No One’s POV:

James and Joo Eun went for a long, silent walk, neither of them ready to break the silence. Soon, they were close to a hiking path and since it was already dark, there were not many people around.

She gently grabbed his wrist, “I can’t walk anymore,” she said softly.

James let out a small smile, hearing that. “Let’s take rest then.” He said and took a seat at a nearby stone bench, while she followed suit and both remained quiet.

Joo Eun was actually lost in thoughts while James, silently observed her. She did look much better now, which made him wonder why she got so disturbed earlier by their parent’s argument, especially when it was nothing serious.

A few minutes later, Joo Eun broke the silence. “Aren’t you going to ask why I was like that earlier?”

“You’d have told me already if you had wanted me to know. I figured it was not nice of me to ask things, when you don’t want me to.” He said, softly shrugging his shoulders.

“Why do you care about me like this?” she mumbled, softly.

“You’re my sister, J. of course, I would care for you. Why? Shouldn’t I?” he asked, a little hurt in his voice near the end.

“But don’t you hate me?”

“What? Why would you think like that?” he let out a laugh, but seeing that she didn’t laugh along, “You were being serious with that question.” He let out a sigh. “Why would I hate you?” he turned to look at her.

“Isn’t that why you didn’t want others to know that I’m your sister?”

“Joo Eun, I thought it was what you wanted. Now tell me, why did you think I hated you?”

“Um, maybe because that was the last thing you said to me before we drifted apart?” she softly mumbled, looking down at her lap while her eyes starting to glaze with tears.

It took James awhile to understand what she said and when he did catch up, his eyes widened. “Did I?” he tried thinking about the time they both were still good with each other. “Oh My! Joo Eun, don’t tell me you took that to your heart.” He said, remembering what she was talking about.

“J, it was a long time ago. We both were too young and I agree that I’ve done some stupid things then. But you should know that I really didn’t mean it.” He continued.

“But you never spoke to me afterwards. What do you want me to think?” she said, tears clearly rolling down her cheeks.

James ran his hand through his hair in frustration, “Joo Eun-ah, I’m really sorry. I was angry that our parents were always fighting and I even heard them considering divorce back then. And my stupid, young mind thought it was because of you. So I said all those things to you, without realizing it would hurt you this much.”

Seeing how she hasn’t reacted in any way, he slowly reached out for her hand and held it, “I’m sorry. I really am. I didn’t talk to you after that because I was embarrassed of how I behaved.” He continued, before wrapping his arms around her and that was her breaking point.

“I didn’t know how to correct my actions. But later thought you were embarrassed of me. That’s why I never even told my best friends, who my sister was.” She started crying out loud in his arms while he gently rubbed her back while uttering awkward ‘Sorry’ all along.

After she calmed down a little, she hugged James tightly. “I love you, James.”

“I love you too, J.” he said, letting her rest her head on his chest. “I always have. You are my little sister and you’ll always be.” He patted her back until she slowly let go a moment later and even after, he wrapped one of his arms around her shoulder. “Um, Joo Eun? About earlier,” he started hesitatingly, unsure of how she would react. “Was it because of our parents?”

She briefly glanced at him, “I was scared, James. It takes me back to those days where they used to fight a lot. I know this would sound ridiculous to you. But, seeing them fight, makes me fear that I would lose you all again.”

He sighed, understanding where she got those thoughts from. At one point in their childhood, their parent’s fights got out of hand and as a consequence, they left her back at the orphanage for some time, even though they didn’t officially give up the adoption.

Then their grandmother convinced their parents to bring her back. As if that wasn’t enough, she grew up with their grandmother for a few years while their parents moved back to U.S. with him.

“I’m sorry, J. I don’t know why our parents did that then. But they still love you.”

“I know, I love them too. But I cannot stop those thoughts whenever I see them argue, even when it’s about silly things.”

“I promise I won’t ever leave you like that again.” He said, holding out his pinky like they did in their childhood days while she stared at him for a second before she slowly smiled and linking her pinky with his.

Days passed by, where James and Joo Eun’s relationship improved on a huge scale. They both hung out quite a lot and in case their parents got into yet another silly arguments, James was almost always there for her.

Meanwhile, Jiwoong was also happ