23.
Little by Little - because you stay -
JUNG.yonghwa
I was only sixteen years old when I was left alone with Eunji, my one and only sister, in the house that I loved and I hated at the same time.
Ever since I could remember anything, this house was already here. I still could remember the kitchen where my mother would prepare food for us every day and night just by closing my eyes.
My father bought his sons a game console so both my younger brother and I could spend more time together. When Eunji was born, I remember the rooms were all pink for weeks.
Everything was perfect. I even thought no one could be a happier son than I was.
But I was totally wrong.
Within years went by, living expenses kept increasing. Since there were three kids in house and both my parents had different parenting styles, they always ended up in argument with each other.
"Music would not bring more money! Yonghwa should focus in his study!" my mother raised her tone, not even bothering with the time. "Why did you even buy him a guitar?! Such a waste!"
The fight happened a week after my fifteenth birthday. My father bought me a guitar since he knew that I wanted to pursue music as my passion. It became my treasure within no time.
"It's his birthday...," my father sighed. He looked really tired. "Would you try to understand them just for a little? Let them live their lives."
"I gave birth to them! I know how they should live their lives!" my mother threw the tantrum out loud but my father didn't retort.
It didn't took long for my mother to leave with disappointment over my father. She asked for divorce and it took quite a while until they're officially separated as husband and wife.
The custody of three of us, their children, was splitted. My father chose Eunji first since she was the youngest and he knew he must protected her.
"I...," I opened up my mouth, throwing glance to my father. "I'll go with Appa."
"It's final then," my mother scoffed, taking my younger brother's hand with hers. "Jinyoung is with me."
It's the very last day I ever saw Jinyoung who was two years younger than me. He didn't really talk much but we shared the same passion in music. We once practiced a song together with me playing guitar and Jinyoung playing violin.
Eunji cried unstoppable for nights, asking why our mother was not there with them, demanding Jinyoung to come back. Eunji and Jinyoung were quite close that I once thought he had sister complex.
My father even needed to bring her to a child psychologist before she ended up having false memory syndrome.
She remembered that our mother left but she didn't remember the reason. She remembered that she had sibling but all she knew was me, the older brother. She remembered some events but couldn't remember the details and ended up with her own conclusions.
I let her be. It felt hurt to see her crying endlessly therefore I thought it would be better if she just couldn't remember the dark past.
Then my father left.
❖❖❖❖❖
"Eunji is...," I put down three cups of tea on the table, "...having a little trouble with her childhood memories so, please, do not bother with it."
Three of us, just like the old times, sit around the table in dining room. Jinyoung followed me without a word to the house that he never visited for the past eight years.
Eunji has this shocked face, knowing that I acknowledged Jinyoung as my younger brother, a fact that she doesn't recall.
"We'll talk later, okay, Eunji?" I flash a smile to her and take a seat across from Jinyoung. "About Aerin... Looks like you've found out about her right eye already."
I knew that Aerin's right eye lost the ability to see anything around a month ago. It's when we're in the kitchen and she dropped some utensils.
The chopstick was right at her right side but she kept looking around until her full sight moved to the right side. That's when I knew her trouble.
She didn't tell me the detail but I knew it's because of her father. So much of her secret I have but none of mine she knows.
I'm such a bad guy.
"The incident," Jinyoung keeps his expresionless face. "She didn't really stab that person, did she? She wouldn't have the heart to do it."
She didn't. I know for sure she wouldn't do that for anything.
"I don't know how to put this in words for you two...," I intertwine my fingers, feeling slightly nervous for the first time in years. "You two have no idea who the victim was, right?"
Eunji shakes her head slowly, "It's a man. Media covered his real identity because Aerin is still young."
"He's still alive. Pretty much," I state as calm as possible. "I visited him before and I..."
"Our father is still in the hospital until now."
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