Myungsoo had his eyes fixed on his wrists one night, and remembered a certain conversation he had last summer, just before autumn came around.

  Daehyun raised his broken action figure, showing it to Myungsoo. A portion of its arm and chest fell apart.

  “What happened here?” he asked.

  Eyes fixed on the floor, the younger one admitted, “I dropped it while playing on the fence.”

  “Didn’t I tell you not to play there? You might fall.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t do it again, all right?”

  “I won’t,” Daehyun answered. He raised his right hand.  “I promise.”

  “What will happen if you break your promise?”

  “I will get disciplined.”

  Myungsoo took the toy from his hands and they headed for the living room. Sitting on the carpet, Daehyun watched as his older brother took a glue gun from the storage room found beneath the stairs. He plugged the cord in, waited for the gun to heat up and started sticking the pieces back carefully.

  “Stay away,” Myungsoo warned. “This is really hot and super sticky.”

  “Is it a superhero glue?”

  He chuckled at the younger one’s remark. “Maybe.”

  Several minutes later, the parts were securely glued to its rightful place. Daehyun pointed out, “There's a crack showing!"

  “Because it got broken."

  Daehyun didn't reply. He merely stared at the crack on the plastic toy regretfully.

  Sighing, Myungsoo showed his wrists, which held faded, horizontal lines. Out of curiosity the young boy did the same, and commented, “Why do you have lines and I don’t?”

  “These are cracks,” he explained. “They’re all healed now, but you can still see them, right?”

  Daehyun held his older brother’s wrists. “Did you get broken, too?”

  All he gave him was a silent smile, and in exchange, the boy hugged him tightly.

  "God makes all things new, hyung," he whispered. "He can  fix anything, only if you let Him to."

<:>

  “There’s a vacant spot in a gig several weeks from now,” Sungyeol began, while placing the cups and saucers in the hanging cabinet. Myungsoo, on the other hand, was wiping the tables. “You should go. The pay’s good. The guitarist can’t come due to personal issues.”

  “Are you going?” Myungsoo asked.

  “Yeah. I’m the drummer. It’s a masquerade, so don’t worry about showing your face—not that you should have anything to feel nervy about, anyway.”

  He scoffed at his friend’s remark. “Did you just, in one way or another, say that I’m handsome?”

  “Conceited kid,” Sungyeol remarked. “There are more cups outside. So, will you be able to fill him in? You can sing, too, right?”

   “More or less,” Myungsoo teased. “But I’ll go. I’m free, anyway.”

  He grinned. “I’ll contact the other guys, then.”

  Sungyeol fished his phone out from the drawer beneath the cash register, while Myungsoo headed out to arrange the tables. Later that evening, he got informed that it was a formal gathering, so along with a mask, he had to wear a suit. He asked if masks were necessary, and Sungyeol said it wasn’t, considering that they were there just to play.

  “So are you going to show your face off?”

  “It’s not that,” Myungsoo pointed out. “Masks are irritating.”

<:>

  “Ah, you’re home,” Suzy said, with that warm smile on her face. “Was the café busy?”

  “It was,” he replied.

  “Hyung, you’re back!” Sang Moon cried, his voice filled with enthusiasm. “Do you want to play some video games with me?”

  “Sang Moon, you’ve just started revising,” Mrs. Bae warned from the kitchen. “And Myungsoo’s tired. Let him rest for a bit.”

  The younger one’s face fell, which sent Suzy to chuckle more to herself. Myungsoo headed to the kitchen, and greeted Mr. and Mrs. Bae. They conversed, and Myungsoo told them about the gig he’d have in the near future.

  “Can I come, can I come?” Sang Moon cried.

  “No, you can’t,” the rest of the Bae family contradicted.

  Myungsoo smiled. “I’ll just go upstairs and take a shower.”

  “The food will be done in half an hour, Myungsoo-yah,” Mr. Bae said. “Come down by then.”

<:>

  “You must have been really desperate to leave this place due to what happened,” Sunggyu said. “Funnily enough, you end up returning here. Will you be okay, Jieun?”

  “I will be fine,” she assured him. "It's only for a couple of days."

  The staff already arrived in the hotel, and they were all looking for their rooms. Woohyun and Sunggyu were staying together, while Jieun had the room all to herself as her colleague wasn’t able to attend. Their rooms were beside each other.

  “Do you need any help with your luggage? I can assist you if you want."

  Jieun chuckled at Sunggyu's offer. "You should really stop being too polite. With people like me, you can get misunderstood."

  "Is that bad?" he questioned, as he cocked his head.

  "I just noticed this, but you can be a jerk in your own way, too," she remarked.

  "That's why you shouldn't wonder why Woohyun and I are friends," he concluded.

  "Of course," she murmured. She placed her card against the sensor and the door clicked open. "Aren't you going to enter, Sunggyu?"

  "I'm waiting for Woohyun. He said he'll kill me if I see the room first and cheat by choosing the better spot without him."

  Jieun shook her head helplessly. "Have fun."

  "I try."

  And just like that, she vanished behind her door.

<:>

  "Sang Moon!"

  The sudden racket from outside caused Myungsoo to run his hand across the page of his composition notebook, creating an angry, black slash.

  "Sang Moon come back here, now!"

  "I won’t because I know you’ll kill me!”

  “Then give me back something that I own!”

  “I just want to read this!”

  “Sang Moon!”

  “No!”

  Their rapid footsteps filled the house. Myungsoo stood up, and opened the door, only to see Suzy and Sang Moon in front of him. They were on the floor, with Suzy clutching the collar of  her younger brother’s shirt. One of her knees was on his stomach, and Sang Moon was protectively hugging a blue notebook close to his chest.

  “Are you gonna give it back to me?” she threatened through gritted teeth.

  “I’m stronger than you, though,” he provoked. In a split of a second, he scrambled up, causing Suzy to land on her bottom.

  She yelped in pain, and before things got out of hand all the more, Myungsoo stepped forward and stood between them.

  “What’s happening here?” he calmly asked.

  Suzy angrily nodded at Sang Moon. “He stole my diary.”

  “You hit me first,” Sang Moon reasoned out.

  “Because you’re reading something that you shouldn’t!”

  “Still you hit--”

  Myungsoo raised his right hand. “That’s enough. I think it’s pretty private, Sang Moon. Please return it to Suzy.”

  She outstretched her hand with a smirk. “You heard him.”

  “And Suzy, is it true that you hit Sang Moon?”

  “It was his fault.”

  “But is it true?”

  She looked down, and nodded.

  “Apologize, then.”

  “What?” she defied.

  “Apologize,” Myungsoo repeated.

  Sang Moon begrudgingly handed the diary over to Suzy, and with a pout, she muttered an apology.

  “Louder,” Myungsoo demanded.

  “I’m sorry for hitting you, Sang Moon.”

  “Shake hands.”

  With this, the two siblings paused. They looked at Myungsoo, and laughed. The squabble was long forgotten, and Myungsoo was perplexed. He wondered if he lost his cool and said something funny.

<:>

  “Expect more of those things from the two of them,” Sunggyu said with a smile on his face. He was chatting with Myungsoo while he was on his break at school. “They fight a lot.”

  “How do you handle it?” Myungsoo asked.

  “You get used to it. Try to break them off whenever you can, else they’ll cause trouble.”

  The younger one bit his lower lip, and thought for a moment. Finally, he said, “It’s quite difficult, though. I’m not even their real brother and I dive into their arguments like that.”

  Sunggyu chuckled. “Then what does that make me?”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “I know,” he sighed, as if reliving something. “But you stepped out nonetheless and quieted the two. I suppose, it shows that you’re finally home.”

  Myungsoo smiled at Sunggyu’s remark. “But what do you usually do when you stand between them?”

  “I make them shake hands.”

  And that was when Myungsoo realized why the siblings laughed.

<:>

  “He’s very much like Sunggyu hyung, isn’t he?” Sang Moon asked Suzy, while enjoying a cup of bubble tea Suzy made for the family. They were both in the living room. “Myungsoo hyung, I mean.”

  “Myungsoo is Myungsoo,” she simply replied, her eyes fixed on the tapioca at the bottom of her translucent cup.

  “Still, noona, how you fantasize boys back in high school grosses me out.”

  In a snap she attempted to take Sang Moon’s cup away from him, but he was too fast. He chuckled. “I was just kidding. I bet you’re embarrassed now because you wrote those things before.”

  “I am,” she admitted. “But because of that I learned to improve.”

  “Sassy as always,” he remarked.

  “I’m telling Sunggyu on you.”

  He scoffed at the empty threat. Without any warning, he muttered, “I miss Daehyun.”

  Suzy’s eyes looked ahead, until she saw the action figure displayed in the glass case. It was glued together with good intentions, with the cracks still obvious, even at a distance.

  “It’s okay to do just that.”

<:>

  The complete replica of Sungyeol emerged from their aluminum door, while carrying a tray filled with food. “Mom sent this down for you.”

  “Thanks, Daeyeol,” his older brother said. “Set them down over there.”

  He placed the tray on top of a broken washing machine, and bowed before swiftly entering their house again. They were all practicing in the garage.

  “He looks like you,” Jungshin, the bassist, commented.

  Sungyeol grinned. “I look better than that brat.”

  “Right,” Jonghyun, the rhythm guitarist, muttered.

  “The two of you are spoiled brats, right?” Sungyeol rebutted. “An only child?”

  “Don’t be so harsh,” Jonghyun placed his guitar on its stand before approaching the tray to eat. “Don’t stereotype us like that.”

  “But what about you, Myungsoo? Do you have any siblings?” Jungshin asked out of curiosity.

  “Yeah, I have one,” he answered.

  “How old is he?”

  “Seven.”

  Jungshin whistled. “That’s some long gap you have.”

  Myungsoo didn’t reply.

  “What’s his name?”

  “Daehyun.”

  “Where is he now?”

  He looked at Jungshin, straight in the eye, and said, “He’s dead.”

Though He brings grief, He will show compassion,
    so great is His unfailing love.

For He does not willingly bring affliction
    or grief to anyone."

- Lamentations 3:31-33