My brother, Kris taught me my first word: kira-kira. Kira-kira means “ glittering” in Japanese. Kris told me that when I was a baby, he used to take me onto our empty road at night, where we would lie on our backs and look at the stars while he said over and over, “Tao, say ‘kira-kira, kira-kira.’” I loved that word! When I grew older, I used kira-kira to describe everything that I liked: the beautiful sky, butterflies, clothes, foods and even colours. Kris knows that word because he reads a lot. I don’t understand why he likes that word so much.  

My brother is my inspiration. He is smart, he is a “fashionista” and he knows everything that I don’t know. We are Chinese but we lived in Korea. In fact, we were born in Korea. My parents meet when they were studying here. They were the student of Korea University. My brother told me everything that I don’t know and even the things that I don’t want to know. I just listen to what he told me because I like to hear what he wants to say. Kris always told me that he wants to study hard and he wants to be like our parents. He wants to study at Korea University and he said I should study there too. It could be our tradition in our family. To me, I don’t have to study hard because all I need is Kris. He can tell me everything that I need to know but I didn’t tell him that because I don’t want to upset him. Furthermore, why should he study hard. He is intelligent after all.

Our parents are always busy. We rarely see them. My mother is a pharmacist and my father runs a business. They hardly take a holiday but that doesn’t matter to me. As long as there is Kris, I won’t feel the emptiness. Since I went back earlier than Kris, I always waited for Kris to came back from school. I always feel exited when I saw Kris walking towards our house. Every time I saw him, I will opened the window and waved at him. Then, I will went to the door and opened the door before he has the time to ring the bell. I will take his blazer and follow him walk to the kitchen to drink water then sit at the sofa. I look at him until he starts to speak. “Tao how’s your day today?.” Mine was great. I learn about sea creatures. The sea was kira-kira and the fish too.” Kris loves sea creatures so much. He once told me that he wants to buy a house near the sea and everyday he could see the sea. “And I got all A’s for my test.” He said. I’m not surprised by that because Kris is very intelligent. He likes to read books and he will tell me whatever that he has read. He thinks it is very important for me to know what he knows. He doesn’t want me to feel left out. “My day was just okay. Today school finished early. I have nothing much to do.” I said.

Our parents always give us pocket money so that we can spend it for our treats. After Kris went back from school, he will take his shower and after that we will go and play in the evening. He always brings me to play with his friends. I know that his friend doesn’t like me because of our but Kris made them play with me. Kris will never leave me alone. He always doesn’t care what his friends said about him. Some of his friends told him that it’s not cool at all to bring me. He told his friends that if you want to play with me you have to play with my brother too. Usually we play basketball because that is his favourite sports. He has the advantage because he is tall.  Basketball has become my favourite sports too. Before we went back we will go to the nearby shop. It took us hours to choose our treats. Sometimes we will buy donuts, sometimes it will be a cotton candy and sometimes if it is too hot we will buy popsicles.  It was fun because we are enjoying that moment. Today we bought donuts because we feel like eating donuts.