BLUE | k•th ✓

•thirty four•

The silence remains. Taehyung's silent when he walks into the hospital. He's silent when he sees his sister. Even though he hasn't spoken to her for years and she won't stop talking, his silence remains.

"Taehyung, I asked you how you're doing."

He doesn't have any words to be said. The lack of speech makes more room for words up in his head and with every step, the question to why he's even here starts to grow bigger and bigger.

"Don't you want to know how I'm doing at least?"

He stops, footsteps halting as he faces her. She stares straight back at him, looking at him ludicrously as though he's a complete stranger to her instead of family. He is though. So is she. They're not family. They're just two strangers staring at each other.

She's so much different now. Her voice, her face, her hair. He never thought about how tall and grown she would've been by now. She got the tallness from her father, her eyes from her mother. She's the spitting image of both of them. He still remembers how they share the same box smile too.

The last time he saw her, she was twelve. The last time she saw him, he was being beaten by his dad.

Maybe it's the resentment that's painted her to be the monster in his just like he painted his father. The resentment of how she was always the favourite of the family, how she never got in trouble or got rejected as he did. He can't recall any memories where he openly loved her. But the last memory he has of her seeds remorse into his veins. That night when he ran away and almost died from his father's hand, she was only twelve and yet she tried as much as she could to help him.

Hyun-tae wide and distraught eyes start to well with tears. The growing emotion scares him. He never thought his sister would care.

"I haven't seen you in eight years, Taehyung. Eight fucking years." Her voice almost cracks, mouth shrivelling up as she tries to suppress her sobs. "Isn't there anything you have to fucking say to me?"

There are busy people moving everywhere. Nurses, doctors, patients. All of them have a place to get to. So does he and yet they both stand there numbly, staring at each other because no words can replace the damage that has been done eight years ago.

"I haven't had a brother for almost a decade, Taehyung. Do you know what that feels like? You left and never came back." Crystal tears start to dribble down her face, glittering across her cheeks.

Taehyung looks down, not wanting her to see anything on his face except for a blank expression. "I didn't know how."

"You could've at least called. I know why you left, I know you had every right to. But you could've at least thought of me, your own fucking sister." The hurt in her words is undeniable, her throat aching as her sobs break out.

He looks up and regrets it. He sees his sister hurting more than he's ever seen her. Her cries pierce through his chest and slap him in the face. For the first time, he realises he wasn't the only one hurting in that house. He realises how selfish he's been and how much of a colder man he's become over the years.