So Reiwang-oppa tagged along with me to the market.

"You shouldn't wear such revealing clothes!" he told me. "It gives you a bad image!"

I rolled my eyes. He's always been this protective of me. Ever since this one boy pushed me to the ground once, actually. My knee was scraped and a little bit bloody, but he went at the boy like he had murdered me.

"Aish..! This guy!" I said loudly, to myself.

"It's my duty, as your older brother, to protect the family's honor and you're not helping very much!" he said. He was only half serious though. I laughed at him.

"Oppa, you're hardly even around, when was the last time I saw you?" I asked.

He looked embarrassed. "New Years, 2011."

"That's right. And now it's..?"

"June?" He seemed unaware.

"July." I corrected him. "I haven't seen you for 2 years and 7 months! Where were you?"

"Places. But I'm here now! I swear, I'm here! Look! Feel that! Oppa's here!" He grabbed my right hand and brought it to touch his face. "See?"

I laughed. He always made me laugh. Even if he was gone for 10 years, it would feel like we'd just seen each other when we met up again.

"So will you explain what happened to you while I was gone?" he asked me, worry in his eyes.

"Well, let's see. I got a job. I got a car. I got an office-tel and a roommate to go with it. My roommate left to live with her boyfriend. Uhh... Slow winter in 2011. Not much happened in 2012... Well, Mom's sister-in-law had a fourth child. Named it Jane. That woman needs to buy a baby names book. Umm... Ben, dad's cat, turned out to be a Bridget and gave birth. Oh, Jessica's in Korea. She's living with me... Former roommate crashed her car while Jess and I were in it. She's in a coma now. Not Jess, the roommate. And I have a broken arm... And, oh, this just in, I'm going on tour as a hair and makeup lady for BIGBANG." That pretty much summed it up.

"Wow. I missed a lot, haven't I?" My words had just started to sink in. "You're going on WHAT with WHO?!"

"Tour, BIGBANG."

"BIGBANG..?"

"Kpop band slash the reason Jessica's here." I said. "I'm friends with the leader. And the others, but mostly the leader."

"And who allowed you to do this?" he asked, fiercely.

"My birth certificate. Oppa, I'm 24, I can handle myself! Besides, they're all heavily guarded. If I stick with them, I will be too."

He sighed. "I guess so... Does Dad know?"

"Nah. Haven't called him yet."

"Maybe you should talk to him face to face?" he said.

"I leave tomorrow. I don't have enough time."

"You never do, anyways."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah, from what I heard, ever since Bucheon happened, you've been ignoring Dad."

"So not true! I was busy trying to hold myself up independently. Not the same thing."

"A phone call doesn't present too big a problem does it, though?"

"Look who's talking!" I shouted at him.

"I called!! You're the one who never picked up!! And after a year, I just gave up, hoping one day you might remember little old Reiwang and return a single one of my calls, but NOTHING!!" he yelled back.

We were almost at the main street, still not near too many people, but the ones close to us were looking at us weirdly.

"I needed time! Independence doesn't just happen!"

"You say you need independence? What you've got is so not independence! It's blatant isolation!"

"What?! Of course not? Dad visited me just yesterday! I didn't push him out the door and say 'Go away'!"

"So HE has to come visit YOU when he misses you?! Where's your respect?"

"I have plenty of it, thank you very much! I was going to visit him soon!"

"Why? Because you were going to have to do something in Seoul and needed free boarding with room service?"

That one went through me like a bullet. "I'm not an advantageous bimbo. You should know about those enough to separate me from your past girlfriends." I started to walk away faster, face flushed with anger.

He followed me briskly. I was expecting him to be all harsh words and cold yelling. But he instead grabbed my arm and pulled me into a hug. "I'm sorry for yelling at you." he whispered. I kept my face stone hard.

"It's okay. You were right." I said, briefly.

"I'm sorry. I just got dumped. Again. And I took it out on you. I'm sorry. Forgive me."

"It's fine. Just let go." I realized something. All my life I thought I was this tough girl because I grew up with brothers, but those walls came down whenever I wasn't near them, then built themselves back up when I was. Why? Did I feel the need to prove something to them? What was it? That I could handle myself? I didn't know.

So we reached the market, our speech returning to normal. He told me more about where he was: living in Japan with his last girlfriend.

We reached there and I asked him, "You wanna go to the males secti