"Yo, bro! Where were you this whole time?!" his cousin exclaimed, hugging him tightly. "We were worried so about! Mom was about to call the police to look for you!" he explained.
"Woah, no need! I mean... I am here. I'm healthy and I am fine! No need to call the police!" he answered laughing. "Well, you just disappeared- for weeks! I wanted to look for you too, but I knew the police would just say it's common for our age to vanish for a few days, so I stole the phone out of her hand. But dude, after what happened to Jaehyun hyung, we were fucking scared!" "Felix!" his mother scolded.
"But he is right! How can you make me think the worst?! First Jaehyun dusappeared, then you and today Soulie too! Do you want me to have a heart attack because you disappeared?!" their aunt cried, tears welling in her eyes. "Of course not, Auntie!" The twins answered in unison. "I am just happy you two came back today..." she said, hugging the twins and kissed each of their foreheads.
"Come on, Sungchan! Do you wanna eat something? I made soup..." the woman said, pushing them toward the kitchen, still sobbing. Felix tried to calm her down, gently stopping her tears.
Their aunt took another plate for Sungchan, filled it with soup, and handed him a spoon. He ate the soup quietly, debating wether he should play along and ask his sister- or protect her by staying silent about her disappearance. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable or risk being the reason she broke the deal.
"Yo, Sungchan!" his cousin said, pulling him out of his thoughts. "Mhhm?" he answered, putting the spoon in his mouth.
"Where were you all this time? You were not even in school!" He froze mid-action. "Well.... I-I was with my friends." he muttered.
"YOU DISAPPEARED JUST TO BE WITH FRIENDS?!" his aunt yelled, making the kids cover their ears. "YOU LITTLE-! DIDN'T I TELL YOU THAT-" "Auntie, Auntie! AUNTIE! Listen to me!" he said quickly, forcing a smile.
"I didn't skip school" he chuckled. "Then why weren't you there? I was worried!" the girl pouted. "I just was not feeling well. I was dizzy the whole time. The friend's brother is a doctor, and he told me I should stay there and recover until I felt better. So I stayed at his house and rested. He took care of me the whole time."
His twin raised an eyebrow. "And why did you never call or write to at least inform us that you were save?" their aunt asked. "I-I.... I don't know... I-I guess.... I.... simply forgot?" he answered, sounding more like a question an explanation.
"Forget....?" she repeated, crossing her arms and raising her brow. Sungchan grinned. "Awww, is my sister jealous I might have had some fun without you?" he teased. She scoffed, turned away from her brother, and stood up from her chair.
"I am tired." she said, then left the kitchen for her room. She sensed her brother following after her, hearing a spoon clatter onto the table moments later.
She slammed her door shut, lay down on her bed, turned away from the door. Not long after, the door creaked open again.
"Soul?" Her brother called softly. She didn't answer, so he stepped in, closed the door, and sat down on her bed. He heard his sister sobbing and saw her clutching the teddy bear their oldest brother had given her when she was released from the hospital after her accident.
"Soul, what is wrong? Why are you upset now?" he asked. She thought for a moment about what and how to say it, without mentioning what happend today- the only thing that would explain her extreme emotinal outburst. Both knew she could be emotinal, but not like this.
"Soul?" he asked again when she didn't respond. "FORGOT?!" the girl exploded, sitting up and turning to face her brother, her tear-streaked face exposed. She was not thinking about her words; her voice came out raw and broken, showing her brother clearly how hurt and furious she was. He flinched, not having expected her to react that way.
"Wh-"
"How can you forget to write? How can you forget to tell us you're okay- tell ME you are okay?!" she yelled.
"Soul, I-"
"You what?! You want to leave like oppa?! Not talk to us again?! You are the only one who cares for me! But maybe I'm not important enough to you if you don't even think to tell me you are alive! If you wanna go, then go! There! There is the door! And I, dumbass, was foolish enough to be worried about you!" she yelled. "If I am not important enough to you, it wouldn't have mattered if they had killed me today..." He stared at her with wide eyes. "What?" he asked. Realizing what she had just said, she looked away, gulping. "Nothing..." she murmured, a sick feeling twisting in her stomach.
"I don't want to leave you, Yaya! Never. You are everything for me- of course I care for you, of course you are important to me..." he tried to touch her shoulder, but she pulled away. "And hyung has not left us either... There's just something.... that makes it impossible for him to contact us. I am sure, he thinks about us every day, watching over us and protecting us- just... not the way we are used to." He said softly, pulling her into a hug.
"I'm sorry, Soul, that you felt that way. I never meant to make you feel like that. I love you- I would never leave you! I will always be here for you, always protect you" he whispered, kissing her head while caressing her hair. She buried her head in his chest, silently crying again.
It hurt her, thinking about her oldest brother. She loved him- he had always been there for her. When she needed him, he hugged her, calmed her in the most precious way, not even her twin brother was able to do. She felt more save around him. She talked to him about everything. He was more than her oldest brother. He was her protector, her saviour.
When he started spending almost all his time with friends, she grew worried- scared, even. Worried that she was the reason he was barely home and scared about what would happen if she would not have him with her anymore, who always protected her from the bullies in school. When he disappeared, she was beyond sad. But the fact that he never called, texted, or visited broke her. He just cut off every line of contact in an instant. She felt like she was falling and losing her grip. She felt betrayed. He just left them alone, suffering on her own. She always hoped, he would come back, but he never did.
Their aunt was convinced something bad must have happend to him- just like with her own brother, the kid's father. She assumed the worst- that he had died or been in an accident and was lying in a hospital somewhere, maybe with amnesia, no longer knowing who he was or where his home was. She was still calling hospitals all over the country, asking if anyone matched his description or name.
Until now, she had found nothing- slowly draining the girl's hope that her brother would ever come back. Even though it took her a long time, she eventually accepted that it was just her and her twin- more or less on their own. Even though they still had their cousin and their aunt, it always felt like it was just her and her twin. She couldn't bear losing him too.
"He is an Idiot! I hate him!" she sobbed, cursing. She often cried because of her older brother in the night and cursed at him. It affected her, even until today, really much. She always made sure to never do that infront of her family, most likely not infront of her aunt, who was always broken when she said that. She always took the boy's side, saying he must simply not be able- and that he would never leave them like that. She was convinced about it, that the two females argued a lot because the girl most of the time forgot about those conversations.
But she did not only wanted to not curse him in the presence of her aunt but especially not in the presence of her twin, who always was on his side too, always coming up with banal excuses. He always had looked up to their brother. But now, she couldn't hold back anymore.
She felt Sungchan tense a bit. "He just left us like that! He... he just threw us away!" She cried, grabbing his shirt tighter. He didn't said anything, only caressing her back, calming her down, until she fell asleep.
