Chapter Seven
Baekhyun

I wrap my cold fingers around hers and am just about to burst into tears when the blank expression is still on her face. How much longer is she going to put me in this agonizing pain? This is worse than the hunger in the pit of my stomach. The days just tick by slower and slower every time I come to visit and she still can’t recall my face from the past.

      “You may not remember mom, but, I am your first-born, Byun Baekhyun. I’m eighteen now and the four of us, you, dad, Hyuk, and I, lived together in a small apartment.” Bravely, I find the energy to place a smile on my drained and distraught face. How many times do I have to repeat this for her to even have the slightest memory of our past?

      “Don’t you remember anything at all?” I ask, letting my voice crack at the end. The woman glances down at me with those wide blue eyes that are identical to Hyuk’s.
“Listen Baekhyun.” Her voice is softer than a midsummer night’s breeze and the empathy in her tone is aching by itself. I close my eyes tightly, not wanting to hear the same words she always responds with.

      “I’m not sure what’s happened in the last four months when I was comatose, but I know for sure that I never had you as a son.” She explains with that stinging pity evident in her words. I breathe out a loud sigh, tired and hurt by her statement.
“You’re just experiencing Alzheimer’s mom. It’s not your fault you can’t remember me or Hyuk.” I give her hand a quick and light squeeze before placing it back in her lap.

      “I would bring Hyuk in to see you, but he’s ill and if I brought him I think he’d just get sicker after finding out that you can’t remember him.” I state out loud. I nod my head, a bit sorry that I can’t let Hyuk see mom. I rise from her bedside and smile down at her.

      “You’re mistaken Baekhyun.” I glance down at my wrist where her fingers grip tightly. I’m taken completely by surprise, this is the first time she’s reached out for me physically.
“My first-born wasn’t a boy, but a girl.” I feel the world freezing in time around me. This is the first time she’s ever said this to me. I gulp down air nervously.
“I’m your first-born mom, I’m a boy.” I reply. She shakes her head and the way she does it scares me to death, she’s so confident in her words right now.

      “My first-born child was a girl.” She restates and her eyes stare straight at me.
“You’ve got your memories mixed up.” I mutter, refusing to hear anymore of her nonsense.
“She had jet black hair and the most beautiful shade of blue eyes, bluer than my own, as if they were the sky themselves.” Her words aren’t hesitant and there isn’t a taint of doubt in her voice, which makes my heart tighten.

      “Go back to bed mom. You’re just remembering someone you’ve met. I’m your first-born.” I wriggle my wrist from her fingers and begin to walk out the door.
“Her skin is fair and her lips are thin and appear fragile and they’re the color of fresh pink roses in the spring.” She continues and my heart feels as if it’s going to shatter. How could she remember some random person and not her own sons?
“Her name is-” I close my eyes and I wish I could block out her voice at this very moment. I can’t bear her words any longer.

      “Baekhyun!” Before she could say the name of her so-called daughter, Nurse Lee barges in with an expression on her face that could only mean something horrible has happened.
“Oh my god, Baekhyun.” Nurse Lee’s daughter, Hyorin, follows in her mother’s trail with puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks. I gasp when she slips her arms around my waist all of the sudden.

      I can feel her hot tears dripping onto my shirt. Instantly, my eyes saunter over to Nurse Lee for an explanation, but when I do, I see the nurse’s eyes are swollen from tears that drip off her chin and her lips tremble tremendously.
“I’m so sorry.” Hyorin exclaims through her tears. I grip her by her shoulders with the force of steel. 
“What happened?” I demand.

      “I was only gone for a minute using the washroom and then… then…” Her words are choked, stuck in the back of . Her hands shudder hysterically as she eludes eye contact.
“Hyorin, you have to tell him.” Nurse Lee says as she squeezes her daughter’s hand.
“Hyuk’s gone.” The words are forced out of and I want them to be stuffed back down.
“Hyuk’s gone? He’s… dead?” my arms drop to my sides like dead boulders as I fall into the empty chair behind me.

      “Baekhyun, he’s not dead.” Nurse Lee blurts out as she collapses on her knees before me. I glance in her direction, unable to actually look the nurse in the eyes.
“Then…” my voice trails off.
“Did he wander off someplace in the vicinity?” I rise to my feet and am already halfway to the door when Hyorin grasps desperately for my hand.

      “Baekhyun…” the pain in her voice angers me more than anything else at the moment. What right does she have to be in pain when it’s my brother that’s gone missing? Abruptly, I glimpse over my shoulders with glaring eyes.
“We’ve had the authorities search The Compound twice already. There’s no sign of Hyuk.” Hyorin explains. I jerk my hand away from her touch.
“What do you mean?”
“They discovered a secret tunnel that leads to the surface.” She adds.

      “Are you saying…?” I can’t even finish my sentence. If I say it then it might as well be true and I can’t let it be.

“Hyuk’s been kidnapped.”