~

It wasn’t that he didn’t love her. He just didn’t know how to tell her. Every time he tried, he would choke on his words and would only end up saying the opposite of what he wanted to say. So instead, he kept away from her. He didn’t acknowledge her. He wouldn’t even glance at her.

Or so it seemed.

He watched every single cell in her body. He watched it all happen. He watched her fall in love with his own brother. But he had no one to blame but himself.

He came across them declaring their feelings for each other one night...

“Woohyun-ah,” Jieun gasped as she took a step away from Myungsoo.

Myungsoo didn’t say anything to his brother though, he just looked at him.

Woohyun raised an eyebrow at them before breezing past them like it was nothing.

Myungsoo scoffed before turning back to Jieun who was sulking now. “This is wrong,” she whispered into Myungsoo’s chest as he embraced her.

Myungsoo: “I didn’t know falling in love was wrong.”

Jieun: “It is in our situation.”

All the while, Woohyun was leaning against the door of their bedroom, clutching his chest. He knew that she didn’t love him. Who would love someone who doesn’t even acknowledge your presence? But he was hurting.

He laid himself on the huge bed and turned to his side, attempting and failing at sleep.

A few minutes later, he heard the door open and close. Then he felt a body slip into the sheets beside him.

“Woohyun-ah,” her soft voice made its way to him. “Are you still awake?”

He didn’t reply though he was still wide awake and was widely conscious of her warmth beside him.

She sighed softly and turned the other way.

“I suggest you leave,” Woohyun spoke up moments later.

Jieun sat up and looked at him but he was still facing away.

Woohyun: “Run away before our parents find out.”

Jieun: “Woohyun-ah...”

Woohyun: “Go by the end of tomorrow or I’ll personally tell them.”

Jieun nodded though he couldn’t see her.

Woohyun’s tears were silently falling and he tried his hardest not to shake.

He loved her.

But he also loved his brother.

And he wanted him to be happy. Even just for a while longer. Even if that meant giving her up.

Almost everyone but the victim himself knew about the inextinguishable parasite that was slowly eating Myungsoo up from the inside. It was only a matter of months.

Woohyun left early for the studio the next day. When he came back home, like he had hoped, but feared, there was no trace of the two he had advised to leave.

Months went by without hearing from the both of them. Then one late night, the doorbell mercilessly rang. Woohyun grudgingly got out of bed to see who would come at this time of the night, cursing himself for sending the ahjumma home over the weekend.

“Hyung.” Myungsoo stood in front of him. He was pale, and his breaths came in short puffs. “Hyung, you bastard,” he said as he stumbled in.

Woohyun immediately put his arm around him and helped him up the stairs to one of the extra rooms.

“Where’s Jieun-ah?” Woohyun asked as he placed Myungsoo on the bed.

Myungsoo: “She’s with her family.”

Woohyun: “Does she know?”

Myungsoo: “She doesn’t need to know.”

Woohyun: “How did you find out?”

Myungsoo laughed mockingly. “I’m quite positive anyone would take notice if they were dying. All these years, you knew. Yet no one told me until I was practically crawling on my knees to the hospital just to find out what was wrong with me.”

Woohyun: “We wanted you to live a normal life.”

Myungsoo laughed again. “If I knew I was dying, I wouldn’t have fallen in love with her!”

Woohyun: “It’s not something you could have controlled.”

Myungsoo: “If I wasn’t dying, you wouldn’t have let her go.”

Woohyun: “Remember when I fought with mom and dad about this? I told them it wouldn’t work out from the beginning. They didn’t listen to me. I’m gonna call them and tell them you’re here. I’ll call the doctor in too. Do you need anything?”

Myungsoo turned his head and looked at his brother. “Can you get me 50 years?”

Woohyun stared at him for a while before heading out the door without saying a word in reply.

A few months later, Woohyun was standing in front of a door.

A nurse comes up to him and asks, “You’ve been coming in everyday without actually going into her room. Are you her friend?”

Woohyun: “Something like that.”

Nurse: “I know it’s after visiting hours, but why don’t you come in...”

Woohyun: “I doubt she wants to see me.”

The nurse sighs. “She’s always waiting for someone.”

Woohyun: “She is?”

Nurse: “I believe it’s her lover. Could it be you’re the one she’s waiting for?”

Her lover?

Woohyun shook his head.

Just then a doctor made her way out the door, both the nurse and Woohyun stepped out of the way, bowing in respect.

“How did her brother die?” the nurse asked curiously. “I overheard.”

Doctor: “Terminal illness. He died a few weeks after he left her.”

Nurse: “So he knew he was...”

The doctor shrugged.

Nurse: “Were they in that kind of relationship?”

The doctor shrugged again. “If I knew, I wouldn’t need to come everyday to find out why she’s like this.” Then she scoffed. “She had one stupid brother.”

Nurse: “Would having loved her like that, even if they were siblings, make him stupid?”

Doctor: “Only in the way he said goodbye. And the fact that he’s not leaving.”

Nurse: “What do you mean?”

The doctor just shook her head and looked back at the room before walking away with her notes from today’s visit.

Woohyun stopped her. “He wasn’t her brother,” Woohyun whispered, looking at the white tiled floor. “He was mine. Please don’t blame him. It was all my fault.” Then Woohyun turned around and made his way out of the hospital once again.

The nurse furrowed her eyebrows. “Who was he? He’s always coming, but he never really visits her...”

The doctor sighed. “That was Nam Woohyun. He was her husband.”

~

Hope it explained a few things (;