One Spring Morning

Mr Snuggles O-O

"Okay, Okay. Now onto the actual surprise. Any name suggestions for our cat?" Yeonjun grins, grabs my hand and leads me to the living room.

Balleli Pov.

We sit around on our navy couch. Yeonjun walks all the way down to the basement to get the cat. Apparently, he's been doing all the feeding, and cleaning with the cat which I haven't realised at all.

Now, the thing is we live in a luxury apartment and so there is a basement. Actually, our father used to own the whole building. We live on the 28th floor out of 35 floors. Floor 28 is slightly cosy and more luxurious than the others because it's owned by us. By Yeonjun and Me. And Floor 28 actually consists of 2 floors combined so there are stairs to the "basement."

Yeonjun actually owns the luxury apartment, like the whole building. I take care of all the financial side of it though. Both of us spend a good solid 2 hours every Sunday going around from floor 1 all the way to floor 35 collecting the rent from everybody else who has rented their luxury apartment rooms.

Father used to always think of me as the favourite. He would praise me when I did well in school, or was able to successfully do something.

My father didn't like my brother Yeonjun though. My father would always say that my brother couldn't join the football team or that he couldn't spend his time drawing all over his exercise books. He couldn't look outside the window during class and he wasn't allowed to chew gum.

I remembered nights in the kitchen when my father was drunk, taking in the the beer with those shiny sea green bottles and Yeonjun yelling at him to stop drinking, his panicked cries as I laid in bed, wide awake. His yells for him to have some freedom.

I remembered my dad would take me out to the bookstore uptown to get me some of my favourite books, when Yeonjun asked if he could come, I reached out my hand and tried to pull him into the car seat next to me when my dad yanked him away. Telling him to stay at home.

I remembered being in the bookstore, the amber light glowing on me. Yeonjun was obsessed with this manga where it depicted two boys holding hands and staring into each other's eyes. I wasn't really interested in mangas but I was super obsessed with this new book from the fantasy section.

I remembered buying my book and sneakily buying the manga Yeonjun was obsessed about. I remembered what the bookshop assistant said,

"Just these two for today?" The man behind the counter asked.

"Yeah." I responded taking out Dad's credit card.

"Oooh, this one" said the man behind the counter, pointing to the book Yeonjun liked, "It's really good. I've read it already."

"Oh really, thanks for the suggestion. I'll let you know if I like it." I responded, thanking him and left the store.

I never went back to that bookstore again, scared that the man would ask what I thought of the book when it wasn't for me.

It was 11pm when I hopped out of bed and opened Yeonjun's bedroom door, that night I got the books.

"Balleli?" Yeonjun murmurs, his little figure in the bed, rustling against the covers.

"Yeah, it's me." I smile, baby teeth sticking out in all odd places. I'm sit on his bed and turn on his reading lamp so we can see each other.

"What's that you got there?" He smiles a wobbly smile as he rubs his red and swollen eyes, tears pouring down his face.

"Aww, Yeonjunie. Don't cry. I'm sure you'll get to read your beloved mangas." I hug him tight and squeeze his shoulders.

"We won't every give up will we?" I encourage him, raising my pinky in delight.

"Yeah we won't." He rubs the last of his tears and links his pinky with mine.

"I've got a surprise for you.." I say, taking the manga Yeonjun really wanted from behind my back.

"OMG! YOU GOT IT FOR ME!" Yeonjun whisper shouts.

"YEAH I DID! DO YOU LIKE IT???" I whisper shout.

"Whoa, look at this. There's two guys holding hands. One has pink hair and the other has black hair." Yeonjun gasps his finger moving frantically over the drawing.

"Whoa, that's so cool. A dude with pink hair, so pretttyyy!!" I bounce up and down on the spot.

"Would you kiss a pink haired dude?" Yeonjun asks, pulling strands of his black hair from his face.

"Yuccky Yeonjun, Every time I would look at his hair, I'd want to eat his hair cause it looks like cotton candy!" I giggle.

"Also, here's mr snuggles, I accidentally took it from your bedroom." Yeonjun hands over.

"Yay mr snuggles." I cuddle the donkey.

Yeonjun grew into a mature adult, he had really nice facial features both a balance from mum and dad's. I was also really lucky to look nice too and we were both confident with our appearances.

Yeonjun though struggled with his trauma. Refusing to drink beer whereas I took on champagne glass after champagne glass.

No wonder why he's so protective of me. Because I'm the last thing he has left. The only thing that made him happy.

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