Chapter 11

Everything was blurry when Donghae first opened his eyes the next day. He wasn’t sure what time it was but the sun was blinding him when he stood up and looked out the window. Donghae placed his hands on his waist and tried snapping his aching back. He blinked several times and only then he realized he was actually standing on the stairs. He wondered why was he sleeping there as he continued climbing up, heading towards his room.

“Hyukkie?” was the first thing he said when he opened his room’s door, but he was confused when no one was in there. He called again, this time as he walked downstairs, and looked all around the house. Donghae went into the kitchen and shouted, “Boo!” as an attempt to surprise the person he was searching for. But he pouted as there wasn’t even a shadow of the other there.

“Hyukkie, come out already! I don’t like this game!” he went to the couch and sat there, the pout still on his face and his arms now crossed on his chest.  Minutes passed and nothing happened; there weren’t answer, scurrying of feet, nothing. There was only silence accompanying Donghae and with every second gone, the more anxious he was.

Donghae got up from his seat and started roaming the house once again, “Hyukkie?” there was fear in his voice this time and the way he balled his fists were enough to show how afraid and scared he was when he couldn’t find his Hyukkie. He went up to their room and everything looked the same; only the person he was searching for was missing.

“Hyukkie, you said you’ll never leave me again,” he slumped on the bed, and that was when tears he had been holding back begun to pour. Tear after tear flowed down his soft skin and it just wouldn’t stop; it couldn’t stop.

As soon as Hyukjae saw the text Heechul had sent, he sat up on his bed and called him. Waiting for the other to pick up was such a torture and Hyukjae squirmed on the bed. After the fifth beat, he finally heard Heechul’s voice and he sighed in relief.

“What took you so long to call me?”

“I’m sorry, Heechul. I overslept. You said you have something to tell me about Kyuhyun,” Hyukjae said, only his brother on his mind at that moment.

“Yes, I do. I was supposed to tell you this yesterday, but I forgot. Hyukjae, you were right to never stop searching for him. I found him.”

Hyukjae stood from the bed, the grip on his phone tightened, “Found him? You found him, Heechul? Where? How is he? Tell me quick!”

Heechul sighed was heard, “Can you shut up? I am telling you. I don’t how he is, but I can tell you where he is. He’s in South Korea now. He never left that country the last time he went there.”

A smile was spreading across Hyukjae’s face; he was so glad, so relief and happy to heard about his brother, “Okay. I’ll pack some clothes and fly there now. Text me where he is.”

Hyukjae was about to end the call when he heard Heechul shouted, “Wait, Hyukjae!”

“What?”

“You can’t go there now.”

“Why can’t I? He’s my brother, I want to see him,” Hyukjae couldn’t stop himself from being a little mad about it. This was his brother, his brother he hadn’t seen for so long. No one could stop him from going.

“Calm down. Yes, I know he’s your brother and of course you can see him. But, what about Donghae? He’ll be suspicious if you suddenly want to leave for South Korea. Plus, he won’t even let you go.”

Hyukjae closed his eyes and rubbed his face with his free hand. He had forgotten to tell Heechul about what had happened last night. He took a deep breath and let it out before he said, “Heechul, actually, Donghae won’t be suspicious of anything.”

“He will, Hyukjae. I know him. He’ll be miserable when you say you want to leave.”

“He won’t, Heechul. Not now, not forever. He knows the truth now, Heechul.” Silence occurred then. Heechul didn’t speak a single word for a moment and nothing was heard. Hyukjae couldn’t be sure whether he was mad, whether he minded or not.

“He knows now?” he heard Heechul said, though the other’s voice was a bit lower than before.

“Yes. He found out last night after we went out for dinner and he kicked me out of his car after that.”

“I’m sorry he did that. Then, you can go to South Korea. Get a ticket and tell me when your flight is. I’ll ask someone to wait for you at the airport and bring you to your brother,” and the call ended just like that. Hyukjae felt quite awful at that time, but there wasn’t anything else he could do.

He went to his laptop and booked a ticket to South Korea. Fortunately, there’ll be a flight at 2pm. So, he didn’t have to wait long to fly there since it was already nearing 12am. He packed his bag, took a shower and waited until it was 1pm before he called a cab to take him to the airport.

Heechul wasn’t having a good feeling ever since Hyukjae told him Donghae knew everything. Minutes ticked by and after an hour had gone, he decided he should go and check on Donghae. He just had to be assured that Donghae was still fine. He didn’t want the same thing to happen again. Once was enough to tell him that Donghae could not be left broken again.

When he knocked the door, nobody answered. He tried the knob and realized the door wasn’t even lock. So, Heechul went in. The house looked the same as usual; neat and tidy. But it was too neat, as if no one was living in it. Feeling dreadful, he went looking for Donghae. Slowly, he walked up the stairs to find him in his room. He thought of knocking but that would be pretty useless he guessed. He entered and the sight he saw was just like the sight he had seen years back, 3 years back.

The room looked like someone had turned it upside down. It was a mess; nothing was at its proper place. The bed cover was on the floor, the table lamp was lying on the ground, broken, and some products were thrown to the wall and left marks there. But those were nothing, nothing compared to how that one young man, who was lying on his side with his arm as a pillow on the floor, looked like. Tears were on his face and his eyes were solely on a framed picture of himself and Eunhyuk. Donghae looked almost dead.

Heechul approached him. It was disheartening to see the sadness in those teary eyes, which were the only things that told Heechul his friend was still alive. Heechul lied down on his side too, facing Donghae and stared at him. Broken, Lee Donghae was broken again for the second time. There wasn’t anyone else to be blamed this time. He couldn’t put the fault on Hyukjae. This was his plan, the plan he thought might work. It was only fair to blame himself.

Suddenly, Heechul’s phone rang. He thought of not answering, but then he saw the caller’s name, “Yeah?”

“I’m already in my flight. It will fly at 2pm.”

“Okay. Is that all?”

“I guess. Aren’t you going to come with me though?”

“Don’t be silly. Do you want me to take your brother to the police? I don’t want to do that. I promised I’ll help you find him, I don’t want to be the reason you two will be separated again.”

“You know, he might not be the murderer you think he is, Heechul. Maybe you’ve been wrong. Maybe something else had happened.”

“Maybe, alright? Enough with this, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Alright. So, this is goodbye, right?”

Heechul thought he heard some sadness latching to those words. It was as if Hyukjae didn’t want to leave. But, thinking it might be just him, Heechul said, “It is, I guess. There won’t be any reason for us to keep in contact anymore. We both have kept our promises.”

Hyukjae sighed, “Then, thank you, Heechul. I didn’t like doing it at first, but after a while, I realized it was not that bad. I was able to feel something I’ve never felt before, and it was all thanks to you.”

“Don’t thank me so much. I should be the one thanking you since you were willing to help.”

Heechul heard Hyukjae chuckled but somehow he felt it wasn’t fully hearted, “I did nothing, Heechul. I didn’t help with anything.”

“You might not know what changes you may have brought to him, Hyukjae.”

Unknown to Heechul, someone heard him saying Hyukjae’s name and it had caught his attention.

“I’ll be surprised even if there is a small change. I have to go now, Heechul. Once again, thank you. Please take care of Donghae for me, okay? I can’t do it anymore now. Maybe you can help guide him back to usual. Goodbye.”

“Good –“ Heechul didn’t manage to finish his goodbye as suddenly, the phone was ripped out of his hand.

“Hyukkie?” Donghae said, but the line had already been disconnected.

Hyukjae turned off his phone right after he ended the call. He wiped the tears on his face and looked out the window. Hurt, again he felt that painful tugged in his heart. But, he ignored it. Now wasn’t the time to wallow in his own feeling. The most important thing now was his brother. Just that.

Hyukjae slept for most of the entire flight. It was around noon in South Korea when he arrived and he thought of straight away searching for Kyuhyun since he was feeling fine even after the long flight. He collected his bag and walked towards the nearest gate he saw, but, before he could get there, someone approached him.

“Are you Mr Lee Hyukjae?” asked that person.

“Yes.”

“Then, come with me. Mr Kim Heechul has assigned me to get you to your brother,” the man took his bag and started leading him towards a car.

The drive was silent as Hyukjae didn’t quite feel comfortable with the man by his side. He kept looking out the window and smiled as he reminisced his childhood with his brother here. The last time he was here, which was 3 years ago, he couldn’t enjoy the beautiful view; he was too busy worrying and finding Kyuhyun. But, maybe now was the time. He was here again for a better reason, a happier reason. So, why not make himself feel better and mend his heart?

The view changed gradually as the drive continued. From the big buildings and beautiful man-made parks, now Hyukjae could see various types of plantation everywhere and then, as the man drove the deeper, he saw forests on both side of the road until they went into a small old village. The man parked the car and asked Hyukjae to follow him again. He led him to a nice, cosy cottage where an old woman was seen cleaning the front yard.

“Your brother is living here, with that woman and her husband,” the man told him as they stood outside the gate.

“Here? Why would he live here with them?” Hyukjae asked, bewildered by the fact that his brother, he couldn’t even stand a night out camping, would want to stay here for so long.

“I don’t know, Mr Lee. You will have to ask him that yourself. My job is to find him and I’ve done it. The extra information is only the fact that the old lady had taken him in around 3 years ago when she found him collapsed near the edge of the village.”

The man then urged him to go in, but Hyukjae was a bit reluctant. He remembered that finding his brother was the most important thing now and so he went in to talk to the woman. The old lady noticed him approaching and smiled kindly to Hyukjae.

“Yes, son?”

Hyukjae’s hands were clasped together and he bowed slightly, feeling a tad awkward, “Hi, grandma. I am looking for someone, my brother to be exact.”

“Your brother? Come here, come here,” the woman pulled him to a table outside the cottage and they sat there together, “Why are looking for him here, grandson? What had happened to him?” the woman seemed genuinely concerned and Hyukjae felt comfortable with the grandmother love he was getting as she held his hands tight in hers. Maybe this was why Kyuhyun stayed here, he thought.

“I lost him 3 years ago, grandma. We were leaving in London; do you know that place, grandma?”

“Yes, yes I do. So why search for him here?”

“Because he was gone after he went back to South Korea. He came here, following his friend, but he never return after that. 3 years I kept looking for him, but until today, I still couldn’t find him. I missed him, grandma. I missed him a lot,” Hyukjae was pouring his heart out and the tears just had to leak from his eyes as well.

The grandma hugged him, trying to give Hyukjae some comfort, “There, there, grandson. You’ll find him one day. What’s your brother’s name?”

Hyukjae pulled back from the hug a little to look at the woman’s face, “Kyuhyun, Lee Kyuhyun.”

The grandma was thinking for a moment before she asked, “And your name, grandson?”

“Lee Hyukjae.”

“Hyukjae? Then, “ the woman stood up suddenly, “Here, here! Your brother is here, Hyukjae-ah,” she pulled Hyukjae with her into the cottage and into a room. In the room, someone was wrapped in a thin layer of blanket, sleeping. “Is this him, Hyukjae?” she whispered, not wanting to wake the sleeping young man up.

Hyukjae moved closer to the stack of mattresses to identify the face. He fell seated on them as he finally could see his brother’s face again, after 3 long years. He let his fingers ran through the same hair, though now had grown longer and a bit messier, that he hadn’t caressed for so long. A smile was forming on his face even with tears still pouring out of his eyes, “Yes, grandma. This is him. This is my brother.”

The old lady was in the same state as him, smiling with tears of happiness, “My grandson didn’t kill anyone. I knew it.”

“What, grandma?” Hyukjae averted his attention back to the grandma as she sat near the edge of the mattress.

“I found your brother 3 years back. Since the first day he woke up here in my cottage, he kept on calling himself a murderer. He kept on saying he was a sinner, that he had killed his own brother. He cried for days, non-stop. No matter what me and my husband said, he didn’t want to believe it. A couple of weeks passed by and only then he stopped crying. But he became quite, he spoke so little, he rarely smiles. There was nothing we could do to make him open up. We were glad enough that he would eat and take care of his health.”

Hyukjae was perplexed for a moment. Why would Kyuhyun think he had killed Hyukjae? That didn’t make any sense. But then he remembered someone; someone that could easily be mistaken as him. Someone that Hyukjae had been acting as, the owner of the life he had been living for quite a while now but no more.

A groan was heard as the sleeping young man was waking up from his afternoon nap.  Hyukjae moved aside to give him some space and the young man sat up. He didn’t notice Hyukjae at first, but when he did, Kyuhyun’s eyes widened.

“Kyu.”

“Hyukjae hyung.”

They were staring into each other’s eyes, the two siblings. Hyukjae’s eyes were portraying a mixed of happiness, relief and a slight disappointment, while Kyuhyun’s were saying he didn’t believe what he was seeing.

Then, Kyuhyun ran.

The longest chapter yet. I'm a little late with the update this week, when I promised I'll update quicker. Ugh! Sorry for not keeping that promise. There was just too many things that needs to be done for my school fair. Hope you're happy with this long chapter. I'm damn tired, so I'm going to sleep now, even though it's almost 10am. Bye.

P.S. Since things will be revealed in the next chapter, choose your side.

Is Kyuhyun guilty? 

Or is he not?