Chapter one:

 

Agashi: Miss

Oppa: older brother in a respectful manner

Yah: a form of shouting and/or calling for/at someone

Appa: father/dad

 

 

            “You ready Youngmi?” Inho asked from behind me as I stood in front of the counter, paying for the drinks I had just picked out. I looked over my shoulder at my brother and gestured for him to wait for a minute. He nodded and walked over to the magazines, looking around for something interesting to read from.

 

            “That would be 9$, Agashi” said the man standing behind the cash register, smiling politely.  I quickly took out the money from my wallet, and gave the man the money he asked for. After taking the bags filled with the 5 drinks I just bought, I walked over to where Inho was standing by the magazines’ rack, and nudged him.

 

            “Come on, we should get going. Dad is gonna start worrying if we’re not back by 11” I said. Inho hummed his agreement, took the bags from my gloved hands, and headed for the store’s exit with me in tow “What time is it, Mimi?”

 

            I looked down at the watch on my wrist, and a frown etched its way on my face. “Well that’s not good. It’s 10:52, oppa” I said worriedly.

 

            “!” Inho said out loud. He looked around him as we both made our way to our apartment building. It’s a 20 minutes walk to the house, and I was beginning to feel anxious at how late it’ll be when we finally make it home. Dad would probably be fuming in anger, yet overly worried.

 

            “Hey, it’s gonna take forever if we take the usual route to the house. And we obviously can’t take any cabs or catch a bus home since its too late now. I know a shortcut we can take” he finally said.

 

            “You talk too much, oppa. You know you could have easily said ‘Hey, Youngmi, I know a shortcut that’ll take us home a lot faster” I said, imitating a man’s voice. Inho, just rolled his eyes and took my gloved hand in his as he changed directions to take whatever shortcut he was talking about.

 

            The shortcut ended up being a narrow, dark alleyway in between two abandoned buildings. The place was creepy to say the least. It was the sort of place where you’d expect looters, gangsters, or to sum it all up, bad people to show up… or to creep up from behind you. Normally, I would have immediately refused to go through such a place or alley, but we were late, and we needed to get home ASAP. Dad tends to freak out easily and over the simplest of things, and coming home a minute later than 11 P.M, would drive him crazy with worry and that’s not a nice thing to witness at all. God help us when we do make it home eventually. Inho and I are going to arrive home a lot more than a minute late than 11.  So I didn’t exactly have a choice but to agree to take this freaky, but convenient shortcut.

 

 

            My brother, sensing my uneasiness and the fear that was slowly growing inside me as we continued moving forward in the alley with it’s darkness enveloping us as we moved on, held my hand, that was already in his, even tighter. “Mimi, don’t worry kay?! Just give it a minute, and we’ll be out of this place in no time.”

 

            I nodded as a response, but resumed checking around me for any sign of movement that didn’t belong to my brother or me. Seeing this, Inho chuckled and nudged my side, trying to ease the tension building inside me. I smiled appreciating his effort and decided to distract myself by starting a conversation with my brother. “Chanyeol got me in trouble again today in school” I said. Understanding what I was trying to do, Inho played along and said, “Typical of him. What’d he do this time huh?”

 

            “This guy in class was walking towards his seat behind me, but before he got there, Chanyeol stuck out his leg and tripped the guy. He ended up falling face first on the ground. And his nose was bleeding—”

 

            “And let me guess… Chanyeol panicked and blamed the whole on you?” asked Inho, interrupting my story. I smiled bitterly and grumbled a soft ‘yes’. Inho laughed and shook his head in amusement. “Chanyeol never fails to amuse me. That kid is just amazing… God! I wish I was there to see it “

 

            “Yah! Oppa!” I shouted “You’re supposed to be on my side and chastise him for what he did to me. As the big brother of our family, you must discipline those younger than you and reprimand them in best manner suited at the time for whatever transgression or misconducted actions they perform--”

 

            “PFFFT!” Inho broke in laughter and almost dropped the bags he was holding from how much he was shaking with laughter. “Did you really just say all that right now? Who uses these words now-a-days huh? Chastise?  Reprimand? Transgression and misconducted actions? Oh My God this is priceless. God! Where did you get these words from? I haven’t laughed this much in a while. Thanks sis”

  

            After rolling my eyes at my brother and taking a breath to steady myself I continued my little speech, “I’m serious, Inho. This isn’t fair at all. He always gets away when ever he does something wrong by getting me in trouble, while I have to suffer in his place. The teacher ended up giving me a long lecture about acting like a lady in front of the whole class, and then gave me a warning!! Can you believe that?! Me, the girl who never ever got in trouble in class, and NEVER once received a warning?!” I said incredulously

 

            I side glanced at my brother who was nodding along to what I was saying while biting down on his lips to stop himself from laughing. I huffed in agitation when I saw how he was taking my words. He placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed in comfort. “Come on, Mimi. I’m sorry okay? I mean come on, were you even listening to what you were saying a minute ago?” he managed to say before another fit of laughter forced him to stop talking.

 

            I rolled my eyes for the tenth time tonight before saying in low voice, “Whatever, Dumb ”

 

            “YAH! I’m your older brother, show some respect,” he ordered. I stuck out my tongue and said “ Dumb Dumb Dumb and… DUMB ”

 

            “Come here you little--“

 

            I shrieked in surprise as Inho let go of my hand and lunged in to tickle me from the side. Seeing this coming, I quickly moved out of his way and ran away from him. Inho followed me, running just as fast to catch me. I laughed as he held me from behind and circled his arms around me, crushing me in a tight, bear hug from my back.

 

            “That’s a cute laugh you got there, honey,” said a voice from the shadows. Inho and I froze, turning around in place, trying to locate where the voice came from. Just then, 4 --- no 5 men stepped out from the shadows and made their way over to where Inho and I were standing. “Really, the boys and I would love to hear your laugh again, babe” said the man standing in the middle.

 

            Inho, with a serious expression, turned around, giving his back to the men, grabbed for my hand, and started moving away, “Come on. Lets go. We’re leaving,” he said out loud.

 

            “Hey! Hey! Where do you think you're going?" shouted another man from behind us. "So rude, walking away when someone's talking. Teenagers these days, no manners." Said another man. "Hey!" a third man said while marching his way towards us. I felt Inho tense beside me, as he quickened his steps. "Don't stop walking, and don't look behind you,” he whispered into my ears so that only I could hear. Fear swelled in my chest, and I was so nervous and spooked that it took everything in me not to run. 

 

            The man who was walking towards us reached us and grabbed me from my shoulder. A shudder ran down my spine and I stiffened. Inho, in a split second, reached for me and pushed me behind him as he glared at the man. "You better leave us alone, Mister,” he said menacingly. The man just scoffed and said, "Hey, relax buddy. The boys and I just wanna have fun, and you guys seem like a nice bunch."

 

            "Well that's too bad then, because we're not up for having 'fun' at the moment. So, if you excuse us, we will be on our way." Said Inho. Just as my brother was about to turn around, the man reached out a hand to my brother's elbow, not too gently, and said in a serious tone "I don't like to repeat my self usually, but I'm gonna be nice and do just that. I intend on having my fun, and I always get what I want... Right boys?" He looked back to his friends as they muttered their agreements. 

 

            "What do you want?" Asked Inho.

 

            "Your sister there has a nice laugh. Like music to my ears" he said dreamily, while he smiled a creepy smile at me. My heart rate accelerated, and my breathing became shallow from fear. I took hold of my brother's shirt and I held it tightly. "And it got me thinking, how will it sound if other sounds came out from , maybe, just maybe, something like--" 

 

            Before he could continue his sentence, Inho grabbed the man by his collar and punched him so hard that the man fell stumbling on his back. "YOU SICK BASTARD!!" Shouted Inho. My brother was about lunge at him once again, but I quickly grabbed his arm and pleaded, "Come on Inho. Please let's just go" by then fear was just an understatement to what I was really feeling. I desperately wanted to get out of there. 

 

            My brother looked up at the remaining men, whom were surrounding their fallen friend, and realized the danger we were in. One of the men looked at my brother with anger and shouted "GET HIM" 

 

            And just like that, the four men sprang up and ran towards my brother. Inho grabbed my hand and started running away "RUN" he shouted at me. And I ran like I never ran before in my life, adrenaline fueling in me, urging me to continue running. I could hear the men behind us, running to get us. After what seemed like an hour, Inho and I found our selves on a small street in the middle of a deserted neighbor hood. I recognized where we were immediately. We were in a place people called "The Slums", it's a place where most crimes happen, and where gangsters, muggers and poor, drunk men reside in. Finding myself there, didn't exactly make me feel any safer, being chased by angry men trying to beat up my brother, and possibly me, and then finding us in "The Slums" just really . 

 

            As we kept on running away from the men, I felt like my chest was burning, and I was almost sure that it was about to cave in. My asthma was acting up, and right on time, perfect timing huh? 

 

            Inho resorted to taking random turns here and there ever so often in order to confuse and loose the now 5 men. At the beginning, his plan was working, I felt the men lagging behind, but one wrong turn to the left ruined everything. It was a dead end. 

 

            "Will you look at that? We've got you good now." Said one of the men menacingly. I gulped and shivered in fear. There was nowhere to go, nothing to do. But apparently that wasn't what Inho was thinking, he had other plans. Inho put down the bags of drinks that were still clutched in his arm, stripped of his sweater, and curled his fingers into tight fists. "OOOOH, feisty are we now? Gotta admire your bravery kid, but I hate to brake it to you, but you're outnumbered. You're just one" and then he pointed at his friends and himself "and we're five"

 

            Inho and the man, who I'm guessing is the leader (A.K.A the man who Inho had punched earlier), were staring at each other with dead, cold eyes. "I'll tell you what, kid. Give us the girl, we'll have our little fun, and then we'll let both of you go unharmed huh?" 

 

            "NO!" With unnatural speed, Inho ran for the man and right before the man could react, Inho jumped and kicked the leader under his chin mid air, successfully knocking him down. With fiery eyes, and a face flushed with overwhelming anger, Inho turned to the other 4 men. All at once they all charged at him with either pocketknives or steel rods in their hands. I was too horrified with what was happening, that I was frozen in place as I watched 4 men run at my brother. 

 

            The fight was brutal. Anyone could see that my brother had the upper hand when it came to skill, speed, and agility, but they had strength in numbers and weapons. My brother is the nation's champion in taekwondo, and his abilities in taekwondo served him well at the moment. For a while, Inho was winning having knocked out another two men, he was left with two men to fight. But by then, Inho was drained, and I could see how he was exhausted and severely injured. No matter how good anyone can be in martial arts or fighting in general, having to fight people who outnumber you greatly, and had weapons was almost impossible to win and leave unharmed. Blood oozed from a deep cut from Inho's forehead, his right eye was swollen shut, his arms and face were covered with bruises and cuts, and his clothes were ripped and soaked with blood, both his and the men's. 

 

            After another 30 minutes of fighting, Inho was able to knock out the 4th guy. And as for the last, he saw that he had no chance in beating up my brother and resorted to running away after Inho expertly took the man's weapon from his arms. And finally it was over. My eyes were bloodshot with tears, and I was breathing so hard as I watched my brother slowly look at me with a broken smile.

 

            He slowly, limped his way towards me, breathing heavily. But he suddenly stopped, and looked at me with horror in his eyes. I was confused, but then I realized that he wasn't looking at me, but rather someone behind me. At that realization, my heart dropped in my chest and I couldn't feel my limps anymore. I was numb. I then heard heavy breathing from behind me, but I was too scared to move or react at all, and stood still in place. The man behind me laughed in the most horrifying way as he circled one of his arms around my neck and with his other hand, brought up a knife and held it to my neck. 

 

            My brother looked flustered, he didn't know what to do, and the look in his eyes made me whimper. "What?!! Not so tough now kid?" He taunted my brother. I recognized his voice as the leader. He must have woken up in the middle of the fight without anyone realizing it. The man brought the knife even closer and I felt the cold blade as it cut through my skin. The knife cut burned as he swept the knife along my neck, and another strangled cry came out of my mouth. I was scared. No, I was beyond frightened.

 

"Please! No please! Look I'm sorry okay? Just let her go, and you can do whatever you want with me... Please don't do anything to her" my brother pleaded, his voice strained. "This isn't about her anymore BOY!! YOU INJURED MY MEN AND I, this is personal now." the man took a deep breath out of frustration and then continued, "Im not stupid, I know that there's no chance for me to beat you. But I know that this right here is important to you, so what better way is there for me to return the favor huh?" The man shouted then scoffed. 

 

            "I promise, if you let her go... If you let her go, I promise that I will not lay a hand on you, and I will let you go without a touch. I will pretend that none of this even happened." Begged Inho. 

 

            "There is no guarantee that what you say will happen now is there?" Answered the man. "How about this as a guarantee?" The man thin swiftly stabbed his pocketknife into my side once, then twice, and thrice. I dropped to my knees when the man let go of me, and I fell on my back. The pain was excruciating, and I could feel the energy seeping out from me, as I struggled to keep my eyes open. I squirmed in place in pain and withered, I wanted to stop the pain, anything but feel this plain.

 

            As I lay there in a pool of my own blood, the man took off running followed by his possy that regained consciousness that instant. 

 

            My brother, ignoring the running men, came rushing to my side and held me close to him. "OH MY GOD Youngmi, no no no. I'm so so sorry" he mumbled over and over again. I was dying, and we both knew it. My brother was crying at that point, constantly apologizing and begging me to stay with him. I was numb at by then. I couldn't feel anything but coldness. I was freezing, and my eyelids were so heavy. 

 

            Suddenly, Inho grabbed one of my hands, and slipped off the gloves. He then did the same thing with the other hand, and held both hands in his and squeezed. All of a sudden a rush of heat flowed from my hands to my arms and then to my whole body. I could feel my heart beating harder, and smoother. I felt stronger. That's when I realized what was happening. I immediately pulled my hands away from Inho's, but his grip was too strong. "Inho! What are you doing?!!" I whisper-shouted, too weak to actually shout. Energy surged through me and my vision cleared, and what I saw broke my heart. Inho was pale, like dead pale. He was barely breathing as his eyes stayed locked on mine. 

 

            "I'm sorry Mimi,” he whispered. Panic filled my heart, and I was wildly thrashing my arms, trying to let Inho let go of me, and finally after sometime he did. But he didn't let go because he wanted to. No… he let go because he was too weak to keep hold. By that time, I was almost fully healed. I could barely feel any pain from my sides, and the stab wound was nearly closed. But my brother, he was laying down on the floor, DYING!! "NO NO NO INHOOO" I shouted. I quickly put on my gloves, and held my brother in my arms. Tears flowed down my cheeks like rain as I watched my brother struggling to take a single breath. "OH MY GOD!! YOU'RE such an idiot... Why did you do it Inho?" I cried. 

 

            Inho smiled a weak faint smile, and brought his hands on top of my gloved ones that were straddling him. "Mimi, please don't cry... Please---" his words were interrupted by a wave of coughing, and when blood started coming out his mouth, I sobbed. "Mimi, I did this because I wanted to, you have to live Mimi,” he said softly, out of breath. "Don't-- Don't you blame your self Youngmi, this--- this isn't you're--" another wave of coughing and blood, "it's not you're fault, I wanted to do this. I wanted to save you... I chose this,” he said. I repeatedly shook my head in disbelief and shock, my heart ached and I wanted rip my heart out from the overwhelming feelings surging through me. "I love you Youngmi" 

 

"No no no... Please Inho... You can't leave me... Please Inho" I cried and sobbed into his chest as I clutched his shirt. “Inho…. Please… What am I supposed to without you?”

 

 "I love you.... It's… Not your... Fauh--"

He managed to say before more blood pooled out of his nose and mouth simultaneously.  It scared me to see my brother trying to in a single breath; but it was too hard for him. The blood that was coming out of his nose and mouth made it even harder for him to take in a breath. His hands curled into tight fists as pain rocketed his body. He lay there convulsing and withering.

 

"Inho... Inho please" I whispered. I pulled his head up so that his head could rest on my lap. As I cradled his body, tears flooded down my cheeks. After what seemed like an eternity, his violent shaking ceased, his breathing even shallower, blood was now coming out his eyes like tears. I ran my hand along his hair, trying to sooth him as much as possible. I kept on murmuring his name.

 

"Young... mi" he breathed.

 

"Mmmhhmm?"

 

"I... I love you" his breathing was loud, yet so shallow. It was so hard for him to form a single word. I tried to shush him, but he wouldn't listen. "Mi... Mi... I'm... Sorry. Please dohhnt bla--me yourself" he repeated. His hands, shaking, reached for mine. He was too weak to actually hold my hand, so I did it for him. I grabbed his hand and held them in mine.

 

His eyes started drooping, and his hold on my hand weakened. I could feel and see his life leaving him. I could barely see his chest moving up and down. His eyes were teary, unclear, unfocused... And it frightened me to see him like this. I couldn't watch him as he died, I didn't want to see his life leaving him, and I do not want to see him suffering.

 

I dropped my head on to his chest and grabbed at his blood soaked shirt, as my chest rumbled with sobs that I was trying so hard to contain. Tears flowed down easily like a flood. I kept my head down until I could no longer feel the faint movements of his chest, or his barely beating heart, until I felt my brother slack in my arms. When I looked back up, when I looked at Inho, I could no longer contain the sobs. My body was shaking uncontrollably. My heart squeezed in pain, and I felt like my chest was about to cave in.

 

He was laying so still, as if he was sleeping.  Only the sickly pale color of his face, the unnatural color of his lips, the blood that colored parts of his face in read streaks, and the coldness of his hands gave him away. My hand found its way to my chest and I squeezed it so hard. My breath labored as I continued to stare at him, unable to register what I was seeing right before My eyes. "No no no" the words came out over and over again. I looked at his eyes, willing them to open once more, willing to see his smile at me that boyish smile of his.  

 

I nudged and shook his shoulders once, softly, and waited for him to open his eyes and wake up “O-op-p-pa, p-ple-ase!! Th-that’s e-enough now… your mak-king me c-cry” I croaked, “You have to w-wa-a-ke up… please”,I begged and cried, but he didn't. "Inho. Inho come on wake up!" I shouted. I nudged his shoulders repeatedly, as I continued to call out his name. "Inho, this isn't funny Inho. We need to go home--" I choked as another wave of sobbing clawed at my throat. "Chanyeol, dad, and eungyul are all waiting for us,” I wept. "Inho, come on... Please please" but Inho remained still. He didn't open his eyes, he didn't smile at me, in fact... he never will. My sobs turned into screams, my tears became rivers, and my body was freezing cold.

 

How can someone whose smile lit up the world, whose laugh tickled your ears, whose jokes cracked you up, whose words brought you comfort, and whose actions were so lively, so sincere, so selfless look like this. Dead. He's dead.

 

I was never gonna hear his voice as he made fun of me, never gonna hear his laugh as he joked around with my dad... I was never gonna see him again…

 

I lay down on the floor right next to my lifeless brother, and lay my head on his unmoving chest. And that's how I slept that night.

 

I cried myself to sleep as I layed down next him. Tears still falling... pain, sadness, and shock overtaking me... rendering me weak and fatigued, I finally slept.

Right there in his cold arms, arms that will never hold me again.  

 

I love you too Inho... and I’m sorry…