Midnight and we were still working on the project. The sound of the door creaking open from the top level was heard from the dining table, where we were. The person upstairs took lazy, noisy steps down the staircase and I heard the familiar creak of one of the steps. I confirmed whose footsteps those were when Jeongguk appeared from the corner.

He stopped, and stared at me. Taehyung was asleep on the seat to my left. Jeongguk then rolled his eyes at me as he continued walking towards the kitchen. I watched him take out orange juice from the refrigerator, a red apple from the fruits basket, and a few packets of chips from the cupboard.

He held them tightly to his torso and trudged out of the kitchen, making his way back up to his room.

“J-jeongguk.” I heard myself saying.

I had been wanting to apologise. Honest to God, I really didn't mean to be caught with Yookwon. I was avoiding that guy as best as I could.

He stopped, but didn’t turn around. There was the deafening silence between us, one that never failed to appear when it came to an interaction between me and my youngest step-brother.

He waited, and I hesitated.

“Jeongguk.” I said again.

“What?” I heard him mutter as he turned around to face me.

“I-”

Like in most dramatic movies, I didn’t get to speak as Taehyung suddenly woke up from his slumber.

“What’s he doing here?” he sneered at Jeongguk.

Jeongguk sighed and walked up the stairs, rolling his eyes again. The loud slam of the door was heard several seconds later.

“What have you done so far?”

“I finished the report…”

Taehyung scrolled down the document. “It’s alright. You can go up to bed now. I’ll finish the rest.”

He yawned and sat upright, pulling the model design to himself and starting to paint it. Another yawn left his lips.

I sincerely felt bad, yet I stood up and walked towards my room. I was in my balcony in no time, sitting on my favourite stool, listening to new tracks released by my favourite Soundcloud account and watching the night sky.

I wanted to talk. I wanted my mother to ask how my day was and I wanted to explain to her how I witnessed a love interest kissing another girl. I wanted her to laugh and tell me to focus on my studies instead. The loneliness thus far had been eating me from inside. I couldn’t tell anyone about anything. I had to face the scary thoughts and deal with my problems alone. Everyone had someone to share their feelings with except me.

The left side of my head was hit with a fairly sharp item. I turned to see what it was that hit me only to see a familiar paper airplane. Still facing my left, my eyes travelled higher to see my oldest step-brother standing there, gazing at me with unusually soft eyes.

I picked the paper up, sighing, and reading it.

“Something bohtering you?”

I raised an eyebrow. I wrote back, “What's up?“

And threw the paper airplane back at him. He caught it and opened it up. Jin glanced at me with those soft eyes and wrote his reply. I noticed the way he held the pen was different. The paper airplane arrived back at me soon later.

“Tell me.”

“I miss my mum.”

I threw the paper airplane. He wrote his reply and threw it back at me.

“Me too.”

“But she’s always there.”

“Maybe. But only physically.”

I thought for a moment, realizing I still didn’t know anything concrete about this mysterious family.

“Well, why do you push her and everyone else away?”

I saw how he looked at me when he read those words. The softness in his eyes was