It begins when they step onto the train of fate.

A man who's in his early twenties finds an abandoned table seat, his papers that were due that morning are splattered on the table, big, bold, red letters haunts his mind spelling the word late. He sits there with an exasperated sigh, the words that the man had uttered lingers in his thoughts.

“You won’t get far if you’re like this, Shim!”

He’s about to complain his thoughts out loud until a voice rings out.

“May I sit here?”

Female, a chime-like voice asks. The business man looks up at young lady. She’s wearing a white tee, a worn baseball jacket; ripped jeans and a pair of wore down sneakers. Her long dark hair is disheveled, and he notices the cuts and bruises on her left hand. Surely this girl wasn’t running away from something, was she?

“Aren’t you too young to be traveling?” he asks, deliberately not answering her question.

The girl’s eyes flash an emotion, an emotion he knows fairly well, a hint of disappointment and a dab of desolation, the feeling that most failures recognize. He then nods his head at the seat across from him, gesturing her to sit down. She’s quite beautiful up close, her eyes are as wide as a deer, and that smile she keeps on her face is interesting, if only she was a bit older, or if he was a bit younger, things could work.

“I’m Shim Changmin,” he greets in a dismal manner.

“I’m Yoona, twenty,” she says with an easy-going smile, as if to say: I’m not that young, and yes I would love a drink.  He smiles at the carefree statement, perhaps they could be acquaintances after all.

There’s a piercing silence after the introductions, one isn’t sure what to say next and the other one slightly afraid of the authorities on surveillance. They are after all strangers, what more would you expect? “Changmin-ssi, what’s your career?” Yoona asks, careful with her words so she doesn’t trigger any trouble from the beginning. With his suit and briefcase, he must be an important man.

“I’m a lawyer,” he states proudly, but his prides crashes as he remembers the words that played in the back of his mind. Like a broken record, the sentence reruns again. He sighs, his spirit crumbling. Yoona blinks, his sudden actions confuse her. “I bet you’re a lawyer who hasn’t reached his full potential,” she says with a convincing smile. “Just keep your head up, life will get better, Changmin-ssi,” she adds. He stares at her, how can she be so sure of herself?

“And you know this how?” The girl shrugs, pulls out a piece of bread from her bag and shares a slice with the stranger. “I’m running away from the authorities,” she says nonchalantly. The man chuckles at this little odd coincidence and takes a bite out of the bread.

A fugitive of the law and a man who practices the law, how peculiar is this web of life? And as the train continues on its track, they continue to converse as though they were good friends. As the train comes to a sudden halt, the girl stands reluctantly, not sure if she should follow the crowd or not.

“Where are you going?” she asks, turning to him with a scared expression evident on her face.

“Soul,” he answers, raising an eyebrow. “Do you think I could tag along with you?” she asks, looking around like  a deer-in-the headlights. The man ruffles her hair as though he knows her well. “I don’t see why not,” he says with a shy smile. The young lady claps her hands together and expresses her delight by bouncing up and down.

“Thank you Changmin-ssi!” she exclaims.

~~~

They quietly sit in the seats as they watch the rush of people leave the train and a few number of people find places to sit. A familiar couple enters the train, a young teen wearing a sweater vest, a pair of glasses and a smirk, as he enters the train with a girl in a sundress, smiling brightly at the world around her. Yoona stares at them as if they’re rare specimen and nudges Changmin to look. The male looks at the couple and waves smugly at the other man. He waves back with a slight smile.

“I’m Yoona,” the girl says to the glasses wearing boy. The boy looks up and motions her to sit down. “I’m Changmin, his younger self, that is,” he says with a smile on his face, waiting for the girl to look at him with surprise, but she sits there with an easy going look, as if expecting the man to be him “And you’re here because…?” There’s an awkward silence in the air, deciding whether or not he should tell her the secret.

“I’m a bit like the ghost of Christmas Past, except I’m Changmin’s past and all knowing of the future,” he says, a sigh coming from his lips. Yoona blinks in bewilderment; he chuckles at her dazed look, knowing she would act like that. “You see, he’s been physically abused by his mother and verbally abused by his father,” he starts, his eyes darting towards the somber young man. The look on the older male’s face is regretful, as though a man took his dream and threw it in the garbage. “He seems to have given up on his actual goal,” he continues, his eyes staring at the man, a bit distant than before.

“Which is?” she asks.

“To be a big brother,” he says, looking back at the young girl. “And to be honest, you might not know how big your impact will be on him, until the near future,” he says ruffling her hair with a genuine smile. The male gets up from his seat, grabs his bags and leaves the Train at its stop at Hope Dae.

During the midst of that, a young girl shouts in the train, running from side to side, as if playing a game of tag by herself. She stops in front of the table with big, red, bold, paper. She stares at it for awhile before tugging at the man’s side. Changmin looks down to see an energetic little girl staring at his ‘late’ paper.

“Sir, what does it say?” she asks with complete innocence, her wide deer orbs stare blankly at the word.

“Late,” he says, sighing once again at his failure. He looks back up and rubs his temples in disappointment. She tugs at his shirt again, surprised at his dismal response. “The White Rabbit is late all the time, but he always gets there. How come you didn’t keep on going?” she asks.

“Where’s your parents?” he asks, dodging the question. “They’re dead,” she whispers, her eyes widening. “They put me in an orphanage. They didn’t like me…” she starts tearing up. The male sighs, picks up the girl, letting her sit on his lap. “There’s someone who loves you. You’re like Spiderman, he had a family, but their loss made him stronger,” Changmin says, soothing her.

The girl’s eyes brighten up as she hears the phrase. “Does that mean I have superpowers?” she asks, trying to mimic his slightly pitchy tone. Changmin laughs at her silly attempts and nods, there’s something about this girl that makes him feel comforted. “Sure it does kid, sure it does,” he reassures.

“I’m not just any kid, I’m Im Yoona!” she exclaims with a prideful grin, posing as though she’s as great as Superman, but that pose soon vanishes when she barely miss her stop, in alarm she rushes out, shouting Choikang Changmin to wait. The man chuckles, smiling at the carefree girl running past everyone with a taunting smile that shouts ‘come at me bro.’ He smiles at the girl, he wishes he was that kind of kid when he was younger, maybe he wouldn’t be as let down as he thought he would be.

Though that smile isn’t plaster on his face for long, the older Yoona is frantically grabbing her bag as though she saw a ghost. Her trembling fingers pick up fallen thing, and she bows in a rush, running off the train.

“Yoona, where are you going?” the male asks, taking a hold of her wrist.

“They’re here, I have to go!” she says quickly. Changmin blinks, she nudges toward the uniformed men, she regretfully lets go of his hand. “It was nice meeting you,” she says quickly again, her eyes darting back and forth at the villains coming closer to her.

“You’re not going alone,” he states. The girl looks at him, confused again. He grabs his briefcase, puts his jacket on and hides her under his jacket. “Changmin-ssi, you can’t be serious,” she whispers. Changmin snorts, this child doesn’t believe in Changmin the lawyer? “Oh hush, Miss Im,” he replies.

In an instant they’re off the train and about to exit the station when a warning appears.

‘If thee would like to leave, you will lose something precious to thee.’

“It’s a bunch of bull,” he mutters. She stays back and stares at the warning. When Changmin reaches the exit, there’s no one behind him. “You coming?” he asks. Yoona makes an ‘mmm’ sound, catching up to the towering male.  

And the moment she leaves, it goes black; the faint buzzing noise that echoes in the air is in a vacuum. Yoona feels around for something, anyone, when she loses her sight, it feels as though as she loses someone close to her, a valued human in a way. However, that stray emotion vanishes as a person’s warm hand holds her wrist delicately and sweetly.

“Changmin-ssi, I can’t see…” she says out loud, but she can’t hear the sound of her own voice, and can’t she remember what it sounds like. “Nor can I hear…” It’s dark; it was as though she entered a world where you’d dream, but a place where it’s not a dream. She grips onto the man’s hand harder, afraid that she might be alone once again. He taps her hand three times.

‘I know.’

The words enter her mind as he taps her hand in a pattern; it was similar to a Morse code, full of short tweets and long hisses. Changmin taps the girl’s palm four times which then enter her mind as though they were words.

‘I can’t talk.’

Short, long, short, short.

‘But I will guide you.’

She smiles at his gesture, she doesn’t know where he is, or if he’s ahead of her, but she does know this, he’s leading her on a long trail and she’ll have to (in the first time in her life) trust someone. The man tightens his grip as well and for a moment, just for a few seconds, her empty, black mind bursts into vibrant strips of colors, though it is only for a moment. And in the murky color reappears, the color black represents preparing for the unknown, it’s a bit haunting to know though, but to put her mind to ease she hums a little song and Changmin smiles.

‘You should hum more often.’

The girl stops, it’s as though she doesn’t want to please the man, or make the atmosphere seem less hazardous. A dull silence hints something, possibly something good or evil, but the silence crescendos into a dangerous roar. Changmin looks back to see the hisses of a train, the screams of the wheels against the rails, the empty vibration from the rails come back to life, Yoona silently screams, running off in panic.

It’s almost like prey being chased by a killer, she’s prey that’s running away from the big bad wolf, but like the prey, she has nowhere to go. In the end the bad wolf always gets the little weakling, unless that prey has a protective alpha male to keep her out of danger. Changmin being her alpha male grabs her by the wrist and flings her back to him. He taps her wrist again.

‘Don’t scare me like that.’

“Why didn’t you save yourself?”

‘Acquaintance or not, you’re my dongsaeng.’

A wave of warmness washes over her. Perhaps, it’s because he thought of her as a dongsaeng, or perhaps it’s because she could finally trust someone, but she knows that this fuzzy feeling will be staying there for awhile. With an episode like that, she knows (and he certainly believes) that they had gotten closer. A certain emotion of happiness lingers in the air as they make their way to the nearest train station.

They enter the train with a smile on their faces.

A ticket collector gazes at the two with a soft look, as though looking at them with pride or something of that sort. “You two walk here?” he asks, implying that they got off at the station before and took a trek for this train. Changmin gazes at Yoona, they have a moment, but it turns into awkward grin, sharing something only their eyes would tell.

“Yes, yes we did,” Changmin says. The ticket collector smiles, it’s not an entity they’d understand, nor do they mind that they may never understand the meaning behind that grin. The ticket collector punches a word into their ticket. Changmin has perseverance punched onto it and Yoona has trust, he then walks away as though nothing had happened. Changmin shrugs and Yoona stares at the man, before running off to find some window seat. A smile appears on his face once again, he doesn’t understand why he smiles so much around this girl, but all he knows there’s something he finds special in her, and he rather not let it disappear. Changmin sits next to her, his papers that were there days ago seemed to have completely vanished.

“We should go out to eat one day!” Yoona exclaims. Clapping her hands together, an excited grin is evident on her face. He wholeheartedly agrees to the proposition, because food will always be on his mind and well, it’s been awhile since he’s been out for something casual as this. “Do you like ice cream?” she asks, curious.

“Anything that’ll fill my stomach is fine with me,” he replies humorously. “So, ice cream it is!” she says enthusiastically. Changmin nods his head, but the smile ceases to exist as they approach the wretched tunnel.

“I swear you deserve nothing!”

The memory replays in his mind and on the side of the tunnel. His father, stoic in stature, screams at the young boy sitting there dumbfounded or terrified of the towering man glaring at him.

“Why did I have a kid like you?”

The harsh words that his father spilled stung his heart, but as a man, he wouldn’t let his tears run down his cheeks. Yoona looks at him with a mask of hidden emotions. He stares back with disgust; he wouldn’t be viewed as a pitiful man.

“You’ll never be a good lawyer!” another voice cries out. Changmin stares at the scene that’s unfolding in front of him. The old man throws papers across the floor in spite. “Who do you think you are? A hero because you did something better than your father? Do you really think you’ll make it?” he shouts. His fists bang against the wooden table and Changmin stands there indifferent to it all, but says, “A man who doesn’t know a man personally, shouldn’t utter a word if he doesn’t know the man as well as himself.”

The older male flares with anger and with a mighty lion roar shouts, “Get out of my sight.” Changmin smirks, holding his head high; he leaves the room with a defeated look. A man could only win so many battles and lose so many as well.

As the Train zooms out of the tunnel, Changmin drops his head in shame; he truly is a shameful man. He couldn’t fight against a person trying to discourage him from his dreams, well; he was a truly pitiful person.

“I think you’re a superhero…” Yoona voices in the awkward silence. Changmin grumbles incoherent words, knowing he was being childish for acting like this, but doing it anyways. “A man who knows when to leave, he sounds like a hero to me,” she continues. There’s a respected tone in her voice, but he ignores it, if he’s a hero, why didn’t he feel like one? He continues to stare at the bottom of the train, and it appears the papers fell to the ground, but still there.

“A man who underestimates himself…”

He grumbles.

“…And is mature enough to leave…”

He looks up from the ground.

“…Is a man who’d I like to have as a brother.”

There’s a little click sound in the background, but other than that it’s as hushed as it was moments ago. Just when he’s going to thank the girl, he’s interrupted by the loud ringing sound of the train stop. She smiles at him and picks up her bags.

“Thank you for letting me tag along with you. Thank you for teaching me. Thank you for a lot of things, Changmin-ssi, but I think this is where our journey ends.”

Yoona heads out of the train with a regretful smile; she leaves the man who she thought of as an elder brother and continues that adventure involving loneliness and depression. Perhaps, she should have stayed in the train with him; perhaps she should have gone with him all the way to Soul. She shakes her head at the thought of it, no; she had to go through this by herself.

“Hey!”

Yoona turns around to see the familiar face of Shim Changmin.

“Thanks.”

She shrugs her shoulders, not sure what to answer to a word like that, mostly because she’s never been thanked before. It’s an odd feeling of sincerity and kindness; it’s a feeling she’d like to have more in the future. She turns around again, ready to get going, but he decides to utter another thing.

“Let’s go together.”

Yoona smiles softly, but shakes her head. “If our paths meet again, perhaps I won’t let you go home alone.” The moment she says it, she knows that she doesn’t truly mean it. No matter how much she denies the fact he isn’t that important to her, he’ll always be that guy she looks up to. He’s like the superhero she always wanted to be, as corny as it seems, in such a short amount of time, he’s someone who’s close to her, and she doesn’t want to abandon him.

Changmin chuckles at the girl, for someone who he thought was just a childish little girl, she became someone he wants to look after. A little sister, he remembers now. He remembers the dream he had back when he was a little kid. He wanted to be that big brother to someone and when he gazes at her, it’s almost as if they’re family. “Who said I was going home alone?” he asked with a curious little grin. Yoona smiles, and once again they share a moment. The firework of warmness flies into the sky and they both enjoy it, he slings his arm around Yoona and with a smile he says:

“Let’s finish this journey, shall we?”

~~~

Changmin opens the door to see the familiar face of someone close to him in his dreams. He grins as the girl takes out his wrist, pulls out her index and pointer finger, taps on his wrist, and words flow out of those taps. Words that he’d never expect to hear.

‘Hey big brother, how’s the superhero life?’

The man laughs at the choding’s attempt to say how he is, but then again it is the girl who he’s dealing with, and she being the person who she is, decides to be an oddball like that. He ruffles her hair, invites her in and taps against his chest.

‘As hard as it gets, Yoona.’

Yoona smiles, grabs a basketball lying around and taps the ball against the floor to answer the last part of this conversation.

‘You’ll always have me if you need someone to help you with the journey.’

He laughs, takes the ball from her, and grabs her wrist and head out of the house. There’s a bag on his back, food in her bags and another start for new odyssey.

The new journey involving train rides, the unfamiliar lands, getting over the hard things, and most of all:

The story of a brother and a sister.