Broken

 From the minute he saw her, he knew something had gone wrong. Something had gone terribly wrong and in the bottom of his heart Baekhyun knew exactly what.

 He didn’t wait for her to notice him and ran across the lounge and took his sister in his arms. Seoeun simultaneously dropped her bags and hugged him back. Until that moment she had not realized how much exactly she had missed him throughout the trip. Until now she had supported the idea that she felt secure with Minseok. But the safest she had felt and will feel is in her brother’s arms and nowhere else. The last few days were a living hell to her and her emotions and all she needed was Baekhyun.

 “We have to talk.” They both muttered in the warm embrace. Seoeun pulled away first and looked up at her twin brother with glistening eyes like she was looking at him for the first time. Tears threatened to spill but she gulped them down for the sake of her brother. She wouldn’t want him to see her cry the first time he meets her after two months of being apart.

 The last days of the longed journey of her life had become a living hell. Seeing Minseok every day reminded Seoeun of her never ending misery whispering sweet nonsense to her heart. She hated the way she felt but she actually wanted to try again, a second chance. Sadly, time did not have the ability to warp and turn itself back. What was said could never be returned. There was no such thing as taking one’s words back.

 “What did he do?” Baekhyun uttered after a long silence in the car. His eyes were glued to the road but his voice conveyed every single drop of anxiety in his heart.

 “He…” Seoeun started but she really had no idea how to continue. She had never spoken a word about Minseok to her brother. It was the only secret she kept from him but at that point she had a hint that Baekhyun had known about her crush all this time she had tried to cover it. “He did nothing.”

 “Stop lying, that’s not you, Seo. Can’t you see I’m worried about you?”

 That wasn’t Baekhyun either. He was always the composed and cheerful brother and never the stressed and apprehensive sibling. A tiny tear slipped down the girl’s cheek but she wiped it off fast enough before he could notice. But nothing ever left unnoticed by him. As ever, he didn’t say anything. He just observed her with the corner of his eye, carefully planning his words like he had never done before.

 At their house Seoeun went straight to her room, taking her bags with her. She knew she had to talk to her brother but the thought frightened her too much. What would he say? That she was stupid? Or brave? She had no idea. After his odd behaviour in the car, she didn’t feel much of desire to talk to him or anybody for that matter. Seoeun’s train of thoughts was cut short by the door of her room opening and closing shortly after.

 “You said you wanted to talk…” She heard Baekhyun’s voice behind her. Again, he sounded anxious and nervous. The bile started to build up all over again in . She could not bear the weight of keeping this secret anymore.

 “I do.” Seoeun cleared her dry throat and tried to continue but her voice hitched deep in her chest. Like it was afraid to speak up; to give everything away; to open up fully to him.

 “Baek, he said no.” Without turning to him, she whispered and averted her gaze to her knotted fingers. All of a sudden she felt so ashamed of herself. “He never knew but I don’t believe him!” A desperate cry escaped her lips as she shook her head, “I’ve always been just a friend to him. Only a friend, never, even for a millisecond, more. This hurt me so much, Baek. Right now I feel like a foolish child who believed its own fantasies. There is this enormous crater in my heart that will never seem to heal. It feels like something dear has been brutally ripped from my hands.”

 Baekhyun stood and listened silently. He hated the slight shaking of his sister’s shoulders. He loathed the hitching of her tender voice. He despised the boy who did this to his precious Seoeun. Indeed she looked like a lost child who had something very treasured stolen from it. Now she had nothing to cling to. He had no words to comfort her because there was no comfort for the brokenhearted. Only time was able to heal the deep wounds of this innocent but unrequited love.

 The boy stepped up to his sister and wrapped his slender arms around her fragile body. Seoeun broke into tears the moment he did this and sobbed in his embrace. Although she couldn’t see his face, his intention was more than evident through this action. She felt protected and whole again. His pure heart overwhelmed her own broken one.

 But she couldn’t stay in his arms forever. Fantasies weren’t meant to replace reality and they both knew this, they just wanted to prolong the former for as long as possible.

 Seoeun was devastated. After coming back from the journey, she hardly came out of her room. There she had succumbed to crying over her broken heart and dreams. It was supposed to be perfect and the last moment of it ruined everything. She shouldn’t have started liking Minseok in the first place. How stupid she had been to fall for him and even believe that he could have feelings for her too. Apart from being a coward for too long, she was also a fool. A fool for believing her own misconceptions.

 “Seo, let’s go out tonight.” Baekhyun interrupted the endless sobbing session. He popped his head only through the opened door shaking his damp hair.

 “No. Will you leave me alone already?” Seoeun croaked without even looking up to meet his eyes. She had wrapped herself in her blanket and had stayed like this for days. The rest of the family rarely saw her and when they did it was when she went to the bathroom or in the middle of the night, roaming the fridge for snacks.

 “Come on, it’s been so long since we went out. Let’s go, just the two of us.” Her brother’s sweet words barely seeped through the thick fabric of the blanket but she still heard them. For the past days Seoeun had completely switched off her feelings and crying became just a habit. She felt nothing. She was nothing. But turning her twin brother so many times made her feel bad nonetheless.

 The bundle of clothes and blankets heaved a tiny sigh and a voice mumbled from underneath: “Okay, okay, I’ll come.”

 “Yes!” Baekhyun screamed and the girl could almost see his happy beam through the fabrics.  “Now go and take a shower, we’re leaving in an hour.” He was seemingly satisfied with the outcome of this conversation after the many times he had tried to convince her to go out.

 An hour later, Seoeun was all clean and tidy and the siblings were ready to head out of their house.

 They went into a new restaurant downtown with dim lights and calm live music. It had the perfect setting for a romantic date but the twins did not opt for that kind of atmosphere. They both liked going to sophisticated places from time to time just to feel special. The first time when they went out on a “sibling date” (which is how they liked to call their “dates”), was when Baekhyun received his first salary from his part-time job as a barista at a coffee shop. A lot of things had changed since then but the two remained inseparable.

 “What would you like for dinner, Miss Byun?” Baekhyun said looking at his sister with a serious face but his voice twitched jokingly. The waiter just turned his head toward Seoeun, not even noticing the joke.

 “I’m not quite certain, Mr. Byun. How about you choose our meal?” Seoeun played along although she wasn’t in the best of spirits. It never got old and pretending to be spouses was always fun, especially when they managed to deceive the staff of the restaurant.

 “I can recommend you our special beef steak with creamy mushroom taste.” The young boy who was probably a year or two older than them smiled politely.

 “Then beef steak it is.” Seoeun smiled back and then added “And a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, please.”

 Her brother looked at her with questioning eyes because it was out of her character to order, much less drink alcohol.

 A few bites of beef and some glasses of red wine later, Seoeun started to liven up. Until now, she had been unusually quiet and moody but now her eyes were flicking from face to face around the restaurant. She still paid little attention to the conversation and answered Baekhyun’s questions by nodding or mumbling short words. That was when she heard a very familiar, painfully even, laugh. It was one she could register anywhere because it was so rare. Happiness flooded from it and immediately brought sadness to her ears.

 It was Minseok, who was sitting a few tables away. He genuinely laughed at some joke or a funny story, Seoeun didn’t know. But a feminine laugh weaved around his like a venomous snake, preparing to eat its prey. He was with another girl and they were obviously on a date.

 “What’s wrong, Seo?” Baekhyun’s smile faltered and was replaced by a worried expression.

 “Nothing.” It was all she could utter between the loud beats of her heart that resonated through her whole body as if it were a hollow shell. Her eyes kept going back to the happy couple and of course, this did not go unnoticed by Baekhyun.

 He turned around to see what caused his sister to change her mood so quickly and he immediately regretted it. He saw him and her. They looked perfect together but given the situation, the boy had no empathy towards the couple. Just the contrary; he was angry. So angry, he could stand up, go to their table and teach Minseok a lesson or two on how to treat girls. He hated him for what he had done to his sister. She used to be so cheerful but now only her appearance was the same.

 “Let’s go before any of us makes something stupid.” Baekhyun took the chance to take Seoeun out. He knew that if they stayed any more seconds in that room, his anger would take over. However, Seoeun placed her cool hand over his and looked straight at him for the first time that evening.

 “No, I want to stay.” She assured him, although he could see the crystal beads of tears in her puffy eyes.

 She wanted to move on. It was harder than everybody described or she just had been too deeply in love with Minseok. Seoeun didn’t even know if the latter was true anymore. During the past week she had been questioning her whole existence and rethinking her dreams. She had imagined herself with him for so long that now, when he was out of her life she had no idea which way to take.

 It would be tough, very tough, to heal her broken heart. But Seoeun was willing to try and mend it. Now she had the time ahead of her.

Author's Note

 Hey there! I am back, extremely late, but still wrote a chapter for you! It was hard for me to go on from where I had left because I had forgotten some of the things I intended to include in this chapter but I think it turned out okay, I guess. My writing is really rusty right now, I can't even bear looking at it but I hope it's not too bad orz

 Share your opinion in the comments, until next time, xo