Sihir

Sua

At night the same dream came back to me, the one which had constantly come for the past few years. The face of my parents, hiding their pain as they walked further and further away from their children. I shook myself awake, knowing what would come next. I couldn't... I can't bear to see it again.

The calendar across the room told me that it was the 21st of the seventh month. My birthday. And, the day I lost them.

The light flooding through the window juxtaposed the atmosphere which rested heavily in the house. I drifted over to the window, drawing the blinds to a close.

The summer holiday meant Suho was at home, all though Suji was working longer hours.

Through the hallways between our bedrooms, I watch Suho shuffle by his headphones connected to some device that was dangling near his calves. As always, he seemed to blend in with the shadows of the house, even in broad daylight.

Breakfast was more or less satisfactory. Whipping up a quick avocado toast, I sat down at the long table alone. There were once sixteen seats, but they had been removed, leaving only three. Suho decided to come back down once the smell drifted over to his room.

"When's Suji coming back?" I asked him quietly. The room echoed with the absence of furniture.

"She said maybe sometime at night. She's having some trouble at work," Suho replied.

An awkward silence filled the room. Today was a hard day for all of us. Both of our eyes drift over to the end of the table where our parents had sat.

"I've got to go," Suho said. "Akira wanted to ask me something and I just came down for breakfast." I nod as he sets his plate down by the sink and walks away from the dining room.

"By the way, Happy Birthday, Sua," he says, just as he closes his room door.

"Some birthday it is," I mutter under my breath.

-

As my sixteenth birthday came and went by like a rapid winter breeze, I found that I was finally of age for The Selection which, as Suji tells me, is necessary for everyone before the start of school. The early autumn leaves seemed brighter than usual as an unusual excitement buzzed in the air.

"Sua!" I hear my sister Suji calling me to her room.

"Yes?" I replied, unsure of what was to happen. My sister didn't like to socialize with me, for she was twenty and had already assured her position in society.

"I want you to put on these." My sister says as she hands me a black shirt with flowing cuffs and straight black pants. I studied these garments carefully, for I'd never seen them before. Perhaps my sister has bought new clothes? No, that couldn't be true. My sister hated black and preferred light colors, rather than the dark ones. Perhaps that was why she radiated light through each footstep. I draw closer to her.

"What are these for?" I ask her suspicious of her intentions.

"Just put them on. You're going somewhere," Suji replies, as she almost forces the clothes upon me.

"I'm going somewhere? By myself?"

"Yes, it's time for your trial." The trial. The end of my stay with my grandparents.

My grandparents had decided long ago that I would live with them until after my selection, then I would live at the dorms at school. Then they wouldn't care for the three of us. Ever since they made that proposition, Suji has been working non-stop, with odd jobs here and there. Suji had been saving up for college but had to give up her dreams by our parents' passing in the war. Suho did not provide any help. He spent his days at the dorms at school, playing pc games with his friends, or studying. That was the thing about Suho. He seemed like a free spirit, doing whatever he chose. He was quite the opposite, however. He was bound down by the restrictions school had put on him. He studied all day, and in the free time he had, he would game and sleep. Suho lived life like a robot, living on a clockwork schedule.