“Ew! Get the hell off of me!”

*Oh no…not again, please, please!* You were frozen by that deep voice that was already too familiar to you. You glanced upwards slowly, knowing what you would see and your heart stopped for a long moment when you met his threatening gaze. You were beyond frightened, his stare was literally killing you with tension.

All the students in the cafeteria were listening intently, they stopped eating, talking and were watching you with absolute concentration. Nobody dared to utter a sound or move an inch and the whole thing made you more embarrassed and scared in the deadly silence.

“I-I’m sorry…I…I didn’t mean to-” You whispered but he didn’t let you finish your rushed apology. Kris pushed you to the ground harder than he had earlier and all you could do was watch him leave in his angry state along with the rest of the students.  You tried to move but pain shot through your body and you massaged your back with one hand, wincing at each touch. When he disappeared from your sight, you dropped your head in shame.

Seohyun, Taeyeon and Tiffany and rushed to you with the first shouting meaningless insults at his retreating back even though she knew he could not hear her.

“Yah! What are you all looking at, huh?! Take care of your own business!” Taeyeon shouted to the crowding students who dispersed quickly like frightened mice.

They all melted back into their previous conversations while others spoke of the incident.

All you did was hope the day was going to end soon.

* * *

“Sweetheart, you really don’t have to do this.” Your mum reminded you, half pleading.

“It’s really okay. I can support us. I will just take another night job and all our problems will be solved.” You head wasn’t in the clouds but you knew another one would really benefit the situation of your family.

It was evening and the sun had already set. It was getting darker and darker with each passing minute while you stood at the door to your house, ready to go to your part time job.

“Mum, we already discussed it. You’ve done too much for Eunwoo and me, the least I can is to help you. And this is how I will do that.” You looked at her sternly, to emphasise your point but she simply sighed.

It was true that you mother had done a lot for you and your brother, ensuring you had a decent life since your father had left.

Despite that though, things were difficult with all her part time jobs and the sacrifices of food she had made for you so that you could have something to eat when the pantry was lacking. She had worked hard to give you a roof, food and clothes, even sending you to a respectable and expensive school.

Your mother really was a warrior in your eyes, even at her age and all she had been through she still thought of others first. She was the one person you admired most.

“But sweetheart-” Your mother tried once more to dissuade you but you cut her short.

“Umma, please, I don’t want to talk about it jaebal! You’re not so young mum and I’m old enough now to at least help you support our family. Moreover you have Eunwoo to take care of too.” You paused, noticing your mother’s pained look. “You should go see him now, he must be afraid when he’s alone in the dark, so go umma. Please.”

You saw that tears that threatened at the corners of her eyes and it hurt your heart. She was looking you with so much pity that it forced to look away from her. You didn’t like that look, she would do it before she would talk about the past and blame herself for the way things were.

“Noona! Aniyo!” Eunwoo peeked from behind your mother, waving at you with both hands for a good few minutes. His eyes wandered curiously around you with his token foolish-but-angelic smile plastered across his face.

He was disabled, his mind and body damaged but no matter how silly or ignorant people said he was, your brother was your treasure and you cherished him more than anything. Whenever you looked at him, you were proud that it was obvious that he was your family.

 Eunwoo was just a boy version of you: same eyes, same smile, same nose, same hair. He was also very tall for his age but it made him cuddlier, like a teddy bear.

It saddened you though when you thought of him, of his condition. He hadn’t been disabled from birth but had become so after a horrific accident four years ago that he had only just survived.

You smiled at him, feeling your brow furrow at the sense of loss you felt. Your brother wasn’t the same but he could still make you smile like nobody else. You could still remember the time when you knew your brother would never been the same again and it was a physically painful memory.

You were on the couch in Eunwoo’s hospital room. You watched him sharpen a packet of coloured pencils he’d been given and order them with an intensely concentrated look in his eyes. He had been in hospital for ten days and it had been a week since his surgery. His leg had been injured as well as his head and he was wrapped in bandages. In those seven days since, he didn’t talk and ate little. He wasn’t behaving like you expected him to and it had you more worried as you and your mother waited for the results of his recent examination. Your mother was pacing and it saddened you too see so desperate

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. You and mother shared a glance and looked to it with all your hope and worry mixed together in a frightening combination. When a hand reached for the knob, you could see through the small pane of glass above it that it was just the lunch service brining your brother’s meal.

You helped the lady with the tray and put it in front of your brother, disrupting his self-entertainment with his pencils. You saw him wince at your actions but thought nothing of it when you bowed to the doctor who entered as the woman left.

He excused himself along with you mother to talk to her privately outside the room. You decided to try and get Eunwoo to eat something because of his hollowed cheeks.

“Look Eunwoo, your lunch is here, it looks delicious right? Oh, it’s beans…you like beans yeah?” You tried to persuade him, to tempt him into his meal but he didn’t even acknowledge your presence. He pushed the tray away a little and frowned as he set everything up the way it had been and went about ordering and sharpening his pencils, classifying them according to colour.

“Eunwoo-yah, please, eat something. It’s not healthy to skip meals.” You waved your hand in front of his face to grab his attention, still no reaction.

You took his fork and picked up a bean, pushing it towards your brother’s mouth but he turned his away and you missed. You tried a few more times with different foods from the plate but each one was a failure. You finally remembered the apple in your bag and retrieved it. He loved apples and couldn’t resist them – they were his favourite fruit.

When Eunwoo caught sight of it his gaze fixed on the bright green skin with wide eyes. He reached out and took it from your hands, just staring at it while he smiled. You glanced between the him and the knife and waited for him to cut it up but he pushed it towards you like he wanted you to do something with it. You saw the lust in his eyes and knew what he wanted. Instead you took the knife and put in his other hand, nodding to it and then the fruit.

Eunwoo shook his head hard while groaned quietly, handing you both items with the same smile still on his lips. *Why is he getting me to cut his apple? He is eleven years old!*

“Eunwoo! Cut it yourself, you’re not little anymore; you’ve done it plenty of times. Why do I have to cut it for you just because you’re in hospital?” You placed the knife in his hand. The whole back-and-forth thing going on was beginning to frustrate you. Eunwoo threw the knife on the ground. He looked blankly at the knife on the floor but smiled up at you but you supressed a threatening growl. You picked up the piece of cutlery and placed it properly in his hand with more strength than you wanted to use, but you had to fight against his struggling and whimpering.

*What is with him!?* Because of his fussing, you both slipped and his finger was cut. You panicked and gasped. What gave you the shock was not the amount of blood dripping from his digits but the fact that he wasn’t wailing and crying.*He didn’t cry!? He didn’t cry!!*

Your brother was the biggest cry baby in the world, or at least that’s what you thought. Instead he glanced at his hand and smiled widely before he dipped the fingers of his opposite hand into the shiny red liquid and began to draw on his arm with it.

Your expression, your mind, everything was blank as you came to the realisation that something was wrong. Your brother was not the same but how had it taken a whole week for you to realise? The boy on the bed was not the Eunwoo you had expected, nor remembered, he was someone else.

You turned to the window and your heart broke as you watched your mother break down in front of the doctor, his wordless news destroying her in front of your eyes. The door was slightly ajar and you could hear her screaming.

“What!? How could that happen!? He wasn’t even hurt that badly!” Her tears flowed and your mother collapsed to the floor.

“Like I said, it’s Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, it’s only minor Mrs. Song. His mind still functions but he has symptoms of amnesia and he will also suffer from minor illnesses like headaches, fatigue, nausea. The tests show though that the cells that would typically have regenerated the affected area were somehow redirected to another part of his brain and he now has some heightened abilities. I’m sorry Mrs Song, your son has lost parts of himself but has also gained others.”

The doctor spoke a little louder to cover your mother’s cries and his words filtered into you and your brother but he paid no mind. You became deaf to them after that, losing yourself to your thoughts.

*NO! HE ISN’T LIKE THIS! Eunwoo is normal!* Your thoughts turned you bitter and you snatched away your brother’s sharpener, keeping it out of his reach. You threw it away and held tight onto his shoulders, shaking him a little in hysteria. “Eunwoo-yah! Speak, tell me you’re okay! Something! Jaebal!” You held onto him with all your strength and ignored his whining. “Eunwoo! I’m begging you, they’re saying you’re broken, that something’s wrong with your head.” You were losing yourself and your eyes started to water. “Do you know what it is? They’re saying you’re a pabo, stupid, idiot! Please tell me you’re not, Eunwoo, please.”

“Hwaaahhh!” Your brother’s only response was to scream.

Before he got too loud, you let him go. You huffed and collapsed onto bed beside your brother, watching his every move. A single tear finally welled out of your eyes, causing the rest of them to fall in hot torrents down your cheeks.

Sobs echoed shamelessly from your throat until you felt something poke your head. You looked up at Eunwoo. You hadn’t thrown the sharpener far and it was back in his hand with a smile on his face. You looked down at it and understood what he was waiting for.

You removed the blue lead that was blocking it and passed it back to him. You smiled too and let out a small laugh as you wiped your face and runny nose with the sleeves of your shirt. Eunwoo smiled happily but didn’t go back to his pencils straight away. His eyes stayed on you as he watched you compose yourself.

“Wha-…what is it now Eunwoo?” You asked weakly, in a defeated tone. Your eyes were closed as you rubbed at them and you felt your hand warm up as he laid his ontop. The sensation made your eyes wet again but you didn’t hold back this time as they slipped silently down your face. The corners of your lips turned up as you glanced at your hand. He didn’t bother to intertwine your fingers, or perhaps he forgot, but the day ended with him ordering his pencil and you crying quietly beside him, hand in hand.

Since the accident, Eunwoo had become your priority. You took care of him everyday with your mother as if he was your own son. He had the appearance of his previous fifteen year old self but according to the doctors, he had the mental age of three.

“Hey Eunwoo! You couldn’t sleep because umma and noona were noisy while arguing right? Don’t I’m leaving now and I’ll buy you a present for tomorrow okay? So go back to sleep quickly and take umma with you like a good boy, understand?” You watched as he nodded and rushed out of the room.

“Okay, I’ll go now, bye umma!” You didn’t give her time to answer and hurried out the door, leaving it open behind you. You could hear her shouting to you though as you hurried to cross the street.

“Take care of yourself Eunjae! Watch out when you cross the road and don’t talk to strangers! And-”

“Yes!” You shouted back and continued on your way, unable to her anymore with each step you took further away from home.