Today marked the end of the third week of Jaehyung's stay with us, and today was a holiday. No big events had occurred at school, thankfully. Jess was insistent on staying as Steven-The-Jerk-Face's girlfriend, the Yongseo couple was still going strong, and my stalker had backed off in the meantime. 

The air between Jaehyung and I was comfortable. Sometimes it feels as if he had been living with me my whole life; we got along so well. Our hobbies were similar, our likes were similar, our dislikes were similar; we should've been born as twins. I smiled ruefully at that thought. 

"Jae!" Banging on the locked bathroom door, I sighed. "I swear, sometimes you use the bathroom like a girl!" 

His words, "I'M TAKING A DUMP!" were followed by a splash. 

Yeah, that's how comfortable we are around each other now. If anything, he was like my long-lost best friend. 

And no, he doesn't call my parents "mom" and "dad". He addresses them as "Mr. and Mrs. Park". My parents accept that, so it's whatever. 

When he finally emerged from the bathroom, I pushed myself off the cream colored wall. "Let's go hang out today!" 

He scrunched his nose at my suggestion. "Why?" 

"Stop being a brat and come on!" Without waiting for a reply, I yanked on his hand and dragged him to my car. 

"Where to?" He adjusted the seat. 

"Wherever," I happily shrugged. Turning up the music, I slid EXO-M's cd into the slot. As we cruised into a red light, I whipped my head toward Jaehyung with a serious expression. He knew what was coming and rolled his eyes. "Careless, careless. Shoot, anonymous, anonymous. Heartless, mindless, no one to care about me." I over-exaggerated my facial expressions. 

Laughing, I pulled out of the red light and continued toward the mall. "How about we go shopping? Summer's almost here!" 

"Kaina, summer is still three months away. It's only March." 

"It feels like summer already," I pouted. "Fine. Then where do you want to go?" 

"Anywhere." 

My jaw dropped down as I stared at him in annoyance. "But you just said-!" 

"Just playing with you," he leaned over and ruffled my hair. "We'll go wherever you want." 

"Mall it is, then." 

The first location we went to was the food court, where Jaehyung graciously paid for my lunch. 

My finger trailed down the list of stores in the directory as I puffed my cheeks out. "Kikwang Oppa's birthday is tomorrow and I need to get him a good present." 

"Why do you call him oppa but not me?" Jaehyung raised his eyebrow at me. 

"I don't know," I answered honestly. Calling him oppa felt… weird. It was as if I was cementing our sibling relationship. And I wasn't sure if I wanted to do that yet. 

Jaehyung spoke up after a moment of silence. "Is there anything he wants?" 

"He wants a hat or a sweater."

After a few hours of shifting through racks, we emerged from the mall victorious. "Thanks for helping me, Jae!" 

The look on Kikwang's face the next day at school was worth the hours spent shopping, with Jaehyung muttering nonsense here and there about how he could be doing something better. Even Jae couldn't help but break out into a grin after seeing Kikwang's happiness. 

Of course, the mood was slightly shattered when Steven approached with his arm slung casually around Jess's shoulder. 

"Happy birthday, hyung," Steven smirked. "Sorry I couldn't get you a last minute birthday present from the mall," he shot me a look, "but I was busy last night with my girl, if you know what I mean." 

Jaehyung grabbed my wrist before I had even realized that my fist was clenched. "Kaina, he's messing with you," he whispered to me in a low tone. I stared into his eyes for a moment, fighting to reign in my anger. Finally I straightened up and nodded. 

Jessica's face was red, which only added to the certainty of what they had been up to the night before. Steven looked triumphant, and soon his face turned into a sneer. "What was that? Jaehyung held back the wild one?" He was still bitter over my rejection. 

Jaehyung said nothing, but I saw his eyes blaze with anger. 

"The wild ones are the most fun, if ya' know what I mean," Steven winked. 

I saw Jaehyung surge forward and I whirled around to block him. "Jae, look at me. Focus." His eyes were still flashing with fury, but they finally settled down enough to return my gaze.

Kikwang rose from his seat. "Steven, get out of my sight." 

"What's wrong, hyung?" Steven blinked innocently while Jess shifted nervously on her feet. 

"I'm your sunbae," Kikwang hissed. "That right there was disrespect to my friend, which disrespects me. You little American-born Koreans don't know the meaning of the word sunbae anymore. Shall I teach it to you?" 

"So what if you're my sunbae? If you fight me, I can get you expelled," Steven sneered. "There's no such thing as 'sunbae' in America, you stupid Korean." 

"Actually," I turned around, my hands still on Jae's shoulders, "there are sunbaes in America. You're the idiot, Steven. Over here, Kikwang's the senior. And as a senior, he can still kick your and get away with it, since the principal's in love with him. Know your cultures, Steven, though I must admit you're lucky that you're in America. With your crappy attitude, I doubt you'd last in Korea."  

Shock settled in Steven's face. He obviously hadn't thought of that yet. 

"Kaina. There's no need to be so harsh," Jess rebuked me sharply. "Steven was just kidding around. Can't you take a joke?" 

I gave her a look of disbelief. "That was not a joke, Jess. Are you so blinded by 'love' that you can't see the truth?" 

"Whatever, Kaina. You always think that you're right," she scoffed as she her heels and marched out with Steven. 

Exhaling, I crouched to the floor and rubbed my temples. While my relationship with Jaehyung became better as I got to know him more, my relationship with Jess had crumbled in the past month due to her constant interaction with Steven. She didn't listen to my advice. She wouldn't listen to Kikwang or Seungho. She even refused to hear her own sister out. 

"It's not your fault," Jaehyung mumbled as he patted my back. Sometimes, if was as if he could read my mind. I leaned against him, grateful for his support and comfort. 

"Thanks for the birthday present guys," Kikwang genuinely smiled. "I love the hat and the sweater." 

"No problem," I managed to force out a smile in return.  

Later when I was lying in bed, I thought back to yesterday when Jaehyung had asked me why I didn't call him oppa. Forcing myself to be real, I shut my eyes painfully as memories began flashing back into my mind; memories that I had tried hard to forget- memories of my real oppa who had disappeared four years ago and never returned. My mom told me that he had died. If Oppa was alive, he'd be 22 years old. 

A tear slipped down my cheek as I held up a picture of the two of us. It had been taken a few days before his sudden disappearance. And ever since his disappearance, I never heard from his girlfriend, either. 

Life sometimes. 

"Kaina?" 

I blinked rapidly and Jaehyung's blurry person appeared before me, concerned.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Gripping the picture tightly in my hands, I nodded. "I'm fine." 

"Yeah right," he snorted. "That phrase is like, the biggest lie ever told. Come here." He wrapped his arms around me and rested his head on top of mine. "You don't have to tell me what's wrong, but hey. I'm your brother now, okay? I'm here for you." 

Him hugging me like this reminded me of Oppa. Another tear trickled down my face. And another. And another. And soon a whole flood came pouring. 

Oppa, Oppa. Why on earth did you have to disappear and get yourself killed?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Thank you TasLuq so much for commenting & leaving a nice, supportive comment!

I hope I can write this story up to your standards! 

& to all my other readers, thank you!

Shout out to TasLuq  and blackwings17 for being the first two subscribers! Thanks guys!

&& About this chapter/update: Yeah, I know. It skips through a month's time. I'm not totally sure if I like this or not. I MIGHT go back and write a chapter to go inbetween, becuase I'm really hesitating on whether I should've developed the beginning more. All I know for sure is that I'm done for the day because it's 8:26PM & I need to start studying for my final tomorrow, haha. Wish me luck tomorrow guys! I'll definitely update tomorrow & I guess y'all will see whether or not I'm going to go back to fill in some of the time slots, haha. Good night guys!