It really is quite fascinating how one could last months, even years without seeing someone but have no awkwardness in the air when meeting again. Picking up where they left off was what it seemed like Sehun and Kai were doing; as if the two just had really long stories to tell one another.

“Oh my, that ahjumma’s dress makes her look like a duck,” Sehuns commented quietly as they were both standing side by side on the bus.

Kai snorted a laugh and met eyes with Sehun, then they both began laughing.

Sehun was about an inch taller than Kai now, his straight hair was a darker shade of brown than Kai’s. He also had a chiseled jaw bone and had lost most of the baby fat on his cheeks, he looked mature.

Kai, on the other hand, just looked like the taller and older version of himself; nothing had really changed. He had a moderate amount of fat on his cheeks and his bulky hair was in the same style as Sehun’s.

It was after much convincing and arguing (though that wasn’t uncommon) that Kai managed to get Sehun to go with him

“Is there a reason for you to go wherever you live when my house is yours?” Kai had said. “Do you think our parents would be happy if we met each other after four years and went off to our separate homes?

“Oh alright,” Sehun agreed in the end.

“Let’s go.”

“Are you sure it was okay to bring me here?” Sehun asked as they made their way to the house. “I don’t know how Hyung and Mina will react when we just stroll through the door.”

Kai didn’t say anything and to make up for it, looked for his keys in his pockets.

“This is your house too you know,” Kai said. “It’s under your name too.”

Sehun stopped walking, “Really? But you moved here after I left.”

“Hyung knew we’d get you back, I suppose that’s why,” Kai said and they continued walking.

“Whoah, the grass isn’t looking too good,” Sehun commented, looking at the yard. “Hyung was always so picky with the grass.”

“Yeah, weĺl,” Kai shrugged.

Sehun was watching Kai closely and knew something was wrong.

As Kai fumbled with the keys and tried to get the door open, Sehun said, “Why don’t you just ring the doorbell? Mina always came running when the doorbell rang.”

Kai continued to fumble with the keys, now evidently looking nervous.
“Kai,” Sehun looked at Kai. “What’s going on? Are Hyung and Mina in there?”

Kai managed to get the door open and pushed Sehun inside. Sehun blinked and looked around; the house looked dreary, sad, and depressing.

But most importantly, empty.

“Kim Jongin,” Sehun looked him in the eye. “Where are Hyung and Mina?”

Kai swallowed hard, “I’m sorry, Sehun.”

It was almost dark, but Sehun refused to wait until the next day.

They were walking in silence after getting off of the bus, it wasn’t awkward though, it was mourning. They were at the border of the city and there were more trees than urban buildings. They walked until they reached the open gates.

“You go,” Kai said, avoiding Sehun’s eyes and standing near the cemetery sign. “As soon as you enter it’s the seventh row, tenth… you know.”

Sehun didn’t want to go alone but followed Kai’s instructions to the seventh row and tenth headstone. On her headstone was written her name, years of living and ‘May she rest in peace in the care of God.’

Sehun’s eyes became quickly wet but he made no motion to clear his face.

“Mina,” he managed to croak out. “I’m here.”

He paid her his respects and was crouching in front of her grave after wiping her headstone free of dust and dirt with a handkerchief in his pocket.

He stood there for a long time, staring at the headstone, still grasping the fact that the sweet sister he had been forced to leave was now lying in the ground.

Sehun marched back to Kai and found him staring at his feet while he leaned against the gates.

“Come,” Sehun said. “Let’s go together.”

Kai didn’t look up and shook his head, “I can’t.”

“Why?” Sehun asked. He was still uniformed about how Mina had died and why Kai was so quiet to him about the subject of their missing siblings.

“Because it’s my fault,” Kai croaked, his voice cracking. “My fault Mina died, my fault Hyung left, it was all me.”

Sehun scrunched his eyebrows, he highly doubted that and was going to be concerned if Kai had been beating himself over with guilt for the past couple of years.

Kai on the other hand, found it quite incredible that he had found condolence in Minhee just a week ago. It amazed him and made him feel very guilty and stupid that she had temporarily taken him out of his remorse. Now that Sehun was in front of him, all the old feelings were coming back; the good and the bad.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t go see her,” Sehun said quietly, taking Kai’s arm. “Let’s go, you should at least say hi.”

Kai had visited Mina’s grave only once after her funeral and burial and he had been a terrible mess. He could not think straight as he stood in front of his sister’s resting place, overwhelmed with culpability and loneliness.

Kai hardly noticed that he was being dragged by Sehun and only came to when they were standing in front of Mina’s grave.

Shaking, Kai paid his respects but as he stood at the foot of her grave, he broke down.

“I’m sorry,” was all he managed before he wiped his eyes, forcing them to stop leaking tears.

Sehun put an arm around Kai, he too was crying and the two of them stood there for a long time, arms around each other, catching up on the mourning that they were supposed to do together two years ago.

The two greatly calmed down after that and were silent on the way home. Sehun hadn’t even gotten past the living room when they first got there and had demanded about Woobin and Mina.

As Kai turned the lights on when they were in the house, he felt that the house seemed a hundred times more appealing. It actually felt like home now.

They took their shoes and jackets off, Kai threw the jackets on the sofa in the living room.

“Wow, you guys moved a lot,” Sehun commented, now getting a proper look at the house. “Other than the house, everything is the same.”

It was true, Woobin and Kai hadn’t bothered changing the interior decorating of the house. They used the same furniture and setting from when their parents were alive (though the house that they had lived in then was much bigger and had more furniture that was at a storage place at the moment).

“There is no ‘us guys’” Kai said as he followed Sehun pacing the living room. “We only moved once after you left. And you moved at least twice after that which means you’ve moved the most. Brush up on your math skills, bro.”

“Shut up.”

They went into the kitchen and Kai threw Sehun a chocolate to eat from the cupboard. The kitchen was normal sized, one half was where the table was and the other was where the fridge, microwave, and marble counters were.

“Nothing interesting here,” Kai said. “Let’s go upstairs.”

Chewing their chocolates, they went upstairs and were standing in the hallway. There were five doors; three to bedrooms, one to a bathroom, and one to a hall closet. One of the bedrooms and washroom doors were open, but the rest closed.

“I don’t even need to ask,” Sehun said, looking at the two closed doors. “You haven’t opened those doors since Mina left, I know it.”

“Yeah well,” Kai shrugged.

“I highly doubt your neatness has changed,” Sehun said as the headed to the open bedroom.

He was right, Kai was not a clean person and his room showed that. Clothes were everywhere, school things sprawled across the room and a number of wrappers scattered.

But that wasn’t what surprised Sehun. It was the fact that there were two beds, two side tables, and that the room looked the same as it did when Sehun had left it four years before.

Sehun looked at Kai who was leaning against the wall that held the double door closet opposite to the wall that was supporting the heads of the twin beds.

“Did you- why- how come there are two beds?” Sehun managed to ask.

Kai didn’t want to mention the details of how he had whined and thrown a fit to keep their bedroom looking the same. How he had refused to believe that Sehun would never return and insisted that when Sehun came back he would complain that he didn’t have the old comfort of his bed.

“The room didn’t seem the same without two,” Kai said. “It looked empty with just one.”

Sehun was speechless, Kai had even kept the bedspread and pillow well-kept as if someone had been using them.

Kai sat down on his bed and Sehun did the same on the other one. They were facing each other.

“So what happened?” Sehun asked.

“You first,” Kai argued.

“No way, my story is not nearly as important as to why half of the family is gone,” Sehun said.

Kai didn’t want to explain his story. He was ashamed of it, he felt guilty, he didn’t like to think about it. He was a coward and afraid. What if Sehun blamed him? What if Sehun walked out the moment he heard what happened? What if Sehun would be mad at him and never forgive him?

“Kai, tell me,” Sehun said.

Kai was unsure how, but he found himself talking and explaining everything that had happened since Sehun left. How they moved, how Woobin had been so reluctant on any topic related to Sehun, the car crash, how Kai’s irresponsibility led to her death.

And then finally, Woobin.

“He left,” Kai said hoarsely, though the cause of the tweak in his voice had nothing to do with the state of his throat. “After Mina’s funeral, he left.”

Sehun furrowed his eyebrows, “What do you mean, left?”

“Gone,” Kai said. “He was here one day, vanished the next.”

“That’s it? He just left? Why?”

“It’s obvious isn’t it?” Kai said bitterly. “He hated me, he knew it was my fault Mina died. He didn’t look me in the eye for days, he barely talked to me and just made sure I was always at home.”

“That doesn’t sound like him,” Sehun said slowly.

“What do you mean? He thought I was a pain, he was tired of me I’m pretty sure,” Kai went on. “It was as if he was hiding something from me though, something big.”

Sehun didn’t say anything, he just sat there with his thinking face on that made him look a little mad.

“He left me a note though,” Kai said. “It just said not to go to the police, that I’d end up in an orphanage or something if they found out I was alone. He wrote that I shouldn’t try to find him.”

“And you think it’s because he hated you?”

“What else is there?”

“I don’t know… it just doesn’t seem like him….”

They were quiet, both lost in thought and then Kai said, “So what’s your story?”

“Well, I went to the orphanage and the head was such a dip,” Sehun started, snapping out of his Woobin thoughts. “They just threw me into a room with the other kids and didn’t tell me anything. I wasn’t allowed to ask any questions and the adults basically ignored everything I had to say. The head even gave me chores because I kept bothering him so much.”

“I met him, you’re right he was a jerk,” Kai agreed.

Sehun lightly smiled and then continued, “That place was so bad, there were so many kids and they all liked to run around and I just seemed like a wall that was always being bumped into. Anyway, so half of us were taken to this new orphanage like a month later and that was when I realized what hell really was.”

“Yeah the place didn’t seem very nice,” Kai said, quickly explaining his little exploit of orphanages.

“Everyone there had something snappy to say and they were so strict. There was an unwritten rule of no fun, though I wasn’t about to have any,” Sehun said, leaving out the part about how he cried a lot the first few days in both orphanages at night and screamed that he be taken home in the day. “The witch-like head there gave me a million and one punishments because I said bad things a lot and to sum it up, I was done with that place in two weeks so I left.”

“Escaped, you mean?” Kai slyly grinned. “How exciting, Oh Sehun.”

Sehun snorted, “Yeah, sure. So I met this girl and she hated the place too so we worked out a plan and were out. Only we ran into some trouble and were separated, no complaints there though.”

“So what did you do? Live on the streets?”

“For a bit,” Sehun said tiredly. Then looking slightly ashamed said, “I managed to find a place to live in a couple of days though.”

“How?” Kai asked. “You need a guardian or someone to rent a place out.”

“I paid some gangster to act like my uncle and he took care of it for me,” Sehun said. To answer Kai’s questioning look he added, “I took some money from the orphanage before we left…..”

Kai didn’t look accusing but Sehun said in a defending voice, “I’ve donated twice the amount I took, okay? I feel like but I needed some money to do something and I was fourteen so I didn’t have a lot of options.”

“I know, it’s understandable,” Kai nodded. “So you’ve been living on your own since?”

“Yeah, I moved a lot. Thankfully, I got a job quick and was able to scrape by throughout the years. It was pretty hard but I managed to live decently, even enrolled myself into school,” Sehun said. 

They were quiet again and then Kai suddenly asked, “So when are you moving in?”

Sehun gave him a confused look, “…Moving in?”

“Yeah, here,” Kai said, lying down and making his pillow comfortable. “You didn’t think I’d let you live in a trashy apartment when home is here, did you? Come on, Sehun think a little, what isn’t wrong about brothers living an hour away from each other? Dad would say his little men need to stay together to ruin things together.”

Sehun grinned at that, their father had always said that his little men had to stick together for the sole purpose of causing trouble.

Kai also smiled, taking their grins as Sehun was going to move in as soon as possible.

“I’m hungry,” Sehun realized, holding his stomach.

“Oh,” Kai also realized the same thing. “Me too.”

They both looked at each other and said, “Fried chicken.”

It wasn’t too late in the night so they were able to get a bucket of fried chicken delivered. They had changed into more comfortable clothes (Kai had given Sehun his clothes, they were the same size) and were lounging around in the living room.

“Do you ever clean up around here?” Sehun asked, sliding his finger over the dusty mantle of the fireplace.

“Nope.”

Sehun snorted and Kai said, “Don’t act all neat and organized, Sehun. We all know you’re just as messy and dirty as I am. I bet your apartment looks no different than this place.”

Sehun grinned, “Caught.”

“So how’s school?” Kai asked as he dropped onto the couch.

“I hate literature,” Sehun said, taking the other half of the sofa. “I’m barely passing.”

“I knew it, you’re hopeless without me.”

“Excuse you, I bet you had to read a book ten times before you managed to absorb anything,” Sehun said crossly.

“Yeah but there are online sources to do that for me.”

“You’re annoying.”

“You’re dumb.”

“You-” Sehun started but at that moment the bell rang and the two of them forgot about their argument and in five minutes were at the table with fried chicken in the centre.

“Sauce, sauce, sauce,” Kai said as he dug through the bag for hot sauce.

“Gross,” meanwhile Sehun had already taken a bite and was enjoying the grease and crunchiness. “You don’t need hot sauce to make fried chicken taste good.”

Kai had found his hot sauce and dipped his chicken into it.

“If Hyung saw us right now he’d make us run laps,” Sehun said. Kai grinned, remembering Woobin’s dislike for fried chicken.

“What do you guys want to eat?” he asked as they stood in the food court of the mall with his siblings. “A nice sub or that trash?” he was pointing to the fried chicken restaurant.

“TRASH!” Kai and Sehun chorused and Woobin rolled his eyes before buying them what they wanted.

Though Sehun had just found out about Mina’s loss and was devastated, he was also happy for the first time in years.

The same went for Kai, after two years of yearning for some company in the house there was some.

It was the first time for both of them where loneliness was absent, where silence wasn’t their only friend, where instead of sulking and stupid thoughts there was laughter and smiles.

So, I have calmed down.

I was so worried about the whole meeting thing that I actually considered a tragic accident for Sehun but then I realized that is so unoriginal and would make it very obvious that I had no other ideas on how to write this part I'm so unconfident about.

I still don't know guys, drop a comment before ya go~!

Speaking of fried chicken, I had some the other day :) it was delicious.

Byebye~