeld.”

Brad didn’t tout his own exploits, but he’s reportedly tearing up the league — he recently scored all six of his team's goals in a doubleheader sweep.

“I love it,” he said. “I was kind of mad at myself after the first few weeks, like, ‘Why have I not been skating? This is awesome.’ So, I started playing again and I’m picking it back up. I’m having fun playing hockey now.”

He’s also watching a lot of it, either in person at Nationwide Arena or on the couch next to his brother. Turns out, these two are really good for each other, just a couple of lifelong buds savoring life together in their early 20s.

“We were always close,” Brad said. “In the summers, he usually goes home and I’d be home from school, so there would be a four-month period where we did live together, but this is really, truly us living together again. It definitely feels like we’re back in the day in high school again, living together.”

Good thing he had a relative nearby.

bhedger@dispatch.com

@BrianHedger