❝ if you were to choose between two people-
would you choose the person you love or the
person who loves you? ❞
━ a poignant narrative that weaves through the tapestry of girlhood, boyhood, friendship, parenthood, love, and loss. It follows the li...
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Somewhere in Northwestern Daegu
THE FIRST TIME MIN YOONGI experiencedbetrayal—the length of his fingers were no longer than twelve centimetres and the width of his feet were no shorter than three inches. At the age of six, he distinguished the extent to his father's wrath for the first time. He was no longer a parent—he became a demon.
The second time Yoongi experienced betrayal happened to be with his older brother, Min Yeong-su, who he thought was the coolest person in the entire world—the person he looked up to in every aspect. Yeong-su was the favourite son: the studious, perfect child that their father dotted on with so much love. But things took a turn the older Yoongi grew. In truth, his "genius" brother was merely putting up a front. At fifteen years old, Yoongi learned his secret: Min Yeong-su was a bully and a fraud.
Yoongi could not describe how much he loathed his brother for what he'd done, but still, he kept his secret to protect him. For a while, he was able to ensure the safety of Yeong-su's reputation. That is until he arrived home one winter night to empty bottles of soju laying on the floor of their living room, and a notice of dismissal sent by Kyungpook National University sitting coldly on top of the centre table. In that moment, Yoongi knew right away: the whole world had found out.
"How dare you do this to me?!" Yoongi's father howled at his brother, who laid weakly on the floor, all bruised up and thrashed by his vile hands. "After everything I've done for you—"
"I had no other choice!" Twenty year old Yeong-su cried, crawling closer to his father's feet. "You would have killed me anyway! I had to do it to survive!"
"You bastard!" Another brutal kick to his ribs and Yeong-su collapsed to the ground again. The man bent down, grabbed an empty bottle of soju and hammered it mercilessly across his son's head. The bottle broke in half upon the forceful contact, its other piece shattering into smaller fragments as it hit the floor. Blood began to trickle down the boy's forehead. Yeong-su screeched in pain. The wound would last a lifetime, he knew.
As the years continued, Min Yoongi eventually overthrew his brother's reputation in the family. While Yeong-su shunned himself from the rest of the world, Yoongi became the studious, perfect child their father dotted on with his entire heart and soul. "My son, I'm home!" The man grinned drunkenly upon his arrival from work, pulling his younger son into a tight embrace. "You know that Dad loves you, right?" He whispered tenderly. No emotion formed on Yoongi's face. The man was lying through his teeth; what he really meant to say was, Dadcares and loves you only when you meet his expectations.
At seventeen years old, Min Yoongi became no different from a zombie; he was practically a walking dead man. He slept for four hours every night, shut the alarm off at six in the morning, rose out of bed, got dressed for school, and studied for thirteen hours every day until bedtime. Then he would be ready to do it all over again the next morning. His brother, on the other hand, finally found the determination to break free from his guilt. He came out of his bedroom after two years of hiding. He got down on his knees and begged his mother for forgiveness, promising her that he would be a better man from today onward and not grow up as a horrible person like his father.
