Sweet Night (18+) || kth ||

Chapter 13

WARNING: Contains sexual content and other scenes that audience might find disturbing

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My parents had three kids. I'm the oldest, followed by another boy. Our youngest is a girl. As you can tell, my younger brother suffers from the middle-child syndrome. My parents favored me because I'm the oldest, and they babied our sister, being the only girl and the youngest. My brother had nothing else to offer. Mom and Dad said they loved us all equally, but it's just one of those things that we all know. So, as you can imagine, my brother and I got this love-hate relationship. However, one time, we got into this huge argument over a race car toy. It was Grandma's gift to us for Christmas. But since it was costly, we had to share. Mom said that one of us can play with is for a day then hand it over the other the next, and so on.

I loved that race car. It was a red Ferrari, battery-operated, with its own remote control. Being the oldest, I got the first turn. I played with it the whole day, but only turned on the engine for half an hour. Batteries were expensive, so I followed Mom's instructions to save them so that my brother and I can share it. The next day, as agreed, I gave it to him and waited for the day to end. But when I finally got it back, I was crushed.

My brother used up all of its battery, so I won't be able to run it using the remote control anymore. Worse, he played with it outside the house and made it run over dirt so that it was all dirty scratched up. Worst, he lost control of the toy and it ran straight into something so hard, the hood of it was dented. It was one of the best gifts I'd ever had as a kid, and I wanted to cherish it for a long time. However, my brother tore that up in just the span of twenty-four hours. I got so mad at him I told him I will never give it to him ever again. I painstakingly restored it as best as I could and then kept it in my own toy box. When he asked for it the next day, I refused to give it to him. We got to shouting, then shoving, and then the next thing we knew, the car was up in the air and landed with a resounding crash on the floor.

That was the end of the toy car's life, but the start of the longest punishment I had as a kid. When Mom was done with us, Dad took us aside. Clearing our tears, he told us about the importance of family and why we should never fight. I guess it got through us in some ways for we never really had another fight as big as that over the years. We'd still disagree on many things, but we never "pushed" each other around. Dad taught us that as brothers, we should love each other. We should always stand by each other. And we did. My brother said it was mostly Mom's beatings (he probably has a point), but from that day forth, we did our job as brothers to each other and to our sister. We learned to love each other because we have to. We're required to love each other, to understand one another, because we're related by blood. We're family.

Love is a given.

But I don't think the same applies to Sujin. It would be plain stupidity on my part not to understand the meaning behind her story. The woes that Winter the Bear had were Sujin's woes. And all because she loved her sister. Now, I had the answer to my questions. The reason why she keeps on fighting; why, despite the things we're asking her to do, she's still doing everything. The thing that's at the finish line, the one thing that makes her happy: her sister, Sunny the Bear. Sujin will do whatever it takes to make sure that her sister survives, that she will have a life worth living.

But where does that take me? It doesn't answer my own problems. I love my family, yes, but I doubt it's the same kind of love that Sujin has for her sister. I don't think I'll be able to do the things she's done. Granted, when push comes to shove, I might shove, but that situation's still a big "if". An unknown in the horizon that might or might not come. But Sujin? She's been fighting that question for all of her life and is still fighting.