Chapter 37: 29-2

"Destiny? What's going on?" Zen emerges from his room with sleepy eyes. He has to blink multiple times to see Jaewook clearly. "Oh, you're spending the night? Wait, what—" his words are cut off when he notices the wounds. "Not right now Zen," I say as I continue to pull Jaewook into the bathroom. Like the time before, he obediently sits down on the toilet and waits for me to clean him up. To my dismay, Zen watches from the doorway with a perplexed and much too serious expression. My brother isn't brotherly often, but when he is it's a bit suffocating. "Jaewook, why the hell are you beat up at 11 PM on a Thursday?" Jaewook's eyes leave mine to cautiously look up at my brother. "Uh, I—" "It's none of your business," I say to him. "You're my sister and your boyfriend is here in our home looking like he got pummelled, it is my bloody business." I notice Jaewook cower into himself as he zones out on the floor tiles. His lips are pouting and his hands are clamped together. "Please, just not now," I look at my brother, pleading with my eyes. He clenches his jaw disdainfully but walks away. With a sigh, I continue cleaning up Jaewook's face. "Noona." Just like that, I sense his deflated ego. It's always quite obvious when he starts calling me Noona again. "Maybe I should go back," he's looking at his hands as he speaks without the same confidence as moments before. "I don't want to cause problems." "You're not going back yet. Don't worry about him." "But he's your brother and I—I might be putting you in danger." "Nothing's going to happen to me. Just forget about him." "But..." he looks at me with worried eyes. "I think you'd be better off without me," he mumbles. "Jaewook don't you ever say that to me again." His eyebrows rise in shock. "I decide what's good and not good for me, got it? And you are the greatest thing I have. Don't you dare try to take that away from me." I stand up and throw out the bloody wipes. His arms stretch out and his hands grab my legs, pulling me back towards him. He sits on the edge of the toilet and leans his head against my abdomen. With his head against my belly, I try to comfort him by petting his hair, but I myself am still in shock. "Destiny, you can't try to fix this. If you do you'll get hurt—your brother will get hurt too. He's right, he should be worried about you." He pauses and turns his head to look up at me. "My father owns this building Destiny, he's the landlord. You'll be kicked out if you get on his bad side." I feel my heart drop to my stomach. Then everything makes sense. The reason why someone came to fix our heater the morning after Jaewook texted the landlord. The reason I've never seen him, or so I thought. The reason why Jaewook's apartment is so much bigger and better than ours and the rest of the places in this building. "Dammit," I grumble. If it was just me I wouldn't care, I would just move out. But it isn't just me, Zen is here too and he's done nothing wrong to deserve being evicted. "Do you understand now? I can deal with it, I'm strong enough to deal with him. I'm just waiting now to get out." "What about your mom?" As terrible as she may be in her own way, seeing her terrified and rocking back and forth like that made me sympathize. She's lost her husband, a man she used to trust and love. Now he can easily hurt her, even kill her. Who wouldn't be terrified? Who wouldn't be so scared out of their mind that they turn into a paranoid, lesser version of themselves? It may not make what she does justifiable, but I can understand her. "I'm still trying to figure that out," he says solemnly. I pull him back. "Well, for now, let's just sleep." He follows me and sleeps in my bed without question. His place is quiet now, and he says it's because his father probably passed out asleep by now. While I eventually hear the soft sounds of air slowly moving through his nose, I myself cannot fall asleep. I end up staring at the dark ceiling for most of the night while his head lays against the curve of my neck, his arm over my stomach as he holds onto me while sleeping. I can't help but wonder how it is so easy for him to fall asleep after what just happened, and it's painful when I realize that it's because it happens too often. ...