Apathetic

Chapter 8

I had walked outside after that, I didn't want Jisoo listening in. When I came back inside, Jisoo immediately started pestering me about it.

"Who was it?"

"Hanbin."

"Why does that name sound familiar." Her eyebrows were furrowed and she was looking up at the ceiling while she racked her brain.

"He's my brother."

"Shit! You mean the brother you haven't seen since you were what, 7?"

"8."

"What'd he say?"

"He said he's been trying to make the call for a couple months now, and that he finally did it. He wants to meet up."

"When? Where?"

"Tomorrow. We're going to go to some café around here he likes. He moved here about 6 months ago, and then he hunted me down and found out we live in the same city. He got my number, and after a while, he called."

"Who knows how many times you passed your brother on the street and never knew it."

"Yeah." I was dazed. I couldn't think of anything. My brother was here. Hanbin. I didn't know what he looked like now. I remembered his light brown hair and freckles and his missing front tooth. I didn't even know who my brother was anymore. "I'm going to see Lisa."

"You just got back." She pouted.

"I know, and I'm sorry. Pool Tuesday? We can talk about everything then, I promise." I smiled and said, "You don't need to stay here this time, I'm taking my bike."

"At least that's a good thing. Hey, don't freak out too much, bad thing will happen if you freak out too much."

"Thanks for the pep talk." I rolled my eyes and grabbed my keys from the bowl and ran down the stair to my bike.

I knocked on Lisa's door and waited impatiently for a minute or so. When she finally opened it she looked a little shocked, "I thought you had to go home."

"I did, and then I got a phone call from Hanbin."

"You mean Hanbin, your brother Hanbin?"

I nodded and she pulled me inside.

We sat down on the couch and she took my hand in hers. "What'd he says?"

"He lives in Seattle and he wanted to meet up for some coffee. Catch up and all that."

"Wow."

"Yeah. I have no idea what I'm going to say. I don't even know my own brother, my twin for Christ's sake! I got a good life, but what about him? How long did he bounce around in the system? And how many horrible people took him in?"

"You couldn't stop that." She squeezed my hand gently. "He's your brother. He wants to get to know you now, and that's better than not knowing him at all."

"He looked for me. He looked for me and I barely ever thought of him."

"You had other things on your mind."

"I'm sure he did too! But he still looked for me..."

"Maybe you didn't look for him because you felt guilty about having a family. Maybe you didn't think he'd want to see you anyways and so you wouldn't look for him because you were afraid of what would happen when you found him."

"Maybe." I whispered.

"It'll be ok."

"He's a stranger to me now... I haven't seen him in eleven years."