After Eunhyuk’s visit, Donghae came back with an uneasy expression on his face. No matter how much she asked about it he assured her that he was fine. But she knew it wasn’t true. Maybe the thin boy got angry because her brother kept her return secret, those two had never got along anyway… And this guy that was accompanying Hyuk, his brother they had said. Something about him was so familiar, but she didn’t remember meeting him before. Aish! Her memory was killing her. Or better said, her lack of memory. There were things that she was absolutely sure about, and others that were blurry lost dreams, and it was so frustrating!

But at least she was sure about her Hyukjae. Seeing him again was like a dream. They told her that it had been 4 years, but he didn’t change at all. His face was still this charming with that goofy smile, this perfect jaw line and these beautiful and intense dark eyes. And nothing in the whole world would make her forget his face again. She had been so relieved when he took her in his arms. And here she thought that he would’ve moved on after all this time, which would be normal, but when he hugged her, she could feel that he still cared for her. Even if things couldn’t go back the way they were before, Minha had hoped that she was still in Eunhyuk’s heart, and that’s all she needed to know to be able to go back to her old life.

It was strange though… a 4 years’ whole in her life and she wasn’t able to remember any of it. What did she do during all this time? Where was she? No one came to claim her, or look for her. Did she not have any friends in that other life? All that was very confusing and stunning. Her parent’s face when they saw her alive. How they explained to her that she had been officially dead for a while now, and that she even had a grave back at the cemetery. It’s like she had woken up in a parallel universe, where she never existed. She could see how hard it was for Donghae, he was somehow uneasy near her and she was trying to be understanding about it, but at the same time it frustrated her. He was her brother, and they were close since they were babies, she wanted to find back that complicity that made them unique. So she tried her best to make Donghae let her in.

“You were the one who asked Hyukkie to come?” she asked.

“No… he must’ve followed me…”

She frowned.

“Followed you? Why on earth would he follow you?”

Donghae bit his lip, what he always did when he was nervous.

“Eunhyuk is actually my roommate.”

“Really?!”

She was so surprised. Never would’ve she thought about her brother being roommates with her boyfriend. The boy nodded.

“For 2 years now.”

“Wow! And you managed not to kill each other?”

Donghae let out a nervous laugh.

“We almost did kill each other, but in the end we became pretty good friends.”

“Who would’ve thought…? You two were always so ready to rip each other’s throat!”

Donghae looked down, but Minha smiled.

“It’s not really a surprise though; you two have a lot in common with the dance and other stuff…” she said. “But, why didn’t you tell me?”

The boy didn’t answer and kept looking at his feet, unable to look up at her. She found it cute how Donghae would always do that same cliché thing when he was feeling guilty. He was like that with her, because what he hated the most was to disappoint Minha. And she was aware of this weight he put on his shoulders. She just wanted to find a way to make him realize that he owed her nothing…

“Did you think that I would’ve gotten mad because you two moved on with your lives?” she asked.

“Something like that…”

“Well, I’m not. And I’m pretty happy you two got along, I’ve always said you could be great friends.”

Donghae smiled softly. Minha was happy that everything seemed better than before she had disappeared, and she was proud of herself for not getting jealous of their success in living without her. But of course she still had that small tingling feeling in her chest, because she was human after all, but she was trying hard to ignore that…

After that, Donghae stayed with her and they both had dinner at the cafeteria. The food wasn’t all that good but at least they had some privileges. The hospital staff was starting to know the twin, since she was there for a while now and Donghae had been there for a few months too. So the cooks would always keep some desert for them, as they liked the two young people.

After dinner they went back to her room. Normally, visits would be over at 7pm, but they allowed Donghae to stay the night, since her shrink said she needed all the company she could get. And she agreed with him. She was happy to be so close to her brother again. They talked during hours after curfew and then finally Donghae fell asleep on the bed next to her. She caressed her brother’s face gently and stared at him with love.

He was still the same innocent and loving child he always was. Their parents never saw Donghae’s true value; they loved their son but after the years passed only achievement became important to them. So Minha decided to take the role of the heir, the one who would be pushed, pressured and the one person they would never accept any disappointments from. She was determined to protect her brother. Donghae was strong, even if no one could see it, but his strength came from compassion, and she wanted to keep it like that. She knew their parents gave him a hard time, but she thought it was best, that way he would be able to live his life as he intended. Then she abandoned him… She doesn’t remember how, or what happened but she knew it broke him somehow and she felt really guilty about it. Now he was all grown up, and she could see he became someone even stronger than he was before. A new kind of strength; one that she didn’t have anymore…

Soon she fell asleep too.

***

Everything was pure darkness around her. Minha wasn’t even sure she had her eyes opened. Then her eyes got used to the penumbra and she could define where she was. A metallic structure was all around her and her brother was just in front of her. That’s when water started to fill her lungs… she was in the water, and Donghae was floating in front of her. Not really knowing what she was doing she tried moving towards him or to swim, but she couldn’t. She was too weak and arms and legs refused to move. She saw a sort of window broken next to them, she didn’t really understand why, but something told her that it was their only chance of survival. With effort, she finally got to him and pushed him out by the window. Minha was choking, water filling her lungs instead of air. With a final push her brother was out. She made a last effort to try pulling herself out by the window too when suddenly something grabbed her ankle. She looked down but the only thing she would see was a hand and nothing else. The lack of air threatened to implode her lungs any minute now. She had to get out of there or she would die. Minha started kicking and struggling to make the hand let go of her leg, but nothing worked… soon she began to run out of air…

Minha woke up with a start. She was sweating and trying to fill her lungs with air. Next to her Donghae woke up, startled.

“Min! Ar