Chapter 13

Jesse sat down on a swing, lazily swinging it. He was in the park that he usually goes with Tiffany in their free time, simply playing in this same swing for years or just to have a walk around and talk. It was late at night, past midnight maybe. If these were some other days, he must have in bed sleeping like no tomorrow. This is one of the nights where he couldn’t sleep, most of it because of a lot of things that troubling him, his disease, his fight with Tiffany, or the thoughts of simply leaving and headed to Los Angeles with his grandmother, not to mention his feelings towards Tiffany. If he wasn’t in a huge fight with Tiffany, he might think of escaping to Los Angeles with his grandmother was the most absurd and crazy idea that he could think of. Surprisingly tonight he wasn’t.

He pulled his jacket tighter, sighing once in a while, watching the puff of his breath coming from his lips. This was cold enough for him, hoping maybe it could numb his feelings, the confusion that he had for Tiffany. Was it really love just like Yul had mentioned before? But he loved his sister all this time right? Did what Yul mean was love in a romantic way? Could it be? No way...

He was in a huge doubt and he somehow wanted to vent his frustration in a way because if he kept on bottling it up, it would end up with him venting it out on the people around him. He swung his swing faster in the dark empty park. He let out a shout from the top of his lung, not really care if others would think of him being crazy, well... if there were others in this park at this late at night. Somehow he felt a lot better after he let out a few shouts. Feeling the mood was better, he jumped off the swing, landed on his feet firmly as he slowly got on his feet and walked away from the park, hands slipping into the pockets of his pants, making his way home. He might not figured out his feelings just yet nor making his decision on going to LA but he believed he would know what to do. He still got time to think. Despite how angry he was, the decision to leave his sister behind was something that’s extremely hard to decide. He never liked the idea to be away from his sister, not knowing what she would do when he wasn’t around to protect her.

***

The walk in the morning to school was never this dreadful before, not even when they had fight in the past. This fight was indeed the worst amongst all. They weren’t talking for almost a week. Every single day, they walked with tension around them. Both of them were still as stubborn as one another. Both of them were thinking that what they were doing was right and according to each of their own principle. They wanted to talk to one another but then their pride stop them.

Jesse took a glance at Tiffany, thinking that Tiffany didn’t notice but she did and it happened vice versa. Basically they knew that they were checking on each other. It’s just the both of them were either too scared to start the conversation, or waiting for the other to apologize first. For sure, it didn’t work as they were now at the school gate, still in silence, tension enveloping them, even people on their surrounding could feel it.

As the both of them standing in front of the gate, they could sense people’s gaze were on them, counting that the incident that happen the day before was sort of huge. There seldom was a fight at school that’s that big, not to mention when it’s the ex student council president that was involved in it.

Jesse glared at every single person not to bother them. First, he wasn’t in the mood. Second, he knew he should talk to Tiffany sooner or later.

To others, the way Jesse and Tiffany looked right now was totally conflicted. They got a lot to say which clearly showed in their eyes. However, they just kept mum. Their friends were around, paying attention to them, knowing this argument that they had was a huge one. One by one, starting from SooYoung, she walked towards where YoonA and Seohyun were standing, then followed by Yul. They huddled up by that spot already started to discuss on what to do to those stubborn siblings.

“What to do?” YoonA was the one started to ask, glancing at the two that were still standing by the gate in silence, simply gauging one another, wanting to start a conversation, which clearly seen from Jesse’s mouth that was slightly agape before he closed it again with no words coming out of his lips.

“I’ve never seen them fight until this big.” Yul sighed, rubbing the back of his head, even ruffling his head when he addressed the problem, being the person that sort of knew the both of them longer than the others.

“It’s been like what? A week?” SooYoung spoke out her concern that earned a few nods from her juniors.

“We should plan something to make them go back like how they are usually is. This view is so frustrating even for a person like me.” Yul stated, his voice layered with seriousness, something that was seldom seen coming from the nonchalant troublemaker.

“let’s try and plan something for them. Whether they use that chance properly and make up or they’ll remain like this. It’s totally frustrating looking at the two just like that, standing, looking at each other, trying to talk but nothing comes out. They’ve been repeating that for like almost a week. The most that we heard all the time is ‘bye,’ ‘see you later’ and that’s it. Nothing else.” SooYoung frustratingly said. She even guessed that it would sort of frustrating too for others. Jesse and Tiffany’s relationship as siblings were something that should be given thumbs up, the way they stick to one another and support one another, looking at them like this was saddening, some people even being their fans, seeing how good they are to one another.

So, the four of them spent the rest of the morning before their class began to make the plan to get the siblings back together.

***

Footsteps echoed in the empty hallway that was once crowded with students. The person didn’t even care of his surrounding or his condition as all he knew was to get to the basketball court as fast as his feet could bring. He never ran as fast as he did right now for a very long time. It’s been like ages. He didn’t care the short of breath that he felt, the sweats that ran down his forehead to his neck, or how loud his heart thrumming in his ears which grew louder at each time passed as if deafening him from the world. He didn’t even care if his heart was going to stop after all this. All he knew he wanted to get to the court as fast as he could when he got the text message from Yul earlier, mentioning that Tiffany was now on the bench, fainting and now Yul, YoonA and Seohyun were trying to wake her up. He didn’t even think of all the logic of why Tiffany was there at the first place. The only reason that he could come up was probably Yul asked them to accompany him training.

Bang....

The sound of Jesse pushed the metal door open and stopped by the door, panting hard. He even felt the nausea building up from panic and also from too much running. He placed his hands on his knees to keep himself supported while he tried to catch his breath. His heart still thumped loud in his ears. He shook his head, not caring of the alerting sound and took small steps into the court that he realized empty. Instantly panic came up to him even more.

Why isn’t anyone here? Jesse silently questioned himself. Don’t tell me.... His hand already quickly moved to his pocket to look for his phone until another silhouette joined him as he could sense through his peripheral glance. He turned around. He noticed the person walking closer to him as he squint his eyes slightly to take in the figure in front of him as he couldn’t really see very clearly from how the outside was a lot brighter than the court right now.

“Oppa?” That’s when Jesse knew it was Tiffany and at the same time he let out a sigh of relief knowing that his sister was safe and alright. However, before he could say anything, he heard a loud bang coming from behind her, seeing the door was shut from the outside.

“What the....” Instantly Jesse went towards Tiffany and pushed her behind his back, afraid that there might be someone pulling a joke on them or even tried to hurt them. He stood in alert and inspected his surrounding for possible threats. After a few minutes doing so with nothing coming, he turned around and looked at her.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt? Or... do you feel unwell?” Jesse started rambling as he was in extreme concern of her.

Tiffany simply looked at Jesse confused, not understand why those questions could come at the first place.

“What do you mean, oppa? And why is oppa here? Where’s Yul?” Tiffany asked Jesse back, their fight and tension was sort of forgotten at that moment.

Jesse remained in silence, eyebrows furrowing so seriously. It seems that he finally got what was going on right now. He sighed heavily. Since things had turned into like this, it’s better that they started to talk about that since their friends were affected by them, to see how far they did just so that he would talk to Tiffany. He went to look at Tiffany again and he saw his sister was looking at him, soft and yet scared at the same time, a bit confuse on what to say as the tension was back again. Just like that he knew that she got what Yul was trying to do too.

“This is so awkward.” Jesse tried to break the silence and rubbed the back of his neck, a habit when he was nervous. Tiffany kept mum but nodded as she shifted her gaze away from Jesse.

Jesse took a hold of her hand and gently dragged her towards the benches in the court. He then took a seat and patted the seat next to him, signalling Tiffany to sit down as well. Tiffany silently sat down next to Jesse. At least both of them wanted to try to talk this out. As hard as the two of them wanted to admit, both of them did miss one another so much and missed their interaction. This whole week was like hell to the two of them. So close and yet they were too prideful just to apologize.

“You know...” Both of them started after a moment of silence. The tension was alive and burning. Tiffany tore her gaze away once again, looking at her feet while playing with her fingers.

Jesse took a deep breath, gathering his courage. If neither of them was going to apologize, nothing would work and they would end up with this kind of tension again for he didn’t know how long. Another day, another week, or maybe another month, for which he couldn’t stand any longer.

“I’m sorry.” Jesse swallowed his pride and apologized first. Those words sort of surprised Tiffany and that made her feel guilty as well.

“No, oppa. I’m sorry too.” Tiffany quickly said before Jesse could say anything. “I should know that oppa wouldn’t do that without reason.” Tiffany decided not to push this matter further because it would only make them argue again.

“Whatever the reason is, let’s put that behind now, okay? I hate to argue and not talking with you.” Jesse confessed which made him a bit shy after actually saying that out loud. Tiffany noticed what was happening and simply bumped her side against Jesse as he chuckled a bit.

“Now, I guess oppa must thank that troublemaker, right?” Jesse said with a hint of smile on his lips as he gave a side look at Tiffany.

“Not just you, oppa. But us.” Tiffany corrected Jesse as she hugged Jesse’s arm in the empty court, leaning her body slightly against Jesse, always liking her brother’s company. He always gave her this warm feeling that she loved so much.

“You’re right.” Jesse softly whispered, loving the sitting position they were in. This only made him realize how much he missed her and just at that moment, his heart started to beat faster in his chest. This familiar feeling again... could it be love? Just like how Yul said? He asked himself that over and over. The idea of falling in love to his sister was like absurd and insane but as the day passed, the absurdity and insanity seemed like making no sense. Thinking here and there, trying to make everything into a logical thing always ended up making him trapped in confusion and illogicality. He loved his sister, he knew that for sure, more than anything but whether it had transformed into a different type of love or not, he wasn’t quite sure. That was something that stressed him out lately, other than his argument with her and of course, his heart condition.

“Should we go now?” Jesse spoke out softly after a moment of silence that they had in the empty court, this time a comfortable one.

“Just a while longer, oppa.” Tiffany answered and as Jesse could see, she had her eyes closed. She was enjoying this silence and the comfort that Jesse offered. She knew once they got back home, Jesse would be all serious again because of their grandma. So why not taking her time, when her brother wasn’t all alert and serious and not to mention as if he was going into a war with their grandma.

Jesse nodded and stayed in silence. He took a deep breath and sighed in content, tilting his head a bit, he rested his cheek on the crown of her head, closing his eyes as well. How he wished time could stop at that very moment.

***

“It seems that our plan is successful, counting that no one barge out until now or hearing their shouting.” SooYoung said, her ear was still pressing behind the metal door.

“Should we wait for them or should we go back?” Seohyun looked unsure. They didn’t even know until when their friends were going to be done talking and solve their argument. Little did they know the siblings were totally okay now and things were solved pretty easily.

“I think we should just go and give them their privacy.” Yul being the cool and easy one suggested, trusting that his friends wouldn’t do something crazy and would solve things in a wise way. Surprisingly today YoonA agreed with Yul as the latter giving a nod after Yul said that.

“Wow... did I just see that someone just agree with me?” Yul purposely teased YoonA, simply just to annoy her. He loved to see the look of the latter when she was annoyed. The moment he said that, he could already see YoonA glaring at him deadly.

“You better don’t try to start another fight. I am just agreeing to a better idea.” YoonA angrily hissed, slightly huffing in annoyance from Yul’s teasing.

“Unnie....” Seohyun was already holding on YoonA’s arm just in case she started a fight with Yul. They were trying to help their friends to make up not starting another fight. The last thing she wanted was to add another pair in the list.

SooYoung who watched the entire thing, just smiled and shook her head. She was tired in telling Yul to stop his teasing because it never really worked. “You two better don’t start anything. The last thing I want to see is that Jesse heard all the commotion and come out to kill the two of you.” SooYoung jokingly warned them which directly silenced Yul and also YoonA before either one can start up another argument because they could already imagine the wrath that came from Jesse if what SooYoung had said coming true.

“Time to go home.” SooYoung sort of dismissed all of them. They walked together until the main gate before each walked their own way towards their home.