As I requested, they brought me to see my family. Evidently, they weren’t in the regular patient’s section of the hospital. As I stepped foot in the scary place, I could barely breathe from the horrible scene put before me. I never imagined my own mother, father and brother lying on a sheet, dead. My heart broke into pieces. My nails gripped onto my lifeless hospital uniform.

    What was I to do? As I observed them, an image of myself possibly dying at the same time came to mind. I sat on a chair beside the beds and began to cry. It felt like I was doing this forever, creating a never ending lake of tears. Almost no sound came out of my mouth.

   Not taking the abundance of pain in that room any longer, I dragged myself to the door with my eyes redder than a riped apple. Never have I ever felt that meaningless. As my legs marched blankly past the doorframe, I got a final glimpse at the three people I loved the most. That was my last, I kept thinking.

   I resumed shrugging my body forward as my head hit a commonly soft surface. My eyes shot up and found that soft faced teenager once again.

   “Are you feeling okay?” His voice almost sounded frail. “Did that make you feel better? I mean… Seeing them.”

   “Who in their right mind would feel better when they saw someone dead?” I threw out coldly. Joon stepped in closer, seemingly concerned for the return of my nasty attitude. He merely stared at me. Even with a serious face, it felt like an angel standing before me.

   “Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked about his piercing gaze. He put his index finger over my lips.

   “Shhh! Don’t say anything.” That was the most unexpected reaction I had ever encountered. “Sometimes, when your heart hurts, it’s nice to just stay quiet.”

   My mouth immediately sealed itself as my eyes remained glued on him. I bit my lip in order to hold myself from doing anything stupid, but I just couldn’t stop looking.

   His face came closer. He leaned forward making me feel his attempt to kiss me. I shut my eyes and waited for a pair of lips to brush on mine. Instead of that image I had in my mind, he went past the tip of my nose and whispered into my ear:

   “I’m your brother now. From now on, I’m going to protect you.” My heart started to pound as my whole body vibrated at each beat. I really want to see you smile one day, for real.”

   These words were reassuring, but I couldn’t help but feel more confused. There was no reason for me to hate him, yet I kept telling myself that there was.

***

   I struggled to bring my baggage up to the stairs. I was a small girl and my strength wasn’t the best. There was a lot of stuff I wanted to keep from my old house, making my bags heavy. Without surprise, my new brother wouldn’t leave me hanging. Joon began to help out. I ended up carrying all the light bags. It made me feel extremely useless.

   “There,” sighed Joon after dropping the remaining of my things. “All set.”

   I gave him a respectful bow.

   “Gamsahamnida, Joon-sshi,” I thanked for his efforts.

   “Yah! Quit the formal language. It’s Joon oppa! We’re siblings now.” My heart nearly fluttered out of my chest with that word: oppa. “Make yourself at home! I’ll be downstairs if you need my help.”

   “Okay.” I let him off, knowing that now was the perfect time to be alone and, to structure my plan correctly. Without even attempting to unpack, I sat on the bed and took out a notebook inside my red bag. With the pen hooked on the side of the springs, I began to brainstorm. The final layout of my torture was perfect:

   Step one: Start easy. Simple incidents are sufficient to burden them.

   Step two: Aim for their financial security.

   Step three: Attack their emotions. Confuse their psychological state.

   Final step: . Undetermined.

   The last step was hard to think of. The had to be well thought out. In the end, my aim was to share my pain. I left it blank for the time being.

***

   I decided not to fulfill the revenge right off the bat. It would make it obvious. As I waited patiently for the right time, they forced me to proceed life normally. After leaving me a week or two to fully recover from the shocking events, they sent me back to school in the care of Lee Joon of course.

   My first day at this new school felt odd since it wasn’t the same one I had attended previously. It was also extremely awkward since it was already the middle of the school year and I just popped out of nowhere. I felt like a foreigner in my classes, almost not understanding a single thing they were talking about. To top it off, I refused to make friends, which made if hard to like my first day.

   Lunch felt even more unpleasant for me. I had nobody to sit with in the cafeteria and it felt even more nerve-racking than the classes themselves. I picked a table out of random and claimed it newly as my own. As my mouth got ready to devour the kimchi on my platter, someone sat on from of me. At quick glance, he had a funky hairstyle combined with a cute face. He looked surreal, almost like a perfect-faced doll.

   “Annyeong! I’ve always wanted to meet you, Minyoung-sshi.” Still when anticipating the food, I dropped my chopsticks. “I’m your oppa. Cheol yong oppa. You can also call me Mir.”

   “How do you know me?”

   “Of course I know you. Don’t you know me?”

   I was bewildered.

   “How is she supposed to recognize you if you’ve never seen each other before?” noticed a voice from behind. It was another handsome young man. I assumed that they were seniors. I’ve been meeting so many good looking men since the accident. I didn’t even know this many existed.

   “Sorry, Minyoung-sshi, my friend here loves moving fast in conversations.” He paused and it clicked to me.

   “I don’t understand. How do you all know my name? I don’t remember ever meeting any of you before.” I demanded for an answer.

   “I’m Byunghee. You can call me G.O.” No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t retrace the name in my memory.

   “Are you done scaring her?” As I turned around, the person who said this became clear. Lee Joon took a seat beside mine and grinned playfully. “Did they introduce themselves yet?”

   “Ye.” I said confused.

   “They’re my friends. You don’t need to be afraid, they aren’t dangerous people. We’ve known each other since practically birth. We’re almost like brothers,” explained Joon. “There are more coming later, if that doesn’t make you feel too weird.”

   “I’m sure that it won’t be too much trouble. Right Minyoung-sshi?” added Byunghee with a prideful smile.

   “That’s true. Cheondung and Seungho are the least to worry about. You’ve seen the worse, Minyoung’ah,” put out Joon as he glared playfully at Mir and Byunghee. Cheolyong continued without even noticing the insult.

  “And since you’re Joon’s sister now, you automatically become my dongseng,” exclaimed Mir with much enthusiasm. I laughed, but Joon didn’t look very thrilled. As Cheolyong came near and brought his arm around my shoulder, Joon shooed it away in a second.

   “Yah! You can’t touch her!” he shouted protectively.

   “Wae, hyung?”

   Joon stuttered heavily.

   “Because… Because… You just can’t.”

   Mir snickered loudly and drew his arm back behind him. G.O sat down and leaned forward.

   “Minyoung’sshi. I feel sorry for you for having to live with this protective freak. Consider yourself single forever. I doubt that Joon would even let you date, let alone get married,” explained Byunghee with minor agitation. Mir began to contribute to the laugh as well.

   “Yeah! He’ll do anything not to lose another sister again,” said Mir with a mischievous smirk. It didn’t take long for it to disappear in and instance. He bit his lip and looked over at Joon. “Mianhe Joon hyung.”

   As I gazed over at Joon, I could feel an air of pain. Another sister? I’m his second? Why wasn’t she there anymore? I had a feeling that there was something going on in my new family that I didn’t know of. Was my vengeance even necessary for them to resent anguish?

   Cheondung and Seungho came at the table, breaking my deep thoughts on the situation. I stood up to bow respectfully and began to introduce myself. My focused was split in two, as the other half that wasn’t on meeting new people remained on my brother. He didn’t say a word. His expression was dark and angry. I wanted to ask about this “sister”, but it wasn’t the right time.

   Joon made me worry, even when I should be happy about his sorrowful attitude.