‘And that’s what happened before I found you here,’ Daehyun finishes, beaming happily at you. You nod, smiling as if you actually heard what he was telling you. Daehyun bounces forward and begins checking your bandage, pulling the edges to see if it is still tight. After a while, he takes in a huge breath and lets it out slowly.

‘I have… something to tell you,’ he says, looking straight into your eyes. You snap to reality from your daydream, staring back at him. What is it? You squirm in nervousness, shrinking at the intensity of his stare. Daehyun steps forward and grabs your hands. ‘I am your brother.’

You snatch back your hands, backing away from Daehyun. Rather than logically thinking of a way to verify this, you burst out in a rant of your thoughts. ‘Who do you think you are? You? My brother? Please, do you remember all the terrible things you’ve done to me? You really expect me to trust you in this when you yourself have put me in some life threatening situations?’ you yell at the top of your lungs, pushing Daehyun backwards with everything sentence you utter.

‘Let me explain. There’s a rea-,’ Daehyun begins but you cut him off, screaming: ‘You’ve slashed my arms, almost killed me, left me to die when I was injured, and told me to stay away from people who are now my friends. Remember Yongguk? He was my friend, and you killed him! I can’t believe you! I can’t believe you at all.’

You take in deep breaths, glaring at Daehyun through your teary eyes. ‘You’re lying. You’re lying,’ you mutter, shaking your head. Seeing you are calming down, Daehyun makes his move. But as he opens his mouth to speak, you shoot him your laser beam glare.

After a few minutes of your glaring, Daehyun can’t take any more of the tension and blurts out: ‘I was just trying to protect you!’ ‘Protect me?’ you splutter, rubbing the scar on your arm from his slash. ‘Excuse me; I think you forgot some of these cuts and scars you made.’ He bows his head apologetically before answering: ‘I wanted to take you home in that state so you wouldn’t struggle and hurt me.’

Nonsense. Utter nonsense. You can only think of this as he looks at you with worried eyes.  ‘Once, you left me to die,’ you yell, trying to make him feel bad. ‘If it wasn’t for the phoenix, I would have died for real.’

Daehyun seems to be on the verge of tears as well, as he swallows and answers: ‘Look, I know I have done things I shouldn’t. But I really was trying to protect you. I killed Yongguk because I heard him scheming a plan to use you a few days before meeting you. I killed Jongup when you two first met because I knew his true identity. I told you to stay away from Zelo because he knew the truth. I didn’t want you to be hurt by the truth. I tried to capture Himchan because he had the Black Phoenix with him. When I couldn’t reach Himchan in time, I told Youngjae to come save you instead. I even brought Seung Hoon back to life for you. Most of all, I wanted the phoenix’s power so we could teleport out of this forest and back to civilisation.’

You stare at him in disbelief, wiping away the last of your tears. Is this really what’s happening behind the scenes of Daehyun’s ‘bad guy’ act? Or is he lying? ‘Please, just this once,’ Daehyun pleads, kneeling before you. ‘Please just believe me. I am your brother, and I only wanted to protect you. Please… believe me…’

Do you believe him?

Please click here to let him raise his head as a brother.

Click here if you think he’s lying.