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The quiet hum of her calm apartment contrasted to how she felt inside. Yerin's life was changing so fast new people kept entering inside it was spinning her head.
She called in sick for work today, not trying to deal with anything but herself today she really wanted to cut off her past and change her life entirely but at a pace that she felt comfortable.
As she went to change the netflix show, her fingers gliding softly over the remote, her phone flashed brightly and she was confused to see a random number she didn't know.
Clicking on the accept button she expected it to be a scammer or something but she froze when she heard the voice of the anonymous caller.
She hadn't heard from her younger brother, Hyun, in almost ten years. Not since he left with her excuse of a mother.Since then, they'd each carried their own burdens, separated not only by distance but by the years of hurt that had driven them apart.
The scars of their childhood were still fresh in her mind. The constant emotional abuse from their mother, the manipulative control, the silence that filled the house when their father disappeared.
Yerin had been forced to grow up fast, to take on the role of caregiver for both of them. She never hated him for it, it hurt her deeply that they had to go through everything alone, together.
But somewhere along the way, the connection between them had frayed. She had been too busy surviving, too caught up in her own world of responsibilities.
Hyun had been too wounded to reach out, and she had been too proud or too scared to try to bridge the gap that would remind of her of everything she worked hard to forget.
And yet, now, after all these years, there it was Hyun's name flashing on her phone.
Why now, she thought after all those years of being there for him and protecting him from things she had to endure when she was his age, just why didn't he remember her then.
Yerin's heart skipped a beat as she stared at the screen. Should she answer? What could he possibly want after all this time? Her hands trembled slightly as she swiped to answer the call. Her heart thudded in her chest as she pressed the phone to her ear.
"Hyun?" Her voice cracked, betraying the flood of emotions that she had kept buried for so long.
There was a long pause before she heard his voice, faint but unmistakable. "Yerin." His voice was quieter than she remembered, almost fragile as if he'd been through something she didn't know.
"Hyun," Yerin whispered, her breath catching in her throat. "It's been so long."
"I know," he said, and she could hear the weariness in his voice, a lifetime of regret and sadness in those two simple words. "I didn't know who else to call. I'm sorry."
Yerin closed her eyes, her emotions swirling inside her like a storm. All the old wounds, the memories she'd buried, began to surface. She swallowed hard, trying to steady herself. "Hyun, it's okay," she said softly. "I'm glad you called. You've been you've been through so much, haven't you?"
