Fear

  As the minutes passed, Seoeun began to feel more and more uncomfortable. She was literally squished between the door and that hitchhiker’s body. After an hour or so after he had got on their car, the boy had fallen fast asleep with his head tilted back and his mouth slightly parted.

 Seoeun wished that her mother hadn’t insisted on taking this boy with them. The detour from the planned trip brought nothing but discomfort and annoyance to her. As much as Seoeun wanted to open the door and walk to the seaside by feet, she still had her sanity with her and immediately shrugged off the weird thought.

 The girl rummaged through her old and shabby backpack until she found the desired item and fished it out with a smile gracing her lips. It was an old vintage camera which miraculously still worked like brand new. Seoeun neared the device near her face and peeked through the lens. Again, a smile came upon her lips when her eyes met the familiar specks and imperfections on the old lens. Her head turned to the window and the shutter quickly snapped with a rustle. Seoeun took the camera away from her face and gazed again through the window. Although she knew this path all too well, she had to take a last memory of it. She would gladly keep it as one of her most precious ones.

 “What are you doing?” her brother’s voice shook her away from the dreamy state she was in. She turned to him and was met with a pair of curious eyes and could not help but smile. Baekhyun hadn’t changed at all since he was nine. He still had this childish and playful aura around him, however, Seoeun could not tell the same thing about herself, despite having him as her twin brother.

 “Nothing special, just taking some pictures…” her fingers fumbled with the camera in her hands, by sheer force of habit. Her brother only nodded his head and plugged his earphones back in his ears.

 “Finally, we’re here!” Baekhyun shouted and stretched his slender body. Their father stopped the car near the beach and all of them could feel the fresh breeze coming from the sea. Baekhyun’s left arm hit something sturdy and shortly after a quiet “Ouch!” was heard. The boy swiftly turned around and was met with a honey coloured mess and a hand massaging it. “I’m sorry, did I hit you?” he asked, concern written all over his face.

 Yixing just shook his head and muttered while lightly smiling “It’s nothing.”.

 Seoeun closed her eyes and savoured the sweet feeling of the sunlight grazing her pale skin. She loved the way the sunrays caressed her cheeks and every single time they went to the seaside, this was the first thing she did. She breathed in the salty and humid air, feeling her body immediately relax and letting a big sigh of contentment. The cotton dress flowed along the light breeze, the fabric tenderly touching her skin and sending tingling sensations all over her body. The old camera was still in her hand and she brought it to her eyes again to capture the first moment of their last trip together. It wasn’t as bad as she thought, after all. Maybe a tiny change in plans wouldn’t lead to anything bad, would it?

 Her sight landed on a particular figure in front of her. Her eyes narrowed while she observed the boy before her. Yixing was brightly smiling, enjoying the light wind ruffling his clothes. The sound of the shutter snapping made her realize what she had subconsciously done. Immediately, the girl regretted her selfless action. There was no place or time for adventure; everything had to be perfect as it has always been. Seoeun had taken a photo of the turn-off of their vacation himself. Thankfully, the oblivious Chinese boy did not suspect a thing and Seoeun silently put the camera back in her bag. She wouldn’t risk doing anything different again.

 “Thanks for the ride, Mr. Byun!” Yixing’s voice sounded after a minute. “I guess our paths are about to part here.” He the back of his neck and proceeded with taking his luggage.

 Seoeun followed the retreating figure with her gaze, thinking about the picture she took. What had gotten into her? She wasn’t supposed to ruin her family’s last holiday together with light-headed thoughts. Her eyes averted to her brother who was rubbing his face with sunscreen a little bit too eagerly. By that time she saw her sibling, the thoughts about the lonely hitchhiker were already long gone. The girl skipped towards her brother and stood on her tip-toes helping him.

 The happy smiles never left their bright faces as they went to the beach, now fully prepared for swimming with bathing suits and beach towels. Mr. Byun struggled to jab a large parasol in the fine sand and after ten minutes of sweating, the parasol was proudly shielding the family from the hot sunrays.

 A pale, almost white hand crept towards Seoeun’s body. The poor oblivious girl was peacefully reading a book and listening to music as the cold hand grabbed her around the waist without any effort as if she was as light as a feather. A shriek pierced the air as she struggled free but to no avail; her kidnapper was too strong for her to defeat him. Her ears pricked as she heard an almost inaudible chuckle that was all too familiar to her. Baekhyun was playing all naughty again.

 Her eyes widened as she saw where her twin was taking her - straight to the water.

 “No, Baekhyun, don’t do it! You know I hate the water, please, let me go!” she screamed as her limbs were all over the place but her brother didn’t loosened his grip around her frame. Seoeun’s toes were already touching the cool waters of the ocean, when Baekhyun abruptly dropped her, or more like threw. The girl let out a final shriek before her body fully submerged in the coldness. Her heartbeat was racing so fast that it was the only thing she could hear in her head. She could literally feel the fear pulsing in her veins, threatening to burst. It was not deep; she knew it because her feet touched the sandy bottom multiple times already. Seoeun was utterly terrified of drowning.

 The strong grip around her waist came back and as suddenly as he dropped her, Baekhyun took her out of the water.

 “I’m sorry, Seo. I thought it would be fun to play in the water but it seems as if you’re not enjoying yourself much… Sorry.” Baekhyun’s voice dripped with regret just like Seoeun’s long chocolate-brown hair dripped with salty water.

 She just shook her head and threw her hands around him, sobbing quietly. She wanted to be mad at him, to scream more but she couldn’t bring herself to because she knew she would regret it immediately. More than anything the girl hated fighting with her dear twin brother, she loved him more than she loved herself. Maybe even more than she was afraid of the water. “It’s okay, Baek. But don’t ever do it again, promise?”

 “I promise.” His face was still sour but she could feel his regret subside just as every quarrel between them died down, no matter how big it was.

 Ever since they were little, the siblings had this special bond between them; always protecting each other, always watching the other’s back. Seoeun didn’t want to think about leaving him for two months. It was completely clear to her that she wouldn’t feel at ease when he wasn’t around but she had to bear with it. Besides, one day they would have to part, right?

 Baekhyun led her under the parasol and she literally collapsed on the heated sand. Without realizing, the five minute struggle with the deep and cold waters of the ocean had drained all her energy.

 “Let’s buy ice cream!” Baekhyun offered as though he had read her thoughts, which happened more frequent than they could ever count. The girl stood up, dusted herself from the sand and the both of them went to the ice cream booth nearby.

 “Two yoghurt flavoured scoops of ice cream, please.” Seoeun beat her brother to ordering their ice cream simply because she already knew what he would want. They always ate yoghurt ice cream ever since they were little annoying toddlers.

 The middle-aged lady behind the counter smiled and proceeded with their order. While handing them their ice cream she spoke with a wide smile on her face “You guys are so cute together! Just like the perfect prince and princess from a fairytale!”

 Baekhyun laughed loudly at her remark and quickly shook his head “No, we’re twins. But you do think we’re perfect?” he chuckled again causing the shorter girl beside him to beam at the lady. They were met with this statement quite a lot. People often mistook them for a pair because of their good looks and loveable sparks in their eyes. Although, Seoeun had never considered her brother and herself as ‘perfect’, people seemed to always assume that they were in love. They truly loved each other but not in a romantic way, by any means, no. It was just the sibling love between them was too deep.

Author's Note

Hello there! I was in a kind of a writer's block... Not that you care, nobody has even subscribed, so I don't feel that bad, lol. Anyway, we can finally see some development here! It was quite hard for me to portray Seoeun's and Baekhyun's love for each other because it's harder to describe love between siblings than between lovers. It's much more complicated and requires extra attention in the details. There is a thin line between the both forms of love and I found myself sweating while trying to differentiate a loveable look from a brother and a lover. Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please  subscribe and comment!

 Until next time, see ya! xoxo