[CONTENTID1]CHAPTER TWENTY SIX - BORA [/CONTENTID1]
[CONTENTID2] 

My mind is a scramble and I can't breathe properly. I decide I won't make it if I just stand here so I start running away from the group. I run and run until I'm far away enough so that none of them can see me, or at least I think they can't see me. I bend over and unload my lunch onto the dry, dusty ground. I hack and heave until the contents of my stomach have been emptied out. I feel a hand on my back but I don't bother looking up.

"Here's a cloth," Jungkook murmurs, handing me the item. I silently take it and wipe my mouth as I straighten up again. I put a hand over my forehead to check my temperature and find that it's risen suddenly. I let out a shaky breath and finally look at Jungkook. "I know it's a lot to take in."

"A lot to take in? Jungkook, it's !" I snap and he gulps, looking around. "Is that...is that why Daeho is the way he is? Oh, my god. Oh, Jesus ing Christ!" I start hyperventilating and Jungkook holds me by the shoulders, staring into my eyes.

"Calm down, Hyerim," he orders softly and I feel my breathing rate slow down if only just a tad. However, my heart is still beating impossibly fast and I'm sweating heavily. He releases me and his fingers unstick from my damp arms. "Let me ex--"

"Jay," Bora interrupts as she joins us with Daeho in her arms. She passes the boy to him and Jungkook happily takes him, ruffling the child's hair. Daeho grins and pinches Jungkook's nose to which Jungkook laughs. "Keep him safe."

"Of course," he replies with a nod before smiling nervously at me and walking away with Daeho in his arms. I turn to Bora and all I want to do is beat some sense into her. What the hell is wrong with her? I now know that Doojoon is a psychotic animal but I didn't expect her to play into any of this. How could she subject another human to a life like that? Is she sick in the head? She must be if she slept with her own brother. 

"Come with me," she orders and I grind my teeth together but oblige, following her back into the building. We go to the dining hall and close the doors behind us, taking seats at one of the round tables. "I know what you must think." I snort and she gulps, looking down at her hands. "It's not like that."

"What? You didn't really sleep with your brother because you had the hots for him?" I sneer and her eyes snap up, anger in them. She leans forward and I feel my eye twitch. 

"No. It's not like that," she spits and I gulp. She leans back in her chair and takes several deep breathes as she massages her temples, eyes closed. When she opens them again, there are unshed tears in them. "I was...I was ten years old when my family was relocated to America from Seoul." 

She tells me how it all happened. 

Her father worked as a neuroscientist for the South Korean government, he'd had his job for over fifteen years. Her mother was a doctor. She had two brothers. Her older brother by six years, Doojoon and her younger brother by two years, Jaeho. When the war kicked off, our government (South Korean) decided our country could profit from a particle accelerator of some sort, one that could alter the genetic coding of humans to make us better in every aspect. (I guess the French beat us to it!) So, the government sent Bora's father and his family to America since the bigger country was one of their many allies. 

It was difficult to adapt to her new life in America but Bora learned to accept reality and even made friends. Jaeho struggled for longer but, he too, eventually got used to it. Their older brother, however, was harder to please. He'd always been a difficult child but he could always get out of trouble with his charming smile and smooth phrases. He knew how to manipulate people better than he knew how to tie his shoelaces. Yoon Doojoon was always a bully, Bora told me, but he was her brother and she had to love him. Little did she know, he had more than a slight obsession for her.

When she was eleven, the base her family resided in was invaded by some North African troops. Her family was traded to Algeria but to keep them together, her father surrendered all of his research and agreed to working in developing a virus for the Algerians. They agreed and from then on, everything went downhill. At the camp, Doojoon started showing his true colours more and more. Mrs Yoon soon after diagnosed her son as being clinically psychotic which explained his lack of empathy, his aggression, his contrasting charismatic façade and his ability to meticulously plan out his ideas. Doojoon had his mother and beaten as revenge for getting him admitted into a mental asylum (right in front of Bora, no less) and Mrs Yoon, several months later, hung herself. It was her daughter who found her.

He was released from the asylum on the basis that Mrs Yoon couldn't have been mentally healthy when she admitted him there. Doojoon only grew more cruel and grotesque as time passed. Bora and Jaeho got closer with their father after their mother's death. Doojoon was jealous of the attention he received not only from the two kids but also from Algerians high in power who praised Dr Yoon for his work. Doojoon framed his father for betrayal, making it look as though he was plotting against the Algerians with the South Koreans, and had him murdered. 

"He killed your father!?" I exclaim and Bora nods solemnly. "How...how do you know all of this?" 

"Some things I saw with my own eyes...other things, he told me about," she answers with a wavering voice. "He said...he says he did it for me. To protect me. He says they deserved it, they were bad parents and didn't treat me well enough. I think he was just jealous that I loved them more. Eomma always said that he had an unhealthy obsession with me." 

"What did he do to you, Bora?" I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.

"He was angry that I was getting closer with Jaeho. Jaeho was also good at fights so many chiefs praised him for his skills," she explains, continuing her story. "Jae was a good kid. He worked hard and did what he was asked most of the time, not because he liked it but because he wanted to keep us alive. We only had each other, we avoided Doojoon at all costs. One day...Doojoon...Doojoon picked a fight. It was so stupid." Tears start rolling down her cheeks. "It was so stupid! They fought over a loaf of bread...a loaf of ing bread Jae didn't even steal! Doojoon killed him right in front of everyone. He beat him to death, he delivered blow after blow as I watched, held back by his friends. They laughed. They found it funny that a twelve year old boy was being slowly killed."

I hand her tissues and she blows her nose, tears dripping onto the white material.

"The chiefs congratulated him for his strength and conviction. He was so proud of himself. I was the only one who thought to bury Jae. I had to bury my little brother. Doojoon was so angry...he was so angry." She shudders at the memory and wipes her tears again. "He said I was ungrateful. He said he did so much for me and I never appreciated any of it. The beatings, I could take. God, I have so many scars from those days. He beat me until I lay in a pool of my own blood, near death. He beat me until I forgot who I was for days. As the years passed, he become more popular amongst the chiefs. They rewarded him with mo