JongUp

JiEun and I are sitting on her bed together. Her head is resting on my shoulder and we have been talking about what she has missed at school recently. Sitting next to her in her is nice. We haven’t done this for a while, and although she still has a few bandages here and there, it is mostly normal. She will occasionally says things in a fun tone, with a bright smile and then ask if we can go out to eat later, which is typically her. But then there will be those moments when she just pauses, mid-sentence and will look down at her feet, as if she remembers something she probably shouldn’t. Yet when I ask her what she was thinking she simply replies with; Sorry, I don’t even know.

She has been home for a day, Natasha came to check up on her again when she was home, saying nothing was out of the ordinary and that a few more days away from school wouldn’t hurt her. She even checked on JunHong, who hasn’t been doing too well. But sadly, all we can do about him is let it go on. His circuiting can’t be rewired – just in case.

JiEun still doesn’t know what happened, or the truth behind JunHong. But when they sit next to each other, she blushes and stumbles over her words. She still likes him, she knows he likes her. But that’s all that she knows. He puts on a smiling face and treats her with the utmost care. But that is all they see each other. Just at dinner, nothing more. JunHong will eat, clean up then disappear. He doesn’t say anything to anyone. But we all know where he has gone, what he feels.

“JongUp?” JiEun says, curling up closer to my side.

I hum in response, wrapping my arm around her waist gently.

“What is up with JunHong recently? He keeps avoiding me…”

I sigh.

All of us had been waiting for it since she arrived home. We knew it would come eventually. There was even a house meeting about what we would all say to her if she asked. The night she arrived back from the hospital we expected a barrage of questions and queries about what happened to her, what happened in the café, why she ended up in hospital. But nothing came.

“YongGuk hyung said that if you wanted to know you should ask him. It isn’t my place…” I run my hand through her hand, “I can tell you that he still likes you a lot though. Even though it doesn’t seem like it right now.”

JiEun nods, closing her eyes, “Okay… I will see YongGuk later…”

There is a small silence, and I keep her hair, I worry about her, how she ended up getting mixed up in all of this without meaning to. I could have stopped her, I should have stopped it. Suggested living on campus or something… I shouldn’t have let her get her involved with this house.

Looking down at JiEun, I note that she is almost asleep, and there is a soft smile touching her lips. Even if I did go back with the knowledge I have now, I don’t think I could stop myself from letting her in to this household. She might live on campus but I don’t think I could stop her from meeting everyone. Her falling for JunHong would possibly be slowed down, but I feel like it would be inevitable that the two of them would have these feelings.

In other words, I could have done nothing to stop it.

JiEun curls closer, before she starts twitching. Now I know she is sleeping.

HimChan

“We need to tell her…” I pace the floor behind YongGuk, who is reading some article at his desk.

He simply hums in response.

“We need to explain everything.”

Again he hums in his low tone, turning the page with the click of a mouse.

“JunHong can’t keep feeling guilty about know he did that…”

A nod from YongGuk.

Is he even paying attention to me? I can never tell when he is reading, he either disappears until he is done or he is able to multitask, it depends on what he is reading.

I pause behind him, “Are you even listening?”

He nods again, humming as well this time.

“Really?”

Another hum.

“So if I went to JiEun right now to explain that you and I took in an humanoid boy when we were barely finishing our degrees in this subject, and that said boy was locking himself in his room right now because he was having nightmares about how he had hurt the girl he loves, you would be okay with that?”

A simple nod.

“Even if I told her about what we did in bed the other day? You would be okay with that too?”

He swivels his chair around, now facing me frowning slightly, he knows my threat is empty, but I at least know he is paying attention now. “I don’t think anyone needs to know that…”

“Natasha seemed pretty interested last time she was here. She wanted to discuss it over coffee.” I sit in his lap, smiling. “But I didn’t tell her, don’t worry.”

He kisses my cheek softly, “I know, I trust you.” He sighs, “And you are right. We need to tell her everything. But she has to ask, I can’t tell her what is going on without her asking. It just isn’t right. I grew up taught that way. We all have our faults.”

I sigh, faults. As if. It is what makes you the perfect creature that is you. I lean against his chest. “We need her to ask soon then, even if it is prompted…”

JongUp

A few minutes into her sleep, I let her be. Gently laying her down and pulling a blanket up over her body. It is times like this that I truly feel like her older brother, protective. Normally we just muck around or talk or eat, she has never really needed obvious protection until now. She hasn’t needed me to look after her like she does know.

It kind of scares me.

Shutting the door as I walk out, I head towards YongGuk’s office. He needs to know she has asked questions, he needs to know she is sleeping even though it is only half past one. He needs to know these things just in case something happens. In case he has a plan of action. In case we need to call Natasha.

I knock on his door, and wait. Sometimes I have to knock a few times, it depends what is going on in there. He could be reading, he could be working, he could be with HimChan… You don’t know until he tells you to come in or opens the door for you.

“Come in,” HimChan calls. And I honestly don’t want to know what he was doing anymore…

I open the door to find the HimChan sitting on YongGuk’s desk with YongGuk in his big swivel chair; nothing looks too out of the ordinary. The screen of YongGuk’s computer has faded out as it does when it has been idle for a while.

“What’s up?” YongGuk asks, gesturing for me to come closer, a smile plastered on his face.

“A few things…” I say, looking at my feet and sighing. I feel like we have all been so tired and stressed lately that we can do nothing but sigh. “JiEun is asleep… And she asked about JunHong. I think she wants to know what happened.”

HimChan gasps, “We were literally just hoping she would ask so we didn’t have to force her.”

YongGuk nods, “We need to tell her everything. When she wakes up we are having a family meeting. Tell the others.”

I nod. This is going to be painful.