“You mean we have to share custody over that girl as well?” Namjoon echoed back at Yoongi. Seokjin eyed him warily at the use of words but shook his head keeping mum for now.

Yoongi cleared him throat for the umpteenth time that day and closed the documents laid out in front of him. He then adjusted his glasses before regarding Namjoon again.

“Mr Kim, I believe I was very clear about this. Yes, you two share the custody over Miho. That's how your siblings had decided it.”

Namjoon scoffed as he got off the chair and buttoned his coat as he turned to the door. “I don't need her. I forfeit the custody.”

Just as he was about to open the door to exit, Yoongi's voice broke through the barrier again. And Seokjin watched the pale man give Namjoon a stern glare.

“Mr Kim, trust me when I say this, there is nothing more I could want than that. But, unfortunately, it was their dying wish and they have made it in such a way that it would almost non-negotiable.”

Once again Namjoon laughed a bitter chuckle and turned to the man and sneered at him. Then, to Seokjin's utter surprise, he pointed at Seokjin and asked him incredulously, “you can keep her.”

He made to move again but once again Yoongi spoke. And honestly, Seokjin felt like a spectator during Olympics. Watching the ping pong ball topple left and right.

“I think you didn't hear me, Mr Kim.” Yoongi spoke tight lipped and had Seokjin not known him since diaper days, he'd have been intimidated. “When I say the terms are almost non-negotiable, I mean it.” When Namjoon doesn't show any signs of understanding the other continues almost bitterly. “The apartment you are currently living in is under your sister's name, I'm sure you are aware that.” He didn't wait for a reply as he kept speaking. “One of the conditions written down in their will is that, in the event that you choose to forfeit ‘any’ of the articles handed down to you. Joint or individual. You will no longer be allowed to take residence in the house.”

Namjoon stood speechless as he turned the words around in his head. He was about to make some sense of the situation when Yoongi spoke again. And Namjoon lost it.

“And a subtext of the above stated condition is that the two of you, being Miho’s guardians, are not to be allowed ownership to any of the above stated articles, if you choose to live away from her until she turns twenty one.”

Seokjin finally jerked up at that. Wide awake and in turmoil. And after a long while of silence he asked, “What do you mean by that?”

Yoongi this time looked at Seokjin. His eyes softer. Words more polite. “It means you two would have to live with her until she turns twenty one if you want to keep ownership of whatever they've left behind for you.” He looked at Namjoon and glowered as he spoke. “Together. Under the same roof.”

Another blanket of silence engulfed them which Namjoon soon lifted with a merciless cackle.

“I don't need my parents’ rings. I don't need her ing fixed deposit. I don't need the house and I don't ing need that who took my sister away.” He then looked at Seokjin and sneered before slamming the door behind him. “You can keep it all.”

***

“Mr Kim!” Seokjin yelled at the retreating back of the taller man. He upped his tread to a light jog as he reached the man. Slapping his hand lightly over his back. “Mr Kim.”

“Look. You can keep her and the a apartment and everything else. Okay? Have fun.”

“Namjoon-ssi, please.” Seokjin clasped his hands around the man's arms and pulled him to the nearest bench outside the law firm. The way Namjoon limply let himself be moved gave Seokjin an almost clear idea of what he was dealing with. Guilt. “Namjoon-ssi-”

“She died!” Namjoon yelled out loud as a sob escaped his lips. And Seokjin stopped short of whatever little speech he had planned out in his mind. A series of sobs and hiccups later, the man finally spoke, and it was like Seokjin only then realized that he too had lost a sibling. “She just went and died. She just- They told her! They told her she'd die if she chose to gi- give  birth but- She just went and died! She just-”

Seeing that the man was incapable of continuing as he broken down in unsettled sobs, Seokjin decided to take the reins as he placed a placating hand over the man's shoulders. Scratching the caverns of his mind for a way to offer comfort. For words that would help the man beside him from breaking down.

“She's in a better place now. She's not hurting anymore.” His own voice, he realized, wavered. He need to be strong, though. He needed to be strong for his brother. For Eunhye. For Miho. “But it's not Miho’s fault. Sh-”

“She's the reason my sister is dead!” Namjoon rounded at him threateningly. His eyes bulging red, his breathing erratic. His lips trembling furiously. Seokjin sat staring at the man as he recounted what happened. “My sister was in pain! She was crying! She was bleeding! She wanted to die from the pain but she had to ing give birth to that girl! She could've been saved. I heard what the doctors had said when they left the OT, thinking I was too shocked to hear. But I heard it!”

Seokjin watched Namjoon seethe as he searched for words to say. With hesitation in his mannerism he began “Still-” but he was interrupted again.

“You wouldn't know how it feels!” And at that the man stopped. Because Namjoon was right. “You weren't here when they were taken to the OT! You weren't there, crying beside her, while she held your hand asking what happened to her husband! You weren't there to tell her he died! Y-you we-weren't there when the doctors asked her to choose and without missing a breath she chose to save her daughter over my sister! You weren't t-there t-to w-watch her crying in p-pain.” his tone turned malevolent now. Voice softer than a whisper. “Y-you d-didn't have to w-watch her die.”

Seokjin really didn't know how it felt.

They sat like that. At a safe distance from each other. Seokjin awkwardly, but surely, patting Namjoon's back as the man cried. The air stuffy and the wind, not moving. After what felt like centuries would've passed, Seokjin spoke.

“Eunhye had wanted to name her Namhye.” Seokjin recounted with a chuckle. His voice breaking the spell of silence that had settled around them. Namjoon looked up to see the man beside him. A younger version if his sister's husband. “But Hyung wouldn't have it. He claimed that Namhye was a weird name. And he kept saying that if she wanted to name her first born after her brother, he gets to do it too. They used to fight over the topic for hours, after which Eunhye would just ignore Hyung’s words until he apologized.”

Namjoon chuckled at that because he could almost imagine his sister pouting in the corner until asked for forgiveness. She had always been the stubborn one. When Seokjin continued, he simply watched the man with shining eyes.

“She had cried when she found out, you know? I saw her cry for the second time in my life that morning.”

Namjoon sat up at the knowledge. He'd never known the specifics of his sister's pregnancy. Hadn't known she was even pregnant until last night. “You were there when they found out?”

“Yeah. I'd gone there for breakfast.” The other man chuckled at the memory. His smile bringing a smile to Namjoon's lips. “She had screamed so loud the neighbours thought something happened. And then she had called every living soul she knew.” Seokjin looked at him and confided amusedly. “Their phone bill came out around two hundred something dollars that month.”

Namjoon let himself laugh at that. Because that was totally something Eunhye would do. He would know because she'd done it to him as well. He was smiling at the memory of them fighting because of Namjoon's cellphone bill after his sister had borrowed it for a day, when Seokjin's voice brought him back to the present.

“She had called you too.” This time the accusation was evident in Seokjin's eyes. And Namjoon had the decency to shy away from them. “And when you rejected her calls for the thirtieth time, she had cried the entire night.”

Namjoon gulped audibly as he muttered “I see.”

It was as if Seokjin had wanted the guilt to settle into his bones. Had been waiting for it. Leading up to it. Because the man turned to him decidedly.

“Eunhye entrusted you with Miho, Namjoon-ssi.” And Namjoon was at a loss for coherent words, so he sat listening. “Do you think she would've survived? Had she chosen to not give birth to Miho?” When Namjoon didn't respond after Seokjin waited for him to, the man dove into his mini speech again. “Do you think she'd be able to live through the loss of not only her husband but also her first child? Don't you think she'd have died a much bitter death?”

Namjoon was speechless. And he hated Seokjin in that single second. Because then it wasn't fair. Because then there was no one to blame. Because it was no one's fault then. And Namjoon couldn't have that. He didn't want that. He had to blame someone. Because life wouldn't be so cruel. Nature wouldn't be so cruel. The God, that Namjoon never found but his sister prayed to, wouldn't be so cruel.

But Seokjin didn't let the thoughts linger in his mind too long before he started back up again. “She died with the knowledge that her daughter is safe.” His voice was gentler now. “That she's not going to be alone in this world because you” He stabbed a finger into Namjoon's chest “her brother, will be there for her.” Seokjin considered the man, watching him swallow heavily, before he continued. “Do you really want to keep her in fal