I was running through the darkness, fully aware if I ever slowed down those unseen people would get a grip of me. The dark tunnel had no end but I kept running, totally ignoring the fact that I was running in a complete blindness. My lungs hurt; my heart pounded so hard to my bones but none of them stopped me from running away. For a moment, I realized how scared I was in here. As I ran, I silently wished someone could be with me here, taking me out of the darkness and out of those faceless people’s sight. 

“Hyosung.”

The deep voice of my brother pulled me from the tiring dream I had. His continuous “wake up” chants prevented me from going back into the embrace of dreams. It seemed like he was waiting for me to open my eyes as he kept chanting the same thing over and over again. As I fluttered my eyes opened, I heard him listing the things I would have to do for today.

“Shut up, oppa,” I mumbled sleepily.

I heard him groaning on my words. He approached my bed, saying things I could not hear properly. The next second I knew, he had pinched my cheeks. Screaming in pain, I pushed him away as I tried my best to be fully awake.

When I did, I glared at him. My skin was burning from his pinch and yet he still looked at me as if nothing happened.

“It hurts,” I growled.

“Your words were really impolite,” He calmly answered back.

I hissed on him. Looking over his attitude, I believed that he was not in his best mood this morning. There were times when no matter how playful I was, he seemed not to be moved. Maybe that was just the ‘serious’ character he had never succeeded to get rid of. With our nine years difference, I sometimes asked myself if I could actually know him better like how people boasting about their siblings.

 “Yah! This is the first day of summer holiday and you’re already so lazy!” He yelled.

I groaned, totally not interested in going out of my bed. He didn’t seem to care on what I wanted as he practically pulled me out of the bed.

“Oppaaaaa,” I whined as he had half of my body in mid air with my legs were still on the bed.

“Oppa! It hurts! Seriously,” I whined once again.

He stood beside my bed with an eyebrow raised; my arms were in his grip. We looked at each other’s eyes and even with the silence between us; I understood what he was going to say. Time passed and we stayed still, each one of us was eaten by our stubbornness. It had got clearer that we both just didn’t want to lose to each other when we were in a fight.

“Is this how you’re going to behave when your oppa is back?” He sighed; finally chose to let me win.

I pouted as I silently slapped myself on the face. How could I forget that he just got back from Japan today? Summer holiday had always been his cue to get back from Japan, no matter how busy he was with his producer career and college. It was an agreement he made with my mom – although mainly I was the one who made him agreeing to it. Bless my spoiled act on him.

“Okay, fine! I will get up. Release me,” I mumbled.

I glanced toward him and caught him looking back at me with a wide grin. He carefully helped me to stand up, careful not to stand up on the wrong leg and make my ankles strained.

Once I had stood up perfectly, although my eyes were still refusing to open up fully, Yongguk pushed me and created a distance for us. His eyes scanned me from head to toe.

“You look tiny. Have your diet gone well?” He teased.

I whined upon his tease. His eyes were looking at me with amused look. Truth was; I had tortured myself by skipping some lunches and dinners. I even avoided breakfast recently. This was not something good, of course. I had caught a lot of stomached.

Yongguk surprised me when he ruffled my hair and headed out of my room.

“Be prepared for picnic! Dad is coming home!” He yelled once he was outside.

“Okay!!” I yelled back, hoping that my voice would be heard.

Lazily, I took my towel which was on the head of my bed. I was not a morning person, this had happened for a few months already. Because of the school works, I was practically awake even when it was two after midnight.

Sometimes, when everything was just so tiresome for me, I would call Yongguk on one of those sleepless nights and then he would tell me to go to sleep. If I refused then he was going to give me some weird explanation of our power. Mostly, it was about his power. Those stuffs always got me bored which led me to sleep faster as he kept blabbering on it.

However, some of his explanations were worth the boredom. Like, I knew how he could go to the future and how he could know someone’s past or future. Meanwhile, I was only able to know someone’s future. In a lot of ways, I lost to him. He owned almost everything. He could see his own guardians and I could not. His power could be used to survive in this world but I was only able to help people and not myself. He could do everything but the only thing I was good at reading someone’s personality and their future. Of course I could see “ghosts” too. But my ability was only able to be used when I turned my power on. It sounded funny but that was the truth. My brother was much stronger because he didn’t have the same nonsense with me.

He didn’t have the limitations like I did. By those reasons, I always envied him. I had planned on begging him to teach those skills I didn’t have but it would need to wait as I knew how he would say no and tell me to wait until I got older.

“Yah! Jun Hyosung! Get ready quickly!” Yongguk’s voice went through the bathroom closed door. I winced.

“Don’t be so bossy!” I yelled back and quickly brushed my teeth before stepping into the shower stall.

***

“Did something interesting happen at work and college?” Mom asked Yongguk without even looking at him. Her fingers caressed dad’s backhand. 

We slid through the small street smoothly. Today’s destination was going to be beach. Mom had been obsessing about going to a beach for a family trip. She had talked about this day for two months to me. Since dad was always on business trips these days– which made him only available at home on the weekends—and Yongguk had chosen Japan as his new place, I was left alone with mom.

“Well, I have composed some songs and someone found a song is interesting. He bought the song. He is a member of a band, if I’m not wrong. The song is going to be released next month. I have received their agency calls ever since, asking me to join them as their company’s composer. At least I have something I can think of lately.”

His eyes darted to me as he talked and when I looked back at him, he smirked on me as if mocking me. Offended, I slapped his arm. The slap sound was really loud—which actually surprised me a little. Yongguk winced upon my slap while my mom was turning her head to us. Dad glanced on us through the rear mirror.

“Hyosung, behave,” He said. His thin eyebrows were frowning as he looked at me.

Mom mouthed “what are you doing?!” once dad focused on the street. I shrugged and shrunk on my seat. Yongguk said nothing as he kept rubbing his arm.

“Serve you right,” I mumbled.

He raised an eyebrow.

“Hyosung, behave,” He imitated dad’s words.

***

I had always loved beaches and water. Although sometimes I got irritated if I got wet, I still loved the scenery. Instead of mountains and higher places, I loved to stay near the beach. Yongguk scoffed next to me as the dry hot air blew inside. The air conditioner had been turned off and now we all opened the windows. Yongguk hated summer. He always loved winter and fall which made him to prefer mountain and higher places on summer.

I ignored Yongguk’s dirty look on me when I kicked his leg regarding his scoffs earlier— had I stated that I got extra moody when I was with Yongguk? The scenery outside was gorgeous and it was unfair for him to scoff on it. The beach was on my left side which made me able to smell and slightly felt the saltiness of the sea.

I had to admit that mom’s choice had entertained me. With nice weather like now, the sea was very quiet and even the waves moved lazily. This pleasant feeling made me drunk.

Reaching for my phone, I quickly snapped some pictures. I had a feeling that I would want to always remember this scene inside my head in the future.

“Are you done? You should sit back and relax a little,” Yongguk suddenly talked from my right.

I frowned on him. He had been quiet annoying today, although I knew well it was his signature. If Bang Yongguk was not annoying then something must be wrong with him. This was true and not only a theory as I had experienced it through one painful and restless night for both of us.

“You will need your energy later, Hyosung. Why don’t you sleep?” Dad suddenly said.

I rested my back on the seat and looked at Dad’s back head. Wonder why he suddenly talked to me like that. Then I sensed Yongguk’s presence and the realization came up. Dad probably hated looking at me and Yongguk made a scene on the back of the seat. 

Deciding that Dad’s advice was rather right, I chose to sleep and ignore Yongguk’s desperate pleading look to me. I smirked as I closed my eyes. To imagine Yongguk and my Dad were the only two awake in the car somehow pleased me. Yongguk and Dad had always been good in work department only—after all Yongguk was really diligent and able to do difficult tasks like writing and accounting. They both a big time in the father and son department.

I drifted to sleep as I once again felt Yongguk kicked my leg harder than before, a desperate plea for me to keep awake.

***

The time we arrived at the hotel, sun was right on the top of our heads. If we were not in the car, I bet I would become dust. As I stirred up from the short sleep, I took a glance on my surroundings and in instance; I knew that I would love to stay indoor instead of going outside. The hotel seemed to be a great place to stay in summer—the air conditioners worked like crazy inside, I could see that from the way the receptionists’ pleased face and I could already picture myself enjoying the breeze.

I didn’t realize it but mom had been awake meanwhile Yongguk had been unconscious beside me. His head was supported by the window. He slept with a slight opened mouth and I knew that drool would soon come out. For a moment, I had to admit that he indeed looked handsome. After all, I was a girl and with that kind of face he got from father, it would not be hard for him to date some girls.

“You’re awake?” Dad asked; his eyes were on me as he glanced on the rear mirror.

“Yes,” I answered. My voice was hoarse and hurting my throat as I talked.

Dad seemed to unable find a small space to park as the parking lot was crowded with vehicle—everyone loved to spend sometimes outside their house, it seemed. It took more than ten minutes for him to find one. I had no idea how he could squeeze our car into a small space between two bigger vehicles on our left and right.

“Will we be able to open the door?” My mom asked quietly, observing the space of the door and the car on her side.

I frowned to the question. She was right.

“Just open it a little. With our size, we can easily slide out,” Dad replied lightly.

He proved it by himself as he opened the door a little and slid off easily. Mom quickly followed and I – didn’t want to be left – hurriedly open the door. Just then, as we opened the baggage door, we realized that Yongguk had not awakened at all.

Mom gave a not so agreeing look at Yongguk’s back head and I had to stop her from nagging more by going on his side door and opening the door a little. From the little space I had, I nudged him slightly as I called his name. I knew if I make it like he was a deep sleeper, mom would not stop nagging on both of us for ruining her dream vacation. After all, we decided to get here is all thanks to mom and her wild imagination of beach picnic—tanning with her children and husband for a few days.

 However, Yongguk stubbornly gaped his mouth wider and ignored my calls. Annoyed by the reaction he gave; my fingers found their own way to his nose and pinched it. My other hand closed his mouth. By that way, he would not be able to breathe and wake up faster.

I was right. Yongguk woke up as he slapped my hands away from his face. His eyes roamed the car in surprise and when he realized that everyone had gotten off from the car which left me attempted to kill him, he gave me one of that dangerous look that said you-will-pay-for-that-painfully.

Shrugging on the idea, I approached my parents and took out my big black bag. Mom called for me with impatient face and we walk first to the hotel’s lobby – crossing the hot park field. Behind us, once again Yongguk had to face Dad alone. What a bad luck he had today.

The thing with Yongguk and Dad was Dad had never given his full permission for Yongguk to do what he was doing right now for his life. Dad believed, Yongguk could do something better without going under the risky life choice. He didn’t get that Yongguk was a man with freedom above everything. He did what he wanted to. Even I sometimes questioned myself on how I could be so different with him in determination and ambition.

What Yongguk always had in his mind is how to be successful in order to please our parents and achieve his goals—I would never understand them just because he was that extraordinary. It sounded ordinary but his determination of it was scary—at least for the twelfth year old me, it was. He never failed to mention this mindset to me in hope to make it the same priority in my life. Although by now, I could tell that he had chosen to bother a rock like me and that I had a completely different path with him.

Mom and I were half running into the lobby as soon we were on the front door.  The breeze of cold air was heaven. The hotel lobby was filled with four different sets of coaches; each set was placed near the windows with a small vase on the table. The receptionists’ desk was a marble wall like, with an adult’s chest tall. On the wall above their heads, there were four clocks for four different countries—U.S.A, Japan, China, and South Korea. The room was completed with three standing air conditioner.  

Mom chose the coaches which were near to the receptionists’ desk and one of the air conditioner. Dad spotted both of us on one of the coach, laying like we were heaven, and shook his head in disbelief. Yongguk parted with him as he approached us and Dad went straight to the receptionist.

I tapped mom’s arm and pointed to Dad’s direction.

“Mom, he’s going to be mad if you keep doing this,” I whispered.

Mom groaned as response and stood up. Yongguk took her seat once she left to help Dad. We both sat in silence as I sunk into thoughts of what I could do to spend this day. Although so, I couldn’t bear to glance on Yongguk who sat with his legs crossed and played with his phone. His eyes were serious and never left the screen even if it was for a second.

The vacation would be boring, I was sure. I meant, looking the way the two of us behaved. We didn’t even talk of anything.

I was sure our parent had their own plan. I was left alone. Bothered by the thought, I huffed and take out my phone once again.

“Hey, what are you guys doing?” I quickly typed the text for Hana and Sunhwa.

Hana and Sunhwa were my close friends this far. They had different personalities which sometimes clashed to each other’s. But to think that they endured everything and became friends with me who had temper and confidence issue, wasn’t it great? However, if you thought that I was the quiet one, you should try to think more about it. Hana was quieter and more sensitive than me. She was everything you could not consider just because of her bright self.

“We’re going to Bali,” Sunhwa replied with a photo of her older brothers and herself in the airport.

“I’m going to my mom’s hometown,” Hana replied shortly after Sunhwa’s. No photo attachment from her but she inserted a lot of cute emoticons—signaling a secret she didn’t want to share yet.

I groaned. They were so far away and I was sure they would spend more time outside than what I was going to. This summer was going to be so long. Who would want to be trapped in a not so fun family trip?

***

I had to stay in the same room with Yongguk. It was the first time we split our rooms. Usually, the four of us used to stay in the same room – no matter how Yongguk would groan and protest. But just earlier, my parent said that we should stay in separate rooms because we were old enough to sleep by ourselves.

I rolled my eyes on what they said earlier. The way my parent told me, that sounded like a ert saying that Yongguk and I were ready for a naughty thing. On the other side, Yongguk completely ignored what they said and took the key from my parent with sparkling eyes.

“Good thing finally happens after a while,” He mumbled.

Now that we were inside the room, I had just realized that our hotel was right across of the beach. From the glass door, I could see the beach and people sun tanning below us. We were on the tenth floor which is kind of great because of the great view. Fortunately, our room had a very small balcony which allowed us to have two long chairs and sit there. I could already picture myself enjoying the night and if I was lucky enough, I could sleep outside once.

The beautiful thoughts had to get ruined when Yongguk’s deep and upset voice echoed inside the room.

“They didn’t give us twin bed? Geez!”

“Why are you so upset? The bed is enough for us,” I told him as I slide the glass door to the balcony.

The room was medium size with a king size bed on the centre of the room, with long and small mirror above it. There was also a medium-sized dark brown wardrobe facing the bathroom’s door. The floor was covered with a pale color carpet which hid the wooden floor. Next to the bed, they had put a small sofa with the same color of the carpet with a small coffee table next to it. To complete the room, there was a small refrigerator with food inside.

I threw myself on the green covered bed and for a second enjoyed the sudden cold feeling on my back. After the hot surface of the car’s seat, I had to admit it felt heavenly.

“This is great!” I told him again as I rolled on the bed.

“This is not great when you’re here! You’re the worst company ever,” Yongguk groaned.

I scoffed at him and took out my yellow summer dress. Yongguk was surely a type that would do whatever he liked no matter what. And I had to put everything up with him for almost every day in my life, so bothersome!

Once I stepped into the bathroom, I realized what was more bothersome than Yongguk’s nags. The bathroom had a tiny space to take a shower, with see through glass wall separated the bathroom from the bedroom. If Yongguk was not a male—and not my sibling— I would be pleased to roll it up and enjoy the sensation to watch the room and balcony from the bathroom. He had succeeded on messing my holiday.

***

I had been starving and craving for foods. It had been the lunch time, yet no one from my family had any desire to go for food. Not even Yongguk, who had heard my stomach growled for the last five minutes—he couldn’t not hear it when we were on the same bed and so close, leaving no space for me to roll around. He pretended to type on his laptop, raised the volume of some hip hop songs, and rapped along with the songs when my stomach kept growling. I was left with painful groan as I curled into ball to stop the hunger.

“Yongguk, I’m starving,” I whimpered once it’s too much to bear.

“Go to mom’s room,” He shortly replied.

“I cannot walk or I do not want to. Something in between,” I told him back.

“You’re so near with water and beach, yet you’re so weak. You can’t even bear hunger,” He snapped at me with a strange look.

I stared blankly on him, not sure of what to say. When you were hungry, weren’t you supposed to be weak? Regarding to where you were, it was not something the stomach would even think of. Due to my long blank stare, Yongguk seemed to realize something as his infamous scoff came out.

“Right, you know nothing of it,” He mumbled not so silently above my head.

“Yeah, right. As if I want to care with what you said,” I fired back. “If someone is hungry, there’s no way you care with where they are or if they have enough energy. This is a humane thing.”

Yongguk chuckled upon my words and surprisingly, he pushed his laptop away. His right hand reached his wallet which was on the small coffee table. Then in a second, he walked to the front door—leaving me to watch him confusedly.

“Do you want some food or not?” He said as he slipped into a pair of new opened sandals he got from the wardrobe earlier.

“Are you going to take my order and come back, or do I have to go with you?” I asked—with the same confused level on what he was doing.

“You can go and buy your own food by your own money, if you’re not coming,” He answered sarcastically. 

Groaning on his not so sweet behavior, I quickly grabbed my cell phone and approached him on the small corridor. With almost no space between us, I somehow could understand why women became crazy when they’re with Yongguk. His fragrance smell was seductive and showed his manliness. As his back faced me, I could see how well built he was. Yongguk had mom’s face which made him to not worrying his appearance. He was almost perfect. Although so, one thing that would make women ran away from him was his smoking habit.

I once caught him smoking with his friends in a café. It didn’t end well as I shouted bad names on him after he tried to persuade me for keeping it secret between us. We didn’t talk for a week or so—which eventually led mom to become suspicious and I just spilled the secret. Yongguk had never really forgiven me for that.

Just as I was about to think more, Yongguk had pulled me out of my daydream. He pulled open the brown heavy door, signaling me to get out first. The corridor was somehow eerily empty—especially with a half- woman painting across our door. Her eyes are the most annoying part as she looked straight into us. I had a feeling that the painting itself was not ‘empty’ as what people would claim.

Yongguk ignored me and my thoughts, although I knew well how there was a huge possibility he had known what I was thinking. After all, he could read people’s mind. As we walked through the corridor to the elevator, I couldn’t stop thinking of what I could say to Yongguk.

The thing about us was, I couldn’t always stay calm and say nothing. He was my source of information. I felt like whenever I was with him, I always lost. He was just too perfect and I was a nuisance. Although it was true that I had the same ability with him – the same secret power— he could use them perfectly fine and I was messed.

Sometimes whenever I thought of it, I felt empty. Why did I even have to be born in the same family as him? If what I read was right, I should be able to choose my own family when I was still somewhere people called as “heaven”.

But why did I fail to choose mine?

Maybe this was just because I felt overshadowed by my own brother who got everything better or maybe it was because I was just too weak. The answer probably lay in between.

I had to say that whenever I was with someone who had things better than me, I always felt small.  Except for my ability, I had nothing else. Not to mention that my ability was also very thin and able to vanish whenever it wanted. Weird how people were the ones who had to choose their power but the opposed thing happened to me.

I tried to look straight to the elevator’s glass walls but nothing positive came into my head. All I could see was people being busy in their own world, ignoring each other completely. They were so close to each other yet they seemed too distant and separated themselves from each other. Something that my brother and I did right now. So close yet our souls were so far in the distance.

The elevator finally arrived on the first floor and a group of people pushed us out, just like how the sea waves pushed whatever came in front of them. I had nothing to do besides looking for Yongguk and try hard not to lose him from my sight and side. This would be a little bit hard since I no longer could notice him anywhere near me. Just then, as I was about to panic – what if I lost him, I noticed that he had casually walked to the front door – totally ignoring the fact that I was not near him. Half relieved and half upset, I ran after him. When I got nearer, I stopped running and tried to match his pace instead. It was really unpleasant to do this – especially when Yongguk ignored me and acted as if he did nothing bad on me.

However, when I couldn’t push the negative thoughts of my brother, we had walked to the busy small street near the hotel. Instead of getting smaller, the street actually got even wider when you kept walking. It was like a secret place in Harry Potter, where you could hardly notice something unusual behind a block wall.

As we went further, it was clear that people prefer this place. The realization came when my brother suddenly grabbed my arm tightly, ignoring my protest, as we went through people. I tried to free myself but it only got tighter. As I gave up on my trial, the noise around us somehow started becoming interesting. What I didn’t realize was how people were dressing nicely – some with couple and some with family – but they all went to the same direction. They all had the same enthusiast face and I could hear their excited conversations flying around me.

Each of them seemed to be free from any problems. No one seemed to be slightly depressed—like what I was doing—or ignored. They enjoyed themselves, something I could not do, and it bothered me. I glanced on Yongguk’s grip and how it made red circle mark on my arm. Questions suddenly came to me. Why did he drag me into crowd when he knew that he hates crowd the most? Where was the food? When were we going to stop walking and eat?

The last question was answered by the sudden change of direction from Yongguk – avoiding the crowd like how I had been questioning when it will happen. It took no time for us to arrive in front of a small noodle restaurant. Yongguk ordered two bowls of cold noodle and for once, he let go of me.

“You seem to love it, hurting me,” I sarcastically opened the conversation between us.

My question didn’t really trigger his emotion like what I expected to. He quietly took a seat on the corner of the shop where there was a window to look outside. He chose the seat with no chair which made us to sit down with our legs crossed. We were separated by a small table for food; it made me to look at him directly and easily—it was helpful when I wanted to have a proper conversation with him. The window showed us a small ally next to the shop’s building. Slowly, I could hear children’s yell and laughter coming from outside. Somehow, it was relaxing. Free laughter was something I could rarely do or find.

Children usually laughed their heart out, unlike adults who controlled what they do. Free laughter especially when they were happy not because of jokes. It simply happened because they wanted it to be, not because they were shown something funny. It was just there—the happy moments and the happy feeling.

Sadly, as I got absorbed by the children’s laughter, I smelt unpleasant familiar scent of Yongguk’s cigarette. He had lit up one and looking at me with an interested face. His lips puckered when the cigarette came to them. I had the urge to take the cigarette out from his lips and throw it away—only to make him stop. Inside, I wondered if he would ever stop from smoking and enjoy his remaining health.

“Can’t you stop smoking?” Without even I realized it, the question came

out.

We looked at each other with the same thought inside our heads and got into a staring contest. ‘Who would want to break this silence?’

I had to hold myself from answering that question as I wanted to have an honest answer from my brother. His smoking habit really scared me, to the point I always nagged him indirectly whenever we sat down for a playful or serious conversation just like now.

“Cigarettes are my enemy,” He quietly said, the cigarette prettily lay between his two fingers.

“If they are your enemy, you will not smoke them,” I snapped back, not taking his joke and confusing statement.

“I burn them; of course they’re my enemy. Then I smoke them and they become smaller. It takes only a few minutes for it to disappear—aren’t that what you do to your enemies? Torturing them and then bam! You make them pay for what they’ve done on you,” He calmly answered me as he didn’t let go of his sight from the cigarette between his fingers.

He looked beautiful, playing with words quietly like what he just did, and with sharp eyes focusing on one thing. Although, I had to admit, what he was looking at was my worst enemy.

“Even if that thing is my enemy, I would not do that to it. I probably will never smoke!” I hissed, pointing at the cigarette.

His face changed when he looked up from the cigarette to me. A small smile crept to his face as he observed me.

“Of course you will not handle this enemy like how I do. You will stay away from this thing; you get it?” There was a hint of seriousness in his voice that I couldn’t argue back and just nod.

It got silence as the two of us sank into different thoughts. While Yongguk was taking a puff or two from his cigarette, I watched what lay out there. Well, it was not really “watching” as my thought has completely gone to somewhere. With Yongguk was so near with me, I couldn’t deny that I somehow wish to have someone to replace him someday. There would be a time when all of us had to separate from our family – our home base. I could not imagine my life if I had to ditch Yongguk from my life and focus on some other guys. All this year, I had practically clung on Yongguk a little bit more than what I thought. 

Honestly saying, I wonder if I had caught the brother complex. Of course, it was not as if I thought of going as far as being with my own brother. But I sure was possessive. It ran in my blood. I could be jealous whenever Yongguk got close to a girl. Somehow, it triggered something within me whenever it happened and the next thing I knew was uncontrollable jealousy on my side.

“You’re thinking too much,” Yongguk silently said.

I looked up and caught his eyes looking at me with a slight amusement. He clearly knew of my worry upon having a brother complex.

“I just want to have a time to think of them freely,” I replied him.

Yes, free time to consider everything that had happened in my life. I had been too busy with some other things that I slowly ignored what mattered the most for me. Didn’t you also have the same thing with me? There were some points when your priority got pushed back by small things. Then when those small things went away, you forgot what your priorities were.

Just when he was going to say something, our food came and saved me from his lecture. Honestly saying, I was not ready to listen on his long nag about me thinking too much and having too much insecurity when in my age. He would say that I was supposed to be cheered up whenever I got close to beautiful places. In other word, I should enjoy my life more and think less.

I busied myself with the food, trying hard to disguise what have been my worries from Yongguk’s eyes. No matter how hard I tried, it seemed to be no use. 

“You know what; you should just relax a little and not always tense upon small things.” He suddenly said.

I replied what he said by a simple nod, not surely know what I should say if he kept pushing me with the discussion. Unfortunately, I could not avoid his stares anymore as I lifted my head and now eyes to eyes with him. We ate, we drank, sometimes we looked to other direction, but at the end our eyes would always meet. 

“I wonder what you meant earlier,” I finally let myself to open a conversation with him.

“I hope you’re talking about the beach thing?” His eyes gleamed with excitement, as if he had waited for me to ask it since forever.

“Yes?” I hesitantly said.

He put his spoon and chopsticks, suddenly focusing his attention on me. It made me uncomfortable for a moment. It was the first time he did this to me – put the whole attention on me. He usually only put attention to waste some of his energy or try to my energy – and I always refused it, no matter what.

“You should have done this since a long time ago,” He sarcastically said, ignoring the change of my face’s expression.

“As if I know what things I should concern on,” I mumbled back, taking a bite of my food.

 He inhaled a deep breath, unable to understand on how ignorant I was – his sister – and I knew well that he was not pleased by what I had said. I had told you that he was kind of control freak, hadn’t I?

“You could ask me where you came from,” He slowly said, his eyes watch me intently.

I brushed his words quickly by taking some bites on the meat in front of us. Obviously, this triggered Yongguk to talk some more.

“You’re coming from the sea, Hyosung. The sea’s princesses took care of you before I forced them to let go of you. There’s a reason why you didn’t do well physically when you were six. You were forced to stand alone, without your other ‘mommies’ able to help you,” He paused for a moment, his eyes stared deeply into my eyes.

I had lifted my head ever since he claimed to force me standing by my own. Something in his words rubbed me in a wrong way.

“Why did you have to be so mean? I can be with them and you don’t have to force me to stand on my own feet on that age!”

Yongguk chuckled as he listened to my weak protest.

“Do you even know that you would drive yourself away from us – your family on this earth—if I didn’t force you to do that? It’s a very risky decision. You rebelled a lot. Mom was very tired of you and Dad didn’t want to tolerate your behavior anymore. I had to make you back. That is why I forced you to stand on your own feet.”

Nothing came out from my lips. Amazement was what I feel. Too fascinating, if I could tell you. Half of me didn’t believe on what Yongguk said but the other half nodded her head—agreeing with Yongguk’s words.

“It’s up to you to believe me or not. But, one more thing, your power was too dangerous for a six-year-old girl, I had to close half of it,” Yongguk said, taking another puff of cigarette as he finished talking.

“Why did you do things that would hurt me?” I mumbled, unable to absorb what he just said.

“I don’t want to lose my sister.”

Silence filled between us. Two pair of eyes stared to each other, the heat was there but no one noticed. I knew, from now on, it was going to be impossible for me to believe on Yongguk. His tendency to hurt me would later hurt both of us and the one who would bleed the most is me. The truth had never entertained me, even later in the future.