It’s the long awaited weekend, a fresh and windy day luring people to spend their moments outdoors. Elementary children idle away with their parents to play, and just a second ago did Sungjong see a family packing up to go to the beach. Kites are raised all over the sky, staying high up out of reach from the delicate works of the perfect atmosphere. There are carts and restaurants probably making great business with the help of such adventurous aromas corresponding to make people hungry. The sound of laughter and delight pleases everybody’s ears.

Unfortunately, the siblings aren’t given the favor to rejoice with the pleasing climate due to the horrid assignments already piling up from their first week of high school.

Nayoung pokes the pencil’s eraser end to her cheek, "I don’t get why they’re giving us so much homework. And what kind of school lets their students only take photography and performing arts? What happen to language, mathematics, science, social studies?"

"What, you saying you want more homework? We’re almost done with it anyway." The brother’s head rests on the table as he writes in the answers to the vocabulary blanks. He kisses the piece of paper for a job well done when he’s finished, looking over at Nayoung’s work. "See. You’re done now too."

"Whatever. I’m just saying that it’s weird."

"Don’t you remember Sunggyu telling us that the school’s ranked one of the worst in this country?"

"Yeah but…it looks so nice."

"And that makes up for it." He stands up and walks over to the window in glimpse at the weather. "It’s perfect weather today. I say we go out and—"

"I know! We should stay at the park and check—"

Sungjong takes a step back and thins his eyes, "You’re still doing that? I thought we were done with that Nayoung. Look, it’s just…just over. It’s been years now—years of waiting for nothing!"

In a blink of an eye, the ambience suddenly takes a dramatic turn for the worst. She scowls in irritation at her older brother, cringing at how unwilling he can be. "No. I’ll wait, for how long it takes, until it happens. I’m not going anywhere anyway. And you can’t tell me what to do."

Before Sungjong can defend himself, he’s left no choice but to follow his sister that’s already marching out the house, leaving the door to slam close behind them. He catches on with the fast pace of Nayoung’s, muttering at her fuming impatience, though he’s not any better. And when he peers to the side at sight of a gorgeous motorcycle, Sungjong bumps into his sister that’s already stopped walking.

"Woah. Why’d you stop?"

He creases his forehead in worry when he watches how pale his sister’s gotten. Her eyes are bank wide with shock, lips slightly open in appall. Sungjong puzzles at why she’s so motionless, so lifeless, until he directs his attention to what she’s seeing.

All their senses frivol away and the two press their hearts in pain. This can’t be happening, they were supposed to be invincible.

Too choked up to speak, the girl stutters her index finger out and points at the sign stabbed into the fair roots of the tree. Nayoung can feel the blood inside her steeping, ready to ambush her at the weakest time. This must be it. It has to be the reason why the same nightmare repeats in her mind over and over again.

Their eyes read the two words letter after letter, hoping that if they read it enough, the words would disappear. ‘Under Construction’.

"This, this can’t be happening! What’s there to fix?! The park’s fine just the way it is!" The situation grows Nayoung into hysteria, making her shout out her thoughts to the air, as if the emptiness was the one to blame. She runs to the tree and hits the trunk, ending up kneeling down from the hurt she’s only placing on herself. Sungjong presses his hand against his chest in wince at the impact of her hits. The tree’s pain is their pain. By now, the girl is left in sobs and not even her brother’s word of comfort can do anything about it.

And in all this chaos, the tree doesn’t seem to be affected at all with what’s going around—oblivious that it’s own death will soon be arriving. It’s leafs above shine blissfully from the sun’s attraction, some of its’ petals twirling down for other’s to gaze upon. The amber colored bark grazes with lines of old age; thick and healthy. It’s been in this park for more than anyone could ask for, generations of families passing by as it remains sanely here. The tree has watched the seasons change year after year, the cries and joys of people strolling by, the changes of the world. Why must it stop?

Sungjong sits by his sister, pressing the back of his head against the tree. How can he protect his sister now? He can’t protect Nayoung from herself. The brother dims his eyes close in protest of letting the tears in his eyes flow out. And in the burden of knowing their fates are coming to an end, it’s inescapable when memories start pummeling against them.

Their fingers tug on the grass underneath them, in resentment of the very first day their destiny became tangled into one with the tree. It’s been plenty enough to know how useless it’d be if they kept grieving on the past, but does it ever cross their minds about what’s could’ve been if they didn’t eat the cursed apple? Not one day goes by without the thought. Of course they’d take it back if they could, but it was never under their control to begin with.

Nayoung brushes her hand against one of the leafs that had fallen down beside her as she stares at the sky. The reflections circling in her brain line up in order, anticipating it’s turn to be speculated on.

When did they find out about the affects of the tree? She can’t remember and so asks her brother. He grins and retells the story all over again, making the two of them laugh in bitterness.

It was the center of winter, the wind was blowing mercilessly but it didn’t stop the children from prancing around the meadow. The siblings had just finished grocery shopping and the handles from the heavy plastic bags were scratching against their wrists. And just out of the blue, Nayoung felt a prick on her shoulder and slapped her brother in frustration! Sungjong baffled at what she had just did, appalled at how random that was.

"You pinched me!" She exclaimed, rubbing her upper hand in pout.

However Sungjong remarked that he had felt the pinch too, and so the two looked around to see if there was anyone close by. There was no one near sight. They had decided to ignore the little tweak for the mean time, thinking that it might’ve been one of those teenager defects and agreed to hang out in the park. Despite the disregard, the pinch in their arms kept coming back, and the two started getting irritated.

That’s when they caught sight of a little boy throwing rocks at their tree’s branch!

"Yah! You there, what are you doing?!" Nayoung squawked at him, dropping all her groceries on the floor in bewilderment.

The little boy jumped a bit from scare of Nayoung’s loud voice. He straightened himself up with a sour face, one you’d make if drunken a cup of lime, and retorted back, "What’s it to you!" He threw another rock, quite the large one this time, at one of the lower branches and the siblings touched their wrists in pain.

Surprised at the kid’s nerve, the girl cracked her knuckles in threat, making the little boy gulp in nervousness.

"Nayoung! Are you really thinking about beating up that child!" Sungjong, amazed at his sister’s compulsion, stood between the two. He looked up to where the boy was hitting the rocks toward and observed the blue kite stuck on one of the higher branches. "See, he was trying to get his kite down." The more composed sibling reached up to get the kite back since the little boy was too small to get it. "Here you go."

And just like that, the child’s expression changed from grouch to happy with a huge smile glued to his face. Nayoung wondered if he was bipolar. "Thanks mister!" The child does a slight bow toward Sungjong, quickly sticking out his tongue to the sister before he retreated back to the playground.

"You see what he did! Ungrateful brat." She murmured, frowning with miff at how her brother’s always the one to be favored.

But he didn’t pay attention to what she said, only focusing on the tree in front of them. "Did you notice?"

Nayoung flashed a second’s glance at him, nodded, and gazed same with her brother.

Their fates are twisted from the very moment they took a bite of that apple. Whatever happens to one, will happen to the other. The last thing they thought that day before sleeping was that at all costs, must they protect the tree.

"Oh yeah…I remember that boy. Pissed me off like crazy." Nayoung grins at the recollection, pushing her brother’s shoulder in play when he shakes his head at the memory. "…Can you believe all this happened?"

The abrupt question blocks the flow of the current atmosphere and Sungjong opens his eyes. "What?"

"Can you believe all of this started with an apple? And now we can never take it back."

"We were supposed to die a long time ago anyway. What does it matter if we die now?"

Disappointed at his answer, the sister only shrugs.

"You think there was a purpose to why we were chosen for this?"

Now it’s Nayoung’s turn to open her eyes in wonderment. "Purpose?" She positions herself to a more comfortable position as she waits for her brother to reply.

"Yeah. I mean, who’d make an immortal apple for fun you know? We were given a thousand years to live, but for what? It doesn’t make sense." His expression’s transparent to frustration, enforcing a great sense of agitation. It’s clear that he’s thought about this for a while, much to Nayoung’s astonishment.

She stares at the long strands of grass below her, admiring the sparkles that shower the greenery from the sun's powers. "I never considered that."

"It’s something to think about though. I’m not expecting that sort of ‘saving the world’ type of , but still. Sometimes…I don’t know." He looks away from his sister.

The sister frowns when she accidentally tears the top part of a strand of grass. "I think…okay, don’t laugh when I say this." Nayoung bites her lips in future embarassment, querying if she’ll look foolish if she says what’s on her mind.

This comment captures Sungjong’s attention, though he doesn’t show it when still diverting the other way. "I’ll try not to."

A sigh evaporates from her lips. Should she say it? "I think…maybe," Nayoung glimpses at her brother, whom by now averted his contemplation back to her, "Our fates were chosen to protect this tree."