The Evolution

14

"Rebecca, are you insane?" Ben held her shoulders.

"What? He got his wallet and we made it out alive. The world's now at peace!"

Ben's hands brushed through his hair. He gazed out the vast scene around him and turned back to his gang members. "You guys at least gave Jimmy a faceful, right?"

Alex and Gerard chuckled. They peered at Rebecca. She decided to join. Before she knew it, they were howling with laughter and driving jokes about the Union, even though Rebecca had no idea what they were talking about. 

Plus, she was having too much fun to question whatever the hell her brother was up to.

*******

Stephenie skimmed past every photo in the photobook, always taking a second look at Stephen. His smile has always been so bright and attractive. 

"God, Stephen Stephen Stephen," she murmured in her hands. "...I really miss you." She suddenly gasped and snatched her phone off the table. "Gray Gray Gray," she whispered scrolling through her contacts list. "There you are." She put the phone on her desk and waited for him to answer. 

"Hello?"

"Hey Gray, uhh, did I call at a bad time?"

"No, I'm just about to sleep. What do you need?"

Stephenie rubbed her temple. "Um, do you have time tomorrow?"

"For what?"

"For a quick talk, depending on how..."

Gray paused for a moment. Then proceeded. "Stephenie, what's going on?"

"I want to know what happened to my brother!" she blurted.

Gray placed his book down. He fumbled with his sheets. It was quiet for a moment. 

"It-it's fine. I-I mean-"

"We'll talk tomorrow."

Stephenie tried to calm her breathing. "You know Gray, I'm not-"

"I'll tell you where. Meet me right after school."

With that being said, Gray ended the call. Stephenie flopped on her bed and decided it was time to do some homework. Gray was already sleeping, and she still had a few things to work on. 

*******

For the entire day, Stephenie rattled with nervousness. Based on Gray's reaction from the previous night, something big must've happened to Stephen. She could almost cry due to the huge amount of different thoughts swirling in her mind. But crying in the middle of class would definitely be too embarrassing. So she tried to focus as much as she could. She was even able to answer some questions provided by the teacher.

During lunch, Stephenie chose not to take anything from the school cafeteria and only ate Rebecca's leftovers.

"Steph, what's wrong? You've been acting weird since class started."

"I'm gonna have a little talk with Gray today about some personal matters. You can leave without me. Not to mention, you should get some rest from your beatdown yesterday."

Rebecca felt it was better if they just sat in silence. Stephenie has sighed multiple times before leaning on her best friend's shoulder. Rebecca brought her arm around Stephenie and gave her a few pats.

"I have a brother, and my parents are divorced," she suddenly said. "But we visited each other from time to time, usually in the summer. I lived with my dad in China, and my brother lived with my mom here in Korea." 

Rebecca listened carefully and nodded, but didn't say anything. 

"One day, I was walking home from a local park and got approached by some boys who seemed to be my age. They were pressuring me into having drinks with them since they've probably never seen me around much." Stephenie looked up at Rebecca. "I was homeschooled until high school, which is now, in case you were wondering."

"Oh okay, continue."

"Anyway, being the reasonable person I am, I definitely say no, and tried to walk out of the situation. Before you knew it, I started punching and kicking people after one of them decided to make a move on me. Since I took martial arts classes back then, I take boxing now, by the way, things were pretty easy. But one of those bastards happened to attend the same class as I did." Stephenie suddenly came to a small realization, "Huh, maybe that's why he approached me first. I've actually never seen him. But back to the point, getting past him was really hard. And then, out of nowhere, I see Stephen bashing that guy with his backpack. Long story short, we finally got rid of them before the police arrived. But Stephen was covered in bandage cushions and other bandaids and shit, even before he came to help me."

*******

"Where did you get all these injuries? And why did you join the fight? I had it covered!"

"You're welcome too!" Stephen chuckled.

"No, I'm serious! You could've gotten even more injured! What's happening in Korea?" 

Stephen smiled with his eyes closed. "It's not what you think it is. I just got run over by a bike."

His sister crossed her arms and glared up at him. "Stepheeeen?"

"What? I'm serious!"

For the entire week, Stephenie prodded her brother about the cause of his injuries. Even though he kept denying it, she wouldn't stop. The only accomplishment they both achieved so far was acting normal in front of their father. On the night before Stephen was going to return back to Korea, Stephenie finally broke.

"Okay, I can't take this anymore!" she whispered, pulling on the little chain that turned on the lamp.

Stephen squinted and rubbed his eyes. "Stephenie, is that you?"

Stephenie looked outside her brother's bedroom, checking if their dad was asleep, and lightly closed the door. She grabbed Stephen's shirt and pulled him up.

"Start talking," she crossed her arms.

"Again? Seriously? Steph, we're not doing this again," Stephen groaned.

"Do you want me to call your school? Because I will, if you choose to not corporate."

Stephen gasped, not that he meant to, and tried to cover it up with a cough. But what came out, came out. 

Steph, how many times- oh my god," Stephen gripped his head in frustration.

The siblings went back and forth, not realizing they were raising their voices. They had to calm themselves down various times. 

"Stephen, you think I didn't notice? You still have a red mark on your wrist. That mark is in the shape of fingers! Are you being sexually abused or something?!"

"Stephenie! Can you please just-"

"What's going on?" Stephen's door burst open to reveal his father. 

That day, their argument ended. Stephen returned to Korea, only to meet his mother questioning him. This time, Stephen was able to show that his arms and face were clear of cuts. 

Stephenie once looked in her drawer and happened to find her foundation bottle was missing.

*******

"A few days after he left, he called me because he found out that I called his school. We got into the same exact argument again." Stephenie's voice began to crack. "My last words to him were 'I hate you.' 'I hate you,' Jesus Christ, who says that to their sibling?"

Rebecca wrapped her arms around Stephenie, saying how she had a similar incident regarding an argument with her brother. But that was a story for another time. 

That afternoon, after going through a stampede of lessons, note-taking, and running four long laps, Stephenie settled in the small storage room Ben found. She fumbled with her fingers. This wasn't going to be pretty. This definitely wasn't going to be pretty. She knew that fact for sure.