“I do remember him, oppa. And I don’t wish to speak about him.  I don’t want to talk about the evil person who killed omma. It was because of him, that things happened this way.” SungMi said coldly, and from her tone of voice, DaeHyun knew that it was a cue for him to stop talking about Kim Ahjussi.

It was obvious enough that SungMi didn’t want to talk more about him. But DaeHyun so much wanted to tell her that the Kim Ahjussi they once knew had changed. He had received the punishments he deserved, and probably their forgiveness as well. DaeHyun knew that the old man must be living in guilt and feeling restless most of the time, knowing that the both of them still cannot forgive him for what he did.

With a soft sigh, DaeHyun decided to try again. “I know, JiHyun. I understand if you’re mad right now. In fact, you have every right to be. But what I’m trying to say here is that he has completely changed. And he regrets everything he did so badly. He had served his days in prison, plus not being able to escape from the guilt that kept lingering inside of him after what he’d done to us. He’s had his fair share of suffering too, JiHyun. And … he wants to see you so badly, too. He wants to apologize.” DaeHyun explained but mumbled the last sentence.

SungMi stopped on her tracks and turned to DaeHyun with the sharpest look, which somehow scared DaeHyun a little. “So you’re telling me we should just forgive him? After all that he did to us? No. He doesn’t deserve any compassion from us. In fact, he shouldn’t have appeared in the first place. Why on earth did he have to be a part of our lives when in the end all he ever did was making it worse? He murdered our omma, oppa. If it weren’t for him, omma would still be alive right now. We can still live in our old house happily. Not only he had never treated us nicely, he took all of omma’s money most of the time. Because of him, we ended up at our aunt’s house, who didn’t want anything to do with us. She sent us to the orphanage; and we both got separated. If only he had been the kind of father he should be, we wouldn’t be spending the last ten years of our lives away from each other. You wouldn’t have kept wondering about me for ten years, and I wouldn’t have forgotten about you!” SungMi bawled, as tears were cascading down her cheeks, wetting her entire face.

DaeHyun’s heart ached to see his sister crying, a hue of red spread throughout her cheeks as they burned from anger. SungMi sobbed in despair as DaeHyun speedily enveloped her in a hug, causing her to wail harder. The images of an exuberant SungMi flashed in front of his eyes, and he cursed himself for taking that away by mentioning the name that they both hated the most.

“I’m sorry, JiHyun.” DaeHyun whispered, but loud enough for his sister to hear. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned him.” He understood her feelings, and her reluctance to forgive the old man. He really felt for her as they had gone through that horrible childhood together. It was almost impossible to just tell her to forgive and forget about the past. Though many years had passed, still they can’t get over the fact that a lot of things could’ve been different if Kim Ahjussi hadn’t acted the way he did. But still, he didn’t want his sister to keep holding the man a grudge.

It took him a couple of minutes to let SungMi calm down in his embrace, as he knew that it must’ve been painful for her to ponder all of that again. He realized that he should’ve used a different approach regarding that matter. Now, he knew that the subject was a taboo to SungMi, and it shall not be brought upon her casually from that moment.

After what seemed like a long time, SungMi extricated herself from the hug. Wiping her tears away with the sleeve of her shirt, she took a deep breath before offering DaeHyun a huge beam, as if nothing had ever been discussed between them.

DaeHyun returned her smile before continuing their way home. The night had fallen and the sky blazed with stars. DaeHyun didn’t realize that they were out for that long. He was worried at first that SungMi’s other brothers might be worried about her not getting home yet, but he assumed that SungMi had informed them. Resulting that there was no call from her family, asking her where she was.

They continued walking in silence, before suddenly DaeHyun said, trying to lift her mood back. “You did a good job with the music piece, JiHyun.” He started. “You’ve got nearly all of the notes correct, but I can’t help but to wonder on how you managed to write it very nearly the exact same piece as the original one. When omma was teaching both of us the song, you weren’t even listening to her that time, you were busy pressing random keys and making a lot of racket.”

SungMi pursed her lips at DaeHyun’s last sentence but grinned ear to ear hearing his compliment nonetheless. She was proud of herself knowing that she was able to write her own piece just based on listening to him playing, though she had never seen the actual composition herself. However, she felt that it was nothing big.

“Well, mostly it’s because it wasn’t really a difficult song, oppa.” SungMi replied. “Most of the keys were easy to find, and it was a simple song anyway. Anyone can write his or her own composition just by listening to it, I tell you. So there’s really nothing to be enthralled about. Unless if it was something as hard as Bach or Beethoven, then you can be awestruck as much as you want to.” She said modestly.

DaeHyun smiled to himself, not giving any comments about his sister’s reply. His thoughts suddenly went to the day their late mother told them about that song, which mostly listened by DaeHyun as SungMi couldn’t understand. He wanted to tell her about it, but they had already reached the front door of SungMi’s house.

The lights were still on, so both of them assumed that the whole family was still up. DaeHyun took a look at his watch and sighed in relief knowing that it wasn’t that late. Turning to her brother, SungMi said, “Thank you for bringing me to our old place again, oppa. And thank you for … willing to forgive me. I know I was being kind of silly, pushing you away instead of hearing you out.”

DaeHyun ruffled her hair with a sincere smile. “It’s fine. At least everything has fallen to its place now, right? Anyway, when are you going back to school? You’ve missed a lot, I reckon. You need to catch up with the lessons quick in order to score the tests.”

SungMi tipped her head with a sigh, as if trying to think of when she could return to school, as she badly wanted to. “Soon.” She said. “Once I’m sure that everything is under control here, I’ll go back to school. SungHyun and HyunSik oppa want me to go back to school as well, but I can’t just leave them taking care of omma by themselves. Maybe in a few days’ time, I will. I’ve missed school so much, too. And I miss DanBi and Zelo as well.” SungMi explained with a slight sulk, as she remembered her two dear friends whom she missed so badly.

Laughing at her funny face, DaeHyun nodded his head and took a step back. “Okay, then. I think you should go inside now. Your brothers must be worried about you. And oh, take care of them and yourself too, all right? Help them to keep an eye on your mother. I’m sure that they can’t do it on their own. If you need anything, I’m just a phone call away.”

SungMi nodded her head and threw her brother a convincing beam, before opening the front door and enter her house. DaeHyun watched as SungMi waved him goodbye from the window at the living room, and DaeHyun waved back as he walked further away from the house.

Throughout the journey home, DaeHyun cannot stop smiling to himself. It felt like the heavy burdens he felt on his shoulders were now gone. He was happy that things turned out well, finally. He was glad that after a long wait, he found JiHyun again, and the guilt and longing he felt aching inside his heart had disappeared. He had kept his promise, the promise to take care of his sister, and he never meant to break it.

“Omma, appa, I promised I won’t let you down. I promised that I’ll always look after her. And I always will.” He muttered, as he stared up at the open sky, with an ocean of blinking stars.

A couple of days later

“SungMi ah.” SungHyun called gently, with a hand softly shaking her shoulder. “SungMi, wake up.” He called again, as no response was forthcoming from the snoozing girl. He shook her shoulder a little harder, and the lass groggily opened her eyes. They were half opened as they looked at SungHyun and with a slight frown, she asked, “Oh, oppa. What is it? Is omma okay?”

“Omma’s fine.” SungHyun answered. “I just want to ask you whether you want to go to school today. You’ve missed out a lot and I think it is time for you to go back to school. I’m getting worried about your lessons, young lady.”

Hearing the word ‘school’, her eyes shot open and whatever drowsiness she felt was immediately gone. She quickly sat up on her bed and looked at her brother with the widest grin. “I can go to school today? Really? Are you sure?” She asked, couldn’t believe that she was finally going back to school after what felt like such a long time.

 Seeing the delight on her face, SungHyun nodded with a smile. “Of course, I am sure. You haven’t gone to school for so long already and I am seriously starting to get worried about your grades. Your finals are in a few months’ time and you extremely have a lot to catch up on.” He said with a stern expression on his face, to which SungMi knew was fake.

SungMi squealed elatedly and gave her brother a quick hug before jumping out of the bed, with SungHyun shaking his head at her eagerness. He was just about to leave the room and let SungMi got prepared to school when suddenly she asked worriedly, “But, what about you and HyunSik oppa? You two have been skipping classes a lot lately, too. And it is impossible for me not to notice.”

 SungHyun was already at the door when she asked that, and couldn’t help but to smile gratefully at her. Concern was stamped on her face and SungHyun was touched by her worry. It was true that both he and HyunSik had been skipping classes once in a while, with all the things that had been happening lately. It was just a bit impossible for them to leave their mother at home; as they knew for sure that, they can’t concentrate in class with their sick mother in mind.

However, none