Try-Hard, Sin Harder

26. My Brother Alex

It was midnight, and many hours past my bedtime.

I sighed softly, and rolled over on to my side. Moonlight pooled in from the open window, making our bedroom as bright as day. Across the room, Alex lay in his bed; his back to me. I saw him move. Was he awake, too? He brought his hand to his face, and wiped it before sniffling quietly.

My brother was crying.

Slipping out from under my sheets, I crept across the floor, and slid on to his bed. I threw the blanket over my shoulder, and wrapped an arm around his stomach. "Oppa?" I asked him in a whispered voice. "What's wrong?"

"Go back to bed, Key," he told me.

I nuzzled my face into his back. "Not until you tell me what's the matter."

"I don't want you to see me cry."

"Then don't," I told him. "Just tell me why you're crying."

He didn't say anything for a while. I didn't blame him; he was seventeen years old, after all. Eventually, he rolled over to face me. Despite the tears in his obsidian eyes, he still smiled. Placing a kiss on my forehead, he said, "It's our parents' anniversary today. They would have been married for twenty years."

Now I understood. "Oppa, do you miss Eomma and Appa?"

"Yes," he told me, his voice cracking. "I miss them very much."

"Was Eomma pretty?" I asked.

He chuckled. "She was the most beautiful woman I've ever known. Except for you, of course." He ruffled my hair. "You look just like her; like a doll with the ferocity of a tiger. I'll be the luckiest man in the world if I can find a girl like the two of you one day."

"You will," I assured him. "What about Appa?"

"Beautiful isn't the word I would use to describe Appa." He muffled a laugh behind his hand. "He was brave, though, just like Harabeoji. However, he was a lot less patient. His road-rage was terrifying. Despite it, everyone knew he was a great man."

"And what about me?" I asked coyly.

He poked my stomach. "What about you?"

I gave him a thoughtful, doe-eyed look. "What's your favourite thing about me?"

He contemplated his answer before he spoke. "Your heart."

I crossed my arms over my chest, and huffed. "Oppa, you can't see my heart."

Alex smiled. "I didn't mean your actual heart, Pabo. I meant how kind and innocent you are."

Satisfied with his answer, I tucked myself into his chest. "Do you want to know what my favourite part about you is?" I asked.

He wrapped his arms around me in response.

"That you're my Oppa," I said into his nightshirt.

My brother chuckled a final time, and placed a kiss on my forehead. "I love you, Key."

And so we fell asleep.

"Good evening, how may I.......Miss, is something wrong?"

I slammed up against the receptionist's desk, panting and gasping for air. My hair stuck against my sweat-coated skin like a magnet, knotted and tangle from the wind. I knew I must have looked like someone who was completely insane, but I didn't know how much time there was left, and had to find my brother. "P-Please," I choked out through shallow breaths. "I need to find my brother. He's staying here, he told me. Please, you have to let me see him!"