I shouldn’t have sent him off like that.
I knew in my head that Tay had done it for me, but my hands and legs were still trembling. My confused mind and body reacted separately. In the elevator, I stared at myself in the mirror. There was something loose on my face, like the face of someone who had witnessed something horrible.
My older brother was standing in front of the front door when I entered the house. When I raised my head, my older brother was staring at me fiercely with a frown on his face.
“What are you…”
But my older brother was unable to finish his sentence.
“What’s going on?”
Instead, when he asked the question, I felt a shallow convulsive twitch in my lower lip and tears welled up in the corners of my eyes.
“Phi…”
And my tears flowed like those of a child who met his missing parents at a lost child shelter. My tension was lifted as soon as I saw my older brother. My older brother said nothing to me, I broke into tears without even taking off my shoes. I tried rubbing the corners of my eyes with the back of my arm to wipe away the tears, but they kept pouring out.
“Who did it?”
My older brother grabbed my hand and asked, as I was about to sit down. When I made eye contact with my older brother, my tear-stained face reflected in his eyes, and I slightly bowed my head. I wanted to respond, but I couldn’t stop crying. I think I still have a long way to go before becoming an adult.
“Is it him?”
The person he was talking about must be Tay. I shook my head because I couldn’t raise my head. I was ashamed and angry at myself for crying like a child, but I was so irritated that the tears I had been holding back the entire time outside suddenly poured out when I saw my older brother.
“Ugh… J-Joss Wayar… Hik…”
“Joss?”
“Ugh… that, that punk… Uh, really…”
My eyes were sore. He pressed me to tell him what was going on, but because the story of my misery came first, I just cried the entire time.
“Come in for now.”
I walked inside when my brother had moved away a little. I changed my clothes and sat on the sofa without even unpacking my bag. My older brother walked into the kitchen and returned with a bucket of my favorite mint chocolate ice cream. It had only recently been unpacked, and there was no sign of touch. I accepted the spoon. I didn’t want to eat it, but I did since I was starving.
My older brother sat across from me, holding his breath as though attempting to calm down even more, and asked, “Joss Wayar, that bastard. The one that bullied you?”
I nodded my head. Instead of responding, my older brother stood up and licked his lips with his tongue.
“Wait here.”
“P-Phi, where are you going?!”
With my eyes still sore, I caught him as he headed out the front door as if he was leaving right away.
“I'm going to kill him.”
“…You don’t have to.”
“…”
“Te, Te Tawan… he hit him.”
I bit my lips when I finished speaking again. I felt like I was going to die of embarrassment, but it was terrible because tears kept streaming down my cheeks. “Did he hit him?” my older brother asked. He frowned and sat down next to me again after I nodded.
