“I am who I am today because of so many people. In Girls’ Generation, we take turns doing thank you speeches whenever we win awards, and, the one time it was my turn, I tried to thank every single person who has helped me one way or another. However, I missed out the most important person. The thing is, I never even knew about the things he did for me until two weeks ago. This person is my oppa.”

“Ah. MinGu-ssi*.”

“No, not MinGu oppa. He’s my other brother.”

“Wait, Hyoyeon, you only have one oppa!”

“Are you finally exposing your love life?”

“No, I lied. I have two brothers. I just… haven’t talked to one in ages. You see, I used to be very close to both brothers. It certainly was unusual for siblings our age to be as close as we were; we ate together, sat together, we did everything together. We’d depended on one another since we were orphaned.”

“Then why did you drift apart from that brother?”

“That’s my story. I was supposed to debut as a child singer when I was eight, under JYP. You might recall that they released an album quite a few years ago featuring many children. I was part of that project. The contracts were signed and everything was good to go. I had even been given the songs I was supposed to sing and honestly, they were pretty good. I loved them so much.

But one day, I found out that my mom – who used to be a ballerina before she passed on – had an unfulfilled dream: to dance in Seoul National Theatre, you know, that really grand one? Right in the middle of Seoul’s art district? Yeah. Since I’d lost my parents at such a young age, I desperately needed to feel connected to my mom and so I decided to postpone my singing career for one of ballet. I wanted to make that dream of hers come true.

Of course, many people were against the idea. MinGu oppa was easily persuaded though; he had been really close to my mom before she passed away and a part of him wanted to fulfill her lifelong dream too. I soon won the school over; being the obstinate child I was, I refused to part my lips to let a single note out and there was nothing anyone could do about it. I was too young to understand how contracts worked and the consequences of breaching one. I just knew that I had to do ballet; that it was my calling and singing can wait.

My second brother was harder to persuade. He saw how hard I worked at singing and how much I’d enjoyed it. He wasn’t going to let me crush my own dreams without a fight. And boy, did we fight. It was the first time we ever did. We didn’t sit or eat with each other anymore. This war lasted for 6 days – which was a long time for children our age then.”

“How did you make up?”

“We didn’t. Six days after we started ignoring each other, we had to attend a music event together with a few of our schoolmates. Since only seven students were invited, we were all driven up to the venue in a vacation van. I was chatting with my friends, and oppa with his, when all of a sudden, the vehicle started spinning round and round. There weren’t strict seat belt rules back then and so one of my friends and I were flung out of the car by the great impact when it hit the curb.

I vaguely remember lying on the sidewalk before everything faded away.

When I regained consciousness about a week later, I found that I could barely stand, let alone walk. Being strong and hard-headed, I worked extremely hard at therapy and, approximately a year and a half later, I started dancing again. I went on to many productions and a few large scale ones, before finally taking part in the ballet of my mom’s dreams three years ago.

Through all this, I never had a heart-to-heart talk with my second brother. While we didn’t completely banish each other from our own lives, things were pretty awkward and, other than the usual hi-bye conversations and presents at birthdays and Christmas, we seldom conversed.

I’d felt pretty bad about it, but I guess my ego and fear of being rejected by him won my guilt over and I never tried to do anything to salvage the situation. Well, at least not until a month ago, when MinGu oppa told me about what happened in the hospital the day after I was admitted.”

Hyoyeon paused to catch a breath, wiping away the tears trickling down her face.

“I sustained many injuries due to the accident, the most severe being a blood clot in my left leg –which was my dominant leg – so large it prevented tons of blood from flowing back up as it should in a normal cycle, causing my leg to swell up. The doctor informed my siblings that an amputation was absolutely necessary so that my blood will be circulated regularly again.

While this seemed like the most sensible thing to do, my brother was vehemently against it. There were rumors back then that disabled dancers were not welcomed in Seoul National Theatre. We know this isn’t true now, but discrimination against disabled persons was widespread then. Should I get my leg amputated, my dreams of performing in any ballet there were done for.

Many people urged oppa to reconsider and to stop being stubborn. I may not be able to dance, but I’ll still be alive, and I’ll be able to sing, which was what he wanted for me anyway, in the first place. But when my mild-mannered brother exploded and threw an earthquake of a tantrum, the doctor proposed another method to save me – one with a relatively low success rate and at the expense of most of my leg muscle.

Thankfully, the surgery went pretty well and there were minimal complications. The muscle deterioration wasn’t as bad as the doctors had expected and I was fortunate enough to be able to get a renowned physiotherapist who did a great job of getting me back on my feet, literally.

By the time MinGu oppa finished telling the story, I was in tears. I can’t believe I alienated him from me even when he was the only one who stood by my dreams and truly respected my wishes. He knew the consequences, but was the only one who believed that I would be strong enough to pull through. I cried for hours and couldn’t concentrate on my tasks. I wrote angry music which reflected my confused feelings.”

“You felt bad.”

Hyoyeon ran a tissue over her mascara-stained face. “Yes I did. I’ve seen him around a few times since, and even though I looked at him with renewed respect, I didn’t talk to him. I didn’t know how.”

“Well, okay, why don’t you send him a video messa- ” Kang Hodong stopped talking when the guest stood up and headed towards backstage.

But no, she wasn’t getting off stage. She stopped a few seats away from where she was seated originally, and fell to her knees. “Oppa, thank you.”

Heechul helped her up and hugged her tightly, tears streaming down his face.

*MinGu is the name of Hyoyeon’s real brother(:

Author’s note: Hey guys! Firstly, I'm sorry if this wasn't as dramatic as you've espected (I've never been good at that kind of stuff).

Anyway, I’ve always thought that Hyoyeon and Heechul had something special going on between them. There hasn’t been much romance in their relationship (at least not on screen) but it felt a lot like sibling love to me. And I just rewatched the episode where Hyoyeon invited Heenim as a friend onto Invincible Youth and it was amazing how close they are.

I’m planning to do a short continuation of this story (perhaps another one-shot) mostly from Heechul’s point of view, what do you guys think? Should I, or should I just leave this as it is instead? Do comment below! Anyway, thanks for reading this!