Homme d'affaires || johnten

The second one

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They communicated through that window for a while. Ten tried to be funny, just seeing the slightest grin on his brother's face made him the happiest boy on earth. He wanted to make him happy, he wanted to make him forget about his condition and make him feel good for a moment. But behind each smile he knew how much the younger boy suffered.

Eventually, Jaemin told him about new friends he recently made.

"I'm glad you're meeting
new people. Are they in the
hospital too?"

"Not all of them..."

"What do you mean?"

"Two of them used to, but
they're not sick anymore.
Only Yebin and I are still
stuck in a boring room. She's
in a hospital in Daegu though."

"How did you meet them?"

"Over the internet. They're
internet friends."

Jaemin seemed pretty happy to tell him about them. It probably feels like he always has friends around even though he's actually alone a lot of time. That can only make him feel better, he thought.

⚔︎

After two hours or so, when the younger couldn't keep his eyes open, Ten left. He disliked emotional  goodbyes. He waved at his brother, smiling and hoping that he would be alright. Jaemin waved back and closed the curtain, before slowly walking back to his bed. His thin shadow was recognizable through the curtains due to the light. He was so skinny... not a healthy skinny. He was weak, his appetite was mostly gone and he spent his days laying in bed or sitting in a wheelchair, as his legs became tired really easily. The boy was exhausted.

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Ten left the quiet hospital. Quite a few people were clubbing, even though it was a Sunday night. He had decided to go on a walk to forget a little bit about his brother, actually. He felt bad for doing it, because Jaemin meant a lot to him. Maybe it was more of a way to forget what he did to him, how mean he had been. Not by hitting him or anything, not actual physical pain. He damaged him mentally.

⚔︎

He remembers one exact night, in March of last year. There was this dance competition between two schools, including Jaemin's. The younger boy rehearsed and put much effort in his choreography that week. He wanted to be as good as his older brother was, his inspiration. He asked Ten to come see the competition: it was a small friendly event that only happens because kids like to show to their family how good they are compared to others.
That day, Jaemin won second place. There's a picture of him and the other winners hanged in the living room. It was his biggest accomplishment, oh how happy he was to show his brother how good he had been. But if you look closely, you can clearly see that his smile is fading.

The boy was full of joy and happiness and couldn't wait to see his brother's proud face. He searched for him in the crowd... but the teenager was nowhere to be seen. He thought that maybe something big came up. That's why he wasn't here right? There had to be a good reason.

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When he came back home though, holding his little trophy that looked so big and shiny to him, he saw Ten. Laying on the couch. In his pajamas. Watching a movie. He asked him:

"Ten! Look, I placed second!"
The younger said, trying not
to show his deception.

"Second huh? "
Jaemin nodded.

"See that's why I didn't
bother coming. Whatever
you'll do Jaemin, you'll never
be first. You'll never be good
enough. Wether you're
against me or not. I wish I
could say I at least expected
something better from you,
but that would be a lie.
I knew you wouldn't win."

Ten replied in such a distanced voice. He didn't even bother to look at his brother, he wasn't important. What's sadder is the fact that he didn't say all of this in order to hurt him, he just thought he was saying facts and the truth. He didn't feel better nor worse. As if it was something normal a big brother should say to his siblings, to introduce them to the reality of life.

He then got up, grabbed his wallet and a coat and left.

That night, Jaemin threw his trophy in the back of his closet. Tears streamed down his face and he couldn't help but sob uncontrollably. He wanted to scream out of the top of his lungs, never had Ten said such hurtful stuff before. He didn't know words could hurt that bad, could leave you like this. On the ground, tears going down your face. The worst thing was that people couldn't see how he suffered inside, no one offered help.

The same words kept coming back to his mind: "Whatever you'll do Jaemin, you'll never be first. You'll never be good enough."

The young boy cried himself to sleep.

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Author's note:
Hey...
I'm really sorry that I've been gone for (almost) 5 months. I lacked inspiration, not necessarily for this chapter but for the ones to come, because what is happening in every chapter obviously influences the others too. So I had to think quite a lot about how I wanted it to be like. And well, I guess waiting for such a long time without writing anything that big made forget a little bit how to structure chapters and what to write you know. It might be a bit messy, I feel like it is.
So yeah, I'm really sorry about that. But I hope you like it :)
Oh and also, THANK YOU FOR 1.6K READS! This means so much to me, I didn't think people would actually read this ^^" Ily and again, thank you sooooooo much ♡

-Rose