Perhaps that was the turning point in our lives because now only I knew that it wasn't a simple hide and seek game. I was one with the knife, or it could be worse.

ONE

After the door was closed behind, the pelting rain from the outside had alerted him, as relentless as the throbbing heartbeats beneath his chest. He glimpsed at the wooden-panelled wall, and then the red carpet under his feet. He gasped for breath as he walked lightly across the empty hallway. Moments later, he stopped right in front of the white-framed window, lifted his head to watch as the rain splashed; his eyes followed the droplets that trailed down by the windowpane, some branched out into tinier driblets, some were just static, and some had fell off...just like his emotions.

The day he learnt about his condition, he had stopped to believe in miracle, to trust others, to put faith upon himself. His emotion was wearing away day after day and subconsciously, he had built a wonder wall around him. He had seen so many people turned their back on him, gave up on him like he was dead. When it happened, he cried inside his mind, and rain reminded him of those moments – his past, his memories. Memories should’ve remained in the past; memories of pain should’ve faded away, it shouldn’t hurt. But, every sound of rain, every beat of heartbeats, and every piece of her memory vividly twirled inside of him. That was his definition of pain, and then he came to realize something: in this world, he owned nothing but himself.

“Hana-ssi, I should’ve come with you that day...”

Guilt empowered him ever since Hana’s death two years ago. During that time, she was hospitalized due to the complication of hyperglycemia. There was no one that really looked after her at home. After Mio returned China on the very next day of their encounter in the hospital, in which they argued with one another, Hana began to default her daily injections. She didn’t attend school, she just refused to do anything. Her mother had appointed to become a project manager and it had kept her busy nearly every day. Their father had returned to China, to resume their preparation for the Archery championships, and Tae Jun was blaming his fate for engaging with someone he didn’t love. Ever since their engagement was publicly announced by their respective household, Tae Jun had been ignoring Hana.

Tae Young knew that his brother like Mio, and that Hana turned out that way because of Mio. The root of the problems...was Mio. Tae Young even saw their argument that day. His heart almost hammered out of his chest the moment Mio leaned forward to slap Hana. That day, his impression about Mio had changed entirely. No matter how clueless Mio might have been, she shouldn’t have given up on her only sister just because she said those hurtful words. Mio shouldn’ve known better about her sister’s condition. The pain that Hana had to endure was tripled than Mio’s. Hana had no one to talk to, no one to turn to. She was lonely. Tae Young bet Mio wouldn’t know that. Mio was blessed with talents, she overshadowed her sister in almost everything, just the way Tae Jun had robbed the spotlight off from him.

Tae Jun and Mio didn’t know the feelings of becoming become someone less important than their other siblings. Tae Young and Hana, they walked on the same path, they shared the same destiny. Miseries happened because of their flaw. The people around wouldn’t blink an eye about them.

Flaw, did they know how it feel like?

It felt incomplete. Even a simple cut in one's flesh could hurt, what about a cut in one’s heart that wasn’t even whole to start with?

Even so, and even now, the sound of rain wasn’t the only things that making him shiver – the flaw. It would embody, and shadowed his lives forever.

Thank you for reading.